Another Oddity: Bay Grazing Foal

Here’s another fun one I shouldn’t have bought, but did anyway:

A Bay Grazing Foal with no front black points. You might recall that I found a similar Mare back in November:

So now I have a matching set of variations! Anyone who has tried to complete families – Family Arabians, Proud Arabians, Stock Horses et al – knows how hard it is to find matching or complementary sets. The opportunity to reunite this pair was one I simply couldn’t pass up.

Variations on the Grazing Foal are a little more common than the Mare; Foal molds in general tend to be in production longer than their respective Stallions and Mares, and sell in greater quantities. More models = more potential variations.

That’s the reasoning behind the recent spate of Foal releases – Traditional, Classics, Stablemates, Camilla the Foalzilla – that are otherwise unattached or unaffiliated to a matching Stallion or Mare. People will buy “orphan” foals without any pressing need for a matching parent.

(I’m old-fashioned in that regard. I bothers me a lot when people ask to buy “just the foal”, especially matching sets that have otherwise managed to stay together for decades.)

While it is easy to chalk up both the Mare and the Foal as random production variations, in the mid-1970s there were Regular Run items that were specifically painted without front black points. Most notably, the early version of the Stablemates G1 Bay Arabian Stallion, especially when he was sold as a mislabeled Citation. From the 1975 Dealer Catalog:

(FYI: Most of them did not look this nice.)

Was there some sort of correlation? It is a safe assumption to make, since the timing lines up: my Grazing Mare and Foal have all the mold marks and stylistic cues of mid- to late-1970s releases.

But again, like the Palomino Ruffians of my last blog post, sometimes variations just happen. I am just happy to finally have a matching Bay Grazing Mare and Foal set that I can live with.

Gray and Silver Linings

Ah, so many new lovelies being thrown our way this week!

The Silver Filigree this year is Bobbi Jo, which was a bit of a surprise for me; I was expecting someone fluffier, like the Icelandic:

Reeves keeps up with its tradition of stylistic inconsistency with Avalanche who, unlike the past few “lacey dappled” Holiday Silver Filigrees, is more of the “plated and polka-dotted” variety, best represented by the 2003 BreyerFest Raffle Proud Arabian Stallion Saturday Night Fever (and Foal Born to Run):

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/SatPAS1.jpg

I still have a feeling we’re going to see the Icelandic in some form this season, though. As a Christmas surprise, maybe? The Holly and Ivy went over fairly well last year, so I am fully expecting something popping sometime around the actual Christmas holiday.

While the issue of mold popularity with the Silver Filigrees is a moot one – I can think of very few molds that wouldn’t sell out, if released in Silver Filigree – the Bobbi Jo mold has become insanely popular over the past year. My single token entry for Avalanche will probably have even less of a chance of hitting its mark than it normally does. But I’m fine with that.

Then there was the Crystal and Crispin, the Holiday Mare and Foal set on the Grazing Mare and Foal:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/crystal-and-crispin?__wwbt=978.819.27.2.1#readmore

So I guess “Holiday Mare and Foal Sets” are really are an official thing now, on top of all the other Holiday/Fall/End of the Year Specials?

If I have any money to spare for one of these sets by the end of the year, it’s still likely to go to last year’s Thoroughbred Mare and Suckling Foal “Eve and Claus” first. Nothing against the Grazing Mare and Foal, I just have a personal preference for Roans over Grays. Usually.

And finally the Brick and Mortar SR Glorioso shipped to stores this week, too:

I saw some in one of my local stores on Wednesday, and for the first time in a while, an off-the-shelf model knocked my socks off! Though to be honest, I had a pretty rough time at work that day and anything with four legs and a tail was a welcome sight…

But seriously, Glorioso is easily my favorite of all the Fall releases so far. The initial photos – Reeves’ and other hobbyists’ – didn’t did anything for me one way or another, and while I do like the Andalusian mold, it’s not an must-have for me. (Other than the lavender-tinted variation of the original release. Someday, someday.)

Until I saw him in person: the Grulla color is well-executed – shimmery and silvery without being too metallic – and it looks great on him. I would have bought one then and there if I could, but other obligations are awaiting my next paycheck.

Black Grazing Mares

Isn’t it funny how some variations drive some hobbyists crazy, while others barely rate a shrug?


The "black hoof" Black Grazing Mare is one of those kind of models. When you point out an example that has the black hooves instead of the standard gray, many hobbyists get that slightly quizzical "Hmm, I never noticed that before" look.

Such is the case with the Grazing Mare and Foal in general. Outside of the occasional Test Color, Oddity or Chalky, those molds never have rated very high in the Collectibility scale. Most collectors aren’t really looking for Grazing Mares and Foals, and what you aren’t looking for you won’t find.

I happened to notice, but only because I was one of those rare birds: the Black Grazing Mare was one of my earliest "grails." I’m not sure why; as I’ve related before I was also obsessed, back in my early days, with finding the alleged test color/variation of the "Solid Black" Scratching Foal, so I’m guessing I must have had a thing for the black horses back then.

Come to think of it, I did already have most of the ones I had already known about, up to that point. Models like the Stretched Morgan, the Bucking Bronco, several of the Stablemates - the Appaloosas and the Pintos, too. Yep, must have.

Anyway, when I found out that the Grazing Mare and Foal had come in Black several years prior to my entering the hobby, OMG, I had to have them.

It took me years to finally find them, and when I did, it was a little anticlimactic. I found a matching set at BreyerFest, for a good price. I was thrilled to have finally found them, but the drama had been drained dry by then. It took me a few years more to find a nice "black hoof" Mare, but that was mostly because my collecting priorities were elsewhere.

The "black hoof" Mare is far more common than the Foal; I’ve only seen a couple of the Foals online, and even then I had my doubts about their authenticity. It’s dreadfully easy to fake black hooves. Fake’s probably too strong a word: it implies malice, and in most cases of hoof painting no malice was intended. It was something hobbyists of a younger persuasion often did to make their favorite horse even better. A little nail polish, or black marker, and voila!

Even thought they’re not all that common, a nice example of the "black hoof" Grazing Mare doesn’t bring that much more than a standard gray hoof one. An authentic black hoof Grazing Foal might merit a little more cash, if anyone other than me was looking for one.

Blue Charcoal, Brown Charcoal

I took a well-deserved day off yesterday. I puttered around the house in my PJs, baked some cookies, got caught up on my teevee watching, and even worked up the courage to restart the biggest, scariest quilt project in my craft closet. (Google "Double Wedding Ring Quilt" and you’ll see what I’m getting myself into.)

I see the Cream and Cocoa sets are starting to ship. Very pretty! The price seemed a little on the high side to me; combined with my ongoing space issues, I decided to take a pass on these two for the time being. If I see them in the NPOD next year I’ll definitely reconsider, in spite of my reservations about the whole "Gloss Smoke" thing.

Ah, such is the power of Gloss Charcoal.

Although I’m not a big fan of online polls - they’re far too easy to manipulate - whenever there have been polls about Decorator colors, Gloss Charcoal always comes out on top, or darn near it. And it’s easy to see why: black is very dramatic, and gloss black? Doubly so!

Such was the selling power of Gloss Charcoal that it continued to be produced even after the transition to Matte finishes ca. 1967. Both the Fighting Stallion and Mustang continued being produced in Gloss until they were discontinued in 1970. And one model, the Running Stallion, was actually introduced in Gloss Charcoal in 1968. (If any of these three models exist in a Matte version, it’s darn rare. Or it’s a test color.)

The color did undergo a bit of a shift, however: later Gloss Charcoals are darker, blacker, and less dramatically shaded than their earlier counterparts. No less beautiful, I would argue, just different. Sometimes I refer to the two different hues as "Chocolate" and "Blue," though the only blue tinge detectable in the later, blacker versions is in comparison to the Chocolates.

As always, I speak in generalities: there are earlier Charcoals that are profoundly black, and later Charcoals that have a definite Chocolate hue. You see that tendency more in the Matte finish Charcoals than the Gloss, and with Family Arabians more than any of the other vintage Charcoals.

There’s even a variation of the Matte Charcoal Family Arabians that are very, very brown, with shocking hot pink hooves. I suspect that they are very late variations, possibly among the last batches produced; all of the ones I’ve seen had the characteristics of models produced in the early 1970s (the mold marks, the trimming idiosyncracies, the painting style, etc.)

I’ve cut back considerably on my variation addiction, but the Matte Chocolate Charcoal Family Arabians are still on my want list. It’s just something about that color combo that tickles my fancy. (I've been watching way too many home decorating shows, I'm sure that's it.) But they've been darn hard to track down.

It’s not that they’re particularly rare, but that they’re Family Arabians. Aside from the condition issues that plague these models, most hobbyists don’t pay that much attention to Family Arabians generally, especially the matte-finished ones (except the Five-Gaiter Sorrels) and don't bother making note of their variations, outside of chalkiness or mane wisps.

The brown variation is also pretty hard to photograph accurately. Here's a Chocolate Charcoal FAS I picked up at the flea market recently; even with some extensive color correction, the brownness of coat isn't readily apparent:


Stand him next to a standard Matte Charcoal, in natural light, and you'd swear they were from completely different releases. But all the hot chocolate in the world isn't making me go outside to take that picture today, nuh-uh.

Where's There's Smoke, There's Charcoal

I don't know what's up with the Cream & Cocoa Grazing Mare and Foal Set seen in the the JAH banner ad on Blab, either: my suspicion is that it's an end of the year JAH Special, probably (hopefully?) a Gambler's Choice, like so many of them have been lately.

This is purely speculation on my part: the twist here, I'm thinking, is that you could get any one of four different combos: Charcoal Mare with Smoke Foal, Smoke Mare with Charcoal Foal, Charcoal Mare with Charcoal Foal, or Smoke Mare with Smoke Foal. Four different possible combos, yet only 4 different models total: if you're lucky, you'd only have to buy two sets to get them all.

Breyer did offer these mixed combos before: back at the dawn of Breyer Time (1962-1964, to be precise) you could get mixed Running Mare and Foal sets: you get either get a Smoke Mare with an Alabaster Foal (352), or an Alabaster Mare with a Smoke Foal (351.) The Smoke Mare/Alabaster Foal combo were even used to illustrate the Running Mare and Foal in the Dealer Catalogs back then.


Other combos were available, too, but aside from the Decorators, none of them had unique numbers assigned to them. (If you wanted a “Chestnut” Running Mare and Foal combo, you'd have to write the number 124-134 on your order form, instead!)

Grazing Mare and Foal Sets were briefly available in 1965, and also came with their own unique numbers – 1411 for the Bay, 1422 for the Black, and 1433 for the Palomino – but I have no evidence to suggest they were orderable in mixed combos.


Again, this is purely speculation: with the Cream & Cocoa, they could simply be offering the single set, or maybe just the two different Smoke and Charcoal combos, or whatever. All we've got is a brief, tiny glimpse in a banner ad to go on. I don't know any more than the rest of you on this matter. Heck, the picture is so small, the Smoke might actually be a Honey Palomino! And if that's the case, the “Cream” part of the “Cream & Cocoa” name would make a little more sense.

By the way, there are no true vintage Glossy Smoke models: actually, it's probably better to say that I haven't seen any Gloss Smoke models I could conclusively call authentic. I've seen a handful of Gloss Charcoal models that could possibly pass for a somewhat-dark Smoke, but those are pretty uncommon. It is exceedingly common for a Smoke to be dark enough to pass for Charcoal – common enough that there's often little additional value attached to that variation.

It's probably a little too much to hope that they make the rather nuanced distinction in the advertising between a reproduction of a vintage Decorator color, and a Decorator color done in a vintage style. (And for the record, yes, the VRE Silver Screen Andalusian in Gloss Smoke bugged me a little, too – I don't want hobbyists going off on wild horse chases for models that don't exist. There are enough impossible-to-find rarities out there as it is.)

Ah, well, we'll find out soon enough.