Black Points

Since I’ve been buying a lot of less desirable Collector’s Club Appreciation Glossies recently (the mule Buckeye is on his way!) the currently crop of Glossies has been less of a temptation, especially since my favorite of the bunch – the Black Brishen Sjoerd – seems to be everyone else’s least-loved. 

Conversely, I am not too keen on the Peptoboomsmal: I tried my best to love him or even like the Dundee/Australian Stock Horse mold –the 2022 Flagship Special Romeo should have been a no-brainer for me, for a couple of reasons – but I am having a hard time warming up to him. 

The other two are also very nice, but they are more in the like, rather than love category: the Morgan is pretty, but also pretty huge, and the Totilas is a bit tippy.  

So I took a pass on the offer this time. Maybe I’ll be able to trade for a Glossy Sjoerd at BreyerFest: I just finished my sales list and it’s definitely an eclectic one. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find someone to trade something for it!

My mind is on a dozen different things today (someone or something literally bent some of my metal garden fenceposts to the ground, and I have no idea how) so I’ll wrap up a couple of talking points from the comments and move on to other topics next time. 

The color on the Vintage Custom Black Stallion was not extensively retouched; if anything, he’s actually a bit darker than I received him, since I had a hard time matching his highlights. Any perceived brightness can be attributed to a fresh application of varnish and outdoor lighting. Like Reeves, photography is not my strongest suit! 

As for my opinion of the final disposition of the Test Color Appaloosa Performance Horse: I am assuming, unless proven otherwise, that the sale was taken private: there are always ways. The conversation about him that appeared shortly afterward may well have contributed to his disappearance. I think the fact that my other purchase – also a Test Color! – happened a few hours later, yet was not canceled actually strengthens this argument. 

A hobbyist who was genuinely concerned about the seller would have also seen the Classic and insisted that one be canceled as well. The fact that they let that one go suggests to me that it was someone who either had no idea it was a Test, or was a “high point” collector with little interest or concern for plain, Chicago-era Classics. (Or regard for what their fellow hobbyists think of them, too.)

Because an odd little Black Stallion with four stockings and gray hooves definitely doesn’t have the same allure as an early BreyerFest Auction Test Color that’s been “missing” for 30 years, or the same potential for a financial return on their investment. 

For the record, I am not a fan of “high point” collectors of any stripe: they tend to throw their money around rather carelessly, distorting the market in the process and make life difficult for collectors of more modest means.

Unpopular Opinions

I suspected the speckly blue thing was the Classic Decorator, and I was not wrong!

He’s neat. I really like the Classic Morgan mold, but I haven’t found one in a color I like yet. All the original Silver Bays I found had significant masking issues, the Red Bay was a little bland, the Decorator Tie Dye model is too goofy for me, and I am reluctant to buy the whole Spanish Mustang(!) Family just to get the Solid Black guy. But Delft… is a maybe. I just wish he were a tiny bit fancier?

Then there’s the Traditional Decorator Nemea:

Nemea is an obvious adaptation of the very well-received Decorator Marwari from the 2018 BreyerFest auction. And proof that some Test Colors from the BreyerFest Benefit Auction are actually Test Colors!

As the Akhal-Teke mold is longer than a football field, he’s also not a priority for me. If I do get another example of the mold in the near future, I’m still hoping that it’s a nicely-shaded Adamek; I still haven’t found “the one” just yet.

I suppose I should address the brouhaha in the comments that broke out while I was busy binge watching art restoration videos and hand quilting. Since my fingertips are now a bit sore from that effort, I’ll try to keep things short and simple here.

Last year’s BreyerFest was Reeves’s first attempt at a true “hybrid” event, and… it showed. As I’ve said many times before, Reeves is not a large company, and the people who work their often have to fill multiple roles. 

Did they stretch themselves out a little too thin last year? Perhaps; on the other hand, since it was their first attempt at a true hybrid event, and they didn’t know what was going to work, and what wouldn’t. Like the online-only events, they will undoubtedly take the lessons that they learned from the first, and apply them to the second.

It’s a pretty safe assumption that there will be some changes, but the scope of the changes – and whether or not they actually “work” – well, we’re not going to know until we’re back in the thick of it again in July, right? 

(All I know for sure is that more volunteers will be needed, in-person and [probably] online. So if you’re interested, please apply!)

2020 and 2021 were events held under unique and extraordinary circumstances, and it is very, very unlikely that any future BreyerFests will be able to offer the full gamut of Special Runs and other items available at an in-person BreyerFest to online attendees.  

And as others have pointed out, what’s the point of having an in-person event if there is no stuff exclusive to the in-person event?

BreyerFest was originally designed and intended as a live, in-person event: an in-person experience cannot be fully or adequately reproduced online. Reeves’s attempts to duplicate the in-person experience in 2020 – for example, the whole timed ticket fiasco – often ended up causing more heartache than happiness. 

Personally, I think the way forward for them is simply have them be complementary events that happen to share some of the same models (the Celebration Horse, most of the Store Specials) and activities. And have models and activities unique to each experience. 

They’re apparently trying that with some of the Ticket Specials, restricting some of them to in-person participants only. My guess is that they’re also doing this with models that they foresee as being especially popular: they would rather make sure that they have enough of those models for people who made the physical and financial effort to go to Kentucky. 

I would hope that they do offer a little bit more in the way of compensation for online-only guests. As I suggested before, giving them a gloss option on the Store Specials would definitely help. 

But whatever they do, please remember that there are limits to what they can do as a relatively small company. Just a few years ago, the Online Option didn’t even exist: it’s going to be a while before they find the right balance of offerings. 

And remember that there are some people in the hobby – and life, in general – who will literally never be happy with anything, no matter what you do for them or what you offer them. There is usually something else going on under the surface there that no amount of pretty horses can fill. 

Christmas Lists

Well, I thought I was going to talk about the Roan Running Mares today, but there’s been lots of odd bits of news in the past few days that should be covered sooner, rather than later. 

First, it’s good to know I wasn’t the only one who got shorted on the Spooky Stablemates! It would also explain why the CSR I spoke to was unfazed about it. That makes me less worried about the whole situation.

Second, they finally confirmed the dates for next year’s BreyerFest; I know there were several folks out there worried about the dates changing after that initial announcement, but I think most of the delay was in getting the legal paperwork ironed out. 

(I’m not privy to any of that, but based on prior experiences, it seems like a pretty reasonable guess.)

I’m kind of hoping that their casual mention of Morgans in their BreyerFest ad copy means we’ll be seeing the Stretched Morgan next year, but it’s more than likely another release of Troubadour. Which I don’t mind, but my Stretched Morgan Army could use a few fresh recruits. I don’t think the mold has ever had a truly acquirable BreyerFest Special Run release, so he is due. 

(I am not counting Bennington or Showboat, because buying a Special Run should not require the sale of your kidney.)

And right after I put my foot down on my new pony purchases, Reeves casually dropped images of a ton of holiday merchandise, including a creepy-cool Winter Decorator Classic American Dream named Neva:

I’m pretty sure those zombie snowmen want to kill me. I wonder if this design got its start as a Halloween concept and was…slightly repurposed? I really dig the dark metallic blue and silver combo; it reminds me a little of the more blue-ish variants of the Sham release Rana. 

I will likely end up buying the Christmas Socks, because I’m always up for more novelty footwear, but otherwise I think I’m safe from temptation. 

As far as the Holiday Pony Playset goes, even though I am a big fan of the Pony of the Americas, I’d rather stick to the original version of the mold, rather than whatever goofy mane and tail wigs they’re putting on it now. 

It’s also extremely likely that I’ll never find the original Black Appaloosa POA or any of the 2010 WEG Toby variations, so the risk of a spontaneous shopping eruption is very, very small…

(And every time I say something like that, something magical inevitably happens.)

Shelburne

This weekend’s plans included working on my BreyerFest paperwork, and weeding and pruning the garden.

How are things going? The garden’s looking great. The paperwork, eh, not so much. Most of the writing is done, it’s the formatting and photography that might do me in. 

I always hope to get things done early, but it never works out that way, you know?

I also cleaned up my new Sorrel Family Arabian Mare and… discovered some things about her. I I think I’ll save that piece for a BreyerFest posting, though: it’s going to involve a little more research than I’m capable of right now. Let’s talk about my little Shelburne instead, who arrived late Friday night:

Ah, so cute! The promo pics definitely did not do him justice.

Most Breyer Morgan releases, until recently, were pretty conservatively colored. Heck, we didn’t even get a Chestnut Morgan until 1975, with the release of the G1 Morgan Stallion and Mare! I find this endlessly amusing, especially since Chestnut is the most common color among registered Morgans.

Though they did toy with more daring shades in the form of Test Colors, it wouldn’t be until the year 2000 that we’d see more colorful Morgans as production releases: the Dapple Gray BreyerFest Raffle Model Showboat on the Stretched Morgan (mold #48), and the Dappled Buckskin portrait of Montana Harvest on Justin Morgan (mold #65).

(I’m not counting the Dapple Gray and Alabaster G1 Morgan Stallions because they were technically released as Arabians.)

It’s not so big a deal now, of course. In fact, the initial photos of Shelburne, as I mentioned above, actually left me a little unimpressed. I chalked this up to (a) the perennial promo photo issues Reeves has, and (b) me being pretty picky about Buckskins in general. 

But his color was much richer in person, and his gloss is nice and thick, too. That certainly doesn’t hurt!

My favorite part of him, however, is his name. The Shelburne Museum has one of the finest collections of American Quilts in the country, and as a quilting nerd it’s definitely something I want to visit someday.

The VIP

Well hey, this showed up in my mail box:

Which is a very nice and welcome cap to an emotionally draining week! 

In addition to the Uffington and the Best of BreyerFest Stablemates Set, I think I’ll be going with Ansel and Queen of Hearts/Josie. 

I decided on Ansel because I love Blue Roan pintos in general, and the “concept” behind it: honoring Ansel Adams, a photographer whose mastery of his medium was so complete that it takes you a moment to realize what you are looking at is only Black and White. 

Josie I waffled on for a bit; while I love her chocolately bay color, I was a bit concerned about how her unique markings will render in production. Ultimately, I decided that the Bristol mold is popular enough that should I not find her to my liking, she wouldn’t be hard to rehome later.

I want to sleep on my selections one more day before I pay for them, though, because I was operating under the (usually correct) assumption that I wouldn’t have to worry about this decision until much later. 

I know it sounds like a rather depressing assumption, but as someone who is not naturally gifted with luck like some people are, I prefer to think of it as both pragmatic and absolutely necessary for my mental health.

I was also not surprised, at all, that people are trying to sell their tickets – at a nice markup, of course. Since you had to buy the entire package – two Special Runs, two Limited Editions, et al – I can understand selling off an item or two that you might not have wanted in the first place. 

But the whole package? Tacky and gross. I’m glad that Reeves put out a statement on the BreyerFest Blog to address this issue:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/breyerfest-blog/a-note-to-breyerfest-newcomers

The kicker is that Reeves is doing everything it can to make sure that everyone can get everything that they want – at least in terms of the Limited Editions – and effectively rendering much of the “pickup” industry moot. Why pay double for a Josie or Apollo, when you could just buy the All-Access pass and get the Celebration Horse and online access included for the same price?

I know some hobbyists are not happy about this development, also arguing that allowing backorders renders their “Limited Editions” worthless, or at least worth less. 

As someone who buys primarily for herself, this is a moot point for me; there’s a whole other discussion about rarity and value I’d rather not wrap my head around today.

And to be honest, if it helps tamp down some of the less honest among us who use the inexperience and desperation of the less informed among us to profit, so be it.