Confirmation Bias

I decided to skip out on the online show; I made so much progress over the weekend with all my other projects that I’d rather keep that momentum going, rather than get sidetracked by something else again. Photography is not my strong suit, and I would have obsessed over every single picture…

You know what? I’m skipping out on Santino, too; it’s not that I don’t love the Polo Pony mold, or that I have issues with the base warping (though that is pretty annoying). 

It’s just that I’m still just a tad bit overwhelmed with my leftover BreyerFest inventory. I haven’t even gotten around to getting all of the Johanns from last year (and affordable Bays are nonexistent anyway!)

I am still undecided on the Halloween stuff; I love all the Stablemates and the Classic too – I was not expecting a “Creepy Quagga” concept, and I really dig it! I have a little bit of time to think about those, at least.

In case I didn’t make it clear, I did get a Peanutine during my first pass-through the leftover line at BreyerFest. Mine just happened to be one of the perfectly ordinary ones:

Fortunately I was close enough to the front of the line that there were a few left when I went through, so I was happy to get one, regardless of the color. 

I was thinking about the Peanutine today because I made the mistake last night of watching some YouTube videos, and in spite of my impressive haul, I was still mad jealous at the people showing off Raffle Models, Volunteer Models, or even multiple Volunteer Models. 

This led to an extended internal monologue about what a terrible person I was for even going there in my head. I had to remind myself that for a lot of hobbyists, just getting a Peanutine in the first place would have been satisfaction enough. 

Would more be better? Of course! But sometimes you need to pause to enjoy what you do have and what you have accomplished, and not indulge in confirmation bias. It never ends well.

Risk Assessments

Like everyone else, I’m a little gobsmacked by the final selling price of the Sample Paddy, and making side eye at some of the Samples sitting on my shelf, like my Nosferatu, that sweet BreyerFest Aintree with the handpainted battleship gray hooves, or the one that (I think) would probably bring the biggest bucks right now, the Wedgewood Brighty Nugget:

An extra 2K in the bank account would not be unappreciated! 

But this situation also gives further lie to the currently accepted wisdom that the market is on a bit of a downturn. The people who had the money to spend on thousand-dollar Alborozos still have money to spend… on other things.

There was a little more going on here than just that, obviously. First and foremost is provenance: there is little reason to doubt that a model purchased straight from Reeves is not what it is advertised as. 

Some of the things I’ve seen advertised as Tests or Samples lately – models that are very clearly just minor variations, or very obviously Shrinkies – do make me wonder about my fellow hobbyists. Do the sellers genuinely think their items are what they claim them to be, or are they pushing the truth envelope and gambling on low-information hobbyists to make the call in their favor?

(I’d rather not believe the latter, but I also know better!)

The other big thing going on here is that the Cleveland Bay mold has been having its moment since BreyerFest, when it was revealed to be the Rotating Draft Surprise. And, of course, it was a St. Patrick’s Day themed model whose auction closing date was on St. Patrick’s Day. 

As I mentioned above, I already have a lot of Samples, so this one was no temptation. I even have a Sample Cleveland Bay somewhere (the 2012 BreyerFest SR Tunbridge Wells, if you are curious.) The provenance might be shaky on some of mine, but I’ve also not spent much more than store retail ($35-70) for them either. 

They were within my acceptable level of risk, and I recommend anyone else also aspiring to add a Sample or two to their herds to also assess their risk levels, and plan accordingly. 

It should come as no surprise that the Sample Brighty is on my Collectibility show string short list; the Breed documentation is finished, and I’m hoping to finish the Collectibility part tonight. 

And in closing, it should also come as no surprise that I was not picked for Magpie. I suppose that means I should now order my Vintage Club Secretariat. Will it be a Gold Charm? I wish, but probably not!

Old Timey Goodness

As someone who eats candy professionally (yes, really!), I may be legally obligated to buy Peanutine:

I had never heard of “peanutine” before, but I guess it is the peanut brittle variation of Saltine Toffee? Interesting. 

In reality, I’m not too crazy about peanut brittle per se – if you need to know, I am currently obsessed with the maple sugar candy I got for Christmas – and I am trying to behave myself this year, so I’ll take a wait and see approach on him. I mean, he’s cute, and I’m glad it’s not another bull, but I was hoping for something just a tiny bit more “outside the box” for a cart-pulling nonhorse, like a Goat or a Dog mold. 

The next Special Run – the Mare and Foal Set Surrey and Axle – might be my first must-buy of the ticket lineup, but not for the reason you might think:

If you could look at my notes for this year’s Sampler sitting on my desk right now, you’d see that the very first article I planned to write for it was (will be!) about the Standing Stock Horse Foal. 

This sort of thing usually happens after I publish an article, not before. So either Reeves and I are on the same wavelength, or some strange time travel thing just took place that I am only now finding out about.

The poor little guy doesn’t get a lot of love, but from an historical standpoint, he’s way more interesting than most collectors realize. I just wasn’t expecting to see a BreyerFest SR of him like, ever: he’s not exactly the flashiest foal mold on the block. He’s kind of like a blank canvas of a mold: how interesting he is is entirely dependent on how interesting his paint job is. 

Which is this case, is quite.

I certainly won’t turn down a few-spot Lady Phase with the package, either. I’m definitely not understanding all the online Lady Phase hate, though. When did she become “one of the ugly ones”? Heretics!

While you could argue that she’s occasionally been overused, she is never not beautiful. 

The next thing you know, you’ll be telling me that Iced Oatmeal Raisin is not, in fact, the best cookie in the world. 

Anyway, I am glad that my intuition about the turn towards “vintage” has been proven somewhat right. And has piqued my interest. Will the Old Timer be turning up soon? I’d definitely be on board with that…

And then they dropped the next Store Special, which was the Troubadour I was expecting, in a colorway I was also (more or less) expecting:

Lovely, but I’m a little reluctant about him for one simple reason: I don’t have a lot of space to spare right now, and he’s one hecking chonk of a model. And I am still holding out for an affordable Stretched Morgan Special Run, as unlikely as that now seems to be. 

The First Round

Struggling with the words again, today. I just finished up a big writing project for work which has left me with an overwhelming need to work with my hands, but it looks like the sewing machine is going to be out of commission for a few weeks due to a service backup, too. 

Tax paperwork and inventory it is then, for the month of January…

For obvious reasons, I’d rather not be one of those people, but so far I haven’t been all that into this year’s BreyerFest reveals. Except for the Constantia Via Lattea, of course. And much to my relief, she’s a Limited Edition!

As I’ve explain before, I haven’t had a lot of happy fun time on the Internet lately, so I apparently missed all the brouhaha over Constantia’s Premier Club release paint job. This I do not particularly understand: over-the-top paint jobs on Premier Club releases are just par for the course, right?

I love home improvement-type shows, but I always roll my eyes at the obligatory parts of the show where potential homebuyers complain about the paint or wallpaper. The most superficial, easy-to-fix stuff! If you can’t see the bones because of the paint…

This means all three of last year’s Premier Club releases will have BreyerFest releases this year. That’s not altogether unusual, but it is that they were the first Traditional releases they officially announced. That makes me optimistic that we might see a bit more vintage goodness than average this year?

The other two Premier Club molds aren’t doing much for me, though. In a shocking twist: they’re just not realistic enough for my tastes!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for less realistic/more artistic sculpts: if someone was to randomly send me a von Hamilton in the mail someday, I would not complain at all.

But the Zafirah represents an aspirational body type I simply think shouldn’t be encouraged. The paint job they put on her is lovely, and camouflages some of the issues I have with her, but I don’t know if it’s enough to persuade me to buy her. 

And I feel like I’m the only one in the world right now who is not in love with Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig’s Amazigh Stallion Anamar on any level. 

Well okay, his mane is nice. 

Now I didn’t hate the stenciled dappling on its original Premier Club release; they’ve been experimenting with that concept for years. While they do look a bit odd on Anamar, that’s mostly because of their starkness. With a little tweaking on the technique – using those dapples as base layer, instead of as the finishing touch – they’ll look miles better than the goofy hand-airbrushed star dapples. Probably save on labor costs, too.

But the more realistic color of Speos doesn’t make me want one any more than I did before. He still falls a little too much on the cartoonish side for my tastes. For better or worse, Speos reminds me a little bit of the original chestnut release of Sherman Morgan. Although I have warmed up to Sherman Morgan in more recent years, he’s still not high on my list of favorites.

As for the sneak peek that’s probably Brighty, I am also not overly enthused. At least it’s not going to be another Bull mold? It’s not so much whether or not I’ll like it, but the fact that it will be exceedingly hard to get. 

Even absolutely ordinary, run-of-the-mill Regular Run Brighties are going for $50 to $75 nowadays, which boggles my mind. They don’t strike me as that kind of scarce, but I’ve been out of the Brighty market for a while, so maybe it’s just me. 

Purple, Blue, Yellow

Back to work – and a “normal” sleep schedule – tomorrow. I certainly don’t lack for more things to do, but I found myself watching carpet cleaning videos last night, so it’s probably about time to go back to the real world. 

I did find a Blind Bag Unicorn Croi yesterday – on sale, even! – but it’s just the purple one. That’s fine, because I was sincerely doubting I’d find any of the Crois at all, because these people are vultures around here, I swear:

The rest of the series – except for the Chase pieces, because that’s not happening – I’ll pick up later from the enterprising souls who purchased entire boxes. Groping blind bags in farm stores has lost its appeal, especially since success in these parts is so slim. 

I have way too little time in my life to be running around half of Michigan looking for “rare” Stablemates. In fact, it sounds more like work than anything else. No thanks!

I was moderately amused by the “Best Holiday Shopping Spots for Breyer Fans” e-mail that Reeves sent out a few days ago; just going by this e-mail alone, you’d conclude that I lived in a vast wasteland with no Breyers within our borders. I can assure you that is most definitely not the case. I can handpick almost anything I want within an hour’s drive except (of course) the accursed blind bag Stablemates. 

In other news, I did get the Copenhagen Brighty, fancy that:

And the Yellow Mount Mini Me is the no-spot variation:

I had no preference on either of these: they were all equally “rare” anyway, and I have no illusions about completing my sets, regardless. (Flipping the negative on theYellow Mount box was a nice touch, by the way!)

I am glad, though, that aside from the Chalky variation, I’m pretty much “full up” on my Traditional Yellow Mounts. Vintage Club releases tend to boost the aftermarket prices of their respective molds and inspirations (good gravy, have you seen the prices for absolutely ordinary Brighties nowadays?) 

What’s funny is that up until a few years ago, I didn’t have any Yellow Mounts, at all. I had had several over the years, but they were all either subpar or just not what I was looking for. 

Aside from the Chalky variation, I think all I really need now is a better no-spot variation and one with a dorsal stripe. A Presentation piece would be nice, too, but it’s rare enough to not be a must have.   

Longear Love

When we were working on this year’s Vintage Club lineup last year, I knew that the Brighty release was going to be mega-popular, but I had no idea he’d be “four-figures in pre-sale” popular. 

I mean, yeah, I’ve seen the prices for the Micro Run Cornelius, but the prices for most Breyer Longears in general are just crazy. Even the Hickory Hills Wall Street Brighties that were dumped and heavily discounted at Ollie’s a few years back are now going for big bucks.

Though to be honest I did kinda-sorta see the price increase on the Wall Street Brighties. Seeing them at Ollie’s reminded me a little too much of my experience with the S Justadream: a local farm store literally had an entire wall of them – at least two dozen – and I had a good laugh about the misfortunes of their purchasing department when I saw them.

Two years later, they were selling for $250 apiece on eBay, NIB. I could have made a killing, if I had only known. But I didn’t, and I didn’t.

I did a favor for a friend and bought her a carload of those Brighties, and I’d do it again if the opportunity presented itself. I am just not that lucky when it comes to capitalizing on things like that. That’s why I don’t go out of my way to even try, and why I am more-than-sometimes annoyed by hobbyists who somehow manage to make it work. 

The only exception to the recent longears trend is the Balking Mule, especially the original releases in Seal Brown and Bay. This kind of blows my mind, because they were notoriously difficult to find at my local flea markets for years, to the point that they became one of my grails. 

I could have just taken the easy way out and buy one from another hobbyist, but I was determined to wait until I found one locally. Then I found three in the space of one weekend, and I’ve managed to find them on a semi-regular basis since then. I still have two of the three, incidentally, including this very chestnutty-looking Bay: 

I tell myself that that’s what’s going to happen once I find my first vintage Decorator in the wild, but I’m still waiting.

Anyway, I felt especially proud of myself yesterday because I finally managed to find a body quality Standing Donkey at a price that did not make me uncomfortable. I have a couple of Donkey customizing ideas and I wanted to have at least one body on hand when the time and the mood finally align. And you know me, I wasn’t going to take a Dremel and hacksaw to the mint or near-mint examples that inhabit my saleslist on a near-perpetual basis. 

I tried scoring one through a local auction website recently, but (of course!) the price went well above what I expected it to be. 

Chalky Brighty

Another quiet weekend mostly spent cleaning my office and my car, sorting out the consequences of my last two shopping excursions (Stablemates, Stablemates everywhere.)

A few days ago I did end up at one of my local Salvation Army stores – ostensibly to see if they still had a fabric remnant I saw a week earlier, one I realized (several days later) would be ideal for another long-unfinished quilt project – and found a Chalky Brighty chilling in the toy bins:

One does not, of course, leave a vintage Chalky behind. Even if it is relatively common and not exactly in pristine condition.

Brighty is “common” because like the Appaloosa Performance Horse and El Pastor – all introduced in 1974 – she began her Breyer career as a Chalky. This is smack dab in the middle of Breyer’s so-called “Chalky Era”, which ran from roughly 1973 through 1975/6, an era when many (but not all!) Breyer releases came in the now-insanely-popular Chalky variation.

No vintage Chalky is truly “common”, but unlike other Chalky releases of the time, those three molds – being new – were probably produced in greater quantities, and possibly over a longer period of time. Hence, they tend to be among the easiest of vintage Chalkies to find.

Brighty was originally issued in the #2075 Brighty Gift Set, which was discontinued in 1981; the model was reissued the following year as release #375, without the special carrying case and book. So technically whenever a Chalky Brighty is advertised for sale as the #375 release, it’s misidentified: all Chalky Brighties would have been from the #2075 Gift Set release.

Well okay, the vast majority: there are always some exceptions to the rule floating out there somewhere. Though I do not personally know of any in the case of Brighty.

And yes, I also know that Brighty’s mold number is #375, but mold numbers are rarely used as a reference point in sales listing. Except by us history nerds trying to gussy up a sales post, perhaps...

But anyway, I already have a mint and lovely Chalky Brighty in my herd, so she’ll be up for sale whenever I finally find the time to start doing so again.

(Soon, I hope.)

Signal Boost

Still busy, so here’s a picture of my Test Color Donkey. I took a picture of it against a neutral gray backdrop so you could see the brown tones better:

It’s basically the same color as the quasi-rerelease #376 Brighty that was in production from 1991-2005, sometimes called Brighty 1991 to distinguish it from the original #375 production run item made from 1982 through 1987 (and from 1974 through 1981 in the #2075 Gift Set).

My Donkey was a part of the “newtoymens” collection that was dispersed on eBay several years back, most of which consisted of models from ca. 1998-2000. What that means is that it’s not likely to be a Test Color for the Brighty, but for another release, possibly the Donkey itself.

Yet there hasn’t been a new release of this Donkey mold since 1992. Even models as obscure as the Small Poodle have gotten more releases since then.

I have no idea why that it so, other than Reeves thinking that the current Donkey market is better served by their other Donkey molds – the Brighty, the Stablemates Donkey and now even Collecta ones.

Of all the Vintage molds and models people talk to me about, the original Breyer Donkey is the one who has the most… vocal supporters? I am all in favor of more old Donkey Special Runs and releases, but I have limited say in the matter.

Vintage molds that are not specifically horses – and even some that are merely unfashionable – appear to have been consigned to Micro Runs and other limited releases for the time being, so a fresh new retail release on the Donkey seems unlikely.

However, we do have a rather big Breyer anniversary coming up next year (as they count it; I prefer 1951 or 1952 as the brand’s official birthday, but that’s neither her nor there) so I wouldn’t necessarily rule out anything.

What I can do is give the notion a signal boost, and so I have.

Christmas Aftermath

Interesting Day, wasn’t it?

I almost missed out on the Christmas Othello-corn: I got up at 8 a.m., poked around the Internet for a bit, then I decided to go take a shower and make myself an English Muffin. I log back in at 8:45, and…

At first I thought I was getting punked when I saw it. Three Unicorn Othellos, the fever dream of thousands of Unicorn- and Othello-obsessed tweens? Was Reeves actually trying to crash their servers today?

Nevertheless, I had been looking at the Xaviers the last few times I visited our local independent toy stores, and I had spent a longer-than-normal time staring at the Mini Brishen Virgil ornament at Tractor Supply when I stopped by last week to shop for some long-sleeve t-shirts.

And since I hadn’t bought the previous two Christmas Day Specials, and any individual Othello SR with a piece count under 1000 is generally a good investment, it was a no-brainer.

I didn’t even notice the part of the offer about the “12 lumps of Coal” Brighty until later. If I actually get one, I’ll be over the moon (or in the ER!) but I’m good, regardless. (Or should I be bad? Not sure how the math of this works out.)

I’m hoping for the green Othellocorn because I’m weird, but all three colors are lovely. Speaking of green...

I got lucky and my Fruitcake Fillies, miraculously, were not twins: one green, and one blue! I was slightly less lucky when it came to the CC Appreciation model. Not the Paint Me A Pepto I was hoping for, but the other pinto, Kodi:

I guess I was right about it becoming more plentiful, eh?

Factoring out the desirability aspect – the Shire being the most desirable, and the Marabella the least – it appears that the five Glosses had similar piece counts, which is how I think it should be, ideally. Drives me bonkers when people make purchasing decisions based purely on piece counts: just because something’s rare doesn’t make it automatically desirable! (And vice versa.)

As a parting shot before I get ready for bed – a ton of post-holiday errands to run first thing in the morning, followed by a matinee of Aquaman – here’s another pretty pony that I made my acquaintance with today:

Emma was one of the items that made up my CC Appreciation order, and probably the one item in that box that I was most looking forward to! She had been available locally and I had been tempted many times, but I thought I’d save her up for my order, just in case.

So now, for what will inevitably be a brief moment, my Emma collection is complete. (Tomorrow will be De-Boxing Day here.)

Glossy Jake

It’s a Glossy Jake for me, yay!

Actually, I would have been completely happy with the Bandera, and was fully expecting it. So getting something different is just extra sprinkles in my bowl of ice cream.

I have only one other Wixom – the pretty 2002 BreyerFest Special Run WH Annie, in Dappled Rose Gray – and after my recent collection reorganization, I won’t have any problem making room for another.

Some time in the near future I will be buying one of those Glossy Banderas. But not now, as there is room in my budget for just one more purchase and that’s either going to be whatever Reeves drops on us on Christmas, or an obscure grail I spied on eBay today.

That’s also what eventually stayed my hand on filling a second order – it certainly was not for a lack of stuff to buy!

Just a few more observations on the whole deal…

For the record, I don’t know any more than anyone else about the true quantities/ratios on the four freebies; Bandera and the Donkey are obviously the higher quantities, and the Jake and Liberty are the lower ones. Beyond that…?

Reeves hasn’t been forthcoming in the past about the piece counts on previous Gloss Promotion models, so we might have to be content with rough estimates. It’s probably still too soon to really do that, since I suspect a large quantity of packages haven’t been received or opened yet.

There’s also the issue of whether the promotion truly sold out, or was simply allowed to expire due to the holiday break. (If they did not, it was close.)

If it failed to completely sellout, it wasn’t for a lack of interest, but out of exhaustion – and a lack of money! We saw a lot of products and promotions this year, and most of us are just spent out, waiting in both anticipation and dread for that one last thing we know they’re going to foist upon us.

Incidentally, the other things in my box included another Warehouse Find Bluegrass Bandit (to upgrade my previous) the Cortes C Carrick I’ve been eyeing all year (on sale!), and a bunch of Stablemates. Because I want to focus on Stablemates for the time being.

(Yes, I am very excited about all the new Stablemates releases for next year!)

The B Word

The last official "flea market find" last year was an H-R Donkey Harry; this year’s first official find?

A #376 Brighty - 1991! He’s not a rare animal - they made him up through 2005 in this particular version of brownish-gray - but he is a reliable seller in the aftermarket, as most Marguerite Henry-inspired molds are.

Other than one ear rub and a few bits of house paint splatter, he seems to be in excellent condition. That’s a bit unusual, considering I found him at the local Salvation Army Store, sitting next to the extremely scary dollar-store clown figurine that’s been terrorizing that store for about a month now. (Brighty was holding his own, but I’m sure the save was appreciated!)

What’s nice about the Brighty mold is that he doesn’t have any significant mold marks, so casual shoppers and other non-Breyer-obsessed people will tend to pass over him. Not without a quizzical look or two, though, including the cashier who rang him up for me yesterday:

"Is he…plastic?"

"Yes, he is."

Hey, she never brought up the "B" word, so I didn’t offer. It doesn’t seem to matter too much in my part of the country anyway, but I know I am extremely lucky to be in that situation. (More than once at my local dirt malls have I heard the cry "Hey, Horse Lady, I got something for ya!" And miraculously, they often do.)

There were some other equine-themed things in the store, but nothing else worth bringing home, other than some crafting supplies.

Alas, this little Brighty probably won’t be staying; I promised myself to keep my model purchases to a minimum for the front half of the year, at least. If he had been the 2007 model and book set rerelease (#1295) with that happy, self-satisfied little smile painted on his face, it’d be another story. That one has become my favorite of all the Brighty releases, outside of the original Chalky Gift Set ones.

Since I’m possibly going on overnights (and overtime) for the next month or so, it’ll be a while before I get him or anything else listed.

Though if anyone has a body-quality Traditional Kitten (or two) they’d be willing to trade for him, I’d be willing to make the time. I am so enamored of my Chartreux idea that want to make my own, regardless of Reeves’s plans. Maybe a Silver Filigree one, too.

Sitting It Out

Due to some glitch in the inventory company’s own inventory system, I find myself sitting at home for a couple of days this week, without work. During the busiest time of the year, when there’s literally work to be had all day and every day, and everyone (else) is complaining about the massive amounts of overtime they're putting in.

Normally I’d raise a stink because, hello, I don’t get paid to sit at home: no work, no pay. But I decided to turn this liability into an asset, and get some other work done in the meantime.

(Model horse related, mostly.)

The "Consolation" Special Run Bull Colton does appear to be being made specifically to cover the oversells on the Logans at the Vault Sale. I’m not sure if they’re going to make just enough to cover the oversell orders, or exactly the same amount as Logan, or what.

On Reeves’s inventory issues and the Vault Sale, I will speak no further. Not because I have nothing more to say, but because of diminishing returns. There’s no point in making an argument once everyone’s made up their minds.

The other big news this week is that all the BreyerFest 2013 stuff has hit the Breyer web site in a big way. A bunch of different Specials were announced, including a Desatado in Dun, a pretty chestnut pinto Haflinger, and another pinto Nokota Horse (as the Early Bird Special).

One of the Raffle models is the Traditional Totilas in a Star Dapple Gray, which makes about as much sense to the "Denim & Diamonds" theme as the Early Bird Special Stretched Morgan did to last year’s "British Invasion". The paint job looks a little weird, but it's also a not-good photograph of a test piece, so I'm not fretting over it.

There’s going to be another SR "satellite" store, too: one of the Specials available in it will be a Bucking Bronco in a quasi-buckskin color with kerchief-style decals on it. It’s very similar to the Home Decorating Show Paisley Rearing Horses that broke my heart a couple months back. I love the Bucking Bronco mold, so heck yeah, it's on my must-buy list.

The two Store Specials were also announced: a Black Tobiano Pinto Bluegrass Bandit named Lady C, and a pinto Brighty named Tennessee Titan. Titan is similar, but not identical to the still-incredibly-desirable 2005 Fest Special Run Oliver. Judging from the reaction I’ve been seeing to the Brighty, I’m guessing we’re in for another very quick sellout. (Keeping mine, if I get a hold of one.)

They also announced the themes and rules to the contests, and honestly, I just can’t get all that worked up about either one of them right now. I am utterly indifferent to the charms of most country music. I’m more Motown than Hoedown: I like some of the old-timey stuff, bluegrass, yodeling cowboys and stuff like that, but most modern stuff makes my eyes glaze over.

If I can come up with something, I’ll do it, but I just can’t get as emotionally involved as I did last year, where I ended up flaming out rather painfully. (When other people win with your same ideas - not once, but twice in the same year - yeah, you do tend to take it rather personally.)

Salt and Pepper, Cream and Sugar

Today’s prayer: that some of those beautiful American Cream Draft centerpieces from the American Horse Publications awards dinner (as seen on Breyer’s Facebook page today) end up in the NPOD, and if I should miss them in the melee, that someone should hand one to me.

Oh, I’m not asking for it as a gift: I’m perfectly willing to pay for it. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, should someone else other than me happens to lay hands on mine, you know.

(Another long story, one that will be told only if and when one of those beautiful boys should join my herd. Yes, I am fully aware of - and own - the #906 Goliath, the 1995 Commemorative Edition. In fact, it’s part of that danged story.)

The Salt and Peppers are starting to show up, but mine’s not due here until tomorrow, I think; very nice of Reeves to send us UPS shipping notifications without prompting. (See, they’re learning!) The pattern on the mare is pretty much just like Western Prancing Horse’s, not the Shetland Pony; the composition of the original photograph did obscure it, though.

I’ve been trying to skim through the various online discussions about them because, well, I don’t need the additional grief, and I’m really not in the mood for more whining and whinging today.  Besides, y’all are amateurs in comparison to the Vita Monster: we cut back a bit on her snacks recently, and she’s not having it.

(Her tantrums are way cuter, too. Though the knocking of stuff off the tables, not so much. Terriers, man.)

I think I’m liking this year’s BreyerFest auction pieces better than most hobbyists; all these odd patterns and mold "mash-ups" give me the feeling that a greater percentage of them are actual test pieces, and not just whimsies done to please the hobby hoi polloi.

Like the red dun brindle Smart Chic Olena: there have been a couple other attempts at brindling in previous years’ auctions, and this SCO may be representative of where they are from a production standpoint. Still not there, but getting warmer.

I certainly wouldn’t turn it down if it were offered to me as a gift. (Not asking, just saying.)

Though, like everyone else, my favorite is the "Blackpool" Brighty in an adorbs mahogany bay pinto - with tack! We really do need a few more production run Brighties; the last two Specials were the BreyerFest 2005 Ticket Special Oliver, and the 2010 Contest prize Cameo, both of whom are just about impossible to acquire.

Another Brighty might make a nice Special Run for the Collector’s Club, don’t you think? Wouldn’t need to be spotted; I’d be happy with a Dark Bay or Black.