The Ones That Get Away

Saying this as an historian is a little weird, but sometimes things are best left as mysteries. I found out the identity of the mystery unicyclist, and my world now feels a little less wondrous than it was before.

Moving on…

As any fisherman can tell you, nothing hurts more than the one that got away.

Just the other day I missed getting a pretty sweet Albino Five-Gaiter on eBay by about three seconds – literally! I went to buy it, and it sold before I could finish the transaction.

While it never rose to the status of a grail, I had always hoped to eventually get myself one. Time, money and – most importantly – condition never seemed to work out for me. Vintage Alabasters/Albinos of any sort are notoriously difficult to find in good condition. 

I had thought that now that the Five-Gaiter has moved down another rung in the Breyer Saddlebred hierarchy – with Hamilton now topping the chart – that acquiring one would get a little easier, but apparently that time has not arrived yet.

As I’ve noted before, vintage Breyer Saddlebred molds are relatively easy to collect: whenever the newest Saddlebred mold arrives, all the Saddlebred molds that precede it tend to nosedive in both price and popularity. There are a few exceptions to the rule – the Decorator Five-Gaiters, Translucents like Banner and Gala, and the G1 Saddlebred generally – but for the most part, you can collect them without bankrupting yourself. 

While I like Hamilton as much as the next hobbyist, I’ll always have a soft spot for perhaps the most common Breyer Saddlebred of the bunch: the original #52 Sorrel Five-Gaiter. I keep hoping that that sweet color of his finally makes it onto one of the Saddlebred molds that came after him. 

Or on anything, really. It’s a vintage color that’s been largely overlooked in recent years. I was pleased to see a more modern adaptation of it debut on the on this year’s Seven Arts Surprise model as a “Sable Champagne” Splash Pinto, but I wasn’t lucky enough to get one. Maybe when the prices settle down in a few more months, I hope?

Anyway, there was a pretty nice Black Pinto Clock Saddlebred/American Saddlebred in the last box lot that I bought. I’ve never been a big fan of the mold – he seems so stiff and posed to me – but he’ll probably be sticking around for a little while as I sort out my sales list. I now have about two years’ worth of sales items littering the house, and I haven’t had an ounce of time to do anything about it.

(And I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but it looks like my schedule might be changing again, so I might have even less time for myself. If that’s even possible.)

The only problem here is that any moderately attractive model that hangs around here for any length of time has a habit of staying, especially if they’re a harder-than-average sell. He had a pretty healthy six-year run in the early 2000s (2001 through 2006, to be precise) so most people who needed him already have him. And I don’t necessarily need him. 

Butter Pecan, Again

So much news in the past few days, don’t know where to start with it all…

First, I screwed up the special offer code on the Espresso. It is DOUBLESHOT19. That is what I get for not triple-checking the proofreading.

Second, the first Web Special for the year is a continuation of the “America the Beautiful” series, with the Clock Saddlebred in Gloss Dappled Red Chestnut, named Muir Woods:

Others have pointed out that last year’s BreyerFest Special Run Straight Bet was a similar color and wowed everyone in person, gloss flaws aside.

The paint jobs on the “America the Beautiful” Series have been pretty stellar overall, and assuming they can get the gloss problems that plagued Straight Bet under control (it’s a significantly smaller run, so probably), I suspect that Muir Woods is going to look pretty stunning in person, as well.

All that being said, I’ll only be putting in a single entry for him: the Clock Saddlebred is not a must-have mold for me, and I really need to save up for a dedicated tabletop quilting machine.

(All the ones on my short list are not cheap. Of course.)

But if I get picked for Muir Woods, I would not be unhappy. Inconvenienced, maybe.

About the next release I want to talk about, another polysyllabic word comes to mind: ambivalence.

I love the Smart Chic Olena, and that color and pattern are awesome on him – seriously, they always come up with the neatest and most interesting colors for that mold.

But they are – as I feared – continuing to march down the yellow brick road to Disney/Marvel-land. Naming it after the one franchise, character and actor that aggravate me more than any others.

(Yes really, all three: my family can vouch for this.)

It’s like getting ice cream in the wrong flavor: you’re excited that it’s ice cream, but instead of Mint Chocolate Chip, Black Cherry, Fudge Ripple, French Vanilla, White Chocolate Raspberry, Rocky Road, Pistachio or any of the dozens of other flavors you like or love, it’s Butter Pecan.

This wouldn’t be so bad – Butter Pecan is a perfectly cromulent ice cream flavor, just not in my top twenty – except when it is always Butter Pecan. The first time is great, the second time is okay, that’s fine, but by the third-fourth-fifth time you find yourself thinking the unthinkable: saying no to ice cream.

Anyway. Here’s a bit of comic-book-related news that cheered me up a few days ago: of all the super-hero franchises in the world, I am baffled and delighted that the Legion of Super-Pets is getting a movie.

(I had heard the rumor, but did not think it true!)

Cap

They’ve teased us with imaginary BreyerFest horses before – remember the Palomino Silver from 2009, and the Gold Ethereal from 2010?

But lo and behold, they’ve actually gone and done it this year, with the Early Bird Raffle Model Cap:

Well, more or less – the initial original promo pictures showed a Matte piece without a pearly mane and tail. These concessions were done, I assume, to gussy him up and distinguish him from previous Light Chestnut/Dark Palomino releases of this Saddlebred mold, beginning with the original piece featured on the 50th Anniversary Clock back in 2000.

Gloss because Gloss, and Pearl because it happens to be the traditional gift of 30th anniversaries.

(And who also, incidentally, one of my favorite characters on Steven Universe.)

You all know that I am not the biggest fan of the Clock Saddlebred mold – I don’t actively dislike him, but given the choice between multiple molds in the same color, it’s unlikely he’d be my first choice. But he looks amazing in this color, which was first seen on one of last year’s big hits at the BreyerFest Benefit Auction, that Five-Gaiter:

I was genuinely surprised that the Five-Gaiter went for as much as it did last year. Outside of the original Decorators, and nicely shaded or Chalky examples of the #52 Sorrel, the Five-Gaiter mold is simply not that popular today.

With a little careful shopping, you can acquire a Woodgrain, Palomino or Alabaster for less than the cost of a retail Traditional! That just boggles my mind, since I’m old enough to remember when the Palomino and Alabaster were absolute must-haves for any Breyer collector.

But such is the power of a beautiful, well-executed color that it can make a mold someone is indifferent to, and make it desirable.

If I am lucky enough to win one (ha!) I would give him the rather pedestrian name of Steve – because as most “true believers” should already know, “Cap” is Captain America’s nickname! And generic enough to get around potential trademark issues.

(That industry can be quite, umm, litigious about such things...)

Animal Print Decorators

I love Okapis, so I kind of dig the premiere model in the Wild Animal Series, Kehinde:

The Wildlife Animal Series is an obvious replacement to the annually-released Big Cat Series, which had run its course – and out of “Big Cats” to depict (even though it’s technically not a “Big Cat”, I was kind of hoping they’d manage to work a Caracal into the mix.)

Like the Big Cats Series, which was inspired by the 2012 Passage to the Pacific Stablemate Hear Me Roar, the kernel of the idea for the Wild Animal Series was undoubtedly another Exclusive Event model, the 2011 Sunshine Celebration Everglades on the Nokota Horse mold.

I thought he was kind of neat, but he was definitely a polarizing release: either you loved him, or you hated him. Another animal-themed Traditional release a year later, the Passage to the Pacific’s Fighting Stallion Star of India, left me cold. I liked the general concept, and wanted to love the model, but the execution just didn’t work for me at all.

I am assuming that, like the Big Cat Series, this new series will be an annual one, with releases timed for early Fall. The theme is sufficiently vague enough to allow for a wide range of releases: pretty much any animal print you can think of, from birds to snakes to fish…

… though it seems pretty obvious (or should be) that the next release should/will be a Giraffe on the Forever Saige mold. Technically her neck isn’t as long or out of proportion as a lot of people say it is, but the pose itself is very giraffe-like, so I wouldn’t necessarily object.

Though I’d love to see a Blue Jay-themed Silver/Pegasus, an Oryx on the Unicorn version of Yasmin (obviously!) or a Koi Fish anything.

Kehinde is a really unusual concept, well-executed, and I certainly wouldn’t mind adding one to my herd. Props to the designer Karen Williams for making me seriously want a release on a mold (the Clock Saddlebred) that I am not predisposed to liking in the first place!

But my office is still a mess and I still haven’t gotten around to finishing up my BreyerFest paperwork, so I am okay with not getting one: I am all about minimizing my workload this Fall. I will probably just put in my obligatory single entry and see what happens.

Time, Timing, and Sparkles

In spite of my already overscheduled weekend, I went on a last-minute “wild horse chase” this morning. My sales list for BreyerFest is looking a little spare (no time to finish herd culling!) and I was hoping I could supplement it with a few bodies, at least.

There were no horses worth bringing back. The trip wasn’t a total loss – I did find exactly the vintage fabric I needed to finish off another old quilt project – but for the time. BreyerFest is coming up way too fast, and it really feels like I don’t have a moment to spare this year.

Speaking of impromptu road trips, I did manage to make a quick stop at one of the better stocked toy stores earlier this week on my way home from work, and finally manage to catch an up-close look at several of those new Translucent Patriot models that everyone’s going gaga over.

And… I’m still not all that impressed by it. It’s mostly the mold: it’s very hard for the Clock Saddlebred mold to impress me. The 2005 BreyerFest Raffle Dragon Horse Merlin was another extremely popular piece that left me wondering what the hubbub was about.

I wouldn’t have turned one down if I had won it, of course, but not-winning that year didn’t have the usual sting. (And it also came with a bit of relief, because me and somewhat delicate things made of resin don’t mix.)

I was hoping for a little more oomph on Patriot’s paint job, too: you could barely see the stars on the ones I got to examine. And there were no sparkles! The Horse Crazy Stablemates have ruined me for that.

The store also had a Toro – the Buckskin Appaloosa Nokota Horse Flagship Horse – and him, I liked. But since I need to be on this super-tight budget a few weeks more, I left that one behind too.

I also skipped out on the Vintage Club Blind Bag Drawing, in spite of the temptation of Glossy Kiowas. Aside from the lack of fun money being an issue, my luck has not been so good with winning random Glossies/goodies lately – whether it’s a super-limited (12 pieces?) Glossy Kiowa or one of the Decorator Running Stallion Sailors I don’t have.

Besides, I already have that Sample/Test Kiowa – the non-Chalky one with the acrylic handpainted markings, on a Warehouse body – that I found in the Ninja Pit couple years back, and I’m plenty happy with him. Two is company, three’s a crowd, right?

Let’s hope tomorrow’s road trip to the flea market is more productive than this morning, and last week. (The market was busy, but the pickings were slim for me.)

Patriotic

Someone was a bad doggie earlier this week!

But with uncanny timing, since I’ve been wanting to talk about the Special Run Translucent Patriot, who first came to our attention via the mail-order company Back in the Saddle:

https://www.backinthesaddle.com/itemdy00.aspx?T1=BB6163

Chinese Samples of the Transparent Clock Saddlebred mold have been showing up on eBay over the past several months, so it wasn’t a complete surprise that a Special Run showed up now. I thought we’d have to wait until BreyerFest until we saw a larger-run Traditional Translucent release, though. The blurb on the “Exclusive Models” page of the BreyerFest section of the Breyer web site (that I featured here before) hints at it:

Following in the spirit of the Olympics, each of our Special Runs represent either a continent or the 'brio' of Rio!  

That is, if you translate ‘brio’ as “Carnevale-level outrageous” a la Times Square: the 2007 Glossy Black Ethereal with metallic gold mane and tail covered in glittery multi-colored fireworks, and one of my favorite BreyerFest SRs ever.

Translucent Samples of the Marabella and Running Mare were also made available on eBay via Chinese sources, so maybe either of those might be the potential candidate? (There was a clear plastic Smarty Jones, too, but the Polo Pony version of Smarty is being used for the Early Bird Raffle Polomar. So, not likely.)

But let’s get back to the actual Patriot model. I thought I’d like it more – I’m totally down with Translucents in general, and a couple of quilt projects I’ve worked on in the past year have been patriotically-themed – but the design seems a bit lacking. A bright red nose and ears? Weird, and not in a good way.

Patriotic art only works for me if it’s either done with a sense of subtlety or grandeur (Lincoln Memorial), or is completely over-the-top (Hawaiian-style Flag Quilts). The design of the recalled carousel Christmas ornament from a few years back hit all the right notes in the over-the-top category, I thought, if not the actual pieces themselves:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/carousel-ornament

His Rudolph-colored muzzle aside, Patriot falls somewhere in the muddled middle. My proposal would have gone with a red Woodgrain body, a big blue blanket covered with fifty sparkly glow-in-the-dark stars, and a blaze in the shape of an exploding fireworks rocket. And white striping in the mane and tail.

(Hmm, I think I might have the concept for my next Family Arabian Mare project!)

Seeing a Patriot in person might change my mind, because it often does, but for the time being I’ll be content to sit back and let others take their share first.

The Return of Woodgrains?

The new Woodgrain release Mú Wén Ma, on the Clock Saddlebred mold, took me by almost complete surprise. We’ve been promised new Woodgrains for so many years now - with so little payoff - that I tended to dismiss all rumor of them. When I saw the sneak peek in the JAH Annual, I blew that off as just another tease.

http://www.breyerhorses.com/mu-wen-ma

The only production Woodgrain that we’ve had since 1973 - the year a lot of stuff went away, and never came back - was the 1999 Special Run BreyerFest G2 Clydesdale keychain Stablemate. Even he was a little bit off, something I attribute largely to the scale. It's hard to get good graining on something that small.

There are a lot of explanations for why Woodgrains were not brought back in any meaningful way until now. A few of the more commonly passed around ones include:

• The technique involved some fairly nasty substances, some now banned/heavily regulated.
• The only people who knew how to do it well retired or passed away.
• The technique was too time consuming and/or expensive to be profitable.
• Collectors and hobbyists wanted more realistic colors and finishes.
• The painters who did know how to do it basically told off anyone who suggested the idea "Nope, not going to do those anymore. Can’t make us."

…and so on. Like most decisions, I’m guessing it was a little bit of all of that. I am partial to the one involving the painting department, back in the day, giving Peter Stone dirty looks and shooing him away.

("This isn’t about the Woodgrains again, is it? I thought we all agree we weren’t doing any more Woodgrains. Now either paint something, or go away.")

The mold isn’t my favorite - the Clock Saddlebred mold just doesn’t ring my bells like it does for a lot of hobbyists - but from the pieces and PR photos I’ve seen, he does look very promising. I might have to add him to the list of things to consider buying at BreyerFest.

It makes me optimistic for a Woodgrain Vintage Club release, too. My choice for this? Easy - the Clydesdale Mare and Foal. It'd be like a beefier version of the Family Arabians!

The Clydesdale Stallion in Woodgrain isn’t one of the harder vintage Woodgrains to find, so unlike the Vintage Club Gray Appaloosa Proud Arabian Stallion Harlequin, most collectors would be able to complete that family without a lot of undue strain to their time or money.

The Other Gray Saddlebred

Oh, good heavens, there’s more hyperventilating on NAMHSA-Discussion, this time over last year’s streaming NAN video feed, which reminded me of a bass fishing video. (Some events are better left to being there. See also: golfing, bowling and competitive eating.)

Look, I’m not a huge fan of getting my picture taken either, but you know what? Once you’re gone, the pictures are all people are going to have to know your face by. Most of the pictures taken of me in the past several years involved me in some rather silly and/or moderately awkward situations at BreyerFest or other hobbyist-related events, and I’m totally okay with that.

I can clean up pretty good when I need to, but most of the time I don't find myself in that kind of situation. The me that I am in those mildly embarrassing pictures is closer to the real me than any formally posed picture could ever be. That’s the person I want people to remember.

I have absolutely no desire to be invisible. In fact, I can think of nothing more horrifying than to vanish completely.

But I also don’t make it a habit of smoking, drinking or doing anything more illegal than jaywalking in public, so there’s that. (I’m not a teetotaler: where I live and what I do just make drinking anything stronger than a Mountain Dew wildly impractical most of the time.)

Commander still sits on my workbench, unopened. Silly Vita ate something she shouldn’t have (again!) and most of the day was spent warding off a potential hazmat situation. She’s back to her old self today, but it's as if that little bugger planned it all along, you know?

Interesting. The same week that the Vintage Club Commanders are shipping, Reeves announce another Gray Saddlebred Special Run - a BreyerFest Special in Gloss Dappled Gray Sabino on the Clock Saddlebred, named Ryman.

They also put up a picture of a second Bfest Special: a Gloss Red and White Jasper, named Short Ribs. While most everyone else is having squealing fits of joy over the Saddlebred, it’s the Piggy that has me all excited. It’s the first-ever production release of that mold in a Gloss Finish.

The Saddlebred is nice - I’m sure it’ll be even more attractive in person, as is standard for these sorts of things - but the mold’s never been a huge favorite of mine, and there are still several more Specials to be announced in the coming weeks. It’ll be a while before I make any sort of decisions about what and how many. Since I might have a little less space to work with this year due to the potential new car situation, I’m thinking less will be more likely.

In fact, I spent most of Sunday - the parts where I was not tending to Vita’s scatological needs - prepping stuff to sell via every possible venue, now that it looks like I might have the time to actual do it right.

Off to work in a bit, so off I go…

Spring is Spring!

I’ve been having some ongoing technical and scheduling difficulties that have limited my Internet time this week. Much to my mental benefit, I think.

I suppose everyone else is carping about the insufficient awesomeness of the Sunshine Celebration models? I caught a brief glimpse of the discussion last night, while trying to catch up on my usual rounds.

I didn’t get very far: after I saw the second or third person calling the Nokota Horse "Nakota," on Breyer’s Facebook page, and decided to call it quits right then and there. (Which was what, about 5 or 6 posts in? Gah, that annoys me no end!)

Alas, I really think we’re getting to the point where attendees will expect nothing less than certificates for custom test colors. (I am still allowed to say that, right?)

(Regarding that minor dustup in the comments: look, I have no desire to turn this into a politically-minded blog. If anyone wants to talk about class warfare with me, there are far better places for that, than here.)

The funky spelling error in the Spring Has Sprung e-mail did provide me some much-needed amusement. "Spring Has Spring" - doesn’t it sound like cheesy ad copy from a trying-way-too-hard-to-be-clever fashion magazine? If I get one, he totally deserves some sort supermodel-style moniker: something clever, fashionable - and pretentious! (Why does Zoolander suddenly come to mind?)

As I’ve said in the past, I’m not a huge fan of the Clock Saddlebred mold - he seems a little too stiff and "posed" for my taste, generally. But his color is rather fascinating: a semi-Decoratorish lavender roan blanket Appaloosa? I’m kinda digging it. We’ve seen Reeves experimenting with the more exotic shades of roan in their BreyerFest auction test pieces, and it’s nice to see them finally start implementing them in actual production runs.

As to whether or not I will be getting him, I’m not so sure at this point. I’m pretty much caught up on my bills and payments and stuff, so I could spare a small extravagance, but the set up they have for ordering and distribution this time is pretty wacky. We get 24 hours to e-mail our "entry" to them, and then they draw a list of names, and Reeves gets 24 hours to call us if we’re on the list. If you can't be reached - no horsie for you!

Hmm.

Funny, I was just talking to a couple of people at work the other day about some of the nonsensical procedures we have - most of them implemented because something went horribly wrong at least once before. This crazy "don’t call us, we’ll call you" ordering setup for Spring Has Sprung is a consequence of all other Web Special ordering procedures failing.

Is this setup fair? For me: no, it isn’t. I’m one of those rare souls who chooses not to be tethered to a cell phone. Aside from being somewhat telephone-phobic, I’m not keen on being reachable on a 24-hour basis. Since my work days right now are so variable, a system where I have to wait for someone to call me isn’t going to work so well.

I might still give it a shot and see what happens. Who knows? This system might actually work.

Until it doesn’t.