(It looks like crime scene photo, doesn’t it?)
It was one made during the “Shrinky Era” – the late 1980s to early 1990s – so it wasn’t a completely random occurrence. Just a messy and inconvenient one.
Incidentally, everyone else in that box was absolutely fine. But just a few months ago, the Oozy One was fine too.
I got lucky with Shrinkies/Oozies: the late 1980s/early 1990s were exactly the same time period I was least active in the hobby, and buying the fewest models.
It had nothing to do with quality or production issues: I was busy with other things at the time, and simply taking a break. (In the SF/fannish communities, it’s sometimes called “gafiating”, or Getting Away From It All.)
Consequently, when other hobbyists started talking about models shrinking and oozing, I had very little first-hand experience with the phenomenon, beyond the Black Horse Special Runs – the Indian Ponies and Proud Arabian Stallions, specifically.
I’ve made up for it since then, and I’ve even bought a few Shrinkies intentionally. (I am sure some of you remember... The Toad?)
But that Little Bit Drafter caught me by surprise. I had last seen him back in June when I was pulling items out for my display at BreyerFest, and I noticed nothing amiss then. The weather has been unusually warm and humid this year – two things that adversely affect Shrinkies – so maybe that kickstarted the process somehow.
He has been the only one, so far, and the boxes that I’ll be going through next are mostly newer items and vintage items outside of the “Shrinky Era”. The only other surprise I can see lurking in those boxes is exactly how many more Bay Jumping Horse variations I still have. (How many did I buy over the years? Yikes!)
Being a Little Bit/Paddock Pal, he won’t be difficult or expensive to replace, though I am just a wee bit hesitant all the same.
The little Oozy One isn’t going anywhere, either. Since he already happens to be here, I’ll use him as a test subject for possible treatments. If there’s some way to stop it, or at least slow it down significantly, that’d really come in handy. There were some really nice Special Runs during that era, and I would hate to see them all meet an earlier-than-necessary demise.
If you have any yourself, just keep them cool and keep them dry in the meantime. And tuck a few extra paper towels in the bag if you have to keep them in storage, just in case.
4 comments:
I have the same model and he is the first (and worst) to go oozy on me. He was fine until about 5 years ago, and now he's a disaster -- shrunken, deformed, still oozing, and he's split along all his seams. I'm not sure what caused his sudden decay; my parents got central air in their house around that time, which should have helped him, not hurt him. The rest of that set is fine for me, as well. I can't get rid of him because he was my very first Breyer -- first set, first one out of the box. :(
Funny I just was checking out one of my models this weekend to see how bad he was getting... a SR bay San Domingo who does it all...sweat, shrink, deform and stick! He is so badly shrunk that he is doing a walking side pass and now won't stand at all! If he was a real horse I'd be in jail!
How come your bio says "ask me questions that's what I'm here for", yet you answer no questions people ask? Just curious.
Do you still have Toad? Or did he finally melt into a stinky oozy mess?
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