An Old Lady Who Stares at Goats

Another short and sweet post today, as I’m in the middle updating my files. I’m being hampered by the fact that every time I try to "Google" for a minor detail or two, the first twenty or thirty sources that pop up are those danged obnoxious Breyer tweener fangirl videos.

None of which are any helpful in the least. I hate to sound like an old lady in a muu-muu yelling at the clouds (not far from the truth, some days), but dang it kids, stop messing with my data!

(I appreciate your enthusiasm, I really do, but I wouldn’t hold it against you if you spent a little less time making shaky cam vids of your collection and a little more time obsessing over boy bands or nail polish.)

There. Got that out of my system.

Here, for your consideration, is another Friday Morning Sample I picked up, this of one of last year’s Special Runs, Gruff the Goat:

Other than the usual subtleties - the slightly finer paint job, and the absence of a VIN number - there’s not much difference between the Sample and the Production piece. Except for the blister packaging I don’t remember seeing with the original Goats. It even has the item number - 711128 - impressed into it.

Some of you might have seen this type of packaging before with another very recent Special Run: the Equine Affaire Steppin’ Out:

(It also has the item number impressed into it.)

I’m guessing that they were briefly experimenting with these partial blister packs in 2011, as a way to minimize damage in transit. They’ve been using smaller and less complicated blisters for some of their more awkward to package items for a while now, like the Nokota Horses, and those pocket-sized MiniWhinnies sets with all the teeny-tiny pieces:

It’s a relatively inexpensive molding process, which is what made a 200-piece run for the Steppin’ Out even feasible. Don’t know why they didn’t bother following through with the Goat’s packaging, if they already had the mold form made.

Money is usually the answer. Just because it doesn’t cost much doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost anything.