Crawling Out of Lurk Mode

Since I was either not home, or not awake when I was this week, I missed most of the big Blab Outage drama. Which is just as well, since I’ve been - and will continue to be - in lurk mode there a while longer. (Work, other commitments, some commenters I’d rather not deal with right now…)

Reeves sure has been busy cranking out these new releases while I was away; three more have appeared since I posted last.

First up was the Vintage Club Special Stablemate - a G3 Jumper in Gloss Gray Splash Spot Appaloosa, named Jackson. While you might have noticed that I’m big on the word play, his name - a riff on the Jumping Horses’s original nickname "Stonewall" - made me groan a little. 

The prototype/PR picture shows actual Splash Spots, not the painted dots of the Harlequin, which I hope is certainly the case with the actual release. I was rather depressed reading some of the commentary about him on the Breyer web site; not at the implied (and increasingly tiresome) sniping about the Kiowa paint job, but over the fact that a not small number of hobbyists are completely unaware of the existence of the 1995 Raffle Model Mystique.

Not the Most Popular Raffle Model out there, but also not that obscure. If you’re going to commit to collecting Vintage colors or releases, you ought to know your history, a little.

After a brief hiatus, the Tractor Supply Holiday Special Runs have returned; this year’s model is the old Traditional Mustang/Diablo in a Matte Resist Dapple Gray/Blue Roan Appaloosa with masked blanket and spots, named Dillon. He reminds me a lot of the recent Mid-States Special of Thunderbolt, on the Foundation Stallion mold. I like the TSC SR a little better, just because the dappling is so over the top.

I don’t know if I’ll be picking that one up yet; I still haven’t gotten around to dealing with the overflow caused by the BreyerFest purchases. The nearest TSC is literally just a few minutes away, so it won’t be a hardship to go take a look-see, anyway. Maybe tomorrow, while I'm running my errands.

There’s also a new Web Special drawing this weekend, for a Decorator Smarty Jones painted like a King Cheetah, named Kimbia. Apparently he’s the first of a new Web series of "Big Cat" releases.

My first reaction was "What the…?" as I’m generally not the kind of person who buys those sort of Decorators. Unless it’s really cleverly done or detailed, my eyes glaze over; while I don’t buy many customs, when I do I tend to go more for interesting (and realistic) reinterpretations of older molds.

A Silver repainted/sculpted into a Pegacorn? Blah. A Five-Gaiter turned into a Friesian? Now you have my attention!

The more I looked at his picture, though, the more I liked Kimbia. The paint job appears to be well-designed, and it really suits the mold. I won’t be heartbroken if I don’t get him - again, the space issues - but if I do happen to get picked, I won’t be putting him up for sale before most folks have opened their "Congratulations!" e-mails.

I’ll get around to discussing the Reissues - and some of the more interesting developments and discoveries about them - in my next post.

Time to go back to bed.