One, Two, Three...

Head’s up: I was just informed a few days ago that the basement, where my office resides, going to continue being messed up through July and part of August. So you’ll be seeing more "scenic" photos here in the next several weeks.

I haven’t been online much the past few days; I’ve been spending most of my free time dealing with BreyerFest stuff. (My printer was possessed by demons yesterday. Grr.) All I’ve done online is skim the auction pictures, download the PDF of this year’s program, and do a few quick look-sees to make sure the model horse world hasn’t burned down while I was out.

Crazy things start happening the closer we get to Kentucky, you know, and I don't want to be completely out of the loop!

Like everyone else, the price on the Bluegrass Bandit Store Special Champagne Wishes gave me pause. I want her, badly, but $250 for a 350-piece Special may be just a bit too far for me; I was expecting something more in the $200 range. The pricing seems a little out of place, too, since everything else - except the Surprise SR - seem so modestly priced this year. (The Western Horse Gossamer is only 50 bucks?!)

I know they’re just trying to get a cut of that sweet secondary market cash, but I might just pass her up and stick to the danger-mystery-excitement of the Sample boxes.

I'm also a bit shocked that the piece count for the Surprise Model "Pop the Cork" is so high - 2700 pieces? Which works out to 675 pieces per color, though I am also assuming that those colors may  be split into Gloss and Matte. (If so, 550 Matte and 125 Gloss? Just wild guessing.) My first ticket isn’t until Friday afternoon, so I’ll have some time to decide if he/she is worth it to me.

Since I need to get back to wrestling for the soul of my laser printer, here’s a picture of my Mr. Chips:

He’s pretty! I wouldn’t mind seeing this colorway on anything, old mold or new.

My only quibbles are that (a) I would have preferred the loose mane to the braided, and (b) I’m a little disappointed he’s not the six-spot version! You know, like this:

I have no idea why Breyer made the earliest of the Leopard Pony of the Americas that way. As you can see above, I do have a splash spot Test Color of the original Leopard POA, and she has just a sprinkling of spots on the near side, too. So the sparseness of the spots was intentional.

Truth be told, I actually prefer few-spot Appaloosa patterns, but I’d rather have the whole horse be that way, not just one side. The six-spotted version is so odd that my only guess is that they might have based the pattern on a specific horse or reference photo.

Because you know how good real horses are at following the rules and stuff. Every time I see a real live Splash Pinto, my first reaction is always "Who dumped a couple buckets of paint on you?" Yet I'd still bid on the Splash Pinto Strapless auction piece, if I had that kind of cash to spend. (I don't.)