Just something short today; while setting up the new computer went more smoothly than I anticipated and things – in general – are going pretty swimmingly overall, I still have a ton of stuff to do by the end of the week.
Plus, you know, I’ll be busy all Thursday night: I’ve already bought my snacks and I am ready to go.
(DCEU Nerd and I make no apologies!)
My Vintage Club mini Gold Secretariat is here but – like a lot of recent purchases that aren’t related to work – he’ll probably remain unopened for the next several weeks.
In the meantime, I’ll post a picture of a vintage example of the packaging they were trying to emulate:
This is Umar and he actually did pretty well at the BreyerFest Photo Show last year: fourth, I think? Not too surprising: the packaging was near-perfect and it’s the Dapple Gray version of the actual Arabian Stallion mold, not the cosplaying Morgan Stallion that came out the year previous.
He’s scarcer than his Morgan predecessor, because releases tend to sell best in their first year and then taper off, even if there’s been a significant change in the release itself – whether it’s a change of markings, finish or (in this case) the mold itself.
The resist dapple paint job was discontinued on the original G1 Stablemates by the end of 1976 because they were kind of a pain in the butt: you could get away with a variety of dapple sizes on a Traditional scale model, but a few out of scale dapples on a Stablemate would have been a no-go.
One interesting difference between the Vintage Club release and the original is the blow-molded insert: the original has a molded-in texture that the Vintage Club release does not.
I am assuming there was a logical reason for adding texture to the original inserts. It may have been a way of masking or camouflaging any minor imperfections or irregularities in the plastic. Or perhaps because the stark white insert visually dominates the packaging, a texture was added to jazz it up a bit?
I don’t know, I’m just speculating here.
3 comments:
There was another method of painting dapples on Stablemates in the 90's. It looks like the dapples were painted on the surface with a paint that beaded before it dried, the dapples are so even in size and distance. It looked good, I wonder why they didn't keep using this technique, or using it on larger scales.
On second look (Dapple grey Draft Horse on IDYB) it must be the same resist dapple paint technique, but something different was used to make the dapples very round and very regular in distance apart, as if the liquid beaded up.
"whether it’s a change of markings, finish or (in this case) the mold itself."
I THOUGHT this G1 Arabian Stallion looks different from the ones I have. I have the G1 Morgan Stallion, Arabian Mare, and Saddlebred all from 1971 - because they were toppers on my birthday cake that year. But I didn't get an Arabian Stallion until later, although it was definitely still in the 70s and I think before 1975, but maybe not.
I've collected Stablemates for 50 years now (!!!) and had NO IDEA this guy had had a mold change, but his back half definitely looks different. How interesting.
Jill
Post a Comment