That was an unwelcome surprise: I found a giant black spider on the envelope of my BreyerFest tickets as I pulled them out of the mailbox yesterday! I freaked out and immediately dropped all my mail on the ground, because spiders.
The last time I had that close of an encounter with a spider, I got bit and thought I’d have to go to the ER. So my reaction was not entirely unjustified.
I am happy to report that both me and the spider survived the incident unscathed, as did the tickets. (No footprints!) The rest of the mail was also fine, including a lot of vintage Wyoming travel brochures I bought off eBay.
In less traumatic news, I was not draw for a Sparrow, but that’s neither a surprise nor a heartbreak. If I want to speak of heartbreak, there’s another Test Color Drawing, for a Metallic Bay Adios:
I wasn’t expecting this, because he’s not particularly flashy or groundbreaking (another Bay Adios, of all things?) but gosh, he is so pretty. I think I need him.
Adios was a pretty popular guy in the 1970s and 1980s with both the general public and hobbyists: not only was he a portrait model twice over (Adios and Yellow Mount), he was also one of the more anatomically correct models of the era, and tended to show pretty well. Everyone had at least one Adios mold in their showstring!
Consequently, bodies were plentiful at the factory, which resulted a number of Test Colors and Oddities. You experiment with what’s available to you, after all….
The most desirable of these Oddball Adioses at the time, of course, were the Black ones.
Contrary to hobby belief, the Black Adios was never formally considered a Special Run of any sort: they existed in a fuzzy gray area somewhere in between Test Color, Factory Custom and Gift/Prize Model.
Some of them were painted by Marney as gifts to hobbyists who were lucky enough to get a factory tour: Black was the easiest color of all to paint, and since it covered a multitude of decorative sins, it was also a good way to use up some of the Culls in the regrind bin.
But she also painted up (or rescued?) some for resale. I remember seeing at least a couple in the Test Color boxes she casually placed on some empty show tables at Model Horse Congress in 1985, the ones that made everyone in attendance go into full meltdown mode.
I was never lucky enough to get a Black Adios, though I came pretty close: our local hobbyist group was planning a trip to visit the Chicago factory in mid to late 1984, but the tour got canceled at the last minute, probably due to the pending sale to Reeves International.
Considering how much of a legend the Black Adios has become nowadays, I think I have a better shot at getting the Metallic Bay one.
Technically, I do have a Test Color Adios, or at least I think he is (yeah, it is one of those things) but I’ll cover him another time, when I actually have a little more to spare.
3 comments:
I would kill for this horse! Adios has always been a favorite mold of mine. Buttermilk was my second ever Breyer (he came the Christmas after Trigger). He and the pinto stock horse foal are on a shelf next to my sewing table. I didn't enter the drawing for the test run though. He's way out of my league, budget wise. If Adios ends up being the Stagecoach Surprise instead of Old Timer I'll be not-sad. :)
The only thing I would end up doing with a test run like that sadly is selling it. Not in my budget. I'd hope whoever does win it can appreciate it. I'd considered entering when I first saw it, and gosh forbid if I'd won od turn around and offer it to Andrea because I know she likes the vintage and im almost positive audios is high on the list
I've asked as many as I can if they don't want him please enter for me. I won't flip him. He would be a forever horse for my most loved Adios conga.
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