Another Marney Mystery Model

Here’s another treasure from the same garage sale that produced my "unblue" Buckshot:


Neat, eh? In case you are unversed in early Breyer Action Stock Horse Foals, here’s what a standard, factory run Bay Pinto should look like:


Another example of what just a little black paint can do!

He was in a box with a small cohort of similarly painted ASHFs. I can’t remember the exact number - more than three, definitely less than ten. I rummaged through the box for the nicest example, and put him in my buy pile with the Buckshot.

Like the Buckshot, he’s another one of those unclassifiable creatures who passed through Marney’s hands. Were they culls she happened to rescue and touch up? Test colors? Or a variation that was considered for production?

I admit I rather like the notion that they were a variation considered for production. The timeline makes it a plausible idea: the mold was introduced in 1984, and I found and acquired him in 1985. There were all sorts of crazy things stashed in every nook and cranny of the old Chicago factory - often dating back several years - so it’s conceivable that they could have been tucked away in some forgotten corner for a mere year or so.

As with most Marney models though, I have no idea. They could have been mistakes, pulled from the production line before they were boxed for shipment. Maybe Marney had plans for these little ones that never came to fruition: intended as live show prizes, raffle or auction items, or gifts.

Or she could have had no input on these models at all. The Stock Horse Family may have been her "pet project" at Breyer, and she pretty much had free rein to do whatever she wanted at the factory, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she had any hand in these particular models. It’s just as likely that they were just another part of the debris she found while cleaning out the factory.

That garage sale was an overwhelming event for everyone involved, and I can’t recall if anyone else noticed the specialness of those Foals that day. (At least one other did survive, so I have my suspicions.) However, most of the items within Marney’s garage were considered bodies, so it’s possible that some of them were sacrificed on the altar of creativity.

Only time will tell.

Some Kind of Blue

I love watching shows about hoarders: there’s something fascinating about the psychology of persons insulating themselves from the world with massive amounts of stuff. I have a lot of stuff, too, but it’s all neatly organized and contained, and I don’t have any issues with purging things when I need to.

Part of the appeal of those shows for me is that I’m currently dealing with a semi-hoarding situation at home: not me, but my family members. It’s come to a head this week with a long-delayed home remodeling project that includes the space in which I work, and keep the larger part of my collection.

Everything in those two rooms has to be removed, and much stink is being made about how much "stuff" I have. The fact that the rooms now being used for storage were already packed to the ceiling with everyone else’s stuff is irrelevant: the mess is somehow all my fault.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the progress was so slow. There’s no impetus to get the job done in a timely fashion; the only person whose life is being severely impacted is mine, and apparently that’s completely okay with everyone else involved.

I’m not quite sure what to do with myself. If the next few weeks - or months - of posts have a more somber tone than usual, now you’ll know why. The one small physical domain where I had a small modicum of control is currently not in my control. And I’m not happy about it.

I may be feeling a bit blue, but this Buckshot isn’t:


The Buckshot mold debuted in 1985, the same year I found - and purchased - this intriguing horse from Marney, at her post-Congress garage sale. He’s probably a cull of the original release of Buckshot; he has all the characteristics of a #415 Buckshot, except that his distinctive blue-gray base color missing.

I presume he’s a cull, and not a test color, because of something you can’t see in the photograph, and something I can only describe to you due to my current technical difficulties: he has a blotchy, blobby blue dorsal stripe. It’s not unattractive or unrealistic, but it was enough to send him to reject bin, and from where Marney must have rescued him.

What I can’t answer is whether he was discarded "as-is," or if Marney found him in a less finished state, and completed the job. She did a lot of that; many culls could be made passable with a touch of black paint.

What’s intriguing about this "accidental" test color is that he may have been more influential than many an intentional one. Within a few years, we had a number of Breyer production pieces in this color, including the #830 Quarter Horse Stallion (on the Adios mold) and the 1989 JAH Special Quarter Horse Yearling.

Breyer usually described models with these paint jobs - both the gray/black, and the chestnut version that slightly preceded it - as roans. But depending on the size of the spots, or the scale of the horse, they were also labeled fleabitten grays, or even Appaloosas. It may not seem like a big deal now, but they represented a startling change of pace from the almost comical "big freckle" roans of the early 1970s.

The problem was that they were not really a good representation of any of those colors or coat patterns. I think most collectors realized that this new painting "style" was a transitional step towards more realistic roan, fleabitten gray, and Appaloosa paint jobs. As Breyer’s painting techniques improved, many of these models from the "light roan" era have been dumped into the fickle, saturated aftermarket.

More Loose Ends

Have you seen the train wreck that is today’s Daily Breyer entry on the Facebook page? Holy cow, that’s bad! They’ve had some doozies before, but I this one’s so wrong, it’s not even wrong. It’s wrong in a way that should win a prize for wrongness.

The Old Molds were not introduced until 1958, and the Stallion - who became the Family Arabian Stallion - didn’t arrive on the scene until (probably) 1959. Except that Saturday Night Fever pictured on Breyer’s Facebook page is actually the Proud Arabian Stallion, not a Family Arabian Stallion. And the PAS wasn’t officially released until 1971.

Seriously, how do you manage to confuse the Proud Arabian Stallion with the Family Arabian Stallion? Even my Mother can tell the difference, and her only involvement in the hobby is pretending not to dust my collection when I’m in Kentucky for ‘Fest!

I know in the grand scheme of things these details don’t matter that much, but researching the details of Breyer History is what I do in the hobby and for the hobby. It’s upsetting to see how little the company I research seems to care about getting its own history right.

There, I feel better now. Every once and a while you’ve got to get a rant out of your system, you know?

My schedule for the next couple of weeks looks a little rough, so I’ll spend the rest of my post today tying up some loose ends.

The Woodgrain Donkey pics in the surprisingly robust Donkey discussion thread are duly noted. I’ll probably categorize it as a Test, or part of a small SR of the Ranchcraft type. I still think a lot of hobbyists may be confusing sightings of the Red Mill Donkey for the Woodgrain one, though. I don’t know how rare the Red Mill Donkey is, but it’s certainly less so than a Breyer Woodgrain Donkey would be.

I also live by the motto "Trust, but verify." I’ve had way too many experiences with folks swearing that they heard, or saw, or owned something that turned out not to be what they thought it was. It’s a big problem, especially in the realm of Glossies, Chalkies and Tests; anything questionable of that nature needs an in-person inspection before I’m comfortable in declaring it authentic.

Yes, I am aware of the eBay auctions with the dumbbell stickers - and the insane prices that went with them! The nature and limited release of these stickers means that they’ll always be numerically rare, but $400 rare? I don’t know how long that price point will be sustainable. And I thought the $25 I spent on mine back in the 1990s was a bit high.

A lot of foofah was made on Blab over a report that a couple of Web Specials (Riley, and Summer Solstice) turned up at a hardware store somewhere in the Minnesota, at a slightly discounted price.

The Sales Rep in question probably had some discretion of throwing in some choice items from the warehouse to help close this particular deal; instead of older regular runs or special runs with larger piece counts, they just happened to be Web Specials. This sort of thing happens way more often than most hobbyists realize. Hobbyists don’t pay much attention when the items in question are more common; if they notice them at all, they just write them off as old store stock, and walk on by.

If they still have Summer Solstices and Rileys come June, I think the remainders will end up in the NPOD. Along with the remainder of the Dealer Special Autumns, Medalist Ponies, and whatever "gotta have it" model turns up between now and then. And who knows - maybe the leftover LSE Frankensteeds, too. (From what I’ve read, all of the LSE participants had a chance to buy one, and passed them by; seems only right that the rest of us mere mortals have a chance.)

More Treasure Hunt Madness

Well, the whole Treasure Hunt thingie went from zero to crazy in nothing flat, didn’t it?

It’s still a little too early to tell if this is just an early release of the now-standard Treasure Hunt variations, or something that will carry on throughout the year. My guess is that it’ll be a year-long thing, partly based on the fact that Breyer "primed the pump" in early December with that odd poll on their Facebook page that asked, ambiguously, "Glossy or Matte? Which will it be?"

Glossy or Matte what?

Well, now we know.

I’m not sure if I’ll be participating this year. I like the Othello mold well enough, but I need to resolve a few things around the house (time, space, money - the usual) before I start buying more Traditionals, especially ones as shelf-consuming as Othello. I’ll probably cave if I see a Gloss Summer in person. Or the Bay; he looks especially fine in that color, don’t you think?

I’m just glad they’re releasing him in colors other than Gray.

Have you noticed that certain molds seem to be afflicted by a certain lack of imagination in their color schemes? Othellos get the Gray treatment, the #58 Hanoverian always ends up some shade of Bay … and the poor #156 Haflinger mold, a dozen different variations of Chestnut or Palomino, including the newest UK Special!

On some molds it’s understandable that the color scheme is somewhat restricted. The vast majority of Lipizzans are gray, so it’s not surprising that the Classic Lipizzan always ends up that color, especially since the pose he’s in is almost breed-defining. (Though I think it's another mold that would look smashing in a simple, shaded bay.)

But the Othello or Haflinger molds? Not so neatly defined. I know a lot of hobbyists get annoyed that they have to resort to some odd crosses to make their OF showstring competitive. It doesn’t bother me so much, since the world is full of oddly colored and not-so-typey horses. Seems more realistic to me.

(People, too. According to my ethnic background, I’d be some sort of Belgian Partbred or Warmblood: Belgian + Polish + Hungarian! And from the hair color, a bay roan sabino one, at that.)

Like the rest of you, I’m curious to see what color "Winter" will be. I’m hoping for something a little more daring, like a Snowflake Appaloosa, or a Reverse Leopard Appaloosa - something that’ll look wintry, without having to resort to Gray. Again.

(I doubt many of us would object to a Gloss Charcoal. Including me.)

English Lesson

Sorry, had some last minute changes to my schedule; apparently the chaos that ended last week bled a little into this one. I haven’t been seeing much daylight lately, either, and that’s probably contributing to my slightly (ha!) sour mood.

Alas, I have no time to comment on all the latest gossip and news in model horse land today (like the gloss Treasure Hunt Othellos!) It looks like I’ll have some time to catch up on Saturday. In the meantime I’ll just reprint a useful little cartoon from last year’s Sampler:


It was fun to do; I love to draw, but most of my creative energies have been focused elsewhere. (Right now, I seem to be in a Decoupage phase. As in actual cut paper, not the Connoisseur Sucesion.) I have plans on doing more in the future with this concept - here, and in the Samplers. It won’t be a regular feature though, just something done when the mood strikes, and if the subject matter works with it.

Old Timer Cull

The end of last week was a rough one, whew! Multiple shifts, sleep deprivation, home remodeling, a mild sinus infection and a death in the family. (I knew her, but not well, even though she lived nearby. Like most family matters, it’s … complicated, and that’s about as much as I’m comfortable sharing.)

Let’s spotlight another treasure from my collection: the Old Timer cull!


Culls, for the otherwise uninformed, are unfinished or partially painted models that somehow escape the factory. Somewhat more "finished" culls - like this fella - were reportedly donated to orphanages and other child welfare organizations.

This one is pretty old: he has no USA mark, and he has tons of shading, typical of early alabaster Old Timers. (Some of them have so much gray shading, in fact, that you could almost classify them as "light smoke" or slate gray.) Another feature that gives away his age is the lack of "infill" in the upper corners of his headstall: just the straps are painted, not the area inside them. I don’t know when this detailing changed, but it happened very, very early in the original run. (A handy visual tip to keep in mind, if all you’ve got to judge an Old Timer by is a not-so-great photograph.)

There are several things wrong with this old boy. First - and most obvious - is that his blinkers are missing. In this case, they weren’t broken off, they were never added in the first place. The slots where the blinkers were to be inserted are free of any traces of glue or broken blinker bits.


The blinkers were molded separately and attached late in the production process, after most of the painting had been completed. There are two reasons why it was done that way. One, making them integral to the mold would have been problematic, because thin and projecting pieces of plastic like blinkers would have been prone to warping and breakage during the molding process. Second, it made painting the eyes a lot less challenging for the painter!

He’s missing his hat, too, an occurrence so common that Reeves could probably make a tidy profit in selling spares. (Hint, hint.) Being a cull, it’s just as likely he never had one to begin with. The gold detailing is missing too - all of the rings, buckles, keepers and chains are unpainted.

As you may have guessed by now, the Old Timer is an extremely complex, and expensive, mold to produce. There’s so much work that goes into an Old Timer that rumor had it that Breyer/Reeves was losing money on every one they made. However, customer demand was so great that they felt obliged to continue production even after it ceased to be profitable.

This brings up an interesting point: the models that collectors might see as being the most popular aren’t necessarily the most popular among the general, non-hobbyist public - and vice versa. We see it happen from time to time online (remember the bizarre run on the Khemosabi mold on eBay a while back?) And it happens in the physical world, too, especially with Old Timer. Some of the antiquers I deal with will slap a premium price on an Old Timer - and they know they’ll get it, eventually. The "serious" collectors will walk away, but the casual collectors? They’ll consider it.

The same dynamic explains the inexplicable prices found in your average antique shop. They’re catering to dilettantes and interior decorators, not the serious hobbyists. Occasional trips to your local antique malls are a lot less stressful, once you keep that in mind.

Shades of Gray

I was going to write about the BreyerFest stuff today, but I haven’t had the time to do much more with the JAH Supplement beyond looking at the pictures. I’ll get to it next week, when I’m a little more lucid - and better read. Since I’m short on time and feeling a little cranky from my jacked-up schedule, let’s discuss another lovely piece from my "newtoymens" collection:


It’s a little hard to tell from this picture, but this little Donkey is a test color. He’s the same color as the #376 Brighty, the 1991 re-release in that quirky gray-brown dun color with the white belly and muzzle, and shoulder striping. Being that it is an undatable "newtoymens" piece with no real provenance, I don’t know if he was a test color for Brighty, a rejected test for the 1992 Election Donkey with the Brighty paint job, or even a test for another release entirely.

Some molds have lots of test colors floating around, and some have almost none, and the old Donkey mold is one of the latter. I’ve seen more test pieces on the Brighty mold - and even the Kitten - than the old Donkey. Part of the reason is that there haven’t been that many Donkey bodies lying around to experiment with: aside from his brief return in 1992, he’s basically been out of production since the mid-1970s.

Why the Donkey mold has been missing for so long is a matter of debate. I think a lot of collectors just assume that, like the Fury or the old Racehorse, he’s an old, dated mold that has been superseded by newer, more popular donkeys. We have the Brighty, the Companion Series Miniature Donkey, and now the cutie-pie Stablemates Donkey to fill in the gaps of the donkey-loving collector’s heart.

There may have been some damage to the mold that prevented or limited his return, too. According to former Breyer employee Steve Ryan, the Donkey mold was allegedly damaged in the aborted attempt to move production to Mexico in the 1970s. I don’t know how much truth there is to it; my interactions with Mr. Ryan did not inspire confidence in his grasp of Breyer History.

While real-life donkeys don’t come in quite the same color range as their cousins do, they certainly come in more colors than the old Breyer Donkey has: gray, gray, gray … and gray. There’s a lot of variation in that boring gray paint job, though, and one could amass a nice-sized collection of its many variations, from pale gray to near-black.

There are a few bay and Five-Gaiter Sorrel Donkeys from the 1960s floating around, too, but their color is sometimes so dark and muted that they are sometimes mistaken for just another shade of gray. And they may well be, as we have no documentation of it being a separate release or special run item.

There have also been rumors of Woodgrain Donkeys. I’m willing to entertain the notion of their existence, possibly as another Special Run item for the Ranchcraft Lamp line, but so far I haven’t seen one that passes historical muster. Red Mill - a company that manufactured figurines out of a crushed pecan-shell composite material - did make a fairly good copy of the Breyer Donkey, and that might be fueling the rumor.