Black Points

Since I’ve been buying a lot of less desirable Collector’s Club Appreciation Glossies recently (the mule Buckeye is on his way!) the currently crop of Glossies has been less of a temptation, especially since my favorite of the bunch – the Black Brishen Sjoerd – seems to be everyone else’s least-loved. 

Conversely, I am not too keen on the Peptoboomsmal: I tried my best to love him or even like the Dundee/Australian Stock Horse mold –the 2022 Flagship Special Romeo should have been a no-brainer for me, for a couple of reasons – but I am having a hard time warming up to him. 

The other two are also very nice, but they are more in the like, rather than love category: the Morgan is pretty, but also pretty huge, and the Totilas is a bit tippy.  

So I took a pass on the offer this time. Maybe I’ll be able to trade for a Glossy Sjoerd at BreyerFest: I just finished my sales list and it’s definitely an eclectic one. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find someone to trade something for it!

My mind is on a dozen different things today (someone or something literally bent some of my metal garden fenceposts to the ground, and I have no idea how) so I’ll wrap up a couple of talking points from the comments and move on to other topics next time. 

The color on the Vintage Custom Black Stallion was not extensively retouched; if anything, he’s actually a bit darker than I received him, since I had a hard time matching his highlights. Any perceived brightness can be attributed to a fresh application of varnish and outdoor lighting. Like Reeves, photography is not my strongest suit! 

As for my opinion of the final disposition of the Test Color Appaloosa Performance Horse: I am assuming, unless proven otherwise, that the sale was taken private: there are always ways. The conversation about him that appeared shortly afterward may well have contributed to his disappearance. I think the fact that my other purchase – also a Test Color! – happened a few hours later, yet was not canceled actually strengthens this argument. 

A hobbyist who was genuinely concerned about the seller would have also seen the Classic and insisted that one be canceled as well. The fact that they let that one go suggests to me that it was someone who either had no idea it was a Test, or was a “high point” collector with little interest or concern for plain, Chicago-era Classics. (Or regard for what their fellow hobbyists think of them, too.)

Because an odd little Black Stallion with four stockings and gray hooves definitely doesn’t have the same allure as an early BreyerFest Auction Test Color that’s been “missing” for 30 years, or the same potential for a financial return on their investment. 

For the record, I am not a fan of “high point” collectors of any stripe: they tend to throw their money around rather carelessly, distorting the market in the process and make life difficult for collectors of more modest means.

The Weight of Missing Souls

I was going to open with some exciting developments in my garden – some of the seedlings may survive after all! – but the news of Liz Bouras’s passing kind of squashes that “Spring is my favorite season because it represents the triumph of life over death” vibe I wanted to go for. 

Although I wouldn’t consider her a close friend, our paths crossed many times, and we had several friends in common. I entered the hobby just as she was coming into her own in it, as it was transitioning from its wild and wooly early days to something a little more formalized and organized. 

It wasn’t until last year that I was able to acquire a custom of hers – a vintage Arabian from that very era! – in a body box lot early last year.

I also ended up becoming the caretaker of a (large!) portion of her hobby papers a few years back. Today I feel that in doing that, I now carry a piece of her katra with me.

I also have a funny memory of (not meeting) her at the Motor City Comic Con several years ago. That memory will be on my mind quite a bit at Motor City this weekend. But I’ll have to tell it another day, when I am not feeling so melancholy.

In other news…

Information has leaked (possibly prematurely?) of the next Exclusive Event, which is supposedly going to be in Florida in November. My Google-Fu turned up these images of the banner ad and the possible guest horse Salvino that were pulled from the Breyer website:

I’m not terribly bullish on the idea Florida, but I do have a standing invite to visit from a friend who, in spite of my protests to the contrary, is bound and determined to move there in the very near future. 

And I do want to go to at least one more Exclusive Event in my lifetime. But I’ll probably have just as much luck getting draw for the event as I was for (the actual) Kingfisher – which was none, in case you weren’t able to figure that out:

I know I don’t really need more models right now (I won’t officially cop to anything, but I’ve been… bad) but winning something for a change would be nice, you know? As acknowledgement, at least, of my existence as a human being. That’s kind of a pet peeve of mine, and all of these drawings that go nowhere feed into my phobia of being forgotten.  

I am not super-crazy about the clean-legged version of the Brishen mold, but I do love me a Gloss Blue Roan Pinto. 

I will now log off and think happier thoughts. (My new nerd t-shirts arrived today, and I have to decide what to wear the convention on Saturday: Kingdom Come Superman, or Green Lantern?)

Glossy Chalky Buckskin

The first thought that came to mind when I saw in-hand pictures of Goldfinch was: holy cats, this is My Girl all over again.

The 2016 Vintage Club release My Girl, on the Cantering Welsh Pony, came in three colors: Gloss Bay, Gloss Palomino, and Gloss Alabaster. When I opened the shipping box and discovered that I had received the Alabaster – my third choice – I was slightly crestfallen. 

I think Gloss Palomino is a highly underrated vintage color, and who doesn’t love a lovely Gloss Honey Bay? But Gloss Alabaster can be hit or miss, depending on its shading, or lack thereof. And as far as shading goes, the initial pictures of the Alabaster My Girls showed a definite lack.

Then I opened up her actual box-box, and fell in love with Glossy Chalky Alabaster. 

I think I kind of love Glossy Chalky Buckskin, too.

If I don’t get picked from what’s going to be a very small waitlist – because people are definitely willing to put themselves in short-term debt if they know they can make an almost-immediate profit – I’ll just have to let it go. 

I have a little too much stuff anyway. 

That’s what I keep telling myself, but there I was at the toy store after I got my first COVID shot Saturday, trying to persuade myself that I really didn’t need Obsidian.

I did manage to walk out of the store horse-free. This time.

(In all seriousness, though, if I do start buying seriously again, I think I’ll start with the homely little Standing Stock Horse Foal. Not a lot of demand, not a lot of rarities, not a lot of Test Colors, Oddities or Whatever.) 

It’s Always Something

The Good: My Glossy Cheesecake is finally here!

The Bad: My seed order also arrived and they shipped the wrong seeds. The one variety I was most looking forward to getting started – the Superbissima Petunias – was listed on my receipt, but I got Purple Nasturtiums instead. 

Sigh. It’s always something. (Calls made, e-mails sent, yadda yadda, blah blah…)

The details of the BreyerFest contests are now up – for the Diorama, Customs, and also (surprisingly!) the Costume Contest. The Diorama and Costume Contests are what I expected them to be – doing something art-historically inspired – though oddly limiting your inspiration to just three online repositories of copyright-free images. 

This I assume is a way of getting around some potential legal issues, but I already had some ideas for both the Diorama and Costume Contest that are now off the table because they’re not in those specific repositories. 

Well, there’s the one, but that’s gonna be a hard one to pull off…

I do have a couple of customs languishing on my craft table that could be worked into a Customs Contest entry somehow. But it’s going to be a couple months before I can get started on anything like that, and I’ll be running short on time because I always do with my Samplers, no matter how much I plan. 

The Sampler takes priority over everything, and especially over my inevitably-doomed-to-failure contest entries. And at least one of the Contest page pictures is an unpleasant reminder of the failure part. 

(It was a rough week, okay? I got into an argument with someone about math, for heaven’s sake! Math!)

I might just skip out on all of these contests entirely again because, and I repeat myself, I don’t have time for any of this. (I should have been in bed an hour ago, but let us not get into that.) This is a danged shame, because I was an Art History major in college and this is unexpectedly and delightfully shaping up to be totally my jam. 

Something more substantial and actually history related next time, I promise.

Behind Door Number Three

Half of me is saying “You already have enough Brishens!” and the other half is yelling “But it’s a Silver Cremello Tobiano Pinto!”

The Brishen mold has been a BreyerFest Special Run many times, in numerous mold variations: in 2013 the Bay Pinto Gypsy Vanner was a Gloss Open Show Prize, he was also used for the Sunday Raffle Model Boot Scootin’ Boogie, and the clean-legged mold variation debuted as a Ticket Special by the name of Laredo.

He’s also been a Store Special twice before: 2014’s immensely popular Novelisto D, and his mirror opposite/evil twin Dag Dia in 2016.

I do have a couple of minor disappointments here. One, he’s not going to be a Surprise this year: with all of the mane, tail and leg variations, they really could have gone crazy with this one. And second – somewhat related to the first! – they went with the standard upswept mane and tail.

I know that Faugh-A-Ballagh’s people probably had the final say on this, and it does seem to be the most popular choice even among collectors, but I like variety, dangnabit!

So for this guy, mark me as undecided.

By the way, good job Reeves for faking us out with the sneak peeks – I know I wasn’t the only one who assumed that three consecutive images without a reveal would lead up to a Mare and Foal Set or even a Classic Family.

But alas, no.

We’ve had Mare and Foal sets for a while, and one of the earliest was the Classic Haflinger Mare and Foal set Hansel and Gretel in 2011. But the closest we’ve gotten to a full three-member Classic Family was the #701601 Classic Racing Thoroughbreds featuring a Man o’ War, Kelso and a Silky Sullivan came out in 2001.

If I recall correctly, that set didn’t sell particularly well, and ended up getting remaindered to both Tuesday Morning and to the KHP Gift Shop. Thus possibly answering the question why we haven’t gotten one since then…

I always wondered if hobbyists would have been more receptive to the set if it had been issued in more Thoroughbred-like colors, but I consider the Shaded Buckskin Man o’ War to be flat-out gorgeous, and is probably my favorite release on that mold, even moreso than the recent Lancelots.

Overwhelming, Part Two: The Predicting

I was going to get all fancy with this post and pull out the big words and the big thoughts, but I seem to be coming down with something and all I want to do at this point is eat a bowl of ice cream and go to bed.

So here’s a few relatively unorganized predictions for BreyerFest next year. The usual caveats apply: these are just predictions. I have no special insights or actual intel into what’s actually happening next year, but as you may have seen (sometimes in real time!) I apparently do have some inkling of how they think at Breyer HQ. Which freaks me out as much as you guys, guys.

(Though I was genuinely shocked to discover that many hobbyists did not even have the Moody Andalusian on their radar for this year’s Surprise. That one seemed… pretty obvious?)

The “Celtic Fling” theme is broad enough to include most breeds originating in the vicinity of the British Isles, but for all practical purposes most people are going to interpret it as “Irish”. This is a darn shame but there’s nothing I can do to change public opinion, especially as a decidedly non-Gaelic person. I just hope that – as has been the case in some themes previous – that stereotypes are not necessarily given the nod when various prizes and awards are handed out.

Breeds that immediately come to mind: most of the ponies that occupy/originate in that part of the world, Gypsy Vanners/Drum Horses, Irish Warmbloods and Thoroughbreds.

Possible Special Run molds: Croi Damsha, Brishen/Gypsy Vanner. Rhian & Cadell, True North, Bristol, Cantering Welsh Pony, Bouncer, Fell Pony Emma, Newsworthy, the Show Jumping Warmblood, and just for kicks and giggles, the Bluegrass Bandit.

There is a slight possibility that there might be an Othello, but not as a Surprise. A Decorator, maybe….

Celebration Horse: The Croi or the Brishen are most likely, absent any other evidence.

Surprise Model: See Celebration Horse. I prefer the Brishen because it comes with multiple mane and tail options, and isn’t so popular that it’ll cause an epic hobby meltdown. I also think Bluegrass Bandit is a possibility because it’s come in Translucent before, and hasn’t had so many releases that all the color combos have been exhausted. And there is always one mold that makes us go really, now?

Decorator(s): There are lots of options here. Something Book of Kells-themed? Fairies? Kelpies? Or something stereotypically green, with shamrocks et al? (Experience has told me, alas, that when in doubt, the stereotype usually wins out.)

Something Gold Charm is also not out of the question – as a reference to Celtic/Fairy/Leprechaun (ugh) Gold. I could also see this as part of a Surprise-Surprise (see below).

Nonhorse: I’d be happy with almost anything except another Bull, except for the #365 Black Angus Bull in something different or daring because it’s time, dangnabit. I’d rather it be an Irish Donkey on the old Standing Donkey mold, but I am probably dreaming at this point. (Would make an excellent Pop-Up Store item. Just sayin’.)

Surprise-Surprises: Next year is another anniversary – Breyer’s 70th, as they count it – and I doubt they will let that fact go completely unrecognized. I am unsure they want to pull the same stunt they did this year with the bazillion Micro Run variations, but I wouldn’t rule out a Golden Charm-type Surprise of that nature, either.

But that’s also why I think it’s more likely they’ll honor the anniversary with a Vintage mold or two, either as a Tent or a Pop-Up Special Run. Right now my money is on the Cantering Welsh Pony, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see something like the Bell-bottomed Shire, Running Mare, or even the Jumping Horse. (Or, as I mentioned above, the Donkey.)

One-Day Stablemates: I have no idea, but names from myth and legend wouldn’t be unexpected – like Morrigan, Boudicca, Danu, Epona, etc. (Hmm. Maybe they can slip the G1 molds in here as their Vintage tribute? That would be fun, she says only slightly sarcastically…)

Random Thoughts: other things that might be worked into the theme include whiskey, golf, minstrels and bards, Saint Patrick, and my favorite (of course!) – something referencing the cult classic movie Highlander.

And for something completely offbeat: Special Run Wind Dancers. Because fairies. More likely: the Wind Dancer Plush, for the Pop-Up Store Plushie.

I could go on with some suggestions and improvements to the event itself, but as there has been a ton of news, new releases and whatnot in the past week, I’ll leave that on the table for another time.

(Yes, I saw THAT thing on eBay. I have thoughts, and feelings.)

Brishen and Friends

And the winners are – a Buttermilk Buckskin Brishen Sampson, a Buckskin Blanket Appaloosa Smarty Jones Hakan and (not pictured on the web site as of my posting) a Black Pinto Bluegrass Bandit Stella.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/search/breyer

Again, the standard disclaimer applies: nope, I really did not know ahead of time. 

(Incidentally, I went back and looked at the Stablemates bin tag UPCs: it’s the 6217 Mystery Unicorns Assortment – the one with the Navy Blue Alborozo. Adjust your expectations accordingly. Or not!)

I’ll have to see them in person, of course, before I make my final decisions – there are a few other models I’m considering adding to the herd in the meantime, besides – though the Bluegrass Bandit intrigues me the most. I know some hobbyists aren’t too fond of the mold, but I am hoping that translates into making it the easiest of the three to find/choose from.

While I like the color on the Brishen – it is very reminiscent of the color on the 2017 Bollywood Surprise Harley, who was very well-received generally and I liked very much also – I am a little bit disappointed that they went with the “standard” version of the mold.

The Brishen mold has two different versions of the mane (up and down), two different versions of the tail (up and swished), and even two different versions of the legs (feathered and unfeathered). Of the 11 previous Special Runs or Regular Runs of this mold (excluding gloss variants or Tests), six of them have been the same combo as the original Premier Club Brishen release: the “up” mane, the “up” tail, and the “feathered” legs.

I get it, the “fluffy” version the most popular variation of the mold, but of the eight different possible mold combos, four remain completely unexplored, and two – the Dag Dia version, and the Novelisto D version – have only been used once.

I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll be seeing more of this mold again soon, possibly/probably as a Special Run for next year’s “Celtic Fling”-themed BreyerFest. Reeves certainly hasn’t been timid about using different mane and tail combos before, either with Surprise models, or with 50/50 Splits like this year’s Roxy release Diana.

At this point I am on the fence about whether or not they’ll use the Brishen mold as the Surprise model, though; while the mold is still just a bit too popular for that sort of thing, but he’s still had a relatively limited number of releases and all those mold options to explore.

And speaking of that, since Sampson will undoubtedly be popular – with some hobbyists exploiting the pre-order option on the TSC web site to essentially put a chunk of the initial store stock on hold – those of us initially left out in the cold may need to take a deep breath and either wait for second shipments to arrive, or get some sort of confirmation on production numbers before paying a premium. 

Tapped Out

It figures that they put the winner of the “My Strongest Suit” Contest up for sale today – the day after I place my order for Gwenevere! Oh well, it’s not like I’m swimming in extra cash after my adventure at the Secretary of State’s office this past afternoon.

(Two hours to resolve an issue with renewing my plates. Two hours of icy glares and uncomfortable small talk with strangers, some of whom were unnaturally obsessed with plumbing. A big old “Thbppt!” to this day, for sure!)

I’ll just take it as a hint that I probably shouldn’t be spending that money, especially after my splurge on Saturday – which, incidentally, finally saw me purchasing that Walmart Stablemates Set that was always one step ahead or behind me. Thank you, Janet!

Since I’m talking Stablemates, I like what I’ve seen so far with this year’s One-Day Stablemates – I pretty much expected the Darwin and Brishen, and I thought the Magnolia was a possibility too.

The new Standing Warmblood is a bit of an outlier, though: if they were going to go with all-new molds instead of mixing it up, the Alborozo seems like the more obvious choice. Especially since they’re going for Mini Me’s of previous popular BreyerFest releases! Mini Alborozo as… a Mini Me Alborozo. right?

But that just leaves it open to being the Pop-Up Store Stablemate – in Matte, Gloss, the Early Bird Special Alegria, or either of the Auction Pieces, in Smutty Palomino or Gloss Dapple Red Bay. Or maybe all of the above!

Or maybe not. That could get very messy, very quickly. We’ll just have to wait and see. There’s also the looming possibility of a 10-piece booster pack of the 20th Anniversary Stablemates Set, too.

Judging from the reactions I’m seeing online so far (FYI: this involved about five minutes worth of searching on my part) I am not going to make the same mistake I did last year and assume there will be sufficient will-call leftovers to go around later.

Though if they were smart, Reeves would double their usual orders on the mini Brishen and Darwin, alone. The original 2013 Raffle model Boot Scootin’ Boogie was pretty, but I was not heartbroken about not getting one. So I was not expecting to like the teeny clone Toe Tapper as much as I do:

He is just so insufferably cute! What is this strange magic of shrinking that did such wonders to him? 

(Note to self: just buy the dang Stablemates, Andrea. It’s a lot less painful than the alternative.)

Painted Ribbons

Breyer has never been consistent about painting molded-on ribbons and bobs, so the latest hobby perturbance over Alejandro’s unpainted ribbons has floated past me.

Earlier examples of the original Cantering Welsh Pony had painted ribbons; later ones generally did not, and even later releases have been all over the map. Most of the new molds released in the late 1970s and early 1980s that featured braiding – like Halla, and the Classic USET horses – also didn’t come with painted braids, outside of a few possible Samples and Tests.

The Classic Polo Pony rarely got the painted ribbon treatment – I believe the 1994 Show Special Silver Comet is the only Production Run release that did – and the Clydesdale Stallion’s forelock ribbon is also only occasionally painted. (And only after Nancy Young pointed out the fact that it was even there at all!)

It’s not like it’s something new with the Brishen mold, either: of the three previous releases featuring the fancy plaited “down” mane, only the BreyerFest 2013 Laredo release has handpainted ribbons. Tesoro de Oro and Dag Dia didn’t get them.

Why some models get the painted ribbon treatment and some do not nowadays is complicated, and not entirely cost-related. If cost was the sole factor, we wouldn’t see painted ribbons on $4.00 Walmart Stablemates like the recent G2 Saddlebred release in the Mystery Surprise series:

With the Walmart Stablemates I suspect it’s a matter of quantity and bulk pricing – Walmart sells tons of Stablemates! – and creating the appearance of value. Adding detailing to small, incidental items like Stablemates increases the likelihood of impulse sales. More sales? More money!

By the way, painted ribbons on Stablemates releases are a relatively recent phenomenon, all around. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the G1 Saddlebred finally got them, in the Sears and JC Penneys Stablemates Assortments available through their respective Christmas catalogs – over twenty years after the mold debuted in 1975! Considering the execution, however, they probably should have waited a bit longer.

Alejandro

I just realized that I kinda-sorta collect the Brishen mold. I have an NPOD Sample of the Bay Pinto Gypsy Vanner, the BreyerFest Store Specials Dag Dia and Albion, and probably soon the Brick and Mortar Special Alejandro, even though I know I shouldn’t:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/alejandro

The name reminds me of Lady Gaga’s video of the same name that I won’t link to here, because its Evita-meets-Steve-Rude’s-Nexus vibe is not quite family-friendly enough for this blog.

Although I don’t think it was intentional, they did name one of their Special Runs (Astru) after a Hungarian Black Metal band, too. It makes me wonder what they’re actually listening to in the offices in New Jersey.

But anyway…

His color, for those of you not up on your horse color genetics, is Mulberry Gray, a relatively rare color in Breyer’s repertoire. There have been some Tests like the Moody Andalusian from 2016, and the Original and Reissue of the Legionario III #880 Medieval Knight. The #1498 Lusitano on the Esprit mold was called Red Roan, but is technically Mulberry Gray, as well.

The mold has some conformational issues, but I think Reeves has done a remarkable job in designing paintjobs that highlight the mold’s strength as a more fantastical creature in the spirit of Esprit and Ethereal.

I’ve described the Pinto Gypsy Vanner as a Lisa Frank-style horse, Novelisto D and Dag Dia as personifications of Lightness and Darkness.

Alejandro? His mane and tail make him look like he’s literally on fire.

And I can’t look away: in fact, I think I love it.

There are already a few too many Rarities and Glossies with the Brishen mold and all its variants to make actively collecting the mold impractical.

To be realistic, it really isn’t practical for me to buy any horses at all right now, other than the occasional stray Stablemate. If I happen to find him sometime this week or next, during my travels, I will get him.

But that’s a big if.

Stablematized!

While I am a little annoyed I didn’t get picked for the Scottsdale Stampede Event, it’s pretty far down the list of things that upset me this week. It was a long shot that I’d be able to attend in the first place, and done largely to help out a friend anyway.

(Not that I wouldn’t be excited to go, but it did push me over the finish line to enter.)

Moving on, because I have to. (Though secretly hoping that people trying to “sell” their “plus one” slots for more than cost + fees get bit somehow. Because tacky.)

Anyway, the more exciting news is that Reeves is apparently going whole hog with the Mini Me thing, with the Alborozo and the Magnolia resin getting the Brishen Stablematizing treatment in a Midyear Stablemates Mystery Assortment type thing.

I don’t know the details of the contracts that covered the creations of the original sculptures in the first place – and any possible limitations that may stem from them – so I couldn’t tell you who or what to expect next.

Two of the three “Stablematized” Traditional-scale models – the Brishen, and the Alborozo – had been released in a shrunken form previously as Crystals. This suggests that’s the place we might need to look for clues to future “new” Stablemates releases.

So will we be seeing the Nokota Horse, Silver, Traditional Moody Andalusian, Zippo Pine Bar, Esprit, Croi Damsha, Bobby Jo, or Cleveland Bay next? I’d be on board with most of those.

I know there are some people out there thinking this means the Traditional Alborozo might be making a return.

Ugh. Guys. Seriously. Stop it!

That ship has not only passed, it’s been torpedoed, sunk, and is now residing somewhere in the Marianas Trench. Be happy that you will now have a (possibly) unlimited supply of somewhat-less-expensive mini Alborozos to collect, customize, and fondle to your heart’s content.

Personally, I can’t get overly excited for the Stablemates Alborozo, or at least with the initial Unicorn releases. It looks like he’s going to be the chase piece in the set, just as the Django was for the current Mystery Horse Surprise Assortment, so the likelihood of me stumbling on one (either common or rare) is going to be very unlikely.

Incidentally, I still can’t believe the totally insane prices on that Copper Florentine Django. I spent significantly less for my Black G1 Quarter Horse Stallion Pancho – and more recently, both my Mint in Box Stablemates Stable Set and Mint in Box Wooden Stablemates Stable combined.

And here I thought focusing on Stablemates would totally be the affordable way to go this year. Nope!

Programming note: I am going to continue to be a bit scarce for the next week or so as I attempt to wrap up some personal and professional business. Don’t set the Internet on fire while I’m out.

Chesapeake, Part III

Then we were off to the Fair Hill Training Center. We were told along the way that Michael Matz might not be available due to a last minute commitment – one of the fillies he was training had qualified for rather prestigious race on Saturday – so I found myself momentarily disappointed.

Just go with it, it will be fine. It’s all good.

Until the Blue Bus got to the Vintage Farms facilities, and he walked out to greet us.

Now I have to tell you that I am not normally the kind of person who gets autographs. It was never my thing to begin with, and watching Peter Stone sign entire collections at some of the early Signing Parties soured me a bit on the practice.

I own many signed models and other things, but very few of them I sought out a signature for: most were already signed when I found them. (In fact, I found a signed biography of Ingmar Bergman at the Salvation Army just a couple weeks ago! By the author, not by Bergman himself, though…)

But after he had taken us through a tour of his facilities, and graciously answered all our questions, I took out my Jet Run and to have him signed. I was shaking like a leaf, grinning like an idiot, and all I could remember was the sounds of camera shutters clicking...

For most of the attendees, the elevated treadmill, the vibrating therapy stall or even the rather posh dinner (Prime Rib! Crab Cakes! Huge Dessert Table!) in the massive tent at the Fair Hill International were the big highlights of the day, but it was all secondary to feeling like a dorky teenaged horse girl again.

(Honestly, I kind of feel like that every day, but now there’s actual photographic documentation.)

Saturday saw us return to the Fair Hill International. I tried on expensive boots, drank champagne, hung out with my friends, and then got way too excited at lunch when I realized that several of the table displays in the tailgating tent were, in fact, Sample models. Why hadn’t I noticed this before? Gah!

At that point I decided to break away from everyone and everything and finally walk the course on my own. It was not just to clear my head; since I had enjoyed the process of building my diorama for BreyerFest so much this year, I have been thinking about adding performance dioramas to my already-too-long list of craft activities. It was the perfect opportunity to do some research in the field.

A friend wanted to do a group entry for the costume contest – a nurse attending an Ninja Pit survivor – and since it was funny and didn’t involve a huge amount of time or money, it seemed like the right thing to do. (Handy pro-tip: did you can make very realistic-looking blood with Hawaiian Punch drink mix? Bonus: you can lick your wounds!)

We didn’t win – when we found ourselves momentarily delayed because of a life-sized horse skeleton in one of the hotel elevators, I sort of figured we’d be out of the running – but we still managed to have a good time with it, got some laughs and photos out of it too, and even a hug from the Grim Reaper herself.

(If you know something of my family history, you’d know that the Grim Reaper and I tend to run into each other in October. So it was a lovely and poignant moment for me that something was given, rather than taken, at this meeting.)

Neither one of us nor my roommates won a centerpiece model either, but my traveling companion at the next table did, much to her shock and awe. So I’d at least be traveling halfway home with one. (This was a step up from Chicago, where one of my roommates one a centerpiece. So next time, maybe?)

We sauntered downstairs on Sunday morning for the Special Run distribution and discovered, unbelievably, that according to the number that was drawn, I was second in line. I had my pick of any model I wanted.

This was literally beyond my best-case scenario, which was being close enough to to the front to get one Not-A-Mason, so I felt…kind of gobsmacked. I couldn’t remember the last time I was near the front of the line for anything model-horse-related. (2010 NPOD line, I think?)

So I got to choose what I really wanted – the Fell Pony Black-Eyed Susan, and the Missouri Fox Trotter Raven – though to help one of my roommates out, I bought the Sagamore Rye for her and exchanged later. I was honestly quite surprised at his popularity; he did look great in Bay Roan, but I wasn’t aware that the Brishen mold had become that much of a rock star.

The drive home was also an adventure: we stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place and I tried – and enjoyed! – the lengua, though I wasn’t adventurous enough to buy the chicharrones big enough to wear as hats. I did get myself some tamales for the road and some dulce de leche for dessert, though.

(I ate entirely too much on this trip!)

As we were driving through the Amish countryside, having just eaten some authentic Mexican food, passing by Mammoth Jacks and snotty little ponies, talking of Model Horses and Quilting and Comicons, a little voice in the back of my head whispered to me.

You pulled it off, kid. This wasn’t just good, it was almost perfect.

You jumped off that cliff, and you nailed the dive.

In A Gadda Dag Dia

I’ll admit I’ve been tempted to put my Novelisto D up for sale; the resale prices for that release have been impressive, to say the least. But now I know why I hesitated: I now have to complete a matching set with his Evil Twin, Dag Dia!

Think about it: Dag Dia is Listo’s opposite in every way -

• Solid Black, instead of Solid White
• Mane Down, instead of Mane Up
• Tail Down, instead of Tail Up
• Feathered Legs, instead of Clean

Did you know that there are 8 different possible mane-tail-leg combos for the Brishen-Laredo mold? I was curious one day and plotted it all out, labeling the parts that first appeared on Brishen as “A” and what appeared on Laredo as “B”. (Brishen is “A” because he came first, naturally.)

Most of the previous production releases on this mold have stuck to the same two combos: the upswept mane, tail and feathered legs of Brishen (“AAA”), or the braided mane, lowered tail, and clean legs of Laredo (“BBB”).

Using this system, that makes Novelisto an “AAB” and Dag Dia a “BBA”. Four down, four more combos to go! (Illustrating all eight combos might make for a fun Photoshop project for someone. Just saying.)

The other two known BreyerFest 2016 releases aren’t too shabby either – the Celebration Horse is a new sculpt by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig, and the Early Bird Special is a Smarty Jones Polo Pony in what I think is supposed to be a cornspotted Bay Roan.

I’ll reserve judgment of the Celebration Horse until I see one in person. Breyer photos, as you all should well know by now, are a terrible indicator of what the production pieces will look like: the color is usually wrong, and sloppy Photoshop clipping paths (used to cut the model out of the background) end up distorting the model’s actual contours beyond the point of usefulness.
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It is interesting that the third release of the Smarty Jones Polo Pony Mold Variation is another very limited BreyerFest Special Run, with the previous being the 2012 Saturday Raffle model Carlisle. There are even fewer of Polomar (3) than Carlisle, so I’ll likely have to wait a little longer to add a Smarty-Pony to the herd.

(My standards may be more lax than most, but even I had a hard time finding a Santiago that didn’t make me sigh deeply and walk away.)

BTW, for you whippersnappers who don’t get the title reference, grab yourself a bag of chips and a cold beverage of your choice, and enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIVe-rZBcm4

Solar

FYI: This week starts the overnight project at work, so I might be even harder to get a hold of for a while. On the plus side, the schedule will be a set one rather than my usual on-call one; on the other hand, it’s overnights, so I’ll probably be sleeping through breaking news and any potential web site surprises.

I didn’t win a Solar because I didn’t enter for him. I did really like him, but I didn’t love him, and I thought it’d be much better for someone who loved him to win him outright rather than by proxy. I’ve never had much luck doing that, anyway.

I have to admit that when I read the e-mail about him, describing him as "The first horse in our Celestial series", these are the "Celestials" that came to mind: Link 1  Link 2

Comic book artist Jack Kirby at his most cosmic! Come to think of it, if Jack Kirby were to design a model horse, Solar would probably be a pretty good approximation: a large, dynamic two-page spread of a horse that might not work biomechanically, but still manages to work visually.

(And if you’re looking for some inspiration in naming your own Solar, follow the links. I’m partial to "Exitar" myself.)

In other news worth commenting on, it appears that they are actually going to do something about the Glossy Prize situation at the Youth and Children’s Show: scaling the prizes back to Limited Editions, Web Specials, and Regular Runs. There will still be some actual Glosses given to the Grand and Reserve, but they will be identical to the Section prizes in the Open Show.

Thus providing much less temptation to the parents and guardians of potential entrants to enhance their charges’ showstrings, and encourage older and/or more competitive entrants to move up to the Open Show.

I know there’s some concern that the kids will get "less desirable" Web Specials and Limited Editions foisted upon them, but I don’t think that’s a foregone conclusion.

Even with popular and very desirable Web Specials and Exclusives, there’s always going to be a "failure rate" on purchases: entering for Web Specials is easy, but sometimes coming up with the money when the time comes is hard.

With a model like Solar - a run of 350 pieces - a very modest failure rate of two percent translates into seven models. Those are the kind of models that we often see in the sales area/NPOD, and that many collectors assume are rejects or returns. A few of them may be, but most of them are there simply because of a lack of funds.

The real question is whether or not Reeves will make the right decisions about what models to choose as prizes. Models that they have specifically designed for younger hobbyists haven’t always gone over so well.

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Tesoro de Oro

Another day, another Special Run on the Breyer web site …

Tesoro de Oro is not really a surprise; we had a sneak peak of him in July, at BreyerFest. I’ll probably take a pass on his very shiny self, especially since I’m in the middle of another hobby transaction that’ll tie up my "discretionary income" in the short term.

The Sample I saw in Kentucky did have - as the web site copy says - "a heavy high gloss finish", and I like the braided Laredo mane more than most do, so that could very well change. For the time being, however, I am content with just the Novelisto D, who is all kinds of fabulous:

Lots of other people thought so as well; he was by far the most popular of all the Store Specials, selling out quickly every day he was put out. My only disappointment with the Novelisto D - if you could call it that - is that they did "pearlize" the finish on him after all. I had gotten my hopes up that he would be a plain Gloss Alabaster, based on the initial photos. (Silly me. Of all people, I should know better than to do that!)

I still have hopes that Reeves brings back the Gloss Alabaster finish on something someday soon. For instance, when the Weather Girl mold comes back, I think it’d be a fabulous idea if they released them in the original "Old Mold" colors of Gloss Alabaster, Gloss Honey Bay, Splash Spot Gray Appaloosa and Woodgrain.

This would require a matching Foal and Stallion, naturally. (Ashquar and a new Arabian baby? Please?)

That’s all for today; other commitments will be leaving me short on time all week, so to make up for it you’ll be getting a smattering of short subjects I've been saving up for just such an occasion. Starting tomorrow!

Vanilla is Good, Too

That’s all I’m saying about today: that box of Reissues can’t arrive soon enough. I’m so opening all the boxes and going full carpet herd with them.

Anyway, happier thoughts. Like the latest in what appears to be an unending stream of Store Specials - Novelisto D!

It’s yet another variation of the Brishen Multi-Mold, with the original Brishen mane and tail, but the Laredo legs.

And I like him. The front legs still give off that "Barbie Horse" vibe, but the combination of the various parts, with the plain - yet elegant - glossy White/Alabaster paint job is wonderful. It appears that I’m not the only one who thinks so. He seems to have jumped (or flown?) onto a lot of hobbyists’ To-Buy lists, too.

We haven’t seen many plain, unfancified White or Alabaster paint jobs in recent years; most Aged Gray or White models nowadays have some embellishment to them. They’re Chalkied, Pearled, Dappled, Shaded, or some combination thereof.

Some of them have been quite beautiful; the BreyerFest Pecos and the Gladwin Lucky Lady are both big favorites in my barn.

But sometimes, plain old vanilla is good too. The first "Vintage" model I ever saw - one that I hadn’t seen in a store or in a catalog - was a Matte Alabaster Family Arabian Stallion. A classmate on the bus took one to school one day, and I was entranced. Shortly afterwards we struck up a conversation, and many entertaining lunch room conferences were had, often spend ogling over the latest Breyer Collector’s Manual.

She and her friend even showed their models, which blew my mind and led me to finally subscribe to Just About Horses, which led me … here. So I guess it shouldn’t shock that I have about a half dozen variations of that model now: Gloss, to Matte, to Special Run. It wasn’t intentional, not at first.

Novelisto D is the horse that played the part of Athansor, a mystical, time-traveling flying horse in the recent film adaptation of Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale.

I read the novel not long after it came out - because it was a fantasy novel with a horse in it, duh! While I was impressed with the beauty of the language and the scope of the story, the novel I read shortly after - John Crowley’s Little, Big - had a much bigger impact on me, emotionally and artistically. Even if it did have fewer flying horses in it.

The Winter’s Tale film came and went, which is what I expected to happen; it’s not the kind of book that’s easily adaptable to a compact two-hour theatrical release. Genre fantasy is a tough sell cinematically, but literary fantasy even moreso. Because of my schedule, I didn’t get a chance to see the film in its brief theatrical run, but I’ll be more than happy to add the horse to my herd in the meantime.

Wyatt and the Premier Club

Aside from the fact that it was October, and kind of miserable weather-wise (there are no "good" days with sleet in them!) the events of the previous 24 hours highlighted the stark contrast between the different parts of my life. And the realization that there’s nothing I can do, right now, to fix the parts that don’t work without also messing up the parts that do.

I guess this is more of a fair warning in case the tone here gets a little more melancholic over the next couple of weeks. I’m dealing with some heavy stuff again, people.

Don’t worry, the model horse stuff is mostly working. Some parts of it are actually way fabulous, but we’ll get to that a little later in the week. First up: let’s talk about the Premier Club.

I haven’t talked too much about the Premier Club, for a couple of different reasons. First, it’s a club all about first releases on brand new molds: there’s not a lot of history there to talk about, yet.

Second, it’s the drama: gosh-almighty, some of the online arguments about the latest Premier Club releases make the goings-on on the NAMSHA-Discussion list look quaint and dignified.

I know I’m going to sound like a total tool for saying this, but Reeves really does care about the quality of the product. They have a problem not dissimilar to mine: the different parts of their company "life" are in conflict, and there’s no good way to disentangle the two without one or the other suffering.

As important as the hobbyist market is, the general retail market will always come first. It has to: that’s where the bigger money is, and where new hobbyists come from.

Brishen might not have been a success in the niche of a niche market that the Premier Club is, but the money that they invested in that mold will pay off for them in the long run in the retail market. Little kids who love horses don’t love them for their anatomical correctness, they’re buying the fantasy of a horse. And like it or not, the more recent Moody molds like Brishen are the epitome of little-kid fantasy horses.

The profits of molds like Brishen end up funding molds like Latigo - the third release in the 2013 Premier Club - and Wyatt, the first release of 2014. And look at him!

(Note: It’s a photo taken from the web site, slightly reformatted to fit here. Copyright and all that Reeves International. The mold was sculpted by Morgen Kilbourn, if you didn’t already know.)

He’s so awesome it’s making ME contemplate signing up for the Premier Club, which is crazy. I still haven’t completely finished the herd culling to accommodate this year’s acquisitions. And next year’s Vintage Club. And some of the just announced 2014 releases, and the new Appaloosa Performance Horses, and…

As big as a hit as he appears he will be, Wyatt is not going to be as profitable a mold as a Brishen, at least in the short term. He’s on a base: bases cost money, and they get lost, warped or broken. The parents of our hypothetical nine year old proto-hobbyists are going to look at a future Regular Run release of Wyatt and find themselves thinking that a Regular Run Brishen might be a more sensible choice - with his thicker legs and lack of a base. (The Wyatt mold strikes me as a fancier kind of thing that Grandma or Santa would bring, anyway.)

Loving Moody molds isn’t going to damage those budding hobbyists later on in life. Most of us grew up in the Hess mold era: frog eyes, sketchy genitals, bowed tendons, and husky-looking Palomino Arabians. We turned out fine, in spite of it all.

The Revenge of Lisa Frank

Just took a look at my work schedule this coming week: yikes! If you think I’m hard to get a hold of now…

By request, I’ll hold off on the Mystery Regular Run Reissues and focus on that beautiful boy from the group shot:

Like a good portion of those goodies, he’s a Sample: there is no VIN number that I can see. As I haven’t seen enough of the Gypsy Vanners live and in person, I cannot tell if he is in any other way different from the standard ones you’ll find on the shelf, other than his slightly better than average painting and masking.

When I found him in the sample boxes, I figured he was a fairly safe bet: even if I didn’t like him, he’d be an easy sell, judging from the reaction I’ve been seeing to him online. Like selling an Othello or Silver easy.

If you know me, I’m not particularly girly. I drive a station wagon, own a Wire Fox Terrier, and have feet the size of small oven roasters. I do have a decent sized shoe closet and can clean up admirably when the need arises, but most of the time I’m a jeans + comic-book-themed t-shirt kind of girl.

But this Vanner. Jeez.

This has to be the most gosh-darned-girly-in-a-Lisa-Frank-kind-of-way model horse ever. He needs to have a base made out of clouds, rainbows and glitter, and be ridden by a shirtless Legolas holding a bucket of pastel-colored puppies and kittens. And silhouetted against a diecut, holographic sky full of rhinestones-encrusted butterflies.

I am smitten.

His doppelganger, the BreyerFest Laredo, did not inspire the same reaction when I finally saw him in the round. His color was beautiful, and I liked his braided/plaited/beribboned mane, but I had a hard time getting past his strange legs. His proportions reminded me of those oversized toy horses sold as accessories to Barbie and all her frenemies.

Maybe he’ll grown on me a little more as time goes by. I’ll have that time: there were some leftovers on Sunday at BreyerFest. Not as many as you might think - although he did sell fairly well, it was difficult to judge just how well, because they made way more of him than any other BreyerFest SR other than the CC Shuffles: 1500 pieces. By comparison, the Sucesion & Le Fire set Naomi and Wynonna had a 1200 piece run.

They could have sold as many or more of Laredo as the Naomi and Wynonna set, and still have a couple hundred pieces left over. (NOTE: For speculation purposes only. I have no idea exactly how many Laredos did sell.)

Just like the Black Appaloosa Hackney Special a few years back, that was adjudged a failure. The story’s a little more complicated than that.

Oh great, now I’m imagining the Vanner in a Silver Dapple Pintaloosa paintjob. Glossy, of course. Or maybe a Glow-in-the-Dark Overo with masking in the shape of fairies, flowers and hummingbirds.

Gag. I think I need to go watch some movies with car crashes, explosions and killer robots now. 

Crystal Clarity

I decided to treat my three days off as actual days off. Didn’t get a whole lot done, other than bake some cookies, but I feel a whole lot better. That counts for something, right?

(White Chocolate Macadamia, with coconut and lime. New recipe, and a total keeper.)

Just to clarify my Facebook stance: I am not anti-Facebook. I am non-Facebook. Anyone who has met me in person knows that I am far from antisocial. I just prefer in-person social interaction: it’s harder for people to be fake to you to your actual face. Having a huge bodycount of friends who barely interact with me in a meaningful way? That's what I have model horses for.

And also: I’m not a big fan of the Facebook business model. Privatizing a huge chunk of the Internet, and monetizing people’s personal information on it? No, thanks.

I am far from a Luddite. I was e-mailing people (at work) in the late 1980s, my first computer was a Mac IIsi, and (like so many people) lost a big chunk of myself in the Internet startup boom/bust in the early Aughts.

I only just barely have a cell phone (for emergencies) but that’s mostly because I’ve been phone-phobic most of my life. If I didn’t do a lot of traveling by myself, I might not even have it at all.

Nonconformist? Well, obviously. Anyone who tells me I have to like or do something is going to get some serious pushback.

This probably explains, in part, my indifference to the latest "Equestral Crystalworks" releases Reeves snuck onto their web site recently: miniaturized versions of the Andalusian, the Silver, and Brishen have been added to the line. There’s an extravagantly long thread on Blab where everyone is falling over themselves with how beautiful and awesome they are. If you wish to avoid such effusions, you can go direct to the source:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/equestral_crystalworks

Am I the only one out in model horse land who’s just not into these things? I am clumsy and break stuff with disturbing ease. I walk into walls, trip over my own feet, and have fallen out of trees, off of bikes, and down several stairwells. If I were any clumsier, I’d qualify for one of those handicap parking stickers.

That I, as yet, have not broken any bones is a miracle and wonder to all, including me.

Miniaturized Breyers, made out of glass? No freaking way, man. My H-Rs make me nervous enough, and most of them are locked up in china cabinets.

Yeah, I’ve had my share of plastic-Breyer-related injuries over the years, but this is someone who once injured herself while reading. If it's in the house, tripping and falling is an eventuality. The fewer (potentially) sharp things, the better.

Peeling Turnips

I’ve been trying to lie low, finish old business and all that, but with limited success. I can only sit still and work for so long to work on a project before I have to get up and do something else for a while, even if it is only washing the dishes or taking out the trash.

Or hopping on the Internet for a few minutes. This I really, really need to stop; not because it’s a time-suck (because it is) but because the hobby has gotten really dark over the past week or so.

It’s been going way beyond the usual carping and moaning; I got a couple pages into the griping on Blab about the 2013 BreyerFest Celebration Horse - Lyle Lovett’s Smart And Shiney - before I decided that peeling and chopping turnips was infinitely more preferable than watching hobbyists do the same with Breyer's latest and greatest.

(I’ve been experimenting with things I’ve been finding on the discount produce rack at the local grocery store. With mixed success.)

I don’t know if it’s Seasonal Affective Disorder, or the events in Connecticut contributing to this, but dang, folks. Log off and go self-medicate with hot chocolate or something. (Probably not turnips, unless you're into that sort of thing.)

As for the hue and cry over a lack of imagination (Another Palomino Smart Chic Olena? The horror!) Y’all do realize that when it comes to living, breathing horses, they’re not quite as variegated as our imagination? And that the owner, in most cases, is the one who gets to make the final decision on what mold gets used?

If you got a problem with it, talk to Mr. Lovett about it.

If anything, this makes me somewhat more hopeful about next year’s BreyerFest. I’ve made no secret of my general dislike of country music, but Lyle Lovett is one of the few modern country artists I don't mind so much. And I love the Smart Chic Olena mold, so no complaints from me, there.

Speaking of palomino paint jobs, it appears that the Marwari mold is getting released in just that color in 2013. Looks nice, but I’ll wait until I see one in person before I buy/order, mostly because it'll give me some time to resolve my space issues.

Also included among the 2013 releases will be a Bay Tobiano Brishen; as for the third 2012 Premier mold, I saw or heard no mention of a new release on the Desatado/Criollo mold, yet, but I imagine that will be coming shortly - sometime around the release of the Traditional Totilas mold, I presume? If not, he'll be a safe bet for a BreyerFest release, I think.