Old Wooden Stables

I made the mistake of watching a couple of hoarding videos last week (I was trying to get caught up on the latest Curiosity, Inc. Hoarder House cleanout; I swear I saw horse-shaped objects and well, you know…) and now I’m in deep cleaning mode, again. As if I don’t have enough to do.

But hey, the garage is definitely looking navigable again. 

All kidding aside, I really do need to make myself scarce for the next few weeks and get some things done around here. I may also have a scheduling change soon that may make the timing of some of my posts extremely peculiar. 

As I like to say, no rest for the wicked.

Anyway, here’s another thing I purchased recently that’s much more exciting than the visuals give away. Behold the #7000 Stable for Traditional Size, the plus-sized counterpart of the #7100 Stable for Stablemate Size, of the same vintage (1976) and in the same style box:

As for that label? I made the mistake of forgetting to tell the seller to wrap the box in paper before shipping it. It didn’t incur a lot of damage, fortunately, but I should have known better and that’s my fault. It was someone who obviously didn’t deal with Breyer items very often who just happened to stumble across something that was that unusual combination of rare and obscure. 

I don’t like to assume that the seller in question doesn’t know what they’re doing, but lesson learned. Nevertheless, it’s still something that’s very much a thing I’ve been wanting for years and I am very happy it is now in my possession. 

Especially since the likelihood of something like this showing up again anytime soon is also unlikely. Until recently, I assumed that both of these early Breyer stables – like the Breyer Rider Gift Set with Palomino Adios – were never officially sold retail, but that now does seem to be the case, at least on a very limited basis.

After this, Breyer only attempted to market one more Stable of its own before being purchased by Reeves: the Traditional-scale #7025 in 1980. I’m not certain #7025 was even manufactured; while the #7000 and #7100 both briefly appeared on Bentley Sales Discontinued Price Lists, the #7025 never did.

There have been numerous Stables issued since then, and many of them are also quite scarce, including Reeves’s first official attempts in 1986/1987. Both appear to be the same or a very similar stable that was sold in Holiday catalogs as early as 1979, but not officially marketed as a Breyer product until 1986. 

There have been almost countless Stables since then, from Stablemates scale to Traditional. While I wouldn’t mind adding a few more to the collection, space is definitely an issue. The only ones that would seriously attract my attention now would probably be the #7025 (if it even exists), and maybe the 1986 and 1987 ones (#200 and #201, respectively) but only in their original boxes.

There’s also a Play-Well Stable Set in its original box on eBay that’s been piquing my interest; it’s the same set that was sold by mail-order companies that sold Breyers and Hartlands direct to consumers as early as 1962. 

It sort of boggles my mind, but in a good way, that the market for model horses was strong enough that other manufacturers were creating complementary products for them.