Christmas Lists

Well, I thought I was going to talk about the Roan Running Mares today, but there’s been lots of odd bits of news in the past few days that should be covered sooner, rather than later. 

First, it’s good to know I wasn’t the only one who got shorted on the Spooky Stablemates! It would also explain why the CSR I spoke to was unfazed about it. That makes me less worried about the whole situation.

Second, they finally confirmed the dates for next year’s BreyerFest; I know there were several folks out there worried about the dates changing after that initial announcement, but I think most of the delay was in getting the legal paperwork ironed out. 

(I’m not privy to any of that, but based on prior experiences, it seems like a pretty reasonable guess.)

I’m kind of hoping that their casual mention of Morgans in their BreyerFest ad copy means we’ll be seeing the Stretched Morgan next year, but it’s more than likely another release of Troubadour. Which I don’t mind, but my Stretched Morgan Army could use a few fresh recruits. I don’t think the mold has ever had a truly acquirable BreyerFest Special Run release, so he is due. 

(I am not counting Bennington or Showboat, because buying a Special Run should not require the sale of your kidney.)

And right after I put my foot down on my new pony purchases, Reeves casually dropped images of a ton of holiday merchandise, including a creepy-cool Winter Decorator Classic American Dream named Neva:

I’m pretty sure those zombie snowmen want to kill me. I wonder if this design got its start as a Halloween concept and was…slightly repurposed? I really dig the dark metallic blue and silver combo; it reminds me a little of the more blue-ish variants of the Sham release Rana. 

I will likely end up buying the Christmas Socks, because I’m always up for more novelty footwear, but otherwise I think I’m safe from temptation. 

As far as the Holiday Pony Playset goes, even though I am a big fan of the Pony of the Americas, I’d rather stick to the original version of the mold, rather than whatever goofy mane and tail wigs they’re putting on it now. 

It’s also extremely likely that I’ll never find the original Black Appaloosa POA or any of the 2010 WEG Toby variations, so the risk of a spontaneous shopping eruption is very, very small…

(And every time I say something like that, something magical inevitably happens.)

Making Choices

Instead of participating in the Breyer Fun Day, going to the Motor City Comic Con, or even participating in Sweetest Day (it’s a thing around here), I spent my Saturday at DC FanDome and watching the new trailer for The Batman about twenty times.

Inventory is still in progress, and is going quite well, except for the realization that I have a Dapple Gray Old Timer problem. And more duplicates (of other things) than I thought. Once I’m finished with the process (next week?), I’ll let y’all know what my sales plans might be. 

As usual, it’s more of a space issue than a money issue. So stuff will be cheap, and not just compared to what everyone is trying to sell their stuff for. (I swear people are just using random number generators to price things at this point...)

I just unwrapped a couple of recent arrivals and I’m trying to decide what to do with them:

With Eek!, it’s more a matter of where I’ll put him than whether he is staying: I don’t know if he’s going into my window of glowy things, on my nightstand of glowy things, or in my little huddle of glowy things on my dresser.

(I like glowy things!)

The Favrile is a bigger problem.   

I bought him during the Second Chance Sale, mostly out of curiosity: I wanted to see what he looked like in person. The color scheme is definitely more of the “Rainbow Sherbet” variety of Rainbow seen on two recent Stablemate Unicorn Chase pieces, like the Magnolia and Croi. Mine seems to be a little bit greener than the average Favrile, and I like that, and I also like how they tried to make each leg a different color. (A thing they also did with the Seven Arts Surprise Decorator Rainbow Appaloosa.)

But I’m still not 100 percent sold on him, partly because I would have preferred a stained-glass-themed Decorator to be Translucent. I took a pass on the Web Special Nayati, and aside from the ongoing space issues, I am also reluctant to invest the necessary monies to acquire them now. 

If I’m going to collect a newer Classics mold, it’s going to be Mel Miller’s Brabant and also maybe Sarah Mink’s Malik, who incidentally is now available as a Unicorn in a color very similar to the radiant Sunset color the Brabant release Solaris does, sans glitter:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/collections/new/products/solar-flare

(I know some folks have very strong opinions on the matter, but I am neither pro- nor anti-mane-glitter.) 

Actually, come to think of it, the color is very similar to the 2001 Toys R Us Special Run Pacer Horse of a Different Color, who I have assumed was a very, very loose interpretation of Dunalino. 

Favrile will be sticking around a while, or at least until I’m able to get my sales act together. 

Spiders, Spiders Everywhere

Welcome to the Post-BreyerFest Sales Season, where you tell yourself you’re going to cut back on your purchases, but you just can’t help yourself:

I was only expecting to purchase a pair of the Spooky Stablemates from the Halloween Store this year, because I think all three are awesome and reselling or swapping a duplicate won’t be much of an issue this time around – but I ended up buying pretty much everything but Hermie and the hoodie. 

I didn’t get the Hermie because I didn’t see the freebie code until after I checked out, and I didn’t get the hoodie because I’m either going to Motor City Comic Con or DC Fandome on October 16th and I want to get myself an appropriately-themed shirt or hoodie for the occasion instead, especially since I found out that the shirt I was going to wear is now (yikes!) a collectible. 

The Classic Eek! Is still available, which is both surprising and unsurprising: surprising in that everything else sold out fairly quickly, and unsurprising because he’s a Classics-scale model covered in spiders, two things a lot of collectors get a little squicky about.

As I’ve explained before, I’ve never had any antipathy towards Classics in the slightest. While I am still not a huge fan of spiders, I have made my peace with them and – in fact! – even attempted to write a children’s book about them at one point.

(FYI: It’s another one of my many, many stalled creative projects.)

Some have speculated that another factor may be that the piece run was larger than average, but I don’t think they’ve ever formally released piece counts for the Halloween Classics, so I have no idea if that is the case. My enjoyment of a particular release is not tied to how popular it is or how quickly it sells out, so that’s a moot point for me anyway.

But I got Eek! primarily because he’s an obvious callback to the second Breyer Halloween Horse, the Marabella Merry Widow, who was the first Traditional-scale Glow-in-the-Dark model in 2003. She’s one of my all-time favorite Halloween Horses: I think the way they incorporated all of the spider imagery into her overo pinto pattern was clever, beautiful and inspired. 

The first official Glow-in-the-Dark release happened a few months before: an unpainted G2 Andalusian Keychain that was first given to attendees of an “after dark” movie screening at the KHP at the 2003 BreyerFest, and subsequently distributed to hobbyists at various Breyer events for (many!) years to follow. 

Aside from various Club-related releases (including the VC Decorator Brighty Nugget), the Tractor Supply Special Runs, the Brick and Mortar Special (a pretty pinto Wyatt!) and the Rainbow Decorator Equidae, two other big sales will be following shortly: the hotly anticipated BreyerFest Leftovers Sale, and possibly the Customer Appreciation Event. 

I suppose I should be grateful that I’m racking up lots of overtime at work and I can afford most of these beautiful frivolities, but actual time to enjoy them would also be wonderful. I’ve been getting assurances that this will be soon, so we will see. 

Living the Dream

Don’t tell my family, but this wasn’t the only horse I bought this weekend:

Long story short, Saturday afternoon I happened to be in the neighborhood of a toy store that’s normally a bit out of my way, so I stopped in to see if they had any Khalids.

They did! And they were having a storewide sale. And they actually had a couple American Dreams; since I figured this would probably be my last chance to get one until December (according to the web site!) and this example was so dark and pretty…

I liked the pictures of him I had been seeing online, but now that I’ve seen him in person and in the round, I think he’s my new favorite modern Classic/Freedom mold. I can’t wait to see this pretty boy in any of the vintage Mustang colors. Bald-faced Buckskin? Gloss Charcoal? Gloss Gray Appaloosa?

(The solution to getting more collectors collecting Classics is… making more and better Classics? How... obvious!)

Then I ended up going to a nearby Ollie’s and picked up a couple of those SR Walmart Stablemates sets because there were some beautiful variations mixed in; then for good measure I hit up a farm store (part of a local chain) that happened to have some unrifled-through Stablemate Blind Bag boxes, and salt water taffy. (The taffy was the bigger draw there: Don’t ask me why or how, but I am on a huge taffy kick right now.)

And finally, the weather was cool but mostly cooperative so I went to the flea market Sunday morning and found a whole bunch of goodies, including a C.W. Anderson portfolio and a Royal Doulton Scottish Terrier.

But aside from the produced-based flea market purchases, the only thing that’s made it into the house so far is the American Dream.

Not that anyone would notice right now – there’s some work being done in the kitchen for the duration, so I could probably sneak in an actual, live Shetland Pony and I doubt anyone would notice.

(Except maybe the dog. I don’t think she’d appreciate someone bogarting her carrots and peppermints.)

But seriously, this will probably be my last significant “horse shopping” binge for the year, outside of obligate club purchases, and possibly the Christmas Surprise and CC Appreciation Sale. I have too much stuff and I definitely need to do more selling than buying in the next three months.

If I can find the time. Sigh.