Sunday, July 3, 2016

The Unlikeliest Color

It is Green, right? The most unlikely color for a horse is Green?

Yet when I was looking at the Auriverde – the latest (last?) Pop Up Store/Mercado Special Run, I realized that Green has been a relatively common color for Breyer horses.


Certainly more common than even a lot of more horse-like colors! Off the top of my head we’ve had…

… the Running Stallion Jade, his mini-me on the Stablemates Running Mustang, the Fighting Stallion Translucent Carnivale, last year’s Christmas Decorator Ivy, the Horse Crazy Stablemates G2 Saddlebred and G4 Driving Horse, and the May “Lily of the Valley” Horse from the Blossoms Series. Those are all entirely or primarily Green.

Some of the Unicorns (like the Little Bits/Paddock Pals ones), some of the Zodiac Series, and the Year of the Horse Esprit all came with noticeable and distinctly Green body shading.

There are ornaments and keychains, too, that are also partially or mostly Green, like the G2 Appaloosa from the Mod Squad set and the Lime Green G1 Standing Thoroughbred Foal.

And finally, there are some horses that were meant to be something else other than Green, but turned out that way anyway, like some of Reeves’ early attempts at Blue Roan and the infamous Dappled “Green Bay” Sham from the 1994 half-year #3163 Arabian Stallion and Frisky Foal Set.

Some Breyers were even molded in a Kelly Green-colored Tenite in the 1970s – it’s one of the many “off” colors they purchased and overpainted into Chalkies. We sometimes see stripped examples being sold as something rare or unusual but they aren’t, not really.

There are a few light, limey green plastic Classic Quarter Horse Foals floating around the hobby, too. Those appear to be genuinely Factory Unpainteds. Those are probably the rarest and most collectible of the Greens, outside some Mod Squad Test Shots Reeves parcels out as prizes on occasion.

We don’t know the situation with the Auriverde – piece count, or overall hobby demand – so whether or not it becomes another Caves of Lascaux is still to be determined.

I hope not, because I’m still stinging a bit from that one.

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