Once More, With (A Little) Less Feeling

To clean up a bit of business from the previous comment section:

I have some sensory issues related to food texture and sound. You’re not going to notice the food issues unless you bring a dish to a potluck and find me avoiding it. It’s only a handful of things – like custard-based desserts, and bananas. I am otherwise a very unpicky eater, at least flavor-wise. (I like the taste of bananas, for instance. But don’t ask me to eat one! Weird, I know…)

My reactions to certain sounds are much more noticeable: I have misophonia. I will walk away from people with extremely high-pitched voices, and if someone is chewing gum, I have been known to tell them to their faces that I find it disgusting. And song “remixes” are absolute torture to me. All of these things hurt my ears, raise my blood pressure, and sometimes even trigger a “fight or flight” response. 

So if someone’s social media style incorporates any of those elements into their online presence/persona, I will absolutely turn it off and I will not apologize for it. Most of the time I can access the information elsewhere, so it’s primarily a “me” problem, but if they make content exclusive to some of the more exuberant influencers, me and others like me may miss out, and that could be a problem in the future. 

It almost – but I don’t think quite – rises to the level of ableism. The information was not time-critical, and it was eventually available elsewhere. 

Anyway, back to actual model stuff. 

I am not entirely surprised by the selection of the Stablemates Donkey mold as the Gambler’s Choice for 2024: he’s both cute and popular. Some hobbyists are upset that he’s little, as if the amount of plastic being used has some significant bearing on his perceived value. 

The only thing that kind of weirds me out about him is that he’s one of a handful of molds who have crossed categories. He originally started out as an accessory to various Stablemates gift and play sets, but because of his popularity crossed over into being an individual release with his inclusion in the Spirit: Riding Free Blind Bags in 2017. My mind still thinks of him as an accessory.

Another model that switched/switches categories is Merrylegs: originally designed as a part of the Classic-scale Black Beauty Family Gift Set, the mold has frequently been issued as a de facto Traditional-scale Miniature Horse. 

My problem with Merrylegs, however, is entirely due to the fact that the darn thing is tipsier than The Black Stallion and Pacer combined – at least in my experience. Except for my Test Color Merrylegs, all the others I own are currently in storage to keep her from being the chaos agent that she is. 

Let’s see, I probably should open the last of this year’s shipment, Brio and Nero:

Nothing anybody hasn’t seen before; I am rather pleased that they’re continuing with the Roman Emperor naming scheme with the Draft Horses. And I like Brio a little bit more in person than the original photos, but I still think I’ll like him even more in a solid color.

This came as a complete surprise to me, and as a gift from another kindly benefactor: a Silver Charm Alborozo. I had been aware of some of the items I was being sent (which will be featured in at least one more upcoming post), but this one left me speechless:

As you know, I haven’t had the best luck even finding blind bags in these parts, much less Chase pieces, and I haven’t had any luck with throwing in random ones into some of my online orders, either. I haven’t given up so much as surrendered to my fate: if I happen to stumble upon them in my infrequent shopping excursions, that’s great, but if I don’t, I’m not going to sweat it. 

And then stuff like this happens.