Gus

The reason why I haven’t been all that gung-ho about finding horses at the flea market for the past few weeks: I just finished up sorting, tagging and bagging all of my current sales items. More stock I don’t really need, unless it’s something spectacular. I’m a little short on spectacular.

Got lots of cheap, though! Some of it so cheap I’m considering dumping it in our upcoming garage sale. (Nothing worth making a trip for, unless you’re into bodies. Or you just want to shoot the breeze.)

I almost completely forgot about the Vintage Club Special Offer "Gus", who’s a Gloss Medicine Hat Pinto Old Timer. Like the Pamplemousse, he’s being "made to order", so his piece run will be somewhat less than 500 pieces (the limit of Vintage Club memberships).

There are a few reasons why I think they offered him as a "Made to Order" Special, rather than as a "Subscription" Special.

First, he’s a little "outside" of the official Vintage Club parameters: I’m getting the vibe that official releases will be (for the time being) Vintage colors on Vintage molds. Although the color Gus comes in was originally released on the San Domingo back in 1978, it never came in a Gloss Finish.

Second, there’s a strong aversion among a certain subset of hobbyists - some of them Vintage enthusiasts, even - against molded-on tack in general. Those that don’t like it wouldn’t even remotely entertain purchasing such a model.

(That’s why I found it a little surprising that two of the selections they gave Vintage Club members to vote on for a future club release, two of them came with molded on halters: the Quarter Horse Gelding, and the Man o’ War. I love the Man o’ War mold, and his fortunes have been on the upswing lately, but I’d be shocked if he ends up on top of that poll, in spite of his not-boring Gloss Wild Dapple Gray paintjob. Because, you know, there’s a halter.)

Third, because of the labor costs inherent in a piece as complicated as Old Timer, there’s not much money to be made in producing him. There’s a hat, and a harness, and blinkers that have to be glued in and then decorated, and all those itty-bitty gold details that have to be handpainted…way more work than almost any given production model. He gets produced from time to time because the general buying public loves that mold, but it’s almost done as more of a goodwill gesture than for profit.

So it makes sense that they’re offering it this way: they’ll only have to make a certain number of pieces that are already presold, at a more profitable/higher-than-Regular-Run price point. The handful of pieces that don’t get "redeemed" in December will then go up for sale to other Vintage Club members, and then Collector’s Club members.

Sounds like a win-win, all around.