APH PAS, PAM, and PAF

You have no idea how angry I am at Blogger right now. The reasons why this post is so late are only partially due to the fact that I was on the road and otherwise indisposed with BreyerFest type things. I'll just ... leave it. I'm too tired to get any more righteous than that.

Checked into the CHIN about 5:30 p.m. The room is still a bit of a wreck, but that's because I've already spent way too much time socializing. (Dudes - Linda Walter is just down the hall!) I'm in Room 331, if you're looking for me, or The Toad, or a little souvenir of your trip.

(Have I mentioned before that I have a ton of stuff to sell?)

The hotel is ... different. So far it looks like mostly cosmetic changes - new carpets, new linens, new faces, that sort of thing. Which I mostly like, except for the wall color: it's baby poop brown! I'm sure it looked great on the paint chip, but y'all know what the lighting is like around here.

The carpeting in the conference all area leaves a bit to be desired, too. (Swirly red, yellow and blue? Must have been on sale.) I think they upgraded their wireless service - it seems much, much faster than in previous years.

I suppose most of you have seen - or heard about - the Appaloosa Proud Arabian Mare and Foal set in the Benefit Auction. The way Breyer worded the post on their Facebook page has convinced some people that these models are vintage Test from the Sample Room.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again - and again: there are no vintage, pre-1985 Test Colors in the Reeves Sample Room. The "vintage" they are referring to is the color, and possibly the molds themselves. The detailing and color aren't consistent with the period that a lot of people are convinced these models came out of (the early 1970s.) The dappling is too fine, and the detailing just a little too good for even the best paint jobs of that era.

(BTW, I just happen to have a pretty nice Appaloosa Performance Horse for sale in my room. You know, if you're looking for one.)

None of the leftover goodies that were in the Chicago facility prior to the sale in late 1984 ever made it to New Jersey. Whatever was faound was either sold to Marney, or to the Bentley Sales Company, who sold them at live shows in the mid-1980s. I know so, because I bought a lot of Tests and Oddities from them. (Remember the Classic Quarter Horse Mares and Foal in Five-Gaiter Sorrel? Bentley Sales.)

And also, I was in the Sample Room way back in 1992, and I didn't see anything that qualified as vintage back then. The stuff that was in there then that's still in there now probably qualifies as vintage, today. (Hey, I've been up since 5 a.m, so you're just going to have to cut me some slack on the grammar.)

It's unlikely that Reeves would be buying vintage Tests, either, especially something like that pair. I wouldn't doubt that Reeves may be discreetly acquiring some vintage pieces here and there, but if they were buying vintage Tests, that's something we'd be hearing about.

It's obvious that this pair is meant ot complement the Proud Arabian Stallion in the Appaloosa Performance Horse colorway - only one of the most well-know, and coveted, of all vintage Tests. Yeah, I've mentioned him here a couple of times, but he's famous enough for the Powers That Be at Reeves to have discovered him on their own without any help from me.

You know, it's funny, but there really aren't a whole lot of "famous" or even "notorious" Test Colors. You'd think with them being unique or distinctive, that they'd be naturally more memorable. But, they're not.

The ones you own personally are memorable to you, of course, but Test Colors other people own? Not really. I've seen several hundred Test Colors over the years, but I can't think of more than a half dozen that I covet. Of those, I think only one or two of them anyone else would have even heard of. (Those would be BreyerFest Auction pieces.)

It's getting late, and I really need to clean off the bed and get some quality sleep time in, while I can.