My LaFitte

The first concrete details of this year’s variations and finish splits are up:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/breyerfest-blog/2019-special-run-breakdowns

Originally I was going to write this next post about the variations and some other issues – and possible solutions – I had with BreyerFest this year, but my thoughts are still a little too disorganized, so I’ll go with my backup plan and show you my LaFitte instead:

He literally arrived the very moment I stepped out the door on my way to Kentucky: the mail carrier handed the box to me then said “Do you know your car door is open?”

(Uh, yeah?)

Until a couple of days ago, my LaFitte remained unopened, because BreyerFest got in the way, as it does.

I wasn’t lucky enough to get the blinkerless version, but I am okay with that – I have a pair of blinkerless Chicago-era Culls that I am pretty chuffed to own. If an affordable one crosses my path someday though, I will consider it.

Old Timer is one of those molds that I’ve always wanted to actively collect, but space and circumstances have worked against it. Whenever/if ever that time comes, I already have most of the “harder” to get ones, like the Reissues, the Montgomery Ward’s Alabaster, and of course the Vintage Club Gus.

(I love Gus!)

Only real rarities I don’t have are the McCormick Decanter set – which isn’t really hard to find, so much as it is expensive – and the 2002 BreyerFest Hat Contest Jake, who I’ve just accepted is never going to live at my house.

Test Colors on the Old Timer – especially from the Chicago (pre-1985) era – are somewhat uncommon, presumably because they either never saw a need to test new colors on him back then, or because that would also involve painting all of his fiddly bits, and they just did not have time for that.

But anyways, I love my LaFitte: the paint job is beautiful, intricate and completely suits both the mold and the theme – though I wish they could have somehow made the purple a little more obvious, for the King Cake reference.

It’s also worth noting that they appear to be experimenting with a new/different dappling technique with LaFitte – it looks more like a mask than hand airbrushing, but a little more subtle.

Personally I am fine with the hand-airbrushed dappling technique (I grew up with resist dappling, yo) but if this somehow leads to me seeing the words “fish scale” and “crapples” less often, then I would consider the change a net positive.