Thursday, December 29, 2011

Coincidence, not Intent

Like a lot of hobbyists, I was sort of expecting that since it was intended as a "gift" that there would be few (if any) of the Glossy War Horse SRs up for pre-sale. Then one person gets a $500 offer, and bingo, at least two others turn up on MH$P with similar starting prices.

Oh well. At least none of them have shown up on eBay. Yet.

(Nothing wrong with them reselling it, but I always thought the number one rule on regifting was being discreet about it. I suppose "not listing it on eBay" counts as discretion, nowadays.)

I wouldn’t read too much into Reeves having an account on eBay themselves, now (breyeranimalcreations); according to their profile, they’ve had it since February of 2009, and are only now starting to use it, presumably as part of their increased online presence.

I don’t foresee them using the account to actively compete against other hobbyists/vendors; I could see them using it to make things like Test Colors, Artist’s Proofs, and charity models (like Hermes?) available to people who couldn’t attend or participate in the events they are usually exclusive to. That would be a good thing, I think. (Online auctions ending simultaneous to the BreyerFest ones would create some interesting theatre, don’t you think?)

As I mentioned in the last post, the only 2012 release I’ll be actively looking for in the coming year will be the new Fury/Prancer, partly because he was so completely unexpected. He’s right up there on the list of "models least likely to get a rerelease," at least as a free-standing piece.

I wouldn’t call myself the Fury/Prancer mold’s number one fan, but I like him enough to put him in my masthead. A Black Pinto Prancer was one of my first "official" hobby purchases; I bought it, sight unseen, excited at the possibility of owning a model that was born before I was.

The color they selected for the new release is interesting; when I first saw it, it made me think of the small SR or Test Color batch Bay Pinto Western Prancing Horses Breyer made sometime in the late 1960s. Here’s a picture of one from Marney’s album, which I presume was hers:


I’m going to assume the selection of the color is a coincidence, and not an intentional homage to this known Breyer obscurity. They wanted to go with a suitably vintage-looking paint job, and the Fury/Prancer came in just about every color they made back then, except some variation of the Bay. Reeves could have gone with something solid, like a Charcoal, or with another pattern, like Gray Appaloosa, but I get the sense they were fairly committed to a pinto paint job.

If the mold’s currently in production, there’s always the possibility of one of those other vintage-flavored releases this year, right? I’d especially be interested in a Gray Appaloosa one, myself.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe the fury is made to go in theme with the glossy pinto "Dandy" in the vintage club!

Helen said...

Perhaps Breyer is also hoping to draw more hobbyists with this release. I can imagine some people buying it because it looks so much like what they played with as children.

Thanks for another informative post; the photos from Marney's ablum are always a treat!