Rebel Rebel

Ugh. Today. Long story.

So here’s a picture of a model that makes me smile every time I see him:

It’s the 2002 QVC Special Run Texas Longhorn Bull, named Rebel. He has masking identical to the Regular Run #399 Texas Longhorn Bull, who ran from 2000 through 2004.

But he’s also Glossy, his color is lighter and less red, his eyes are nicely detailed out and of course – his horns are backwards!

As with most molds with separately molded horns, antlers or ears of unusual size, there’s always going to be some degree of variability when they are finally installed: up, down, or even a little (or a lot!) cock-eyed one way or the other.

Sometimes – as in not very often at all – you’ll even find an occasional horn or other odd bit that’s been cemented in backwards.

The handful of notable examples I’ve seen have been on the Cow, where the horns are small enough – and the curvatures slight enough – that most collectors either shrug it off as part of the normal production variability, or don’t even see it until someone else points it out.

They’ve done other alterations to the Longhorn’s horns over the years. The Broken Horn Special Runs had (factory) broken horns, the 2008 Exclusive Event Longhorn Wrangler had an intentionally cock-eyed one, and in relatively recent times the overall wingspan of the horns themselves have even been shortened.

But Rebel was the first to have his horns deliberately set backwards.

And I love it.

I sold off several of my Longhorns recently because they were simply taking up too much shelf space, but this guy and his “happy” horns had to stay.