So Many Wishes

No Persimmon, and not worrying about it. Money’s running a little bit tight right now anyway. (Taxes, dental appointment, BreyerFest tickets, tags for the car….)

The Asian Delegate for BreyerFest has been announced, and it’s a glossy little something on the Make a Wish mold. Her name is Furano:

First, let me toss in my usual boilerplate about my mention of the mold last week and her appearance within the Breyer web-o-sphere this week being a complete coincidence. I’ve been meaning to do a write up about this mold for a while, as a follow up to the Brishen/Laredo piece. I guess that means the time to do so is today!

To continue… the mold is extremely popular now in all its various iterations, especially among newer hobbyists; it makes sense that Reeves would go with her over someone like Weather Girl. Every generation of hobbyists has its Arabian Mare, and for all the hobbyists (young and old) who are now doing their darndest to make this year’s Family Vacation is BreyerFest or nothing, it’s the Make A Wish.

Like the Brishen/Laredo mold, the Make A Wish mold comes with some interesting documentation challenges. With three different neck combos, and three different tails, there are nine different possible mold configurations:

• Neck Up, Swish Tail
• Neck Up, Fan Tail
• Neck Up, Long Tail
• Neck Down with Left Side Mane, Swish Tail
• Neck Down with Left Side Mane, Fan Tail
• Neck Down with Left Side Mane, Long Tail
• Neck Down with Right Side Mane, Swish Tail
• Neck Down with Right Side Mane, Fan Tail
• Neck Down with Right Side Mane, Long Tail

I haven’t quite worked out the categorization of the parts here, so I’m just using basic descriptors for now.

Of the nine (for now) different configurations, only five of them have been used for production pieces so far: all three versions of the Neck Up, and one each of the Neck Down-Left and Neck Down-Right.

Neck Up, Swish Tail: Furano, S Justadream
Neck Up, Fan Tail: Gold Raven, Oasis
Neck Up, Long Tail: Music Row
Neck Down-Left, Swish Tail: Make A Wish, Summer Love
Neck Down-Right, Long Tail: Burnham, OT Sara Moniet RS, Smoke and Mirrors

There was also an Auction Test Piece in 2009 – the year the mold debuted – of the Neck Down-Right, Fan Tail variety, but as far as I know that was a genuine one-off. I don’t have access to the factory or the warehouse (11.5 hour drive, peeps) so I don’t know if they have more of that particular body stashed away somewhere for future use.

(Oh, to nose around that warehouse for a day….)

I’ll definitely consider Furano if and once I get to see one independent of the PR shot; for now my thrifty heart belongs to just Dag Dia and Namid.

By the way, it is so nice to see the tide of opinion turning on Namid after BreyerWest! But more on all that next time.