Thursday, March 16, 2023

Broken

Dealing with a lot of petty annoyances over the past few days. First, there was this:

As for what happened to my beautiful big Chocolate Moose… I bumped him. Nothing dramatic at all, I just happened to brush him as I was putting a binder away and ploop! Off popped the antler. 

He is over 50 years old and a lot of the plasticizers in the plastic that keep it flexible have evaporated over time, so it is not a complete shocker. But it’s still a bummer: I spent forever looking for the perfect Chocolate Moose, and now he’s no longer perfect!

Then I caved and bought one of the Deluxe Grab Bags. Yeah, I know the last round of Grab Bags didn’t go over well, but I just got a nice (and not so little!) profit sharing check and the next thing you know, click-click-click. I’m just hoping that there’s one or two things in there worth the gamble; I’m pretty easy to please, so I’m guessing maybe? 

I’m not feeling lucky, just optimistic. Spring is just around the corner, you know.

I’m not so optimistic about the latest Birds of a Feather release Magpie:

It’s in that beautiful Gloss Midnight Blue-Black color I love so much on my Omega Fahim, but it’s been a while since I’ve been picked for something. But you can’t win if you don’t play, so…

More annoying is the fact that the e-mail for Magpie (and the last several e-mails from Breyer, in fact) have ended up in my Spam folder. While actual Spam… has not. Oh, except for the VIP ticket e-mail that was completely redundant. That’s some messed up spam filter you got going there, Yahoo!

Rolling my eyes at the Cleveland Bay Paddy Sample Breyer put on eBay, too: at the price (over $1000 already, really?), and the preponderance of commenters on Facebook who had no idea that this model was actually released over ten years ago. 

It’s just depressing: I know that history is not everybody’s thing, but when a significant (and/or very vocal) subset of hobbyists can’t be bothered to either read or do 15 seconds of research before commenting, it makes you question your life choices.

And finally, and darn, someone just listed a beautiful old Julie Froelich model on eBay – on a Running Mare, no less! As much as I’d love a vintage Froelich, that’s not going to go cheap. Sigh. 

That’s one thing I do need to add to my BreyerFest shopping list this year: Vintage Custom fixer-uppers. I’ve been enjoying the process so much with that Black Stallion mystery custom that I wouldn’t mind adding one or two more to the craft table. 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

*tee hee*! While I'm sorry for the damage done to your beautiful boy--I couldn't help but chuckle at the food reference!! Really Andrea??!! Not "dark bay" or 'brown"---but CHOCOLATE moose(mousse)!! Hehe! You must still be hungry from working at the factory!!
OOOOO--MAGPIE!! What a *gorgeous* model!! I didn't enter unfortunately because I don't like the odds of setting my heart on one and NOT getting it! I have an acquaintance with deep pockets however,and I'll bet she'll end up with one--one way or another!!
I'm with you concerning hobby history ignorance!! With a website like IDY , there isn't any excuse not to know that there WERE other models *before & 2010 or 2020!!

Alicia B. said...

I didn’t get an email for him either, this is the first time in awhile thats happened. I dont know what happened sometimes as I get other emails from them.

Anonymous said...

I get so tired of people seeming to know nothing these days. It's like study, do a little research people.

SmartAlex said...

My husband has just gone through a round of frustrating weirdness with the Yahoo spam filter as well. They must have made some programming "upgrades or something.

Corky said...

When I worked in Japan, most of my job consisted of answering customer-service emails from customers all over the world. I wish I had a nickel for every customer complaining about Yahoo and their spam filters. SmartAlex hit the nail on the head; it's due to some sort of upgrade, and a lot of the time they don't bother telling their customers about it when they make an upgrade. It's not a bad idea to check the spam filter weekly, if you can.

timaru star ii said...

Forgive me for not posting photo evidence. I have 2 broken Moose to join my other 2 unbroken. "Only half the moose in the world carry antlers, and of those that do, it's only half the time!" I got out the knife and the files, (and a little paint), and now I have 2 Moosettes. Moose get lonely too.

Suzanne said...

Ach, poor Moose! One of my Appaloosa Western Prancers lost a leg when I put the box he was in down abruptly. Not only has he been around a long time, but who knows if he'd already had a couple of hard knocks? (Although he looked near mint, except for yellowing) :^(

I confess, I'm perplexed by fellow collectors who think Breyers are perfect and immortal, as long as you don't expose them to bleach! (And yes sun-bleaching gets the yellows out, but sunlight breaks down most plastics!) And of course, even the most roughed up horses are valuable as long as you don't interfere- no touch ups! Wow. I love my tiny horses, but...those attitudes are just creeping me out. I wonder if these attitudes help rationalize those crazy prices. Or vice versa.

Had to see that Froelich Running Mare- pretty! What a difference a narrow blaze makes!!!