A Few Random Thoughts on Emma

It was not a huge stretch of the imagination to believe that the Carltonlima Emma was going to go up in price after the Queen’s passing, but even I am a little taken aback by some of the prices. Nearly $200 for a NIB one? Yikes!

Especially since I sold an unboxed one (I received it as a duplicate in a box lot) for $20 at BreyerFest back in July. 

There was no way of knowing, of course. It was a very good box lot, priced very cheaply, and I more than made my money back on it. 

I think that’s one part of the problem with the rather “optimistic” pricing I see on the Internet: the haunting possibility that you might have missed out on even more profit if you had just waited long enough. 

I don’t have the time or room for that nonsense. 

I’ve sold, quite probably, thousands of models over the years, which isn’t as mind boggling as it may seem: a thousand models is about 100 models a year for ten years. I sell an average of 50 to 75 pieces at BreyerFest alone, and I have been going to BreyerFest for a very, very long time...

It does bother me when I find I undersold something, or that I took a gamble on something and lost (which has happened to me so frequently that I’ve become very risk-averse), but I can’t go back and make people pay me the profit I missed out on. Whether it’s bad timing, or an honest mistake on your part, you have to let it go. 

Tangentially related to talking about Emma: one thing that does boggle my mind is Original Finish models with solid black, unshaded paint jobs doing well at live shows. 

Back when I was first live showing back in the 1980s, Solid Black horses – other than the occasional Test Color – rarely placed well in halter, because it was assumed that minimal effort was made to paint it.

Even now, when I’m making my selection on who (and who not to) take, the unshaded black ones rarely make the cut. I think the only one I show semi-regularly is my Stablemate Quarter Horse Stallion Pancho, and that’s because he also has that very sharp, early mold detail that negates the “no shading” bit.

(And the fact that he’s a rare, early Stablemate Special Run!)

(FYI: The one on IDYB is not mine, but looks almost identical to mine. Not in a mood to dig mine out at the moment. He was one of the handful of horses that did NAN at the last live show I was at.)

But back to Emma: I think it’d be neat if Reeves brought Emma back in a special edition of some sort – Gloss, or maybe with a ribbon or bit of tack – and I’d definitely buy it. Buy just like my original Emma, I still couldn’t see her as live show material. 

The Bluest Time of the Year

You have no idea how much the wholesome conversation contained in the post previous delighted me! 

As much as I would like to continue it, extended philosophical discussions about the intersection of two of my favorite pastimes will have to be put on pause: I’m now entering my money-making season (both online, and offline) and my spare time is not plentiful.

Speaking of money, some of that as-yet-unmade moolah has already been spent on a Johann: 

I have a feeling I’ll be getting one of the lesser-desired ones – will it be the Appaloosa, or the Palomino? – because that’s how my luck runs. While it does not matter to me (because I do WANT THEM ALL), it would make life less of a hassle if I could get one of the more desirable/expensive ones out of the way first.

While making a post office run earlier in the week, I swung by the local Tractor Supply to see if they had gotten in their Christmas goodies yet, and they did – with the Stablemates predictably absent. Although I don’t have any plans of buying anything from Tractor Supply this year, I rather liked the Future Farmers of America Benefit Horse Blue: I’m not a huge fan of the Geronimo mold, but that shade of indigo was very attractive.  

It reminded me quite a bit of the color of the Curio-sized Resin #9132 Lexington they released at BreyerFest in 2010, except with some added cross-hatching to mimic the FFA corduroy jackets.  

Close up, though, the cross-hatching looks more like scuffs or flaws in the paint, and I imagine a few years from now collectors will assume that they are, the same way many now assume the single eyewhite on the Five-Gaiter Special Run Wil Shriver is, or the black birthmark on the #817 Abdullah release of the Trakehner.

Will I be buying Blue? Unless they go on deep discount, probably not. I have other blue-colored things to buy first, like the third and final Jól: my recently purchased (and extremely affordable) Clear one still resides in his shipping box at the foot of the bed. Maybe tonight, after I get some sleep...

Test Color Bears and Other Dreams

Believe it or not, I’ve seen a surprising number of Test Color and Oddity Bears (including a lovely White one at BreyerFest this year!), so the latest Test Color offering isn’t that much of a shock. I’d love to have him, of course, but I am under no illusion that I will picked for it. I’ve got other things to pay for, anyway.

I had a few spare moments yesterday (work was… more stressful than I anticipated) so I thought I’d Google “Breyer”, “Science-Fiction” and “Worldcon”, and this is what I found:

https://file770.com/meet-the-2022-national-toy-hall-of-fame-finalists

A discussion about Breyer on a Science-Fiction Fandom news web site!?! If some of the names are not familiar to you, Cat Rambo was President of the SFWA from 2015-2019, and Cora Buhlert just won a Hugo for Best Fan Writer.

And proceeding to do a deeper dive, I found these obscure YouTube gems:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp42r0TKP0Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeyBUMvHN34

More proof that the model horse hobby is, indeed, fanac. 

So my childhood fantasy of someday being nominated for a Hugo Award is not completely out there? And the possibility of a Science-Fiction or Fantasy-themed BreyerFest is also not quite as crazy as some may think? 

Sweet. 

Real and True

Highlights of the show: my scheduling issue was resolved (so I didn’t have to leave early), I didn’t miss any classes, I got to pet a cat in the parking lot, and I finished piecing a quilt block. 

But I have no big winners to show you because I didn’t have any. 

I did walk away with seven NAN cards and about 25 ribbons, but a lot of them were lower placings in small classes. Not terrible, but not the experience I was hoping to have. 

We all end up having less-than-ideal showing experiences at some time or another, and this was one of mine, alas. I even tanked in the two Collectibility classes I entered: I think that was the point where I mentally checked out and went in whole hog on my sewing project. 

(I usually bring one anyway because I’m the kind of person who has to overprepare for everything, but I rarely have to break it out.)

I probably won’t be live showing again until early next year. Not because of this experience, but because I have too many other things I need to take care of in the next three months, including the health-related issues I’ve been alluding to. And I have to start planning my next great “adventure” later in the Fall (this is something completely different from next year’s Grand Wyoming Excursion. She says mysteriously...) 

I have also been informed that I “need to” show at BreyerFest Live next year, which means I have to ramp up my sales now, because there is no way I can fit both a show string and a ton of sales items in my car simultaneously. 

The selling part is something I’ve been planning on doing anyway; I wanted to get some of the prep done for that this weekend, but the weather and my slightly bummed disposition got in the way.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of a thing I bought a little while ago that’s not what you think it is:

Aside from the fact that the Clydesdale Stallion was not officially a part of the Presentation Collection, he also lacks the USA mold mark, which means he was manufactured no later than 1970, or a year before the official introduction of the program in 1971. 

The base is different, too: it’s beveled along one edge, not all four. 

I’ve seen a few other Breyers floating around with similar bases, and there’s always been a bit of a mystery about their origin and/or authenticity. Personally, I have come around to the idea that these oddly-based models may have been a part of the “Desk Trophies” program offered by Robbins Metal Craft:

http://breyerhistorydiva.blogspot.com/2010/04/charolais-specials-part-ii.html

Robbins was based in Missouri, and a sticker on the bottom of the base indicates that it was made by a company in St. Louis that (I assume) manufactured trophies and such. Hmm.

The only problem here is timeline. The weathervane brochure dates to the mid-1970s, but the Clydesdale itself is pre-1971. If the trophy program ran for five years (or so), these things should be… slightly more common than they actually are, right? Or at least as common as the official Breyer pieces.

Then there’s the possibility that the Clydesdale might have been a promo item relating to the Budweiser Clydesdales, also based in Missouri. Maybe the company that was tapped to do them was later contracted by Robbins? 

I could spend all day spinning crazy theories to explain his existence. But like most things, chances are that the real and true explanation of his existence is going to end up being a very simple and obvious one.   

Line and Form

Today was not a good day, and I would very much like to crawl under a rock. 

Aside from everything else that’s going on, I thought I’d take my live show paperwork to work to finish it during break and lunch. Not only did that not happen, I didn’t discover until I got home that had left it all at work, so now I won’t be able to work on it at all today at home, either. 

So now I can’t finish it until tomorrow, when I had planned on getting to bed early and catch a couple extra hours of sleep, since I am not going to get much on Saturday because of the scheduling conflict I mentioned before. 

That’s just awesome. And pretty much par for the course this week.

Since I never got around to my Chicago Worldcon report (those notes are also with the live show paperwork. Like I said, not a good day), I want to at least highlight one of the things I bought there: a tiny piece of art I bought from a dealer who had purchased the archives from the estate of Virgil Finlay. 

I wasn’t comfortable buying one of the dealer’s more expensive pieces, but I thought this item – a cover proof from his time illustrating astrology magazines – was both very affordable, and so very, very on point for me, as a horse person attending The Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. The spot colors were also a plus: a very Breyer-esque Blue and Yellow!

I may get it framed some time in the future, but for now it’s just going to reside in my ephemera archives.

Virgil Finlay has always been one of my favorite science-fiction illustrators, and the dream would be to own one of his originals. The dealer had some sketches of horses (not full-on, finished artwork) that were a temptation, but maybe another day, or another lifetime.  

Some of his artwork was on display in the Korshak Collection room at Worldcon – in addition to works by Frank R. Paul, Hannes Bok, Emsh, the Brothers Hildebrandt, and so many others – but the piece that really caught my eye there was Stanley Meltzoff’s cover illustration for the paperback edition of Robert Heinlein’s The Green Hills of Earth. It had a beautiful, painterly quality to it that reproduction just cannot capture. If there was one painting in that room I could have stolen, it would have been that!

(Just being in that room was one of the many highlights of Worldcon.)

Shape and Texture

Not a great weekend, but I did get most of the quilt batt stuff sorted out and a very preliminary showstring put together. Just a few additions, a few subtractions, and nothing fancy-fancy or exotic: as much fun as it is, I don’t have time for the documentation that would involve. 

Plus I found out last week that we’re all on mandatory overtime at work for the time being, which means it’s not even a matter of finding the time. There is no extra time to be had! 

I did have a few moments over the weekend to open up a few packages that have arrived over the past several weeks (don’t get me started!), including an extremely affordable Blue Christmas Zebra! 

I don’t have the complete set yet, because (as I hope you all know by now) I am a very patient cheapskate. Because the Coal is completely off the table for obvious reasons, all I need now are the Green and the Gold. (I know he is not perfect, but neither am I, so it all works out.)

(I’d like a Cave of Lascaux, too, but I’m not holding my breath on that one either.)

Another recent arrival was a little more pricey, but it was about that time of year for me to buy my one really expensive thing, and this was it: 

Although the #971 Horned Hereford Bull was manufactured in Woodgrain through 1964, he is not particularly easy to find. I suspect that his production run numbers were low because the rough texture of his coat made him difficult to paint; the only other Breyer model with a similarly bumpy surface that made it into Regular Run production was the Large Poodle, who ran – probably not coincidentally! – the same years as the Bull. 

Other models with textured surfaces that eventually came out in Woodgrain – including the Polled Hereford Bull, the Buffalo, the Elephant and the Donkey – were all likely Special Run items of extremely limited quantities.

(I’m not 100 percent sure on the Elephant, but let’s not get into that discussion today.)

The Poodle is slightly easier to find, and cheaper too, but that’s because there are fewer Breyer Dog collectors than there are Bull collectors. And those Bull collectors are why I’ll probably never be able to complete my Walking Horned Hereford collection: there ain’t no way I am ever paying $1500 for a Bunyan, full stop…

The Entropy of the Season

Not dead, but a rough week nonetheless.

Whatever was in my eye is no longer in it, but the eye doctor diagnosed me with something else that may require a second opinion.

(I’d rather not talk about it right now, except to say that I ended up having a panic attack in the examination room.)

But dealing with that potential problem will have to wait at least a week, as I have literally DONE NOTHING FOR NEXT WEEK’S LIVE SHOW YET. So my weekend will largely consist of me slapdashing my showstring together.

For funsies I might do some quilt prep too, because it’s that time of the year and I derive some small pleasure basting things together. (My small, valiant effort to battle the entropy inherent in the season, I guess.)

I did buy a Maelstrom from the Halloween Sale, because after the week I had, I deserved a Metallic Green Desatado that Glows in the Dark. I threw in a couple of Spooky Surprise Blind Bag Stablemates, even though I know there’s a high likelihood of me getting two identical ones and I’m in no mood to negotiate trades. I’ll just throw the inevitable duplicate in the sales pile and call it a day.

(Bleh.)

On a more cheerful note, I am oddly more optimistic about Breyer’s chances at the Toy Hall of Fame this year. It was pretty weird to have nonhobby people asking me if I had heard the news about Breyer being nominated!

I went online and saw that Breyer was actually called out by name – and even featured in the title! – of several stories about the nominees this week. We didn’t quite get the same treatment last year, which leads me to think that the news people and/or museum publicists think that we’re a stronger contender?

It’s interesting that the announcement of this year’s winners will occur on November 10th, the day before the Ponies & Palm Trees Exclusive Event in Florida. It’ll make for an interesting (and possibly more drunken?) weekend if it does happen…

(FYI: Stay away from the Absinthe, guys!)