Someone Drops A Shoe

To work off the drama of the past several days, I spent a good chunk of my weekend either customizing or gardening. 

I didn’t get quite as far with the garden as I hoped: it was hotter than the bottom of a skillet outside, and it hasn’t rained in a while so the ground was the consistency of concrete. It’s definitely looking better, though.

I thought I was doing pretty well with a few of the customs I was playing around with, and maybe even close to done. Then I hit them with a little primer to check my progress, and discovered I seriously overestimated my customizing skills. 

Oof. 

But here’s a bit of good news: the vintage Black Stallion custom is finally finished! Just look at this beautiful boy:

I decided to go with a retro, poofy ‘80s-style hairdo. I am also inordinately proud of the base I made for him: most custom bases in the 1980s were rather crude (compared to the horse, anyway) and he deserved something classy to stand on. 

I am heartened by the support I received in the comments over the Performance Horse Affair. I was initially hesitant to come forward with the story, expecting that it might generate some negative feedback. 

But I thought it was important to put it out there, because (a) it was already a topic of discussion (b) it was something I was personally involved in, and (c) it did not have the happy ending people were imagining it did.

I have a feeling the model itself is now radioactive; I rather doubt we’ll be seeing it again anytime soon. If it does turn up again, it’s going to be awkward for everyone. 

Regardless, the best case scenario is that maybe this will lead to the hobby having a more open and thorough discussion about the etiquette and ethics of selling and reselling, instead of it disintegrating into insinuations that we’re price-shaming people by even mentioning money.

At this point there are between 500 to 750 BreyerFest Benefit Auction models floating around out there. One of them will be mine someday, I know it. There were a lot of weird, homely and unshowable things in those early auctions: Rugged Larks and Khemosabis and all manner of Classics, to name a few. 

This one would have been the best, most perfect ending of my quest. It was one of my favorite molds (Performance Horse), in one of my favorite colors (Red Roan), from one of the few BreyerFest Auctions I personally attended (1993), at an insanely good price.

Alas, no. But there’s an interesting postscript to the story. 

Here’s the other misidentified model I bought from the same seller the same day for the same price, and (fortunately) the sale wasn’t canceled several hours after the fact:

A nice consolation prize, I suppose, even though I already have another Classic Black Stallion Test Color in the stable. (I know, who gets to say stuff like that? Someone who’s not particularly particular about the Test Colors she buys!)

He feels a bit like a Marney Test to me, but his origins are unknown. The less flashy parts of Marney’s collection were being dispersed by sellers at BreyerFest in 1993 – including boring, solid-colored Test Color Classics, Hess Stock Horses and the like – so it’s entirely possible he was purchased around the same time as the APH. 

Not the happy ending I was hoping for, but I’ll take it. 

My Little Noriker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Breyer's Body Box

Why am I buying even more stuff on the Internet? Argh! 

I swear, every year I tell myself that I’ve bought too much stuff at BreyerFest, and then I turn around and go on a buying spree for the month afterward. 

Anyway, here’s more stuff I bought in the NPOD – more “bodies” from the Breyer Body Box:

The Classic Black Beauty is from the #2404 Fire Wagon Set; I sort of blanked on grabbing the matching Ginger after finding the Chalky Test Ginger. They Fire Wagon horses are not quite in the same demand as the Classic Clydesdale Drafts from the #2405 Delivery Wagon Set, but they’re still a little on the scarce side, for Classics. 

The Standing Stock Horse Foal has been a source of fascination to me for a while now (I really need to finally finish that custom one I started last year!) This Rocky might be a Sample, but I’m just happy to have him regardless. 

The Classic Andalusian Stallion is the scarce Blockbuster Special Run of Hildago from 2004. I’ve been wanting one, and at two dollars I really couldn’t beat that price. There’s also the slight possibility he might be a Sample too, and that didn’t hurt.

I also purchased a Shadow of Blue – the BreyerFest 2001 Special Run Amber in Black with blue undertones. I already had one, but I had a weird feeling she might have been a Sample or Test, too. I inspected her at the hotel later, but came to the conclusion that I was misinterpreting her overspray as something else. 

I priced her pretty modestly and put her on my sales shelves a few hours later; she was gone by the end of the day. If I had known she was going to sell that easily, I might have bought a couple of the Leah’s Fancy Breyers that were also in that bin for the same price!

Unlike the $5 “bodies” they sold the day previous, there did not appear to be a limit on the $2 Classics and Foals. I decided to limit myself to five, because that seemed like a good number, and there was no need to get greedy. I made my one big “find” with the Chalky Ginger, and I was good. While I’m pretty sure I could have found another treasure or two, but I thought I’d let others get the opportunity to dig.

I kind of wish Breyer hadn’t co-opted the term “Body Box” for this particular offer, though. Aside from the fact that most of these models were better than body quality, it also created quite a bit of confusion at the hotel, with a lot of kids asking for “Body Box” models. What I – and most people at the hotel – had in their body boxes was not comparable to what Breyer offered. 

The Two Dollar Test

I still feel very much like a coagulated puddle of sweat and Gatorade, so you’ll have to forgive me for continuing to be a little antisocial until the end of the week or so. 

It’s nothing personal guys, I just think I underestimated how emotionally overwhelmed I’d be at being at the first in-person BreyerFest in three years. I thought I’d be prepared because I’d been to two live shows and Motor City Comic Con in the months previous, but I guess not!

Everything is out of the car, but I probably won’t be finished unpacking and sorting until the weekend. In the meantime, I also have to deal with some work-related stuff and getting the garden back in shape, too. (Wax beans are imminent!)

I wasn’t able to bring home the Dapple Gray Belgian or any of the Five-Gaiters I was looking for (there was a dearth of vintage stuff at the hotel this year), but I did find a few neat things I’ll be sharing over the next couple of weeks. 

But there is one little thing I do want to share with the group right now. I was actually getting a little obnoxious about it by the end of the weekend, but I think you’ll understand why when you see it.

I didn’t get a chance to go to the NPOD Friday morning, because I had actual stuff to do both at the hotel and at the KHP. I did hear about – and see! – some of the goodies pulled out of the “Body Bins” later in the day, though, including a Matte Dappled Black Five-Gaiter. 

(Yes, I whimpered a bit. But it went to someone who is almost as obsessed with vintage stuff as I am, so I know he will be well-loved.)

Since I didn’t have anything to do first thing Saturday morning, I decided to be brave and go for it.

The only complication I ran into was the fact that Reeves didn’t handle the numbered tickets very well: they had two sets of tickets for the two stores, and instead of handing them out more or less in order, (i.e. either one-one, two-two or in alternating groups of five or ten) they handed out the first 200 sequentially, and then the second set of 200 sequentially. 

That meant that many people would be getting into – and out of! – one of the stores before people who had gotten there several hours earlier. Not cool, guys! They also claimed that both stores had the same merchandise, but I knew that was not the case, which is why I fought to get into the main store in the Covered Arena. 

(This had apparently happened the day before, so that was something I was prepared for. And it was also remedied the next day. And forever, hopefully. This is not rocket science, guys!)

Anyway, after all that nonsense, I found this fabled body bin. It was almost all Classics that day, with some Traditional Foals also in the mix. I’m not as familiar with Classic oddities – in spite of owning an awful lot of them! – but I dug through the bin and pulled a few things out that I thought were worth my time. 

(Technically they were all “worth the time”: everything in the bin was Two Dollars!)

Then I grabbed this Ginger and said to myself: well, she’s peculiar:

She’s Chalky, with natural-colored hooves, tons of pinking, and handpainted eyes. Yes, dear readers, I found myself a two-dollar Test Color! 

A friend of mine pointed out that she might be a Test for the First Christmas Horse Snowball, on the Haflinger mold, and I think she might be right, or at least in the neighborhood.

She’s not in the best condition, and I doubt she’d show well anywhere, but I love her all the same. Especially since I found her at a BreyerFest with a $65,000 Auction Test Color in it! 

I know that the prices at the Auction this year discouraged a lot of people from imagining that they could ever afford a Test Color, but as my little “Snow Baby” shows, it’s not always about the money. Do your research, do the legwork, and treasures will eventually find you.

(I’ll take her out of her bag, eventually.)

Pearly Jet Run

Though it’s not directly model horse related, this is the kind of story that always gives collectors of all stripes a little bit of hope:

https://www.samuseum.org/press/press-release/texas-collector-finds-roman-bust-missing-from-germany-since-world-war-ii-at-local-goodwill-store/

I have a few objects in my possession that might have a dubious ownership history – like my hand-colored photograph of Midnight Sun from Harlinsdale Farm – and I wouldn’t hesitate to give it back to the rightful owners, if asked. 

I’d be a little bummed, but I’d understand. Just being a part of the provenance of something like that is compensation enough. 

It was kind of a stressful week for me, and I deserved a pony. I went to the store expecting to buy an Adamek or an Anthem, and I bought this fellow instead:

I had seen this exceptionally glowing example of the #960 “Pearly Grey” Trakehner on the Jet Run mold several months ago at this same store, and he definitely gave me pause. I had other priorities back then and walked away from him, assuming that someone surely would have also noticed his awesomeness. He really stood out in comparison to everything else sitting on the shelf, even his fellow Trakehners!

The store is sufficiently out of my way that going back for him was not going to be a temptation. It has nothing to do with the price of gas, and everything to do with the fact that I am not a big fan of driving. (If you’ve ever lived or traveled in Michigan, you’d understand: roads, ugh.)

Yet there he was. It’s really not that hard to see why: it’s an older Classic mold in a somewhat unrealistic color and not really showable as anything. And a lot of hobbyists have and almost reflexive dislike for anything with even a hint of pearliness. 

But I found him kind of captivating, and took his presence at the store as a hint. I abandoned my initial plans and took him and a Morganquest Native Sun home, too. 

Initially I hadn’t been impressed by the Native Suns I’ve seen on the Internet, but the two I saw in person were much nicer than I imagined. He was a much warmer Chocolate color, akin to ice cream topping, and not the slightly greenish Umber that had been making me go “Eh, maybe not?”

The Native Sun is still sitting in the car, though, since I’ve got quite a bit of spring cleaning to do before I bring anything else into the house. I really have junk just everywhere at this point! (Among the weekend projects: recompiling the sales list. Horses, horses everywhere...)

At least the plants are outside. In the ground, that’s another project…

A Brief Interlude with Classic Ruffians

This weekend is full of anxiety. It’s not just the holiday weekend and all the drama that usually brings with it: a couple of big decisions are being made about me, and I’m not going to know my fate until Monday afternoon at the earliest. 

My normal recourse in situations like this would be to go out and pull weeds, but the weather took a brutal turn and is not going to get any better for the next several days, so I’m now going through and cleaning up some old tax paperwork I’ve been avoiding. And being reminded of why I was avoiding it in the first place, oh joy! 

The 2021 papers are almost done. The 2020 papers are… a work in progress. (To be clear, the taxes are done and filed, it’s just the e-mails, receipts and other paperwork that need to be organized to my satisfaction. Even with my taxes, I’m a paperwork nerd!)

Since I am not in a super chatty mood today, I’ll share a photo of something I bought a while back, but haven’t shared until now because other items and other topics got in the way:

She’s a Test or Sample of the Misty II from the #3350 Misty Family Set, the one that included a Black Pinto Swaps and a Palomino Mesteno Foal. One of the reasons I was hesitant to share was because she’s a little on the rough side, and I haven’t had time to clean her up. Most of the marks are in her white areas, thank goodness, so it really is just a matter of time and patience.

She’s not “showable” in the live show sense, though – if you want to compete with Classic Racehorses, it’s best to stick closely to the Loves, and the Swaps and Man o’ War in particular – but the mold is a sentimental favorite, and I already have another Test Color Ruffian, and she could use the company. 

Looking purely at the numbers, I paid more for the Misty II than I did the Solid Black, but I bought the Solid Black back in the mid-1980s. So factoring in inflation, the Solid Black probably cost me more. But she would also sell for more because, aside from an excellent provenance, that photograph is actually a pretty good representation of just how pretty she is in person. 

The whole point is moot, though, since neither one is going anywhere anytime soon.  

Blankets

When I was first finding my way around the hobby, it became pretty clear to me that I was not a tack and accessories person. Whenever a choice between a new saddle or a new horse had to be made, “new horse” always won.

There were some exceptions. I was fascinated by wagons, carts and sleighs (especially sleighs!), and I made a few fair-to-middling attempts at Hollywood-style Arabian Costumes. 

I have bought a few bits of Breyer Tack over the years, mostly because they came in sets and I am loathe to break apart sets on principle. And if I have been given promotional pieces, like the various blankets and things given out at BreyerFest on occasion, I never turned down those items down, either. 

One thing that’s just killing me, though, is this new Gift Set on the Breyer web site: the Le Mer with a sequined blanket. I bought this model all the way back in April because I though it was pretty – put that color on almost anything, and I’ll either buy it, or at least consider it – but you’re telling me if I had waited six months I could have gotten one with a super cool blanket with reversible sequins, too? 

Argh!

Sure, I could just go ahead and buy the set anyway – money is definitely not an issue for me right here, right now – but then I’d have to add another item to my already-too-big sales list. (I am hoping to get some stuff online by Thanksgiving week, but no promises!)

To throw a little history into the topic...

Saddle blankets have been a part of Breyer History since the literal beginning of Breyer History: the blankets for the Western Horse and Pony saddles have been molded into all their various permutations since the early 1950s. Fleece blankets were a component of the early Indian Horse and Rider Sets, too, and the Fury Prancers sold with English Saddles also came with separately-molded hard plastic saddle blankets. 

But the first official production release that came with fabric stable blankets was the #8384 Clydesdale Mare and Foal Set in 1971. Technically, some of the Groomers came with vinyl accessories that could have kinda-sorta passed for stable blankets in the 1950s. Not too many collectors are familiar with the latter: while Grooming Kits are not too hard to come by generally, the stable-blanket style ones are pretty tough. 

I have not lucked into one yet, but I live in hope!

Spiders, Spiders Everywhere

Welcome to the Post-BreyerFest Sales Season, where you tell yourself you’re going to cut back on your purchases, but you just can’t help yourself:

I was only expecting to purchase a pair of the Spooky Stablemates from the Halloween Store this year, because I think all three are awesome and reselling or swapping a duplicate won’t be much of an issue this time around – but I ended up buying pretty much everything but Hermie and the hoodie. 

I didn’t get the Hermie because I didn’t see the freebie code until after I checked out, and I didn’t get the hoodie because I’m either going to Motor City Comic Con or DC Fandome on October 16th and I want to get myself an appropriately-themed shirt or hoodie for the occasion instead, especially since I found out that the shirt I was going to wear is now (yikes!) a collectible. 

The Classic Eek! Is still available, which is both surprising and unsurprising: surprising in that everything else sold out fairly quickly, and unsurprising because he’s a Classics-scale model covered in spiders, two things a lot of collectors get a little squicky about.

As I’ve explained before, I’ve never had any antipathy towards Classics in the slightest. While I am still not a huge fan of spiders, I have made my peace with them and – in fact! – even attempted to write a children’s book about them at one point.

(FYI: It’s another one of my many, many stalled creative projects.)

Some have speculated that another factor may be that the piece run was larger than average, but I don’t think they’ve ever formally released piece counts for the Halloween Classics, so I have no idea if that is the case. My enjoyment of a particular release is not tied to how popular it is or how quickly it sells out, so that’s a moot point for me anyway.

But I got Eek! primarily because he’s an obvious callback to the second Breyer Halloween Horse, the Marabella Merry Widow, who was the first Traditional-scale Glow-in-the-Dark model in 2003. She’s one of my all-time favorite Halloween Horses: I think the way they incorporated all of the spider imagery into her overo pinto pattern was clever, beautiful and inspired. 

The first official Glow-in-the-Dark release happened a few months before: an unpainted G2 Andalusian Keychain that was first given to attendees of an “after dark” movie screening at the KHP at the 2003 BreyerFest, and subsequently distributed to hobbyists at various Breyer events for (many!) years to follow. 

Aside from various Club-related releases (including the VC Decorator Brighty Nugget), the Tractor Supply Special Runs, the Brick and Mortar Special (a pretty pinto Wyatt!) and the Rainbow Decorator Equidae, two other big sales will be following shortly: the hotly anticipated BreyerFest Leftovers Sale, and possibly the Customer Appreciation Event. 

I suppose I should be grateful that I’m racking up lots of overtime at work and I can afford most of these beautiful frivolities, but actual time to enjoy them would also be wonderful. I’ve been getting assurances that this will be soon, so we will see. 

All About Compensation

Thank you for the kind words and encouragement, but y’all aren’t likely to see the latest diorama fail until after BreyerFest; I have projects with hard deadlines coming up, so it’ll have to wait. I may even lump it in to a “Parade of Fail” post I’ve been thinking about doing here for a while, to purge myself of this particular daemon. 

A lot of this stems from art school trauma. My instructors would single me out for praise, my work would almost always be put in the student showcases, and one of my pieces was even given the honor of being hung in the dean’s office for a year. But when it came to the student competitions where actual cash money was involved? 

Second place. Always. 

The people who write articles online telling you that “second place is the best place” and that it’s indicative of you actually being more awesome than the people who win have obviously not spent their lives in this awkward position.

In the meantime, I’ve pulled out a couple of old customizing projects to fuss over as distractions to the deadlines. If there’s one positive outcome to all this, it’s the fact that it’s shown me that my customizing skills are better than I thought they were, and that I shouldn’t be afraid to hack things to pieces and reassemble them. 

Whether I enter them in any competitions or not is secondary to the act of creation. It has to be: doing it for the money will drive me mad. 

Anyway, as compensation for my whining, here’s a picture of one of my more obscure Test Colors:

Obviously it’s a Test for the Sham in the Classic #3345 King of the Wind Set. I bought it a few years after the set itself was discontinued, and from a well-known hobbyist to boot, so I know it’s authentic. 

They obviously decided to go with a redder shade to match the Traditional Sham, and distinguish it more from the Golden Bay Lath in the set. I just thought it was a neat thing to own; while everyone else was chasing those elusive Golden Bay Traditional Shams, I had the Classic version!

(I also have a Golden Bay Sham. Kinda. It’s a story.)

Because he was a Classic, he was relatively cheap, and even today I doubt I can sell him for much more over the price I paid 25 years ago. The indifference and sometimes outright antagonism some Breyer enthusiasts have over the Classic scale horses (even the Loves!) surprises and confuses me, especially in light of the prices some comparably rare Stablemates bring. 

I think it says (a lot of) something that random topic/challenge class for the Customs Contest this year was simply Classics. I mean, I am all for encouraging people to use different and less popular molds, but ouch...

Oh well, back to work. 

Sales Rep Models

In the interest of completeness, I just want to say that I finally opened the box from the previous post, and not only were the models in better condition than advertised, they were also immaculately wrapped (with a ribbon tied in a bow!) and came with candy. A+: would buy from again.

Here is the second item I mentioned in that post from yesterday:

A Classic Andalusian Stallion in a really lovely shaded Matte Liver Chestnut, and what is possibly a “Sales Rep” model.

“Sales Rep” models are essentially Test Colors that are (were?) gifts given to Breyer Sales Representatives. Some are Traditional scale models, but most that I’ve seen have been Classic scale. 

In terms of quality, they generally tend to be better than the average BreyerFest Auction Test Colors from the 1990s, but not nearly as nice as more recent Auction pieces. (Many of those I basically consider “Factory Customs”, but that’s another discussion entirely.) 

Most of them aren’t particularly “fancy” either – they tend to be either solid colors, and if not, use pre-existing masks and templates.  

I reflexively bought him because (a) as I’ve mentioned before, Reeves hasn’t been getting much of my money lately and (b) I already have a vintage Test Color Classic Andalusian Stallion from the late 1970s/early 1980s, and I thought this guy would make a nice companion piece for him and (c) the price was right. 

I had a mildly anxious moment when I received the box – it was slightly crushed – but fortunately it was very well-packed, so he survived the ordeal unscathed. And he’s so much lovelier in person than I hoped!

I had been hoping to get a Sales Rep Model eventually, but most of the ones I’ve seen for sale in the past few years have tended to go well above my modest price range, partly (or mostly?) because they came with their original packaging and paperwork. 

I had no hesitation buying him sans paperwork; even if I can’t prove he is what I think he is, he is still beautiful piece, regardless.  

Diving In

This is the kind of week I want to put in a box, throw the box in a dumpster, and set the dumpster on fire. Not a darn thing is coming easy, not even lunch. 

(Don’t get me started on lunch! Argh!)

Cosmic payback for my lucky last week? I dunno. 

Anyway, the only good thing to come out of this week so far is the body box lot has already arrived.

Everything is pretty much as I expected; they came relatively cheap because they were painted in a variety of paints – acrylic, enamel, house – by someone with abundance enthusiasm but not a lot of skill. 

Which is good for me, because while stripping off old goopy paint is something most customizers want to avoid, it’s totally my thing. I’m actually looking forward to it, after the drama I had to deal with today. (See lunch, above.)

There’s one model that won’t be stripped because, well, look at him:

He’s not signed, so I have no idea who to attribute this beauty to, but it was obviously someone professional, if only because this guy sports one of the nicest hairing jobs I’ve ever seen on any custom, modern or vintage. It’s just immaculate.

And he’s definitely vintage: he still has his mold marks and his seams are uncleaned. It seems hard to believe now, but prepping as we know it – sanding seams, carving out ears and hooves, fixing seam mismatches, and primer – took a while to become standard practice. 

(His ears are carved out and he does have tri-colored eyes. Go figure!)

As long as there weren’t any missing pieces or serious flaws (gouges, holes, giant plastic goobers) customizers just grabbed their paint and brushes and dived in.  

To be honest, I think that approach still has a lot of merit. Whenever I find myself stuck in a creative rut, it’s often because I’m stuck at the prep stage: maybe I haven’t completely planned every move out to the letter, or I’m finding nitpicky things as an excuse to procrastinate. 

At that point, I’ll often start a small and completely impulsive project instead. Sure, sometimes it ends up in the trash. But sometimes it turns out great. And more often than not, it gets the ball rolling, and the next thing you know, the projects I was dithering on get done, too. 

(Before you guys get any crazy ideas, NaMoPaiMo is not even on my radar, people. Remember the no Facebook thing?)

Incidentally, if anyone can help me identify who did this guy, it’d be much appreciated. The painting style seems very familiar, but researching vintage customs is not my strong suit.

Green, Man

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mostly Right

First, let me give a shout out to whomever is doing the history posts on Breyer’s social media: you’re getting it mostly right! That hasn’t always been the case, and it’s nice to see that they really are taking the historical stuff more seriously.

And that’s not “damning with faint praise”: Breyer History is complicated, often sparingly documented, and many points are legitimately debatable. (That’s why I’m here!) “Mostly right” is about the best we can hope for.

What bothered me in the past were instances so wrong they made me wonder if I had found myself on an alternate Earth: you know, like the time they confused the Proud Arabian Stallion with the Family Arabian Stallion.

With 70+ years of history behind it, Breyer is legitimately a “legacy” toy brand, and deserved better. And now it appears to be.

Anyway. Enough of that.

The weather put a damper on my shopping plans this weekend, so my search for 2020 releases will have to wait until later this week. My last serious horse shopping didn’t start out that way – back in December I had a coupon for Ollie’s and found myself coming home with these guys: the Walmart Special Run Sarafina and Serendipity!

One of the diorama ideas I was contemplating involves a Mariah/Morgan mold, and this Serendipity is just an exceptionally well-painted piece, with lots of pink shading around her head and neck.

And I couldn’t pass them by: after all the discounts and coupons were applied, they were basically body price. In other words, they were a no-risk investment. If I change my mind on either, it won’t take much to recoup my money!

I bought a few sets of those Stablemates-scale Lanard Royal Breeds horses during the same sale too, the ones sculpted by Maggie Bennett:

They were also purchased on the same presumption as the Classic Unicorns: if eBay is any guide, they’ll be astoundingly easy to sell if my plans for them – one of each to keep, others to mangle and/or paint – change.

(For instance, if Seattle becomes more than just a possibility…)

Living the Dream

Don’t tell my family, but this wasn’t the only horse I bought this weekend:

Long story short, Saturday afternoon I happened to be in the neighborhood of a toy store that’s normally a bit out of my way, so I stopped in to see if they had any Khalids.

They did! And they were having a storewide sale. And they actually had a couple American Dreams; since I figured this would probably be my last chance to get one until December (according to the web site!) and this example was so dark and pretty…

I liked the pictures of him I had been seeing online, but now that I’ve seen him in person and in the round, I think he’s my new favorite modern Classic/Freedom mold. I can’t wait to see this pretty boy in any of the vintage Mustang colors. Bald-faced Buckskin? Gloss Charcoal? Gloss Gray Appaloosa?

(The solution to getting more collectors collecting Classics is… making more and better Classics? How... obvious!)

Then I ended up going to a nearby Ollie’s and picked up a couple of those SR Walmart Stablemates sets because there were some beautiful variations mixed in; then for good measure I hit up a farm store (part of a local chain) that happened to have some unrifled-through Stablemate Blind Bag boxes, and salt water taffy. (The taffy was the bigger draw there: Don’t ask me why or how, but I am on a huge taffy kick right now.)

And finally, the weather was cool but mostly cooperative so I went to the flea market Sunday morning and found a whole bunch of goodies, including a C.W. Anderson portfolio and a Royal Doulton Scottish Terrier.

But aside from the produced-based flea market purchases, the only thing that’s made it into the house so far is the American Dream.

Not that anyone would notice right now – there’s some work being done in the kitchen for the duration, so I could probably sneak in an actual, live Shetland Pony and I doubt anyone would notice.

(Except maybe the dog. I don’t think she’d appreciate someone bogarting her carrots and peppermints.)

But seriously, this will probably be my last significant “horse shopping” binge for the year, outside of obligate club purchases, and possibly the Christmas Surprise and CC Appreciation Sale. I have too much stuff and I definitely need to do more selling than buying in the next three months.

If I can find the time. Sigh.

Two Small Drafters

I don’t buy any of the Crystals because I am preternaturally clumsy. I was briefly concerned I would have to break this rule when I saw the sneak preview of this year’s BreyerFest Crystal, and I suspected it might be the Fell Pony. (No pun intended. Really.)

Fortunately, it was not:

Defiant is based on the 1993 Evolution of the Horse Shire, who we last saw as a BreyerFest Special Run in 2009 “Party Time”.

I do like the mold, and if it should ever come in a plastic version – Traditional, Classic, Stablemate, whatever – I would definitely consider it, depending on the size they adapt it to.

Smaller would be better, for me anyway.

I haven’t opened up my Unicorn Zena, for instance, because she’s about three weeks long and pointy. Not a good combo in a house with limited shelving, a small dog with periodic fits of zoomies, and my status as person of inadequate coordination. I really am trying to avoid bringing more big, pointy things into the house.

That’s why I am more tempted, and more intrigued by this new Mid-Year Classic Brabant Mighty Muscle. We’ve definitely been underserved in the Classics department when it comes to Draft Horses, but I’d like to take a closer look in person before I commit to liking or loving him. He is not quite as dynamic as I thought he would be, though I do not know if that is a good thing, or a bad thing.

(I am on board with everyone else, though, in loving the new Classic Rearing Mustang American Dream, but more on why another time.)

But back to the Porcelain Shire/Defiant. I could have sworn that there was at least one Traditional-scale injection-molded Sample or Test of that mold floating around somewhere, but a cursory search of my files didn’t turn one up.

And I am not particularly motivated at the moment: my time is probably better spent tonight finishing my sales list or working on any of my BreyerFest stuff because of course I am already way behind on that stuff.

Another busy weekend awaits. alas!

Lancelot

Yes readers, I bought one. My budget is telling me I probably shouldn’t have, but I felt a twinge of obligation, as my tirelessly weird advocacy of a Traditional Man o’ War in a vintage (yucky yellow) Palomino may be at least partly responsible for a Palomino being included in the Lancelot assortment:

This will also probably be the closest I ever get to my dream Man o ’ War. I mean, I do collect the Classic Man o’ War mold, too – that gorgeous shaded buckskin from the BreyerFest 2001 Special Run set is one of my favorite Classic releases ever – but I haven’t pursued him as vigorously as I have the Traditional.

Maybe with this release, I should reconsider it. Aside from oddities, Test Colors and some of the rarities (like the Triple Crown Sets) most Classics are undervalued, and the Man o’ Wars are no exception.

I love all three Lancelots, so whichever one I get initially is irrelevant. I like that they went  – and I hope, are going forward with – the Gambler’s Choice of One Glossy, One Matte, and One Decorator. Covers every market!

I find it somewhat encouraging that he’s taking a while to sell out: I hope this means I’ll be able to get all three at a not-insane price eventually. When I get my horse office mess straightened out, that is.

In other news, I am modestly interested in this Stablemates Unicorn-oriented “Fairytale Friends Club” – Sparkly Things and New Molds (mini Firebird!) are a big draw, and it’s Stablemates so it won’t be too big of an expense…

But I don’t know. I think I might be tapped out on Club memberships for the time being. I have a hard enough time keeping track of the clubs I belong to now. Adding one more just might push me over the edge, because you know those shipping schedules aren’t always going to coordinate.

I have a bunch of deadlines – real, and self-imposed – to meet next week, so I am going to be extremely scarce for the next three days. See you all on the other side!

Chocolates

I don’t know what was going on with the Valentine’s Day Plushie Brownie that briefly flitted in and out of existence on Breyer’s social media a few days ago; I’m going to chalk it up as another not-entirely-accidental reveal that will be old news by the end of the week. A Valentine’s Day promotional plush did really well for them last year, so another one this year should not come as a huge surprise.

Since we have someone living here who’s life mission is to rip the faces off of every plushie that enters the house, me collecting plushes is a nonstarter. (The handful that I have are kept either in the closet, or in the car.)

As a person who has painted a horse or two chocolate brown, however, I’m all on board for the other chocolate-themed item that made its debut this year, the gloriously weird and strangely mesmerizing Cupcake:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/products/cupcake

I’m not a big fan of the mold – he’s a bit of a lunk-head and his mane and tail are oddly styled – and the only way Reeves has been able to convince me to buy them is by going entirely unrealistic, with releases like the BreyerFest 2016 Translucent Auriverde, and the 2018 Walmart Unicorn release Skyler.

(Technically I don’t have a Skyler yet, but it does seem like it’s only a matter of time.)

His mane and tail do kind of look like frosting, come to think of it, and I do like chocolate cake and sprinkles… so yeah, I’m on Team Cupcake!

I won’t be hooking myself up with a Cupcake until things are a little less hectic around here though; I’m assuming this will be around BreyerFest, when – like Bandera – I’ll have a corner of the store all to myself where I can handpick one from the several dozen that will inevitably be available.

Buy what you love, and own it, people! Whether it’s a fancy-shmantzy hyper-realistic horse completely hand painted with a single-hair paintbrush, or the fever dream of a delirious and horse-crazy nine-year-old at a birthday party.

(I never had a horse-themed birthday party of my own, growing up. *Sniff*)

Malik and the Classic Andalusian Stallion

It’s nice to see everyone excited about a new Classics mold that not either a Love reissue, or a repurposed Nonplastics/Gallery piece:

A lot of the excitement over Malik is because OMG, it’s an affordable Original Finish Plastic Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig Arabian! 

That’s totally fair.

But what got me excited was its obvious visual shout-back to another Breyer Classics milestone, the Andalusian Family Stallion:

Breyer had released individual Classics-scale horses as early as 1965 – starting with the Rearing Horse Rex – and used the molds leased from Hagen-Renaker in the early 1970s to launch the “Classics” line altogether.

But in late 1978, the Andalusian Family became Breyer’s first fully formed, internally-designed (Hess, of course) Classics family set.

More sets would shortly follow, including the No. 3040 Black Beauty Family and Friends Set and the No. 3035 USET Gift Set in 1980, and the No. 3030 The Black Stallion Returns Set in 1983.

The Andalusian Family was such a big deal for me, though, that I went out of my way to hand my aunt the Bentley Sales Company order forms – carefully annotated, naturally – with my Christmas list, so I could be the first kid in my social circle to have them, at least a month or two before they hit retail stores!

(Yes, that’s the very Stallion from the set that I received, above.)

It was also an important moment for me personally, as it was one of the earliest moments in my life that I realized I had access to the power and resources of a “fandom” – i.e. the model horse community – and I liked it!

Finding the Reasons Why

Another box of horses at the flea market, yay!

There are a couple of salvageable pieces in there (one of the Chestnut Merrylegs is drop-dead gorgeous) and one is being pulled for a possible project idea I have, but the rest are headed for the Body Box section of my sales list.

One reason I love finding boxes full of horses isn’t just because of the group discounts or the sheer thrill of discovery, but the story in the lot itself.

Every model may be a memory, but a collection tells a story.

Two identical Merrylegs (the one from the Slumber Party Gift Set) and two complete 2010 WEG Three-Horse Sets? This was the collection of two young siblings, not one. But did they actually go to the World Equestrian Games, or did a relative bring them back from a trip?

That they ended up at the flea market, selling for not much more than a song, could mean so many different things. Perhaps like most horse-crazy girls, they grew out of it, or thought they did. Maybe they finally got “real” horses of their own, and had no time (or money!) for imitations? Or… boys?

Those are the most common explanations. I was too excited to find a Box of Cheap Horses to stick around and find out the real reason why. It was a blustery day and I hadn’t slept well the night before, so once struck the proverbial pay dirt, I took the horses and ran.

The WEG Classics are a bit on the scarce side, so I feel bad about tossing the majority of them into the Body Box; while they’re not terrible, the demand for most of the more modern Classics molds – even scarce releases – is not high enough to merit an effort to restore on my part. One of the Gray Best-in-Show Thoroughbreds looks like he might clean up, though:

He’s very appealing in this color, and I do not have an example of this mold in the herd just yet; I missed out on the American Pharoahs on the short-tailed version when they were clearance out at Tuesday Morning last year.

This fellow might do. I’ll have to think about it. (It’s the pink hooves. They slay me.)

Here’s one thing I don’t have to think much about: some of these bodies are going up on MHSP by the end of the week. Since it’s still a couple of months until Kentucky, and the flea market season has just gotten underway, it’s probably best that I thin the box out a bit before it gets any further out of hand.

A Tale of Two Ruffian Variations

Might as well discuss these two before they get lost in the shuffle of everything else that’s been coming and going:

You know how you’ll sometimes look at a Regular Run model and tell yourself “If only I could find just the right one…”

This is the story of how I ended up with not one, but two Palomino Classics Ruffians.

The last time I was at Tuesday Morning, pondering those Semi-Gloss Stablemates and the Squishie Classic Haflinger, I also spent a little time looking over a couple of the Classic Palomino Ruffians – aka the #932 Thoroughbred Cross, just discontinued late last year.

I liked the concept of a Palomino Classic Ruffian, but none of the ones I had come across really appealed to me. The ones at Tuesday Morning were very nice; additionally, the packaging was slightly different than the standard Classics packaging, and the assortment consisted of recently discontinued items from very late in their production run – possibly the last pieces produced in their respective runs, making them another possible de facto Special Run.

But like the Haflinger and Stablemates, I left them behind.

Then I found that slightly pearly Palomino one on eBay a few weeks ago, with the unmasked mane and oversprayed tail, and no eyewhites. I was in love.

Because I happened to be in the area and I needed to buy some storage boxes for some of my ephemera anyway, I went back to that Tuesday Morning and bought one of those, too. Obviously they needed each other, and I felt I could justify it because unlike her Traditional-scale sister, the Classics Ruffian takes up hardly any room at all on the shelf.

This is where my lack of attention to the recent Classics releases has come to bite me in the behind. Is my pretty, pearly Ruffian a variation, an oddity, or something else? Her VIN number says she was produced in early 2014, but all the photos of her in the ephemera, and online show masking right from the start.

I have similar questions about the Tuesday Morning Ruffian (whose VIN number indicates a September 2017 production date). Is she different from the bulk of the run, or am I just imagining it?

I fear this may lead to me buying more Palomino Ruffians.

Sometimes oddballs and variations just happen, for no rhyme or reason. Fretting over their origins sometimes gets in the way of appreciating them in the first place.