Peeking Out of the Cave

In the middle of a bunch of things here, so I’ll do a little cleanup and go back to my cave.

Following up on the Classics discussion in the post previous, the two bodies I pulled out of my body box to tinker with are a pair of Classics: the Mesteno’s Mother and Duchess. I’ve seen both of them get customized by others, but either as simple repaints or armatures, and neither of those approaches works for me.

I happen to think there’s something beautiful inside each of these molds, so my challenge is to reveal it without obliterating the original character of the molds themselves. 

But the bulk of that work won’t happen until after BreyerFest, because I’ve barely worked on my Sampler for this year. I am not too worried about it yet because I know what I want to write about, and I have already penciled in the three-day Fourth of July weekend to do it in. 

The next Bird of a Feather Series release Meadowlark is up, and I like her. But I’m not getting my hopes up because we all know how the market is right now:

Bluegrass Bandit is another model that gets way more negativity thrown at it than the average model, and I’m not sure why. I’m kind of up to my eyeballs in sales items right now, so I wouldn’t be as hurt was with the previous release in this series (Crane). Just… kind of bummed.

(The one I really want at the moment is Milky Way, and the prices are not encouraging.)

Some hobbyists are annoyed that they didn’t get enough forewarning about the Mercy for Animals Hope Gala charity auction lot, which included a Test Color Ayrshire Cow and a Hampshire Pig. I am also not sure why this was a big deal either – the knowing about it part, not the auction itself or the cause.

As you can tell, I haven’t been terribly on top of things in the hobby lately, but I knew about it when it was still live. And promptly ignored it, because it was already well above what was willing to pay. 

I wasn’t going to stick around to watch either, because I’ve never had much fascination with watching other people spending enormous amounts of money on things. Haggling, negotiating, wheeling and dealing can be artful and entertaining to watch, but I am not someone who takes particular joy in treating high-dollar auctions like a spectator sport. 

(And the clapping? Why the clapping?)

I already had a Hampshire Pig anyway:

I always wanted one of the Special Run Pigs from the 1980s, but they’re pretty elusive because they were primarily sold to pig farmers, not hobbyists. When they do show up, they tend to do so pretty randomly. 

And that’s how I got mine: I found him in a box lot of Breyer Animal molds on eBay years ago. I don’t have time to look up the price I paid, but it was neither a steal nor an extravagance, and I’m sure I made up most of the sale selling the excess out of the lot. (I do remember getting my #365 Black Angus Bull out of the same lot. I wanted one anyway, and since he came with...)

The Hampshire appears to be the most “common” of the Special Run Pigs, and I haven’t found any of the others yet at a price I can justify to myself.

Pondering Time

I haven’t spent much pondering time on the sneak preview of the BreyerFest Nonhorse Special Run, so I can’t credibly give you my thoughts on what it could be:

Though I am annoyed that, in spite of their blog text teasing us otherwise, the name of the .png file tells me it’s going to be yet another sprocking Marvel-themed character. (Not to be that kind of nerd, but has anyone at Reeves HQ actually been in a comic book store? It’s not that scary guys, I swear!)

What I’m hoping for is either something we haven’t seen before as a BreyerFest Special – like a Moose, or a Polled Hereford Bull (pretty please?) – or something offbeat, like a Kitten with a cape or a Jasper with wings.

...seriously, why haven’t we gotten a legitimate production run Flying Pig yet? If Breyer had the cojones to make a Pink Elephant in 1958, a Flying Pig ought to be a no-brainer. They have the Pig, they have the wings, they’ve already done Tests of the concept, it’s an item with crossover appeal, and it would also kinda-sorta fit with the theme...

(Incidentally, there was a Super Pig, but it was not a DC property.)

I also would not object to any of the Dog molds, since many would be on point with the theme, but they generally haven’t been the best sellers at BreyerFest. (Note to self: still need to buy myself a Beethoven.)

Considering that I’ve either loved or found something to like with all of the announced Special Runs so far (aside from the naming thing), going with something more safe and conventional would save me some money.

Sometimes I wish I could be one of those people who looks for reasons to rule out buying BreyerFest Special Runs, instead of looking for reasons to put them on the list. It would make things far less crowded in my office!

Bacon and ... Golden Corn?

These fellows arrived a day early:

More or less what I expected on both.

Even though I would have preferred the Green one – or the black Brighty, ‘natch – the color on my Gold Othello is very similar to the Perlino Duns I keep missing out on, so there’s that. The shading is softer and more natural looking than the Blues or the Greens (which, duh, makes sense!)

I won’t be pursuing trades or outright purchases of the others, though. Aside from not being able to afford it, I’m kind of in the middle of my end-of-the-year cleaning and purging phase: my mind is more on what I want to sell, rather than buy.

(I was pretty proud of myself, being able to walk out of the Tractor Supply Breyer-free on Wednesday! I’ll regret it later, more than likely…)

Plus space: Othello’s a big dude, and I’ve already been told the fireplace mantel is off-limits!

I do feel kinda sad about some of the Othellos that will now be resold, for the sole sin of not being a Solid Black Brighty. Gotta hand it to Reeves for turning the hobby’s general disdain for Solid Black paintjobs on its ear: first the BreyerFest Dark Horse Surprise, and now the Coal Brighty!

I would have bought the Santa Surprise regardless, and pretty much did.

The Brighty was a nice gesture, but ultimately unnecessary: selling out would have just happened slightly later in the day. I know some people have suggested that a Glossy Black Othello Unicorn would have been even better or more appropriate, but I personally think if that had been the case, it would have ended in tears and bloodshed.

Hawthorn is… interesting. The woodgraining is a little more subtle than I expected, but not out of the range for a vintage Woodgrain; I have a Shetland Pony with similarly low contrast graining.

I was also kind of hoping he’d have a dark drip mark on his underside, as the vintage ones do. Since they’re using a somewhat different technique now compared to what they used back then, and that drip was a consequence of the original technique, that was perhaps asking a bit much.

Some less seasoned hobbyists who might not yet have experienced vintage Woodgrains firsthand might have perceived it as a flaw too, and make a fuss accordingly.

One last little factoid before I call it a night: the last production Woodgrain – the #931 Fighting Stallion – ended production in 1973, and the Jasper mold was introduced in 1974. Since they would have been testing colors on him in 1973, vintage Woodgrain Jaspers are theoretically possible, but unlikely.

Conflicted

When we were kids, we used to make jokes that if Publisher’s Clearing House ever came to our house, they’d never be able to use the “Happy Winner Gets a Giant Check” video in their promos because the first words out of Mom’s mouth would be something along the lines of “It’s about (****) time you got here! Do you know how many stamps I’ve spent on your contest?”

Then she’d grab the Giant Check, mutter “Well, thanks, anyway” and then unceremoniously close the door on them. End of footage.

That was the first thing that popped into my head when I read this e-mail I received today:

Considering the number of very kind offers to purchase the Hawthorn of others (thank you all for offering, incidentally) I almost got the feeling that they only got to my name because they’d run out of everyone else. By now, the only other accounts left on the list are ones in people’s pets names whose owners already been selected on their human accounts.

(I kid… but only slightly.)

(No, incidentally, Vita doesn’t have an account.)

I am happy, but conflicted about it. I’ll give myself a day or two to decide.

Another conflict: the Collector’s Club Appreciation Box arrived yesterday. Open now, or open Christmas Eve, as planned?

I will probably wait until later, only because opening it means cataloging the contents, and since I bought a lot of Stablemates, that could take some time – time that I genuinely don’t have right now.

(This week: I need to bake cookies for a party, take my car in to get a melted wiring harness replaced, get caught up on three weeks worth of emails, finish the mountain of financial paperwork on my desk….)

I am also conflicted about the news that the solution to the order mishaps is going to be… make more models Glossy?

I have a feeling this year’s two-step system was set up to better track their inventory, but if only the “complete” orders were counted before it was declared “sold out”, that could potentially mean hundreds of incomplete orders could have been logged in during the interim.

(I have no idea. I am just speculating on the numbers here.)

If it were just a dozen or so added to each run, I wouldn’t be that concerned. But if it ends up being 40-50-60 of each, that will seriously skew the production numbers that some hobbyists base their purchasing decisions on. While I happen to think that hobbyists place too much emphasis on rarity over all other factors in determining collectability, it is still a factor, nonetheless.

I kind of hope they go the Logan/Colton route and Gloss up a sixth model to cover the mistakes. Same quantity or slightly more, if necessary.

All I hope is that they do release the revised numbers, because changing the quantity just doesn’t affect the present or future value, it also created live showing documentation issues.

Sigh.

Let’s end on a happier note – I am pretty psyched that a movie I’ve been wanting to see for a while is getting rebroadcast on Turner Classic Movies on Thursday: You Never Can Tell! It’s about… well, here’s the most succinct summary I found:

Beginning with a far-fetched premise—cracker tycoon leaves fortune to dog—Lou Breslow’s movie swiftly plunges into full-on derangement, as the dog is reincarnated as a detective and tasked with solving his own murder, assisted by a reincarnated lady horse.

There’s a trip to Animal Purgatory, Dick Powell eats dog food, and his sidekick – the former racehorse – flirts with other horses. As a person.

In other words, my kind of movie!

And it’ll be a nice change of pace from the usual holiday movie reruns.

Nice vs. Need vs. Reality

No Hawthorn, either, but I am neither surprised nor mad.

Annoyed, maybe. This is the third year in a row that the Holiday Animal has been unavailable to me, regardless of my feelings on the matter.

Generally these runs haven’t been hard to find in the aftermarket for a whole lot more than the original asking price; so I will do what I did with the previous two, which is wait for the prices to drop and/or my interest to increase.

At this point he’s more of a “nice to have” than a “need to have” kind of model. “Nice” can wait.

I was just thinking that my luck on drawings was especially bad this year, but I made a quick list of all the purchase raffles that took place this year, and I managed to win two of the eight: Kaibab, and Rialto.

The two Gambler’s Choices were a draw: I had a chance to get a Koh-i-noor, but hesitated, and I did get the Silver Filigree I wanted of the Callahan, where I didn’t. And I did get the Rare Matte (the Black) of the Dark Horse Surprise at BreyerFest, too.

Yet I had to basically give away the Rialto (wasn’t a good moment for me financially; things are better now); the Scottsdale Stampede was a bit of a bummer because I had a whole slew of people who wanted to go with me, and amazingly nobody among us was selected; while I love my Dark Horse Surprise Black, I haven’t gotten a Gloss in the BreyerFest Gambler’s Choice since 2012 when the buggers were actually rare-rare, and that’s really starting to annoy me; and let’s not get started with the Blind Bag Stablemates nonsense….

I know, I know, it’s all relative. There are people who literally get drawn for nothing ever, and me with my one measly account does okay.

Yet… I look online and am reminded that while luck may be random, it is also unevenly distributed. And makes me wish that maybe there were less Darwinian ways of selling or distributing some of these niche Special Runs.

Back to the Stablemates thing for a bit, before I high-tail it to bed.

Apparently many – if not most – of the folks who took the opportunity to purchase two Fruitcake Fillies per order, rather than one, are finding themselves with doubles of the same color.

And are assuming that this is either a display of something devious, or incompetent (or both!) on the part of Reeves.

I think it is just a somewhat awkwardly executed holiday joke, involving the immortally questionable status of fruitcake.

(For the record: I am not a fan. But I do like dried and candied fruit in general, so I consider myself persuadable, given the right recipe.)

Knowing that most hobbyists would take the bait and order two, maybe they saw giving us two of the same meant that we’d have the opportunity to choose the better of the two, and pass along/swap the duplicate?

Hey, it’s the holiday season, I’m trying to think charitably here!

It doesn’t feel like something worth getting worked up about, regardless.

My two arrived yesterday, and I still haven’t changed my plans to open them on XMAS Eve. If I get two of the same, I'll deal with it then, the same way I deal with other awkward Christmas gifts.

Old News, New News

Whoa, lots of news today.

Finally got another reveal on the Vintage Club – the (mostly) Gloss Charcoal Shannondell Claude!

This is old news for me, but probably just about the hardest to keep on the down low, especially when I saw so many hobbyists saying… some less than nice things about the Vintage Club program.

I am especially pleased with the added dash of randomness, with the addition of 30 Mattes in the mix. It also makes sense: historically, Matte Charcoal releases have been far scarcer than their Glossy counterparts.

They just seem less rare because the models most people think about when they think of Matte Charcoal are the Family Arabians. And Family Arabians, themselves, are almost the very definition of not rare.

Earlier Gloss Charcoal releases like the Running Stallion, Mustang and Fighting Stallion didn’t make the transition to Matte like the Family Arabians did. Since the Family Arabians were discontinued in that color in the early 1970s, the vast majority of Charcoal releases have been Gloss, not Matte.

(Though Matte Charcoals as Tests and Samples aren’t completely unknown. There is a Matte Charcoal Lady Phase in one of Marney’s photo albums that I would definitely elbow someone over.)

Ironically, it appears that most folks are of the opinion that getting the Matte version of Claude would be like getting the proverbial lump of coal in one’s Christmas stocking.

Of course, I want him, but I’m not going to pay extra if I receive a mere Gloss. Just because something is technically rare doesn’t necessarily mean it should have a price to match.

(I’d love to have a Gris Gris, for instance, but I don’t plan on spending much above his issue price when I do take the plunge.)

I am more conflicted about what appears to be the Holiday Animal release, a Woodgrain Jasper named Hawthorn:

That was not what I expected. The Woodgrain part is great – I’m all for more widely available new Woodgrain releases – but I’m confused about it being so large a run (350 pieces) for a piece that caters to a very narrow niche. This feels like it should have been a Micro Run, or at the very least a First-Come, First-Served piece like the previous two Animal releases – the Longhorn Bull Olaf and the Gold Charm Cow and Calf Eldora and Sol.

Oh, I’ll enter the Purchase Raffle, but the way my luck goes with these things I won’t get picked anyway. So I’m probably safe either way?

Not going to sweat this one, regardless.

The New PHB

Just because I didn’t come home with a Marshall did not mean I came home from BreyerFest Polled-Hereford-Bull-free:

Although I could have purchased one cheaper locally, I enjoyed the luxury of being able to handpick factory-direct stock in the sales tent on the Sunday afternoon of BreyerFest. While the mold has gained in popularity over the past year or so – thanks, in part, to Marshall – I still had nearly two dozen models to choose from.

And virtually nobody nosing around to see if I had “found” something, even at that late a time. (Truth: I've had people follow me around, for just that reason.)

I picked this one because he was (obviously) different from the others. While the masking is a little different – the mold’s roughly textured finish makes them all unique – what made this example stand out to me was how dark the masked edges were compared to the rest of his coloring.

Most of the other PHBs I inspected had darker masked edges, too, but nothing comparable to this guy. It’s almost like he was outlined in black.

Darker shading along edges isn’t a new thing; it was frequently seen on models from the 1970s, when Breyer was experimenting with freehand airbrushed markings. The best known is Jasper, the Market Hog: on the earliest releases, his big blue-gray spot was lightly outlined and then filled in, leaving a darker edge where the paint overlapped.

In the case of the newer Polled Hereford Bulls, I don’t know if the dark edges were an intentional part of the design, a result of a mandated painting process, or a consequence of the natural tendency of painters to define an edge first, before filling it in.

Whatever the reason, you end up with extra – and usually darker – paint along the mask edges. And in this fellow’s case, to fairly handsome effect.

The Other Gray Saddlebred

Oh, good heavens, there’s more hyperventilating on NAMHSA-Discussion, this time over last year’s streaming NAN video feed, which reminded me of a bass fishing video. (Some events are better left to being there. See also: golfing, bowling and competitive eating.)

Look, I’m not a huge fan of getting my picture taken either, but you know what? Once you’re gone, the pictures are all people are going to have to know your face by. Most of the pictures taken of me in the past several years involved me in some rather silly and/or moderately awkward situations at BreyerFest or other hobbyist-related events, and I’m totally okay with that.

I can clean up pretty good when I need to, but most of the time I don't find myself in that kind of situation. The me that I am in those mildly embarrassing pictures is closer to the real me than any formally posed picture could ever be. That’s the person I want people to remember.

I have absolutely no desire to be invisible. In fact, I can think of nothing more horrifying than to vanish completely.

But I also don’t make it a habit of smoking, drinking or doing anything more illegal than jaywalking in public, so there’s that. (I’m not a teetotaler: where I live and what I do just make drinking anything stronger than a Mountain Dew wildly impractical most of the time.)

Commander still sits on my workbench, unopened. Silly Vita ate something she shouldn’t have (again!) and most of the day was spent warding off a potential hazmat situation. She’s back to her old self today, but it's as if that little bugger planned it all along, you know?

Interesting. The same week that the Vintage Club Commanders are shipping, Reeves announce another Gray Saddlebred Special Run - a BreyerFest Special in Gloss Dappled Gray Sabino on the Clock Saddlebred, named Ryman.

They also put up a picture of a second Bfest Special: a Gloss Red and White Jasper, named Short Ribs. While most everyone else is having squealing fits of joy over the Saddlebred, it’s the Piggy that has me all excited. It’s the first-ever production release of that mold in a Gloss Finish.

The Saddlebred is nice - I’m sure it’ll be even more attractive in person, as is standard for these sorts of things - but the mold’s never been a huge favorite of mine, and there are still several more Specials to be announced in the coming weeks. It’ll be a while before I make any sort of decisions about what and how many. Since I might have a little less space to work with this year due to the potential new car situation, I’m thinking less will be more likely.

In fact, I spent most of Sunday - the parts where I was not tending to Vita’s scatological needs - prepping stuff to sell via every possible venue, now that it looks like I might have the time to actual do it right.

Off to work in a bit, so off I go…

Profitable Pork Selection

I like to tell folks that the greatest influence on my social life was probably the mid-day lineup of a local independent television station Channel 50 (it's now our local CW affiliate.) What was in that lineup? Mr. Ed, The Adventures of Superman, and Bill Kennedy's At the Movies.

From Mr. Ed came the love of horses, and from Superman came the comic book fixation. Those two obsessions should be obvious to any long time readers here. But the movies?

Bill Kennedy was practically an institution around here – a B-movie actor and announcer who hosted his own show in the Detroit market for decades. He made me and many of my friends and family into diehard movie buffs. I even worked at a movie theatre for three years. (My family thought the free movies were the best job benefit ever.) In case you haven't noticed, an awful lot of my blog post titles have been puns or plays on the titles of movies.

I'm not real particular about the kinds of movies I see: I have silents, shorts, educational and industrial films in my video collection. One movie that I've been dying to see still eludes me, though: it's called Profitable Pork Selection.

Sound familiar? It's the movie starring Jasper, the Market Hog!


It was produced Department of Animal Sciences at Purdue University, in conjunction with the American Cyanamid Company, who purchased Jasper and donated him to Purdue after he was named “Grand Champion Barrow” of the 1969 International Livestock Exhibition in Chicago.

Purdue either doesn't have a copy of in their archives, or has misplaced it. (This is not an uncommon occurrence with educational and industrial films, alas.) I've searched high and low for a copy of this film on various online archives devoted to these kinds of films, also with no results. It's possible that American Cyanamid may have a copy lying around somewhere, but I haven't had the time – or the nerve – to pursue any leads there so far. (Ironically, their headquarters are also now in Wayne, New Jersey!)

I have been able to find the person responsible for engineering Jasper's fame, however: her name was Helen M. Maddock. Here's a brief biography of Ms. Maddock, culled from the Iowa State University web site, where there is a scholarship in Animal Science named after her:

American Cyanamid Company hired Helen in 1953, and she worked for that company until her retirement in 1986. [...] Her tasks revolved around the use of antibiotics with livestock, particularly hogs, as she fulfilled the various roles of technical writer, advertising manager, product manager, and program manager. While with Cyanamid, Helen contributed to the defense of antibiotic use at Congressional and FDA hearings. She also was responsible for using Jasper, the 1969 International Grand Champion barrow, to promote the ideal market hog via slides, a movie, a booklet, and a model. (This advertising effort was so successful that not only do her nieces and nephews all recognize Jasper when they see his sturdy plastic model, so do her grandnieces and grandnephews!) Helen's professional activities were admired by her peers throughout her thirty-eight years in the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) and culminated with her selection as an Honorary Fellow of the ASAS in 1987.

Neat, eh?

By the way, the Jasper in the photograph above is another little treasure from my collection: he was signed by Jasper's breeder Jack Rodibaugh, and purchased from Jack's sister, Mary Margaret Fox. How's that for an impeccable pedigree?