Breyercano!

I must be going through one of my periodic personal system crashes; in addition to the back pain, nausea and allergic reactions, I spent most of Wednesday incapacitated by the Worst. Migraine. Ever.

My ears are still ringing somewhat, but at least I can stand up and walk a (more or less) straight line. And food tastes like food again!

This next model I am featuring may seem like an odd choice, considering all of the things I picked up in the "Ninja Pit of Death" this year. It’s a Sample Black Beauty, from one of this year’s Walmart "Sunshine Meadows" Special Run sets:

There had to have been at least one example of each of these sets in the Sample Boxes. I grabbed the one that I wanted, and left the rest behind for the more dedicated Classics collectors among us, because I know how you guys are. (Though I wouldn’t have turned down the Silver Bay Keen if I had seen him, either.)

The reason why I'm spotlighting him: in case you haven’t already heard, those Special Run sets are now being distributed throughout Walmarts in the United States, and not just in select stores in the Upper Midwest. Every Walmart I’ve stopped at in the past two weeks has had a selection - some more complete than others.

(NOTE: I am in Southeast Lower Michigan. The Shelby Township store at 23 Mile Road and Van Dyke store had the biggest and best, if you’re on the prowl.)

It was hard to resist the urge to grab a shopping cart, shove everything off the shelves into said cart, and make a mad dash to the cash registers at the first store I stopped at. It was only a couple days after I had gotten back from Kentucky, so I think I was still in Ninja shopping mode at that point.

What stopped me was that I remembered that I still hadn’t entirely dealt with the "Breyercano" eruption in my office yet:

(Note: this is only about half of it - excluding the pickups, Stablemates, and various still-unbagged ticket line items. Sigh. I was so bad this year. But according to my very rough calculations, apparently on budget! Woo-hoo!)

There were even some boxed Walmart sets in the Pit, too, but they got lost in the shuffle, for the most part. We were all too distracted by other boxed items, including those mysterious "Are they or aren’t they?" Regular Run models with Special Run rumbers that baffled us all weekend. (You might have already spied a Huck in the photo above: more on those, next time.)