Some APH Tests

It's been one of those days. So here's are some pictures for you to ogle at:

While Test Colors that utilize the original Appaloosa Performance Horse paint job are almost plentiful, Test Colors on the Appaloosa Performance Horse mold itself are not. The reasons why are obvious: the mold is very "old school" Appaloosa and not very flashy. The two vintage photos that I have from Marney's files are both, no surprise, Appaloosas. Here's the other guy:

Although both models appear to be from the mid-1970s - and may possibly even be Preproduction pieces - they utilize a softer, finer speckling technique to their roaning that wasn't used on a production run item until the later 1980s.

At the point these two were made, the only other roans in production were the "Freckle" Red Roans on the Running Stallion, Lying Down and Scratching Foal. So Breyer had the technical capability to make more realistic roans, and chose not to.

Interesting!

There are a few more recent APH Tests floating around, including that fabulous frame overo piece for the BreyerFest auction a little while back, and somewhere, out there, the Test piece they used as a stand-in for the Stud Spider in the 1977 J.C. Penney Christmas Catalog.

Wanna talk about grails? Sigh...