Weird Places

Nothing special here, just the standard (initially offered) Surrey and Axle:

When I heard about the variation, I was mildly freaked out that I’d get the Action Stock Horse Foal: even if it had turned out to be a one-in-ten variant, I would have been kind of annoyed, the same way I was a little miffed about having to find the Cremello Uffington secondhand.

A big part of the reason I bought the set was for that Standing Stock Horse Foal. A Few-Spot Appaloosa Lady Phase didn’t hurt, either. I know a lot of hobbyists aren’t fans of Few-Spots, but I am definitely not one of them!

Anyway, crisis averted.

The Standing Stock Horse Foal, incidentally, was one of those “more common” models I was looking for to fill in some holes in my collection, but all the ones I was specifically shopping for were in short supply. Which is super-weird, considering how popular the mold used to be as Breyer’s generic, go-to Stock Horse Foal!

Again, I am not in a rush. I am assuming I will pick up what I need in a box lot somewhere along the way. 

Since I had an unexpected day off last Saturday, I used that opportunity to look at – but not actually buy – some of the newest “Paddock Pals” at my local Dollar General.

I haven’t bought any of them since the initial batch dropped at Five Below a while back, and we didn’t know what the heck was going on. But now we kinda do. It’s what I speculated all along: it’s a budget-priced, entry-level line sold at dollar/discount stores and marketed to younger kids. They even have a web site now with backstories for every single release:

https://paddockpals.breyerkids.com/meetthepaddockpals.html

I like a lot of them, and I may end up buying a couple more in the future, but actually collecting them looks like it is out of the question. 

It’s not just that I don’t have the time or space, it’s that they exist in such a weird place. It’s a completely new scale that’s somewhere in between Traditional and Classic, that’s both realistic in terms of anatomy and conformation, but also not really live showable as-is (without special accommodations). And they gave the whole shebang the obsolete name of a now largely obsolete scale: the Little Bits. 

My brain doesn’t quite know how to process them. 

Scary Things

I knew I had a rough couple of weeks, but I didn’t realize just how rough until I was at the 7-11 after work on Friday, and the night cashier walked up and asked me:

“Are you okay? You don’t look okay. I’m worried about you.”

Anyone who’s had the privilege working the night shift at a convenience store knows that you sometimes see unspeakable things, so I’m not quite sure how to process the fact that I managed to scare the night cashier at 7-11. Dang.

Onto lighter topics. Let’s talk about a couple of things in the September Newsletter!

I was aware of the existence of “The World of Breyer Horses” promo video, but I can’t recall if I ever got to watch it in full before; it was made during my live show heydays, so when they started showing photos from contemporary live shows, I was momentarily terrified I’d see a picture of myself.

Lucky for all of us, I was not present. 

There are other Breyer videos out there with me in them; at least one of them was shot a few years after this video at a very early BreyerFest, back when the live show was still held in the Covered Arena. 

And Reeves probably has more photos of me on file than my family or workplace does. It (morbidly) amuses me that if anything newsworthy-dreadful actually happens to me, chances are any of the photos you see of me on the news will be from Reeves. I take some consolation in the fact that I will be smiling in most of those.

They failed to mention (on the website, at least) that the narrator of the video was also the model for Bitsy Breyer. From her last name you can kind of figure how she got the job!

A lot of the kids featured in Breyer promotional materials in the 1970s and early 1980s were the children of friends and family, incidentally. This is nothing unique to Breyer; a lot of the family-owned and operated businesses I have either done business with or worked for worked that way. You are not just a member of the family, you are also an employee...

I have no idea who the mystery model is in the Sneak Peek:

Since I am trying to behave, I already told myself that I’m going to avoid entering for most of the Winter Web Specials, unless an Elk, the Deer Family, or one of the Dog molds is involved. If the Christmas Day Surprise is an Emma I’ll probably spring for that one too, of course, because Emma. 

I’ve had a good year, so I think I’m entitled to a break. 

Next time – I finally unwrap my Surrey and Axle!

The Missing Unicorn

Anyway, something short again today because I have business to attend to. 

In case you were wondering, yes, that’s one of the reasons why I’ve been so busy of late. It’s gonna be… terrifying but exhilarating at the same time, kind of like my Chasing the Chesapeake experience. 

(If she behaves, it may even include a Vita cameo!)

As I’ve been sifting through my craft supplies, I’ve been sorting some of them into boxes for possible ready-to-go crafting opportunities: we’re talking “not until at least the Fall” territory here, though.

One of those projects is creating a Little Bits/Paddock Pal Carousel similar to the one that was planned as a holiday catalog series in the mid-1980s. Only one piece – the pink and mauve Morgan – was officially released, and unmounted/undrilled white Unicorns with baby blue manes and tails showed up a short time later at the Riegsecker’s store in Shipshewana, Indiana. 

(They were the folks who were contracted to do the tack and mounting.)

I already have a small assortment of Paddock Pal/Little Bits bodies assembled for this project – culled from the unsellable detritus from body and box lot purchases – but do you know which body is the toughest to find right now?

Of all things, the Unicorn! He hasn’t been in regular production for over 15 years. The last regular run one was the #1652, in a pearly white with green points (obviously not the lavender fellow above, who was just the one I happened to have most readily available). He was in production from 2005 through 2006, and “reissued” as a Special Run for Kmart in 2007. 

I’m not sweating it right now because that project is still a long way from being started. But it did strike me pretty funny that we’ve been getting Unicorns hand over fist lately, but the first Breyer mold designed specifically and exclusively as a Unicorn has basically been as elusive as the real thing for over a decade. 

Why has this not been issued in a Painting Kit already, complete with glitter and holographic stickers? I am not the target demographic for painting kits in general, but I would buy that. 

(Well, okay, I did buy a Suncatcher Painting Kit in January, but it was half-priced clearance merchandise and involved Translucent Stablemates. Duh.)

Clearing Out the Picture Files

I can’t think of anything interesting to say today. So I’ll clear some random pictures off the hard drive. After the recent dusting and reorganizing, I took a few extra pics for the times when words fail. Like today!

Here’s one last “glamour” shot of those Gloss Alabaster Family Arabian Mare and Foal before I decide their fate:

If you don’t remember, this is what they looked like when I got them:

They did turn out pretty darn nice, didn’t they? But I already have a very good set of Gloss Alabasters – with stickers! – and no (physical) room for sentiment, so they’re likely headed to Kentucky in a few weeks.

(You could use this post as part of their provenance, if you’re in the market!)

They’ve been in my bedroom window for the past several months, so I will miss seeing them every day. But I’m sure I can find someone else in need of a sunbath soon.

Here’s a pic of the original Little Bits #9025 Clydesdale, produced from 1984 through 1988, and released in a couple different shades of Bay since then. I’ve been wanting to talk a little bit more about the Little Bits/Paddock Pals, but I haven’t been able to come up with anything interesting or clever to say.

The photo turned out nice, though. Of all the Little Bits molds, the Clydesdale does seem to be the most photogenic, isn’t he? I’m not sure if the front stocking was intentionally masked, or someone’s fingers got in the way.

I bought him when he came out in 1984, so the latter, probably. Quality control was, in spite of rumors to the contrary, not necessarily better back then. Speaking of…

Always makes me smile. I know something like that isn’t likely to slip by QC today; not because it would not be well executed, but newer collectors are more likely to see it as a flaw, and not character. (Not mine, but been offered.)

And finally, since the hobby was all agog a while back over the Family Arabian Mare with the Mahogany Bay Proud Arabian Mare paint job, for equal time here’s a pic of a Test Color Proud Arabian Mare wearing the Family Arabian Mare’s version of the Bay paint job, black hooves and all:

Since this photograph (one of Marney’s, of course) is dated early 1971 – before she was officially released for sale to the public – this probably represents a True Test Color, as opposed to things that were painted just because.

Pretty girl! I wish I knew where she was. Purely out of curiosity: it’s not likely I’d be able to afford her than that Mahogany Bay Family Arabian Mare!

And that’s all for today, folks.

A Doozy of an Oozy

I got through another section of my inventory without any major surprises – other than one of my Little Bits Drafters spontaneously and spectacularly going “oozy” on me. What looks like a white plastic bag underneath him is actually the now-soggy tissue he was wrapped in:

(It looks like crime scene photo, doesn’t it?)

It was one made during the “Shrinky Era” – the late 1980s to early 1990s – so it wasn’t a completely random occurrence. Just a messy and inconvenient one.

Incidentally, everyone else in that box was absolutely fine. But just a few months ago, the Oozy One was fine too.

I got lucky with Shrinkies/Oozies: the late 1980s/early 1990s were exactly the same time period I was least active in the hobby, and buying the fewest models.

It had nothing to do with quality or production issues: I was busy with other things at the time, and simply taking a break. (In the SF/fannish communities, it’s sometimes called “gafiating”, or Getting Away From It All.)

Consequently, when other hobbyists started talking about models shrinking and oozing, I had very little first-hand experience with the phenomenon, beyond the Black Horse Special Runs – the Indian Ponies and Proud Arabian Stallions, specifically.

I’ve made up for it since then, and I’ve even bought a few Shrinkies intentionally. (I am sure some of you remember... The Toad?)

But that Little Bit Drafter caught me by surprise. I had last seen him back in June when I was pulling items out for my display at BreyerFest, and I noticed nothing amiss then. The weather has been unusually warm and humid this year – two things that adversely affect Shrinkies – so maybe that kickstarted the process somehow.

He has been the only one, so far, and the boxes that I’ll be going through next are mostly newer items and vintage items outside of the “Shrinky Era”. The only other surprise I can see lurking in those boxes is exactly how many more Bay Jumping Horse variations I still have. (How many did I buy over the years? Yikes!)

Being a Little Bit/Paddock Pal, he won’t be difficult or expensive to replace, though I am just a wee bit hesitant all the same.

The little Oozy One isn’t going anywhere, either. Since he already happens to be here, I’ll use him as a test subject for possible treatments. If there’s some way to stop it, or at least slow it down significantly, that’d really come in handy. There were some really nice Special Runs during that era, and I would hate to see them all meet an earlier-than-necessary demise.

If you have any yourself, just keep them cool and keep them dry in the meantime. And tuck a few extra paper towels in the bag if you have to keep them in storage, just in case.

Spirit Days

Interesting day at the flea market – a lot of horse stuff, but not a lot of model horses. The only thing I bought that’s worth mentioning here is this handsome pup:

A Boehm Schnauzer! It would have been even better if it had been one of the Boxers or Bulls the Breyers are based off of, or the Adios, but one doesn’t find Boehms of any variety in the wild all that often, even at my flea market. And the price was more than right.

The Boehm made up, a bit, for the events of the previous day. For a variety of reasons, I wasn’t able to go to either one of the Spirit Fun Days near my house on Saturday. I am a bit disappointed because there is still an awkward, horse-crazy ten-year-old inside me who desperately wanted to sit at a table to talk horses and paint Stablemates.

(Like the rest of you, my life is full of people who nod, smile, and secretly hope for their cell phones to ring when I start talking about horses.)

The new Breyer Spirit line itself seems to be getting pretty positive reviews in general, though the reaction to the TV show its based on is a little more mixed.

It’s not likely that I’ll be watching it any time soon, but that’s more because I’m mostly indifferent to horse-themed film and TV projects in general, and not the quality – or lack thereof.

And also because you have no idea just how far behind I am in my movie and TV watching. I have a DVD I got for Christmas in 2015 I still haven’t gotten around to watching….

But anyway, back to the models themselves.

The Spirit “blind bag” Stablemates assortments – if purchased by the box – apparently contain one of each of the entire set, which is nice. That’ll make it easier for the Stablemates completists.

The “Small Sets” I wrote about earlier appear to be just a shade smaller than the original Little Bits/Paddock Pals. For the purposes of showing, I still think they will be classified as that scale.

Traditional models have had the same scaling issues over the years – like, for instance, the Boehm-inspired Boxer – and even with the models that don’t have the excuse of being copied/translated from other manufacturer designs.

The Traditional Boomerang mold is about as cute as I expected it to be, but it is not likely that I will be able to pick one up, or even see one in person, until BreyerFest rolls around.

New 'Bits?

The latest Web Special Acadia is beautiful, but I only entered once and did not win. He would have made a lovely husband to my Ruffian Goddess Athena, but it wasn’t something I felt I could justify going all-in for. I still want/need a Valegro, but I’ll have to wait for a more affordable one.

(The BreyerFest release Indu is still a contender.)

There are a couple of stores reasonably close by that are holding Spirit Fun Days in a couple of weeks. (Yes, I know I am lucky to have multiple stores to choose from!) If I’m not scheduled to work that day, I might go to check the new releases. Especially the new Traditional-scale Boomerang mold:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/boomerang-traditional-model 

He reminds me of the pinto in one of the stashes of vintage photos I found last year:

So I could definitely see myself coming home with one sooner rather than later! (Especially if it keeps me from breaking out the paint and epoxy and attempting to customize my own.)

The “Small Sets” in the Spirit line intrigue me also. Here’s the Boomerang one, who (coincidentally) is the nicest of the three new Small Set molds, I think:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/Boomerang-Abigail-Small-Set

So, if I’m reading these details right – 3-inch riders, 4-inch horses – these are basically Little Bits scale? So after all these years Reeves is giving us three new, honest-to-goodness plastic Little Bits/Paddock Pals molds?

Sneaky, guys.

Nevertheless, I approve.

The last “official” Little Bits/Paddock Pal mold release was the Saddlebred, in 1985. Unless you count the Small Mare and Foal with the rooted hair in the same scale who debuted in 1997, but are usually associated with the Ponies line. Or the resin Breeds of the World pieces from 2012 that tend to be lumped in with the Gallery/Nonplastics.

Recent Findings

I was just reviewing my “buy” list for the year so far: other than club-related purchases and the Locarno, almost everything else has been body box material. The most recent finds include these two recent dollar-a-bag dump bin discoveries:

This is the third (I think?) Classics Morgan Foal I’ve found with a broken/missing tail. Poor babies!

I completely cleaned out my Body Box last year in Kentucky, so this recent abundance of bodies is not an issue for me, so far.

What it has done, however, is pique my interest in the BreyerFest Customs Contest. This is a bit of an issue because I really don’t have time to enter another contest – I barely have enough time to get all of the other things done that I already need to get done!

But I’ve been on a project finishing kick lately, and if it’s a contest that motivates me to finish a few of those sad little derelicts sitting on my project table, so be it. And I like that they’re tweaking the rules and categories a bit, and adding a thematic category that will change from year to year.

The only problem I see is that the kind of customs I prefer doing don’t really fit into any of this year’s categories.

While I do have a Running Stallion Unicorn I’ve been working on for a while, he’s unfinished because I’m just not all that into Fantasy-themed models right now. I think I am capable of competing in Finishwork, but painting on that level stresses me out way too much, and I’d rather focus on something more enjoyable. I’ve never been much of a tack or performance-oriented person, so that category is clearly out, too.

Extreme customizing? I’d rather start with something that’s almost-sorta there and get it across the finish line; I’ve always had the most fun working with older funkier molds and doing subtle “A-ha!” customizing jobs that make you go “I see that now!” In other words, working with the existing mold, rather than against it. Reducing a Breyer model to an armature is…not my kind of fun.

So that leaves me with the thematic class, which is restricted to Little Bits scale and below this year, with no firm restrictions on the amount or kind of customizing. I do have a couple of Stablemates projects I could finish, but I’ve always wanted to do something interesting with a Little Bits mold – mostly because they don’t get a lot of customizing love.

But so far, no Little Bits scale bodies have crossed my path.

While I mull my options, I also have to figure out what to do with another promising recent find:

Yes, it’s a beautiful, genuine, heavily sequined and embroidered green sari, found at one of my local Salvation Army stores. Because of course I would!

After a little bit of research, I figured out how to put it on, and proceeded to prance and sparkle around the house like a princess. I’ll be wearing it at BreyerFest at some point, no doubt. But when and where? No idea, yet.

Just Beachy

(Work ran really long today, so tonight’s post is really short.)

Breyer has issued a lot of really weird accessories over the years. But what would be the weirdest? Was it the Baby Gorilla from the Pony Gals Wildlife Adventure Gift Set?

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/720601set.jpg

(Because of my current infatuation with the Classics Duchess, I might be adding that one to my want list for BreyerFest.)

The scary-big Fly that came with the Summer Turnout Set? And the newer Turnout Set?

http://www.breyerhorses.com/summer_turnout_accessory
http://www.breyerhorses.com/2065-turnout-set

(Not a big fan of the mutant bugs, so not on the want list. Nope.)

However, my personal favorite has to be the original head scratcher:

Yes, the Bitsy Breyer Beach Set. It came with a surfboard.

My first thought upon seeing this set back when it came out in the early 1980s was – hey, it’s a Mr. Ed gift set! Because of course I remembered that episode where Mr. Ed goes surfing:

(Season 2, Episode 23: Ed the Beachcomber)

Because being the horse-centric girl that I was, my first assumption was that the surfboard was for the horse. The board was a bit small, but eh, most of the accessories then (and to a degree, even now) were never quite to scale anyway. Seemed perfectly logical to me then.

The only part that was not logical was that none of the Little Bits Arabians issued at the time came in Palomino. Just the standard and kind of boring actually Chestnut, Bay and Slate Gray. And Mr. Ed himself was not an Arabian.

Oh well, maybe someday...

Not the Horse You Were Looking For

The dental work was today, so I’m definitely not in the mood for anything long-winded. (All went well. Thank goodness!)

Here’s a picture of a Mysterious Black Breyer, though not the one you were expecting to see today:

It’s that Black Little Bits Thoroughbreds in Tenite, one of the gift bag treasures that baffled and confused attendees of the Sweet Home Chicago Event. The general consensus is that they are leftover Cobalts from the #1025 Cobalt and Veronica set, issued from 1995 through 1998. Another batch of about 40 were given to showers at the Meows and Minis show held the same weekend.

It’s not something I’ve investigated further – too many other boiling pots of water to attend to, alas – but it does stoke my desire to investigate the deeper mysteries of the Reeves warehouse. A place that had, apparently, at least 250 or so 17-year-old Tenite Little Bits sitting in a box somewhere.

What other kind of crazy stuff do you guys still have in there? (And do you need any assistance inventorying said stuff?)

As for the other Mysterious Black Breyer, Reeves has more or less confirmed (via Facebook, bleh) that the Black AQHA horse does/will exist, and that these new colors (Grulla, Roan, Black) are “rarities” and not just a fresh set of colors for the second half of the year.

It’d be nice if Reeves could also float us some general numbers or percentages so we could gauge just how excited we are supposed to be when we find these rarities – on a scale of “Hey, cool!” to “OMG” to “Spontaneously Combust”?

Though I don’t think it’d be likely before the end of the year, if they even do, just to save retailers the grief. Roan is one of my favorite colors, so my gauge is a bit north of “OMG”, regardless.

Coincidentally, I happened to stop by the same store on the way home from work yesterday – to take another look at the remaining Elskas, I told myself – but no other Horses of Unusual Color were to be found.

That’s actually a bit of a relief, since I just bought a couple of box lots for resale this week that took up that little bit of slack I had in the budget. (Not entirely for resale, I hope, if a couple of hunches prove right.)

Little Bits Reissues

I’ll follow up on the unexpectedly popular Texture post next time; I had some minor legal matters to take care of today. Also, because it was court and you are asked to dress appropriately, I decided to wear "real" shoes and not slippers/slip-ons for the first time since I got back from Kentucky.

I quickly came to the realization that my left foot is still a few days away from that. (More ache than ow, though.)

Reissues are not a new thing; it now appears, for instance, that many (or the majority) of Woodgrains found on the Dunning Industries Ranchcraft line of lamps were probably manufactured after the formal/official production had stopped on them.

It’s definitely the case for some Woodgrain Running Mare and Foal lamps that have the USA stamp. The Running Mare and Foal were discontinued in 1965, but the USA mark didn’t appear until ca. 1970.

There have been other more recent, and less heralded Reissues, too.  I found a couple of them at the flea market the Sunday before last:

These were part of a small series of Little Bits/Paddock Pals that were sold at Kmart in 2007; except for their packaging and issue numbers, they are identical to the models that were released in 2006. Here’s the formal list of Reissue numbers:

1668 Spotted Drafter - Black Pinto
1669 American Saddlebred - Pinto
1670 Unicorn - Pearlescent Green
1671 Arabian - Blood Bay
1672 American Quarter Horse - Buckskin
1673 Sport Horse - Appaloosa

Because they are identical to the 2006 releases, this is another case where the packaging makes all the difference in identifying them.

Kmart wasn’t the only store to receive Reissues; Target, Walmart and even Big Lots did, too. Most of those Reissues, unlike these Little Bits/Paddock Pals, were sold in packaging that was virtually identical to the original packaging save for their item numbers. (Not always, but that’s Reeves for you. Always keeping us on our toes.)

Like these guys above, most have lost their "identity" as Reissues; they were released not long after their first formal production releases, and the differences between the two tend to be negligible.

I purchased an example of this packaging back when it was first released in 2007, so I’m unsure if I’ll be keeping these two yet.

The Chestnut G1 Saddlebred

That’s one thing I will confess to: there hasn’t been enough history on here lately. Some of it is related to my scheduling/time management issues - it’s easier to snark on current events than do deeper research on something more obscure, especially when the time you have to do it is at an hour when only vampires and cats are up.

But it’s also been technical: my computer set up has, shall we say, been becoming progressively less ideal. The computer is old and slow, finding a browser that still works with it a challenge, the scanner doesn’t work half the time, and even my keyboards give me heck. (Ever try to compose anything without using the letter "a"? "Bay" turns into "Light Brown with Ebony Points.") I have to work more hours to get the money for a new setup, which in turn leads to more scheduling issues…

Cutting to the chase: from now on I will endeavor to provide a little less hiss, and a little more history.

The other day I was trying to find the file about Hobo for a follow up on that post, when I got distracted by another file in the box, containing this gem:

The Stablemates Introductory Flier, from early 1975 - featuring the Chestnut Saddlebred! A model almost as sought after as its silver-plated cousin, but considerably more elusive.

Probably because I don’t think it was ever really released in Chestnut. I don’t know if they changed the color prior midstream, or if it was another instance of Breyer still having issues distinguishing between Bay and Chestnut. I’d like to think it was a last minute change, but they’d have some issues telling Tobiano from Overo a few years after that, so either theory is plausible.

Regardless, the Chestnut Saddlebred’s appearance in the 1976 Dealer Catalog and Collector’s Manual, and on the early backer cards caused a great deal of consternation among early aficionados of the Stablemates, including me. They released the Arabian Stallion as Citation, and the Morgan Stallion as the Arabian Stallion - it was not inconceivable that they could have made a mistake with the Saddlebred, right?

But none were to be found. A few did turn up eventually - I've never laid eyes on one, but people I trusted to know the difference between Bay and Chestnut have - but never in numbers sufficient to convince me that it was meant as an intentional thing. They had to be either factory escapees, or unpointed Bays.

Breyer nonetheless heard from collectors about it - any time a regular run turns out even slightly different from the catalog pictures, they hear about it. So much so in the Saddlebred’s case that they almost rectified the situation - over a decade later. (Better late than never, right?)

The Chestnut Saddlebred was proposed as a Special Run for Hobby Center Toys, in Ohio, in 1989. It even went so far as to get an item number - #415002 - but for reasons unknown to me, they went with the Dapple Gray Little Bit Drafter Horse, named "Charger", instead.

Charger’s a cutie - I’ve definitely been getting my groove on for the Little Bits molds lately - but he’s no Chestnut G1 Saddlebred.

Little Bits and Pieces

This is going to be another short one today, folks. I just got caught up in an extremely interesting - and rather involving - model horse matter that’s been sucking up all of my free time over the past couple of days.

(For a number of different reasons, I cannot share any details about it right now. Trust me, though, it’ll be worth the wait.)

The box lot that I got this week was fun! I haven’t completely finished processing it yet, due to the matter above. Another one of the problems I’m encountering is that I thought I’d only be keeping maybe three or four items out of the lot, but that number has now grown to six or seven. (Of course!)

The primary reason I bought the lot is because I’m now going through another one of my Little Bits phases, and the lot had a few that I didn’t, including this lovely little "Rose Chestnut" Morgan, from the Christmas 1989 Parade of Breeds Set:

I do have a complete 1989 set, but it came with a regular run #9050 Light Flaxen Chestnut/Dark Palomino Morgan, rather than the Rose Chestnut one. Those sort of substitutions were not an uncommon thing back then, though it’s unclear in this case if it was accidental or intentional. 

I’m particularly interested in the Little Bits packaging, especially the early carded items. They went through a number of subtle changes over the years, and darn it, I need to figure that chronology out.

Carded Little Bits were also high on my BreyerFest buy list this year, but like the Yellow Mount, I never really got around to seriously looking for them. There were a couple of carded pieces in the lot, but I still have a number of pieces to acquire before I can draw any conclusions.

I can say, though, that I find Richard Lewis’s line art for the Little Bit Unicorn oddly adorable:

Unicorn Obsessive Disorder

I don’t have a lot of Breyer Unicorns in my collection. They’re just not interesting to me, especially since they’ve turned into little more than big hairy gray horses with strapped-on horns.

A creature borne of the imagination shouldn’t be so boring!

I had a Unicorn phase back in High School. I made a nearly life sized one out of papier-mache in art class, doodled unicorns endlessly in my notebooks, and faithfully bought the first Breyer Unicorn - the #210 Running Stallion - when he came out in 1982, right at the height of my Unicorn Obsessive Disorder. I found him a little lacking in the fantasy department, but I was grateful to have one at all.

The Little Bit Unicorn a few years later was better: Hess at least made an attempt to make him more fantastic, and less horselike. He’s the only Breyer mold so far that was intentionally designed to be a Unicorn. Not only is the horn integral to the mold, but so are cloven hooves, a beard, heavy feathering, and an insanely curly mane and tail.


I had done the research (yes, even back then I was a total history nerd,) and knew there was not a lot of consistency from description to description: some were more goatlike, and others were clearly based on deer or antelope. They were usually white in the tapestries, but the books, bestiaries and manuscripts were not quite as settled on the matter.

At least Breyer seemed to be headed in the right direction: imaginary creatures don’t need to be bound by reality. The Little Bit Unicorn was very horselike, but not quite a horse. I would have preferred the tufted tail mentioned in the medieval mythology, and a mane that wasn’t quite that girly-curly, but I could go with it. A good beginning and all that, right?

Ah, foolish mortals!

Let’s see, what kind of colors have we had on the Little Bit Unicorn since then? Alabaster, alabaster, iridescent white with lavender shading, iridescent white with green shading: notice a theme here? Even the Carousel Unicorn - a creature you’d expect to sport a more fantastical color scheme - got saddled with another white paint job. With a light blue mane and tail, and a solid gold painted horn, but still …white.

(There are a few test color Little Bit Unicorns out there: Marney had a small batch of solid black ones for sale at a Model Horse Congress in 1985. I do remember that they were the last ones to go in the test color sale; we were limited to one test color per person, and most hobbyists snapped up the Traditionals first.)

We still haven’t gotten any new "dedicated" Unicorn molds, either: every one of them since then has just been another repurposed Traditional horse with a tacked-on horn and a white or iridescent white paint job. Sometimes we get lucky and they’ll throw us a curveball - ooh, look, some pastel shading! Here, let’s put a Decoratory mostly-white paint job on the Running Stallion Unicorn Stardust!

Snore. I know it’s a cost saving measure to repurpose the horse molds - and most little girls just assume that Unicorns have always been magical horses with horns anyway, much less check out medieval bestiaries from their local university libraries.

I know I’m not alone in my demand for slightly less conventional fantasy animals. You’d think with the enthusiastic response they received to the Raffle Dragon Horse Merlin that Reeves would be a little more open to making the fantastic look a little more, I dunno, fantastic.

Gussy them up with more Decoratory paint jobs: how about one with one of those ornate Oriental paint jobs, like Jade or Cai Lun? A lot of the new molds come with multiple mane and tail options: how about a tufted tail option, or with actual ribbons or flowers molded in? (And for heaven’s sake, at least bring back the whiskers. Is that too much to ask?)

Heck, I’d settle for the Little Bit Unicorn in the four standard Decorator colors. Who wouldn’t love a little Wedgewood Blue or Gold Charm Unicorn?

The Charger Award

The house is a wreck, my brain is melting, and I can't think of a single thing to talk about that doesn't involve more work than I'm willing to invest in right now. Gah!

Maybe I'll prattle on a bit about the Little Bits line. Specifically, about a Little Bit I'm sure a lot of you may not have heard about – or seen. It's the 1989 Charger Award:


It's basically a leftover Charger – a Special Run Dapple Gray Shire made in 1989 for Hobby Center Toys, in Toledo, Ohio – mounted on a wooden plaque with a brass plate engraved with the Breyer logo. Originally it also came with a small plaque on the front that would have said “Charger Award 1989,” but mine lost it somewhere along the way, which would partly explain why I got it for a song on eBay a while back.

These awards were made slightly before the time they started issuing test colors to Sales Reps instead, who in turn discovered they could get quite a substantial little bonus if they sold those (discreetly, through a third party) to the collectors' market. (Thus quickly ending that little experiment.)

The Charger Award isn't as well-known – or notorious – as those Sales Rep Tests; the fact that it's basically a repurposed Special Run of a model from a little-collected line also doesn't help his reputation. Kind of a shame, really. Relatively speaking, he's quite rare – far more rare than even the few other Little Bits that do command some collector attention, such as the Carousel Horses or the Flaxen Chestnut Saddlebred Toy Fair Promo.

As in any hobby, though, value and rarity don't necessarily go hand in hand: there are relatively common models that command crazy amounts of money, and then there are pieces of exceeding rarity that attract little or no attention at all.

Most of the disparity between price and rarity, however, is due to flawed knowledge, or a lack of knowledge: if you don't know something is rare or even exists, you're not likely to go out of your way to purchase it, unless you happen to be a particularly obsessive collector of a particular mold or series in the first place.

My friends are always amazed at the kind of stuff I pull out of the BreyerFest Sales Tent or in the HIN. Sometimes, though, I feel a little embarrassed when I do find something kinda awesome right under everyone else's noses, and often far cheaper than it oughta be. That's another reason why I do this blog: by adding to – and sometimes correcting – the Breyer History knowledge base out there, it makes the playing field a little more level and more fun for everyone.

Really, I don't mind having a little competition. Makes it sweeter, actually: instead of giving me a puzzled look when I show off my next awesome find, you'll actually know what I'm excited about. And then you can show me yours.