Positive Spins

I’ve been trying to put a more positive spin on things lately, pretty much because I don’t have much say in the matter. 

In debilitating pain and unable to eat much? Oh well, I wanted to change my diet and lose weight anyway. And all my jeans are fitting again! (Still haven’t found a meal replacement shake that doesn’t take revolting though. And I am absolutely not a picky eater!)

The weird turn that this year’s BreyerFest theme has taken? That means I’ll be picking out models I want based purely on aesthetics, rather than be cluttered by any lingering sentiments about the name or concept. Which means I’m digging the Dunalino True North: one of my favorite colors on one of my favorite newer molds!

I’m not sure why everyone is wigging out about the breed assignment; it wouldn’t be any different from the majority of other releases that have come out since… forever. If half your showstring isn’t some flavor of fence-jumper, you’re just not being creative.

Speaking of fence-jumpers, the latest Limited Edition reveal for BreyerFest certainly isn’t disappointing! The original Brown Sunshine release kinda-sorta had a pre-release party at BreyerFest in 1996, but Alan a Day’s Work represents the first true BreyerFest Exclusive on the mold. Special Runs on the Brown Sunshine mold are fairly rare in general, with the last one being Greenacres for the Ponies & Palm Trees Event in 2022.

Unfortunately, there’s no positive spin I can put on the Spokes & Spurs Exclusive Event thing: as a single-type person with just one official club membership to my name, the odds of me getting picked are just not very good. And I’d really rather not try to formulate a “Plan D” vacation at this point. I don’t have time for that nonsense.

Best to put that one in a box and come back to it later, I guess.

And finally, I suppose I should say something publicly about latest in big model horse news: the sale of Stone Horses. 

All I’ll say is that I had (a) I was not surprised, and (b) I had suspected something was in the works for a bit.

It’s been well over a decade since I’ve bought any Stone Horses at all, and nothing I saw in any of the news or press releases is going to persuade me to change course. 

Greenacres

More strangeness in my life: I think I might have sold a vintage quilt to a kinda famous quilting world person? I was packing up a couple of eBay sales earlier this week and did a double take on one of the labels!

It was a beautiful vintage African-American summer top that needed extensive repairs. I purchased it years ago at the local flea market, hoping to make those repairs myself. But in my efforts to get my sewing projects under control, I made the decision to let it go to someone with more time and/or technical skills.

I’m sure I’ll see it again someday. Probably in a magazine I’ll be skimming while standing in the checkout line at Kroger, or something…

Back to horse stuff. Or more specifically, mule stuff:

Some of my fellow Ponies & Palm Trees attendees were a little dismissive of the Green Group models, presumably because of their similarity to earlier releases: the 2015 Limited Edition Jubilation for the Mule Greenacres, and the 2008 Just About Horses Special Run Party Girl for the Strapless Sarong. 

And also, I suppose, their lower potential resale value. (This notion always blows my mind. Unless you happen to also be a retailer, Breyer is under no obligation to help hobbyists make money.)

I’ve been on a bit of a Brown Sunshine kick recently, so it was pretty clear to me that I’d be coming home with the Mule, regardless of secondary market. With the secondary being so messed up now, who’s to say if I even made a “bad” decision, anyway? It’s not like he’s going anywhere anytime soon.

The only member of the entire lineup that didn’t do anything for me was the Duende Golden Sunset; I have no special attachment to the mold (though I wouldn’t mind getting a Fabio, some day) and I wasn’t overly enamored of the color on him. Although my heart was set on the Cremello Five-Gaiter from the get-go (and I got him!), I would have been happy with the Solid Bay Belgian too, the only mold left in the leftovers from the Blue Group.

I am going to assume that the fact that the two Vintage molds used for this event just happened to be the very same ones I decided to focus on collecting this year was purely coincidence. (And I almost got both. So close!)

Reasons and Reactions

My first reaction upon reading the latest Test Color Lottery e-mail: we only have ourselves to blame for the price increase.

My second reaction: other than Lafayette and the VIP drawing, I haven’t been able to get much of anything out of my Collector’s Club membership this year, so I totally have the money for it.

And I’ve been wanting to add a few more Brown Sunshines to the family, and the Buckeyes (Matte and Gloss) in particular. I put my entry in, and I’ll see what happens. 

If nothing else, it’s cheaper than what some of the True Blue models are going for. (Shakes head, adds more people to my “naughty” list, moves on.)

In other news, I was happy to see that a recent eBay purchase arrived yesterday – a box lot of vintage Stablemates in their original packaging!

While I’ve never been a “gotta have ‘em all in their original packages” kind of gal, the price was right and it’s not like Reeves has been getting a lot of my money lately, so hey. 

Then I picked up the box and noticed something:

They shipped it in an original Stablemates packing case from 1975?!? 

Needless to say, I was both excited, and confused. 

Excited because early boxes or cases like this are extremely hard to find: they were literally designed to be thrown away. So the box itself is also staying. In fact, it’s probably my favorite part of the purchase.

But I am also confused: if this had been a known option, I would have asked for the box to be wrapped in paper first so I could have received it in better condition. I went through a similar experience very recently with the Traditional Wooden Stable, after all. 

And if I want to be nitpicky, it’s technically it’s not even the correct box: according to what’s printed on it, it supposedly contained an assortment of Foals, and what I bought were not the Foals. I know this because I just happened to be looking at the 1976 Dealer’s Catalog for (undisclosable) reasons:

A second really cool and also pretty cheap acquisition also arrived with the Stablemates, but I’ll get to that next here in a day or two (I had some scheduling issues last week that have since been resolved. I think.)

Hindsight Is So 2020

How is it only Thursday? This week has felt at least a month long! 

The first thing I’ll say is that I will devote an entire post to the Celebration Horse controversy, but not today, because I’m still recovering from… all the other stuff.

I get that Reeves is trying to recoup some of the sales “lost” to the absence of an in-person BreyerFest by extending their holiday sales promotions into October. But I paid off my credit cards earlier this year and I kind of want to keep it that way by the end of it, you know? 

I mean, my family is going to be asking some questions in the next week or so about the sheer number of Reeves boxes getting dumped on our doorstep… 

Anyway yes, to start the week I did participate in the Customer Appreciation Sale: all of the revealed/mentioned items – Winx, Buckeye and the Catch Me – were acceptable to me. The Winx and the Buckeye had already been “revealed” through leaks to dealers a while back, but the Catch Me was a surprise. 

The one I’m most forward to seeing in Gloss is the Catch Me: all the ones received by my local retailers were heavily picked through before I got to see them, and therefore probably not the best or most representative examples. And I do love the True North mold.

Like everyone else, I am all hubba-hubba-yowza about a Gloss Winx: Emerson, in Gloss Dark Bay? Sold. 

And I’ve been casually searching for affordable Brown Sunshines for a big chunk of the year, without much success. I had no idea how popular that mold is right now!

Just last week I was thinking that I should probably put together a couple of alternate CCA “buy” lists, but since they dropped it on us two months early, I just went the easiest route possible and bought 5 of the 6 Fairytale Friends. I was planning on getting them all anyway, saving them as order fillers for free postage, but since my week started out pretty rough (not hobby-related) and I didn’t feel like doing any complicated math, in the cart they went. 

(The last one in the set will get added to my Honeybunch order here in a day or two, because you just know I’m not going to pass up an affordable Pearly Possibly Pinto Palomino Fell Pony Emma.)

As for what other Glosses might show up in the CCA mix, I have no idea. I saw some suggestions that the Brick and Mortar Special Lionel could be a possibility, and I am very much in favor of that, please and thank you, especially since I never got to see any locally and I had plans on handpicking one. 

But I am not going to worry about what I get, regardless.  

Virtual Show Wrap-Up

One thing I was not counting on was being exhausted this week, even though I didn’t go anywhere, do much of anything, or even go outside and enjoy the heat all that much over my “vacation”.

(For the record, I actually do “enjoy the heat”.)

The Surprises are starting to show up, and as a courtesy to those who want to be surprised when they arrive, I won’t discuss them until mine does. (So… about another three days, at least.)

It’s… not a mold I expected (I had it pegged as an outside chance) but the ones I’ve seen are quite lovely, even (especially!) the one that seems to be the most common. As always, I’m hoping for a Gloss, but not counting on it. Like, at all. 

So here are my top three “winners” at the BreyerFest Virtual Open Show.

First is Winslow, a Collector’s Choice Sergeant who took Second in OF RR Donkey/Mules/Zebras/Primitive Breeds (Class #106):

I bought him years ago as a companion to a Sample of the release I found in the NPOD. There’s not a huge difference between the two - the Sample is slightly darker and pearlier, and has notations and signatures on his belly. I was rummaging around the display collection looking for last minute entries the Saturday before, and he caught my eye.

Second, my #103 Appaloosa Yearling Premonitions, who took Second in OF RR Stock Breeds & Types Foal (Class #503):

I bought her at BreyerFest years ago, in a room in the 200s. I had been looking to upgrade my big-blanket variation of the Appy Yearling: she was very pretty, with immaculate spotting, and her price was right! I almost entered my two-sock variation, but this girl was in better condition overall.

Third, my Riegsecker 1984 Red Chestnut Draft Horse Joonas, who took Second in OF SR Mini Draft Breeds (Class #613), showing as a Jutland:

I have the complete set of seven Riegsecker Stablemate Drafts. When I used to show some of these Drafts before, I’d always go with the flashier ones - the Red Roan, the Palomino, sometimes even the Steel Gray - even though I always thought the Chestnut was the nicest one in the set I received. Glad I decided to go with my gut!

Since, like most folks, I couldn't get anything to function properly on Friday, I spent most of my day refreshing the show results. I was pretty pleased that I hit my “target” (10 placings) by lunchtime, and the placings were fairly evenly distributed through the entire ribbon spectrum, except for the utter absence of Firsts.

I totally tanked in Special Run OF (only one ribbon out of 30 entries) and did best in Collectibility (14 out of 65) and Foals (5 out of 22).

If you factor out the OOAK/Test Colors Classes - I had only one placing out of 12 I entered in that section, partly because the Test Colors I do have are on older and less flashy molds that I bought second hand for cheap - I did quite well statistically, though I was hoping for better (one First!)

Some of the placements I found… uhm, interesting? That’s something that's always been a thing, both at live shows in general and BreyerFest shows in particular, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Judge’s prerogative and all that.

And it benefited me in some ways: I entered my pretty Bay PAS Witez II in OF RR Arabian Stallions because I couldn’t fit him in anywhere in Collectibility. While not normally considered a competitive mold since the introduction of Huckleberry Bey, it has been getting a positive reevaluation in recent years.

Combine that with the fact that his paint job is flat out gorgeous (he finished fourth in a very competitive OF RR Collectibility Class at Pansies and Ponies last year!) I thought he’d have a shot at a lower placing - but he finished third!

As someone whose hobby preoccupation is history, I did wince at some of the documentation that I saw in some of the Collectibility Classes, and cringed even more when some of those models placed over mine. I know other factors are in play when it comes to those class placements, but some of them did feel like tiny little stabs in the heart.

On the other hand, in regards to my breed assignments, I thought I did pretty well. Before I became obsessed with Breyer History, I use to obsess over horse breeds, and I used to look forward to buying the October All-Breeds issue of Western Horseman every year.

If I do pursue Live Showing more actively in the next year or two, I think the best use of my time (other than taking my customizing more seriously) may be in focusing on the breed assignment aspect.

Being Stubborn

Normally I have no issue with offbeat mold choices used for BreyerFest themes, but this Duende Special Run Straight Bet is rubbing me the wrong way:

I have nothing against the mold itself, per se, other than being not overly thrilled about getting another Andalusian/Spanish type Traditional mold, when so many other breeds and types continue to be unrepresented (Akhal-Teke), or underrepresented (Morgans).  

The hobby’s initial reaction to the Duende mold was fairly predictable: the promotional pictures showed a model with a paint job that simply wasn’t possible from a large-scale production standpoint, molding issues aside.

(I have no idea what is going on with their current mold making issues, other than they really need to address it ASAP.)

Duende does look nice in Glossy Liver Chestnut, I’ll give it that. In any other situation I would be all over this guy. But it’s just so obviously a pander and a marketing push for a new mold, forced to fit into a theme.

You guys have so many molds and possibilities to work here, Reeves: if it’s one thing you do not have a shortage of, it’s molds representing breeds and types that are regularly used in racing events – flat track or otherwise. Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, Arabians, Quarter Horses, Appaloosas – and even Mules?

Okay, now I’m moderately excited for a Special Run Brown Sunshine. Speaking of, here’s my Sergeant, and his NPOD Sample Brother:

As you can see, there’s not a lot of difference between the two – the production piece is slightly warmer and pearlier than the Sample, but the rest of differences could be chalked up to normal day-to-day production variability.

These are the only two Brown Sunshines I have currently. I would not mind another. (But what color? Hmm.)

The Duende is only one model out of a line up at least two dozen, so I’ll give it a pass; it’s not that big a deal, really. Work has been leaving me short of sleep this week and I am a bit crankier than normal, which might be affecting my initial reaction.

Didn’t I promise myself to buy less stuff this year anyway?

No Room for Sergeant

Ah, the end of another interesting week. One that included the mother of all bloody noses, a dead car battery, sleep deprivation, and a police stop. (Nothing bad, just annoying - burnt out turning signal.)

On the plus side, I did get overtime. Which should just cover the cost of a new battery.

In the midst of all that, I did manage to hit a couple of Tuesday Morning stores before they were completely cleaned out of horse-shaped objects. Originally I just wanted to do a little people watching; it’s a good two months before the flea market opens again, and that’s the one aspect about the experience I miss the most.

I thought I might pick up a few crafting supplies, and skim the book section for something cheap, interesting or useful. Then I saw a Fall 2009 Collector’s Choice Sergeant:


He has shading, dappling, slight iridescence: everything a girl could hope for. I walked past him a couple of times before I decided he had to come home with me, space issues or not. I was in the middle of a rough week, and as the saying goes, I deserved a pony. A plastic part-pony, but still.

I know the Brown Sunshine mold has its detractors, but I think it’s another case of the right paint job making the model. I think Reeves is aware of that, as well. All of the colors he’s come in since his original, undistinguished blonde chestnut have been quite attractive, in my mind at least: leopard appaloosa, dark mealy bay, dun, and now this shaded iridescent dappled gray.

Yes, I am aware that being a Collector’s Choice model, Reeves only had a partial say in the color selection of Sergeant. But they did choose him as a candidate out of the hundreds of submissions they received.

I haven’t submitted any ideas for the Collector’s Choice in a while. It’s not that I don’t have any ideas to submit, but that I’ve been in the hobby long enough to have seen several concepts I’ve longed for - and occasionally championed - come to fruition. The motivation isn’t as strong as it would be for other hobbyists. It’d be nice to have my name formally attached to a model, in print, but I think there are probably several reasons why that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

(I also have a sinking feeling that if it did happen, they’d spell my name wrong anyway. Which is a huge pet peeve of mine.)

What Sergeant’s arrival means is that I’ll have to make some attempts at selling stuff, again. I’m apprehensive, because it didn’t go so well the last time I listed stuff on MHSP: I got hit with the same group of tirekickers and scam artists everyone else has been plagued by recently. By the time I ran through all of those early responders, I wasn’t in any mood to sift through the rest. Then work started again, and I didn’t have any time for it.

So it looks like I’ll have to start listing on eBay. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve dealt with eBay in any meaningful way; I wasn’t boycotting it per se, I was just avoiding it for my pocketbook’s sake.

I think I’ll just wait and see how everything shakes out after the remodel. I managed to find a little extra room in the china cabinet earlier this week; maybe when the remodel is over, I can find some room for Sergeant, too.