My Little Noriker

This week was a rough one, and I was feeling pretty blue by the end of it. So I decided to make a detour to work yesterday and buy myself something blue to cheer myself up, making the assumption that it was going to be the new Patriotic Web Special Washington. 

There were, indeed, several to nice examples to choose from, but something else blue caught my eye instead: the Blue Roan Brabant!

His paint job is very reminiscent of the original #415 Buckshot, right down to the “is he, or isn’t he?” Appaloosa vibe. So much so that I thought Reeves missed an excellent opportunity to label him a Noriker instead. 

The color for Buckshot was never clearly defined: it was sort of a combination/mashup of Blue Roan, Appaloosa and Grulla, and there was so much variation in the model’s modest four-year run that all of those labels fit to one degree or another, often simultaneously. I am not quite sure they even knew back then anyway: his color was (rather unhelpfully!) labeled Grulla (Blue Roan) in the 1985 catalog. 

The color wasn’t unique to Buckshot: it did appear on a Special Run of the original Hess Belgian in 1986. That release originally was going to be a reinterpretation of the Belgian’s original Smoke color – but with a black mane and tail – but due to customer feedback and some miscommunication, he ended up getting painted like Buckshot instead. 

Thus creating, unintentionally, Breyer’s first “Noriker” release, even if he wasn’t officially labeled or sold that way.

The first true Breyer Noriker was 2001’s Fine Porcelain Model Moritz, an untacked adaptation of Kathleen Moody’s Porcelain Household Cavalry Drum Horse from 1999. The untacked version of the mold was finally translated into plastic for the release of the 2007 Holiday Horse Winter Song. 

Although the mold now known as Othello was later released in Appaloosa as the Redemption Model for the 2010 Treasure Hunt, it wouldn’t be until 2020 that we’d get an Appaloosa Noriker that was identified as such: the BreyerFest Special Run Oak, on the Georg mold. 

Alas, my dear little Brabant has a factory scrape on his chest that probably limits his potential show career; I have plenty enough models in the stable more urgently in need of repair.

Waiting for the Tractor Supply Horses

Another busy weekend: I reorganized my main flower garden yesterday (and am I feeling it today, oof!) and I apparently made yet another grail purchase.

But you should know the drill about these grails by now (waiting until it gets here, yadda yadda).

I was hoping that all I’d have to worry about with regards to the upcoming Tractor Supply Special Runs would be whatever Stablemates (Blind Bags and otherwise) they’ll be adding to their standard store assortment. But based on the plan-o-grams floating around the Internet, it looks like it’s going to be more complicated than that.

The Alabaster/Aged Gray Classic Brabant is definitely a given, since I’ve managed to keep my little collection of the mold complete so far (and it comes with a wee blanket, squee!) I still haven’t opened up my Greenman yet, but horse inventory stuff is part of my extended Labor Day weekend plans, so soon:

I might even buy another Mighty Muscle in the near future for customizing purposes, but that will depend on the progress I make on all my other projects in the next month or so.

I am hoping that this Tractor Supply Special will be the last new release on the Brabant mold for a while, though. At least through the end of the year? While I don't expect the TSC Brabant to be all that difficult to get, I still could use the break.

You also know I’m also a big fan of the Emerson mold, so the Black Pinto Emerson in the TSC assortment will also likely be coming home with me. I’ll have to see what the Marabella and the Boomerang look like in person (and how my inventory plans go!) before I make any commitments.

I am intrigued by the Marabella; while the mold has come in an assortment of pintos over the years, her upcoming TSC release will mark the first time she’s appeared in Appaloosa.

Just Going With It

It’s beautiful and I want it:

Bilberry reminds me of the 2012 BreyerFest Auction Bouncer, who had a similar patter but in Gloss Bay Appaloosa that I also wanted.

But I am not going to get too upset if I don’t get picked because I seriously have way too much going on right now: one more pretty pony might push me over the edge.

Speaking of, my little Brabants arrived the other day and I love my Drafty Unicorn Solaris:

The color is similar – but not identical – to the Walmart Special Run Unicorn Surprise on the G3 Arabian that I also loved. I am a big fan of orange in general – in fabric, on horses, in soft drinks (takes another sip of her Jarritos Mandarin) – but not so much on people.

Just be your own color folks, whatever color that is. (Mine appears to be… ecru? Kind of a yellowy-gray beige? Sounds about right.)

The newly announced BreyerFest Plushie is cute and the swag – tee-shirts et al – are nice, but I’m not really sure how the Game of Thrones references are particularly relevant. But then again I’m about as Celtic as Chinese Take-out, so none of it is particularly doing it for me, other than the basic BreyerFest tee.

(And people are reading way too much into those “House Brighty”, “House Bristol” shirts: it’s just four popular and somewhat on-theme molds that happen to have names that start with the letter “B”.)

Incidentally, after giving the matter entirely too much thought, I’ve compiled my Special Run preference list, running from most to least wanted:

Slainte Surprise
Hamish (Bull)
Thorn (Trakehner)
Oak (Georg)
Lugh (Sham)
Brighid and Beltane (Welsh Mare and Foal)
Epona (Strapless)
Ash (Othello)
Boudicca (Andalusian Mare)

Technically my first two choices are the Bull Hamish and the Trakehner Thorn, but I don’t think those will be in particularly high demand. This way if I end up with one good spot in the queue I’ll get a Surprise. If not (very likely) I should still get the rest of what I want anyway.

I hope. It’s another one of those things I’m trying to not think about too much. 

Green, Man

Reeves is doing its darndest to get me to collect the Classic Brabant mold. And it just might be working:

The “Greenman” graphic on its barrel could have been a bit less stylized – I didn’t even recognize it as a face when I first looked at it – but I got everything else I wanted in this Pop-Up Store Special except the Unicorn horn!

The first two releases of the Brabant are still current, and since it seems unlikely to me that they’d release this mold as a Gambler’s Choice or a Show Special any time soon, this could be a nice, low-pressure model to focus on. 

Depending on how the whole online BreyerFest thing goes. I’m trying not to worry about that too much but you know, the mind wanders…

It is remarkable to me that in the 45+ year history of Breyer’s Classic-scale horses (or 50+ years if you count the Rearing Stallion, Bucking Bronco and maybe even the #36 Racehorse) that this is still only the second Classic Draft Horse mold, after Moody’s Shire A/B was introduced in 2002.

Incidentally, I did break down and buy a second BreyerFest ticket on April 30. Aside from already having the luxury of extra cash, I usually go in to BreyerFest with two tickets anyway. While I don’t think my two top choices – the Bull and the Trakehner – are going to be in as high demand as other releases this year (Othello, ahem), my luck in the line draws has not been good for a while, so I might as well give myself the extra chance at what I want, just in case.

I am also a little bit concerned that since the event is online and postage is discounted, the redemption rate for Special Runs is going to be higher: in other words, there will be fewer leftovers and more sellouts.

As for my second choices, I wouldn’t turn down a Surprise or a Sham/Lugh. I have a feeling the Lugh is going to be jaw-droppingly gorgeous in person, as most of Breyer’s Gloss Bays tend to be.