Kindness

Thank you everyone for the kind words; I’ve been checking the comments the past couple of days whenever I’ve hit a rough patch, and it’s helped immensely. It wasn’t unexpected, but it still hurts like hell regardless. 

Whenever the house got really quiet before, we just knew she was up to no good, and sometimes I catch myself wondering exactly what order of mischief she is up to now….

I guess I’m fortunate that I’ve also had a lot of work to keep me distracted, too. All those odds and ends that rush at you in the weeks before BreyerFest that absolutely must be attended to simply haven’t given me the room to dwell. 

Most of you who attend in person are familiar with that feeling.

Fate has her favorites and I know I am not one of them, especially this year, but maybe she’ll look kindly my way and favor me with a Raffle Model? I love them both, in different ways:

I’m not a fan of Buckskin Pintos generally, but the Buckskin Overo on the Rotating Draft Cleveland Bay Surprise Model last year was probably my favorite of all the colors it came in last year. And boy howdy, it also looks awesome on the Fireheart.

Reeves has been absolutely crushing it with the paintjobs on that mold; when I have the time and the space, I’ll definitely make some time to go get me a Mojave. 

Pintaloosas aren’t a huge favorite in the model horse world, a reflection of the same biases apparent in the live horse world. Personally I love them, but other than the Fun Foals Standing Stock Horse Foal I picked up in the NPOD years ago, I haven’t had much luck scoring some of the scarcer and flashier ones. The new Classic/Freedom release on the Liam mold is intriguing, but possibly not wild and crazy enough for me; I haven’t seen one in person yet to decide. That Cancion, though, that Cancion….

I won’t go out of my way to buy more tickets than I usually do; I have another trip literally the day after BreyerFest to also pay for, and I don’t think I’ll be able to bring quite as much stuff to sell as I wanted to this year due to the live show thing. 

But I’ll see what I can do; things usually have a way of working themselves out in the end. Or at least I like to think so. 

Raffles and Sales Lists

I did not think it would take as long as it did, but I think I finally have the sales list sorted out. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had to seriously compose one, and I had no idea I was that out of practice. 

It also didn’t help that there were a few pieces from one of the small collections I bought a while back that needed some serious cleaning up. And there’s just something so relaxing about cleaning horses, you know…

(Are there YouTube videos of people cleaning model horses? If not, there should be…)

Other than a potential upgrade I bought yesterday (because the opportunity presented itself), I don’t think there will be any significant additions to it between now and then. The only question is going to be just how many of the boxed models I’ll be able to get in the car on top of the bins and miscellaneous stuff I have to bring (there are so many bodies!) 

I also feel like I may have made some wrong decisions on what to sell. I’ve never had to intentionally leave stuff home before, and it just feels wrong. But I’m not renting a truck, and I’m not shipping a darn thing, and that’s that. 

I was also unsure about pricing, but I decided to go with the same pricing scheme I’ve always gone with: cheap! I do have a few nice vintage items, variations, and I might bring a CCA Gloss or two if they fit, but most of my stuff is well below the 50 dollar threshold, and the majority is under 25. 

If people think they can resell my stuff at BreyerFest, they’re welcome to try. (I have seen… attempts, before.) I’ll take my cut and move along.

Anyway, today’s the first day I’ve had a chance to skim the program, and I finally got a good look at the Raffle Models:

Not crazy about the names for obvious reasons (ugh, such a cliché). I’m still a little cool to the new Zafirah mold – I’m sure I’ll like her better in person because that’s usually how things work with Breyer photos. But I also tend to be a bit old school when it comes to my Arabians, so her attenuated look is a little concerning. 

But her paint job looks lovely and I do like Dapple Gray Pintos in general, and I am definitely not turning her down if my number gets drawn. 

I like the Troubadour mold better, obviously, though the paint job is a little… goofy? Silver Dapple Morgans tend to be a little more conservatively marked than other breeds that carry the gene, which is kind of why it took a while for it to be identified in the first place. 

That one will hurt a little more when I will inevitably will not get drawn for it, though it would be fitting since the one time I was drawn for a raffle was for another goofily dappled Morgan: Showboat! 

I don’t think it will happen because I unintentionally manifested a Holographic Silver Uffington on this blog last year, and I am pretty sure the Universe is not going to be as accommodating this time around.   

By the way, I did make an attempt to watch a movie last night: I fell asleep about two-thirds of the way in. Maybe next weekend, if I’m not completely exhausted by all the BreyerFest prep by then... 

It’s All Good

First, let’s start with an unequivocable good: this stunning, drop-dead gorgeous Malik I found at Tuesday Morning several months back that I never got around to opening until today:

While I liked the mold itself, I wasn’t overwhelmed by the color of most of the ones I saw. I thought I’d have to wait until they released him in a different color before I’d finally buy one. And then I was shopping for something else entirely and this guy practically threw himself at me. Of course I had to take him home!

Now they’re on the verge of releasing the mold as The Black Stallion, and now I’m all in on this mold, until they release something I can’t obtain or afford. Which isn’t super likely – it is a Classic (oops sorry, Freedom Series) mold – but I might as well prepare myself for the possibility.

As expected, no Meadowlark for me. I have pretty much consigned myself to the very real possibility of not getting picked for any Web Specials until the current Collectible market boom finally busts.  

I have mixed feelings about the Saturday Raffle model Bonheur:

Positives: the color is beautiful, the gloss is thick and deep, and from what I can see of the markings, there appears to be an attention to detail that’s going to be much more apparent in person, and we all should know by now that models can’t really be evaluated by web site photographs. 

Negatives: Not the fact that she’s solid – I truly do not care one way or another – but that it’s going to open up the “Solid versus Patterned” debate again. Hobbyists complain that there are too many pintos and appaloosas, but when they give us more solid colors, hobbyists complain that they’re boring. 

Whatever happened to the saying “A good horse can be any color?”

The other negative – for me, anyway – is the fact that they named it after Rosa Bonheur. When they announced the Diorama Contest theme, I just knew that a significant portion of the entries – if not the majority – were going to be based on the painting The Horse Fair. And at least a few of them will win, because it’s The Horse Fair. 

Setting aside the historical significance of the painting – because most people are either unaware, or uninterested in it – the image itself has become a safe, conventional and almost stereotypical one today. The antithesis of the kind of artwork that inspires me.  

And possibly one of the reasons why I rarely succeed at these contests. I am the weird kid staring at the reconstruction of The Dragon of Marduk, while everyone else is taking pictures of themselves with the Rivera Murals. (Not that the Rivera Murals are not awesome. They are just... obvious.)

I will not turn down a Bonheur if I win one, though. But it’s been a long time since I’ve won anything.

Like Lightning

As someone who: chose Ansel as one of my BreyerFest Special Run selections; who wrote a paper about Georges Melies for a high-school French class, then rewrote it in English for a college Film History class; who was ridiculously excited when they found a near-complete print of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis; and who has a huge pile of vintage film memorabilia about “Rex, King of the Wild Horses” stashed under her bed…… yeah, I want that danged Raffle Model! I want Muybridge like a chocoholic wants a Bumpy Cake. (Thought to be honest, I like the Caramel Bumpy Cake just a touch better.)

Icelandics just happened to be on my mind: I was just starting to price the two Jóls (clear, and teal) I still need to get, and I had already decided that Sporður frá Bergi is on my BreyerFest shopping list. I had also recently been pricing Honeysuckles, but that is clearly not going to happen any time soon...

Like last year, to simulate the BreyerFest experience I’m going on a mini-road trip that will consist of me shopping at a couple of local toy stores, and then stopping at The Telway for sliders and onion rings. (And if anyone wants to come with, let me know.)

I know the odds of me winning a Raffle Model are probably about the same as me getting hit by lightning.  Incidentally, I’ve come pretty close to that a couple of times, too, but those are both instances where I’m grateful it was a near miss. 

But this model hits all my buttons: a Silver Black Splash Icelandic with blue eyes? Named after Eadweard Muybridge? Losing this one’s gonna hurt more than most. 

Inexplicable Things

FYI: Both Winx and Crystalline are currently out of stock on the Breyer web site; the Winx because of PR like this:

https://www.horseracingnation.com/news/Winx_is_the_newest_addition_to_the_Breyer_stable_123

The second photo of Winx on the Breyer web site looks very similar to the BreyerFest 2018 Celebration Horse Brass Hat, so I’m more than willing to wait for the luxury of handpicking.

They also dumped two more BreyerFest reveals on us this week, both Appaloosas. First it was the Sunday Raffle Model Fields of Heather, a Nez Perce Horse on the Akhal-Teke/Altynai mold because sure whatever:

Yeah, yeah, beautiful. I’m trying not to get too excited about this one either because aside from the fact that it’s a Raffle Model – and by its very nature, virtually impossible to get – it’s also on a mold I have some apprehensions about.

Mostly by virtue of its length: I’ve already given my heart to the Shagya Arabian mold, and I don’t need another three-foot-long beast competing for shelf space here.

And is it just me, or does this model bear some significant similarities to another Appaloosa release on another dimensionally-challenged mold: namely, the Traditional Black Beauty Sir Wrangler? (More of a coincidence than a callback, I think.)

What I am more excited about is this inexplicable creature: a Buckskin Appaloosa Trakehner? Named Thorn? This is also not a release I would have expected from this theme, but in this case I do not care:

While I’m “old school” and I’d prefer the mold the way it used to be – with the textured coat and the original tail – I’ll still take him. In Gloss, in Matte, and any Decorator surprises they might be throwing in the mix, too. All on the easier to find side, I hope.

(I am also assuming that the actual model will be somewhat less yellow in person, just like last year’s Clydesdale Mare Pepper was.)

With this final reveal of the ticket models, it’s very odd that there’s apparently no true “Decorator” in the BreyerFest mix this year. Makes me wonder if that means… something? Most curious.

The Trakehner mold has only had two other spotted releases, neither one of them an Appaloosa: the #732 Spotted Trakehner in Black Pinto, and the #702395 Kaleidoscope in Red Bay Pinto, both in the 1990s. Otherwise it has been all solids, all the way back to 1979.

And Bay. Mostly Bay.

Aside from my fondness for the mold, he shares a name with another character in another on-again, off-again writing project. While Khalid was my interpretation of the “perfect vampire boyfriend,” Thorn is “your best friend who may – or may not – be an actual dog.”

(A fairy curse may be involved.)

So that settles it: my two definites this year are Hamish (the Standing Black Angus Bull) and Thorn. Everyone else I need to see in person before I make a decision.

The 2020 Early Bird

The Early Bird Special Run has been announced, and it’s an Esprit named Dyflin:

The Esprit mold has been used as a BreyerFest Special Run numerous times: as the Celebration Horse Pecos in 2011, the 2012 Decorator Prince of Chintz, and in eight different variations (four Matte, four Gloss) in 2016’s Samba Surprise.

It’s also come in a number of scarce and/or difficult to find Special Run releases, including the 2010 Web Special Silver Filigree Alpine, the 2011 Equine Affaire Dappled Bay Steppin’ Out, and the 2010 World Equestrian Games Dappled Flaxen Chestnut and Glossy Silver Bay.

So, in short, the Esprit mold is one tough little bugger to collect, and Dyflin is not going to make the task any easier. They’re taking a different approach this year and drawing the names not long after the Early Bird’s April 15 deadline, presumably to shorten the already-too-long raffle process Saturday afternoon.

It’s a good idea in theory, but many people buy tickets for pick-ups because they have no conceivable way of attending in the first place. I don’t see how finding out that you were drawn for an Early Bird Raffle model will change your travel plans. (“Sorry about that deadline boss, but I have to fly to Kentucky on Saturday to pick up a plastic horse.”)

And in the end, it will still probably lead to a name or two having to be pulled, anyway.

At the 2003 BreyerFest, Reeves thought they could do a variation of that – pull all the names for the Raffle Models first, and then call them out – and that didn’t go over so well, either. Even though I know the names that got tossed out of the pile were simply duplicates (you know, from those folks who buy 500+ tickets) it still looked a little hinky from the crowd’s perspective.

There are a lot of ways to improve time management at BreyerFest. This is not one of them.

Dyflin reminds me of both the 2017 Early Bird Raffle Model Sokkar, and of one of my favorite BreyerFest Special Runs – the Decorator Ethereal Times Square. (What can I say? I love a Glossy Black!) But I am not going to work myself up over it like I did with the Man o’ War Riddle.

The Expected, and The Unexpected

It’s interesting to me that of the two BreyerFest Raffle items, it’s the Duende North Star that intrigues me more – perhaps because it was slightly unexpected?

Only slightly – Straight Bet was one of the more popular items at BreyerFest last year. What I didn’t expect was that they’d follow up with another BreyerFest release of Duende a year later, also in a Glossy Solid colorway.

He reminds me of two previous BreyerFest releases: the 2011 Diorama Prize Model Happily Ever After, on the Justin Morgan mold, and the 2000 Raffle Model Showboat, on the Stretched Morgan mold. The previous I didn’t win, but the latter I did!

Will lightning strike again? Considering the two times I won the Costume Contest, both prizes were Solid Glossy Bays, it would be fitting and appropriate that the Glossy Dapple Gray North Star could be my second Raffle win.

But I don’t buy that many tickets, and I wouldn’t consider myself one of the lucky people who wins regardless of the number of tickets I buy.

Some folks seem to be a bit “meh” on his color, but like most of the recent solid releases, he’ll probably look amazing in person. It’s a modern, updated version of Smoke, but with Dappling, Gloss, and a Pearlized mane and tail.

(Yes, I know, there’s that Ranchcraft Gloss Smoke Belgian Lamp that proves that Gloss Smoke was once a thing! But it appears to have been a one-off of mysterious origins, so I still think the jury’s out on that one.)

North Star also appeals to me because I think I might have a marginally better shot at winning him compared to the Sunday Raffle pieces Valour & Honour, on the new (and not-yet-released) Premier Club Welsh Mare and Foal by Josine Vingerling.

That’s partly because that’s one that was… expected? A lot of hobbyists were speculating that this set would end up as a Raffle or Prize of some sort. The only really eyebrow-raising thing about them is that they’re Appaloosa.

Incidentally, both Raffle prizes are only tangentially related to comic books. Marvel’s Northstar was a Québécois superhero who was a member of the Canadian team Alpha Flight; Valo(u)r was a name Legion of Super-Heroes member Mon-el adopted after one of the team’s many reboots, though he’s since gone back to being Mon-el.

I doubt either one is intentional; Northstar’s never been seen on the big screen, and Mon-el’s stint at Valor was relatively brief.

Cap

They’ve teased us with imaginary BreyerFest horses before – remember the Palomino Silver from 2009, and the Gold Ethereal from 2010?

But lo and behold, they’ve actually gone and done it this year, with the Early Bird Raffle Model Cap:

Well, more or less – the initial original promo pictures showed a Matte piece without a pearly mane and tail. These concessions were done, I assume, to gussy him up and distinguish him from previous Light Chestnut/Dark Palomino releases of this Saddlebred mold, beginning with the original piece featured on the 50th Anniversary Clock back in 2000.

Gloss because Gloss, and Pearl because it happens to be the traditional gift of 30th anniversaries.

(And who also, incidentally, one of my favorite characters on Steven Universe.)

You all know that I am not the biggest fan of the Clock Saddlebred mold – I don’t actively dislike him, but given the choice between multiple molds in the same color, it’s unlikely he’d be my first choice. But he looks amazing in this color, which was first seen on one of last year’s big hits at the BreyerFest Benefit Auction, that Five-Gaiter:

I was genuinely surprised that the Five-Gaiter went for as much as it did last year. Outside of the original Decorators, and nicely shaded or Chalky examples of the #52 Sorrel, the Five-Gaiter mold is simply not that popular today.

With a little careful shopping, you can acquire a Woodgrain, Palomino or Alabaster for less than the cost of a retail Traditional! That just boggles my mind, since I’m old enough to remember when the Palomino and Alabaster were absolute must-haves for any Breyer collector.

But such is the power of a beautiful, well-executed color that it can make a mold someone is indifferent to, and make it desirable.

If I am lucky enough to win one (ha!) I would give him the rather pedestrian name of Steve – because as most “true believers” should already know, “Cap” is Captain America’s nickname! And generic enough to get around potential trademark issues.

(That industry can be quite, umm, litigious about such things...)

A Clearer Picture

I’ve been busy. Looks like Breyer’s been busy, too; they posted a blenderized version of the next BreyerFest Special Run, and they’ve got another Test Piece Raffle going.

Speculation seems to think the Special Run is a Buchiko-style extreme sabino on the Lonesome Glory; if that’s the case, I am intrigued. I’ll talk about it after they do the reveal later in the week, since I doubt I’ll be able to de-blenderize the photo any better than anyone else has at this point.

We do have a much clearer picture of the Red Roan Clydesdale Test Run, and golly he seems familiar:

Oh yeah, he’s in the Test Piece Archive graphic link on the Breyer web site!

Do I want?

Vintage mold + Red Roan + Blue and Silver ribbons (my stable colors) = Yes, I want.

As always, I am mildly amused and annoyed by the general community commentary about his desirability (or lack thereof) and the price.

These are actual Vintage Test Colors used for the actual testing of colors, and they have a rock-solid provenance: these are both qualities that many collectors find inherently desirable – regardless of the age of the mold, the color or condition.

And the ones that have been resold (the majority of them, sigh) have sold for significantly more than their $850 price tags.

The fact that he’s been used as part of a graphic on the Breyer web site makes him even more appealing to me personally, because you know how fascinated/obsessed I am with owning Photography Samples. You know, like my delightfully horrifying Mariah’s Boon:

He was the exact model used to illustrate the Mariah’s Boon Celebration Model on the Breyer web site in 2012:

I am somewhat indifferent to the Othello mold – he’s not a favorite of mine, but I don’t have any major issues with him, either – but I love that guy to pieces. Weird and Historical is a hard combo to me to pass up! (And it is frequently what gets me into trouble at the flea market...)

Regardless of my feelings toward the Clydesdale, whether or not he’ll ever get to sit on the shelf next to my Jugga-thello is not up to me.

My tax bill says I shouldn’t even enter for him at all, but I’ll just cross that bridge if and when I come to it.

Riddles

Sigh. They are using the Traditional Man o’ War as the Early Bird Raffle model for BreyerFest this year. Pardon me while I briefly “hulk out” and rage around the less breakable parts of my office:

While I’ve always assumed my Traditional Man o’ War collection would be forever incomplete, I thought there would at least be no additions to my list of impediments. I hoped/assumed there would be a Man o’ War SR for the upcoming BreyerFest, but that it’d be something a bit more accessible like a Store Special, Volunteer model, or Pop-Up Store thing.

There are – or were, prior to today – only two true rarities left on my Man o’ War list.

The first is the Presentation Series Man o’ War. Like all of the Presentation Series pieces, he is scarce and pricey. But I don’t consider him necessarily out of reach: Presentation pieces were sold to the public, so a slender possibility of finding one “in the wild” does exist.

I’ve found other trophy-mounted Breyers before, though no true Presentation pieces yet. Horse racing memorabilia is relatively common around here (remember the jockey helmet I found back in October?) When the occasional Presentation piece shows up, it’s usually Adios: the other Presentation racehorse!

So, there’s hope.

The second rarity is the original Matte Dapple Gray Man o’ War, who was either a small Special Run or a set of similar-looking Test Colors that originated with Marney Walerius in some fashion, in the early 1970s.

That one seems significantly less likely, especially if an example should ever show up on eBay, or via some other venue frequented by model horse peoples. It’s a release that achieved an almost legendary status, and there are not a lot of them (probably five?) around. That’s usually a recipe for a four-figure selling price.

But I have acquired older Breyer items of roughly equal rarity, sometimes in the most unexpected of places or circumstances, for cheap. Or relatively cheap.

Like the Quarter Horse Gelding Splash cull I found at the local flea market last year. That one still boggles my mind! Why are you here? This is not New Jersey.

But this release Riddle… either I win one, or it is not going to happen. It’s that simple, and that painful.

It’s too well publicized an item (literally, the first Special Run announced, after the Celebration Horse Brass Hat) for it to ever be a cheap find, or circumstantial one.

I’m not the kind of person who pays a four-figure price for anything. It’s not a matter of being capable, but of principle: I think of my models more as repositories of memories and stories than of a financial investment.

Spending a lot of money on something makes me see something as more of an investment than a memory or story. I have a hard time doing that for a mold that means as much to me as the Man o’ War.

Well, at least it isn’t the Diorama Prize. If that was the case, there’d definitely be something freshly broken in my office.

A Tale of Two Ranas

I’ve been wanting to add a Desatado to my herd for a while now, but none of the more widely available releases have really clicked with me. The closest I’ve come is with the Web Special Orion in that lovely pearlescent Perlino Dun – one of my favorite colors – but what they’ve been going for is a little bit beyond what my budget allows.

There was an insanely cheap one on eBay about a month ago, but as April was shaping up to be a rough month for me financially (taxes, dentist appointment, a new radio for the car) I had to walk away from it.

Then Reeves surprises us with this beauty earlier this week:

Normally I’ve been skipping the disappointment of the Saturday Raffle to participate in the disappointment of the Costume Contest: effecting a costume change and getting from the Covered Arena to the Alltech Arena in less than an hour is challenging, and my odds of winning the Costume Contest are fractionally better than the Raffle anyway.

But, oh my goodness, this is the Desatado that I’ve been waiting for. In fact, it’s been a while since I’ve wanted a BreyerFest Raffle model as much as I want Rana.

The costume is already well underway, and buying Rana in the aftermarket will not happen, so I don’t quite know what to do.

The funny thing is that another horse named Rana is currently on my want list: the original Breyer #863 Rana, on the Sham mold.

This Rana also features an unusual color on a moderately popular mold: it’s the Traditional Sham, in what’s been described as “Blue Chocolate.” More precisely, it’s Reeves’ early 1990s interpretation of an unusual form of Black Silver that used to occur in Friesians.

(This was roughly the same era that gave us Clayton and the Majestic Arabian: obscure colors on inappropriate molds were a thing then.)

I’ve been wanting one ever since I saw friend’s example that was more Blue than Black. It was very similar, in fact, to the early Stone Horses “Turquoise” color.

The problem I have in acquiring that Rana hasn’t been a matter of cost, but degree: most of the ones I’ve found are more Charcoal Gray than Blue. While they are not unattractive, they are also not the models I want.

Even though I’ve set myself a rather unusual hurdle, it’s still more likely I’ll come home with the Sham rather than the Desatado. But after what happened last year, who knows?

Rangoli and True North

Here’s the Sunday Raffle Model Rangoli, in case you haven’t seen him yet:

That paint job – an extra dark Sooty Dappled Buckskin Sabino – is amazing, and the rest of him isn’t too shabby either. But you know what I really like about the True North mold?

The shaggy buzzcut of a mane! It’s just so stinking cute. If he were a real-real horse, I’d want to run my fingers through it. 

I tend to appraise sculpts not purely on their anatomical or conformational correctness, but on the finishwork at the edges: the mane and tail, the ears, the hooves, and the muzzle. For me, that’s where the sculptor’s care and passion really shows: everything else is a matter of technical competence.

Getting the technical aspects correct is important, but it doesn’t always make you fall in love. Sometimes it does; but its things like pooky lips, fuzzy ears, and artfully messy manes that quickly turn admiration turn into adoration.

However, I am not real fond of having the first several releases of new molds (mostly but not exclusively the Premiers) be either expensive, or of extremely limited quantity. It’s difficult to get passionate about collecting something that becomes almost immediately hard to collect.  

That’s what turned me away from the Esprit mold, initially. Although I’ve since added a few to the herd – most notably the quirky BreyerFest Special Run Prince of Chintz, and the beautiful Dappled Bay Steppin’ Out – I’ve been hesitant to sink any more effort into it. I wouldn’t have minded getting the Decorator variation of the Samba Surprise from last year’s BreyerFest lineup, but I got only one shot at that guy last year and it didn’t happen. So I sold the one I did get (Matte Palomino) and moved on.

Part of the appeal of collecting Vintage is that unless you pick an exceptionally hard mold to collect – like the Elephant, or the In-Between Mare – the ratio of rare and difficult to not-so-rare or -difficult is better. You can collect for a while before the rarities start to bother you too much. And unlike most of the newer molds, there is a small but real possibility that you just might run across one of those rarities at a yard sale or late-night online auction. 

I never expected to own an Elephant with Howdah, but I somehow managed to snag one on eBay some years back, for considerably less than the going rate. (The Pink, Blue, and Woodgrain? Ah, well, I guess that is what the flea market is for.)

The actual True North release isn’t even out yet, and the likelihood of winning Rangoli is going to be pretty slim (I mean, just look at him!) but it’s a little too early to abandon hope yet. 

Oh, My Beautiful One

Physically, BreyerFest was not too much of a drain on me – other than what I think was an allergic reaction to something at the hotel. It wasn’t the “con crud” that took down a bunch of people this year: all my symptoms – puffiness, stuffiness and congestion – were my typical allergic reactions.

(I’m guessing it was a soap, detergent or a cleanser the hotel was using, since it happened shortly after I took a shower.)

Mentally – well, we’ll get to that another time, the good and the bad.

But here is the one completely unmitigated good that came out of this year’s BreyerFest: it was the acquisition of a model I thought I would never own. A model I thought so unattainable, I never even imagined putting him on my Grail list:

The 1991 BreyerFest Raffle Model Gold Charm Man o’ War.

I did not attend the first BreyerFest in 1990: at the time, I was taking a bit of a respite from the hobby anyway, and what was advertised didn’t seem like all that big a deal – in fact, it felt a bit like Breyer was hijacking Marney’s Model Horse Congress for its own ends, but without the live show component.

But the following year was the year of four regional BreyerFests, each with a Decorator Raffle model. And the one in Kentucky? They were raffling off a Gold Charm Man o’ War.

I wanted to go. I had to go.

I spent $43 on raffle tickets: this is the most I have ever spent on any Raffle Model, before or since. That was a fairly huge amount back then, but you know the Man o’ War mold was/is a pretty big deal for me, so I had to give it a shot.

It didn’t happen, of course. And I definitely didn’t have the budget or the mindset to buy it second hand, so I just assumed that he was gone forever. Or at least until I won the lottery or something.

This year I had no plans on buying anything significant: maybe a few oddities, bodies and whatnot, but nothing major. I need to get caught up on a few things, financially: any extra moolah I made this year was going towards that goal.

But my sales were doing really well, so I felt a bit flush with cash and thought maybe I can get myself one nicer-than-average thing. Still within my budget, naturally, but you know how cheap I am: I was thinking really cool oddity, or a much needed upgrade.

I get back to the hotel on Friday after doing some volunteer stuff at the KHP. Since it was a bit on the “late” side, I had to park in the back back lot and hoof it through the 300 wing to my room, which at the opposite end (312) from where I had entered.

As I’m passing through, a room catches my eye. I have no idea why I even choose it, of all the rooms that were open, to walk into.

In the corner of the room, I see Him.

Ha! Surely he had to be some crazy, budget-busting price. These things never come up for sale. I thought myself honored to even see one in person.

Then I blinked several times when I saw his price. Were my eyes deceiving me? It was within spitting distance of the upper end of my budget! He was a bit tarnished and dinged, but heck, so was I, 25 years later. I made an offer, and after a tense 15-20 minute wait, the deal was done.

He was mine. I took him back to my room, and showed him off to a friend I had to leave in charge of my room for the five minutes I was gone.

What made his acquisition even better was because of that strange coincidence and timing, it led to a chain of events that brought another friend to also acquire her heart’s desire.

Oh, My Beautiful One. I have waited half my life to find you, and I am so glad you are now home. And from the moment I acquired you, spreading joy to all you encounter.

Time, Timing, and Sparkles

In spite of my already overscheduled weekend, I went on a last-minute “wild horse chase” this morning. My sales list for BreyerFest is looking a little spare (no time to finish herd culling!) and I was hoping I could supplement it with a few bodies, at least.

There were no horses worth bringing back. The trip wasn’t a total loss – I did find exactly the vintage fabric I needed to finish off another old quilt project – but for the time. BreyerFest is coming up way too fast, and it really feels like I don’t have a moment to spare this year.

Speaking of impromptu road trips, I did manage to make a quick stop at one of the better stocked toy stores earlier this week on my way home from work, and finally manage to catch an up-close look at several of those new Translucent Patriot models that everyone’s going gaga over.

And… I’m still not all that impressed by it. It’s mostly the mold: it’s very hard for the Clock Saddlebred mold to impress me. The 2005 BreyerFest Raffle Dragon Horse Merlin was another extremely popular piece that left me wondering what the hubbub was about.

I wouldn’t have turned one down if I had won it, of course, but not-winning that year didn’t have the usual sting. (And it also came with a bit of relief, because me and somewhat delicate things made of resin don’t mix.)

I was hoping for a little more oomph on Patriot’s paint job, too: you could barely see the stars on the ones I got to examine. And there were no sparkles! The Horse Crazy Stablemates have ruined me for that.

The store also had a Toro – the Buckskin Appaloosa Nokota Horse Flagship Horse – and him, I liked. But since I need to be on this super-tight budget a few weeks more, I left that one behind too.

I also skipped out on the Vintage Club Blind Bag Drawing, in spite of the temptation of Glossy Kiowas. Aside from the lack of fun money being an issue, my luck has not been so good with winning random Glossies/goodies lately – whether it’s a super-limited (12 pieces?) Glossy Kiowa or one of the Decorator Running Stallion Sailors I don’t have.

Besides, I already have that Sample/Test Kiowa – the non-Chalky one with the acrylic handpainted markings, on a Warehouse body – that I found in the Ninja Pit couple years back, and I’m plenty happy with him. Two is company, three’s a crowd, right?

Let’s hope tomorrow’s road trip to the flea market is more productive than this morning, and last week. (The market was busy, but the pickings were slim for me.)

Cinza and Company

Taking it easy today; the travails of January are over, and a certain financial issue I’ve been grappling with all this month is about to be resolved. I celebrated by buying myself a (very cheap!) horse, but he’s part of an ongoing research project so you probably won’t be seeing or hearing about him for a while.

(Nothing particularly rare, just nerdish. You ought to know me by now.)

So let us discuss the Raffle Model Cinza, on the Valegro mold:

I was expecting a Valegro release for this year’s BreyerFest, but I thought it’d be something a little more conservative – solid-colored, and possibly Glossy. But a Grulla Blanket Appaloosa? Nice!

Although it is labeled a “grullo blanket Appaloosa”, I tend to think of this color (and all its recent permutations) as the updated version of Breyer’s vintage “Gray Appaloosa” paintjob. Another of which is coming soon on the Stablemates Club release Primrose:

There has been a great deal of speculation about the origins of the Breyer color Charcoal; my working theory is that it was likely based on photo references of a Silver Dapple or Sooty Palomino horse that was captioned as a “Charcoal Palomino”.

But what about the “Gray Appaloosa” concept? Where did it come from?

The first Gray Appaloosas appeared in 1959 – on the Old Mold Stallion, Mare and Foal – and variations of the paint job later appeared on the Fighting Stallion and Mustang. It appeared at least a year, or maybe two, before Charcoal was introduced.

My guess would be that, not unlike the Charcoal, it was based on a photo of either a Blue Roan or Grulla Blanket Appaloosa that was labeled “Gray Appaloosa”. Because then, as now, most people tend to focus on phenotype (what something looks like) than genotype (what something is genetically).

It was probably via Western Horseman magazine: Breyer seemed to get a lot of its ideas from Western Horseman back then, and even used it as one of their primary promotional outlets in the years before the introduction of Just About Horses.

Although it has never had the same allure as the Charcoal, it continued to pop up over the years, most notably on the Stock Horse Family in the 1980s (Special Runs on the Stallion, Mare and Action Foal; and as a Regular Run on the Standing Foal) and most recently in a few Vintage Club releases. My personal favorite, though, continues to be the 1984 Appaloosa Performance Horse SR from JC Penney:

Whatever Will Be

As I was culling my way through some boxes over the weekend (the parts where I wasn’t asleep. Nasty little head cold!) I came across the Proud Arabian Stallion Kalico, a 1999 Show Special Run who I thought was especially pretty when I bought him.

And I still do, because he survived the cull. There’s something about the combination of Tobiano Pinto on the Proud Arabian Stallion mold that seems to work for me; I also am rather fond of the 2009 Volunteer Special After Party. I think the pinto patterning on both of them breaks up the mold visually, and makes him look a little less like the large side of beef he sometimes comes across as, especially in darker and less carefully shaded colors.

Even though he’s one of the less desirable Volunteer Specials, After Party’s price is still a bit too high for my budget.

I am going to assume the same situation will apply to this year’s Saturday Raffle piece, too, another Tobiano Pinto PAS, named Que Sera Sera. Ooh look, mapping!

Because even though it is a Proud Arabian Stallion, it’s still a Raffle Model, and there are enough Proud Arabian Stallion fans out there to make winning difficult, and reselling profitable and not too painless for less interested winners. My Kalico wouldn’t mind a long-term visit from his French cousin (Toile?), but alas, he’d have to fly coach.

Interest in the mold does seem to be on the upswing, which I attribute to partly to the upswing in "vintage" molds in general, to some rather nice recent Auction pieces (remember that beautiful Gloss Black Appaloosa?) and the last Exclusive Event rarity, the Gloss Chestnut Beignet.

As always, a nice paint job can cure a lot of ills. (Though not my cold. Probably.)

Average

No "extra special" models in my BreyerFest leftovers box, and no "Let’s Celebrate!" e-mail either. My luck hasn’t been running that way lately; my kind is of the more mundane, day-to-day variety. Here’s a sampling - minus some books, some bodies, and some non-modelly stuff - of the kind of things I’ve found locally, since July:

The best pieces here would be the Chalky Family Foal, the Kitten (with a Blue Ribbon sticker!) and the Hagen-Renaker Elephant minis. The PAM is the two-sock version and extremely nice as well. As awesome as my flea market is, a lot of this stuff has come from elsewhere; the Mortens Dobie and the Elephants were Salvation Army finds, for instance. I travel a lot for work, and one of the "perks" is that I drive past a lot of thrift stores and hobby shops in places I’d normally never go. And as long as I’m there…

Sometimes I do get lucky - like that big bin of Hartlands last year, or the shoebox full of vintage H-R miniatures earlier this season. But most days, it’s little drips and drabs. My luck is in living in the area that I do, with its abundance of stores and merchandise. It’s not free and clear, though: I have to put the legwork in and the money out.

It’s something a lot of people don’t like to think about - and will argue to the contrary - but luck is unevenly distributed. It’s most noticeable, and painful, in situations where there’s nothing you can do to improve your odds, like hard work or patience.

Like raffles. There are hobbyists who have won raffles multiple times, and others who have never once been drawn for any raffle ever - online, in person, or by mail.

Except for the fact that I’ve never been pulled from a wait list for anything ever, I’d consider my luck about average with raffles. Actually, I calculated it, and it is. Back when Connoisseurs were the thing, I was curious to know how many a hobbyist should be able to win, on average. I had access to some numbers, ran them, and yep, I was right on the money with my "wins".

Others, as I mentioned above, haven’t been as average. This is one of the reasons - and not out of the quality of my personal luck - why I think Reeves needs to continue to offer rare and extra special models via multiple distribution methods. Some should be by raffle, or by raffle-to-purchase, others by contest or competition, by simple subscription, or on a first-come-first-served basis.

If you’re not a creative type, contests and competitions will do you no favors. If you don’t have a predictable cash flow, subscriptions or first-come-first-served offers won’t work for you. No one distribution method is more "fair" than another: the only way to make things more fair is to mix it up, release to release.

The only thing I think should not be repeated is the raffle-to-purchase of extra-low piece run Specials online. It basically creates a "money for nothing" situation: because there’s no cost to enter, and there’s a small window of time between winning and having to pay, it’s theoretically possible to make a tidy profit with no monetary investment on your end at all. It creates an incentive for otherwise uninterested people to enter to resell.

While selling off low piece runs via vault sales has had some major issues as well (traffic volume and shopping cart issues, ahem) the notion of having to put money down up front seems to cut down on the initial speculating, at least a little. It seems more likely to me that they’ll go the "Buried Treasure" route with those goodies, instead. Which is not fair to folks who have Internet time or access, or who take the occasional nap. (Happened to me once, it did!)

Not sure if my luck will hold out with the weather in the morning; last weekend was really good to me, so I'm not all that worried or invested in it.

What Is, and What Is Not

Almost finished with that ginormous quilt top that’s been occupying my random bits of free time this week. I could have finished it today if I pushed it, but I didn’t because that’s when mistakes get made. One of the caveats of working with vintage materials is that you can’t just go out and buy another piece at the store if you get a little too scissor-happy.

(Measure twice, cut once: sound advice for both carpentry, and quilting.)

Once it’s done, it’ll be nothing but model horse related stuff from here through July. First trip to the dirt mall tomorrow, if the weather holds!

I’m not looking for anything in particular this year, other than the usual: anything good, cheap, or interesting. I learned a long time ago that if I went to the flea market with a set shopping list, I’d be going home disappointed more often than not.

As you might have guessed from the photos you’ve seen me post here, I’ve done all right for myself. But relying on luck and the local markets for the bulk of my collection (and being cheap) has also led to some rather distinct gaps in the collection.

Please note: this is not a "want list" type of post. I’m just clearing up misconceptions some of you might have regarding what is and is not in my collection, and to partially explain the range of topics and items I cover here.

As I noted before, I don’t have a lot of Woodgrains. They’re just not that plentiful around here, outside of the Fighting Stallion. It took me until the 1990s to start finding the Family Arabians, even. I don’t know if it’s a regional thing, or just bad luck. I’m not averse to buying them on eBay, when the price has been right.

I have no vintage Decorators (Woodgrains are Decorators, technically, but you know what I mean). A handful of them have been found in this area, but I have not been the one to find them. It’s unlikely that I will in the near future, either, given the current hyperinflated prices they’re bringing.

While I have a complete set of Old Mold Stallions, the only Old Mold Mare and Foal I have are the Alabasters. The Bays have been found around here, so I think it’s just bad luck/timing in this case, again. The prices on the Bays on the open market - even the ordinary non-Chalky ones - are too rich for my blood.

I have no Presentation Series pieces. I’ve come close a few times - there used to be a number of Standardbred farms just north of here, and Presentation Adioses are not an uncommonly found thing. Again, I’m not the one who finds them.

There are not a lot of Flockies in the collection, but that’s because I find most Breyer-issued Flockies to be kinda creepy. The few that I’ve found over the years tend to go straight to the saleslist, to fund less creepy things.

I have a healthy collection of vintage Chalkies, but that’s because I was collecting them before they were cool. They turn up with decent frequency around here, too, oddly enough.

My Stablemates collection is complete only to about the mid-1990s. (Well, nearly: I don’t have the Poop Paperweight or the Silver Anniversary Saddlebred.) I missed a couple of the Christmas sets, and I haven’t had the energy to keep up with the seemingly thousands of releases issued since then. I would if I could, but so many releases! Gah!

All the Connoisseur models I have were ones that I "won" - with the exception of the Buffalo Taima, who was the Photography Sample in Just About Horses. (Yes, via NPOD.) I wouldn’t be averse to buying or trading for others ones that I like on the open market, but all the ones I want are on the pricier end, alas.

I do have a lot of Test Colors, or models that are Possibly Test Colors. Some were straight from the source (Chicago collectors, Model Horse Congress, Marney, etc.) and some were lucky finds on eBay. I have no Test Colors from any Benefit Auctions. I did attend a few of the BreyerFest ones before the prices shot out of my league, but I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity then, because dumb.

I have only three Volunteer models, because I’ve only volunteered three times. Technically I volunteered a fourth time - sort of, before there were Volunteer Specials. I wasn’t uncompensated: I did get a couple extra Celebration models that year. (It was the Mustang Turbo). Not Glossy or anything, just regular models, long since sold.

I have only one Glossy Prize Model: the All Glory, from the 2010 BreyerFest Costume Contest. I don’t show at live shows where they are generally awarded, and while my other Costume Contest entries have been very memorable, the Powers That Be have not thought them prize worthy.

I have one other Contest Prize: the 2008 Pinto Bouncer Seren, for my Belgian Chocolate Belgian entry. I entered faithfully for years before and afterwards, without success and with only some annoyance until the 2012 Contest made me cry. I might try this year, if I can find the time to execute it.

One raffle model is in my possession: the 2000 Dapple Gray Morgan Showboat. I won him with my usual ten dollars worth of tickets. I haven’t come remotely close, before or since.

I haven’t been to any of the numerous Exclusive Events, at the factory or elsewhere. There are a bunch of reasons why, most of them having to do with time and money. I have a few models from these events, but they came to me via other routes.

I went to the factory once, back in 1992. I haven’t seen the inside of the facilities since then. I only brought back memories, and some papers. No models, though there were many lovelies sitting on desktops, even then. (Matte Alabaster Five-Gaiter, where are you now?)

That’s it, I think. My luck - where luck is the deciding factor - has been about average. Patience and perseverance have been bigger factors in my success, however you measure it.

A Bit Salty

Still feeling a bit groggy today, which is a huge improvement over yesterday. You wouldn’t have wanted to be within twenty feet of me then: no coughing, sneezing or other symptoms of infection were visible, but I apparently had my extra-scary "you really don’t want to be near me" face on.

Which I didn’t mind, in retrospect. There are some days when it's probably best that I do quarantine myself, intentionally or no.

Totilas is officially in Australia now (because Australia is closer to China that the US, obviously), and of course, the first photos I get to see of him on Blab involve him getting customized.

I know it’s not kosher to say this - and maybe it’s still the sick talking - but that sort of thing will never stop annoying me.

Mom’s hobby/creative outlet is gourmet cooking; we almost never went out to eat when we were kids because she was always creating something just as fancy or elaborate at home. One of the unspoken rules of fancy cooking we did pick up - mostly because the chef was right at the table with us - is that sprinkling salt or grating some cheese on something you’ve never tasted before is considered something of a insult to the cook.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? You have to take a bite or two of it first before you decide if it needs to be "fixed". Doing that preemptively means you don’t trust the cook.

(She’s a fabulous cook, by the way. As I like to tell people, "she cooks just like your Polish grandma." Heck, even Grandpa preferred her cooking to Grandma’s.)

Anyway, that’s the feeling I get whenever I see a new mold getting hacked up almost immediately out of the box. Couldn’t ya just have waited a few days, even, before you got the hacksaw and primer out? Taken the time to take a bite or two first? Or at least not shown us those pictures right away?

I know they’re going to do it, I just wish it wasn’t always the first thing I saw. I want a little time to enjoy him in all his original raiment.

On a more cheerful and vaguely Totilas-related note, I took Vita on a walk yesterday after work and spotted a bluebird in an apple tree. It came as a pleasing surprise, since (a) they’re not that common here to begin with, and (b) it had just stopped snowing (3+ inches) only about an hour before. I tend to read a bit too much into coincidences, but couldn’t help thinking that a bluebird near my house could be a portent of a Blue Bird in my house.

(FWIW Vita, being the honey badger of a dog that she is, didn't lift her face out of the snowbank it was buried in.)

Sitting It Out

Due to some glitch in the inventory company’s own inventory system, I find myself sitting at home for a couple of days this week, without work. During the busiest time of the year, when there’s literally work to be had all day and every day, and everyone (else) is complaining about the massive amounts of overtime they're putting in.

Normally I’d raise a stink because, hello, I don’t get paid to sit at home: no work, no pay. But I decided to turn this liability into an asset, and get some other work done in the meantime.

(Model horse related, mostly.)

The "Consolation" Special Run Bull Colton does appear to be being made specifically to cover the oversells on the Logans at the Vault Sale. I’m not sure if they’re going to make just enough to cover the oversell orders, or exactly the same amount as Logan, or what.

On Reeves’s inventory issues and the Vault Sale, I will speak no further. Not because I have nothing more to say, but because of diminishing returns. There’s no point in making an argument once everyone’s made up their minds.

The other big news this week is that all the BreyerFest 2013 stuff has hit the Breyer web site in a big way. A bunch of different Specials were announced, including a Desatado in Dun, a pretty chestnut pinto Haflinger, and another pinto Nokota Horse (as the Early Bird Special).

One of the Raffle models is the Traditional Totilas in a Star Dapple Gray, which makes about as much sense to the "Denim & Diamonds" theme as the Early Bird Special Stretched Morgan did to last year’s "British Invasion". The paint job looks a little weird, but it's also a not-good photograph of a test piece, so I'm not fretting over it.

There’s going to be another SR "satellite" store, too: one of the Specials available in it will be a Bucking Bronco in a quasi-buckskin color with kerchief-style decals on it. It’s very similar to the Home Decorating Show Paisley Rearing Horses that broke my heart a couple months back. I love the Bucking Bronco mold, so heck yeah, it's on my must-buy list.

The two Store Specials were also announced: a Black Tobiano Pinto Bluegrass Bandit named Lady C, and a pinto Brighty named Tennessee Titan. Titan is similar, but not identical to the still-incredibly-desirable 2005 Fest Special Run Oliver. Judging from the reaction I’ve been seeing to the Brighty, I’m guessing we’re in for another very quick sellout. (Keeping mine, if I get a hold of one.)

They also announced the themes and rules to the contests, and honestly, I just can’t get all that worked up about either one of them right now. I am utterly indifferent to the charms of most country music. I’m more Motown than Hoedown: I like some of the old-timey stuff, bluegrass, yodeling cowboys and stuff like that, but most modern stuff makes my eyes glaze over.

If I can come up with something, I’ll do it, but I just can’t get as emotionally involved as I did last year, where I ended up flaming out rather painfully. (When other people win with your same ideas - not once, but twice in the same year - yeah, you do tend to take it rather personally.)