Friday, July 16, 2021

A Reintroduction

I am not completely happy with it – the curses of an artistic temperament, alas – but this year’s Sampler is up! 

It’s been up since early Thursday morning, but I wanted to do my shopping trip yesterday and I didn’t have time to make my formal announcement. My “trip” was unusual, but I’ll talk about it another day when I’m feeling a little less out of sorts.

(How unusual? At one point I was stuck in traffic behind the 2023 Corvette! That is not a typo, and no time travel was involved.)

As a bonus, I’ll offer up color versions of the pictures accompanying the Early Micro Runs article. I was originally going to include them in color in the Sampler, but I decided to keep it all in black and white instead. 






(By the way, printed copies will be available next week: I’m kind of wiped right now and I just want to chill for most of the weekend.)

It really is kind of remarkable that I have pictures of all these things, especially since I physically own none of them. I was present for raffles of the Rose Gray Proud Arabian Mare and the Red Bay Cantering Welsh Pony, but didn’t win either of them, naturally. Even back then I was not so lucky.

Oh, and for those of you joining us for BreyerFest, howdy! The current content has been a little BreyerFest-focused because it’s that time of the year, but it can – and does – change. 

I try to post about ten times a month (every three days or so) and while most of the content is about Breyer History, it sometimes veers off into other topics I am interested in, including: quilting, comic books, art history, old movies, gardening, and the weird stuff that only seems to happen to me (yes, I’m one of THOSE people!)

I’ve been collecting since 1974, been involved in the hobby since 1978, and I’ve done work for Breyer – off and on – since I published my first article in the original Just About Horses in 1985. I still occasionally do work for them, but as you’ll see, I’m also not afraid about calling them out when they sometimes do dumb things. 

I’ve done everything in the hobby from live showing to customizing to pedigree assignment (we called it “breeding” back in the old days!) but my first love has been researching and obsessing over model horse history, particularly Breyer History. 

I will confess that I don’t know everything, I am occasionally wrong, and I am sometimes a bit of a drama queen (if you didn’t already get that from the blog title). 

I also occasionally – and absolutely unintentionally, I swear – talk about models before they’re released. This is super-awkward because there are some things that I’m not supposed to talk about. 

Like the Corvette, time travel is not involved, and I make no claims of psychic abilities: I just know the market and the product well enough to be able to make better predictions than most. Whether I realize I am doing it or not.

And in case you’re going to ask, my social media presence is a light one. I have a pretty busy offline life, and other than this blog, my Internet activity is not a priority. 

I also do not have a Facebook account, and hope to keep it that way. Long story short: aside from the fact it is not a good fit for the way I socialize in general, I also happen to think that Facebook’s business model is doing more harm to the world than good, so I try to keep my interaction with it to a bare minimum.   

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Breyer's business model, I'm not exactly sure what YOU mean when you say that, but for me, I am sorta feeling left out. I'm been collecting for only slightly less time that you, and when I see all this stuff geared towards kids (that MANE horse head manikin anyone?) I just sort of shake my head!

When I was a kid, I collected Breyers because they were realistic! There was tons of garbage horse shaped toys out there.....My Little Pony, Fashion Star Fillies, Barbie horses, etc. But Breyers were special, they looked real! Now it's like they are wanted to be in the junk toy market. But they have done a lot to cater to actual collectors lately too, so I guess I can't really complain. But sometimes I wonder WHY? When I was a kid, I wanted realistic horse models. And as a 40 something adult, I still want the same thing. I guess I don't get it? Now decorator paint jobs are a whole 'nuther thing. Bring 'em on! But I want the sculptures to actually look like a real horse. :)

Little Black Car said...

OMG those pinto Family Arabians!

I'm trying to refocus and be more selective in my collecting, with the ultimate goal of scoring one or two OOAK or TRs. Of course, I just set myself back by preordering a BF SR and nabbing what I think might be the sweetest glossy bay QH Gelding ever, but . . . baby steps, right?

ANDREA said...

FYI: I was talking about Facebook's business model mostly. I'll change that to make it clearer.

I also didn't get an NPOD box, but I was expecting that. Unfortunately it appears some people used multiple accounts to get multiple boxes, which is a huge bummer.

I've already ordered everything I needed to (no Pollock, but Seurat and the Surprise) but I am mostly underwhelmed right now, and if I didn't have to stay up for the slight chance of getting notified for a raffle, I'd be heading to bed right about now. (I plan on watching the prerecorded videos tonight, during my "day").

Qatgirl said...

By the way, I made sure to watch your video today! I loved it! I had to call my husband into the room when my woodgrain running mare and foal lamp came on the screen. :) And I learned so much! Thank you, and well done!

Carrie said...

Seconding the above, great video seminar! Had to watch it in chunks because, ugh, life, but it was fun. Hooray for 'plain' chestnut Morgans!

Anonymous said...

Really liked your seminar, too! Well set up, good large photos that were easy to see, and good pacing. You might listen to the audio for tips if you do another. Parts of words dropped off at times (guess I need to up the volume!). I have already spotted something on your sales list that intrigues me, too.

I watched almost none of the workshop content (yet) but I went looking for your seminar because I am fascinated by hobby history. Thank you for that!

Betsy in WI

Kaivala said...

For those who can attend I certainly understand the appeal of a live in person BF as one who cannot I am greatful for these virtual ones that gave me chances to get models without paying 2-3x$ markup also ,the how to and information videos are great ! To be honest those interested me more than meet n greets and performances.yes I ran into some loading problems for videos while on my phone but on the pc they were ok