In a Name

Calm down, everyone: Tuesday’s special offer on Breyer’s web site was just overstock of last year’s Tractor Supply Special Jesse, given the more generic name “Palomino Quarter Horse”. Everything else appears to be exactly the same, even the issue number:

They did the same thing with the 2012 Mid-States Special Run Bay Roan Roxy Constellations, too, if you recall.

I briefly thought of ordering one – the handful of Jesses that I found around here were underwhelming – considering the possibility that there might be some of the Chalky variation ones in the overstock.

But then they sold out, and that temptation went away. More money for the potential surprises of December, I guess!

These re-releases are a nice offer for people who don’t have these participating retailers near them, or who wouldn’t dare brave the Breyer Sales Tent/NPOD for one either (where these kinds of overstocks often go).

I don’t have any Mid-States retailers within a reasonable driving distance, for instance; if I hadn’t already acquired a Constellation, I might have taken up the offer on the web site.

(Ironically, mine is a Sample from the NPOD!)

But historically speaking, this is little more than an interesting footnote, kind of like this one:

Yes, in some – but not all – early Breyer ephemera, the Running Mare and Foal were also known as the Running Arabian Mare and Foal. (This particular snippet is from the 1964 Price List.)

Chances

So last year’s Tractor Supply Mystery No Show Special Run “Chance” has finally shown up – as this year’s Mid-States SR!

It is a Red Dun Tobiano pinto nearly identical to the 2013 Diorama Prize Walk of Fame:

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/P1060480.JPG

I suppose you might be wondering what the situation was with Chance: I don’t know. Maybe TSC rejected the concept outright, or they decided to scale back their Holiday offerings, or maybe they didn’t have money in the purchasing budget, or someone forgot to sign an invoice…. For whatever reason, Chance didn’t become a Tractor Supply Special Run.

I do know, though, that once Breyer creates a concept for a Special Run item, they are loath to let it go. If one company turns down the concept – and the concept is not too narrowly or specifically designed to the first company it was offered to – it will get pitched elsewhere.

If there are no takers after a while the idea gets shelved, eventually and quite literally, in the Sample Room. Sometimes the concept will be tweaked and re-proposed at a later date or used in a different program altogether.

I don’t know if there were any changes or tweaks to Chance’s original design. I’m guessing not, but that really is just a guess, based on the turnaround time.

Chance is very handsome – I am quite fond of the Zippo Pine Bar mold, if you didn’t know that already – but I’ll probably have to take a pass on him until next year, once I get a few other bigger expenses paid for.

Ceci n'est pas un Press Release

First, let’s get a few PSAs out of the way. The Mid-States Special is up on the Rural King web site, a pretty splash spot Appaloosa Indian Pony named Miigwan:

http://www.ruralking.com/dream-catcher-breyer-midstates.html

I think there’s another Mid-States Exclusive, a Classic, but I wasn’t able to find it on their web site.

And for those of you having access issues with Tractor Supply - either there ain’t one in your area, or the hordes have already descended and picked your stores clean, Dillon is also available on the TSC web site.

http://www.tractorsupply.com//ProductDisplay?cm_vc=-10005&urlRequestType=Base&productId=236119&catalogId=10051&categoryId=&errorViewName=ProductDisplayErrorView&urlLangId=&langId=-1&top_category=&parent_category_rn=&storeId=10151

This suggests that in spite of the seemingly more limited distribution (two per store?) that it might be an open-ended run - or that they reserved a portion of the run for online sales. Either/any way, there you go. (I’m still on the fence. Too much stuff, not enough time, boxes sitting around unopened, etc.)

I’ve also noticed a few newer America’s Mustang/Mesteno sets floating around the farm store circuit - some slightly repackaged older items, and some brand new things. (Note: work takes me to such places. I am not shopping.) I hear there’s a new one with a Bucking Bronco, which might be a must-get for me, since that mysterious set with the Bronco and White Wolf is still mostly MIA.

(Ooh boy, if Reeves ever dropped those en masse on the web site or in the Pit …)

Didn’t get picked for the Web Special Kimbia on the Smarty Jones mold. I thought I had a shot; I didn’t get a chance to review most of the commentary, but the brief skims I did catch were rather…unhappy and dismissive. In a way that suggested there’d be fewer entries than normal.

I haven’t seen too many up for sale in the usual places, last I looked, which (I hope) means that most of the hobbyists who won were ones that were intending on keeping them. Or it really, really tanked. If that’s the case, then it means I might get a chance to buy him after all, in November or December, perhaps?

I have tons to sell in the meantime. I’m hoping that I can finally get around to rounding up the sales herd next week, when work slows down (allegedly). It’s getting way too cramped around here, as you might have noticed from the setups for some of the recent photos. I’ve been on such a time crunch here that only just finished mopping up the last bits of debris from the garage sale, for Heaven’s sake.

(For the record, I haven’t won a single Web Special since I switched to my "one entry only" routine. I have also never been picked from the wait list for anything, ever, including all the Connoisseurs.)

My "grail" arrived yesterday, and it’s even cooler - and more mysterious - than I imagined. It’ll be a little while before you read about it here, since I need to do some follow-up research on it first. All I’ll say for the moment is that it’s something I guarantee that a good 99 percent of you haven’t seen before, either, outside of Breyer PR.

And that 99 percent of you probably wouldn’t want anyway, but you know I’m weird like that.

Next time, something that looks less like a press release from Reeves.

Patching Together

That big project I’m working on is melting my brain, I swear.  I thought I’d take a little breather from it and catch up a bit on my sewing, until I realized what was up next in my quilting queue:

Points, curves AND insets? I might as well be painting a Reverse Dappled Palomino Roan Pintaloosa, sheesh.

(FYI: it’s a variation of a Depression Era pattern called "Imperial Fan". I found a pile of pieces and some templates at the bottom of a box of scraps, and in a not-rare-enough moment of insanity, I thought it’d be a fun reconstruction project. Yeah. No.)

Lots of news to catch up on. Let’s roll.

The talk is now that the Walmart Special Runs that have been turning up in some stores might be some sort of test, or just a regional release. All I know for sure is that very few people have been able to find them, and they’re not in my neck of the woods either.

There are two OTHER Classics Special Run sets turning up at some Mid-States stores that appear to be a continuation of the old Walmart Mesteno/ Mustang series. They’ve been shipping old Walmart overstock of their Mestenos to the "farm store circuit" for a few years now, so I’m guessing that means that's where the series will now carry on; these newest releases have the new Breyer logo, so it’s definitely not older overstock. Unless it is a test/regional thing, too. 

There are no Mid-States nearby, but I do have a local/regional farm store chain nearby that does get a very nice selection of Breyers in around the holidays, so this will be added incentive to stop in the next time I drive by. You know, just in case there are some enhancements to the selection.

(All I REALLY want is that "unreleased" set with the light gray Bronco and the white Wolf. Like everyone else)

The Traditional Totilas mold is being delayed until the beginning of the year. It appears to be more of a legal/technical issue, than one of production. It’s only a few more weeks of waiting, anyway.

The Lionheart Esprits are also delayed, but no explanation (or hints of) have been offered. It’s annoying, but my budget’s doing its end of the year tightening, so I’m okay with that, too.

Pictures of some of the 2013 releases are now floating about, including a new Classic mold, a new release on the Smart Chic Olena, a Vintage release on the Western Pony, and some glittery (!) Stablemates.

(Yay, glittery Stablemates!)

I’m going to wait until there are better pictures of the 2013 releases before I do any detailed commentary on them. I’m happy to see that the Vintage release of the Gloss Bay Pinto Fury this year did well enough to merit continuing the series, but the color they appear to have chosen for the Western Pony - Flaxen Chestnut Appaloosa, with detailed out hooves, mane and tail - strikes me as a little more Modern than Vintage.

I hope the splash spots are a little on the sloppy side, like the old splash spots were.

I’ve been periodically skimming the discussion on the Passage to the Pacific. Once I got a gander at some of the pictures of the SRs - including a Black Tobiano Pinto Galiceno, and another PAM, for crying out loud - I checked myself out of that discussion. The freakouts on MH$P are going to be bad enough to witness.

More Housecleaning

Time for a little housecleaning.

I had to pitch a couple of bodies in the trash yesterday. I hate to throw out anything, but it wasn’t a total loss: I did learn a lot from my experimentations. That’s sort of the whole point of experimenting, right? You’re not going to learn anything if you don’t open yourself up to the possibility of failing.

My "October Surprise" has nothing to do with the Passage to the Pacific thing. Y’all realize I live in Michigan and, by the conventional standards of measure, am poor? And that I just laid out a fair bit of change to get my car repaired?

There’s a photo of the event horse "Like Thunder" on the Breyer web site now, and it’s quite nice. Unlike a lot of the kvetchers, though, I prefer the Rejoice mold to the Clock Saddlebred. It’s still not going to motivate me to buy a ticket at the last minute. I need more horses going out, not coming in.

Speaking of, I managed to avoid the charms of that pretty Bear at Tuesday Morning this week. Whew.

Looks like the Gloss Zenyatta Foals may be sold out; if so, they went a little quicker than I expected, but I also suspect some speculating going on. I already see it on the Mid-States Specials, which I find a little strange. I know Roxy’s popularity’s been on the rise - especially with the new mane she got at BreyerFest - but the Mid-States SRs have typically averaged around 3000 pieces, more than enough to go around.

My Harlequin (whom I have dubbed "Mista J") arrived a couple of days ago, and (being the contrarian, again) I am actually rather unimpressed with him:

His hooves aren’t black, and the spots are, frankly, a little weird and unrandom. The speckling in his gray areas is untypical of vintage gray appaloosas, and dang it, his face isn’t bald enough.

The eyewhites bug me, too, but that's already been discussed.

He’s not going anywhere, though. I am not one of those people who joins clubs just to skim off any "good stuff".  Because it’s all good - chocolate is still chocolate, regardless of whether it’s Hershey or Callebaut.

(Reeves persons who might be reading: my consultation offer still stands.)

As an art historian (I have a degree, really I do!) I’ve been keeping up with the story of the "Flea Market" Renoir, which now appears to have been stolen:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/flea-market-renoir-was-allegedly-stolen-from-baltimore-museum-of-art/2012/09/27/193d6162-08bd-11e2-a10c-fa5a255a9258_story.html

Here’s a quote from the story linked above that piqued my interest:

The Virginia woman, who wants to remain anonymous, bought the landscape in 2010 for $7 in a box with a doll and a plastic cow. She stashed the box for nearly two years before her mother suggested that the painting might be a real Renoir.

Did you see that - and think what I was thinking? Was that a Breyer Cow in that box?

Dang. How come I’ve never found lost Impressionist masters at the bottom of my flea market box lots?

I can just imagine what would have happened, though, if I had bought said box home with me. Mom would have appropriated the painting - both the picture, and the frame being very much to her taste. I would have insisted on taking it to the DIA or DuMouchelles for an appraisal, then the whole "OMG it might have been stolen" part would have come out, and then Mom would be all ticked off at me because I couldn’t let a sleeping dog lie…

Still would have been worth the trouble, though. Seven dollars for a Breyer Cow - even a beat up, body quality Holstein - is a good price.

Crash and Burn

Wonderful. The computer crashed before I had a chance to save the post I was working on for today. Awesome. All that lovely nuance and carefully crafted wordsmithing is now just a pile of unrecoverable bits floating somewhere on the hard drive.

I did make good on my promise to sleep most of my day off away. Aside from the manic work schedule, I think a contracted a bit of whatever unpleasantness was floating around at work. Nothing particularly nasty, it just made me even more tired than I should have had any right to be.

My car was also sick this week, and that was something a little extra sleep couldn’t cure. It’s definitely an incentive to generate a little extra revenue; as long as ol’ Sherman can last another 4 to 6 months, that should be enough time to cultivate a decently-sized down payment - after I’ve finished paying off the bill to keep him running in the first place.

All these model horse commitments I’ve made aren’t going to help, either: aside from Harlequin, there’s also a Lionheart and a Gus on the way, not to mention any Web Specials or other nonsense coming at us over the next few months. (Outside of the Pinto Fury/Prancer, nothing on this year's Discontinue List is begging to be brought home. Thank goodness.)

Like the Mid-States Specials, for instance: a Bay Roan Roxy named "Constellation", and a cute dun Classic Warmblood Mare named "Fawn". Fortunately, there are no Mid-States stores nearby to tempt me. I’m too cheap, and a bit too lazy, to order them online.

(No, seriously. Don’t even think about offering a pick-up or a trade. No room. No money. Not happening.)

There was a bit of a stink on Blab about the fact that a couple of pieces from this year’s Breyerfest auction were rather obviously tests of these two gals. My first reaction was a bit of pride: my intuition about the auction pieces being more "actual test pieces" rather than "factory customs" was right.

My second reaction was Do you people not know what the term "test color" means? It means that they’re testing a color, which also means that they are considering it for production. You shouldn’t be surprised if it does turn up a few months (or years) from now. That is their actual and original function. The fact that they can use them to generate money for charity is just a nice bonus. 

I’d think that finding out your auction piece was a Test Run for an actual production piece would be a huge plus: instead of being some fancy, but ultimately meaningless factory custom, you’d actually have a piece of Breyer History. Like this fella:

Yeah, he’s beat up, dinged up, and on an unfashionable mold, but I wouldn’t trade him for something newer or fancier. He’s quite obviously the test color for the #819 Dan Patch, on the Pacer mold. Why would I?

A Brief History of Dapple Grays, Part 1

So, did you hear about the 2010 Mid-States Horse? Yeah, I know, the 2009 was just out a few months ago - apparently someone’s boss on Blab took a pic of the 2010 model at the Mid-States Hardware show; here’s a link to the discussion if you missed it:

http://www.modelhorseblab.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100312

If you don’t want to click for whatever reason - it’s in an open access section of the forum, BTW - it’s a Gray Appaloosa Foundation Stallion named Thunderbolt.

He isn’t like the Gray Appaloosa Foundation Stallion I wrote about a few weeks ago. (Just another creepy coincidence; if I were shilling for Reeves, I think I'd have seen a check, or boxes of horses by now. And I haven't.) This guy is gussied up with splash spots, extra shading, Indian markings and resist underdappling.

"Underdappling" is a term I use to describe dappling that’s underneath another layer of paint. "Resist" is the term generally used hobby-wide to describe the earlier, pre-airbrush style of dappling, where a type of grease was splashed on the model before painting. The dapples were created when the grease was washed off.

Thunderbolt is very appealing, but whether or not I’m actually getting him will depend on how my space situation finally plays out. And it doesn’t look like that extra space I had hoped for will be materializing. The remodel is about 75% done, and most of my stuff is back to where it should be. Except where it doesn’t fit. And what doesn’t fit includes about 50 models.

Major culling will be necessary. I am not looking forward to it.

Did you know that the full-body resist Dapple Gray paint job (aka "Wild Dapple Gray") was a relative latecomer in the Breyer world? It wasn’t until 1964 that we see the appearance of the true Dapple Gray paint job. That’s right, the dappled Decorator colors of Florentine (gold) and Copenhagen (blue) actually premiered before the more "realistic" Dapple Gray. While the Decorator experiment might not have been a success, initially, it did apparently lead to something that was.

Yes, I know, Running Mare and Foal came out in a color called "Dark Dapple Gray" ca. 1962. But it appears that Breyer considered that particular colorway separate and distinct from the "Dapple Gray" of the Belgian and his descendants. Except for the occasional color variation, and some pieces from very late in their run, the Mare and Foal retained their dappling pattern - and their unique color appellation - until they were discontinued in 1973. (I don’t quite know how to classify the Nebraska SRs in all this; they’re definitely "Wild" Dapple Grays, but I don’t know the precise color description they were sold under.)

The Dapple Gray Belgian was discontinued rather quickly - by the end of 1966 - but his color was carried forward on Old Timer, who also debuted in 1966. The color was scarce until the early 1970s, when yet another variation of the Dapple Gray paint job debuted.

That discussion I will leave for my next post. But here’s a sneak preview of the model at the center of that discussion: Marney Walerius’s "In-A-Tiff."