Thursday, October 25, 2018

Double Take

No, not that Double Take. This one:


When I caught my first glimpse of the new Collector’s Club Special Celeste, my first thought was “That’s kind of a bold move Reeves, going with a Misty’s Twilight mold.” 

Then I did a face palm and realized it was actually the newer Eberl Andalusian Mare, instead. But take a gander at the 1997 State Line Tack Special Run Kokopelli’s Gold, and you can (maybe?) kind of see why someone like me might have been a wee bit confused?

Yes, even I conflate one model with another. Maybe moreso than the average hobbyist, since I have a bigger-than-average reference file: my brain goes straight to old stuff, instead of the new.

Maybe conflating Misty’s Twilight and the Andalusian Mare is also another reason why I’ve been having a hard time mustering more affection for the newer mold? If anything, I slightly prefer the Misty’s Twilight, and the historical shout out to Currier and Ives prints.

(If I had had the time – and more motivation – to do it, my Diorama Contest entry for BreyerFest this year would have been a recreation of a Currier and Ives harness racing print, preferably one of the legendary Maud S.

In addition to the customizing involved, I would have also had to do a fair bit of tackmaking, sulky-making, and some crazy engineering to suspend the whole shebang inside a shadow box with a vintage-looking picture frame.

So yeah, obviously that wasn’t going to happen.)

Since I’m still enjoying a horse-buying semi-hiatus, whether I really liked Celeste or not was sort of irrelevant anyway. I’ll save my cash for whatever other end-of-year holiday silliness they have planned.

To be honest, all I am asking for is to actually have the opportunity to see the Special Run Holiday Animal – whatever it is! – before it’s sold out.  Since we already got the Special Run Elk Inari at BreyerFest this year I am probably safe even if I do miss it (again). Just having the chance means more to me than the actual buying.

Unless it’s the Deer Family. All bets are off on that.

FYI everybody: while I’m still “out” for the duration, I’m hoping to have more of a hobby and online presence again, soon. While I am nowhere near done with my literal and metaphorical housecleaning, I may be in a more manageable place in the near future.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are one of the few people that would choose the Misty's Twilight over the Eberl Andalusian mare. I didn't really care for Misty's Twilight even when she was brand spanking new! She's just so lumpy, squatty, and her hooves are all different sizes.

But you know what I like better than the Eberl Andalusian mare? Her foal! I really love the looks of that little bugger for some reason. I think it's his proud head carriage.

If I have any complaint about the Eberl Andalusian mare it's only that she looks so much like Giselle. But I can totally live with that. She will paint up nice!

Trilkhai said...

I've always thought that the MT mold could've been excellent if they'd just placed the hooves on clear pegs so she's not on the ground, standardized their size/shape, and maybe enhanced her neck or added a little more definition to her haunches.

I thought I might like the new Andalusian Mare until I saw her odd hyper-muscled shoulder & under-powered hind end. She's one of those molds that has that hard plastic look that even awesome paint jobs can't soften. :-/

GWR said...

Now I'm picturing Misty's Twilight's colorway on the Hermosa mold. *dreamy sigh*

Truson said...

I'm just gonna come right out and say it: I like the MT better than this mold. It was a better mold in its time than this one is for right now. I still bought this model but I like my MTs better. This mold just looks underpowered to me.