The Burbank Color

My Fylkir arrived earlier this week. The Appaloosa!

Once upon a time I had a notion that the Stablemates Icelandic mold would be something that I’d actively collect. I haven’t gotten the 2013 One-Day Stablemate Indigo yet, but that was more a matter of timing and priorities, rather than money.

Then Reeves had to go and make him the Gambler’s Choice mold for the Stablemates Club this year.

I was absolutely fine with all four of Fylkir’s colors, but I was hoping that I’d get one of the “more desirable” ones, primarily to save myself some money. Alas, it appears – at least in the short term – that the Appaloosa is the least popular of the four colors.

That’s kind of a bummer, but I do have some big expenses coming up soon anyway, so I’ll chalk it up as the Universe’s way telling me the disposable parts of my income need to go elsewhere.

One thing I find interesting about the Appaloosa Fylkir is that it’s another appearance – second in a year, in fact – of the Burbank colorway: a dark-headed Bay Roan Appaloosa with a masked spotted hip blanket, first popularized on the Exclusive Event Nokota Horse release in 2008.

Earlier this year, we saw it again on the Collector’s Club Exclusive on the Classics Swaps mold, as one of the three available colors on Scotty. That I did not buy because (grumble-mumble) they didn’t make my favorite out of the quartet – the Dun – we voted on.

(Hmm. My favorite of the four Gambler’s Choice Diesels last year was the Gloss Brindle, who also ended up being the least popular of that set. I sense a trend…)

Anyway, it’s kind of neat to see a color “born” like this, especially since it arose out of a Special Run that was not that well received when he was released. Though I think that was due more to his relatively large run size for an Exclusive Event item, rather than any aesthetic issues.

I wonder who’ll be the next to wear it?

QVC and Midnight Tango

This shows you where my mind has been lately: as I was watching QVC hawk the “Waiting for Santa” Play Set on Tuesday, all I could think about was the fabric in the flipping sleeping bag. Were the fabrics also exclusive? Could I get bolts of them anywhere?

I'd so totally buy a bolt of Breyer-branded fabric. I've been itching to make a Breyer-themed quilt for years. Fabric with preprinted logos and models would make things so much easier. And just imagine all of the other possibilities: show bags, table covers, tote bags and purses, slipcovers, curtains, evening apparel...


Back to the Play Set. It's nice to see the Midnight Tango mold again; poor thing hasn't been getting much use lately, which is a shame. Since his introduction in 2000, he's only had four other releases:

461 Midnight Tango
1173 Boone's Little Buckaroo
1180 LTD's Red Cloud
4116 Paint By Number Kit

Contrast that with the Traditional Silver, who has had over twenty different releases since 2001. (I don't have a particularly strong opinion of the Silver mold itself one way or another, so I'm sorta baffled by his popularity. And mildly relieved I didn't get pulled for the Early Bird Raffle Silver at Fest this year.)

Even Bouncer has had as many releases since his debut in 2007 (five, if you count the Gloss show prize pieces.)

I didn't get the set, partly because I finally found some of the Pony Gals stuff at a local Target (more Mini Whinnies, yay!) and because they pointed out, several times, that the set would be available later in the year through other retailers. Other retailers they didn't identify, naturally.

I'm going to guess that this set is going to be another one of those “Big Box Specials,” available for somewhat limited distribution either at one or several of other Big Box retailers like Target, Kmart, Wal-Mart, etc. or through the various local farm chain stores serviced by Mid-States Distributing. Or some combination thereof. Maybe even Tractor Supply: even though the TSC specials are usually labeled as TSC exclusives, the past couple of years they've also been getting a lot of semi-specials in their Holiday toy mix (repackaged older specials, re-issued discontinued items, leftover Wal-Mart stuff, etc.) We'll find out soon enough.

Yes, I am aware that TSC and Mid-States have their own exclusives independent of the other retailers; I'm just trying to come up with a suitable term that covers items that don't appear in any catalog, yet appear in a multiple store chains (i.e. the Bay Appaloosa Classic Frolic Stallion – first at Meijer, now also in Kmart.) “Big Box Specials” is about the best I can come up with at the moment.

Speaking of the notion of “exclusives” I wonder how much the Burbank controversy affected the sales pitch on QVC. I know other collectors have been annoyed by the fact that QVC has advertised other items as “exclusives” that have turned up elsewhere, either as regular runs or store specials. In my admittedly limited exposure to QVC, they've generally been pretty good about parsing their words to cover that possibility, but not pushing it too hard, lest it affect their sales. It was interesting how they really went out of their way to point out the fact that “exclusive” really meant “on QVC first, at this special price.”

I believe that The Nutcracker Prince is technically a true QVC Exclusive; it's not the horse, but the ornament that's packaged with it that makes it so. It probably has its own issue number and all that, but that's something I haven't followed up on yet. (Most QVC items do, or used to, regardless of the model's status as a regular run or special run. Another one of those documentation quandries we have to deal with.)

Nokota Horse and Multiple Posability

All this fuss over a model nobody wanted in the first place. I would have loved one, since he's a favorite mold of mine, but I was apparently on the wrong side of the table in the tent this year.

I am referring to the “B” word. Burbank. The subject of a thread threatening to eat Blab.

Frankly, I'm a little surprised at the sheer amount of outrage: I thought it was common knowledge that it is not wise to depend on Reeves for the most reliable information. This kind of conflicting language and information has been a problem with Reeves for years. It has always been wiser to rely on their actions, not their words. And their actions have always defaulted to selling leftovers, not regrinding them. Always.

I'm not going to get into the controversy over it here. You probably can guess what my opinion is: I just haven't bothered to post it on Blab yet because I'm still finding myself a little asocial. And I doubt it would sway hobbyists one way or another, anyway.

Let's talk about one of the Nokota Horse's more interesting features instead, one he shares with only a handful of other Breyer molds: multiple posability!

“Multiple Posability?” Huh? Just a fancy term I coined for unjointed, unarticulated models that can be posed in more than one position (usually just two.) The Nokota Horse can either rest on three feet, or his hind legs and tail, for that extra added oomph. The other models that share this trait include:

• Robin Hood Rider
• Traditional Rearing Mustang
• Bucking Bronco

Many nonhobbyist eBay sellers seem to think that the Fighting Stallion and Rearing Stallion have multiple posability: one wonders what they think the footpads and flat-bottomed tails were for. I sometimes try to rationalize - optimistically, I know - that maybe it's just easier for them to photograph it that way.

Here's a pic of the Robin Hood Rider from a mid-1950s sales flier:


I've always thought it took some clever and creative thinking to design a rider figurine that also works as a standing figurine, without the benefits of joints.

A few years later, in the ca. 1961 insert sheets, we had Breyer touting the Mustang's posing options:


Note the fact that his front hoof is intact. In spite of their apparent awareness of his multiple options, they seem to have abandoned the notion of multiple posability with the Mustang early on: the front hoof of most early Mustangs still had their hooves trimmed, including my beautiful and extremely early Buckskin Mustang with eyewhites.


(The quilt frame is taking up the spot where I normally take photos, so a dinky, unused avatar will have to suffice here. And yes, this guy so totally needs a post dedicated to him someday.)

The third older mold that received this multiple posability option was the Bucking Bronco. In the earliest Dealer's Catalogs in which he is featured, it is noted in his description that he “(Stands in two positions)” (parentheses theirs, not mine.) I'd include a pic of my copy, but my copy is less than ideal.

Neat, eh? It's a feature I hope they can manage to incorporate this kind of posability into more molds in the future. Because those articulated, bionic Pony Gals things give me nightmares.