Sure Fires

Here are two of the horses I found in my supply closet last week – a pair of Sea Star “Sure Fire” Foals from 1997-1998:

The other horses in there I might have forgotten about, but I knew about these two; they were one of the reasons why I decided to undertake the task in the first place.

Why they were in there, I’ll get to another time; that’s another ongoing project I am trying to resolve this year. As to why I had two rather than just one, the second photo will clarify:

Their belly spots are different! I saw them side-by-side at a local Toys R Us, and I had such a hard time trying to choose between them that I decided to not decide at all, and kept them together as a set.

I loved the deep chocolately black color, the minimal crop-out pinto pattern, and I already had a bit of affection for the homely little Sea Star mold anyway.  

It’s difficult to see in the first photo, but one Foal also has brush-painted pinking on her nose, as opposed to the standard airbrushing. At first glance it looks like something somebody did after the fact, but an up-close and personal inspection shows it to be factory paint.

Hand-painted factory touch-ups and corrections are unusual, but not necessarily rare; most of the time they are in less noticeable places.

Sea Star is the least seen, and least loved member of Breyer’s Misty “trio”. The original Sea Star had solid, 8-year run in the Regular Run line (from 1980 through 1987), but unlike Misty and Stormy she hasn’t been given any Reissues since then.

There have been a fair number of other releases of the mold since then, but the most recent was the Palomino in the Pony Picnic Gift Set in 2010-2011.

Aside from these Sure Fires, the only other Sea Stars I currently have in the collection are multiple variations of the original Sea Star.

Because I’m weird that way.