Sometimes, Boxes Do Matter

I’ve done everything I could to avoid writing this week.

There’s plenty to talk about, and I am having no problems in regards to my facilities. But instead of sitting down and banging something out in the past three days, I’ve cleaned the garage, reorganized the bookshelves, shuffled some horses around, and randomly moved an assortment of boxes around in the basement. Every time I go outside to walk the dog or take out the trash, I have to fight the urge to pull weeds in the garden.

It’s gotta be this crazy, almost-snowless winter messing with my head. The mild temperatures and lack of shoveling have been nice, but not if it kicks my spring cleaning mode into overtime.

Now that Reeves has released photographs of all twelve pieces in their "Blossoms" series, I have narrowed my potential selections down to the one of the Warmblood Mares. The funky chartreuse Chrysanthemum one is currently on top of that list, but the green Lily of the Valley and the Blue Larkspur aren’t out of the running, yet. Since the Chrysanthemum one isn’t coming out until November, there will be plenty of time for me to change my mind, especially once I start seeing some of the others in the flesh (so to speak).

I only have one other Warmblood Mare in the collection, and it’s the original Special Run release for Ariat, in 2007. Still new in box:


I’m not a big fan of keeping models boxed, but there’s a reason she still is: I think she was one of the samples that were part of the Ariat display at BreyerFest in 2007 - one of the few pieces that wasn’t stolen.

The program that the model was a part of didn’t officially launch until the fall, so the models in the lightly-attended-to Ariat booth attracted a fair amount of attention - and a few sticky fingers. From the somewhat rough condition of the box - and a handwritten date from early July, on one box flap - I suspect that mine was one of the ones that managed to avoid that fate.

Ironically, it was the condition of that box that allowed me to acquire her in first place. She was left behind in the Ninja Pit in 2008, ignored by the horde. Their first reaction to a ripped up, dinged up, written on box? Pass!

Silly collectors. It wasn’t even the first time that had happened to me, either. (Or the last - remember the Red Halter Gray Flashes, from last year?)

As I’ve detailed before, packaging samples are a common occurrence in the Pit. Most of the time nobody notices them, because there’s (usually) little to distinguish them from the production packaging.

And as I’ve also explained before, sometimes it’s the littlest details that matter. In this (rare) case, it was the box that mattered, not the horse.