Benelli and the Shannondells

I am oddly unmoved by the latest BreyerFest reveal, the Store Special Benelli. It’s odd because I’ll pretty much buy anything if it comes in Blue Roan Sabino:

Then I realized it might be because it’s the third BreyerFest Shannondell Special Run in four years, preceded by the Ticket Special Vahana in 2017 and Raffle Model Woodford in 2018.

Which means that by the end of the year, including Glosses and mold variations, the Shannondell mold will have had at least 11 releases.

Five of those aren’t (or shouldn’t be) difficult to obtain – Markus, the #1793 Grey Shire, Vahana, the 2020 XMAS Horse, and Benelli.

Four of them are obtainable, but pricey: that would include both versions of the original Premier Club Shannondell, the Gloss version of the #1793 Shire, and the Gloss version of the Vintage Club Claude.

And two of them are basically unaffordable to the average collector: the 2018 BreyerFest Raffle model Woodford, and the Matte version of Claude.

So unless you were really on the ball, and/or were very lucky, this mold has already become very, very expensive to collect. You’re reluctant to fall in love because it will – quite literally! – cost you.

With Vintage molds – especially those made pre-1985 – there’s at least the slim but not unreasonable chance I could find some of the rarer pieces “in the wild” – as some of my more recent finds attest! Which is a comfort when they do throw the inevitable rarity out into the world.

Depending on how he looks in person, and what my budget and mood will be by then, Benelli is still a possibility. It’s not helping that I pretty much like everything they’ve shown us so far.