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. 

Nikolas

Reeves threw us a curveball this time around with next year’s Celebration Horse: instead of a Draft or Warmblood on an existing mold – as many of us were expecting – we’re getting a new German Riding Pony mold by Brigitte Eberl!

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/breyerfest-blog/our-2022-celebration-horse

The prototype for Nikolas is very reminiscent of the 2009 BreyerFest Special Run Buttercream, on the Idocus mold. That release initially met with a cool reception, but has only grown in popularity in more recent years. 

And also, a little bit, like the Classics Buckskin Duchess released as a “Thoroughbred Cross” in 2006 through 2008. From personal experience she appears to be one of the tougher Duchesses to find, at least in good condition.

New mold introductions are nothing new for BreyerFest; the first was the Celebration Horse Rejoice in 1998, and one of the best known is (of course!) Eberl’s legendary Alborozo in 2008. 

It has been a few years since we’ve gotten an entirely new mold for the Celebration Horse, but it makes perfect sense that they’d enlist Brigitte Eberl to bring it to us. 

(I hope this means that we’ll get a Brigitte Eberl seminar, yes? In person, or at least online? Because I want to pencil that in as one of my activities if that’s the case.)

My only minor concern at this point is that there is definitely going to be some grumbling about the size this mold: as is the case with the paint, some hobbyists put a lot of weight into the weight of the materials used to make it. 

In this case, the fact that my Internet time is very limited right now is a blessing: not that I don’t think there’s some merit in discussing the issue, but now is just not a good time for me to engage in it.  

More stuff has arrived at my door – including Gingerbread! – but the boxes will have to remain unopened until the weekend. I did get a chance to open my Dahlia and she… was unsurprising. But more about all that next time.  

The Choices Given

My Gambler’s Choices are…

…the Glossy Winx and the Appaloosa Valerio! 

The Winx was what I was hoping for, but the Appaloosa Valerio is a surprise, because I usually don’t get the Appaloosa option with Gambler’s Choices. I thought it’d be either the Rose Gray (who I think is the prettiest of the four) or the Unicorn (weird, but awesome in its own way).

Like most of the Valerios out there, he does have the “squish” problem with his neck, which some hobbyists are assuming – and as someone who did work for a plastics injection molding plant for five years, I nod in agreement – is probably a consequence of him being molded out of Cellulose Acetate instead of ABS.

As someone who sometimes goes out of her way to collect mold oddities, it doesn’t bother me in the least. Though I do hope that they resolve the issue for the 2021 Deluxe Club Membership Stablemate Alborozo, because I know my fellow hobbyists are not as forgiving. 

The only (slight) disappointment about the 2020 CCA offer is finding out about the other Glossies that they only hinted at. And that one of them was the Sable Island Pony. 

Dang it! I was afraid of that.

I’m definitely not considering trading my Winx for one, because her gloss is nice and thick and her shading is top notch and I love the Emerson mold. But I might consider trading either of my previous CCA Glosses (the Pinto Wixom Jake, or the Pinto Roxy Kodi) for one. Eventually. 

Or for a Gloss Catch Me. The ones I have seen are pretty nice looking, too.

Ah well, probably better to savor the choices I have been given, and not worry so much about what I haven’t.

In the meantime, I will be spending the rest of my weekend cleaning up and sorting out the horses that are now out of the car. Turns out that that most of the them are in better shape than I expected (yay!) except for one of the sets I was hoping to keep (boo!) The Bay Old Timer looks pretty good, and is more appealing than I remember, though it might be the nostalgia talking.

There’s also a freakish neon yellow and tan Shrinky Misty in the lot too that I shouldn’t keep, but I find myself… hesitating. The weather is going to be nice all weekend, so pics may be coming of her, next time.

Atticus, Cassidy, and the Box of Mysteries

I am happy to report that my Box of Mysteries has arrived:

Everyone else, on the other hand, is bored with that already and has moved on to the Stablemates Club Gambler’s Choice Alborozo swap-and-sale-athon. I haven’t even ordered mine yet – not a lack of money or interest, simply a matter of priorities – and as I’ve stated before, I’ll be okay with literally any of them, so selling/swapping is not a concern.

Even the funky teal and purple Pintaloosa Unicorn: now that I’ve seen in-hand pictures of it, I actually think he is really neat! (He kind of reminds me of a quilt I finished recently, color-wise.) 

Photos of the first release for next year’s Stablemates Club have been posted, and it’s the shrinkified Clydesdale Stallion with a new haircut, named Atticus:

The paint job is pretty, and I’m sure he’ll be lovely in person, but my very first thought upon seeing him was “Wait a minute, is this a Custom?” 

He reminds me a lot of vintage customs of the Traditional Clydesdale Stallion: dark dappled Bay Sabinos with loose (usually haired) manes and tails were a fairly common sight in the showring in the 1980s. 

Along with Grulla Overo Lady Phases with lowered/turned heads, Indian Ponies in “fancy” (more realistic) Appaloosa paint jobs, Dapple Gray or Bay Proud Arabian Stallions in exaggerated park trots, and Dilute Pinto Adioses sporting way too much mohair. 

(I tended, even then, to stick to weirder and more experimental stuff, but I’ll dig out photos of my early customizing attempts another day.)  

I am somewhat cool to the final release of this year’s club, Maggie Jenner-Bennett’s Walking Stock Horse Mare Cassidy:

It’s either the photograph or the color/pattern combo that’s throwing me off here, because I usually really like Maggie’s stuff in person. Her hooves are striped and I like the pose – it’s similar to a drawing I did a million years ago (high school, maybe?) that I once fantasized about sending to Breyer as a proposal for a Traditional-scale performance friendly stock horse. So I’m sure it will also be perfectly lovely in person.

It also appears that they’ll be offering up the optional “Bonus” Stablemate Duke (the Gloss Dapple Gray Clydesdale) at the same time as Cassidy in early December, which is a nice gesture and an acknowledgement that a lot of us wait to the last possible moment to order in case something else comes up by the order deadline, because it so often does.

Which is also a reason why I am in no hurry to order my Gambler’s Choice mini Alborozo.  

That Hamilton Horse

I took a chance at the Walmart in the road construction zone today… and success!

While I’m tempted to go for broke and complete my collection of the Warmblood mold – especially now that the Fairytale Friends releases, including Sage, are open to anyone, club member or not – I  am still annoyed about the BreyerFest Arya release and I do not give up little grievances easily. 

In other Stablemate news Chalice, the Bonus Stablemate for next year’s Deluxe Collector’s Club membership, is a replica of the model that broke the bank at the 2019 BreyerFest Benefit Auction, and he’s pretty spiffy. I originally thought that he’d be a chase piece for the 70th Anniversary Stablemates set, but this will also do. (And be much easier to acquire!)

But the model that’s got me all twitchy and bothered is this hot ham and cheese sandwich of a horse:

Glossy. Dappled. Black. Hamilton. 

Pardon my French, but damn. Reeves, you ain’t playing!

Well actually, that I already knew, but the rest of you will see why in a few weeks. 

That Hamilton Horse better be either a pre-order, or a run of 3000+ pieces, because if my recent interactions have been any indication, their beleaguered Customer Service Reps have been through enough in the past year and really deserve a break. 

In fact, probably all deserve gift baskets. (Saturday is Sweetest Day in these parts…)

Stablemate Freakout No. 6051

I know you know that I know things, but the fact that one of the newly revealed shrinkified Stablemates is the Missouri Fox Trotter mold in that fabulous Fleabitten Dapple Gray I was just waxing eloquent about is not one of the things I knew.

This is yet another total coincidence, I swear.

In fact, I am always double-checking myself to make sure that I am being extra discreet about the things I have a privilege to know about. It genuinely freaks me out to accidentally reveal things even if I had no idea I was actually revealing it ahead of time.

I wish that sort of predictive power worked with lottery numbers and other contests involving cash money. Life would be a lot... different.

Anyway, here is the short video they about them on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA57bDWnF--/

I figured this Blind Bag Assortment was going to involved Stablematized things when they released the picture of it the other day: you don’t just drop a picture of a blind bag like that for a run-of-the-mill blind bag mix.

What surprised me about it is that technically, there are only three previously-unknown-to-us Stablematized Traditionals in the assortment: the Fox Trotter (swoons), the Fell Pony Emma (screams uncontrollably) and the Indian Pony (collapses on floor, dead).

I didn’t expect the Clydesdale to be Woodgrain either: the only previously Woodgrained Stablemates were the BreyerFest Keychains from (ulp!) 1999. Including the G2 Clydesdale and Andalusian

(I see what you did there, guys!)

As for who the Chase pieces are going to be, my top three guesses:

• Rugged Lark: Maybe that April Fool’s photo was a total fake out!
• Big Ben: He’s the logo horse for the 70th Anniversary Celebration merchandise, and he’s yet to show up anywhere. Moody molds shrink really well (Emma and Brishen, hello) so duh…
• Alborozo as… Alborozo. Which would be perfect, really. With the “Super-chase” piece being either the Early Bird Alegria or one of the Auction Alborozos. Plus his silhouette is on the bag. 

Like everyone else, I need a case of these. Reselling duplicates is not going to be hard, I suspect, as many people will be buying duplicates to replicate their favorite molds in all their respective Traditional-sized colors.

The Indian Pony and the Fighting Stallion, especially.

Oh, and the Stablemate Best of BreyerFest Raffle Model Commemorative Set Numero Uno is also pretty great. Funny how that news was such a big deal back on… Monday?!

Starry Skies, but...

As someone who unreasonably loves glow-in-the-dark things and also collects vintage Astronomy textbooks, these Starry Skies Constellation Unicorns are definitely in my wheelhouse.

https://www.breyerhorses.com/products/starry-skies

Yet like a lot of collectors, I still haven’t clicked the buy button yet.

Money is not the issue: I have had enough fundage to buy two grails recently, one of them (pretty much) at retail.

The selection of molds and colors is also fine, though I am a little baffled at the antagonism the poor G2 Clydesdale Stallion is receiving as a result of inclusion in this assortment.

It seems obvious to me that when Reeves went about selecting older Stablemates molds to “unicornize”, the G2 Clydesdale was an obvious choice. He’s definitely kind of a “prancey” and fanciful mold, especially when compared to the other SM Draft molds. I am assuming that he was also selected for variety’s sake: Othello mold aside, it’s not every day – even in the hobby – that you see Draft Horse Unicorns.

Yeah, they could lighten up on the light blue-teal-green color scheme he always gets stuck with. I can imagine there would be a lot less grumbling about his inclusion if he were a Gloss Charcoal or Silver Filigree…

And I, too, am getting a wee bit fed up with this Alborozo blind bag nonsense: unless there’s some contractual issue to the contrary, just release the darn thing as an individually carded Regular Run item in a normal, non-fantasy color already. You don’t even have to put it into the standard Dealer’s Assortment, just pack it up separately in cases of 12 or 24. 

Please and thank you. 

Finally, it seems silly to even consider the inconsequential amount of stress the uncertainty a Blind Bag adds to my world (a “First World” problem, almost by definition), but it is an issue for me, nevertheless: I am already on the verge of being overrun with everything at the moment.

If this had been offered as a 4-piece boxed set or even a boxed and carded assortment, they’d be on their way here already.

But as the offer stands, I’m hesitant. Whether or not I reconsider will depend on their availability, and how the rest of my week goes.

Stablemates Labor Day Roundup

That was a surprisingly productive weekend, considering I was on cold medication through most of it. Wrapped up another quilting project, finishing prepping another, and made considerable progress on a third. And I am almost caught up on all my “stories”, too – just one more series left to binge and I’m good!

I managed to get a little shopping done, too – behold my mighty Stablemates Hoard:

The Blue and Lavender Unicorn Alborozos are from Tractor Supply, and all the candy-colored Unicorns are from the latest Walmart Unicorn Chase – except the actual Chase piece, of course, because collectors around here are locusts, I swear.

Although I like the Rainbow Sherbet Magnolia Chase piece better than the previous “Halloween Florentine” Magnolia Chase, I’m not going out of my way to get one, either. I’ll find it when I find it, or do without.

I’m just happy that the Alborozo isn’t, for a change, making him the easiest one for me to acquire so far. Funny how that works! (When are we going to get plain old Regular Run on him, I wonder?)

And lest I forget, here’s my Stablemates Club Iris – much to my surprise, I received the Decorator Mojave Turquoise:

The Blue Unicorn Magnolia came along for the ride; I hadn’t bought any of that particular series of Blind Bag Unicorns yet, so I was going to be fine with whatever showed up. All the non-Chase pieces in that series seem pretty plentiful actually, so I’ll pick up the rest at the time and pace of my choosing.

Incidentally, I passed by opportunities to purchase a couple of small horse collections in the past week – I’m juggling just a little bit too much stuff right now to take on anything beyond Stablemates and necessities. (Yes, I know, for some of us they are one and the same.) 

Oh, and I did go to the annual town book sale and I did... okay? Nothing really worth reporting there, except that my book sales stash was pretty depleted after BreyerFest, and now it’s not.

There is a slight chance I’ll be swinging by a farm auction or antique show next weekend, though: I haven’t been to either in ages, and it’s more about the people-watching and gauging the market than about the actual shopping. Finding stuff to buy is just a bonus.

Color Shifts

We had the mold for the Pop-Up Store Stablemate figured out all along, but the color is an… interesting choice:

Color shifting purple and green? Okay, sure. I still think painting it to look exactly like a mini Alborozo would have been a better choice, but there could have been some legal issues that probably made it problematic, so I can respect that.

It’s funny, but I am not as enthused about color shift paint jobs as other hobbyists are. I don’t actively dislike them, but I find them kind of simplistic. There is not a lot of artistry to it: the fancy paint does most of the work of shading and color mixing on its own.

The first true Color Shift production run was the 2010 Just About Horses Special Run Gambler’s Choice Mirror Image/Reflector, on the Lonesome Glory mold.

My history with that release reflects (no pun intended!) my ambivalence about the paint itself. I bought one in the initial offering, and got Mirror Image; he really didn’t do anything for me, so I sold him a short time later. Not long after that, I found another boxed one in the NPOD at BreyerFest – and when I opening it up, it turned out to be Reflector!

I liked him a little bit better – if you’re going to go weird, go weird all the way! He hung around a little bit longer than the Mirror Image, but even he got sold, eventually.

When it comes to Lonesome Glory Special Runs, my heart belongs to more realistic releases, like Red Rum or Phar Lap. I suppose the Perlino version of the 2015 BreyerFest Surprise Model Quelle Surprise also falls into that category, though just barely. (The realism part, not the wanting part: I still totally want him.)

If I want something in the Decorator family, give me something straight up pearly or metallic! What’s nice about those types of paints is that they can be used either for the outright fantastical – like the current crop of Unicorn releases – or used to give an other ordinary color a wonderful extra pop, like that gorgeous light blue iridescent sheen on last year’s BreyerFest Celebration Horse Brass Hat.

While I will still be looking to add a “Sarge” to my BreyerFest tab, the way my schedule is shaping up, it doesn’t look I’ll be able to swing by a store at a time early enough for them to still be in stock at one of the Pop-Up Stores – unless they plan on making a boatload more of them than they usually do.

Fairytale Friends

I am still on the fence about this “Fairytale Friends Club”, aka the Fantasy Stablemates Club.

While I definitely wanted to focus more on Stablemates for now as I sort out some of my storage issues, dealing with a third set of shipping schedules – as I mentioned before – might be just a bit too much for me, on top of all the other things I am juggling right now.

It’s also pretty clear that the club is designed with a specific audience in mind, and I am a little bit older than that particular audience. Which is absolutely fine! If everyone in the hobby took a deep breath and acknowledged that fact from time to time, the Model Horse Internet would be a far less stressful place.

Complicating the situation is the fact that each release is comprised of a Stablemates and a Mini Whinnies model, with the Mini Whinnies (and some of the Stablemates, if the blurred out background on some of the promo photos isn’t fibbing) being on either entirely new, or newly shrunken molds.

We’ve been getting new Stablemates for a while now, and at least one new mold a year via the Stablemates Club. But it’s been ten years since the last “new” Mini Whinnies mold – a Lipizzan performing a Capriole – was introduced. Or more correctly, was reintroduced, as the entire series was originally designed by Candace Liddy for Creata ten years prior.

New Mini Whinnies are an unexpected development, and confirmation that the blind bag Mini Whinnies assortments are selling well enough to merit a backdoor extension of the line, through a club. (If only the Paddock Pals/Little Bits could manage the same!)

But I was also thinking about scaling back on my Mini Whinnies collection: truth be told, I haven’t bought any in recent years other than the BreyerFest Showcase Arena Deluxe Playset I found in the NPOD a couple of years ago. And I am not sure I want to play catch up: other than the BreyerFest set having a prominent spot in my office, I haven’t been able to display any of them properly. Not with a Stablemates-gobbling hellhound roaming the premises!

Simply selling the Mini Whinnies off and keeping the Stablemates is not an option for me: splitting up sets is one of my personal model horse pet peeves.

Well, I guess it’s good that I have over a month to make this decision, anyway.

The Alborozo Chase

My Darley came the other day, and he brought a friend with him!

Since the Unicorn Surprise Blind Bags have been extremely scarce around here, I decided to toss one in to my Darley order and be happy with whatever the warehouse randomly shipped me.

Like the Blind Bag Stablemate that I ordered earlier this year that netted me an Appaloosa Django, it actually worked out better than I hoped for! While the standard Pearly Lavender Mini Alborozos aren’t that rare or expensive, I also wanted to wait and see if I could get around paying the (modest) premium anyway.

And I did! The Navy Blue Chase piece would have been even better, but I am not one of those people. (Lucky, or obsessed.)

Alas, it appears that the Alborozo will be the chase piece in this year’s version of the Stablemates Mystery Horse Surprise Assortment, too – though hornless, this time.

This is turning into the Traditional Esprit all over again, isn’t it? Take a mold that’s popular from the get-go, but make all the initial releases difficult to get…

I get it: the short-term sales are great! But it also ends up spoiling some of us on the mold to begin with. What’s the point of trying to collect it, if you find yourself starting out in a deep hole right from the beginning?

It’s not like a vintage mold, where the chance of a rarity turning up in the wild is an actual possibility. That’s what’s the most disheartening about collecting more modern and/or popular molds, and especially the newer Stablemates. With older molds, at least, I can usually count on the chance that if I miss a new release of it now, I’ll still be able to find it out “in the wild” eventually.

Most of the Stablemates Alborozos being bought are going straight into to secondary market, with few making intermediate stops in wider world.

The Alborozo is also a part of the Walmart Exclusive Unicorn Crazy Surprises, too, but I don’t know if he’s going to be the chase piece in that one yet, or not. They’re only just trickling out to the stores now, and I haven’t made much of an effort to seek them out online or offline.

I am in no mood for playing games this year, so I might just skip the Stablemates search efforts entirely and focus my energies on more rewarding hobby pursuits.

(That Appaloosa Mini Brishen, though. Argh! And the Purple Mini Magnolia!)

I do have that one Mesteno custom I started last year that I could definitely work into the “Great Hair Day!” Theme Class. Yeah, maybe that instead.

Stablemates, Unicorns, Tractor Supply, Etc.

The store where they were acquired is a bit out of the way of my usual travels, but I just happened to be in the neighborhood about a week ago and thought, why the heck not?

Apparently some of the Unicorn Stablemates Glow – regrind from the Glow in the Dark sets, obviously – but these two aren’t among them. I’m fine with just having them.

The store – not one I’d normally consider a sales hotbed – received not one, but two cases of the Paint Kits. That tells me that either it’s an open stock item, or an early launch of a Regular Run item. The 5000-series numbering on these sets leads me to believe that these are (or will be) Regular Run items.

However, items made for Tractor Supply – Regular Run, or Special Run – tend to come with either extended VIN numbers on their bellies and/or Made in China stickers, subtle differences that mean little to someone merely looking for a nice horse to add to the herd, but mean yet another subtle variation for the completist to track down.

This means that the Copper Florentine Djangos turning up at TSC are – or could be – interpreted as a separate entity from the actual Chase piece in the standard Mystery Box assortment. If you are so inclined.

As for the upset some are feeling over the declining prices of Copper Florentine Djangos because of the appearance of the TSC Djangos, there’s the reason why I can’t justify spending more than 20-30 on any given Stablemate.

Because aside from a handful of Special Runs (like Hermes) and Promotional items, most Stablemates aren’t numerically rare: most piece runs are in the thousands, or at least the high hundreds.

It’s perceived rarity, rather than actual numerical rarity, that’s driving the Stablemates market, especially now. When you’re told that that only one in four Mystery Boxes has a Copper Florentine Chase piece, that sounds pretty rare, right?

Here’s the kicker: we don’t know how many boxes have actually been produced.

Some hobbyists have been trying to parse the numbers based on the shipping boxes they come in from China – the ones that say “XXX of XXX boxes” – but that’s not necessarily accurate either. That “96” number that’s been batted around could be per shipment, and we have no way of knowing how many shipments.

They sell an ungodly amount of Stablemates, y’all. It could be lots.

Even without the appearance of the TSC Djangos, the price on the Copper Florentines was bound to fluctuate lower, eventually, as more boxes of Mystery Stablemates were distributed.

Because of Tractor Supply, it just happened sooner, rather than later.

Inevitable

Well, that was completely expected.

Technically it wasn’t officially “gone” when I went back late the next day – someone apparently called earlier and put the Alborozo (and only the Alborozo!) on hold.

I’m more annoyed than mad, though; I had to deal with an insanely long road trip for work that day and that made a call and/or pickup arrangements extremely impractical anyway.

But mostly I am a little puzzled by all the fight put up for an item that there’s no guarantee of being limited or exclusive? All over a modest mark-up, at that?

I did feel sorry for all of the other Painting Kits left behind, especially the mini Magnolia – I’ve spent a lifetime finishing in second place, so I know how it feels to think the spotlight is yours at last, and… nope.

For the record, I did see some of the Stablemates Alborozo Unicorns at BreyerFest. However, I didn’t have the chance to give them the careful, in-the-round inspection I wanted: BreyerFest just isn’t the time or place for careful inspection, or introspection.

So now I’ll have to wait a little longer, until everyone else gets this nonsense out of their system, and local suppliers finally get some of those Unicorn Surprise Box Assortments on their shelves.

Maybe.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of my Palomino Dead Heat:

I had decidedly, initially, to pass it by; I love the Ruffian mold, but it’s longer than an extremely relaxed housecat, and shelf space is already at a premium here.

But after the inevitable disappointments of (a) no Glosses, (b) no Prizes and (c) no Raffle models I went and got one sooner, rather than later. It didn’t hurt that it was the American Pharoah version of the mold, as well – short-tailed, with the boy bits – and since I haven’t gotten around to getting one of those yet, I could totally justify it.

I wasn’t thrilled that they decided to start the sale on the Special Run Leftovers at the very same time as the Sunday Raffle; by the time the Raffle was over, everything but the Dead Heat and the Newmarket was gone.

It was inevitable with shifting the Sunday Raffle past the last ticket time on Sunday that there’d be a conflict; it wasn’t a problem for me this year since I had already gotten everything I “needed” earlier anyway. I’ll just have to remember to plan accordingly next year, just in case.  

The Pursuit

Since I took a big step today in alleviating the incredibly high stress levels I’ve been experiencing for the past few months, I decided to buy an off-the-shelf horse or two to celebrate. I was originally going to go with an LV Integrity, on the Yasmin mold, but I came home with some Stablemates instead:

The shading on the Icelandic is amazing; he has a few minor production boo-boos that’ll preclude me from showing him, but my primary objective today was Ooo, Pretty Horsies and he fits the bill.

The G2 Thoroughbred was chosen because I particularly like his spots. All of the others had bigger and cleaner spots, and his randomly-sized freckles really stood out in contrast. I also liked the fact that he is not actually black but either a very, very dark gray or roaning black.

Another thing I’ll be doing to alleviate the stress this week? Not doing a darn thing to follow up or pursue any of the latest crazy/rare/obscure Stablemates floating around. Because now apparently, there are some at Tractor Supply too?

Cripes. 

There are ten – yes, ten – Tractor Supply Stores within an hour’s driving distance to me, including one that’s just down the road. But I am not going to go make any special effort to get to any of them in pursuit of the Copper Florentine Django, the Unicorn Alborozo paint kit, or anything else.

I don’t want to feel like I’m being forced to buy anything because they might be even more unaffordable later than they are now. In every other nonmonetary term – time, money, and headspace – they’re already unaffordable.

If I happen to be in the vicinity, or driving by in pursuit of something else, of course I’ll stop in and take a look. But I don’t have the resources for anything more than that.

I have more immediate things to worry about. Like how I managed to lose my keys inside my car for a half-hour last week. (I know the past couple of weeks have been rough on my psyche, but seriously?)

If I want some new horses, you’ll find me over in the Regular Run aisle, doing some handpicking.

Stablematized!

While I am a little annoyed I didn’t get picked for the Scottsdale Stampede Event, it’s pretty far down the list of things that upset me this week. It was a long shot that I’d be able to attend in the first place, and done largely to help out a friend anyway.

(Not that I wouldn’t be excited to go, but it did push me over the finish line to enter.)

Moving on, because I have to. (Though secretly hoping that people trying to “sell” their “plus one” slots for more than cost + fees get bit somehow. Because tacky.)

Anyway, the more exciting news is that Reeves is apparently going whole hog with the Mini Me thing, with the Alborozo and the Magnolia resin getting the Brishen Stablematizing treatment in a Midyear Stablemates Mystery Assortment type thing.

I don’t know the details of the contracts that covered the creations of the original sculptures in the first place – and any possible limitations that may stem from them – so I couldn’t tell you who or what to expect next.

Two of the three “Stablematized” Traditional-scale models – the Brishen, and the Alborozo – had been released in a shrunken form previously as Crystals. This suggests that’s the place we might need to look for clues to future “new” Stablemates releases.

So will we be seeing the Nokota Horse, Silver, Traditional Moody Andalusian, Zippo Pine Bar, Esprit, Croi Damsha, Bobby Jo, or Cleveland Bay next? I’d be on board with most of those.

I know there are some people out there thinking this means the Traditional Alborozo might be making a return.

Ugh. Guys. Seriously. Stop it!

That ship has not only passed, it’s been torpedoed, sunk, and is now residing somewhere in the Marianas Trench. Be happy that you will now have a (possibly) unlimited supply of somewhat-less-expensive mini Alborozos to collect, customize, and fondle to your heart’s content.

Personally, I can’t get overly excited for the Stablemates Alborozo, or at least with the initial Unicorn releases. It looks like he’s going to be the chase piece in the set, just as the Django was for the current Mystery Horse Surprise Assortment, so the likelihood of me stumbling on one (either common or rare) is going to be very unlikely.

Incidentally, I still can’t believe the totally insane prices on that Copper Florentine Django. I spent significantly less for my Black G1 Quarter Horse Stallion Pancho – and more recently, both my Mint in Box Stablemates Stable Set and Mint in Box Wooden Stablemates Stable combined.

And here I thought focusing on Stablemates would totally be the affordable way to go this year. Nope!

Programming note: I am going to continue to be a bit scarce for the next week or so as I attempt to wrap up some personal and professional business. Don’t set the Internet on fire while I’m out.

More News, More Surprises

When I asked for more hours at work, I wasn’t expecting them to give them all to me the week before my trip. Argh!

And of course, there’s been tons of news while I’ve been on the road for the past three days.

First, they offered more leftover Connoisseurs, this time to Collector’s Club members: Nympheas, Kandinsky, and Thrillseeker. A Thrillseeker would have made a nice bookend to my Connoisseur collection - since I was lucky enough to win a Mosaic - but I was on the way to work (again) when they finally went live with them on the web site. (I know Kandinsky is still available, but the $225 price tag is not to my liking.)

Wasn’t too crazy about them announcing them "early", since that nearly caused a meltdown on the Breyer web site, with everyone refreshing every few seconds.

The BreyerFest program is out. Surprises: more items for the British souvenir tent, and the full auction list, which includes the volunteer model (a buckskin overo Roxy) and a Glossy Bay Alborozo.

The extra Souvenir pieces include: a kinda-creepy standing horse named "Fox Chase", dressed in hunting attire; "Fox Hunt", which is a bay-ish Might Tango with the Tally Ho hunting decals; and finally, a numbered plushie named Little Jack. I’m definitely interested in the Might Tango, and (as I’ve mentioned before) the Translucent Classic Ruffian "Union Jack". I haven’t had time to read up on the where/when/how of it all, though.

(Note: As of today, all Souvenir Models are available for viewing at Breyer’s Blog.)

The volunteer model sounds really nice this year, but I think Reeves should have just left that space unspecified in the program (i.e. just stating that the lot is for the volunteer model, not what the model was, exactly.) It makes me feel uncomfortable seeing people pre-sell their volunteer models. Not that they shouldn’t be allowed to do it, but I rather prefer that they keep that sort of thing more on the "down low".

Keeping it a secret until the day-of helped mitigate that a little, but if it’s a known quantity, that might change.

Wasn’t there a rumor floating around about a Gloss Bay Alborozo back in 2008? I distinctly remember the buzz, if not what it was specifically in reference to (as the volunteer model, maybe?) Is the auction piece the inspiration for the rumor, or was the rumor the inspiration for the auction piece? Or maybe … my brain is addle-pated from a lack of sleep, and it’s all just a big coincidence.
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I don’t see any surprises on the Tent Specials list. On the store specials they’re doing 750 pieces on the Taskin, 400 pieces on the Killarney, with the Killarney being a surprisingly reasonable (for a porcelain) $100. All the prices and piece counts on everything else are in the same range as last year’s, more or less. If they do a Gloss/Matte mix up like they did last year with the Once Upon a Time, I think it’ll either be with "Sixes and Sevens" or "Bees Knees", which both have lower piece counts, like the Once Upon a Time did. And both would look fabulous in gloss!

They did up the piece count - and the price - of this year’s surprise model, which now leads me to believe that IF another new mold release happens at BreyerFest this year, it has to be with the Surprise model.

Technically the "Fox Chase" Souvenir model is a new mold, but it’s a little too offbeat to be anything more than a novelty one-off. And I don’t think they’d dare do an early-release on the Totilas, since the mold (who also makes a cameo in the program) doesn’t strike me as being representative of the kind of horse you’d take on a trek across the English countryside.

The final surprise - in my very limited skimming of the program - was my own personal cameo on the very last page. Guess I’ll have to pick up extra hard copies for autographing!

Next up on the blogging agenda: that Premier club Marwari!

A Little Housekeeping

Got a bit too much caffeine in the system, so I’m just going to tie up a few loose ends today. Plus, I’ve been putting in a lot of time and effort into my BreyerFest paperwork - especially the Sampler - and that’s put me out of sorts, too. Some of the material I’m writing for it touches on some very sensitive subjects to me, and I am absolutely drained, emotionally. 

(It’s not depressing, just complicated.)

The flea market was a little on the quiet side this week, partly because of the flaky weather; all I picked up were some cooking magazines, a beautiful old Victorian quilt top, and a small group of cute (and cheap!) Japanese biscuit tins. This suited me just fine, since I’m still trying to recover from last week’s haul.

Other than an odd body lot or two that I might throw on eBay, if I can find the time, any models I’ll be picking up this season will be getting packed and put away with my BreyerFest sales stash. It’s nothing personal, it really is just a time management issue.

It seems really weird to me to be so disconnected to the Desatado discussion; aside from not being in the club in the first place, my brain immediately went into LA LA LA CAN’T HEAR YOU mode once the griping about dappling began.

I am a bit surprised that the actual piece count on the Premier Club is somewhere around 740: I honestly didn’t think it was going to be that high.

A model’s value isn’t entirely dependent on the piece count - especially if the quality is there - but I am wondering how many people "bought in" to the concept on the assumption that the piece count would be lower than the Vintage Club’s 500-piece limit?

As far as the quality of the body, I can’t - and won’t - judge until I see one in person, which I am assuming will happen (again) at BreyerFest. And if I like it, no worries, since none of the molds in the program are going to get Alborozo-ized.

I’m seriously considering not putting in for the Father’s Day Web Special. Not because I’ve made a preemptive decision to not like it, but because it’s beginning to look like I’m going to need to do some serious herd thinning in the very near future. (Which I doubt will be before the end of July, so don’t get your hopes up.)

Besides, I want to save up this luck I’ve been experiencing for bigger and better things later in the season, if you know what I mean.

And in case you were wondering, yes, I did see that job posting on the Breyer web site. That’s all I’ll say about the matter in public.

"Old Man" Mesteno

In the on-again, off-again discussion about Shadowfax on Blab, more fuss is being made about Alborozo, again. The insinuation at the heart of the griping is that Reeves "destroyed" the mold because it was either (a) deliberately ticking everybody off for some unknowable reason, or (b) too stupid to realize what an awesome thing they had.

I don’t know the precise circumstances as to why the Alborozo was done the way it was done, but I’m pretty sure wasn’t some vast conspiracy to deprive us of something awesome. It was more like a combination of marketing gimmick, contract negotiations with an artist who had been burned before, and some technological experimentation. That the model itself turned out as nice as it did was just an added benefit.

And you know what? Chances are, if the mold had been allowed to continue production, we’d have picked it to pieces by now, and be so over it anyway. His rarity is a part of the reason many love him so.

We might see a few more glossies, a few tests, and whatever leftovers there may still be in the warehouse, but that’s it. Get over it, folks. He’s done and gone. It’s Spring - go work out your frustration on your garden or your closet, or something. (And if you don’t have a garden or closet to work on, you’re more than welcome to work on mine.)

There are quite a few molds that have had extremely limited - or even singular - releases, though their rarity or singularity has more to due with being too dated, too specialized or just too darn weird to justify new releases. None of these molds, as far as I know, have been "destroyed," so there’s still a slim possibility that more of their kind may grace our shelves in the near or distant future. A short and very incomplete list includes:

Standing Black Angus Bull
Standing Polled Hereford Bull
Modernistic Buck
Modernistic Doe
Benji
Tiffany
Mesteno: Reflections

Some of these models are hot commodities: good luck trying to find the Red Angus Bull - the Black Angus’s single SR release - or one of the Woodgrain Polled Hereford Bulls made for the Ranchcraft Lamp Line. The Modernistic Buck and Doe was manufactured in quite a few odd colors and finishes by its original manufacturer, Nosco, prior to Breyer acquiring the mold ca. 1959-60, but not a lot of collectors are familiar with - or even associate - those earlier releases with the Breyer ones. Benji and Tiffany? There hasn’t been much of a call for Traditional Series Dogs since the 1960s, period. (There might have been some licensing issues, too.)

The Mesteno: Reflections is a bit of an eyebrow raiser. Although not wildly popular in their original release, most of the Mesteno series has seen new life in the Wal-Mart Mustang line. I’m not a huge fan of them myself, but some of the colors they’ve been released in have been quite attractive.

But the "Old Man" Mesteno, as I like to call him, hasn’t been among them. He had only one release - his original one - and hasn’t been seen since. He was the last mold in the series, too, and consequently had the shortest run of all the original Mestenos: just 1996. My "old man" came in a box lot from the infamous "newtoymens" guy on eBay, so he might be a test piece, station sample, or saleman’s sample:


Like most of the Mesteno series, he didn’t "translate" well into plastic, but he’s not completely unappealing. He’s not quite as dashing as the original ("Young Elvis?") Mesteno, but he has a nice silhouette and photographs well. He works better as an "art" horse, rather than a "show" horse: if Reeves does get around to releasing him again, a more decorative finish - Ageless Bronze, Marble or even Woodgrain - would really do him justice, I think.

Might be a good, low-investment way of breaking into the home décor market they’ve been eyeing for a few years now, too. (Just sayin.’)

Friday Morning Madness

There will be no fussing about March Madness brackets and predictions here; basketball was more my Dad’s thing, and since he’s been gone I haven’t had the heart, or courage, to watch even a fraction of a game.

I used to be pretty good at that sort of thing; when other little girls were fantasizing about being ballerinas, doctors and airplane pilots, I dreamed of being a handicapper - much to the horror of my elementary school teachers, surely. (I still have my notebooks of racing statistics I kept, tucked away in my relic boxes somewhere.)

The only "Madness" I’m interesting in handicapping in nowadays is the Friday Morning Madness now known as the NPOD.

For the uninitiated, NPOD = Ninja Pit of Death. It’s the "affectionate" nickname for the early Friday morning sales crush in the Breyer Sales Tent, where several hundred people attempt to fit into a roped off area slightly larger than my living room. The objective: grabbing whatever leftover warehouse goodies are to be had before anyone else does.

Last year’s Pit left a less-than-pleasant taste in my mouth that still lingers, which is why I’ve sort of avoided the subject since then. I’m not completely soured on the experience yet; I’ve found some real treasures in the NPOD over the years, and I still hold out hope for more.

I probably shouldn’t even be thinking about buying any more horses right now. It’s that time of year when I’m not even certain I can make it to Kentucky this year, much less brave the indignities of the NPOD. Everything seems so uncertain right now: job, money, life.

But it is also almost Spring. And what good is Spring without hope?

So here’s a few predictions about the contents of this year’s NPOD:

There’s the usual stuff we see every year, more or less: early releases of the Holiday items, Mid-Years, the J.C. Penney’s Catalog items (this year, and last), the first batch or two of Tractor Supply and/or Mid-States Specials, some Fun Day Classics, and maybe leftover Target Pony Gals odd and ends.Some early releases of the WEG exclusives? No doubt.

Then there’s the Ghosts of BreyerFests Past: Buttercream, Cotton Candy, Party Time, Cupcake and probably a few of last year’s POA Toby. Older things, too, depending on what they unearth in the warehouse.

The last several JAH Specials haven’t sold out, and I doubt the Grazing Mare and Foal set "Cream and Cocoa" did either: beautiful paint jobs, not so beautiful prices. That’s a no brainer. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more Party Girls show up too.

Another no brainer: last year’s Dealer Special Autumn. Another beautiful paint job, and well-received. But do the math: An average JAH Special runs about 1500 pieces, and they haven’t been selling out. They made 2000 of the Autumn - a better price, and a slightly different distribution strategy, but still pretty plentiful.

There might still be a few Medalist Ponies left: they managed to run through the Bronzes and Golds in last year’s Grab Bags, but I didn’t hear many (any?) reports of Silvers being shipped. Were there fewer of the Silvers left, or had they not gotten to them yet by the time the program expended itself? We’ll find out.

There’s been a lot of speculation about the Web Specials. I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect to see Rileys and the Summer Solstices, and perhaps a few more gloss Summer Solstices. Some of the online "combo" exclusives - the horse and book, or horse and tack packages also sold through Shopatron might show up, too, though most folks will be passing over them looking for "more exclusive" things - unless those combos unexpectedly come with unadvertised SRs.

The Connoisseurs? I don’t know. I know lots of hobbyists are beginning to suspect that the Fighting Bull "The Widow Maker" will be showing up: apparently they’re still sending letters from the back up list, which isn’t a good sign because the drawing was back in October. He was pricey, and some hobbyists avoid anything non-horse, so I guess it’s possible. I dunno.

The handful of leftover Halloween Missouri Fox Trotters from last year’s Lone Star Experience are also a puzzle. Everyone at the event had a second chance at them, so theoretically there shouldn’t be any complaint IF they end up in the tent. But after last year’s VRE fiasco, Reeves probably thinks those models are radioactive. Raffles and prizes may be a better bet for them, unless they actually follow through on their promise to limit "Sample sales items" to one per person.

(Which would be sensible, as would a numbering system for early risers. But they haven’t, don’t seem likely to, and I don’t have the authority to implement.)

Will there be other specials in the Tent, a la Toby? If you’ve been reading the literature, you’ll know this to be so: the draft horse "Radar" will have his own exclusive in the Tent. What model this will be I don’t know. The logical choice would be the Classic Shire, except that the mold has a bit too much feathering for him. (I know, I know, since when has a little historical or breed accuracy stopped Reeves?) Like Toby, I think he’ll be fairly limited, but still plentiful, unless he turns out to be drop dead gorgeous or is more limited than Toby’s 750 piece run.

Anything else? I still hold out hope for the slightly defective Play Mat Stock Horses: they’d easily sell through at a buck or two, as bodies. I wouldn’t mind seeing more bodies in general: the "whiteware" box of assorted bodies last year was a good idea in theory, if not in execution. Some collectors like having unpainted examples of their favorite molds: a better assortment of bodies, sold singly, would go over very well.

Then there’s the leftover Alborozos. They must have a few of them kicking around the warehouse. They can’t do anything with them, except paint over a few for test pieces. There’s definitely a demand for them - but I can see how getting rid of the extras could be as troublesome as the Halloween Fox Trotters.

I could go on, but it’s getting late and I have to be up early again, tomorrow. See y’all on Friday or Saturday, thereabouts.

The Mysteries of Shermie Love

I’m not really getting the craze over the Fall Dealer Promo Model Autumn. Part of it is undoubtedly my aversion to the season from which he takes his name: for reasons I will not discuss here, it is not my favorite time of the year.

The Sherman Morgan has never been a huge favorite of mine anyway. I have him in his original release of chestnut, the lovely alabaster JAH SR Pride and Vanity, and the original black, but I haven’t been highly motivated to get the rest of them. The Dapple Gray Tobiano test piece in the 2008 BreyerFest Auction was a beautiful thing, I’ll grant you, but well beyond my price range.


But Autumn is a 2000 piece run: that’s significantly more than your average JAH Special (typically 1500) or BreyerFest Special (500-1500). The color is more appealing (it’s a rare mold that’s not improved with a bit of gloss), the SRP is more reasonable, and the distribution model seems a little more fair than last year’s attempt. Even if we factor in his higher popularity rating and the gloss factor, I still don’t think the prices some dealers and collectors are trying to charge will hold up in the long run.

I wouldn’t be surprised, even, if a few batches of them show up in the Tent next year. Not as many as the Medalist Ponies, but a few cases, at least? Yeah. We’re talking 2000 pieces here. That’s a lot of horses, no matter how you divvy them up.

I’m sure most of the current craze for him is just due to him being the newest, shiniest bauble on the table. Happens every year at BreyerFest: a model’s awesomeness is extolled, crazy-mad prices are charged (and sometimes, received), then the inevitable collapse of both praise and price a few months - or even weeks - later.

There have been a few exceptions to the rule, but there's usually been a mitigating factor. And the possible migitating factor for Shermie is his strangely potent popularity.

I’ve always wondered if all the Shermie love was a consequence of his extended absence from the Breyer line: the mold was taken out of production at the end of 1992, and did not return until 2000, slightly remodeled and with a brand new tail, as the #1105 Carpe Diem.

The story was that the mold was damaged beyond repair. The word "destroyed" is casually bandied about when the discussion turns to damaged or altered molds; Breyer was the first to use that term, in reference to the 1984 JAH Saddlebred Weanling’s pending mold change to the Rocking Horse. I don’t know when the word "destroyed" came up in reference to the Sherman Morgan mold, but any time a mold is put on an extended vacation from production, it inevitably enters the discussion.

I hate that word, because it’s pretty clear that the way the company uses the word is quite different from the way hobbyists do. In hobbyist circles, the word destroyed evokes cataclysmic imagery: tossed from a high-rise and shattered into a million pieces, drop-kicked into the Pacific Ocean, or melted down and recycled into parts for your Subaru. Gone forever and ever, amen and goodbye.

Breyer uses the term its more technical or artistic sense, generally, to describe a mold that is no longer in its original state. Kind of like art prints: an earlier state of an artistic etching is considered "destroyed" when changes are made to it. But it is not gone, only changed. Halla was "destroyed," but the "Bolya" mold lives on. The Saddlebred Weanling was "destroyed" but we had the "Rocking Horse" instead. (Until they restored it, more or less.)

Parts may go missing, or be retooled and remodeled, but molds are rarely discarded or destroyed entirely. (Alborozo being a notable exception.) They’re just too darn expensive and time-consuming to build from scratch: it’s better to keep an unusable mold in storage until it’s possible to repair or salvage it somehow.

His color is beautiful: that’s the only thing that’s keeping me from dismissing him entirely from my want list. But until I get some money and space issues resolved here, I’ll have to opt out of the Shermie Love Fest for now.