Christmas Day Ramblings

Alas, I did not win the (char)Coal lottery this year. In fact, I received my least favorite of the four attainable colors, the Red Filigree:

Meh, oh well. It’s been a pretty good year model-wise, I guess I shouldn’t complain; I need to save my luck for Oklahoma City, right? 

I will say that I do like the sparkly-glittery paint they used on these guys, and will look forward to seeing it on other molds more to my liking in the future – maybe something a little more vintage? I could definitely use a few more Five-Gaiters in my life, for instance…

I am a little baffled that some people are mad that the Coal is not solid glossy black? My guess is that since the Huckleberry Bey mold has come in several Black and Black-adjacent colors (my favorite being the lovely Polaris!) that they wanted to go with something a little more Decorator-y, and Charcoal was the logical choice.

I know he is not a “true” Charcoal – his hooves are gray, not pink or tan, and he has no bald face, either – but it works on him, and I’d take him in a heartbeat (as would most people lucky enough to receive one.) Especially since I only have a handful of Hucks here – including two variations of the Celebration Horse Atlantis Bey V, and Polaris.

As it is, I’m not quite sure what to do with my Wassail; I am elbow deep in quilting projects at the moment (I just finished one, yay!) and selling things just isn’t that big a priority for me for the next several months, and I do not have energy enough to arrange a trade. 

This is also why I decided to not take the plunge on the latest Grab Bags. Some of the stuff in them is better than the past few rounds – like SM Club models, Web and Store Specials, and Chadwick, et al – but adding more to my sales pile was a definite turn off. 

Hmm, that reminds me – I still need to renew my Stablemates Club subscription! The latest reveal – a G3 Thoroughbred named Dylan in that same, peculiar new style of dappling first seen on Anamar – isn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but I like the rest of the releases so far, so rejoining is a no-brainer.  

However, I would like to register a formal complaint about the unboxing video for the Polo Pony release Newport. It was unwatchable!

Due to my schedule and my lifestyle, my consumption of social media is currently limited to YouTube videos of hoarder house cleanups and crafting drama. (You think model horse drama is bad? Yarn drama will destroy you!) While I’ve sampled some model horse social media on occasion, I’ve found most of it way too intense and hyperbolic for my tastes. 

Yes, I know some of it is that this content is tailored to a younger audience’s sensibilities and not mine. I also have some minor sensory issues related to certain sounds, and most of the information that can be gleaned from it can be found elsewhere, so I tend to avoid most of it out of habit. Since it was basically a new mold reveal, I thought I’d try to stick it out. 

But seriously, I had to tap out about 15 seconds into it and go looking for screen shots. That... was bad.

Curveballs

I spent an hour last night rationalizing how I wasn’t going to buy the Christmas Surprise model unless it was Emma, and like the fool that I am I bought one anyway.

Ugh. 

My rationale now is that since it’s Huck Bey, he’ll be easy to sell if I don’t happen to love whatever one I get. And since I am also going to attempt (AGAIN) to go on a budget diet next year, I figured this is going to be my last “wild and crazy” splurge for a while. 

I don’t know why they’re doing it this way this year: early, and without pictures. I am assuming it is both inventory- and staff-related: I used to work in the inventory services industry, and a lot of companies do their physical inventories at the very end of the year, and the more stuff they can get out the door before December 26th, the better. 

Reeves doesn’t directly employ as many people as you think they do, and most people do not particularly enjoy doing inventories, even if it is their job, or part of it. (I did but, well, it got complicated at the end.)

No selling scenario Reeves can come up with can be entirely fair, no matter what any hobbyist out there thinks. Every scenario can and will be gamed, and not everyone can have equal access or equal luck all the time ever. (Yes, even random draws!)

I’m annoyed as heck that I struck out all three times with the draws for Garret – a model I personally campaigned for! – but I accepted my fate and moved on. 

You either choose to play, or you do not. That’s all there really is to this. For some strange reason (I blame both the back pain and the weather) I decided to play. If there is any silver lining to this, it’s that this marketing changeup will allow more people time to participate, and the ability to consider the purchase, rather than simply relying on impulse and timing.

I spent a lot of time last night considering the purchase and did it anyway. I’d like to think that was my intuition talking, but let’s get real here: even this year, my luck has not been that good. If it was, I’d be hanging out on Fiji like the guy who won two billion dollars in the lottery, and not giving two thoughts about a plastic horse on the Internet.

(Other than shopping for a BreyerFest Party Bus because really, what’s the point of having all that money if you can’t just randomly rent a party bus for all your friends?)

I take a little grim amusement in the fact that people were mad when Reeves first started selling special items on Christmas Day. And now they are mad they are not. And entertaining some odd fantasies that it will not sell out because of their ire.

There are far better things to direct your anger towards. 

Scary Things

I knew I had a rough couple of weeks, but I didn’t realize just how rough until I was at the 7-11 after work on Friday, and the night cashier walked up and asked me:

“Are you okay? You don’t look okay. I’m worried about you.”

Anyone who’s had the privilege working the night shift at a convenience store knows that you sometimes see unspeakable things, so I’m not quite sure how to process the fact that I managed to scare the night cashier at 7-11. Dang.

Onto lighter topics. Let’s talk about a couple of things in the September Newsletter!

I was aware of the existence of “The World of Breyer Horses” promo video, but I can’t recall if I ever got to watch it in full before; it was made during my live show heydays, so when they started showing photos from contemporary live shows, I was momentarily terrified I’d see a picture of myself.

Lucky for all of us, I was not present. 

There are other Breyer videos out there with me in them; at least one of them was shot a few years after this video at a very early BreyerFest, back when the live show was still held in the Covered Arena. 

And Reeves probably has more photos of me on file than my family or workplace does. It (morbidly) amuses me that if anything newsworthy-dreadful actually happens to me, chances are any of the photos you see of me on the news will be from Reeves. I take some consolation in the fact that I will be smiling in most of those.

They failed to mention (on the website, at least) that the narrator of the video was also the model for Bitsy Breyer. From her last name you can kind of figure how she got the job!

A lot of the kids featured in Breyer promotional materials in the 1970s and early 1980s were the children of friends and family, incidentally. This is nothing unique to Breyer; a lot of the family-owned and operated businesses I have either done business with or worked for worked that way. You are not just a member of the family, you are also an employee...

I have no idea who the mystery model is in the Sneak Peek:

Since I am trying to behave, I already told myself that I’m going to avoid entering for most of the Winter Web Specials, unless an Elk, the Deer Family, or one of the Dog molds is involved. If the Christmas Day Surprise is an Emma I’ll probably spring for that one too, of course, because Emma. 

I’ve had a good year, so I think I’m entitled to a break. 

Next time – I finally unwrap my Surrey and Axle!

Christmas Lists

Well, I thought I was going to talk about the Roan Running Mares today, but there’s been lots of odd bits of news in the past few days that should be covered sooner, rather than later. 

First, it’s good to know I wasn’t the only one who got shorted on the Spooky Stablemates! It would also explain why the CSR I spoke to was unfazed about it. That makes me less worried about the whole situation.

Second, they finally confirmed the dates for next year’s BreyerFest; I know there were several folks out there worried about the dates changing after that initial announcement, but I think most of the delay was in getting the legal paperwork ironed out. 

(I’m not privy to any of that, but based on prior experiences, it seems like a pretty reasonable guess.)

I’m kind of hoping that their casual mention of Morgans in their BreyerFest ad copy means we’ll be seeing the Stretched Morgan next year, but it’s more than likely another release of Troubadour. Which I don’t mind, but my Stretched Morgan Army could use a few fresh recruits. I don’t think the mold has ever had a truly acquirable BreyerFest Special Run release, so he is due. 

(I am not counting Bennington or Showboat, because buying a Special Run should not require the sale of your kidney.)

And right after I put my foot down on my new pony purchases, Reeves casually dropped images of a ton of holiday merchandise, including a creepy-cool Winter Decorator Classic American Dream named Neva:

I’m pretty sure those zombie snowmen want to kill me. I wonder if this design got its start as a Halloween concept and was…slightly repurposed? I really dig the dark metallic blue and silver combo; it reminds me a little of the more blue-ish variants of the Sham release Rana. 

I will likely end up buying the Christmas Socks, because I’m always up for more novelty footwear, but otherwise I think I’m safe from temptation. 

As far as the Holiday Pony Playset goes, even though I am a big fan of the Pony of the Americas, I’d rather stick to the original version of the mold, rather than whatever goofy mane and tail wigs they’re putting on it now. 

It’s also extremely likely that I’ll never find the original Black Appaloosa POA or any of the 2010 WEG Toby variations, so the risk of a spontaneous shopping eruption is very, very small…

(And every time I say something like that, something magical inevitably happens.)

Red and Gold

Before they get lost in the shuffle, here’s another thing I was able to do recently: I traded one of my Red Christmas Clydesdales for a Gold one! (Thanks, Christine!)

Together, they kind of remind me of the unconventionally pretty White, Burgundy and Gold Christmas Tree we had a few years back that glowed pink when we turned on the lights. 

And now that I do have two different Christmas Clydes, I’m tempted to complete the set, though I think I’ll wait until BreyerFest, at least. Not so much because I want to handpick, I just think my life will be a little bit less hectic by then. Prices might be a tad bit better since lot of speculators may have moved on to the next hot thing, too.  

They guys also tempt me to make a Traditional Scale Christmas Clydesdale, something that I’m shocked hasn’t happened yet already, given the popularity of the Draft/Draft-adjacent Holiday Horses like 2020’s Yuletide Greetings, on the Shannondell mold. 

I’d probably stick to a more conventional color – or even go with the original, common-as-dirt #80 Bay, with the simple addition of Red and Green mane bobs and a fancy matching outfit made from my gigantic craft supply stash. 

Painting is my least favorite part of the customizing process, and if I can get away with gently modifying an Original Finish model instead, I’m going to go for it. 

(One of my most successful customs, back in that very brief heyday when I did customize for money, was basically a modestly modified Original Finish horse.)

But that’s another project for another day. One that is way, way into the future. Probably. 

Taking out Glossies, all the various Resist Dapple Grays, and quasi-Decorators like the 2012 Web Special Magnus (Extremely Chalky!) and the 1992 Semi-Metallic Grullo Sears XMAS Special Run, the Traditional Clydesdale Stallion mold has come in only three Decorator colors officially. 

The first was, of course, the #980 Woodgrain, recently reissued in Stablemates form. The second was the 1998 Tour Special Major, in a fabulous Gloss Charcoal with metallic gold ribbons and bobs. And the third is the 2002 Volunteer Special in Gold Florentine with metallic silver ribbons and bobs. The Volunteer Special was – briefly – one of the less popular/less expensive Volunteer Specials, but I’m not sure that’s even a category anymore. 

I’m secretly hoping that this year’s BreyerFest Rotating Draft Surprise is the Clydesdale Stallion, but they haven’t gone with a “vintage” mold since the first Surprise in 2009, so I will honestly be a little stunned if they do it again. Delighted, but still stunned.

Our Beanie Babies Phase

Guess who overslept today? 

It’s pretty sad when you roll over, see that it’s 11:08 a.m., and realize that no matter what mold or colors they were, the Christmas Day Special was probably already sold out. By the time I sauntered over to the computer, I was not wrong. 

Fortunately it was the Croi, after all, and in some… interesting color selections. I suppose after everything is delivered and the people who bought them for the possibility of a Coal decide to unload their “losing tickets” I might pick up a Spice Drop or two. I rather like the Red and Green ones: they look like the delightfully tacky kind of things Liberace would decorate his piano with for Christmas.  

But I am in no hurry.

Regardless of what the rest of the collectibles world is experiencing, it really does feel we’ve entered our Beanie Babies period. HBO Max just released a pretty illuminating documentary about the Beanie Babies fad a couple of days ago, in fact:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lyUdABSHhs

(The more observant among us will probably notice the Breyers in the background of the gift shop/toy store around the 15 second mark of the trailer.)

I’m a bit of a documentary geek, so of course I was going to watch it, but boy howdy was that uncomfortable: there were several points where I felt extremely seen. 

I’ve spent most of my life surrounded by antiques and collectibles, and became all too aware of the fickle nature of the market very early on. It’s also why I established pretty low spending limits for myself from the get-go, and I haven’t altered them much in the intervening years. It’s very easy to lose yourself – and a lot of money – in the process, if you don’t.

As it is, this frees me up to finally buy the Jols and Christmas Candy Zebras I’ve been putting off because I’ve been too busy chasing all the other stuff that’s been thrown at us, mostly without success. If it had been the Fell Pony as I feared, I’d be a lot less sanguine about the whole thing, but I suppose if there had to be a year where I accidentally slept in, this would be it.

(For the record, I was up most of the night working on my inventory paperwork. Crossing my fingers that I’ll actually be able to file my taxes early next year.) 

Two by Two by Two....

When my package was temporarily lost over the weekend, I assumed it was just the Universe preparing me for the inevitable, and I was not wrong:

Collecting is a function of time and money: you have to have at least a little of both, though most of us usually have significantly more of one than the other. For me and most of my life, it’s been time. 

But I now exist in a rare moment where money is (almost) no object, where I can seriously consider attending an event halfway across that offers me no financial benefit just because I can. 

(Still not likely, but I’m keeping my options open.)

I know it’s probably part of their marketing plan for the blind bags in the first place – let’s get hobbyists to interact by trading! – but that is absolutely, positively not something I have time for in my life today. 

So rather than keep adding to my ever-growing stockpile of sales items in the garage, I now have to find the time to list it. And a few other things too, probably, because all the equipment and setup will already be out, so might as well make the most of it.

(The darker one is staying, because he really does look like he plopped right out of a can of cranberry sauce.)

What this means in the long run is that for future holiday blind bag promos, I am only going to be buying one, because that’ll save me the time I’d inevitably have to waste getting rid of my duplicates anyway. (You can’t get a duplicate if you only buy one!) I won’t be bothering with buying any other items in these sets secondhand because (a) that’s not how I roll and (b) I don’t like encouraging scalpers. 

(Unless they happen to be cheap and/or unpopular.)

I am so annoyed by this that I’m also seriously considering tapping out of the rest of the promos through the end of the year. The likelihood of even getting picked for one is so slim nowadays that it doesn’t feel like it’s even worth the minimal effort it takes to enter for one. 

And I am not so addicted to the plastic that I feel the need to purchase a half dozen more memberships just to compete. 

(It is also worth noting, for context, that today’s terrible national event is literally only minutes from my house and probably has some bearing on my attitude today. I wish I could say that I’m shocked, but I’m not.)

Blessed Jól

As far as this year’s Christmas Surprise models goes, there were only a few colors/molds/options I would have considered for purchasing, and darn it all, Reeves somehow managed to perfectly thread the needle with a sparkly, translucent Icelandic Pony named Jól:

I’ve been dreaming of a clear translucent Traditional release ever since I saw Marney’s Transparent Belgian a lifetime ago, so that’s the one out of this trio I want the most. But I am just happy to get one at all, considering that they sold out in, what, 45 minutes?

I know the whole “12 random Glossy Black Coals” gimmick is at least partly responsible for the swiftness of the sellout, which is one reason why I wish they wouldn’t do it at all. I’d rather have collectors buy things because they like them and want them, not because they think they might be able to win the model horse version of the Lotto.   

And also because the distribution of said Coals the past two years didn’t appear to be completely equitable anyway. Unfortunately, the way the distribution system is set up it’s probably impossible to completely remove the possibility of someone getting two Coals.

When I make my decision about buying, the possibility of a Coal never enters into it. Most of my model horse luck is a consequence of 40(!) years of research and living in a model horse-rich environment. And, on very rare occasions, a bit of good timing.

But the luck of the random draw? Nope, never me. 

Apparently there has been a lot of grumbling about this year’s Christmas Surprise and I’m not entirely sure why? While some of the particulars are, by nature of the promotion itself, a surprise (the mold, the colors), everything else about this year’s promotion was pretty darn standard. Boring, even.

Don’t like the colors, the mold, the concept, the price? Go spend your money on something else. That’s what I would have done. And might still do, depending on what shows up on the Internet over the next week or so. 

I did think that the Fjord mold was going to get the nod this year because of the Berries Pony Goji earlier this year. It had been out of production for a while, and when you run a mold, you don’t run it for just a few hundred pieces, you know?

Jumping Off the Crazy Train

It was a couple of hours before I got a chance to see the “Festive Filigree” Blind Bag Stablemates, and I was genuinely surprised that they were still available when I looked. 

I took a deep breath… and decided to take a pass. I went shopping for cactus seeds instead: I saw my first snowflakes of the season yesterday and my thoughts immediately turned to hot weather and growing things. While I’m planning on a Victorian-themed flower garden next year, I think cactus will be my primary winter growing project. I haven’t tried them before, and I am up for a challenge.

When I came back from my desert-plant shopping sojourn (lithops are adorable!), the Blind Bags were sold out, much to my relief.

It’s bad enough I still have other several other Stablemates to catch up on, including (apparently) another series of Walmart Unicorns that includes a shrunken Prince Charming resin as the Chase Piece. I haven’t even finished documenting most of this year’s(!) arrivals yet.

But I decided to jump off this crazy train of year-end specials (and Stablemates in particular) because, paperwork aside, I am depressingly familiar with this routine by now.

In a few weeks/months, I should be able to secure one of the less desirable ones – which look to be the Red Florentine Smart Chic Olena and/or the Green Florentine Croi Damsha – for not much more than the original asking price. 

The others (Brishen and the Lipizzan) will remain pricey for several months, even after everyone who desperately needs them all has either acquired them, or has decided to move on to something else. Then their prices will drift back down to Earth, albeit more gradually because many sellers don’t want to be the first to “undersell” their investment. 

(Heck, I’m just happy if I get my money back!)

Funny thing was that earlier in the week, I had been thinking that it had been a bit since Reeves sprung some “Christmas Decorators” on us. I was hoping that it included Matte Red and Green Wedgwood horses instead of the Gold Florentine and Silver Filigree that have become their other default Christmassy colors, but that was not my call to make.

Since the Collector’s Club Appreciation Sale was gotten out of the way early, only other holiday offer that I am looking forward to at this point is the Holiday Animal (crossing fingers for that Silver Charm Elk! A Kitten or one of the Dogs would also be acceptable.) 

I’m moderately curious about the Christmas Day Special, but unless they figure out a way to keep one buyer from getting two of the Coal models (Which has happened twice, in two years? Not a good look, guys.) or do away with that concept entirely, I’m definitely dialing down my enthusiasm. 

Christmas Candy

Well, so this happened today:

… and I figured as much from the clue in the e-mail from yesterday that mentioned “a sweet treat!” So it was a little anticlimactic for me when the sale finally went live around 11 a.m. Eastern – though I punched the buy button pretty hard, nevertheless. 

What I wasn’t expecting from this little bit of Breyer fan service was not two, but five(!) different colors, including a solid black “Licorice” serving as this year’s magical lump of “Coal”:

As someone who actually likes the stuff in real life – I go through the bags of assorted taffy at my local Family Farm and Home store looking for the ones with extra licorice pieces – naturally I would love the Zebra version. But that’s not my decision to make.

I do want them all, but since I only have one account at the moment, and some minor medical stuff coming up early in the next year (nothing to worry about, guys, just some long-delayed maintenance/upkeep), I’ll have to put off getting the rest of them until at least mid-year.

It might also be partially dependent on whether I am chosen for the Seattle Soiree Event or not. Even though it’s on the other side of the country and plane tickets would have to be involved, it appears otherwise… both financially and logistically feasible.

I know there is some concern that the mold itself isn’t that popular, and the price isn’t merited. In regards to the former, the zebra patterning is more complicated than the original version, and for the latter, consider that the 2015 BreyerFest Special Run Caves of Lascaux – a run of 650 pieces – is neither cheap, nor easy to find.

So, who’s next on my XMAS wish list?

This should be obvious: the original #81 Standing Donkey.

She’s only come in various shades of Gray and Bay. She’s come in no true Glossies, and no Decorators except the almost-impossible-to-find Woodgrain.

And to add an extra level of difficulty: how about adding the original baskets?

Holiday Things

Apparently there was some sort of mix up in Reeves’s database, so now everyone (well, almost everyone) who receives one of Breyer’s Holiday 2019 catalogs is getting the gift of … a new name!

This is hilarious and awesome, and I am totally wearing a “My Name Is” nametag at BreyerFest with my new Breyer Given Name “Dona” written on it.

(I was kind of surprised that it wasn’t Audrey, but that is a story best told in person....)

The only other thing worth noting about the catalog is that it includes all the Web Exclusive Holiday merchandise – the Unicorn Mare and Foal set Mira & Antares, the “Pony for Christmas” gift set featuring a Haflinger similar to Donner, his royal purpleness Zenith, and a lot of the new 70th Anniversary merchandise and other swag.

As someone who has made several t-shirts featuring old Breyer graphics and ephemera, I am definitely buying this at my earliest convenience (CC Appreciation Sale, cough cough…)

I wasn’t anywhere near my computer when Early Access to Breyer’s Black Friday sale dropped, so no Darwin for me. The only other items of mild to moderate interest were the Gettysburg (also sold out) and Celeste, a mold that I try to love and I am still not feeling it.

I seem to be in the minority of this opinion, but I like the PC Lipizzaner Mare and Foal a heck of a lot more than the PC Andalusian Mare and Foal. So it’s no surprise that I am also taking a pass on the Mira and Antares (in Chestnut and… purple?) and hitting the Enter Now button as much as legally possible for the Winter Web Special Avoriaz – the Lipizzaner Mare in a Gambler’s Choice of Rose Gold Florentine or Rose Gold Charm:

This is an entirely new Decorator color and it gets a big thumbs up from me. While I am not a fan of Rose Gold when it is used in jewelry, I love the color when it’s applied to other things – it’s even one of the few pastels I’ll actually wear!

I am a little hesitant about them applying the Gambler’s Choice option to a relatively limited (350 piece) Special Run, though: these Winter Web Decos are hard enough to win as it is. After what happened with Benasque last year, we really don’t need to encourage more people to enter the drawing with dreams of dropshipping them for some extra holiday cash.

Little Jewels

Since the past couple of Christmas Surprises haven’t been that hard to get on the secondary market, I decided to take a pass on the Christmas Surprise Bouncer Jewel Ponies today:

It was tough, though: Translucent and a Bouncer? While I liked all three colors offered – Emerald, Amethyst and Sapphire – if one of them had been Yellow or Orange (Citrine or Amber?) I would have definitely caved.

I remembered what I had been noticing with my recent herd cull, also: with a handful of exceptions either way, most of the vintage (pre-Reeves) pieces have been staying, and many of the most recent pieces have been going. Foregoing the Bouncers might just save me a step (and paperwork, ugh!) later on.

If I have a fraction of the success next year that I had on the secondary market this year, I shouldn’t have any problem finding suitable trade fodder, if I suddenly decide I can’t live without one or more of them.

There’s not going to be any shortage of Translucents in the coming year, either: aside from the inevitable BreyerFest Special Run Classic, Reeves is finally adding a Stablemates Suncatcher Craft Kit to the Craft and Activity line, and there’s another retail market Translucent Classic, a Rainbow-covered Harper named Day Dreamer. You can spot them in all their glory in this online copy of the 2018 Dealer Catalog:

https://issuu.com/lauramcmanemin/docs/breyer2018-b2b-catalog_lr

(It’s not downloadable, but you can zoom in and drool.)

I wasn’t planning on getting any Regular Run Traditionals next year, but I think the Latigo Dun It on the Smart Chic Olena is going to be a difficult one to pass by. How is it that they always come up with the most gorgeous paint jobs for that mold?

My Christmas presents this year were remarkably horse-free, including John Crowley’s Ka, lots of novelty socks, fancy chocolates, some authentic Turkish Delight, a set of woodcarving tools (for Sparky and Jules) and the artbook The Temple of Silence: Forgotten Works and Worlds of Herbert Crowley, which hasn’t been delivered yet.

(The two Crowleys are not related, other than being underappreciated fantasists.)

If I am feeling motivated tomorrow, I might do a little post-holiday bargain horse hunting, but it doesn’t seem likely; I’m in the middle of a big machine quilting project, and I want to get as much of it done as I can before I have to go back to work on Wednesday.

The Holiday Shermans

When the “Christmas Surprise” e-mail came through late on December 24, my imagination went into overtime with all of potential ways Reeves could tempt me.

An Elk? A Deer Family? The Zebra? Maybe even another dog, like the Saint Bernard?

Instead, we got a trio of Sherman Morgans:

Since I don’t love the mold as much as others do, and I’m not one to buy to resell, I walked away from the offer with my Paypal account balance intact. A Gold Florentine to match my Silver Filigree Celebration would have been nice, but it being a Gambler’s Choice there was no way I could guarantee it.

(The Silver Filigree Celebration, incidentally, is the only example I have of the revised Sherman Morgan mold; my other three Shermans are all of the original lumpy version with the turd-shaped tail.)

I imagine if he came in a favorite color like the original Freckle Red Roan or the “Silver Dilute Dun” the Web Special Adios Frappe came in, the story would be different. I sometimes hesitate just a bit whenever I see an affordably priced Gloss QVC Special Run of the Justin Morgan, or the Millennium Horse Carpe Diem.

I wouldn’t have hesitated to keep a Silver Charm Celebration either, if I had lucked into one.

It wasn’t all that surprising that the Sherman didn’t sell out by the end of the day: there were 350 of each color, 1050 pieces total, and limited to one per account. That’s a lot of models! I’m not sure he even officially sold out, or they just removed him from the site.

Other than the Grab Bag with the WEG Classics Ruffian in it, I didn’t bite on any of the offers made on the web site this Holiday season. I did put a few items in my shopping cart to see if they qualified for the latest “Free Random Gloss Classic Arabian” offer. They did, and the Free Shipping offer on top of that was tempting.

But still didn’t do it.

One of my hobby resolutions for next year is to get models off the office floor, and that’s going to require another culling of the herd by another five or ten percent. Buying fewer models now will mean fewer models to cull later.

Rare Ones

I managed to resist the Breyer web site’s valiant attempt to get me to spend more money, but then on the way home the next day I swung by the toy store, and voila –

Then I get home and this little one was waiting for me:

Let’s talk about some interesting particulars of both of these releases.

The absence of the Palomino AQHA Horse from the individual sales on the Breyer web site – along with the Black – have led many to speculate that the Palomino truly is, as some Breyer reps were telling us early in the year, “The Rare One”.

I am not so sure. I think the absence is partly due to the fact that it was exclusively “The Rare One” for eight months before any of the other colors showed up. Most the Palominos that were made have already been shipped out. And sold – not all, obviously, but most.

I do think the Black is likely the rarest. Either that, or bunches of undistributed ones will be showing up in the usual places otherwise undistributed things go. Along with any “unredeemed” Glosses from the Customer Appreciation Offers, unless they repurpose them somewhere.

(Cringes at the possibility of Gloss Blacks. Oh, dear.)

The colors on the Holly and Ivy are interesting: they’re not the conventional Bright Red and Kelly Green that most of us assumed they would be. They’re more like a Burgundy or Candy Apple Red and Evergreen.

Reeves had been working on perfecting the colors for a while – attendees of the previous Exclusive Event in New Jersey saw some early attempts. It was all pretty much guesswork on their part because there are no verifiable vintage Christmas Decorators to reference.

I momentarily considered trading my Holly for an Ivy, but then I realized (a) I don’t have time for that, and (b) I still want both. Or all: now that they seem to have two of the colors down, I’m hoping we will be seeing the Red Smoke and Green Smoke versions next year?

And what shall we call all of these “new” colors? Again, there’s no documentation to go by that would give us a clue.

I’d really rather not go with Green and Red Filigree. Aside from the fact that a significant portion of the hobby can’t spell “filigree”, I’d prefer we (or Reeves) give these colors names as unique as the original Decorator color names were.

I kind of like a sort of variation of Peppermint/Spearmint. (But not Spearmint as a flavor, personally. Long story.) I think Holly Red and Ivy Green can work too, in the same way we refer to the colorways of the original Buckshot as “Buckshot Blue” and the Appaloosa Performance Horse as some variation of “APH”.

These guys really have to be the last models I buy on a whim for a while, outside of possible thrift store finds, box/collection lots for resale, and any obligated club/trip purchases; I have too many other things committed to my time and money for the front end of next year.

I could probably stand to sell some more stuff, too.

Holly and Ivy

Sorry for my extended absence; earlier in the week I called an insurance company about what I thought was a minor billing issue. Six hours of multiple phone calls over the period of two days and… it’s still not resolved.

I won’t go into the particulars, except to say that the problem we discovered was so unusual that it was possibly unique. And as far as it can be determined, it was nothing I did, either. There was a tiny crack in the system, and lucky me managed to fall into it.

Sigh. All I can do is hope that they somehow sort it all out by the end of the month. And hope nothing bad happens to me in the meantime.

After dealing with all that, I opened my second surprise box, hoping the Universe would recompense me with an extra special gratuity: no, just a Sorrel. He is very nice (all the AQHA Anniversary Horse colors were), but I am undecided on his eventual fate; I’d rather wait until I am in a better state of mind to make that decision.

On a happier note, Reeves did provide us a Christmas Day Special:

Christmas Deco Flashes Holly and Ivy! Not the mold I was expecting, but a happy little surprise, nonetheless: our first true Christmas Decorators. While I’m hoping for the Green one, because the notion of an intentionally green horse delights me, they are both lovely.

As I expected, they ran it a little different this time: it was a first-come, first-serve Gambler’s Choice of two different colors, 350 pieces of each color, 95 dollars and Postage Paid, even internationally.

There was a little bit of grumbling in some quarters about pretty much every aspect of the offer (wrong colors, wrong molds, wrong timing, not being “rare” enough) with the inevitable prediction that it might not sell out at all, which of course was not the case: I think it took about four hours for it to do that, which was by 3 p.m. Eastern.

Aided by the free shipping to everywhere and people with multiple accounts (I swear, some days I feel like the only person in the hobby who has just one.)

Because there was such an initial rush to purchase, and the information page went away right after, there’s already a lot of misinformation going on about Holly and Ivy that will, as history has taught us, persist for years.

Namely, the quantity: there are 350 of each color, not total. I don’t think this will affect the prices on the secondary market too much, long-term or short-term, but I’d like to get it nipped in the bud. Bad data tends to generate more bad data.

As for another shoe/Special Run dropping in the next several days? Maybe.

Personally, I’d rather it not, since next week is full of work, and appointments, and that insurance issue that still needs to be resolved. But the Universe runs according to its own whims, and not my own.

Red Shift

Just to show you that the Five-Gaiter thing wasn’t me being a pill about condition, here’s a box lot baby I do intend to keep:

A poor three-legged Bay Old Mold Foal! Minus the missing leg, he’s in not bad condition - it’s just the typical ear-nose-hoof rubs and stuff. Since I have had a notoriously hard time finding Old Mold Mares and Foals in any other color than Alabaster, a three-legged Bay Foal is a treasure. He can keep my ragged, 50 cent Gloss Alabaster Fighter company!

As mentioned in the comments last post, I am not sure if early Breyer Bays were subject to color shifting like the Palominos. It’s possible, but I haven’t seen enough early New-in-Box Gloss Bays to compare against more "weathered" Bays, nor have I seen any early Bays where the color was noticeably different from one side to the next that could be indicative of prolonged exposure to the sun, heat or other environmental factors.

It’s definitely an issue with Hartland Bays - like many Hartland Palominos, the red base in the paint fades, leaving the models a distinct shade of green (Olive for the Bay; Chartreuse for the Palominos).

The red shift/red fade does happen with some early Breyers, but tends to be limited to those models that came with pinking of the eyes, ears, muzzle and hooves. Since it is limited to accent areas - and the absence of the pinking tends to be so complete - the lack of pinking is sometimes labeled as a variation or production error.

It’s also not that much of a dealbreaker; while we’d prefer the pinking to remain intact, most hobbyists are not going to turn noses up on an otherwise flawless model without it.

There is some color-shifting going on with Shrinkies, to be sure. Chestnuts turn peachy-pink, and Bays turn to Buckskin. But that’s a slightly different process there - a chemical reaction that is primarily a result of a breakdown of the plastic itself, and not a consequence of environmental issues. (Though excessive sunlight, heat and humidity certainly don’t help!)

Whatever other color shifting may be occurring with some Breyer paint jobs, nevertheless I haven’t seen anything green that didn’t start out green in the first place, either by design (Little Bits Unicorns, some of the Classics Blossoms) or by default (Dappled Green Bay Sham).

There’s been some recent speculation that the reason why Reeves hasn’t released any new "Christmas" Decorators may be due to the issues with color shifting or fading, especially with the color Red. Indeed, it could be the reason why the mythical Christmas Decorators might not have made it past the testing phase back in the 1960s.

But here we are speaking of a hypothetical of a hypothetical: we don’t have any confirmed examples of Christmas Decorators in the first place.

Oh, and re: other posts on the topic of fugitive paint, the most recent - I think - was the one last year about the 2013 Volunteer Clydesdale Mare. I really need to index these posts better…

Christmas Classic

Decided to take the Eve off from blogging. The Hyacinth took a little bit more effort than I expected, but turned out pretty nice. I’m definitely doing something simpler next time, though. Crocuses sound good.

Santa came with a new and easily adjustable quilt frame (yay!), some fancy chocolates and some cash. No models under the tree this year - bought for or by me - unless you count this guy I picked up on sale a few weeks back, when I needed a quick horse fix:

I have changed my mind and decided that I like the "Best in Show" Quarter Horse better than the Thoroughbred. His head still weirds me out a little - spooky eyewhites, gah! - but he has more personality and "presence" than the Thoroughbred, who now feels a little generic in comparison. The Bay Roan paint job doesn’t hurt, either!  

I was a bit bummed out by the Breyer Christmas Present, which turned out to be a "20 percent off (almost) everything on the web site" Sale. This was not surprising, but they’re gonna have to cough up some actual Christmas Decorator type things one of these years. The Red and Green kind, not just Silver Filigree. It doesn’t have to be free or cheap. Heck, I’d settle for some Breyer-branded swag, like a bandana, scarf or potholder.

I’d never lose my scarf at work ever again. ("Did someone lose a scarf…oh, never mind. It's Andrea's.")

I’ve already decided on my New Year’s Resolution for next year, aside from the usual nonsense (lose weight-exercise more-read more good books-etc.): finish all my old craft projects before I begin anything new, including quilt projects dating back from the previous millennium. I made outstanding progress back in November with the quilts, and I’d like to keep the momentum going.

Especially now that I have a quilt frame I can actually use that doesn’t also take up half a room.

That's all for today. Tomorrow’s my last day off before I have to go back to work, and I really want to get that quilt frame up and functional. I have to sew up all the Christmas toys Vita has already destroyed, too. "Ballistic nylon"? Yeah, right!

Paddy

My schedule just changed this afternoon, so I’ll just do a little something on the current Web SR Paddy, today. I’ve been told that Paddy was among the SRs in the leaked photos, but it must have been one of the ones I missed. So my comments here are a little more off the cuff than you might imagine.

I think he’s rather cute and clever: a Cleveland Bay in Hunter Clip, with shamrocks and clovers stenciled/clipped on his behind? I find it a rather pleasing compromise between the realistic, and deco. I like it - moreso than any other colors I’ve seen on this mold other than the original Bay, and the Gloss Dark Dapple Gray Limerick SR for BreyerFest in 2008. (Yeah, I was one of those weirdos that wasn't all that into the King Arthur raffle model last year. Nice, but no big whoop for me.)

Are people complaining about him? Of course they are. If my cursory skimming of the discussions about him last night are correct, it appears many hobbyists are only entering on the hope that they’ll win the "Pot O’ Gold" variation in buckskin. Because having a unique, one-of-a-kind model is just so the thing right now.

(If there’s any one topic in model horsedom that I have less interest in, it’s the whole Peter Stone factory custom, whatever-they’re-calling-it-now program. If it’s not production, or preproduction, it’s a custom. Which I find interesting only in "gauging what’s trendy in the hobby now" sort of way. And even then, not so much. But, I digress.)

This is only setting themselves up to be even more disappointment down the road, since there’s only one out of a lottery that has only 223 winners in the first place.

(BTW: I refuse to use the term OOAK. It looks like something my dog would type. And knowing the little snot the way I do, she so would.)

I am just glad he is not some shade of green. While I love the color green - it’s the color I use most often in my quilts, bar none - I’m rather particular with it when it comes to horses. I'm just not into it unless they go full Decorator with it, a la a "Jade", or do it as a Transculent.

Or it happens to be a honest-to-goodness Christmas Decorator. (Which would be moot, because I probably would fall over dead at the shock of finding of it in the first place.)

I only have one Cleveland Bay so far - the Limerick. I wouldn’t mind another - whatever color it happens to be.

Etymology and Decorators

My fingertips are so raw and sore right now – the consequence of trying to finish another big quilt project by the end of the year, in addition to the descriptor project. (And a couple of small, crafty projects, too – I just noticed the gesso on my fingernails.)

Attention Deficit Disorder runs in the family, and I suspect I have a mild, manageable form of it: it manifests itself in a need to multi-task. I do crash from time to time, but I know my tolerance levels, and I'm operating well within them. If anything, I could probably take on another project or two...

Back to the project at hand. Today's topic will be the spare, rare history of the Decorator.

As I hinted before in our 3-part discussion about Christmas Decorators, documentation for actual Decorators is also extremely sparse. In fact, we have only four pieces of documentary evidence:

1. A “Supplemental Price List” dated April 1, 1964, that lists all of the models we now call Decorators. There are actually two near identical copies of this pricelist, one printed on light blue paper, and the other, on yellow (blue and gold, get it?)

2. A picture in the 1964 Alden's Christmas Book, featuring a pair of “Copenhagen Dappled Horses” for the hefty sum of 6.99. The catalog copy: “magnificently detailed of china-like fine quality plastic. Break-resistant! Lovely mare with foal for her novelty shelves or a favorite youngster's room.” (The Running Mare and Foal, obviously.)

3. A full-color photograph showing the entire Decorator line, complete with numbers. Stamped on the back of this photo is the notation “Please mail your order to J.C. Unger ...”

4. The photograph of the Copenhagen Belgian that appeared in an issue of JAH back in 1980.

That's it. It doesn't seem like a lot – and it isn't – but it's a lot more than we have for many early Breyer releases. But did you notice what's missing from the paper evidence?

On none of these pieces of evidence is the word “Decorator” even used.

Looking through my early ephemera, the closest we come to the word Decorator is in the Dealer Catalog references to the Modernistic Buck and Doe, who are called “Delightfully Decorative.” Marney labels them as “Modernistic/Decorator” and includes them in the Decorator section of her book, but provides no other evidence or documentation linking the two together, only noting that the Deer were “originally created as Christmas decorative pieces.” The two existing catalog pages that feature the Deer also note this, seen here on the ca. 1961 catalog insert page:

They are metallic gold – and predate the horses by at least a year – so it's possible that this is where the term originated. But was the term “Decorator” itself an internally-created one that we simply don't have the documentation for – yet – or was it a term that just arose in the hobby organically, like “Chalky” did?

Marney was pretty much the source of all Breyer knowledge back then, so I'm inclined to believe that the origins of the term, or its popularization in the model horse lexicon, are with her somehow.

It's possible that Marney may have overheard the term from someone at the factory, or may have seen the word used in conjunction with a local store's advertising campaign, or had access to a document, now lost, that used it specifically. Or maybe Marney just made it up – based on the promotional stuff for the Buck and Doe – and the hobby just adopted it as a matter of course. (Who were we to doubt Marney's knowledge then?)

I also remember – I truly can't say where or from whom I heard this bit of information – that the term Decorator was also used to describe Woodgrains. (Marney, again?) The earliest references I have for Woodgrains – the sepiatone ca. 1960 Dealer Catalog, and two Mission Supply House fliers, ca. 1961 – only refer to them as “Wood Grains” or as part of the “Wood Grain Series.” If true, it might be a point in favor of the “in-house” theory for the origin of the term: maybe it was just the word they used around the factory to describe all of the “nonrealistic” finishes. (Charcoal, at the time, was probably considered “realistic.”)

By the way, the term didn't become the single word “Woodgrain” until 1970, and only then on the pricelists. The Fighting Stallion – the only remaining regular run Woodgrain, seen in the Collector's Manuals from 1968 through 1973 – was always described as “Wood Grain.”

Oh, to have had access to Marney's original research notes and documentation. What new discoveries could be made there, what mysteries could be revealed, with fresh eyes? If only, if only.

Christmas Decorators, Part III; or, What’s the Deal with California?

As many of you are aware, Breyers are not uniformly distributed throughout the country, much less the world. Breyers are easier to find in the Upper Midwest than they are in the Deep South, particularly Florida, both first and second hand. Some of it has to do with regional demand, and some with the socio-economic mix. Suburban, semi-rural and rural areas will have a bigger demand than urban areas, as will areas with concentrations of families with young children, or with more disposable income.

But then, there’s California. Sure, California is big, and has lots of the right kind of consumers, so the fact that Breyers are relatively plentiful there is not unusual. What is unusual is that there’s been an awful lot of …odd Breyer stuff coming out of California. Way more than you’d expect for a market so far away from the original factory in Chicago: the Gray Appaloosa Shetland Pony, In-Between Mares, the Palomino Adios, a higher than normal percentage of Decorators.

So it’s no surprise that there have been reports of Christmas Decorators coming out of California.

It may just be coincidental that one of the few pieces of documentation we have about the regular, run-of-the-mill Blue and Gold Decorators was from a long-time Breyer Representative in California: J.C. Unger and Associates. (How long-term? They’re mentioned as a Sales Rep for Breyer in advertisements from 1953!)

But in addition to being product representatives, Unger also worked in product development and marketed their own toys under the Unger Toys line. If the name sounds familiar to any of you, it’s because they were the ones who developed and unleashed the original Brenda Breyer upon the world. And the infamous Puffy Stickers! What total Breyer nerds didn’t go out of their way to get those crazy Puffy Stickers?


(I have no idea where mine are! Actually, I think I do, but I’m not in the mood for digging, so the pic from the 1980 Dealer Catalog will have to do.)

Is it possible that Unger might have collaborated with Breyer before Brenda? That might explain why all those strange Breyer things keep turning up in California. There might have been some collaborative efforts going on, or test marketing, or maybe they were the go-to people for the dumping of less-than-successful items. Could it be that they had a hand in the creation and marketing of the Decorators too - both the Blue and Gold, and the Christmas?

I have no idea, since I haven’t had the time or the moxie to do any further research about their relationship with Breyer. (They’re still around as Henry Unger and Associates, if anyone else wants to do the leg or phone work.) There’s definitely something more to the story there, though.

If we go with the supposition that the Christmas Decorators were a failed regional product launch or dump, limited to California or other parts of Unger’s territory, then that might explain why the documentation is still lacking. If the catalogs exist, then they’d be regional ones with limited range and low distribution: in others words, might be just as rare - or moreso - than the actual models themselves.

So, that’s all there is to know about the Christmas Decorators, including where my current speculation stands.