Cyber Monday Foofaraw

I was out most of the day on work and work-related business, so I missed all the Breyer Cyber Monday web site crashing drama. And the Mini Falhófnir.

That one I am a bit bummed about, since I missed out on the handful that were in the NPOD in July, too. Always just beyond my reach, annoying little Fluffernutter….

Breyer straight up confessed that the crash was due to unexpectedly high traffic, which was undoubtedly influenced by the Sonny-Banff-Ashquar triple play on Black Friday. Nothing like few thousand hobbyists, constantly refreshing the site, to test (and discover) the limits of your server capacity.

There’s some speculation that there were going to be more limited SR drops on Monday, but were cancelled after the Stablemate Falhófnirs because of the technical issues. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case.

As far as what those surprises could be or when they will be dropping in the near future, your guesses are as good as mine. Though I am hoping/expecting at least two things: something related to the AQHA Anniversary horse (maybe those notorious “… and more!” horses?) and at least one more holiday oddball release, like a Zebra, Elk or Khemosabi.

And why not Khemo? Last year’s BreyerFest Silent Auction Decorator Set was fairly well-received, after the initial foofaraw died down; surely a few dozen Silver Filigree or Silver Charm Khemosabis could generate similar enthusiasm, with the same crowd at least.

Might make for an interesting experiment too, to test the limits of what speculators would buy. Much like what happened with the Boxer Rolly last year, but on an even more daring scale: there are some hobbyists who do collect the Dog molds, but Khemo? That is a much smaller pool.

It always shocks some hobbyists to hear this, but it’s true: some molds are far more popular with the public than with hobbyists. The Khemosabi mold, like the Bassett Hound and Lady Roxana, is much more popular outside of the hobby than in it.

It’s not that we have better or more discriminating tastes, it’s that different markets are looking for different things, plain and simple.

Not better. Not worse. Just different.

I wish more hobbyists would pause to think about that before piling on the latest releases.