Solar

FYI: This week starts the overnight project at work, so I might be even harder to get a hold of for a while. On the plus side, the schedule will be a set one rather than my usual on-call one; on the other hand, it’s overnights, so I’ll probably be sleeping through breaking news and any potential web site surprises.

I didn’t win a Solar because I didn’t enter for him. I did really like him, but I didn’t love him, and I thought it’d be much better for someone who loved him to win him outright rather than by proxy. I’ve never had much luck doing that, anyway.

I have to admit that when I read the e-mail about him, describing him as "The first horse in our Celestial series", these are the "Celestials" that came to mind: Link 1  Link 2

Comic book artist Jack Kirby at his most cosmic! Come to think of it, if Jack Kirby were to design a model horse, Solar would probably be a pretty good approximation: a large, dynamic two-page spread of a horse that might not work biomechanically, but still manages to work visually.

(And if you’re looking for some inspiration in naming your own Solar, follow the links. I’m partial to "Exitar" myself.)

In other news worth commenting on, it appears that they are actually going to do something about the Glossy Prize situation at the Youth and Children’s Show: scaling the prizes back to Limited Editions, Web Specials, and Regular Runs. There will still be some actual Glosses given to the Grand and Reserve, but they will be identical to the Section prizes in the Open Show.

Thus providing much less temptation to the parents and guardians of potential entrants to enhance their charges’ showstrings, and encourage older and/or more competitive entrants to move up to the Open Show.

I know there’s some concern that the kids will get "less desirable" Web Specials and Limited Editions foisted upon them, but I don’t think that’s a foregone conclusion.

Even with popular and very desirable Web Specials and Exclusives, there’s always going to be a "failure rate" on purchases: entering for Web Specials is easy, but sometimes coming up with the money when the time comes is hard.

With a model like Solar - a run of 350 pieces - a very modest failure rate of two percent translates into seven models. Those are the kind of models that we often see in the sales area/NPOD, and that many collectors assume are rejects or returns. A few of them may be, but most of them are there simply because of a lack of funds.

The real question is whether or not Reeves will make the right decisions about what models to choose as prizes. Models that they have specifically designed for younger hobbyists haven’t always gone over so well.

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.