Holi Daze

Another spectacular day at the flea market – unrelated to the potential/pending business of last week – but I wrote this ahead of time, so you’ll have to wait a few days to see what turned up this week.

(Plus they were filthy dirty. I think one was covered in…gravy? Yeah, let’s go with gravy…)

Here’s another BreyerFest piece unpacked/unboxed – the Elephant Holi, making friends with his teapot buddy:

I was somewhat concerned that the Holi of the photographs – pinking, freckles et al – was not going to be the Holi we would see in Kentucky. I was very happy to have my fears allayed when I saw him in the Artisan’s Gallery Thursday night!

I was a little surprised that he didn’t sell as well as many had thought. Since I was preoccupied with all my other duties on Friday and most of Saturday, I was lucky enough to make arrangements with a friend to get a pick up. When I made a quick trip into the Bazaar either late Saturday afternoon or early Sunday morning (I think I made two trips in there, but it’s all a blur, at this point) there were still plenty of Holis to be had.

Most curious.

I suspect a number of factors were at work. First, the Elephant mold has always been something that has a wider appeal to people more outside of the hobby than in. Second, the decals probably put some hobbyists off: aside from pushing it into “Decorator” territory, the long-term viability of complex decals on a mostly-wrinkly surface was also a not-wholly-unjustified concern.

(So far, so good on mine, whew!)

Plus, he was a little on the pricey side – $45, when you could have gotten the two-piece Dally and Spanky set for five dollars less.

In the long run, Holi will sell out, and eventually will become a more in-demand piece. Especially once hobby outsiders find out about him.

Illustrating my point: I had a heck of a time, pre-BreyerFest, trying to find a reasonably-priced Elephant body for my diorama entry. I had to run some pretty esoteric searches on eBay before a suitable (i.e. not identified as a Breyer!) candidate showed up.

He showed up smelling like the bottom of Grandma’s ashtray, but an overnight soak took care of that problem. All hail, the power of Dawn dish soap!