So Radar is Roy. Hmm, didn’t see that coming. I thought they’d go with a lower price point like they’ve done with the past couple of "tent specials," but maybe the relatively simple paint job is the cost-cutting move here.
We haven’t seen Roy in a while - over a decade, in fact, with the 740 Percheron Cross in Black, and the 1999 Sears Holiday SR in Alabaster. He’s pleasant enough a mold - not a favorite, but I don’t dislike him, either. Part of the problem is that most of the colors he’s been released in have been uninspiring; I think it says something that my favorite color on him is the Black. The 1992 Liver Chestnut’s not bad, either, but I’d like that color on almost any mold.
I know Francis Eustis has a lot of fans in the model horse community, but I’m not one of them. It has nothing to do with whether or not Roy is a faithful translation of Eustis’s work, or the rumored friction between him and Breyer. It’s entirely subjective: most of his work - though well-done from a technical standpoint - simply does not move or inspire to me. End of story.
Now, if I happened to find a Eustis Original somewhere in my travels, for a reasonable price, I’d certainly not hesitate to rescue it. (I did find one once, locally; the price was … amusing.) I would probably turn around and sell it to someone else who’d appreciate it more. I might hesitate a bit if it were one of his Drafts; I like his Drafts more than the rest of his work. His reverence for the heavy horses really shines through them.
I have an interesting article about Eustis in my archives; there was a long and well-illustrated article about him in the August 1970 issue of Western Horseman, "Animal Sculptor and Painter: F.W. Eustis." Here’s a photo from the article of him working in his studio:
Another interesting note: on the third page of the article, there’s also an announcement of the winners of Breyer’s "Name the Yearling" Contest. The contest was not a Western Horseman exclusive, but Breyer did promote it heavily there - another topic for another time, of course. A number of the names included on the list of winners were variations of Roy, inspired by the fact that the contest’s prize was a yearling sired by Roy Deck.
And 19 years later, Breyer releases a Eustis-sculpted model, named Roy. Just a coincidence, I’m sure, but a spooky-cool one!
So anyway, as you might have guessed, I’m not quite as enthused about the Radar as the chattering class on Blab are. I’ll have to see a better photograph before I make my decision; if the paint job is anything like that of the UK SR "Strikey," it might sway me. They seem to have done a nice job detailing out his face, so I will try to be optimistic.
