Hats

Let’s talk about the Celebration Horse a little bit today.

The initial promotional photos for him were not that promising. It didn’t particularly matter to me, since I appear to be going through a Carrick phase.

But oh my goodness, the two I picked up are super, particularly this one:

Gorgeous shading, nice finishwork, and is that just a hint of Blue Interference paint in his finish, giving him a delightful sheen?

I figured they’d be incorporating that Blue Interference paint on a nominally “realistic” paint job in the near future, but putting it on a release I was already predisposed to like? Nice!

I haven’t taken most of my more recent Celebration Horses out of their boxes – partly out of laziness, and partly out of self-preservation – but I think this one will be having a coming out party pretty soon.

You can’t really see in the photograph, but he’s live show quality, or darn well near it.

It would have been even lovelier to add a Gloss one to my equine family, but that was not meant to be.

My Costume Contest entry this year was made from recycled bits of previous costumes and materials I got on sale, or for cheap through the local thrift store circuit. One yard of felt from the local Salvation Army Store, some glue sticks and a Dollar Tree sun hat =

(Too tired right now to drag out the matching Winner’s Blanket!)

In other words, I wasn’t terribly invested in it, emotionally or financially. But it turned out pretty nice regardless, and considering the judging for this thing seems to be pretty random, I thought I had as good a shot as anyone.

Aside from the fact that the scheduling issues have still not been resolved, and either the time or the location of it has to change – it was, as I mentioned before, the lack of prize equity that I found most troubling.

I believe the prize breakdown was 26 kids got prizes, as opposed to 10 adults? I was there and saw the disparity first hand, but I did not realize the gap was so huge.

I know why they do it: it’s supposed to encourage kids and families with young kids to participate.

But I think it’s starting to have the same effect the Gloss Prize Models did at the Children’s Show, and the Diorama Contest’s under-10 category: it’s becoming an incentive for some parents to use their children as proxies.

Gloss Prize Models tend to baseline at $500 on the secondary market. That’s a pretty big incentive, especially if the odds are in their favor.

I’ve been luckier than most and I have actually won a couple of prizes, and for that I’m grateful. And I’m definitely not hurting for treasures: my local flea markets are pretty sweet, and I definitely have a knack for finding things at BreyerFest or online that nobody else does.

BreyerFest is a constant work in progress, and things will change.

And so am I, and so will I.

For the better, for the worse, or just for the sake of change.