Zippo = Zeppo?

I haven’t had much time to finish some of the posts I’ve been working on, so you’ll be getting another insubstantial one today. Some long, meaty posts are in the pipeline, I promise. Writing is the one thing that’s been keeping me modestly sane over the past few not so awesome weeks. (Not getting actual carrot cake for my birthday this week was one of the lesser disappointments. Sigh.)

Man, I just knew the Quarterfest SR was going to be a Zippo. Rats! A really neat color on a mold I really happen to like. I know not a lot of hobbyists think the same way: sometimes I refer to Zippo as "Zeppo," the underappreciated fourth Marx Brother. He’s not as flashy as the Smart Chic Olena, as versatile as the Lady Phase, and he doesn’t possess the homely, old-fashioned charm of the Quarter Horse Gelding.


But I do think he’s a sleek, well-executed mold who just happens to be a snappy dresser. He looks good in almost any color: solids, pintos, dilutes, appaloosas. I have a lot of them, but not all of them: my favorite is a preproduction Zip’s Chocolate Chip, in a surprisingly rich shaded bay. (I also admit to a weakness for ermine spots. The sight of striped and speckled toes makes me squee. And I don’t, normally.)


You can’t say that for every model. Case in point: the current crop of Collector’s Choice models. Kudos to Reeves with going with the solids on two of the selections - and both of them look sharp in those colors, too! Overall, I think the Palomino on the Bluegrass Bandit is the "best fit" of color with mold, but I love roan paint jobs in general, and on the Peruvian…

Well, I’d buy the Peruvian in just about any color, but that’s another story. And don’t even speak to me about the Dark Bay BreyerFest auction Peruvian with the profuse ermine spots from a few years back. Not many models make me cry, and that one came too darn close.

But the Keltic Salinero? Tobiano doesn’t suit him. I wasn’t overly fond of the VRE Hollywood Boulevard, either. Now I though he was pretty smashing in overo as the 2007 BreyerFest raffle model Tacoma, so do think he could look good in a parti-color paint job. But the tobiano patterns they’ve used so far haven’t worked for me. They visually "break up" his elegant silhouette, which I think is the mold’s strongest suit.

Sadly, I think - despite Blab’s best efforts to the contrary - the Salinero is the frontrunner in this race. Because, just like in the real horse world, being flashy gives you the edge.

I thought the delay in releasing the pertinent details of the Zippo SR was actually a rather smart move - a nice, subtle way of building anticipation and enthusiasm in the hobbyist community. All too often Reeves will release the information on a special release a little too early, and hobbyists will spend the time between the press release and the actual release date nitpicking it to death. I really hate those kind of discussions in general, since they tend to turn so mean, and unproductive, so quickly.

I sure hope I can manage to snag that Quarterfest Zippo somehow. Doesn’t seem likely at the moment, but we’ll have to see how it all shakes out in terms of quantity, distribution and overall hobby desire.