Inevitable

Well, that was completely expected.

Technically it wasn’t officially “gone” when I went back late the next day – someone apparently called earlier and put the Alborozo (and only the Alborozo!) on hold.

I’m more annoyed than mad, though; I had to deal with an insanely long road trip for work that day and that made a call and/or pickup arrangements extremely impractical anyway.

But mostly I am a little puzzled by all the fight put up for an item that there’s no guarantee of being limited or exclusive? All over a modest mark-up, at that?

I did feel sorry for all of the other Painting Kits left behind, especially the mini Magnolia – I’ve spent a lifetime finishing in second place, so I know how it feels to think the spotlight is yours at last, and… nope.

For the record, I did see some of the Stablemates Alborozo Unicorns at BreyerFest. However, I didn’t have the chance to give them the careful, in-the-round inspection I wanted: BreyerFest just isn’t the time or place for careful inspection, or introspection.

So now I’ll have to wait a little longer, until everyone else gets this nonsense out of their system, and local suppliers finally get some of those Unicorn Surprise Box Assortments on their shelves.

Maybe.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of my Palomino Dead Heat:

I had decidedly, initially, to pass it by; I love the Ruffian mold, but it’s longer than an extremely relaxed housecat, and shelf space is already at a premium here.

But after the inevitable disappointments of (a) no Glosses, (b) no Prizes and (c) no Raffle models I went and got one sooner, rather than later. It didn’t hurt that it was the American Pharoah version of the mold, as well – short-tailed, with the boy bits – and since I haven’t gotten around to getting one of those yet, I could totally justify it.

I wasn’t thrilled that they decided to start the sale on the Special Run Leftovers at the very same time as the Sunday Raffle; by the time the Raffle was over, everything but the Dead Heat and the Newmarket was gone.

It was inevitable with shifting the Sunday Raffle past the last ticket time on Sunday that there’d be a conflict; it wasn’t a problem for me this year since I had already gotten everything I “needed” earlier anyway. I’ll just have to remember to plan accordingly next year, just in case.  

Stablemate-o-palooza

So this is what I get for not trying too hard:

The Appaloosa Django came with my Stablemates Club order; in addition to the Glow-in-the-Dark set I finally decided on to capitalize on the weekend Stablemates sale, I tossed in a couple of Mystery Stablemates Bags just for the heck of it, too. I hadn’t purchased any yet locally – mostly because I haven’t found any to purchase – so it was going to be a win-win regardless of who showed up in those bags.

Then I stopped at a Walmart on the way home from work yesterday; Back-to-School sales are in full swing, and I really needed a new lunch bag for work…

After that, I swung by the toy department: the Pink Icelandic was long-gone of course, but everyone else in the Series 2 Mystery Box was still available, and I wanted them anyway – especially the Fleabitten Gray Dungaree. The Liver Chestnut G2 Saddlebred is lovely too, which came as a surprise; the photos I’ve been seeing of him online do not do it justice.

There was also a fresh, full box of the Mini Whinnies Surprises, but after a couple of minutes of poking around, I decided I had had my fun and let someone else have the pleasure of a lucky find.

This particular Walmart did not have the 4-piece Stablemates Set with the Bay Django and Dun Tushar, but at least a half-dozen of the older 4-piece Stablemates Set and a couple of the Classics Unicorns. Since I’m not all that into Unicorns at the moment, and that SM set is basically a renumbered “Reissue” of the Horse Crazy Set I already have, I took a pass on all of them.

Then this afternoon I went to the local Salvation Army to look for some new pants for work; I stopped in at the local Tractor Supply next door, and they had just put out their Mystery Stablemates a few minutes before.

I found the shelf label for the Stablemates Paint Kits, but they weren’t out yet, so I guess I’ll be making a return trip to the store tomorrow after work – that is, if someone else doesn’t get there first.

Since the secret to my success in Stablemates hunting appears to depend on my lack of worry, I’m not going to worry about that, either. And I’ll be fine, regardless!

I have a funny feeling those Paint Kits will not be a TSC-only exclusive, anyway. I just want to see the mini Alborozo and mini Magnolia in person, dangnabit.

I have to get up at an entirely unreasonable hour for work tomorrow, so that’s all for today, folks.

The Pursuit

Since I took a big step today in alleviating the incredibly high stress levels I’ve been experiencing for the past few months, I decided to buy an off-the-shelf horse or two to celebrate. I was originally going to go with an LV Integrity, on the Yasmin mold, but I came home with some Stablemates instead:

The shading on the Icelandic is amazing; he has a few minor production boo-boos that’ll preclude me from showing him, but my primary objective today was Ooo, Pretty Horsies and he fits the bill.

The G2 Thoroughbred was chosen because I particularly like his spots. All of the others had bigger and cleaner spots, and his randomly-sized freckles really stood out in contrast. I also liked the fact that he is not actually black but either a very, very dark gray or roaning black.

Another thing I’ll be doing to alleviate the stress this week? Not doing a darn thing to follow up or pursue any of the latest crazy/rare/obscure Stablemates floating around. Because now apparently, there are some at Tractor Supply too?

Cripes. 

There are ten – yes, ten – Tractor Supply Stores within an hour’s driving distance to me, including one that’s just down the road. But I am not going to go make any special effort to get to any of them in pursuit of the Copper Florentine Django, the Unicorn Alborozo paint kit, or anything else.

I don’t want to feel like I’m being forced to buy anything because they might be even more unaffordable later than they are now. In every other nonmonetary term – time, money, and headspace – they’re already unaffordable.

If I happen to be in the vicinity, or driving by in pursuit of something else, of course I’ll stop in and take a look. But I don’t have the resources for anything more than that.

I have more immediate things to worry about. Like how I managed to lose my keys inside my car for a half-hour last week. (I know the past couple of weeks have been rough on my psyche, but seriously?)

If I want some new horses, you’ll find me over in the Regular Run aisle, doing some handpicking.

Raleigh, Etc.

This week was about on par with last week in terms of stress, drama and overall chaos. (But I did finally get my nachos!)

I managed to visit most of the local Walmarts within my usual driving area this week, but most of the stores were either just getting ready to do their reset, or weren’t even considering it yet when I visited. Since my schedule over the next couple of weeks is straight-up crazy, that’s probably the end of my local Walmart Stablemates search.

Bah! I picked such a bad year to focus on Stablemates!

At least the Stablemates Club Raleigh will be coming this way shortly:

Did you know that the Saddlebred was the first of the 16 original Hagen-Renaker molds adapted to plastic? That’s why it appears first in the Stablemates numbering sequence: the original releases were the #5001 Dapple Gray, and the #5002 Bay.

It’s also the only G1 Stablemates mold that is its own mold: all of the others are paired up with another Stablemate, to make it more cost-efficient to run. I believe his solitary nature is because they used the Saddlebred as their test piece before they went ahead and produced the other 15 molds.

Thus explaining the lack of detailing between the mold’s ears.

This is also why the mold was probably used to make the 25th Anniversary Silver-plated Promotional piece that makes everybody so crazy whenever it shows up on the Internet. Someday one of you kind shall be mine, G1 Silver Saddlebred!

(I have this strangely detailed fantasy that I’ll be rummaging around in someone’s old jewelry box at the flea market, and find one tangled up in a knot of funky rhinestone-encrusted owl necklaces from the 1970s. I’ve found things in stranger circumstances, so it could happen...)

Since they’re running a Stablemates sale this weekend, I might toss in a few others in my order just for the heck of it. After making it through the past two weeks, I think I deserve a few.

I wanted to wait until the end of the year – and the possible return of the Free Holiday Gloss Promotion – to buy all the newer ones en masse off the web site. But I recently added everything up I wanted, and there appears to be more than enough to fill up a couple of potential orders. So which ones will I buy first?

At the moment I’m leaning towards the 8-piece Blister Card Assortment; while I love them all actually, I really could use that Icelandic and Appaloosa Dungaree:

Bay, Bay and Bay

If Monday was any indication of what’s to come, it looks like this week is shaping up to be a sequel to last week.

However, I decided to take some of that this-only-seems-to-happen-to-me stress out on one of my hapless customizing projects (that Mesteno’s Mother mold I blathered about a while back) so it’s nothing but pretty ponies for the rest of the post, yay!

Specifically, three Bay Western Prancing Horses:

The older “Sorrel” variation of the #114 Bay Western Prancer, the later “Bay” variation of the same release, and the Tractor Supply release of Annie Oakley’s Prince.

The Sorrel was one of my very first in-hobby purchases, and I was positively giddy when I got him: he was my first model with eyewhites, and one of the first models I purchased that was older than me!

The Bay Bay was a CHIN purchase. I was looking around the hotel hoping to upgrade my Buckskin WPH; I thought I had a potential candidate, but didn’t pass closer inspection. Then I found the Bay Bay variation, so I bought him and called it a day.

The Prince was an NPOD find. He’s not a true Sample or anything interesting like that, just a bubble-wrapped warehouse leftover I found when I was wandering about the NPOD sometime over the weekend. I had been half-heartedly looking for on eBay, but the prices were scaring me off.

Unlike other Sorrel variations of the 1960s Bays (like the Fighting Stallion, and the Family Arabians) it appears that the Sorrel Western Prancing Horse is actually rather plentiful and common.

The Bay Bay – distinguished from the Sorrel by the reddish cast to his body, and a Black mane and tail – was made for at least a year or two before he was discontinued at the end of 1971, as my example doesn’t have the USA mold mark.

As far as I know, the #114 Bay release – either the Sorrel Bay or the Bay Bay – never had any kind of black paint on the hooves or legs. Saddles for the Bay, unlike some of the other vintage Western Prancer releases, could be either Tan or Gray.

I think I’m all Bayed out now. Unless something shows up with a sticker or box. Not likely, but you never know with me.

The Horse You Need

The week started with such promise – one of my regular dealers at the flea market told me he had a large collection for me to look at, I thought I had some of the BreyerFest One-Day Stablemates coming my way, nachos were on the menu this week, I found some extra large socks on clearance at Meijer…

And somehow at the end of it, all I had to show for it was a bruised middle finger.

Kind of emblematic of how the whole week went, I suppose.

(I wasn’t doing anything untoward with the finger, it was just me being clumsy and injuring myself in my usual unique ways. The lack of nachos hurt more, to be honest.)

I ended up buying myself a pony a couple of days ago in hopes of assuaging the whole darn week away. He’s not out of the box yet because that’s another story we don’t want to get into today:

I’ve been eyeing this guy for a while, and I had a coupon. I have a soft spot for the homely little Standing Stock Horse Foal, and I found his Splash Spot Semi-Leopard Appaloosa well-executed and very appealing. He’ll look real nice next to my Fun Foals Pintaloosa SSHF, once I figure out where that little guy went.

(Sigh. The current state of my office is largely not my fault, but again, this is not a story we want to get into.)

However, his most important feature was also his most obvious: he was available.

Collecting isn’t always about what you want, but what is accessible. You can’t collect things you can’t get your hands on.

Sure, I’d love to own more Glossy Prize models, or some of those Walmart Exclusive Stablemates, or more Woodgrains, or any vintage Decorators. But barring lucky finds these are all fairly unlikely, at least in the near future.

Weeks like this remind me that I need to stop stressing myself out over items I can’t get in the first place. If they happen, they happen. If they don’t, there are other horses in the pasture.

Rocky was almost immediately available, and when and where I needed him.

To paraphrase a few well-known songs, if you can’t buy the horses you want, buy the horses you need.

Dark Horses

It’s about diggity-dang time they released the Dark Horse Surprise numbers!

Palomino Splash: 1050 Matte/175 Gloss (1225 total)
Appaloosa: 850 Matte/175 Gloss (1025 total)
Bay Tobiano Pinto: 575 Matte/175 Gloss (750 total)
Flaming Decorator: 425 Matte/175 Gloss (600 total)
Black: 225 Matte/175 Gloss (400 total)

The Black is definitely the rarest, and the Splash Palomino the most common. No surprises there.

But I thought – based on online and event sales – that the Bay Pinto was going to be the second rarest.

Apparently the large number of Decorators I saw for sale wasn’t a result of sheer numbers, but a lack of interest/appeal in the color itself, primarily among younger collectors – much like the original 1960s Decorators!

In fact, if I heard any complaints at all about the Surprise model this year, it was from younger collectors bemoaning the fact that they pulled the Decorator. It was very clearly designed to appeal to a rather different clientele from the typical BreyerFest attendee – ones more interested in horsepower, rather than horse power.

It’ll be interesting to see if, like the original vintage Decos, that translates into increased interest (and prices) in the color in the future.

It’s been my experience that younger collectors seem to prefer the Tobiano Pintos; add into the mix the fact that the Smarty Jones hasn’t come in a lot of pintos in general (with the most accessible being the still-pretty-tough-to-get 2007 Collector’s Choice Windtalker in Grulla Overo) and it makes some sense that any kids that snagged one likely kept it.

I would have been fine with the Deco if I had gotten one – you know I love Translucents – but I am glad I ended up with my two favorites: the Black and the Palomino Splash!

Just a few weeks ago I was pining for more Splash Pintos, and the one in the Dark Horse Surprise is beautifully executed: if he had been a standalone Special Run this year, I would have likely bought him!

And well, I’ve been a longtime champion of Solid Black paintjobs for years. When I went over to the Silent Auction Booth to ogle the complete set of Glossies Friday afternoon, two thoughts immediately crossed my mind:

“Ooh, the Black one’s my favorite!”

“He’s probably the rare one. I always pick the rare one.”

I guess my only (slight) criticism of the Dark Horse Surprise was the predictability: a lot of people pegged it as the Smarty Jones early on. I was hoping that Reeves would throw us a curveball and give us something offbeat or a little more Quarter/Stock Horsey.