Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Musings

As you might have guessed by now, my annoyance over the abundance of Weather Girls customs has now been replaced with annoyance over all the Sunshine Celebration models now being listed everywhere.

You know my opinion about these sort of events: I’m not keen on them. Most rank and file hobbyists are already at wit’s end trying to acquire more "common" items like Web Specials and Weather Girls. It shouldn’t be a surprise that when they hear reports of some attendees complaining that the special runs they’re being offered at said super-exclusive event aren’t up to their standards, they’re not going to take it well.

It’s more than mere jealousy, it’s also frustration - inelegantly expressed, sometimes, but something I think we shouldn't dismiss so easily.

Fortunately, another distraction came my way this week: my JAH.

The Sunday Raffle model, a loose-maned sabino Cleveland Bay named King Arthur, is nice. He doesn’t rock my work like the Saturday Raffle model Muse does, but if on the rare chance I do win him, I’ll cherish him just the same. If the universe decides I need one, who would I be to turn down the gift?

I think it’s love when it comes to Muse, though: a non-pastelly Pegasus on a Nokota Horse? Be still my heart! It doesn’t hurt that his name has some special meaning to me, too. (Nothing you need to know, other than it does.)


Oddly, I don’t have the same indifference to Breyer’s flying horses that I do to its unicorns. Maybe it’s because the wings are removable, and less prone to breaking. They may not look as "realistic" as the unicorn horns do, in execution, but clumsy me is willing to trade a little realism for safety.


The wings themselves are actually rather well-sculpted; I can remember making note of that when the first Pegasus - the Classic Lipizzan release #209 - was released in 1983. What I didn’t like the fact that they had decided to put the slots for the wings in the middle of the Lipizzan’s back. Sure, the same rules of logic and anatomy don’t necessarily apply to fantasy creatures, but it still didn’t seem like quite the right place to put a pair of wings.

Reeves was probably thinking the same thing: the more recent Pegasus releases - first on the Silver, for the second Treasure Hunt Redemption Horse in 2007, and now the Muse - have somewhat more plausible wing positioning.

I never did get around to getting the Treasure Hunt Pegasus - my lack of enthusiasm for the Silver mold is also well-documented - but I do have most of the other Pegasuses (Pegasi?) on the Lipizzan mold. All except the most recent release #3365 in 2003-2004, and the creepy blue flocked one from the 1985 J.C. Penney’s Christmas Catalog. (Actually, I did own the blue flocked one, briefly, but that was a little mix-up on Santa’s part.)

Hope I get the chance to add Muse to my plastic rookery. I might even - gasp! - buy a few more than my usual ten-dollars-per-raffle allotment.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hope "Muse" leads Breyer on a trend to release realistically colored pegasi in the future - would love a palomino pegasus, or a pinto one (with pinto pattern on the wings).