My Birthday Buckskin

I was a little annoyed at first when I saw this week’s schedule: What do you mean, no overtime? I was just getting used to the not-sleeping thing!

Then I realize, duh, I could actually do things like answer e-mails and open packages, which made it not so bad.

So I finally did open my Buried Treasure: oh, is he purty. Really one of the nicest buckskin paint jobs I’ve seen in a long time, which my photograph (and Reeves’, on the web site) in no way can convey:

Warm, shaded, shimmery - now that’s buckskin, baby!

He has a slight eartip rub from the funky packaging - bagged, bubblewrapped, loosely tossed in a box - but other than that, I have no complaints. Actually, I can’t stop staring at him, he’s just that nice. I want to see this color on everything, right now. Even on the Creepy Kitten, if it’s possible.

There’s no VIN number, no belly stamps, and no certificates, so with the addition of the cobbled together packaging, that pretty much tells us that they were painted in New Jersey. 

As I was updating my research files, I noticed an interesting "something" about the issue numbers: the Glossy Joeys were issue number 712073; the Buried Treasure - Lusitano is issue number 712074.

Hmm, okay. I guess that means that they were something a little more recent after all - since the planning stages of the Glossy Joey giveaway, at least.

They must have had a substantial number of Foundation Stallion bodies left over after they ran the 2010 Mid-States Special Run Thunderbolts. Aside from being the most recent production piece on the Foundation Stallion mold, it also had an odd piece run - 2900 pieces, instead of a more standard 2500 or 3000.

I had figured that the Joeys had come out of bodies leftover from the Thunderbolt run; the Buried Treasures must have come out of the leftovers of the leftovers.  

This raises an interesting possibility: will future Buried Treasures come out of Reeves’ leftover body bins? They had enough of some unpainted older bodies - like the Stock Horse Stallion, the Belgian, the Clydesdale Mare, and Gem Twist - to sell them in box lots of "whiteware" at BreyerFest a couple years ago.

Interest in them was tepid, at best.

Now that they’ve seen success in putting a simple, yet well executed paint job on an older mold - and marketing it as an extremely limited surprise special run - I can’t imagine them not trying it again.