Hamish

Yes, I am very pleased by this year’s BreyerFest Nonhorse Special Run Hamish, on the #365 Standing Black Angus Bull mold. He is even prettier than I imagined!

I thought this one was pretty obvious from the clue they gave us earlier in the week. Although combining splash spotting with masked markings is a technique that has been used on horse molds before – most notoriously on the Lady Roxana release Cinnamon – it’s been more typically found on livestock molds.

For examples, there’s the Micro Run Polled Hereford Bull Marshall, the BreyerFest Special Run Charolais Bowland, the Exclusive Event Longhorn Bull Wrangler, and the #384 Texas Longhorn Bull.

I momentarily considered the possibility that they might use the Charolais Bull mold instead. Usually when a mold returns after an extended absence as a small Special Run (like Reuben!) it’s followed up with a more plentiful Special Run or Regular Run shortly afterwards.

It’s costly and time-consuming to get a mold up and running, so it’s not something you’re going to do for just a couple hundred pieces. You run more, and warehouse the unused portion for later use. 

But it’s also possible that Reuben was made from the production leftovers from Bowland, back in 2012. After all, they only made 450 of him, which is partly why he’s one of the more difficult to find BreyerFest Nonhorse runs. That, and the fact that I consider him one of the more attractive recent BreyerFest Nonhorse Special Runs.

But Hamish is… well, all that and a bag of kettle chips: a vintage mold that hasn’t been in production for over 15 years, in an eyecatching gloss parti-color paint job. He’s basically Marshall with an Irish accent!

The consensus online seems to agree with me, so I am just a wee bit concerned about the piece run on this one. I hope that it’s a decently-sized one, because getting a good draw on my ticket times tends to be the exception, not the rule.

I have to admit that some of the more recent BreyerFest Nonhorse releases (namely, 2015’s Le Taureau, 2016’s Zebu, and 2017’s Diwali) haven’t blown me away. I collect the Dog molds so last year’s Saint Bernard Bucky was obvious, and I’ve been yearning (yearning!) for more Elk releases, so 2018’s Inari was my number one want (and got!) that year.

My only (minor) complaint is having to scroll past all of the usual backhanded compliments about this release being “appropriate to the theme this time”.

As I’ve addressed before, having every release hew as closely to a given theme is neither creatively nor economically viable. It’s in Reeves’s best interest to have a variety of molds and models to suit as wide an audience as possible – up to and including people who have little or no interest in the theme itself.

Personally I am indifferent to the theme this year, but all the models revealed so far have been quite lovely, whether they directly fit the theme (Hamish) or not (Oak).

The Madness

After having read through a big chunk of the Collector’s Club Appreciation social media brouhaha, I now find myself longing for the days when our biggest arguments were over Palomino Arabians and Breed Standards for Unicorns.

I still don’t see this Glossy Madness ending until this sale – or a variation of it – basically offers Glossies On Demand.

Though to be honest, The Madness wouldn’t go away, it’d just move to another target. I’m old enough to remember when the 1984 Just About Horses Saddlebred Weanling was selling for $250-400 on the secondary market: I was just on eBay earlier today, and saw one for $45 getting no apparent interest. 

(It’s still too soon to tell, but I think it would be absolutely hilarious if it turns out that Reeves actually tailored the quantities of the first set of Glosses to meet hobbyist/collector interest – so we end up with lots of Verdadeses, and not a lot of Enzos?)

Moving on to lighter subjects, here’s Reuben:

He’ll look fabulous next to my BreyerFest Bowland! The only other Charolais Bulls I have at the moment are a “pinto” version of the original #365 release, the Special Run Simmental made for Robbins Weathervane – new in box(!), and what I assume is a cull of the Special Run Red Shorthorn, also for Robbins.

I had the PBR Signature one, too, but I sold him a little while ago when I was doing a bit of a culling of my Cattle molds. While I liked the release itself just fine, I had a strange/awkward experience when I bought him from a local store, and I really didn’t want to be reminded of that every time I saw him. 

I just order my Stablemates Club Corbin – the past couple of weeks have been nothing if not distracting, hence my delay – that I am hoping will be my last hobby purchases of the year.

As I’ve said before, I’ve had a really good run of luck recently, so whatever Reeves throws our way on Christmas Eve/Day will have to be something pretty darn special for me to reconsider tapping my bank account. I’d rather let someone else who wants it more get it, and not be an intermediary in the process.

Reuben

Remember about a week ago, when I mentioned a basic math problem in passing: Decorator Color + Bull Mold = Winner?

Freckle Red Roan + Charolais Bull = Winter Web Animal Special Run Reuben!

Guys, seriously, I had no idea. It’s just another one of my random guesses hitting pretty darn close to the target. Again.

The old-style freckle roaning technique has been used on cattle molds before, most notably on the Longhorn Bull, like the QVC Rebel Special Run, and the Regular Run #399 Texas Longhorn from 2000-2004 that is was based on.

But Reuben most closely resembles the popular BreyerFest Special Run Spanish Fighting Bull Flint, from 1999.

Only 375 Flints were made for that BreyerFest; even though BreyerFest was much smaller then, he was still a hot commodity, and still retains much of his value now.

I know some hobbyists are a little apprehensive about committing to Reuben because of last year’s Woodgrain Pig Hawthorn. Hawthorn was perceived as not all that popular or desirable; he went through so many waitlisters, in fact, that even I eventually ended up with one, and I am somebody who never gets picked off the waitlist.

Based on the fact that I met a lot of people looking for Jaspers at BreyerFest this year, I think it was a simple mismatch of the selling method with the market. Hawthorn might have sold better – and even sold out – if he had been offered as a first-come, first-served Special, like the two previous Winter Web Animal SRs, the Longhorn Bull Olaf and the Cow and Calf Eldora and Sol.

Bulls are a different matter entirely.

The last release on the Charolais Bull, the 2012 Special Run Bowland, is one of the more popular of the recent Nonhorse BreyerFest releases, and a very casual look at recent eBay sales show that even the Regular Run releases are pretty easy sells. So throw in a well-designed vintage-style Red Roan paint job on top of a moderately popular Nonhorse mold, and he seems like a pretty safe bet to me.

I also have to say that I rather appreciate the clever pun of his name: as sandwich aficionados know, the primary ingredient in a Reuben is… corned beef!

(Corned Beef is also a very Irish thing, so the timing of this guy with the imminent onslaught of BreyerFest 2020 Celtic Fling marketing is... interesting.)

British Flavoured

Spent some time yesterday poking the underbelly of the Breyer web site - the legal way, via the links, tabs and buttons.

I’d consider myself a fairly adept user - I even took some classes, back in the day, when I had delusions of being a webmaster. Even though I haven’t done much in that department since then, I still find myself obsessing over the structure of every web site I visit. If I get annoyed enough, I’ll even start sketching out - on paper, or even just in my head - how I’d reconfigure it.

I wasn’t super-impressed with the Breyer web site before, but now that I’ve spent some time wandering around the place, I think it annoys me more than almost any other site I visit on a regular basis. There’s too much "fluff" getting in the way of the "stuff". Fooey!

Rather than discuss how I’d completely restructure it, let’s discuss the BreyerFest material, which was my original reason for visiting the site.

I am not as upset as many are about the lack of true "Britishness" regarding the Celebration Horse "Mariah’s Boon", and the Store Special "Taskin". They are, if not true British breeds, at least British-flavoured.

I am as mystified as everyone else over the Early Bird Special: a Stretched Morgan mold, in Liver Chestnut? That’s one peculiar choice for a British-themed BreyerFest. Aren’t Morgans like the quintessential American breed? Kind of wondering how they’ll spin that one. (As a product of "New" England? Maybe? Whatever.)

"Bennington" seems a little blah from the picture, but that’s probably more the photographer’s fault than the horse. I certainly wouldn’t complain if I won one.

The dapply-dun-silver-whatever that is the SR Cigar "Aintree" is beautiful, but my preference between the two now public Tent SRs is the British White Bull "Bowland", on the Charolais Bull mold. I’ve wanted a British White for years, so that one’s a no-brainer for me. There’s at least one other Tent SR that’s on my must-have list, but since the photos haven’t officially been made public yet, I’ll have to continue refraining comment. (HINT: I kinda-sorta gave you a clue the last time I talked about them.)

I’m running way short of time today (work + driveway shoveling) so I’ll finish up the BreyerFest 2012 discussion tomorrow.

Semi-Pinto Charolais

It rained yesterday, so no flea marketing to report. I’m not as upset about it as I should be, because we really, really needed the rain. My garden was looking pretty pathetic! (With all the weeding and cleaning I did today, I think I can safely upgrade it to just "sad-looking.")

I see Reeves added a charm bracelet to their jewelry line, in addition to adding a new charm "Passion" (Huck Bey). A charm bracelet - what a surprise! Not. They’re also selling the charms and the chains separately; the chunkier chain’s more my style, but everything’s still a little too pricey for me.

I certainly wouldn’t object to a piece or two if someone were to give them to me as, say, a birthday gift… (Which is this week, in case I’m being too subtle here.)

To wrap up the bull kick I’ve been on this week, here’s one more oddball from the herd; I call him my "semi-pinto" Charolais, for obvious reasons:


Both sides are similar: light brown airbrushed "pinto" patches on his chest, hindquarters and behind his shoulders, similar to the airbrushed chestnut pintos of the early 1970s, or the later Medicine Hat Thoroughbred Mare and Suckling Foal. The areas are quite distinct; there’s little attempt to blend it in to the rest of the body.

I found him on eBay several years ago; I’ve seen a few others since then, so it must have been a short-term production variation. Most run-of-the-mill Charolais Bulls have little in the way of body shading - some on the legs, a little on his chest and underside, but subtle and more gracefully shaded, usually.

I have no idea if he’s from early in the production run, or late; the other qualities of the paint job suggest "later" to me, but I’m just guessing. He could be early; he’s very reminiscent of the well-known early "super-shaded" Charolais variation, a model much in demand by Breyer aficionados everywhere. They look much like the photograph seen in the 1975 Dealer’s Catalog:


Sigh. So handsome.

I don’t have an actual "super-shaded" Charolais myself; he’s one of those models who, while not exceedingly rare, always manages to slip from my grasp. (The early Traditional Man o’ War with eyewhites is another who taunts me this way.)

Charolais Specials, Part II

Clearly, there was some sort of relationship between Robbins Metal Craft and Breyer, beyond that of buyer and supplier: Breyer was not only manufacturing models specifically for the company, they were providing them photographs for their sales brochure.

But here’s the funny thing: there’s no mention of the word Breyer in the brochure. There was no mention of Breyer in the packaging either, or at least in the one complete Weathervane I purchased off of eBay several years ago:


Yep, the Simmental Bull, Mint in Box. It cost me a pretty penny - way more than I usually spend - but it was shortly after I had sold one of those early AQHA Ideal Quarter Horses, also MIB, for an almost equally absurd sum, so it worked out for me. (Remember the astronomical sums people were paying for them, not that long ago? Ah, the mysterious economy of eBay!) Here's a better shot of the assembly instructions:


I think I got the better deal, of course - how many MIB Breyer Weathervanes are out there, anyway - and a special run, to boot? But, I digress.

So how do we classify these things? My first tendency is to classify all of them - even the "Regular Run" items - as Special Runs, but with the eternal caveat: only if you’ve got the evidence or provenance to prove it. Just like the fakesters out there glossing up run-of-the-mill regular run critters, anybody could - theoretically - drill a hole through any given model and claim it’s a Weathervane SR.

The kind of evidence you’d need would be something like the original box, the original weathervane it was mounted on, or the visible evidence that it was factory painted after - not before - being drilled. (A fully assembled and mounted weathervane in a showring? Now that’d be a sight to behold!)

Just how rare are these things, anyway? It’s hard to tell. If you do a little Internet snooping, you can even see that Robbins is still in business, and still has a few Breyer weathervanes in stock:

http://www.robbinslightning.com/full_bodied.php

http://www.xpressweb.com/linton/fwv/ (click on "full-bodied" link)

It’s hard to judge which models were made, in what quantity, and over what period of time. It’s conceivable that the SRs might have been better sellers than the "regular run" items, or that many of the items listed in the brochure were never made at all - or if so, only in limited quantities. It’s yet another topic that merits much further research. For what it’s worth, the contents of my Simmental’s box were wrapped in a local Missouri newspaper, ca. 1985 (the company is based in Missouri, so I’m assuming it was original) so the SR Bulls were made, or were available, at least that long.

Another complication is the fact that, while mighty durable, Breyers don’t make ideal weathervane ornaments. If a few years of continuous exposure to the elements didn’t do most of them in, the lightning strikes certainly would have.

So, what’s the relationship between the weathervane SRs and the plain old undrilled SRs? Did Robbins sell the undrilled SRs, or were they available to other retailers and mail-order companies?

Anecdotal evidence documented in Nancy Young’s Breyer Molds & Models mentions an order form with numbers identical to the ones seen in the brochure, seen by a hobbyist lucky enough to find the (undrilled) livestock SRs for sale at a flea market back in 1985. Whether that order list was from Robbins, or another supplier, is unknown. (I’d like to think so, but I’d prefer to know so.)

Another wrinkle in this story is something from the brochure I didn’t show you last time:


Does that mean Desk Trophies = Presentation Collection? The photo is in black and white, and too murky to make out the base in any detail. I don’t think anyone has ever established who was responsible for mounting the Presentation pieces - I had always assumed someone more local to the factory, like the Riegseckers.

It truly leaves me at a loss for words. Was Robbins involved in the manufacture of the original Presentation Collection? Was it a continuation of the old program, or something new? Does that mean that the Presentation Collection may have led to the creation of the Weathervane SRs? If these models were a continuation of the Presentation program somehow, how do we classify them?

Gah! It makes my head hurt more than it already does.

To end on a slightly more amusing note, here’s a vintage Robbins ad from a 1981 Kentucky newspaper:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1696&dat=19811106&id=2e8aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MEcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6619,1704732

Ouch! I was kinda wondering how they’d mount the Fighting Stallion on the rod. Poor, punctured King!

Charolais Specials, Part I

I won’t go into the gory details, but I was sick yesterday - the kind of sick that requires one to be within sprinting distance of a bathroom. I’m somewhat better today; I can swallow, stand upright, and talk in moderately coherent sentences. I did have to spackle on a couple pounds' worth of makeup to make myself look a little less cadaverous for my driver’s license photo today, though. (I was so pale, I was verging on transparent.)

Anyway, as promised, here’s a picture of my SR Shorthorn Bull:


The first thing you’ll notice is that his eyes aren’t painted - he’s a cull! A little unusual, especially for an SR as rare as he is, but that’s not his most interesting feature. We’ll get to that in a minute.

The early SR Charolais Bulls - both the Shorthorn, and the Simmental - are mostly a mystery. We don’t know the exact circumstances of how either one came to be, how many were made, or even exactly when they were made. They started showing up sometime in the early to mid-1980s, mostly on everyone’s want lists.

We know that at least 288 of the SR Simmental were sold through the National Simmental Association, ca. 1983. The Simmental does seem to be somewhat more common than the Shorthorn, but it’s hard to tell because, like a lot of early SRs, they weren’t sold directly to the hobbyist market. There could be hundreds more of them, sitting on the shelves or in the closets of nonhobbyist cattle fanciers, unaware of either the hobby or their rarity.

It’s unclear if the Simmental was specifically designed for the NSA in the first place. Why do I say that? Let’s turn to this little document I found on eBay a number of years ago:


Weathervanes? With Breyers on them? What does that have to do with the SR Bulls? Take a look at the inside spread and see:


Let's look a little closer at the little box of text in the corner:


The brochure is copyright 1976; the photograph looks very similar to the photos used in the 1976 Breyer Dealer’s Catalog and Collector’s Manual - so much so, that I believe they’re from the same photo shoot. Does that mean that the Bulls were originally designed as SRs for Robbins Metal Craft, as early as 1976?

Maybe. The dates for the brochure seems right: the colors and typography of this brochure are so very, very 1970s. But it’s possible that the brochure could have been reprinted for years, and the "additional ornaments" text in the corner could have been added in a later printing. Is there any actual evidence of the SR Bulls being used - or at least sold - as weathervane ornaments?

You’ve already seen it. Here’s an aerial shot of my Shorthorn:


Yep, he was drilled for mounting. You can see that there are traces of airbrushing inside the drill holes, which means that he was drilled prior to being painted.

He’s not just a cull, he’s a weathervane cull. Advertised in a brochure illustrated with photos straight from Breyer.

Intrigued? More on this story, later in the week.