In Other News

Is there more to the story of the Copenhagen Belgian?

Yes, but it’ll have to wait until next week. Partly to see what happens with the auction, partly because I’m way behind on everything else, but also because there’s plenty of other model horse news that needs to be attended to.

First, most of you know by now - or should know - that Reeves released/dumped a bunch of warehouse overstock at Tuesday Morning stores and the TJ Maxx/Marshalls chain in the past two weeks. The assortment there included Weather Girls, more Elvis items, Prince Jesters, Satos, Kongs, Stablemates sets, some of the creepy doll sets, the Breast Cancer Bluegrass Bandits, Kripton Senis, Cedrics …

You get the picture. Lots of good stuff.

When I did finally manage to escape my house earlier this week (I think it was Monday night? I can’t remember. NaNoWriMo is melting my brain, again.) I somehow ended up at a couple of Tuesday Mornings. Fortunately I managed to walk away with only a pretty nice Gathering Storm (the 2011 Online Collector’s Choice Big Ben) and a gorgeously shaded Sato, both of whom are currently chilling in the car until the coast is clear.

(Yes, dear readers, I also plead guilty to the "sneaking new horses in the house and pretending they were here all along" ruse.  I did sell a couple things this week, so that sort of makes it okay, right? Right?)

I tried finding a Priefert’s Kong that pleased me enough to take home, but they all either had minor flaws I couldn’t stop staring at, or had paint jobs that were a little too flat black for my tastes.

There were also no Weather Girls in my neck of the woods - all snapped up early, I presume. I was sort of hoping to get another Palomino Weather Girl as an accompaniment to the sample one I picked up at BreyerFest this year, but it looks like that will have to wait.

The second bit of news: yes, I was aware of the Heavy/Resin-filled/Home Decorating Show Breyers that turned up on eBay over the course of the past month. I was even an underbidder on a couple of them, but as you know by now, I was not one of the winners.

That’s what happens when your bank accounts are significantly closer to zero than your competition. Being distracted by the whole Blue Belgian business didn’t help, either. (A most pleasing distraction, at least.)

Make no mistake, it definitely stung - quite a bit, to be honest. I happened to be volunteering at BreyerFest the year that the Home Decorating Show leftovers were sold in the Pit. And with my first shift being first thing Friday morning. At the Help/Information Desk.

Yeah, I had to watch everybody else walk past me into the Ninja Pit.

Torture? You bet. It was the only possible way volunteering could have been made unpleasant for me, outside of being made to dance around in the Pal O’Mine suit. (That year was not good for me for a variety of reasons. The absence of the NPOD shopping experience was a relatively low on the list of grievances, believe it or not.)

With the prices that a couple of those pieces brought - and the added attention - it seems even more unlikely that I’ll be able to smooth that particularly rough-edged memory from my mind.

Not that all of them can, or should be. How else would the world know of pearls?

Apple Jack

Argh! My apologies to anyone who’s been expecting a reply or response from me; this novel appears to be eating my brain. There’s way more plot here than I anticipated. I have no idea where it’s all coming from. (Though I am grateful for it.)

It also made me completely forget about the Breyer Fun Day on Saturday. There was a live show this past weekend, too, but it was at least an hour and a half drive, through some fearsome traffic and construction. Just not worth the effort, especially since I wasn’t buying, selling or showing. Some serious and intense socialization would have been good for the soul, but hey. I decided to go with "novel" this month, instead. Too far in to give up now.

I did go a couple miles out of my way to buy a horse yesterday, though technically, it wasn’t for me, but a friend. It was an Apple Jack:


He does have a few flaws, but he was way better than the other one on the shelf. I’ll be stopping by another store on my way back from work on Wednesday to see if I can upgrade, and if not, no big whoop. He’s cute, but there's no shortage of cute here.

I might regret it a few months or few years from now, (as I am with the Classic Shire B, in Pinto), but I do not have infinite shelf space. I already have a couple Bouncers, including my lovely Seren, and I suspect we may be seeing another Bouncer as an SR for next year’s British-themed BreyerFest, anyway. (As a British Spotted Pony, maybe? Yes, please.)

As for the condition issues that everyone’s been freaking out about, I guess I should rephrase my commentary on my Pamplemousse a bit (which I haven’t bothered to return, and I rather doubt I will.) It wasn’t the flaws that made me question keeping him, it was the timing. Every year I think I can get a little ahead of myself in the fall, as far as my finances go, but this year - like the last few - it hasn’t worked out that way.

But when he came, well, I could think of a half-dozen more useful places the money could have been spend on, at that moment. That handful of flaws present became just a few more nits to pick.

If he were an A+ super awesome OMG oh so bee-you-tee-full paragon of perfection, it might have tamped down my apprehension a bit. But he wasn’t. Staring at that sample Pamplemousse at BreyerFest didn’t help either.

Oddly enough, some of the reactions I’ve been seeing about flaws - on both Pamplemousse, and Breyers in general - within the model horse web have provided me some much needed amusement. Oh, if only the greatest aggravation in my life was finding a couple pieces of lint on a plastic horse!

You know, I’ve been hearing that Breyers haven’t been made "the way they used to be" since I’ve been collecting, which is longer than many of you have probably been alive. (I used to buy my Stablemates at Kmart - for 99 cents apiece! You do the math.) If Breyers have truly been going down hill since then, we’d all be collecting little puddles of vaguely horse-shaped plastic by now.

The quality curve has been going up for some time; most of the quality control issues we’re seeing now are slight regressions on that upward trajectory, not some precipitous and unrecoverable drop.

Most of the production problems Reeves is going through now are a consequence of scale, not a lack of caring. They probably underestimated the demand for Pamplemousse, and in an effort to meet the demand, created an environment where some quality control issues cropped up.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the production demands for the Pamplemousse contributed to the relatively short - and flaw ridden - run of the Apple Jack. The production timing certainly seems about right.

Gathering Storm

Never fails: I go away for a few days because of work commitments, and actual news breaks out. (A mild sinus infection didn’t help matters, either.)

"Collector’s Choice" models becoming online exclusives? I didn’t see that coming. Since the voting for these models has been an online-only affair, it only makes sense that the sales of the models selected would go that way, too. It’s the model that the online model horse community selected, not the entire model horse buying public.

I’m not quite sure what to make of it, yet. Some of the issues inherent in the sales method - rapid sellouts, limited availability, crazy price points - aren’t going to be that big a deal. It’s going to be available for six months, which should minimize the information gap. If you’re a member of the model horse community, and don’t find out about it in time to order (or find someone to order for you) in six month’s time, you might want to rethink the way you interact with the Internet.

I am somewhat more optimistic than most hobbyists about Reeves dealing with Shopatron's international sales problem, especially if they are going to commit to "onlining" their direct-to-collector sales. Until that problem is corrected, it’ll probably generate a small industry of "pickup" services, a la BreyerFest. (I’ve had a lot of experience shipping items overseas, so I’d do it if I had the time. But I don’t.)

I am a little concerned about the availability of the model to offline hobbyists, though. How will they explain the disappearance of the Collector’s Choice from the catalogs? Will they even advertise it at all? Will there be other direct-purchase options available to those folks (Phone, Fax, or Fun Days?)

As for the model itself - a Gloss Charcoal Tobiano Pinto Big Ben, named Gathering Storm - I think he’s quite lovely. I liked all three of the voting choices they offered us back then, though the Chocolate Ethereal was my favorite. I’m assuming that this means the flaxen chestnut Bouncer is going to be the Fall Collector’s Choice model, since the test piece for the Ethereal was offered as the Raffle Model for the JAH subscription/resub drawing at BreyerFest last year.

I might pick the Big Ben in the Spring, for my birthday, depending on the finances. I have a lot of other things I have to commit to before then - new glasses, car repairs, possibly some minor (but necessary) elective surgery - so it’s a big if.

How would I get around my prohibition against buying any new models for myself this year? Easy: I’d rationalize him as a purchase of a new and (momentarily) unique production paint job. (Oh, there are a probably a few tests floating around, but tests don't really "count," y'know.)

Some of Breyer’s early Black Pintos paint jobs came with white manes and tails - the #113 Western Prancing Horse comes immediately to mind - but the color and quality of the black paint used on Black Pintos was quite different from that used on contemporaneous Charcoals.

Early Gloss Charcoals tended to have had a brown undertones and some body shading, while the early Black Pintos were usually an inky black, and minimally shaded. Some did have pangare-like shading on the undersides of their barrels, but I don’t think it was a conscious effort to add a touch of realism, or even something that was a part of the painting specs. It was just the way they (or perhaps, a certain member of the painting staff) painted them for a while.

Ice, Ice Baby!

I just found out over the weekend that this "remodeling" process will leave me with 30 feet less shelf space. So a modest culling of the herd has now turned into a major one.

It would have been nice if they had told me about this when the process started two years ago, when I could have modified my spending habits slightly, and done a less drastic accommodation over time. Nope.

And since I can neither afford to move out, or rent a storage unit, I must now add "significant herd reduction" to my list of labors. I’ve managed to get about two-thirds of the way through so far, with a busy work week ahead.

That means less intricate topics for the interim, I guess. The Tenite stuff will have to be put on the backburner.

The next Collector’s Choice selections are up for voting, and for once, I actually really like all three: a Flaxen Chestnut Bouncer, a Gloss Charcoal Pinto Big Ben, and a Gloss Dapple Chocolate Ethereal.

My favorite is the Ethereal: I love that color. If it’s anywhere near the color of a true Rocky Mountain Horse, he’ll be stunning in person. We can’t be sure from the photo: as usual, the image available to us is awful, and too small to manipulate effectively in Photoshop.

I hope it doesn’t hurt his chances in the voting. It’d be nice to have a more affordable, regular run Ethereal in the line. All of the other releases on this mold have either been limited, or expensive. All I have is the 2007 BreyerFest Times Square (whom I love, and is not being culled - no way!)

He’s also my favorite for another reason: the name. There was a rather heated discussion about the Web Special Silver Snow on Blab when he came out; some hobbyists wanted Reeves to produce more of them to satisfy the obvious demand - and to cover confirmed orders that were canceled later in the week. I wasn’t keen on the idea for a multitude of ideas: it would set a bad precedent, the value of the model was partially dependent on the initial piece count, etc. My suggestion was a second December Web Special with a similar piece count: a Gloss Charcoal Othello that I called "Black Ice."

The Ethereal would make a more than adequate substitute, I think. (And for the record, I’m not taking credit for the idea; it’s just a happy coincidence. I also happen to think that some ideas are so strong and so natural that they come up again and again. You know, like Dapple Gray Lady Phases.)

I was initially put off by Ethereal’s rather florid appearance when he finally arrived on the scene in 2006, but I’ve warmed up to the mold considerably since then. I’m not big into "fancified" horses with big hair, but it works on him. He has a beautiful silhouette, too; I was big into making Breyer silhouettes a few years ago, and I was struck by his lovely contours:


(Roemer makes a nice silhouette, too. Really!)

There was a Chocolate Silver Dapple Ethereal in the 2008 BreyerFest Auctions. I can’t recall him specifically, since most auction pieces get filed into the "beautiful but unattainable" part of my brain, and that file gets purged on a regular basis, just to minimize my suffering.

Whether or not I really love an individual auction piece tends to be irrelevant to the purging process. The ones I do remember tend to hit some hot button - a new technique or color, or the reintroduction of an old one. Or it's a rare combination of mold, color and markings, like the Dark Bay/Brown Peruvian Paso with the heavily-spotted stockings. (Favorite mold + a favorite color + favorite markings = Swoon!)

From the photos I’ve seen of him online, that piece seems to be lighter than the proposed Black Ice, but with the quality of the Reeves’s photos, who knows? We’ll have to see how the voting turns out first, and whether we’ll even get to see him on the shelf.

I am concerned that the type of voting poll they’ve enlisted this time around allows for multiple votes from anonymous voters. I am not fond of anonymous online polls: you sacrifice accuracy for the convenience of automation. A few overly enthusiastic voters with too much time on their hands could seriously sway the outcome of the vote, and not necessarily towards the will of the regular voting public.

Black Leopards

Dealing with even more remodeling nonsense here: I had to clean out and move the other china cabinet. I sure do have a lot of breakables, for being a big, clumsy Buffalo!

Since so many hobbyists seem to be losing it over the Treasure Hunt Redemption Horse "Winter" - a Near Black Semi-Leopard Appaloosa - I thought I’d turn the spotlight on Breyer’s earliest attempt at the Leopard Pattern: the #115 Appaloosa Western Prancing Horse:


Yep, this one’s an oddity: no front stocking.

There are two variations of this paint job: some have dark gray stockings, and others have black. I don’t think there’s any consistency to the variations, at least I haven’t seen any. I used to think that the gray stocking versions came earlier, but my boy here with the missing hosiery has the USA mark, so it might be the other way around. It’s not something I’ve looked into yet.

When I first discovered that the Western Prancing Horse came Leopard Appaloosa, I became a bit obsessed with obtaining one. He had to be just right, too; I can’t recall how many times I upgraded mine. Then I discovered there were two variations to it, so I had to have primo examples of both. I found the guy above on eBay a few years back, and he became my representative example of the gray stocking version.

I have a pretty nice black stocking version too. And unlike Gray Stocking Guy, Black Stocking Guy has extra shading in his, ah, unmentionables. (A common feature on models from the 1960s and early 1970s.)


(The color difference is a little hard to see, I know. Like Chalkies, it's much more obvious in person.)

The Western Prancing Horse is another one of those models that was released sometime during the documentation gap of the early 1960s. Evidence suggests that he was a 1962 release, like the Running Mare and Foal, and that he was intended to be the replacement for the Fury/Prancer mold, who was starting to look a little dated by then.

The Appaloosa version of the Western Prancing Horse remained in production through 1973. In 1974, the Appaloosa Performance Horse premiered, as did a new style of Appaloosa paint jobs: masking replaced full-body splash spotting.

Splash spotting never went away, but today tends to be reserved for either reproductions of old-style paint jobs, or for models with airbrushed hip blankets (i.e. the upcoming Mid-States release.) Splash spot Leopards have turned up from time to time, too, but the Black Leopard varieties rarely come with the black mane-tail-point feature anymore. An exception was the 1990/91 Country Store Special POA:


I’m not sure what’s the big fuss over the new version of this old paint job. It’s not unrealistic; I seem to recall much oohing and aahing over a dark-legged leopard part-Friesian foal on Blab a few years back, whose photos inspired many custom copycats.

I think it’s a little bit of backlash over the two previous "owners" of this paint job: the Collector’s Choice Silver Matrix, and the BreyerFest SR Appydaze.

My negative reaction to Matrix wasn’t because of the paint job, but with the overuse of the Silver mold: he had already had his turn in the Collector’s Choice lineup, with Blue Suede Shoes. There’s no formal rule that a Collector’s Choice selection can’t be on a previously used mold, but with over 20 other releases in his relatively brief life, doing another CC Silver rubbed me - and many other hobbyists - the wrong way.

The Appydaze was a miscalculation on Reeves’s part. Having a model and paint job combo that was specifically designed for the younger set? A good idea. Making 1500 of them? Not so good an idea. You could sell over a thousand pieces of them - all of the other SRs that year were 1200 piece runs or less - and still have a ton of leftovers. When hobbyists see a lot of leftovers, they immediately think "That one must have been a dud." And regardless of their personal feelings about a model, most hobbyists tend to think twice before adding a "dud" like that to their herds.

It’s interesting that another model with a similar paint job - the Fest SR Ruffian "Heartland" - didn’t elicit the same negative reaction. Three factors at work with her, I think. First, the Ruffian mold definitely has its fans, or at least doesn’t get quite the negative press the other two sometimes attract. Second, she’s glossy: we’ve all witnessed the power of a Gloss Finish to drive hobbyists mad. And third, she’s a shaded Bay, not a flat Black: more shading and detail = greater perceived value.

It’ll be interesting to see what will turn up next. Most hobbyists are assuming a Gloss variation is on the horizon. A safe and logical bet, sure, but I’m kinda hoping for an old-school splash spot Leopard myself.

No Room for Sergeant

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Power of Suggestion

Here's a little bit of history from my archives, postmarked August 21, 1982: a Breyer Animal Creations “Thank you for your suggestions” postcard. Yep, it was so common back then for hobbyists to write in with unsolicited suggestions that Breyer actually had to have preprinted postcards made to expedite their replies.


Indeed, unsolicited consumer suggestions were one of the main ways that Breyer used to gauge the demand for new molds and new products. Occasionally they'd get a singularly inspiring idea from a lone collector that might lead to a new product, but it was usually more of a numbers game: the more collectors who suggested a similar idea, the more likely they'd consider going forward with it.

(I can only imagine the sheer amount of mail Breyer must have received in 1975 after Ruffian's tragic end; I know it struck a chord with me and all of my other horse-crazy friends of a certain age: i.e. Breyer's target audience.)

Most of us had the common sense (even at that tender age) to know that we would not be receiving credit – or compensation – for our ideas. We were just thrilled to pieces that they had listened to us. And just maybe, we'd think, maybe it was MY letter that finally did the trick, the one that finally convinced them to make it. The only evidence we'd have (at most) would be a letter, or a postcard. But that was usually sufficient.

Things have gotten a little more complicated since then. For one thing, Reeves has now codified this long-standing practice into a concept unto itself: the Collector's Choice Series. Collectors suggest ideas, Reeves selects some of them for us to vote on, and the top vote- and attention-getters get the honor of being manufactured. And the suggester gets credit, and a model.

That hasn't stopped hobbyists from suggesting other ideas outside the parameters of the Collector's Choice Series. We know that Reeves prowls various hobbyist sites (including this one) and many of us aren't shy about expressing our ideas in these all-too-public forums. And like the handwritten letters of yore, it's usually the ones that have momentum, or the weight of public opinion behind them. But sometimes singular ideas get through, too.

I've taken a bit of flak for stating that this year's “Gambler's Choice” idea for BreyerFest was my idea. I had only taken credit for that idea by virtue of the fact that I had suggested it in a thread on Blab that Reeves had specifically requested in order to solicit ideas for this year's Fest. A thread that they obviously read, since they took several other ideas from it as well (the Pink Poodle, the Blue Tortuga Five-Gaiter, the Commemorative Stablemates Set ...)

I wasn't expecting compensation, or for Reeves to give me credit specifically. I only took credit because, well, the dated evidence of my suggestion was there for all to see. I didn't think that it'd be all that controversial. I wouldn't have raised an eyebrow if anyone else whose idea was used had trumpeted that fact, either. We can all stand to get a little ego boost now and then.

Was I upset and a little annoyed that I didn't get the Quarter Horse Gelding in Silver Filigree or Charcoal? Yeah. But I wasn't expecting Reeves to send me one, either. The fact that I had mentioned them specifically in a post back in the beginning of June (as suggested gifts) was just another one of those coincidences brought about by a deep knowledge of the subject matter.

In layman's terms: I made an educated guess.

I also hoped that some would realize from my self-appointed title as the “Breyer History Diva” that I don't take myself all that seriously, and that suggestion was made very much in that vein. My research I do take seriously, but myself, no. I know full well that this pond we swim in is a very small one, and even the biggest fish in this pond are still pretty darn small compared to the ones in the ocean.

Will I continue to make my ideas and suggestions known? Of course I will. That's part of the hobby for me, and for a lot of other hobbyists. Would I like to get credit from the higher-ups for some of those ideas? Sure! But I'm not sitting by my doorway waiting for the UPS truck to drop off my prize for being clever.