Nope, Not That One Either

Ugh. I feel like I’ve been moving in slow motion for the past several days. My back is definitely in a better place than it was last week, but getting anything extracurricular done – prepping a quilt for quilting, sorting out old mail, writing blog posts – has been an exhausting process. 

As you know, after several years of fruitless searching, I was finally able to find myself a Glossy Dapple Belgian. The search for an adequate Smoke Belgian still continues, however:

He wasn’t the main reason I bought that particular box lot – it was a good deal, and the majority of the models in the lot were not body quality, that’s why – but I was kind of hoping he’d be close enough. Nice shading, good pinking, no yellowing, snowy-white, beautifully executed eye whites and tail ribbons…

… but not quite nice enough for me to spend money restoring. Like all the other Smoke Belgians I’ve had in my life, he’ll probably spend several months here before moving along, like all the rest.

He’s not an especially rare model to acquire, but he is hard to find in good condition. Since he was primarily produced in the mid- to late-1960s (1964 to 1971, to be exact), the majority of them were specifically purchased as toys, not as collectibles: he’s a big, sturdy fella that I’m sure many parents assumed could stand up to some rough handling. 

And except for eartip breaks and rubs, they usually do! 

Smokes do seem more prone to rubbing than other paint jobs, too, which might have something to do with how they were painted in the first place: the paint was thinner and more lightly applied, and they were (except for a few Belgians on lamps) almost always Matte-finished. 

(By the way, the Smoke Belgian was never actually advertised as a Smoke: He is listed as a “Grey with white mane and tail” in all the known catalogs, manuals and other ephemera. Why that is, I have no idea. Just Breyer being Breyer, I guess.) 

Incidentally, I still haven’t gotten around to getting myself a Gibson; my work schedule hasn’t been very accommodating to casual shopping at Tractor Supply. That’s… probably for the best?  

I’m not in any hurry for either a Smoke Belgian or a Gibson: if anything, I need more excuses to sell more stuff, but until both my back and my work schedule clear up a bit more, sales are definitely not a priority.  

What is a priority, if it does happen? A vintage Chestnut Belgian with eyewhites! It’s been a couple of years since I’ve even seen one for sale, so I am not holding my breath. Catching my breath is hard enough, nowadays...