Monday, October 6, 2014

Solid Black Morgan

The brain is still not in writing mode, so here’s another picture - one of the many Black Stretched Morgan variations that seem to follow me home like lost puppies. Up first is one of my first big finds at the flea market, Stretched Morgan or otherwise:


Solid Black! Well, almost solid black - he does have a chipped ear, revealing pinkish-purple plastic underneath. Solid Black Morgans mostly - though not exclusively - date to the Chalky Era of the early 1970s. Why bother basecoating a model, when you can just paint it solid black, instead?

Allegedly some Solid Blacks were made as trophy models for the American Morgan Horse Association, around the same time. As far as I know, they’d be indistinguishable from the Regular Run Variations - unless they came with the documentation to prove otherwise.

In either case, the Solid Black Morgan is quite the rarity: I haven’t found another Solid Black Morgan since then. The prices I see them bringing on the secondary market make it unlikely that I’d ever be able to upgrade my boy if I wanted to.

Fortunately for me, it’s a low priority. Aside from the fact that he was one of my first "scores", the story of that score is also a keeper.

Many, many years ago I went with my family to an indoor flea market, one best known in these parts for having a dealer who carried most of the then-current Hagen-Renaker line. And also for a taxidermied Cheetah, but that’s another story. (The flea market, I mean, not the dealer.)

One dealer near the entrance had a small selection of Traditional Breyers - maybe a half dozen pieces - all priced at ten dollars apiece. I picked up the Morgan and stared at it, entranced; the dealer noticed my interest and said "I can go eight on the horses."

"All I have is seven." I answered back, matter-of-factly.

The dealer paused, nodded, and said "Okay, seven." And wrapped him up for me.

A few aisles later, Dad nudged me and whispered "That was a pretty smooth move you pulled back there." He was so proud: my daughter, the canny horse-trader.

I had to break it to him that the truth was far more mundane. "Dad, seriously, all I had was seven dollars!"

4 comments:

Carrie said...

Ah, my Grail! Your stuff always has better stories behind it, though. ��

LostInAn80sFog said...

The only thing I like better than that stunning Morgan is the story of how you acquired him. Sure wish #48 variations had followed me home from flea markets! I always had to turn to the hobby to find them (not that that's a bad thing) and I certainly had never seen that one before.

Anonymous said...

I've always been curious about whether or not the solid black #48s were molded from the same batch of plastic, or were released here and there in various known base colors (gray, green, brown). Mine is also molded from pinkish/purple plastic.

Corky said...

Your amazing story reminds me how much I miss flea markets! We don't really have them here in Japan.