They Can’t All Be Beautiful

You know, sometimes I think hobbyists take the word model in the term "model horse" a little bit too seriously. I’m not talking about anatomical functionality (a topic of which I think a few artists and customizers are a wee bit militant about) but sheer physical attractiveness. Not every horse in the world is beautiful and realistically, not every model horse should be, either.

Which brings to mind poor, homely little Sea Star. He was modeled (admittedly, not well) after one of the Wesley Dennis illustrations done for the interior of the book. You may recognize it, because it eventually replaced the original dust jacket art:


And here’s the original dust jacket, if you haven’t seen it before. (From my collection - it’s a first edition, too!) I like the original cover better, but the "lonely little thing on the beach" probably pulled at the heartstrings more:


His inherent pathetic quality may explain why I’ve had so many of the original release #16 over the years. I’m down to just three right now, but that’s because I weeded out a few variations that I really needed to upgrade anyway.

Variations, you say? Of the more than ordinary Sea Star? Yes, of both mold and markings.

The markings are the easiest to spot: there are multiple versions of his star. The earliest versions have a roughly rectangular shape to them, while later versions have stars with more distinctly defined points - usually four, but sometimes more. Some are large, some are small; the one on the right is a larger one:


I haven’t tracked the relative scarcity of each star variation, so I couldn’t tell you which ones are rarer than others. It’s kind of a moot point anyhow, seeing as there’s never been a huge secondary market for Sea Stars.

On the other hand, I can say that one of the mold variations is actually quite rare: the "Pre-B" version.

Sea Star came out in 1980, right around the time Breyer was experimenting with that funky form of Tenite. Since that Tenite couldn’t be mixed with the original form of Tenite they were using, the molds had the "B" mark added to them to distinguish the new plastic pieces from the old, and prevent regrind accidents.

I had assumed that since he came out shortly after the switchover to the different plastic began, that all the earliest Sea Stars would have come with the B mark. Being a new mold you’d think the B mark would have been integral to the mold from the beginning, correct?

One day, while comparing my multitude of Sea Stars, I noticed that some of them didn’t have the B mark. That’s not really noteworthy in itself, since he was available through 1987, and the B mark was removed from the mold by 1983 or so. What was noteworthy was that there were two different versions without B marks: some had a smooth spot - and one didn’t. The ones with the smooth spot I assumed were the "Post-B" version: the mark was removed, and that spot was just evidence of the repair.

The one without that spot, without the B, but with its original sculptured roughness? It has to be a "Pre-B" version!

Just how scarce are these "Pre-B" Sea Stars? It’s hard to say; It’s another one of those topics I haven’t followed up on. The only alleged "Pre-B" I have is the one that I got for Christmas in 1980, and I have no idea how long he had been sitting on the store shelf or in the warehouse prior.

It’s possible that they could have molded the first batch of Sea Stars with the last bit of regular Tenite before they completely switched over to the other stuff. A little bit of plastic can go a long way when you’re molding something as small as Sea Star.

But I’m not so sure that’s what happened.

What’s complicating the matter is that I think the Sea Star mold, for whatever reason, was either temporarily shelved or delayed. Why do I say that? Even though the Sea Star was officially released in 1980, his original box is copyrighted 1978. I could understand a year earlier, perhaps to capitalize on the gift-giving seasons, but two?


What happened? Copyright problem? Mold issues? Cash flow? Or was it just a really elaborate typo?

If the Sea Star was originally planned for 1978, it raises the possibility that these "Pre-B" versions had been molded as early as 1978, and sat in the Breyer warehouse prior to its official release in 1980. Those first batches would have hit the shelves first, followed shortly after by newly molded, "B" marked pieces.

Now there’s a strange, sad image in my head: barrels and barrels of abandoned, unpainted Sea Stars, sitting in some disused corner of the Breyer warehouse. Ah, almost too much to bear! If only I had a time machine to know for sure.