More Breyers at Meijers

Head’s up to anyone in the Midwest: Meijer recently got a shipment of the Stablemates American Pharoahs. I heard a rumor and decided to follow up on it on the way home from work today. And there they were, hanging out next to the Schleich display!

I didn’t buy one because I already have a couple – purchased as a part of that “Get a Free Horse!” promotion back in December. But it’s nice to know that Meijer continues to have some sort of business relationship with Reeves.

They’ve had an on-and-off relationship with them since at least the late 1980s, but as far as I know, no official Special Runs or Exclusive items. If you’re really into obscure packaging variations, some of the items sold at Meijer in the early 1990s had their own unique issue numbers assigned to them, like some of the Regular Runs sold through QVC.

Like most of the QVC items, once they are out of the box they are indistinguishable from any other Regular Run. I did find one boxed item in the Ninja Pit years ago – Double Take, I think? – that still had the Meijer labeling on it, which I thought was an obscure-but-kinda-cool thing.

(Not cool enough for me to keep New in Box, though. I saved the label, somewhere …)

Meijer was also among a select group of retailers to carry items that were essentially “Big Box Store” Exclusives, which were not otherwise available online or via smaller chains or independently-owned stores.

The two that come to mine came out in 2008: the #625 Foal Set with the Red Roan Frolicking Foal and Black Pinto Morgan Foal, and the #626 Frolicking QH Stallion in Bay Blanket Appaloosa.

Neither set is super-duper rare, but it’s been a few years so they are a little harder to find than your average Classics releases (the Foals, especially).

I’ll confess that I have a family member who works for Meijer, so I have a somewhat vested interest (Discounts!) in seeing an exclusive item there in the future.