The First Black Stretched Morgan Variation

First, there's another web exclusive - this time, a set of Classics Foals, with blankets, named Poncho and Champ. Smart move: these are exactly the kinds of models that younger hobbyists were looking for at BreyerFest this year; I could have sold the Classics Foals I did have many times over. It’s nice to see Reeves is doing its market research homework.

Anyway, time to finish up the series on Black Morgans, with this fellow:

If an average collector has any Variations of the Black Morgan, it’s the first: bald-faced, four stockings, and black hooves. They made him for a while this way - most of the 1960s, near as I can figure; the earliest ones had handpainted eyewhites. The black hooves eventually became gray hooves, then in 1970 the bald face was replaced with a star.

You wouldn’t have known that to look at the catalog photos, though: they used stock photos of the Bald-Faced Variations in Dealer Catalogs and Collector’s Manuals through 1975. They did use a correct Star-Faced photo on the white photo/picture boxes that debuted in 1973.

That disparity I attribute to a case of being cheap rather than inattentive, lazy, or incompetent.

There are no special stories or memories associated with the Stretched Morgan featured above. I’ve gone through a number of models in this Variation, never quite finding the "right" one; I had to purchase this better-than-average example at a local antique market - at an antique market price. (More than I usually pay, but still less than what most hobbyists pay retail). That’s it.

Because my collection is at a certain size and density, any model that doesn’t come with the perfect combination of beauty and backstory is potentially up for resale - as is the case with this model. I still have plenty of other Black Stretched Morgans to keep me company, in addition to all the others I've already mentioned here: my original (visually ordinary) one, a nice gray-hoof Baldy, and the Gray Plastic one.

As for variations I don’t have in the collection yet, I wouldn’t mind locating a Short Sock Variation - a later variant with socks that barely clear the pasterns - but I’m in no rush. I figure that one will make its way to me when it’s good and ready. They always have.