Diecast Masters presents history you can hold in your hand:

When the Caterpillar Twenty tractor hit the market in 1927, no one could have imagined the impact it would have. The neat, productive and popular 20 horsepower tractor fit at the lower end of an existing product line that consisted of designs carried over from Best and Holt, the two companies that merged to form Caterpillar in 1925.

Its enduring claim to fame, however, was that the Twenty was the very first machine to be “all-Caterpillar” from the ground up. Simply put, the engineering and design precedents established by Caterpillar during development of the Twenty formed a foundation for Caterpillar’s first century.

Today, Caterpillar boasts 300 machines in its global product line. Every one of these machines traces its ancestry to the original Caterpillar Twenty.

It’s 1927, just two years after Caterpillar Tractor Co. was formed. Well-regarded tractors, carried through from predecessor companies Best and Holt, formed the basis of the new Caterpillar product line. But the time had come for an all-Caterpillar-designed tractor to propel the company forward.

Enter the Caterpillar Twenty, so named because of its rated 20 drawbar horsepower. While not the biggest tractor, it certainly was one of the most innovative. Its design combined the latest operational technologies with aesthetic and comfort features unusual for the day.

The Twenty filled its niche admirably until the 1930s, when it and its gasoline-powered cousins were replaced by larger, diesel-power Caterpillar tractors ideal for the large infrastructure projects that had come to dominate the earthmoving market.

Today, Caterpillar stands as the global earthmoving leader, with a product line of more than 300 machines. And all of these machines can trace their legacy to that original Caterpillar Twenty.

Now, Diecast Masters presents artfully made scale models of the Caterpillar Twenty, each crafted in heavy diecast metal and detailed with the original 1927-era gray and red paint scheme and “crawler style” Caterpillar logo. It’s a great addition to any collection.