Even though the TSC was more or less on the way home from work that day, it seemed wasteful to only buy a Jane. Surely there had to be something else I could pick up while I was there, right? Everything else I needed or wanted was sold out at this TSC, and Vita hadn’t finished destroying all her XMAS gifts by then, so I took a quick swing by of the general Breyer area. Lucky for me, a nice example of the Classic Warmblood Horse & Foal set was still available - and on sale. I could "justify" it, too, in the name of research: I didn’t have a Warmblood Foal yet.
Unlike her fellow foals in the Classics range, we haven’t seen much of the Warmblood Foal. Other than the 62008 Horse & Foal set, she’s only appeared twice before: in the 2008 Walmart Mustang set "Red Rain and Raindrop," and as Ember in the 1391 Cloud: Challenge of the Stallions set.
We’ll be seeing more of this year, as a part of a Classics "Nurturing Set" that includes a couple of Companion Animals and one of those mildly creepy dolls Reeves insists on tossing into every gift set nowadays. There’s a picture of it in this thread on Blab, if you haven’t seen it yet:
http://www.modelhorseblab.com/forums/showthread.php?113513-2011-Disc-and-catalog/page2
If you haven't already perused that thread, you might want to check it out just to get a gander at the ASPCA Benefit Set. It's adorable: the Ranch Horse looks fabulous in a dark flaxen chestnut - way better than the chestnut on the TSC Popcorn - and the two Companion Animals that come with are squee-inducing cute.
I doubt I’ll be picking it up - or much of anything else - for the collection this year, however. That’s because I just finished going through my year-end paperwork.
I thought I’d get it done earlier rather than later, this time around. Part of the motivation was my resolution to put the year behind me as quickly as possible; I have a bad habit of dwelling on (and in) the past, and plowing through the paperwork now was a good way to begin the New Year.
The other component to the motivation was to see if that nagging suspicion about my personal budget was correct. Alas, it was: I spent more than I should have (on the horses) last year. I broke even on BreyerFest, and I turned a profit, technically, on what I bought for resale. The problem was that I bought too much for the personal collection.
Through some course corrections I did at the end of the year - big sell-offs on eBay, MH$P, etc. - I managed to mitigate some of the damage, but "no new (current/store bought) horses" has officially been added to this year’s resolution list. I’ll make the usual exceptions for research (like the Warmblood Foal,) historically significant pieces, and anything I happen to run across while out picking. Research materials and ephemera, naturally, would also be exempted.
BreyerFest pays for itself, when I’m disciplined enough to do it, so that’s not going to be too big of an issue, and I’m not expecting a huge onslaught of Silver Filigree SRs, so I’ll just deal with the temptation if and when they do show up.
Not being able to indulge in the newest, latest and greatest isn’t going to be much fun in the short term, but it’ll at least give me more time and money to devote to some other projects I’ve been putting off, both hobby and non-hobby.
On the non-hobby end, I’ll be looking to increase my web presence via a "working" web site - more than just the basic redirect page I have now. It’ll have a little bit of hobby content on it, but it’ll primarily be a personal/portfolio site, focusing on my life and creative activities outside of the hobby.
I do plan on launching at least one more hobby-oriented blog or site, too. I’m still in the very earliest stages of planning and research on that particular project, so don’t get your hopes up yet. It took me a good three or four months to finally commit just to this blog, and the learning curve here was modest. I’m just sort of something I'm thinking about, and all I'm doing right now is scoping out the things I need to do, and to learn, to make it happen.
4 comments:
I'm kind of glad they didn't go crazy w/ the WB foal. I like it best of all the currently produced foal molds & like you, have a very limited model budget to put towards what I like.
And whatever you decide to do this year, you're an awesome asset to our hobby at the least, & I relish every post - especially if I learn some nifty bit of Breyer/film/art history to boot. Rock on!
I pounced on that foal when it hit the WalMart shelves as the bay roan Raindrop. The light body color shows off the fuzzy coat and it's my favorite foal since the classic Arabian foal. Oddly enough, a couple more of those sets have appeared at my local TSC this holiday season -- they must have bought out WalMart's old stock. However, they are charging a lot more than Walmart did so it's not a temptation to buy for resale, and I already have the pick of the litter from 2008.
HAAAA!!! This quote CRACKED ME UP!! "Vita hadn’t finished destroying all her XMAS gifts by then"
I'm a newcomer to your blog, but thoroughly enjoying it and I love your sense of humor!
Cheers to you and Vita!
I just received the Stallion and Foal set and that little foal is just the cutest thing. I think he's scrambling his way into my favourite mold list. He has itty bitty eyelashes!
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