Something Sweet

There aren’t a lot of Beyer Equines that have a textured coat, and most of them are Foals, so I assumed that the sneak peek they gave us a couple days ago was a Misty. The mold is currently in production, and they’ve given us a couple of Decorator Misty releases for BreyerFest already: the original Florentine Raffle model in 1990, and the 2014 Silver Filigree Time to Party!

The only other molds that have a textured finish are Wildlife molds, and surely they couldn’t be giving us another crazy Decorator Animal so soon after the release of Montana?

I have never been more delighted to be completely wrong:

At last, a German Food-related Special Run I am on board with! (Seriously, “German Cuisine” is an oxymoron and I am dying on that hill. Marzipan? Dude?)

I did think they were considering a Gummi Bear Special Run, but I thought it’d be something Stablemates-related, and that we’d get stuck with another bovine as our Nonhorse release, like an Aurochs cobbled together from a Charolais Bull and the horns of a Brahma Bull. 

(I have been told that the Rin Tin Tin/German Shepherd mold is nonfunctional, so it was probably never an option. But they brought back the In-Between Mare, so who knows these days...)

These guys are so well done that I’ve shown them to a couple of non-hobbyists, who automatically assumed that they were actually edible. The only thing that would blow my mind more about these guys would be if they did offer an edible option, which I would also buy but feel slightly guilty about eating, but only partly because of the calories.

My only minor disappointment about the gummi Bear Cubs is that they didn’t include Orange or my favorite flavor, Pineapple. It wouldn’t surprise me if they do throw in a complete set of flavors into either the Silent or Live Auctions, though. 

The Bear Cub was last seen at BreyerFest in 2014 on the Kodiak and Denali set, which also included a Silver Charm Micro Run that I was not fortunate enough to get because I just don’t. 

I am a little apprehensive about the “scented” part; I am assuming that the smell is going to be on par with “New Horse Smell” in that it will be pretty potent when you unwrap them, and barely noticeable a week later.  

Montana

My CCA Box is here! Even though I genuinely don’t care who’s hiding within, I’ll still wait until Christmas to open it. What’s a few more days, right? I’m almost more excited about the Omega Fahim I know is in there: there were a couple at the last toy store I visited a few moons back, but they were clearly the ones left behind after handpicking had been done.

Well, I certainly didn’t have THIS on my Breyer Bingo Card:

I had to do a double take and make sure that the e-mail was actually from Reeves, and not some spoof account, because I thought one of you wiseacres was having a little bit of fun with Photoshop filters or something.

You know I am all for the Outrageous Animal Special Runs - just a few days ago I suggested, completely unironically, a Rainbow Calico Unicorn Kitten – but a Black Florentine Bighorn Ram?

Dude, just… no. 

The color looks cute on the Stablemate Chase pieces it previously appeared on, but here it’s just weird. And not a good way: more like a person randomly poking a model with a metallic paint pen weird.

It’s funny because I was just thinking that the only Web Special Micro Run that I’m almost completely uninterested in is the Bighorn Ram Rodney. I entered for him and would have gladly taken one, sure, but seeing the odd one for sale doesn’t take me to the same dark place other Micro Runs do. 

Same thing will go with Montana. I won’t turn him down if I get one, but I will also not be terribly upset if I don’t, either. I’m pretty sure he’ll look better in person than his press photo, but with a release like this is almost doesn’t matter.

The piece run on this thing is also kind of crazy: 490 pieces? What a completely random (and large!) number. Methinks they’re cleaning out the warehouse and possibly repurposing older/unsellable merchandise. 

For a quantity that large I would have gone with a Gambler’s Choice of two different colors instead – Gloss Chalky Alabaster and Charcoal, or Red and Green Filigree – but that wasn’t my call to make. You know, he might have also been kind of interesting in a patinated color, too, like the old Smoky release Durango. 

Hmm. Any of the older Hess Wildlife molds would look great that way, come to think of it. But then again, we’d have to put up with hobbyists complaining about the eyes not being painted, and that’s not how patinated bronzes work, people…

I have a nice example of the original release of the Bighorn, and both the Gray and Tan horn variations of the Dall Sheep. I’d eventually like to upgrade them to ones with stickers, which aren’t necessarily scarce, but are still a little pricey, nonetheless.

Ursa Major and Ursa Minor

Special Run Bears + Astronomical Theme = Yes, please!

The original Black and Brown Bear and Cub sets from the late 1960s/early 1970s were one of my first “big” flea market finds back in the early 1980s; my parents were quite perplexed to see me get so excited over something that was Not A Horse. 

I wouldn’t say I became obsessed with the molds per se, but I have tried my best to keep myself up-to-date with them.

While there are a few more recent strays I haven’t acquired yet, mostly because space is an issue (the Cub in the one Walmart Mustang set, the 2005 set rerelease, and the Bear and Cub that were sold separately in the early 2000s) the Silver variation of the BreyerFest 2014 Kodiak and Denali are the only ones I haven’t acquired (and am not likely to) because of financial reasons.

Yes, there’s been a set on eBay for forever. But it’s either pay up, or go without. And Breyers being the luxury they are, I’ve had to learn to do without. 

(FYI: $500 is about as high as I could go without starting to hyperventilate.)

Well, them and any Test Colors that might be floating around. I know for fact that there’s at least one set of standard black and white Panda Bears out there somewhere. A Chalky set of Polar Bears turned up on eBay several years ago and went well above my comfort zone, too.

The molds are not super popular in general and they’re making 350 sets so I am not overly concerned about being able to get them, even if I’m not picked from the initial list. But I will worry about that tomorrow, if need be.

I do love this particular “colorway” – Space Pinto, basically? – and I hope it makes its way onto other releases soon. Unicorns, Horses, other Nonhorses…. 

The Spanish Fighting Bull

(It appears that I am having some profound technical difficulties with my computer, yet again. I will spare you the details, but it took me two hours to edit a picture for this post today, which normally takes me about two minutes.)

First, two notes.

One: The Gold Elephant currently on eBay looks like a fake to me, and not a very good one either. Aside from the gold paint looking too bright and pristine, the footings of models from the 1950s through the 1980s were rarely that neat and clean.  

As for the price, some hobbyists have a far higher tolerance for risk than others. 

Two: Yes, I am aware of the Black Appaloosa Pony of the Americas on MHSP, and I am not going to put in an offer. While I am more confident of that item’s authenticity and I am not entirely uncomfortable with the starting price, I am emotionally tapped out right now.  

We’re also just entering the “silly season” of Web Specials, Holiday Promotions and Year-End Sales Events, and I have no doubt that even crazier things are upon us, if that’s even imaginable.

Moving on to the Spanish Fighting Bulls I mentioned previously, here are “The Boys”:

As you can see, one has distinctly painted light gray hooves, and the other has solid black ones. This doesn’t mean that one is significantly older and/or more valuable than the other: with the #73 Spanish Fighting Bull, whether or not he had black or gray hooves was a matter of who was assigned to paint him. 

The Spanish Fighting Bull sold moderately well – he was in production from 1970 through 1985 – and even though the mold itself was more complex than many other Breyer Bulls, he also came with a fairly simple Solid Black paint job.

But as I’ve said many times before, quality control at the Chicago factory was a variable thing, and sometimes painters took shortcuts to make production quotas. Details like subtly different hoof colors would be the first to go.

Aside from the hoof color, the other two significant variations of the Black Spanish Fighting Bull include the Presentation Collection piece, and the Chalky Era releases with Gray Plastic horns. Like most Presentation pieces, the former is quite rare, and the latter somewhat less so. 

You’ll also very rarely see examples with unpainted ears; they were separately molded pieces attached to the horns and – in the case of the original Black – often weren’t attached until after the body color was painted. That’s why many of them have horns that appear to be very cleanly masked. 

The ears would have then been painted with the same paint used to finish the horn tips, but if that step somehow got skipped or missed, sometimes so would the ears!

My original Spanish Fighting Bull is currently in storage, but I think the gray-hooved variation here might be an upgrade. It’ll be a few weeks before I get around to digging him out and I know for sure.

Reuben

Remember about a week ago, when I mentioned a basic math problem in passing: Decorator Color + Bull Mold = Winner?

Freckle Red Roan + Charolais Bull = Winter Web Animal Special Run Reuben!

Guys, seriously, I had no idea. It’s just another one of my random guesses hitting pretty darn close to the target. Again.

The old-style freckle roaning technique has been used on cattle molds before, most notably on the Longhorn Bull, like the QVC Rebel Special Run, and the Regular Run #399 Texas Longhorn from 2000-2004 that is was based on.

But Reuben most closely resembles the popular BreyerFest Special Run Spanish Fighting Bull Flint, from 1999.

Only 375 Flints were made for that BreyerFest; even though BreyerFest was much smaller then, he was still a hot commodity, and still retains much of his value now.

I know some hobbyists are a little apprehensive about committing to Reuben because of last year’s Woodgrain Pig Hawthorn. Hawthorn was perceived as not all that popular or desirable; he went through so many waitlisters, in fact, that even I eventually ended up with one, and I am somebody who never gets picked off the waitlist.

Based on the fact that I met a lot of people looking for Jaspers at BreyerFest this year, I think it was a simple mismatch of the selling method with the market. Hawthorn might have sold better – and even sold out – if he had been offered as a first-come, first-served Special, like the two previous Winter Web Animal SRs, the Longhorn Bull Olaf and the Cow and Calf Eldora and Sol.

Bulls are a different matter entirely.

The last release on the Charolais Bull, the 2012 Special Run Bowland, is one of the more popular of the recent Nonhorse BreyerFest releases, and a very casual look at recent eBay sales show that even the Regular Run releases are pretty easy sells. So throw in a well-designed vintage-style Red Roan paint job on top of a moderately popular Nonhorse mold, and he seems like a pretty safe bet to me.

I also have to say that I rather appreciate the clever pun of his name: as sandwich aficionados know, the primary ingredient in a Reuben is… corned beef!

(Corned Beef is also a very Irish thing, so the timing of this guy with the imminent onslaught of BreyerFest 2020 Celtic Fling marketing is... interesting.)

Waban

Just when we though we were safe, after the 350-piece release of the Woodgrain Special Run Jasper Hawthorn back in December, Micro Runs are ba-ack with the Gloss Charcoal Buffalo Waban:

The problem that comes with Micro Runs – namely, that so many people enter Micro Run drawings not for the item itself, but for what they can get for it – seems so insoluble that I’d feel like an actual genius (and not just a presumptive one) if I could somehow engineer an equitable solution to it.

But so far, nada.

The closest I can come is this: since many Nonhorse collectors are also Vintage enthusiasts, future Micro Run Animals could be exclusive drawings for Vintage Club members. The odds would be better – competing against 500 people instead of a couple thousand – and nonwinners could take some consolation that a bigger percentage of the entrants were entering because they actually wanted the model itself.

Considering Reeves upped its game on the Vintage Club, that might not necessarily be an extra perk worth throwing into the pot.

(But if it’s the only way to get another affordable #36 Racehorse Special Run, I am all for it. That darn Charcoal one in last year’s Benefit Auction was the first thing that popped in my head when I saw Waban.)

Special Run Nonhorses are a niche market, at best – certain cattle molds always do well, and items that can be targeted for very specific non-hobby markets (like the Donkey and Elephant, naturally) can usually sustain a larger piece run.

But everything else is a gamble, sales-wise – hence my mild hesitation about the BreyerFest Saint Bernard. I don’t want to “blow” my ticket slot on a Bucky if there will be substantial leftovers, especially since I’m liking/loving so many of the other releases that will be harder to acquire in the secondary market.

Unless they make the quantity on Bucky sufficiently low that the question becomes moot.

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!

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.

At Last, an Elk

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I have been campaigning for a Special Run Elk forever. At last, my wish has been granted, with Inari!

As for his name, “Inari” refers to the largest municipality in Finland, located within the heart of Finnish Lapland. It is also where they also hold the Reindeer Championship Race.

Yes, an Elk is not a Reindeer, but close enough is good enough for me.

And points for Reeves for making the BreyerFest Nonhorse Special Run actually kind of on point to the “racing” theme, in contrast to the two previous announcements – the Saturday Raffle Horse Woodford (on the Shannondell) and the Mare and Foal Set Julep and Pim (on the new Traditional Lipizzan Mare and Foal).

Mind you, I think both of those releases are quite beautiful – and if I somehow win a Woodford you’ll have to pry him from my pasty white hands – but it’s painfully obvious that they’ve gone out of their way to make these new molds fit a theme they are not designed for.

When you have a more nebulous concept with few obvious mold choices – like last year’s “India” theme – you can pull that sort of thing off better. But trying to sell a Draft Horse, a couple of Lipizzaners and an Andalusian as part of a racing theme?

Seriously, guys? I know you’ve got a business to run and hot new molds to promote, but you could try to be a bit more subtle about it?

Off the soapbox, and back to the Elk. (Who is now penciled in on top of my buy list for BreyerFest, if you haven’t already figured that one out.)

The Elk mold has had only two previous releases: the original #77 that ran from 1968 through 1997, and the #396 Rocky Mountain Elk that ran from 1998 through 2005.

Until now, Fans of the Elk mold have had to content themselves with variations of the original #77, and his 29(!) year run provided a few. Although the color didn’t vary a lot, it did vary: earlier examples are definitely lighter and browner, while later examples are redder and more chestnutty. Early Elks sometimes came with Blue Ribbon Stickers, and lack the USA mold mark. Pieces made near the end of its run (in early 1997) came with those mildly creepy, experimental bi-eyes.

Inari gives me hope that the Silver Charm Elk of my Christmas dreams might just come true. Then again, a lot of us are still waiting for a Holiday release of the Zebra mold after the BreyerFest release of the Caves of Lascaux back in 2015.

So I am not getting my hopes up, yet.

Brown Bear Mama

I was quite pleased to finally upgrade my Brown Bear Mama recently:

And the best part – she has a Blue Ribbon Sticker, too! Not a common thing to find on the Breyer Bear or Cub, since they don’t have much in the way of smooth surfaces where stickers could stay stuck.

The original release Bear Families (both the Brown and the Black) were one of my first “big” flea market finds back in the day – that day being in 1982! My family thought I was a bit nuts.

(These are not horses. Why is she buying these things that are not horses?)

Well, for one thing, they were one of my earliest Nonhorse purchases, and old ones, too. The original Breyer Brown Bear and Cub – numbers #307 and 309, respectively – were only available from 1967 through 1971. The Black Bear and Cub lasted through 1973 as individual releases, and then as a Family Set through 1976.

Even though they were relatively “rare” they weren’t all that expensive or desirable, which was another plus for me. Old, Scarce, Exotic, yet Affordable: that was a pretty potent combination for a budding Breyer Historian!

I could upgrade or collect variations as I pleased, and not worry too much about prices or competition. While they’ve never been a high priority in my herd, I’ve managed to keep up with the releases over the years, until recently.

I still need to get the Walmart Mustang set with the Cub, and the releases from the early 2000s. None of them are hard to get: newer, shinier things always seem to come up first and get in the way.

The Silver Charm Kodiak and Denali from BreyerFest 2014 also took a bit of wind out of my sails, dashing my hopes of completing my collection: I wasn’t lucky enough to get that set, and cheapskate me certainly can’t afford the aftermarket prices.

The Brown Bear was in the roughest shape of my original four: the timing, the price, or the condition never seemed to line up properly to allow me to upgrade her. Until I was cruising for some price comps on eBay a few weeks ago, and on a whim I decided to do a bit of Bear shopping.

And there she was!

There’s also one other thing worth noting about this particular Bear: take a look at the gigantic factory molding goober on her leg where the mold mark normally is. (One corner of the mold mark is just barely visible.)

While a flaw this large usually sends a model straight to the regrind bin, the fact that the mold already had a roughly textured finish (and was not a horse!) probably allowed it to pass QC.

It’s also interesting in that it’s more evidence to the contrary that everything was so much more awesome back in the Chicago days, quality-wise.

Everything else about her is great, so I see it more as an odd little quirk than a flaw.

Another Unexpected Thing

And here comes another unexpected thing, in the form of Diwali:

We’ve had years with more than one Nonhorse Special Run: 2002 comes to mind, which gave us the Glossy Buffalo Choc, and the Cougar and Wolf set Kohana and Bandit.

Since we already had one announced as a Pop-Up Store Special (Holi the Elephant) and one as a part of a Store Special (Dally the Jack Russell Terrier, in the Dally and Spanky set), having a third Nonhorse as a Ticket Special seemed unlikely to me.

There have been numerous small Special Runs on the Cow, but most of them have been variations of the original five releases – Holstein, Jersey, Brown Swiss, Guernsey and Ayrshire. The one deviation was the 2008 BreyerFest Special Run Simmental Cow and Calf Heidi and Edelweiss.

Aside from being in a new (for her) color, Diwali is an entirely different finish from all other Breyer Cow releases too: she is both Glossy and Chalky. No other official production release of the Cow has ever been Glossy, and although there are a handful of Chalky Holstein Cows floating around the hobby, she’s so rare that chances are good that you have never even seen one.

As someone who makes her extra hobby cash reselling flea market finds, I’ve found that the Cow (even the common Holstein) is also one of the quickest and easiest of Breyer molds to resell. Whenever I’m lucky enough to bring one to sell at BreyerFest, it’s usually one of the first things to leave my room.

So even though the past few Nonhorse Special Runs didn’t sell out in Kentucky, I have a feeling that Diwali might. That adorable red and gold blanket doesn’t hurt, either!

Reeves is making it very hard for me this year, and extending the deadline for Early Bird tickets by a couple of days is not helping.

And Now For Something Completely Vintage

Criminy, Reeves is crushing it this year with the BreyerFest Special Runs:

When they made a reference on the blog to “one of Chris Hess’s most iconic sculpts” I assumed it was going to be one of the “Decorator Five” – the molds used for the original Decorator releases in the 1960s: Mustang, Five-Gaiter, Fighting Stallion, and the Running Mare and Foal.

I figured it had to be either the Mustang or the Running Mare: the Gaiter would have been too hard (even for Reeves!) to reconcile with the theme, the Fighter they seem to reserve for extra-special rarities like raffles and giveaways, and they rarely have a Foal Special independent of a Mare.

I thought it’d be the Mare, because (a) the Mustang recently had a pretty nice release with the 2015 Exclusive Event My Kind of Town, and (b) there was that Translucent Sample Chinese Running Mare that showed up on eBay a little while back that made me think we’d be getting something extra special on that mold in the near future.

But I am completely fine with Darjeeling, who is very reminiscent of the 2015 Western Horse release Glitterati. I am so fine with it, in fact, that I’ll probably be spending the next few days trying to reconcile myself to the notion of having to buy two tickets, instead of the “just one” I promised myself.

It makes me glad, in a way, that the Elephant Holi is a Pop-Up Store Special: while the “Tent of Despair” has its own challenges, at least I won’t have to buy another ticket.

The only thing that has me worried is that I think the Elephant will be fairly popular and may even sell out at the event this year. The Elephant is one of those Nonhorse molds that is a reliable and consistent seller with hobbyists and nonhobbyists alike – and, come to think about it, the ideal kind of Special Run for a venue that’s supposed to be geared (in theory) more towards the tourist/casual collector crowd.

Also, if there is one item in the Breyer lineup – aside from the Celebration Model – that is directly and obviously relevant to the Indian theme, it’s an Elephant.

And it has freckles and gold toenails! Gah! Prior to Holi, most of the previous production releases on the Elephant have had minimal extra detailing, outside of the eyes, mouth and tusks. It’s not something that’s noticed or noted much, because the mold’s plethora of lumps, bumps, wrinkles did most of work in the past.

But now that they’re there, they make such a difference! There is some pretty nice actual shading in the gray paint, too, underneath those decals.

I have no idea if we’ll be getting any more Vintage molds in the lineup, or another Nonhorse Ticket Special. I certainly wouldn’t mind either, though I’m sure my bank accounts would…

An Elephant of Another Color

And right on cue, an all-too-obvious Elephant clue:

Gray with painted decorations, in the same manner Elephants are decorated for the Elephant Festival, which happens a day before the Festival of Colors – Holi – that (not coincidentally!) just wrapped up.

And that’s just about what I expected. I know a lot of people were hoping or expecting a White Elephant, but the more I thought about it, the less likely it became.

First, although a White Elephant named Airavata was the mount of Indra, King of the Gods, White Elephants are more closely associated with the history and mythologies of Southeast Asia (Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia).

Second, the term “White Elephant” has some rather negative connotations I think Reeves might not have wanted to associate with a Nonhorse Special Run. Wikipedia, again:

The expressions “white elephant” and “gift of a white elephant” came into common use in the middle of the nineteenth century. The phrase was attached to “white elephant swaps” and “white elephant sales” in the early twentieth century. Many church bazaars held “white elephant sales” where donors could unload unwanted bric-a-brac, generating profit from the phenomenon that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Many organizational and church fairs still use the term today. In general use a “white elephant” usually refers to an item that’s not useful (decorative) but may be expensive and odd.

Considering some of the issues they’ve had in the past few years with Nonhorse BreyerFest Specials not selling as well as they hoped, marketing an actual “White Elephant” could be a, uh, little problematic?

The 1950s Pink Elephant was a bit cringe-worthy in retrospect, too. I tend to be somewhat more forgiving of that one since believe that that release – along with its Blue friend – were a one-time/one-run deal designed to use up colored acetate that had been earmarked for another project that had gone by the wayside.

Since the first BreyerFest Elephant Special Run – 2006’s Nimbo – was a straight-up Decorator of the Copenhagen Blue variety, it also seemed unlikely that they’d go with another, unless they were going to do the Surprise SR on it to “complete” the set. But I really doubted they would go for a Nonhorse Surprise.

Decorator Ageless Bronze – like the Commemorative Edition Durango – might have worked, and would have been a nice callback to the infamous “Bronze Glo” models that turn up from time to time, a club of whom the Elephant is a member. (Side note: I am skeptical of many “Bronze Glo” models I’ve seen. Like Gloss, it’s a finish that’s very easy to fake.)

I would have been all-in on another release with the rarely-seen plastic Howdah, but that would have been a little too “Modernistic Buck and Doe”-level obscure, I think. And I say that as someone who has advocated for another release on the Modernistic Buck and Doe.

So an Elephant in fancy festival makeup it is. The only question remaining is whether or not it will be a Ticket Special, or a Pop-Up Store Special? A difficult decision for me, either way.

Winter Surprises

No Olaf for me – I didn’t even have a choice in the matter, since I got home from work about 15-20 minutes after they sold out. If it had been the day before (when I was home earlier than usual) or the day after (my day off) the situation might have been different.

Or if they had announced it when they had usually announced these sort of things – early afternoons or evenings…

…but if there’s been anything consistent about these December Surprises, it’s their complete inconsistency. We’ve had Giveaways (the War Horse), Vault Sales, Christmas Day Sales, Boxing Day Sales, Micro Runs, 350-piece Purchase Raffles, 350-piece Direct Purchase items, Gambler’s Choices, Christmas Decos, Black Friday Surprises and Gifts with Purchase Offers.

I take some consolation in having mixed feelings about the release itself.

To deal with some of my space issues here, I had sold off a couple Longhorns, and I am considering letting go of a couple more. He really is one of the shelf-hoggiest of shelf hogs, and I’d like to devote that space to other Nonhorse molds I’m currently more interested in – namely, the Dogs and the Deer Family. So he was not a must-have for me.

It seemed like an odd mold choice, too, as the Longhorn Bull isn’t something I’d associate with either cooler climes or Holiday themes. The name grates me a little, but that’s strictly a personal thing – whomever it is on Team Breyer that’s a big fan of the Disney references, I wish they’d give it a rest.

On the plus side, the money I might have spent on Olaf I got to spend on something else – a Grab Bag! I wasn’t going to buy one, initially – my sales inventory is almost at a manageable level here, finally, and I didn’t want to risk adding to it so soon. But one of the Grab Bags (#1) had the newer Deer Family, the Eve and Claus Mare and Foal set, and some of the leftover WEG 2014 Special Run Classics, and since those were all things I had been actively eyeing before, it was a no-brainer.

And I get another shot at a Silver Sherman Morgan too. (Third time’s the Charm? Literally, maybe?)

The color on the Olaf pretty though – I think I’ve made it abundantly clear this year that I do love me some Gloss Alabaster – and the fact that it is a 350-piece run, and not a 40-piece one is oddly encouraging. That means if I find some shelf space, and one at an affordable price (IOW: not too far off the issue price) six months or a year down the road, it might be doable.

I am curious if Olaf was made from bodies leftover from the 2007 BreyerFest Special Run Alamo – as I suspect the 2009 Lone Star Experience Wranglers were – or if this is a precursor to either another Special Run or Regular Run Longhorn in the near future.

Time will tell, I guess.

Brindles

I honestly wasn’t expecting the rather intense reaction to the latest Stablemates Club release Diesel – a Gambler’s Choice/Surprise on the G4 Reiner:

Guess that means I can cross off trying to complete the set – at a reasonable price! Ah well, it’s been a long time since my Stablemates collection was more or less complete, anyway. (Though I am thinking about remedying that situation somewhat next year.)

I’ll be happy with whatever one I end up with, but I think the Brindle is my favorite – it’s a rarely attempted color, especially on horses. The best known Breyer Brindles include the 1995 Boxer “Pug”, the Companion Series Great Dane, the 2008 Exclusive Event Bull Rodeo Drive, last year’s BreyerFest SR Le Taureau, and the Broken Horn Saddlery Bull “Charlie”:

We rarely see brindling attempted on horses, outside of Test and Auction pieces, like this year’s Man o’ War Lot:

(I liked him, but I could have done without that weird tail.)

And this lovely Smart Chic Olena from 2012:

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/BreyerFest/images/bf12smart.jpg

There’s probably a reason for that: Reeves is still trying to get “brindle” right, at least from a mass-production horse standpoint. It’s one thing to make a singular piece for auction, but it’s quite another to reproduce it consistently and well across several hundred or thousand pieces.

It’s been reserved largely for Nonhorse molds because aside from being a more commonly found pattern in dogs and cattle – and cats, if you count “tabby” as a type of brindling – collectors tend to be a bit more forgiving when it comes to paint jobs on Nonhorse molds.

If I am remembering right, I do believe the little Diesel is the first mass production attempt of a full-blown brindle paint job on a horse mold. Though in this case, it is only a Stablemate, and there will still only be a few hundred made, at best.

But it’s a start.

A Different Kind of Cat

The Store Special of Diablo DC, a Matte Light Dapple Gray on the Desatado mold isn’t all that surprising – I think most of us were expecting a Desatado release in the mix somewhere. Reeves refers to the Desatado mold as the “Criollo Horse”, and this year’s event is South American-themed.

I’ve passed on or passed along every Desatado that’s come across my path so far, so I’ll have to wait and see on this one before I make a decision. The Matte Alabaster finish is definitely a plus!

(Scroll down to January 22nd. Discussion of beautiful Raffle Model Cinza will be for another day.)

I was just thinking about what this year’s Nonhorse Special Run could be. While it’s likely to be – yet again – another Bull mold of some sort, I continue to hold out hope that Reeves is thinking outside of the box. Yes, I’m hoping for a different “Big Cat” Special Run for Fest this year: perhaps a Jaguar on the Cougar mold?

The Cougar mold has already been released as a BreyerFest Special Run once before, as part of the 750-piece 2002 Set “Bandit and Kohana”, with the now very, very popular Wolf mold. The Cougar mold has been out of production since 2007, and it’s high time for another release, I say.

The Cougar mold was introduced as part of a couple different Walmart Mesteno-Mustang sets in 2001 – Rufo and Diablo, and Azul and Fausto. It was then released in various shades of tan in subsequent sets, eventually getting its own stand-alone Regular Run in 2005-2006, as #3813.

I’ve had a few Cougars over the years – mostly body quality pieces via box lots and flea markets. I’ve since sold all of them too, partly because they were useless for research purposes: they had no context. I had no idea if I was in the possession of a standard issue Cougar from Set A, B or C, or a variation or oddity.

It exposed a hole in my knowledge and I wasn’t comfortable with that.

It’s something I’d like to rectify eventually, but my budget and timing have been conspiring against me on that. (I heard rumor that a few leftovers of the Bandit and Kohana set were in the Ninja Pit last year. Sigh.)

If Reeves thinks a spotted pattern a little too challenging to execute competently – and with the mold’s small size and textured coat, it may well be – I think many of us would be happy with a basic Black Panther. Pair it up with a Classic Horse and Rider and there you go – a Pantanal Play Set!

Probably won’t happen; a Brahma Bull modified into an Indo-Brazilian Bull, with short horns and droopy ears seems more likely:

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/indobrazilian

The Brahma Bull hasn’t been in production since 2004, when the #385 Red Brahma was discontinued. If they can make the necessary horn and ear adjustments to the mold, and since the ears and horns of the Brahma are separately molded parts, I don’t see that being a big technical or financial hurdle.

Le Taureau and Consistency

I did come home with one bonafide Gloss from Kentucky – the Spanish Fighting Bull Le Taureau:

It’s been two weeks, though, and I still haven’t made a “connection” to him yet. I almost always opt for the Nonhorse choice almost out of habit, because I dig those molds in general. He’s really well done, but I’m still not feeling the love yet.

Other stuff needs to be sold off sooner (bodies, ephemera, some boxed items) so he might have a few more months to settle in with the local crowd before he gets exiled to the sales list.  

One admirable thing about this Special Run is the variability of the paint job; the ones I’ve seen in person and online vary widely, from very light to very dark, lightly striped to heavily so. My guy falls more toward the darker end of the spectrum.

If there’s one legitimate claim to be had about Breyers “not being made the way they used to be” it’s in the realm of variability: there’s just not as much variation as there used to be.

Some of that is attributable to the short and sweet production runs: it’s easier to maintain consistency over a 6 month or one year run, and opposed to one stretching decades.

But a lot of it has to do with improved quality control. Some of you may be snickering in the corner thinking “yeah, right” but hear me out: one part of quality control is in maintaining consistency.

Every model nowadays is “on model”, so to speak. Every once and a while you’ll find an especially nice example of something out there – more shading, cleaner masking, a little lighter or darker – but Breyer models, in general, are almost annoyingly consistent now.

This is a good thing for the average/low information consumer, who wants a model to look like it does in its promo pictures (more or less).

But for some of us fuddy-duddies who were around in the good old days, where – in spite of the picture on the box, you really weren’t sure what you were getting when you opened it – there’s a little bit less mystery and allure.

If you were particularly enamored of one release of a model, like I was with the Dapple Gray Azteca/ Foundation Stallion, those variations gave us the opportunity to buy that same beloved creature multiple times.

If there’s one change that they can make to the Vintage Club releases, it’d be the introduction of more variability within the runs. Not just the Gloss/Matte thing, but almost anything: gray hooves vs. pink hooves; star vs. no star; “Blue” Charcoal vs. “Chocolate”  Charcoal, or different halter or eye colors.

There’s been a little bit of that more recently, with the reintroduction of splash spotting technique and the “Gambler’s Choice” on the Running Stallion. Judging from the generally favorable response, it might be time for Reeves to kick it up a notch.

For The Third Time

He’s a beautiful model, actually, though saddled with a rather unimaginative name: Le Taureau. It’s French for The Bull.

Still on the fence whether or not he’ll be on my buy list: I’m going through another one of my "I own too much stuff" phases, and I’m trying to buy less of everything, in general, outside of incidental finds at local thrift stores. (Still looking to replace that stolen scarf!)

Another reason for my ennui about him? This is the third go-round for the Spanish Fighting Bull as a "Stand in Line/Ticket" Special Run. Several of the horse molds have reached that milestone, but he is the first Nonhorse mold so far. His first appearance was in 1999, as the Red Roan Flint, and again in 2004 as the gray-brown pinto Magnifico.

The Brighty has been a BreyerFest Special three times, as well, but only once - 2005’s Oliver - as a Ticket SR. He was a Diorama Contest Prize in 2010 (the Red Dun Pinto Cameo) and a Store Special in 2013 (Tennessee Titan).

The Small Poodle has appeared twice - or five times, depending on how you count the "Surprise Poodle Raffle" of 1997, where they raffled off four pieces each of four different colors: Gray, White, Apricot and Gloss Black. The other time being the pink Cotton Candy in 2009.

The Longhorn Bull has appeared twice (2001’s Mesquite, and 2007’s Alamo), as has the Pig (1999’s Oreo, and 2013’s Short Ribs). All of the other Nonhorses have appeared only once, if at all.

Nonhorse molds that haven’t shown up as BreyerFest SRs yet include: the Brahma Bull, the Polled Hereford Bull, the Polled Walking Angus Bull, the Standing Black Angus Bull, the Elk, the Moose, the Deer Family, the Large Poodle, the Pronghorn Antelope, the Bighorn Ram, the Zebra, the Bassett Hound, the Standing Donkey…

It’s a way longer list than even I expected, even if we factor out the handful of these molds that have appeared in the auctions, like the Glow-in-the-Dark Elk, and the infamous "Fruit Stripe" Zebra.

Some of these would be a tough sell  - Glacier aside, how many things can you do with the Pronghorn Antelope? - and others would probably be cost-prohibitive, like the Elk and Moose and their delicate antlers. Benji and Tiffany pretty much tanked when they were released, so a new release of either of those seems unlikely, no matter how cleverly you could work it into a theme.

Even so, four of the Bull molds: Inconceivable! None of them as exciting as the Spanish Fighting Bull, perhaps, but still deserving of some time in the blistering hot Kentucky-in-July sun.

Rather Roundabout Rationalizations

Oddly, I feel a little disappointed that the Nonhorse Special Run for BreyerFest is probably going to be on a Spanish Fighting Bull.

http://www.breyerhorses.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=7003

Even thought it’s an activity most associated with Spain, bullfighting also occurs in France, for better or worse. Here’s a picture of a member of La Race Espagnole in a color similar to the preview picture:

http://www.krankykids.com/cows/mydailycow_2009/2009_march/20090329.html

(Just a head’s up: this is very addictive web site for minutiae-obsessed folks like us. Oh, the customizing possibilities!)

My disappointment stems not from the fact that it’s a Fighting Bull release, and the spectre of bullfighting that it brings up, though I do find that problematic. Most of my disappointment is that I got myself all het up about the possibility of another Dog or Cat release.

The decision on Reeves’s part was a no-brainer: cattle molds sell better than the Cats and Dogs, period. The Creepy Meow "Patches", the Collie "Jester", the Poodle "Cotton Candy", the Saint Bernard "Beethoven"? All had leftovers, some for years. Cattle? Mostly sell-outs.

Well, I can always hold out hope for a little something in the "Grande Marche Souvenir Shop". If I can manage to make it in this year before everything sells out there, too.

Getting back to the oddness of the mold selection, I did a little research that makes it seem a little less odd. First and foremost, the stock is being considered for inclusion in an effort to create - or recreate - a low-maintenance cattle breed that could essentially defend itself against large predators. (Could you imagine a Fighting Bull and Cougar Gift Set? That could be neat!)

In the past, the Fighting Cattle breeds were also used in an attempt to recreate the ancient Aurochs, a now extinct primitive wild ox that was essentially a game animal in Europe. Some reconstructions on this Wikipedia page bear more than a passing resemblance to the Fighting Bull mold:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs

There’s an excellent illustration there of an Aurochs fighting off a pack of wolves, in a pose very similar to the Breyer.

One of the earlier reconstruction efforts was, alas, tied to a rather dark time in human history, and for less than enlightened purposes. More modern efforts focus on the hope that a recreation could, in addition to assisting cattle breeders, also help fill the place of its wild ancestor in the European landscape.

Also, Aurochs are prominently illustrated in the famous Paleolithic cave paintings of Lascaux, in southwestern France. That'd be a rather roundabout way of getting a cattle mold into the SR lineup, but a better attempt than others (like the Stretched Morgan in the British-themed year. Still scratching our heads over that one.)

All Dalled Up

I’ve decided that this month I’m going to devote a little time to shuffling and reorganizing the collection, a shelf or a box a day. It seems a less intimidating task that way, plus it gives me the opportunity to stockpile some photos for future posts and topics.

First up are a couple of "office buddies" who are going back into storage; a pair of Bell-bottomed Shires are taking their place in the desktop rotation:

The #85 Dall Sheep was probably released in 1970, shortly after the Bighorn Ram mold it was based on was introduced; the ephemera of that era is, to be charitable, less than clear on the subject. While the original release of the Bighorn Ram continued in production through 1980, the Dall Sheep was discontinued in 1973.

As you can see, in spite of his relatively short production run, he came in two distinct color variations: Gray, and Tan. The Gray ones seem to be more common than the Tan, but I don’t know to what degree. I’m not even sure which variation came first. There are, supposedly, a few pieces out there that have a mix of gray and tan shading, but I can’t recall seeing one personally.

Even though the Gray one may be the more common of the two, I prefer him to the Tan, if only because blue-gray color of the paint contrasts nicely with his pretty brown eyes, an unusual feature for any Breyer release from the 1970s. It’d be decades before see brown eyes again on any Breyer production piece, Horse or Nonhorse.

Although it’s a relatively uncommon Nonhorse release, Dall Sheep aren’t too expensive or too difficult to find. The only exception to that would be if you’re looking for one with a Blue Ribbon Sticker: the few I’ve seen always ended up a little bit beyond my financial comfort zone.