Thursday, August 25, 2022

Setting Them Free

In case you were wondering, I (probably) won’t be making a pit stop at the former Chicago location of Breyer Animal Creations while in town for Chicon 8 next weekend. 

It’s not the neighborhood that scares me (hello, I grew up and around Detroit!) but my schedule is already very full, and I’m nervous enough about potentially missing out on the Exclusive Event waitlist draws (ha!) and Johann. 

I also want to heed my own advice and not overschedule myself. I have a… bad habit of doing that. (Someone please talk me out of volunteering at Chicon next week. Seriously, why am I even entertaining the notion?)

Anyway, here’s the set that the laundry room forced me to unbox earlier than I expected: the #1734 Deer Family!

(I had a heck of a time setting them free from their soggy mess of a box, though. I swear they used about ten feet of wire to secure them inside it!)

One of the scarcer Deer Family releases, this set was only available in 2015 and 2016; mine came in a Grab Bag, back when they still sold them on the web site and they had good stuff to include. 

The only Deer Family items that might be scarcer are the #3125 Whitetail Deer Family in Summer Coats, and maybe the Fawn Flicka, who was included in one of the Walmart Exclusive Wild Mustang sets. Both were 2005 releases, not coincidentally.

One of the reasons I put off unboxing them is because, as anyone who has had a set of these in their possession knows, both those legs and antlers are crazy fragile. I just repaired a Fawn who took an unfortunate dive off a shelf several months back, and somewhere around here I still have the assorted pieces of my Chalky Buck’s antlers rattling around.

(His little slip and fall was when I discovered just how brittle Chalky plastic actually is!)

Even though the Deer have been perennially solid sellers since their debut in 1964, there aren’t a lot of bold or distinct color options they could go with for future releases, other than Piebald or something Decorator. Either one would make lovely future Winter Web Specials, though.

5 comments:

Lydia Lepic said...

I think they would look really neat with the melanistic dark chocolatey-brown to black coat color that is seen occasionally in whitetail deer.

Also, I didn't realize the Flicka fawn was so rare! I had one, but in a fit of spring cleaning/garage sale frenzy/decluttering mania...I sold her in March. What on earth was I thinking?! She was one of three Breyer Animals I owned! I love deer too! What a stupid thing to do! I am so mad at myself! Thank goodness I didn't get rid of my mountain lion or the corgi! :(

Corky said...

I would lose my mind if Breyer brought out a piebald Deer Family, or a solid white one! Bought a set of the "summer coat" versions at a live show last year -- I love their dark color, as it reminds me of the mule deer I used to see all the time as a kid in the Pacific Northwest. Also, I think maybe Breyer got it backwards -- in my experience, whitetail are that color in the winter, not summer. They shed out to the lighter tan color in summer, at least around here.

Lydia Lepic said...

That's very interesting about the color. In my area (eastern Texas) whitetails are greyish taupe to light brown in winter and turn more of a reddish brown chestnut in summer. :)

Christi said...

I really wish Breyer would release all the animal molds as RRs again. Yeah, finding new colors for some of them that are visibly different from the old ones might take a little work, but I'd love to be able to get any of the Wildlife at more budget-friendly prices.

Corky said...

What Christi said reminds me that I entered my Breyer Elk into the Model Animal Show at the Gogebic County Fair this year (couple weeks ago), and I served as a steward; the Elk got a LOT of admirers and comments! Many people wanted to know where they could get one of their own, and I had to tell them "You can try eBay, but they're no longer being made so it might be difficult."

I understand that the non-horse molds might be problematic to manufacture and ship, what with the antlers and horns and other parts like that, but Breyer is sitting on a gold mine. They could do special runs for places like Cabela's! Hunters and sportsmen would snap them up!