Sunday, January 6, 2019

The Alborozo Chase

My Darley came the other day, and he brought a friend with him!


Since the Unicorn Surprise Blind Bags have been extremely scarce around here, I decided to toss one in to my Darley order and be happy with whatever the warehouse randomly shipped me.

Like the Blind Bag Stablemate that I ordered earlier this year that netted me an Appaloosa Django, it actually worked out better than I hoped for! While the standard Pearly Lavender Mini Alborozos aren’t that rare or expensive, I also wanted to wait and see if I could get around paying the (modest) premium anyway.

And I did! The Navy Blue Chase piece would have been even better, but I am not one of those people. (Lucky, or obsessed.)

Alas, it appears that the Alborozo will be the chase piece in this year’s version of the Stablemates Mystery Horse Surprise Assortment, too – though hornless, this time.


This is turning into the Traditional Esprit all over again, isn’t it? Take a mold that’s popular from the get-go, but make all the initial releases difficult to get…

I get it: the short-term sales are great! But it also ends up spoiling some of us on the mold to begin with. What’s the point of trying to collect it, if you find yourself starting out in a deep hole right from the beginning?

It’s not like a vintage mold, where the chance of a rarity turning up in the wild is an actual possibility. That’s what’s the most disheartening about collecting more modern and/or popular molds, and especially the newer Stablemates. With older molds, at least, I can usually count on the chance that if I miss a new release of it now, I’ll still be able to find it out “in the wild” eventually.

Most of the Stablemates Alborozos being bought are going straight into to secondary market, with few making intermediate stops in wider world.

The Alborozo is also a part of the Walmart Exclusive Unicorn Crazy Surprises, too, but I don’t know if he’s going to be the chase piece in that one yet, or not. They’re only just trickling out to the stores now, and I haven’t made much of an effort to seek them out online or offline.

I am in no mood for playing games this year, so I might just skip the Stablemates search efforts entirely and focus my energies on more rewarding hobby pursuits.

(That Appaloosa Mini Brishen, though. Argh! And the Purple Mini Magnolia!)

I do have that one Mesteno custom I started last year that I could definitely work into the “Great Hair Day!” Theme Class. Yeah, maybe that instead.

2 comments:

Christi said...

I've ended up with 9 blind bags from Breyer over the past year. My luck (ha) has led to 7 of the Uni-Clydes and a pair of Magnolias. I finally found a purple Alby at Cracker Barrel. I'm very good at IDing the Clyde now, though.

Anonymous said...

I did get the dark blue chase Alby at Walmart. Since there were 2 Albys in the first wave, I thought for sure I was getting the purple one. I felt all the bags in the store. I opened the bag in the car, and was almost too excited to drive home. I put him and the chase wave 2 Spirit (war paint) in the safe. I take them out now and then just to admire them.