Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Monsters, Monsters from the Id!

(Caution: This post was composed while being very light-headed from an epic nosebleed. Which is nothing serious, BTW, just a consequence of a childhood’s worth of bad allergies. It’s not my blood pressure. No, really, my blood pressure is actually low.)

(Oh. Reader discretion is advised.

My first reaction to the newest Premier Club release, Brishen, was "Wow, that’s a lot of hair. It’s like Othello and Ethereal had a freaky love child."

(Yes, I know they’re both stallion molds, dearies. That’s what the "freaky" is for.)

I don’t dislike it, not at all, but like a lot of folks I am a bit bummed that it’s yet another Big Hairy Stallion. Nothing wrong with Big Hairy Stallions, per se, but sometimes it feels like the gender diversity of Breyer molds is about equal to that of your average Smurf village.

At one point during the latest epic "future of the hobby" thread on Blab a few weeks ago, the observation that our Sire/Dam lists back in the old days were pretty heavy on the Sires, not so much on the Dams.

Horse-obsessed teen and pre-teen girls bragging about the breeding prowess of the multitude of stallions under their stable’s banner? Boy, mental health professionals could have mined those old newletters for a half-dozen research papers, at least.

Thus giving context to my second reaction to Brishen: "About the only think missing from this package is a unicorn’s horn and a pack of cigarettes".

I mean, really. Brishen is like the hobby’s id, made manifest. You know, just like in the movie Forbidden Planet. And not as scary. But the Monster from the Id in the movie was animated by someone from Disney, and Kathleen Moody did work for Disney at one point. So, draw from that whatever you will.

(Okay, that was weird. Even for me.)

Judging from the commentary I’ve seen on the Breyer web site, he seems to be going over fairly well with the same kinds of kids that populated the pages of The Model Horse Shower’s Journal back in the day. Except that most of those kids today like their Big Hairy Stallions with unicorn horns.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that either, but, you know…

(Now going upstairs for a glass of orange juice and a good night’s sleep.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

knowing Moody was one of the first releases for the Premier Club is exactly why I didn't sign up - at one point you'd think she'd learn anatomy or that not every horse has hair that would put an 880's rock band to shame, but no, every single sculpt looks EXACTLY THE SAME.

redsixwing said...

Ahahahaha.

Being one of those big-hairy-stallion lovers, I am quite enjoying looking at pictures of Brishen.. but I've noticed the mare deficit as well.

This post, however, made me lol. Thanks, and I hope you feel better.

scaequestrian said...

I too have noticed a trend in her sculpting toward a more "cartoon-y" look. I miss the old Moody sculpts like Big Ben, Huck Bey, the horses in costume and the evolution of the horse series she did in porcelain. Of course her old resins too. I have been very disappointed in the recent trend of big hair and funky poses.

plastiqueponi said...

I wish it was a big hairy MARE. And then maybe, just *maybe* we'd get a new, big Hairy BABY drafter to go with her...