Breyer 2020

I was going to talk about BreyerFest, the new BreyerFest Guide, and all that, but photos of (some) of the 2020 Breyer releases dropped on the Breyer website yesterday and – ladies and gentlemen – we have to talk.

https://www.breyerhorses.com/collections/2020-new-products

The Lipizanner Mare and Foal being released as a set is no surprise; I figured as much, since we just had the Winter Web Special Avoriaz. The colors are pretty, and more typical of actual Lipizzaners, which should momentarily quiet that contingent of hobbyists who get very upset when typey molds are released in nontypey/nonstandard colors. 

(Personally I don’t care one way or the other, but Carina does look lovely in fleabites!)

The return of both the Galiceno and the Pony of the Americas mold – in a set, no less – is more of a surprise for me. Since I am quite fond of both (though not the POA’s new hairdo) this set is a possible must-have for me, in addition to the Lipizanners.

So the Ideal series making a comeback on the Geronimo mold? That’s an interesting idea. The only problem I see with this series is – like the previous AQHA series – is that it’s tailored more towards AQHA members than hobbyists per se. After the third or fourth release in Bay or Chestnut, most hobbyists will tune it out…

I am not quite as gaga over the new Classic-scale Morgan Stallion as everyone else is yet; he’s one I want to wait and see on. And while I know Silver Bay is an acceptable Morgan color, I would have gone with something a little more conventional with the initial release, especially since they have been crushing it with the Bays and Chestnuts of late. 

Oddly more appealing to me is the Malik as a Translucent Blue and Silver Filigree Decorator and a “Unicornized” Mighty Muscle Draft Horse in the same “Early Morning Sunrise” color I found really appealing on the Walmart Unicorn Arabian earlier this year.

(And being the DC nerd that I am, my thoughts went straight to the Solaris of All-Star Superman. As I have mentioned before, it is definitely worth the read.)

The Stablemates 8-pack with both a Darley Arabian and a Darwin is another probably-gotta-buy-it: the paint jobs are a little plain (solid Black on the Darwin?) but I am assuming that’s because they’re trying for a more modest price point there.

So… in spite of my best intentions to the contrary, it might be an expensive year for me, depending on what Specials they have in store for us. And BreyerFest.

Finally, regarding the 70th Anniversary Assortment that has everyone both intrigued and annoyed: I don’t know anything more about how this is going to work than you guys do. I am assuming the Gambler’s Choice aspect applies only to the online purchases on the Breyer website, and to the dealers themselves, who won’t know what they’re getting from the warehouse until they open their cartons up. 

So if you’ve got a particular jones for one mold or another, it might be best to go to a local retailer. (And this, in fact, might be the whole point of this release.)

Besides, from the mess that some people make of Stablemates Blind Bags, “blind boxing” Traditionals would be (a) not particularly feasible, and (b) a gosh-darned nightmare, frankly. 

It looks like Reeves made a very careful and considerate selection of molds – the Fighting Stallion, the Indian Pony, the Moody Andalusian, and the Saddlebred Hamilton – that all have considerable fan bases and should be popular enough individually to not leave dealers with too many shelf sitters.

Naturally, when I first took a look at the assortment before reading the text, my eyes went straight to the Black Pinto Smarty Jones, who is… the darn chase piece.

Of course he is. Oh well, that’s something I can’t let myself worry about.

(The Palomino Hamilton is also rather eyecatching too, but I want to devote a post solely about him later in the week.)

Special Runs and Rarities at Tuesday Morning

I finally got to see both Garrett and Santana “in the wild” – and I liked the Santana more than I thought I would, but not quite enough to pull out the wallet.

I was more tempted by the “New Beginnings” Appaloosa Classics Set, but I think I can wait on that: it has a 700 series Special Run number, which means it’s probably not a TSC exclusive and will be a little easier to acquire down the road, if need be.

I did a lot of travel for work this week, so I managed to hit a couple of Tuesday Mornings, too. I bought the Pony Pouches, but I managed to resist the Smokin Doubledutch. I didn’t see any of the AQHA Horses, though if the weather is less-than-ideal for flea marketing on Sunday, I might head back to see if I can snag one of those Black ones that have reportedly been turning up in their next sale assortment. Especially if they’re only $19.99!

(The promo pic is from their sales flier on their web site at http://www.tuesdaymorning.com/)

This is not the first time that Reeves has unloaded scarce items at Tuesday Morning: some of the 2001 BreyerFest SR Classic Racehorse sets – the one that included a Palomino Kelso, Buckskin Man o’ War, and the Fleabitten/Roan Silky Sullivan – turned up there. As did the Toys R Us Special Run Pacer “Horse of a Different Color” and Five-Gaiter “Valiant”.

They made a ton of the Racehorse set, and they had a ton of them left when that BreyerFest was over. There were so many, in fact, that the rumor that most of them ended up as regrind became accepted knowledge – that I dismissed once I saw the sets at one of my local TMs. The Toys R Us SRs ended up there presumably due to some sort of contractual dispute.
 
Although they weren’t necessarily made specifically for them, the circumstances of their distribution makes these sets – and now presumably, the Black AQHA horses – de facto Tuesday Morning Special Runs.

Actually, I sort of figured that this was how the AQHA scenario was going to play out. Since the Black pieces didn’t come out until the end of the year, when most retailers still had a bunch of Bays and Chestnuts on their shelves, a big chunk of the stock containing the Black pieces never escaped the warehouse.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the market is now going to be saturated with them; the aftermarket prices will drop somewhat as completists fill that gaping hole in their AQHA lineups, but the Black will still be the rarest of the six official retail releases of that run (excluding the Gloss online promotional pieces, of course!)

What it does mean is that the AQHA pieces in the assortments dropping next week will likely have a higher percentage of Blacks than the full-price retailers did, and shoppers will have a slightly better chance to acquire one than they did before.

Which is also why I’m seriously mulling over a return visit on Sunday.

Naughty Pictures

Had a productive couple of “days off”: finished prepping an old sewing project, made fudge, cleaned up and transferred some stuff off my old computer’s hard drive, and unboxed some horses:

I remember when I was a kid and I’d pick up horse magazines – Western Horseman was my big fave – and I’d giggle at the stud horse photos gloriously detailing their handsome backsides: basically they were a ten-year-old horse-crazy girl’s idea of naughty pictures. So I guess you could say that this is my homage to the “dirty pictures” of my wanton youth….

Featuring the Zodiac Cancer/Lobster Butt and a couple of AQHA Horses – the Blue Roan Warehouse Find/Reissue, and the 75th Anniversary Palomino, whom I am really loving right now. Not enough to go forth and complete the collection, but enough to make me wish that the Glossy Black one really was a thing.

Okay, maybe not, but we’ll get to the reasons why in a moment. In the meantime, Reeves released pics of the African Representative, Namid:

Ah, that luscious solid Dark Bay again! When I Googled images of the Namib Desert Horses, I saw a lot of solid Dark Bays, which makes sense since they are the descendants of cavalry mounts.

It appears that I am in the minority in finding her appealing, though; while I was away doing not-Internet things, we apparently entered that awkward part of the year where all the cool kids decide to dislike everything and casually brag about how little they’ll actually spend at BreyerFest, or if they’ll even buy a ticket at all.

As my recent experiences with Reeves issuing exactly the kinds of Special Runs that I dream for – like Marshall, and now Dugan – well, that does not always work out as planned, either. I’d rather be content in finding worth and beauty in the things that are accessible to me, than fret over beautiful things made to my specifications that I cannot have.

That’s one of the points of art connoisseurship – to reconsider something you would not normally have considered before. So instead of first looking for things to dislike about any given release, my first instinct is to try to find things I like about it, or at least find interesting.

I know sometimes the dismissiveness comes from a defensive place: it’s easier to collect when you’re able to eliminate the majority of new items out of hand. And I don’t love everything, myself: Flockies weird me out, I’m still having a hard time loving Desatado, and I really don’t understand the fascination so many have for the Exclusive Event Othello “Puttin’ on the Ritz”. (He’s green, and not in a good way!)

But still, I wish we could all be a little less catty, and a little bit more like the ten-year-old horse-crazy kids we once were. The ones who thought even the homeliest of horses were still kind of awesome.

For instance, I never expected to like my new AQHA Horses – the Roan, the Palomino, and the Warehouse Find Blue Roan – as much as I do now, but I do. That’s why I’d rather not make an offhand wish for a Glossy Black one, only to have it show up somewhere beyond my reach.

Rare Ones

I managed to resist the Breyer web site’s valiant attempt to get me to spend more money, but then on the way home the next day I swung by the toy store, and voila –

Then I get home and this little one was waiting for me:

Let’s talk about some interesting particulars of both of these releases.

The absence of the Palomino AQHA Horse from the individual sales on the Breyer web site – along with the Black – have led many to speculate that the Palomino truly is, as some Breyer reps were telling us early in the year, “The Rare One”.

I am not so sure. I think the absence is partly due to the fact that it was exclusively “The Rare One” for eight months before any of the other colors showed up. Most the Palominos that were made have already been shipped out. And sold – not all, obviously, but most.

I do think the Black is likely the rarest. Either that, or bunches of undistributed ones will be showing up in the usual places otherwise undistributed things go. Along with any “unredeemed” Glosses from the Customer Appreciation Offers, unless they repurpose them somewhere.

(Cringes at the possibility of Gloss Blacks. Oh, dear.)

The colors on the Holly and Ivy are interesting: they’re not the conventional Bright Red and Kelly Green that most of us assumed they would be. They’re more like a Burgundy or Candy Apple Red and Evergreen.

Reeves had been working on perfecting the colors for a while – attendees of the previous Exclusive Event in New Jersey saw some early attempts. It was all pretty much guesswork on their part because there are no verifiable vintage Christmas Decorators to reference.

I momentarily considered trading my Holly for an Ivy, but then I realized (a) I don’t have time for that, and (b) I still want both. Or all: now that they seem to have two of the colors down, I’m hoping we will be seeing the Red Smoke and Green Smoke versions next year?

And what shall we call all of these “new” colors? Again, there’s no documentation to go by that would give us a clue.

I’d really rather not go with Green and Red Filigree. Aside from the fact that a significant portion of the hobby can’t spell “filigree”, I’d prefer we (or Reeves) give these colors names as unique as the original Decorator color names were.

I kind of like a sort of variation of Peppermint/Spearmint. (But not Spearmint as a flavor, personally. Long story.) I think Holly Red and Ivy Green can work too, in the same way we refer to the colorways of the original Buckshot as “Buckshot Blue” and the Appaloosa Performance Horse as some variation of “APH”.

These guys really have to be the last models I buy on a whim for a while, outside of possible thrift store finds, box/collection lots for resale, and any obligated club/trip purchases; I have too many other things committed to my time and money for the front end of next year.

I could probably stand to sell some more stuff, too.

Me and My Luck

Sorry about the little hiatus there – a busy weekend that involved a lot of cleaning, reorganization and housekeeping. My office now looks moderately presentable, or at least navigable.

I also had a minor panic when I received an e-mail about a refund for an item I ordered as a part of that 100-dollars-gets-you-a-free-horse promotion. After about an hour of fretting about it, I managed to determine which of the two boxes in question involved the refund, and opened it. Whew, I still got my freebie!

I had already heard about the vast majority of the freebies being AQHA Horses, and I thought that I’d be moderately safe, since I only had one of the six and it was a rarer one to boot. So I would have been fine with the Bay, the Black, the Grullo, the Palomino or the Sorrel. I pulled it out, and…

... a Roan again, naturally!

So I tried to spin this into a positive: at least I’ll be able to recoup some of my investment, right?

Then the next day Reeves decided to allow people to order Sorrel, Bay, Grullo and Roan directly off the web site, no mysteries involved. While the absence of the Black from the sale may indeed indicate that it is the rarest of the six store-released colors, I think the absence of the Palomino just means that they’ve already shipped all available stock to retailers. It was the rare one before the other rare ones, and it has been available all year.

So now I’ll probably have to hold on to my spare Roan for a while until the market settles. Since I do have most of this week off, I’ll toss pics of him up on my MH$P page on Monday, just in case. (I’d also consider trading him for a Grullo or Palomino.)

All in all, it wasn’t a bad deal; just another case of my funny luck kicking in and making my life a tad more complicated than it needs to be. Basically it is a variation of my Fighting Stallion Problem: finding Woodgrains and Charcoals is easy, but nice plain Matte Alabasters are inexplicably hard.

My other box remains unopened. Whether or not it stays that way until Christmas Eve will depend on how the rest of the week goes.

Oh, and here’s a (spoiler-free) picture I found on Twitter that pretty much sums up my Star Wars experience:

More Roany Rarities

I was in possession of a well-rested morning and coupons, so on Saturday I went in search of others to add to my tiny AQHA collection. I had no hopes of a Black, but I thought I at least had a shot at Palomino. The mold looks nice in that color, and if the Roan had not happened, he would have been the one I would have been aiming for.

Nope. In spite of the fact that I’m within driving distance of more stores that carry Breyers than some entire time zones possess, I never saw anything other than Chestnut and Bay.

I will have to be content with my Roan, and hope I find another rarity accidentally, as I usually do.

Or buy the Blue Roan Warehouse Reissue, when (a) I get some inventory issues worked out here, and (b) there’s a sale of some sort. Numerically, he’s probably as rare – or moreso – than any of the Anniversary Rarities, and he’s sitting right there on the web site, waiting. And he’s a roan; I have a hard time passing by a pretty roan.

Speaking of, I am rather infatuated by the latest Web Site Special – the Thoroughbred Mare and Foal Eve and Claus, in Chestnut Roan:

I can’t right now because it’s a bit pricey (not unreasonably) and I want to build a little bit of a war chest in case of Rare Holiday Special Run Animal Emergency. The previous Holiday Mare and Foal Set – the Running Mare and Foal Vixen and Blitzen – still hasn’t sold out yet, so I’m not in any hurry, though I do think that the piece count on Eve and Claus may be lower.

The Thoroughbred Mare and Foal set has always been one of those sets that polls better among the general public than with hobbyists. The original Mare and Foal Set #3155 ran for over ten years (1973-1984) and the #3367 Cupid and Arrow set ran for about seven (2002-2008).

Most of the other Regular Run sets sold well enough to be kept in production longer than the current two-year average, and the Sears Wishbook Bay Pintos set was popular enough to run in two consecutive catalogs, in 1982 and 1983.

The most recent Special Run was the Gloss Palomino Key Largo and Key West, for the 2011 Sunshine Celebration, though I feel a bit uncomfortable calling any four-piece Special Run an actual Special Run.

So anyway, here’s my thinking on this new Holiday set: it’s either being made with bodies left over from the Cupid and Arrow run, or is a precursor of another set coming in the near future.

It won’t matter to me, though if they turn out to be either Moderately Rare or Only Slightly Scarcer Than Average. I ike them, regardless.

Not the Horse You Were Looking For

The dental work was today, so I’m definitely not in the mood for anything long-winded. (All went well. Thank goodness!)

Here’s a picture of a Mysterious Black Breyer, though not the one you were expecting to see today:

It’s that Black Little Bits Thoroughbreds in Tenite, one of the gift bag treasures that baffled and confused attendees of the Sweet Home Chicago Event. The general consensus is that they are leftover Cobalts from the #1025 Cobalt and Veronica set, issued from 1995 through 1998. Another batch of about 40 were given to showers at the Meows and Minis show held the same weekend.

It’s not something I’ve investigated further – too many other boiling pots of water to attend to, alas – but it does stoke my desire to investigate the deeper mysteries of the Reeves warehouse. A place that had, apparently, at least 250 or so 17-year-old Tenite Little Bits sitting in a box somewhere.

What other kind of crazy stuff do you guys still have in there? (And do you need any assistance inventorying said stuff?)

As for the other Mysterious Black Breyer, Reeves has more or less confirmed (via Facebook, bleh) that the Black AQHA horse does/will exist, and that these new colors (Grulla, Roan, Black) are “rarities” and not just a fresh set of colors for the second half of the year.

It’d be nice if Reeves could also float us some general numbers or percentages so we could gauge just how excited we are supposed to be when we find these rarities – on a scale of “Hey, cool!” to “OMG” to “Spontaneously Combust”?

Though I don’t think it’d be likely before the end of the year, if they even do, just to save retailers the grief. Roan is one of my favorite colors, so my gauge is a bit north of “OMG”, regardless.

Coincidentally, I happened to stop by the same store on the way home from work yesterday – to take another look at the remaining Elskas, I told myself – but no other Horses of Unusual Color were to be found.

That’s actually a bit of a relief, since I just bought a couple of box lots for resale this week that took up that little bit of slack I had in the budget. (Not entirely for resale, I hope, if a couple of hunches prove right.)

More About the Roan...and the "More"

Aside from the Roan AQHA horse, the week wrapped up with a lot of other good news and happy finds.

For instance, the dental work I need will be far less extensive – and less expensive – than I anticipated. Yes!

On the way home from the dentist I stopped at the local Salvation Army and found eight yards of matching vintage feedsack fabric that is perfect for that quilt rehab project I picked up at the flea market about a month ago – and drastically cheaper than the stuff I was pricing on eBay.

But back to the Topic du Jour: The Roan.

I know some of us are upset with Reeves and how they have been handling the release of information about the AQHA release, going as far as accusing them of various nefarious things up to and including deliberate deceit.

Well, yes and no.

As I’ve explained before, there are real horse/model horse people who work at Reeves, and there are the proverbial people who can’t distinguish Chestnut from Bay. It’s pretty clear to me that many of the responses I’ve seen posted and reposted were more from the latter than the former.

But it is true that they are not being terribly consistent with the release of information – and possibly using that inconsistency to stoke our enthusiasm. For instance, the text on the web site reads thus:

Breyer's American Quarter Horse is an assortment of beautiful colors: sorrel, bay, palomino, roan and dun.

https://www.breyerhorses.com/index.php?pageId=6864

The social media responses have been largely variations of the same theme; when asked what colors the release will be coming in, the following text appears to be cut-and-pasted in:

1. Sorrel
2. Bay
3. Palomino
4. Roan and Dun

(This is what’s made many hobbyists assume that Reeves couldn’t tell the difference between Roan and Dun.)

On the promotional page for the AQHA Foundation, we get a slightly different story:

Breyer is proud to honor the AQHA’s 75th anniversary milestone with this very special limited edition model. Featuring custom packaging and a silver logo on the belly, each model is airbrushed by hand in a variety of colors. Just as in the real horse world, the Breyer AQHA horses are most commonly found in sorrel and bay, but you might also be rewarded with a palomino, bay roan, grullo, black or more! Models are shipped randomly so you'll receive a wonderful surprise and a beautiful model and you'll feel great about your support of the Foundation.

https://www.breyerhorses.com/aqha75

Wait a minute: “…black or more!” Gah!

Anyway, it’s clear that Reeves does know the difference between Roan and Dun; the numbered color categories text above is, I believe, how they categorize/assort them for shipping: X number of #1, Y number of #2, and so on, with #4 being the “any and all other colors, including Roan and Dun”.

I like how the Foundation page text also states clearly what I’ve been assuming all along: the color release proportions will be similar to that in real-world Quarter Horses: lots of Bays and Chestnuts, some Palominos, and a smattering of everything else.

For the record, I have no idea what the actual production numbers are, or will be, for each color. I think the Grulla, Roan, and the (currently hypothetical) Black will still be relatively rare, because they are relatively rare in Quarter Horses in real life.

The Grullas seem a little more common right now, but that could just be an artifact of knowing where to mine for them: Tractor Supply stores. I found my Roan at a small, locally-owned hobby store; if that’s where the Roans (and “more”) are being targeted for release, finding them will be inherently a little harder.

It’s too soon to tell, however, based on such a small sample size. It would make sense if they did send the rarest of the rarities to stores like that, rewarding loyal and independent stores with higher demand items both to encourage foot traffic and drive more holiday and year-end sales.

As for what “more” entails, I have no idea if, when, what: Buckskin, Dappled Gray, Perlino Dun, Cremello, Silver Dapple and Dunalino are just some of the viable and still previously unused options for this mold.

I think that the Black ones, if they do exist, may be like the Black Fun Foals - factory repainted pieces of colors that are still in stock by the end of the year (Bays, Chestnuts?) My theory is that the Black will be the rarest - like the Fun Foals!

Or end up being casually tossed into the Ninja Pit next year to destroy us all.

The Roan AQHA Horse

Well, just take a look at what I just found at the toy store on the way home, not even two hours ago - and what made me break my promise not to buy anything through the end of the year!

Yes, that's a BAY ROAN 75th Anniversary AQHA Horse. That everyone was sure didn't exist because of the cryptic nonanswers Reeves was dishing out on social media.

For the record, there are a lot of horse and model horse people who do work there. It's just that they are not always the ones to answer the questions.

I was still so excited after I bought him that I carried him with both hands to the 7-11 next door to buy a celebratory Big Gulp.

He already has a name, by the way - Roan Where You Want To! Because I am a dork.

The store had also just unpacked its Elskas, too, but I was too excited about the Roan to look at them clearly, so I took a pass on them.

This was one of the colors I was hoping for, so it was a very happy ending to a very crazy week.

Two scoops in one week!

The AQHA Chase Begins

The annual town book sale was a bit of a bust – the only horse books there were ones I had donated myself earlier this year. The flea market was better: many fun things, including more minis and more bodies.

It is kind of hard to believe that I came home from Kentucky with a near-empty body box: now it looks almost as full as it was before I left! So much so, that I'm considering adding a few lots to my year-end sales blitz.

That extra money may come in handy, because it appears that the mysterious, much anticipated “other” colors of the 75th Anniversary AQHA release (i.e. anything other than Bay, Chestnut or Palomino) are starting to turn up now – in the Tractor Supply Holiday store merchandise assortment.

This makes sense, because they’ve been adding rarities into the TSC mix for a little while now. They included some of the Chalky, hand-printed Appaloosa Performance Horses (aka “Indian Pony”) last year, and the Gloss versions of the Bay Valentine and Heartbreaker Giselle/Gilen set a few years before that.

The one photo I saw was of the Grulla, and I liked it – a lot. But as I’ll not be home much in the next few weeks, I’ll probably miss whatever pretty little rarities they decide to ship to my corner of the world. (And wherever I happen to be, my co-workers are unlikely to consider “going to the nearest Tractor Supply Store” a fun lunchtime activity.)

Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to enjoy the hunt from afar, and hope there are no old-fashioned Breyer Bald-faced Buckskins found anywhere close enough to me to wince. (As I did when I discovered where a Charcoal rearing Silver had been found locally. Even though the store is now closed, I still give it the stink-eye every time I drive by.)

It’s nice to see this promotion generating some interest in the AQHA mold, that received a lukewarm reception within the hobby when he was first released in 1995 as the Ideal American Quarter Horse.

The general reaction was “You call that ‘Ideal’?”

While some collectors would rather get it now and not deal with the hassle of potential price increases down the road, or prefer the stress-free regularity of dealer handpicking or a subscription service, I like an occasional chase. The whole being-out-of-town thing is more of an annoyance than a negative.

Depending on what shows up.

Catching Up Is Hard To Do

The overnight project will be wrapping up this week, thank goodness; it’s not the hours, but being out of sync with the rest of the world that’s been starting to get to me a little. Am I a half-day ahead, or a half-day behind? I have a hard time telling.

I’m tempted by the latest Grab Bag offer, but unless a must-have turns up in one of the boxes, I’ll probably give it a pass. I have too much stuff in my sales box already anyway, and I’ve hardly made a dent in the latest culling effort.

Like everyone else, I am also intrigued by the color mix of the AQHA 75th Anniversary Quarter Horses. Roan and Dun have been mentioned in the PR materials but only Bay, Chestnut and Palomino have shown up so far. Allegedly the color mix is going to be closely tied to the proportion of each color in the registry, which means … we’re going to be seeing a lot of Chestnuts (about 33 percent of QHs registered) and Bays (20 percent).

In fact, that’s what the majority of AQHA mold releases have been so far to date, outside of a smattering of Roans and the Aged Gray #1242 Joe Bailey’s King. The selection of colors in its past - and the selection and percentage of colors they are planning with this new release - tell me that Reeves knows who their target audience for this mold is: real-world live Quarter Horse owners and breeders. Not hobbyists.

The AQHA Horse is not exactly beloved by the hobby community anyway, for a variety of reasons mostly related to its rather plain and homely nature. There’s also some controversy about the mold’s origins, but I’d rather not dive into that thicket today.

He’s not my favorite mold, either; all I have of him is the QVC version in the "wrong" shade of Chestnut, and a Pretty Buck who may or may not be a Sample. He was a little something I picked up in the NPOD in its early days, when most Samples were not distinguished, or all that distinguishable.  I bought him because I liked his paintjob - supposedly Buckskin, but very reminiscent of "Five-Gaiter Sorrel", a favorite color of mine.

I wouldn’t mind seeing him in a Golden Buckskin or some variety of Black; the only Buckskin we’ve had so far on the mold has been the Pretty Buck, and the closest we’ve gotten to Black has been the Blue Roan - the original #1160 in 2002 and the recent Reissue. It hasn’t appeared in any flavor of Decorator or even Glossy, outside of a few oddities. I get the feeling we probably won’t be seeing too many of either in the Anniversary release, even if they do decide to get wild and crazy on us.

There’s an interesting question: if they make a Silver Filigree AQHA Horse, will anyone buy it? I would, but you know I’m weird.