Sunday, February 10, 2019

Fiero, Rockford, and Defining Vintage

Whew, another week that felt like a month here – this insane weather, the new car shopping, my ongoing horse inventory, the strange patch of creativity that’s now motivating me to braid twelve(!) yards of rick-rack to finish another old quilt project….

And, uh, I think I’m going to my first live show in over a decade. (More details about that exciting and terrifying situation another time.)

Fiero, the first release in this year’s Stablemates Club was also released this week:


He’ll be a 50-50 Gloss/Matte Split release; while I do not personally care which version finish variation I get, most of the rest of the online hobby community will apparently be treating their potential Matte Fieros like body-quality Family Arabian Mares.

(For the record, I love the Family Arabian Mare. But she’s definitely not among the most beloved of Vintage Breyer molds – even among Family Arabian collectors!)

Someday the All Glossy, All The Time Fad will fade. I hope. Not because I don’t like Glossies, but I am never keen on anything – good or bad – becoming a fad, generally. Following fads doesn’t always lead to the best decisions being made.

I have nothing much else to talk about today, other than my pleasure in finding out how lovely the Vintage Club Rockfords have turned out. (Mine’s not here yet – aside from the week being the week it was, I was also waiting/hoping for Fiero to drop.)

I know there’s been some discussion of whether Rockford – or the Charcoal Shannondell release Claude – actually qualify as “Vintage” releases.

The obvious (and somewhat cynical) answer to that is they do if Reeves says they do. So it’s not just older molds in older colors, it’s also older molds in newer colors and newer molds in older colors. Or radical (or not so radical) reinterpretations of older releases or colors, which is how I would classify the first Vintage Club release Dandy, on the Clydesdale Stallion mold.

Vintage Gloss Brown/Palomino Pintos didn’t look much like Dandy did.

On a more philosophical note, limiting themselves to just Vintage molds, colors and techniques prior to an arbitrary date would have led to creative stagnation. After a relatively short while, you’d simply run out of color and mold combos to explore.

And truth be told, the market for premium Vintage-style releases – the current Gloss fad aside – is not that large. It’s in their financial interests to be more expansive with their definition of Vintage.

And so far, so good this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rockford turned out to be my favorite VC release ever, but I already loved the Pacer mold, so it wouldn’t have taken much to get it there anyway.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glossies a fad? I've been collecting since about 1983 and I've always loved the glossies best (back then, as you know, that only meant vintage models). Gloss just brings out the color on a model, no matter what color it is. And they are a little more durable that matte finish too. What's not to love?

I'm not a person to follow a fad (when you talk about comic book characters I have no idea what you are even talking about!) but gloss endures because they are beautiful, durable, make the colors pop and make plastic horses look like porcelain. So yeah, I guess you can call it a fad if you want. I look at it like Breyer is finally giving collectors what they want. :)

I'm not even a member of Breyer's newest clubs. I'm a customizer mainly. But if I were rich and could buy any models I want, they would 95% be gloss. If a run were split between gloss and matte, I would be disappointed if I ended up with matte.

Little Black Car said...

Ha ha I LOVE the FAM and am also praying for a matte Fiero (to keep OF).

I'm heartily sick of the glossies, especially since so many of the SM Club models have been glossy. The paint jobs underneath have been . . . OK, I guess. I feel like slapping some gloss on is a cheap way to make it look fancy without having to use more than one or two paint colors. I love my actual vintage glossies but every new glossy Breyer releases is basically saving me money.

Anonymous said...

I'm still waiting for my Fiero, but I'll be happy with either finish. I love glossies as much as anyone (especially vintage), although I don't think it is necessarily the most flattering for every color. I'm happy there is a split for this one. Even though we don't get to pick, people can trade for the finish they want. I hope they do more splits.