But on to happier things, like the restart of the Berries Ponies Series – as they hinted at in the January Collector Club newsletter. What I didn’t expect was that they started with the Emma mold!
(No really, I didn’t know ahead of time. The usual caveats apply.)
I especially appreciate the detail paid to Jujube’s off-side floof:
I’m still hopeful that the Emma mold will be making an appearance as a BreyerFest Special Run, too.
Prior to the 1980s, it wasn’t unusual for a mold to have only one or two releases over the course of a decade, but nowadays if something like that happens people start speculating about the reasons why.
And hobbyists being hobbyists, the scenarios are always something pretty dire, up to and including the destruction of the mold itself.
When the Lady Phase became kind of scarce in the late 1990s, I heard all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories, most of them premised on some version of the mold being destroyed, or being replaced by the Ideal Quarter Horse. Or not, or it being switched back and forth and good gravy it all gave me headaches.
Molds can sustain damage that merits pulling them from use either temporarily or permanently, though it the case of the latter, the reasons are more a matter of economics than a lack of technical expertise. Sometimes it’s easier and cheaper to simply create a newer mold in a similar breed or pose, updated for more modern tastes.
But more often than not, the lack of new or different releases is a matter of popularity and priorities. If it’s already selling well enough in the color it’s in – and in the case of Emma, her color is a pretty simple and inexpensive one to paint – developing new colorways is not a big priority.
Other considerations also come in to play, especially with portrait models. Again, Lady Phase serves as an excellent example: the reason why she came in three slightly different Buckskin Special Runs prior to 1988 was because that was the only other color her owner Lynn Anderson authorized.
I don’t remember which Model Horse Congress it was, but I remember Marney having a brief round table with attendees to ask for product ideas, with one exception: anything involving Lady Phase was probably off the table. I still wrote down “Dapple Gray Lady Phase with black points” anyway.
When it finally appeared a few years later, some celebratory fist-pumping was involved.
Finally, my last bit about Seattle.
Well, it’s pretty obvious at this point – barring some last minute cancellation or other miracle –that I’m not going. I’ve been struggling to find appropriate words to express my disappointment, but as a Michigander, I am afraid none of the words that immediately come to mind are the least bit appropriate.
Especially since “Plan B” – another event that happens the same weekend as Seattle – now goes into effect. That involves me losing not a little weight and fitting into a costume that looks a little something like this:
2 comments:
I was just thinking of the new color on the Emma mold. There are not very many pony breeds that have the same stature as a Fell Pony. However, with this new color, what if collectors could label her under the Classic scale as a Gypsy Vanner. The statures are similar enough. Also, Gypsy Vanners range from 12.2 hh to 16 hh and she would probably be around 15 hh since she is a little shorter than the Standing Show Thoroughbred. It'll be like using Merrylegs as both a Traditional Miniature Horse and a Classic Shetland Pony.
Looved reading this thank you
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