Checking Off The Boxes

I’m not sure how I feel about the long-awaited Premier Club Draft Mare and Foal Rhiannon and Rhemi: I don’t dislike them, but they weren’t quite what I was expecting, either. I suspect some of it is that I find the names a bit too twee and pretentious for my tastes. 

And they are Vanners. I get that they’re popular, but like most hobbyists, I dig the slightly more obscure and/or rarer breeds, especially ones on the chunkier side like Jutlands, Suffolk Punches and Dutch Drafts. Georg deserves a family! 

I’m not in that club anyway, so until they come out in a more widely available release, the whole argument is academic. I think I may like them more once I see them in a solid color. (Next year, probably.)

I will also not be buying the Collectors Club Special Jota. This is odd, because everything about him says he should be totally my thing: he’s a Gloss Black (check) Splash Pinto (check) Smart Chic Olena (and check). 

But he’s not doing it for me for some reason. I know a lot of collectors are turned off by the weirdness of his pattern, but it’s definitely not that: I was just researching Splash Pintos for my Standing Stock Horse Foal custom the other day, and I now have a disturbingly large reference file full of peculiar looking foals. They don’t look possible, yet they are. 

I once heard the word “cute” described as “ugly, but interesting”. That about sums it up: I find them cute.

But I think it’s the Gloss that’s the turn-off here. 

I’m definitely not one of those Finish Fanatics: I think some models look better in Gloss, some in Matte, and some look good regardless of their finish. Jota would have been more tempting to me in Matte, especially that soft, satiny Matte Black finish the Stretched Morgan came in in the 1960s. 

I know it’s possible: the Black Sabino version of Araba is pretty darn close!

Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to the Vintage Club Black Troubadour Tuxedo; I’m trying not to be mad that I couldn’t wait that extra day to order my Virkie. 

I am currently debating whether or this means I need to order a little something extra from the website, just because. I know I shouldn’t, but…

The Legions

Here I thought the reason I was in kind of a sour mood this week was because I just missed getting a really sweet deal on a Presentation Collection Bison on eBay. Nope, it was something else entirely:

https://ew.com/comic-books/keith-giffen-dies-superhero-comic-creator/

Most comic book dilletantes know Keith Giffen as the co-creator of both Rocket Raccoon and Lobo, but I first encountered him due to his work on The Legion of Super-Heroes. After I came back to comics after a brief hiatus, I was fortunate enough to do it literally at the very start of The Great Darkness Saga. (Why it has not been made into a DCAU movie yet is beyond me!)

Even though I was involved in Legion fandom during his tenure on the title, I never got to make his acquaintance. Other in my orbit certain did, and I heard stories, so I can perhaps still claim him as part of my “Six Degrees of Separation” circle.

And now, back to our program…

I’m sure the season is partly to blame, but I can’t generate the same enthusiasm everyone else is expressing over the 2024 Deluxe Collector’s Club membership exclusive Stablemate Horatio, who is a mini-me of Othello:

I was just wondering what the next “mini-me” Stablemate was going to be, and I definitely did not have Othello on my Bingo card. (I am still holding out for Ethereal!) 

I don’t dislike him, but much like the Silver, he’s already come in a lot of colors, and it’s hard to do anything original with him. (My first reaction to Horatio: another fuzzy gray one?) And with his legions of fans – no pun intended there, I swear – he’ll be very hard to acquire when they do. 

I like his larger counterpart better: the first 2024 Collectors Club Special Heath. You all know I am a sucker for roany paintjobs. But like most Othellos before him, I’ll probably be bowing out of buying him. I am quite happy with the assortment I already have. 

And one final note, because I know the right people will be reading and I don’t have a Facebook account to correct it at the source, and it’s bugging the heck out of me: the realistic Deer Family debuted in 1964, not 1974. That sell sheet/insert itself is from 1964!

There were the usual variations in color, finish and mold marks throughout the years, but the Deer Family was relatively unchanged from 1964 through 1997. The only thing “new” about the 1974 release – aside from the box and the model number for the gift set – was that the individual members of the family were no longer available separately.

(I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it’s a hint. Now that, I will buy.)

Black Points

Since I’ve been buying a lot of less desirable Collector’s Club Appreciation Glossies recently (the mule Buckeye is on his way!) the currently crop of Glossies has been less of a temptation, especially since my favorite of the bunch – the Black Brishen Sjoerd – seems to be everyone else’s least-loved. 

Conversely, I am not too keen on the Peptoboomsmal: I tried my best to love him or even like the Dundee/Australian Stock Horse mold –the 2022 Flagship Special Romeo should have been a no-brainer for me, for a couple of reasons – but I am having a hard time warming up to him. 

The other two are also very nice, but they are more in the like, rather than love category: the Morgan is pretty, but also pretty huge, and the Totilas is a bit tippy.  

So I took a pass on the offer this time. Maybe I’ll be able to trade for a Glossy Sjoerd at BreyerFest: I just finished my sales list and it’s definitely an eclectic one. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find someone to trade something for it!

My mind is on a dozen different things today (someone or something literally bent some of my metal garden fenceposts to the ground, and I have no idea how) so I’ll wrap up a couple of talking points from the comments and move on to other topics next time. 

The color on the Vintage Custom Black Stallion was not extensively retouched; if anything, he’s actually a bit darker than I received him, since I had a hard time matching his highlights. Any perceived brightness can be attributed to a fresh application of varnish and outdoor lighting. Like Reeves, photography is not my strongest suit! 

As for my opinion of the final disposition of the Test Color Appaloosa Performance Horse: I am assuming, unless proven otherwise, that the sale was taken private: there are always ways. The conversation about him that appeared shortly afterward may well have contributed to his disappearance. I think the fact that my other purchase – also a Test Color! – happened a few hours later, yet was not canceled actually strengthens this argument. 

A hobbyist who was genuinely concerned about the seller would have also seen the Classic and insisted that one be canceled as well. The fact that they let that one go suggests to me that it was someone who either had no idea it was a Test, or was a “high point” collector with little interest or concern for plain, Chicago-era Classics. (Or regard for what their fellow hobbyists think of them, too.)

Because an odd little Black Stallion with four stockings and gray hooves definitely doesn’t have the same allure as an early BreyerFest Auction Test Color that’s been “missing” for 30 years, or the same potential for a financial return on their investment. 

For the record, I am not a fan of “high point” collectors of any stripe: they tend to throw their money around rather carelessly, distorting the market in the process and make life difficult for collectors of more modest means.

To Buy, Or Not To Buy

Shows you just how distracted I’ve been lately: I just now realized I’ve been calling Zafirah Ziyadah! And here I thought I was doing so well, never having called Totilas Tortillas… 

Here’s today’s conundrum:

On one hand, here is a Glossy Dark Dappled Red Bay on the Fireheart; on the other, there is my commitment to minimize my purchases this year until I legitimately have my inventory under control. 

Right now my “buy-o-meter” is telling me no: most of the recent Collector’s Club Special Runs of this sort have not been all that difficult to obtain after the fact, including Lafayette. If I still need him six months from now, I don’t think I’ll have too much difficulty obtaining one.

Plus the Vintage Club and Stablemates Club releases were just announced: that pretty much blows my model horse budget for the month anyway.

Too many hobbyists, I think, make the assumption that models fall into only two categories: expensive, and worthless. As someone who finds value and worth in every Breyer mold – but is also a cheapskate who has a hard time spending more than $300 on any one model – I am not one of those people, obviously.  

Most models fall in the “mushy middle”, with their prices bobbing up and down according to whims, fads and fashions. Remember when Khemosabi was a thing? When the original NIB AQHA Horse was selling for $250? Or the $400 1984 Just About Horses Saddlebred Weanlings? 

That’s why I don’t take too much stock in that current line of hobby thinking that assumes that because the prices of Alborozos have leveled off, that the market itself has cooled. 

No, it’s just moved on to something else, as it always and eventually does. There are still tons of models out there being advertised at crazy prices, and some of them… are actually selling. 

Off to plant my pepper seeds now...

Taking the Win

Things are pretty quiet here, model-horse wise. I did a very, very preliminary show string for the show in April: the Collectibility section was pretty easy (as I hoped it would be!), but the Stablemates division I wanted to focus on this year? That’s going to be some tough sledding.

And it’ll be a couple of weeks before I can go through my stash and pull out some fresh contenders. My success with the Stablemates has been such a mixed bag lately I’m not even sure what I’m looking for at this point…

To go back to a point I made in my previous post about reading too much into things, I think a lot of hobbyists are reading way too much into those BreyerFest Special Run reveal videos posted on Instagram. They’re a little oddly lit and shot, and what we’re seeing in them is not any more representative of what they’ll actually look like in person than the publicity photos.

Seriously people, nothing has happened to the Brighty mold. It’s perfectly fine.

I don’t think we can accurately assess what the models will look like in person until we see some samples in person, and the first opportunity for that will probably be at BreyerWest, at the end of the month. 

I doubt my opinions or choices will change, though. My choices were based mostly on affection toward the mold, rather than the love of the color. Until we get better (less staged) pictures, all we can do is chillax, and maybe get some crafting done in the meantime. (No painting for me though. Stresses me out too much!)

Now for some actual model horse content:

Here’s a model I acquired last BreyerFest that I only recently unboxed: a Gloss Omega Fahim! I traded my Gloss Jake (the Chestnut Overo Wixom) for him; I’m sure the person on the other side of the trade thought they were getting the better of the deal. 

But (a) both of the models were technically the same price in the beginning, which was free and (b) if both ends of the trade are happy with what they get, so who’s to say one side profited more than the other?

There have been plenty of deals I’ve been a part of where I came out the “winner” financially, but my first and foremost goal when wheeling and dealing is to acquire things that I like and want. Selling is (usually) a secondary goal.

And this model is so gorgeous in person: the gloss really brings out the midnight blue highlights that are almost imperceptible in the Matte version. The Jake was nice – and one of the scarcer Glosses of that particular CCA Sale – but I scarcely glanced at him when I owned him. But the Omega Fahim I could stare at it all day. Feels like a win to me!

Shiny and Bright

I have nothing worthwhile to contribute to the model horse conversation today, other than the fact that I bought a lot of stuff today that I shouldn’t. 

In my defense, I have been dealing with a lot of very dumb people recently, and at least one of the purchases (a box lot) will yield me a small profit, once I pull out what I want from it. 

That’s a good way to salvage a kind of crummy week, especially since I haven’t had an opportunity to intentionally make a lot of purchases for resale purposes. (The Sarong is still very much up in the air.)

The Merry and Bright Stablemates were a “for myself” purchase, not a “for profit” one, unless I get two identical pieces. I like them all, and the colors are neat, and very reminiscent (probably deliberately so!) of vintage Shiny Brite Christmas ornaments. 

I’ve decided against getting the Collector’s Club Gloss Palomino Emerson Chadwick – not because I don’t want him (I do!) or can’t afford him (I can!) but because I’m prioritizing my hobby money until the end of the year. If I do make any hobby purchases, I want that money to go towards Vintage items, rather than new ones. 

I’ve had very good luck finding high-quality Vintage items around this time of year, so it seems like a wise strategy.

Unlike the Stablemates, which is just an insane market in general, most Collector’s Club items are not particularly difficult to obtain second hand anyway (and in the case of recent special sales on the Breyer web site, first hand!), so I suspect my gamble will be a pretty safe one. 

I am slightly worried about the potential Winter Web Special animal, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, like I always do. Still hoping for a Dog mold, an Elk, or that Piebald Deer Family I have been clamoring for for years now. 

Another bull? Probably a pass, depending on the color scheme and actual mold used.

Johann

My schedule is changing again – back to third shift, starting Monday night! – so my posting schedule is going to be a bit messed up here for the next week or so. 

And then I’ll have to start getting ready for Worldcon; it’s been forever since I’ve been to downtown Chicago, and while I’ll probably spend most of my time in the hotel attending panels and stuff, I don’t plan on spending all of my time there. 

I’m already planning to meet up with a couple of other hobbyists while I’m in town; if you haven’t already contacted me, feel free to do so – the more, the merrier! (I plan on wearing at least one model horse-related shirt during the event as a conversation starter, if nothing else.)

My biggest concern about the trip, though, is whether or not I’m going to miss Johann:

As you might know, I’ve not had the best luck with buying “first come/first served” Collector’s Club Exclusives. Now that I’ll be back on nights AND will be out of town in late August/Early September – the window of time Johann will allegedly be released – well, things aren’t looking so great for this guy, either.

This is a huge potential bummer for me because I collect the Classic Lipizzan: I think I have every release except a couple of the Pegasi, including Cosmus and the weird 1985 Flocked Blue Christmas release. 

I don’t have any Test Colors either, but there aren’t a lot of them floating around, as far as I can tell. A Matte Five-Gaiter Sorrel one that sold on eBay a little while back went for beaucoup bucks. (I remembered because, alas, I had fleeting notions of bidding.)

I know everyone is freaking out about the Solid Bay, but I really don’t care which color I get, because I want all of them. Well, I suppose getting the Bay one first would definitely help me out financially, but my first concern is just in getting any at all at this point. 

I’m hoping that the fact that he’s not a newer – or particularly popular – mold will also help me out, but in this market I will take nothing for granted. 

(And yikes, Reeves, did you Google the Johann + Breyer combo ahead of time? That’s awkward, especially for something that debuted at a German-themed BreyerFest. Again, you left Horst right there on the table…) 

Awkward

I don’t know what was more awkward to witness on Tuesday. Those epically clueless contestants on Wheel of Fortune? That completely messed up auction where more than one person bid up something that was not only an obvious knockoff, but also in terrible condition? 

Or seeing all the Honeybears already for sale on the secondary – who, at the time of me writing this, almost 48 hours later(!), is still available on the Breyer web site.

Personally, I’d vote for the auction, because it would have taken all of twenty seconds to do the research to determine that just about everything about this lot was wrong. And all Wheel of Fortune does is confirm my suspicion that they deliberately put on less-than-stellar contestants to make the people watching at home feel smart. Which I think is a terrible idea, but I digress…

Anyway, since my sleep schedule was out of whack because of jury duty (that I later found out was cancelled – after I woke up!) I thought I had to make a quicker than average decision on whether or not to get the Honeybear, and I decided against it. 

Not because I didn’t like him – he’d definitely make a nice companion to my Fell Pony/Berry Pony Jujube, who has similar feathered pinto markings – but because I have enough physical Stuff to deal with right now.

I also had the suspicion that unlike Lafayette, Reeves would not get caught flatfooted this year. I am happy to be proven correct! Honeybear’s picture was prominently displayed on the web site for months as a perk of membership, after all, and it’s only right that they make enough for everyone looking forward to him. 

If it takes the wind out of the sails of the more aggressive flippers, even better. If there’s a sufficiently large number of overstock left over after a certain period of time, all they’ll have to do is “repurpose” them with Gloss, problem solved!

What’s nice about this situation is that now I can put off a decision on Honeybear for at least a little while without costly consequences; the extended window has also given a lot of other hobbyists the time to actually make an informed decision about it purchasing him. Or not.

Time I wish I had had last year, as my receipts from last year are quick to remind me.  

Compared to the heydays of the 1970s and 1980s, we get relatively few Regular Run Traditionals to choose from on a yearly basis, so it makes sense to have items that sort of “bridge the gap” between Regular Run items that are theoretically available for most of a year,  and (often extremely) Limited Editions/Micro Runs/What Have You that are gone in the blink of an eye.

Tapping Out

I was having a pretty good birthday until I got home and found out about this:

No, not this one either. I don’t even know what to say any more. 

I do not live on the Internet. I am not on Facebook. I am telephonophobic and only use my phone when absolutely necessary; in fact, most of the time I don’t even know where it is. 

(FYI: I did get a new phone for my birthday; we’ll see how that goes.)

It wouldn’t have mattered anyway because I was literally on my way to work while Slyder dropped; even when I do manage to remember to have my phone on me, I never answer it in the car because I am not that great a driver and I can’t afford the distraction.

The only bit of luck I’ve had was the BreyerFest VIP Ticket drawing, which was a good thing because the way the remainder of those tickets were sold I wouldn’t have been able to get one. 

Oh, and Puffin, but she was passed along to someone who wanted her more. 

But this release was something I was actually looking forward to; the Special Run Gunner has been a lower-end item on my grail list for a while now (price, it’s always about the price) and I was excited about the possibility of something in this mold in glossy. 

Look, you know I’m a diehard: you’d be hard pressed to find someone who lives a more “Breyer Life” than me. 

But I’ve just about had it with this Collector’s Club nonsense. I’m tired of clicking on links and only seeing the “Sold Out” tag. It’s just like those wait lists I hear about that I’m pretty sure are also almost entirely imaginary. 

If you’ve almost lost me, you’ve definitely lost others with far less patience and access.

I have a life beyond the Internet and there’s no way I am sacrificing any part of it to play this game.

The money I was allocating for this has already been spent elsewhere. (No, not a guitar. Not yet.) 

Whether I bother clicking on any other Collector’s Club Exclusive Offers going forward remains to be seen, especially since the entire exercise this year has been almost entirely moot anyway. I’ll just save my cash and splurge on something vintage instead. 

Silver Basecoat Blacks

[Head’s up: the next week is going to be coo-coo bananas for me, so if I disappear for more than my usual 2-4 days, I just want to let you know I am (probably) not dead.]

Turns out I did have a few moments to spare yesterday so I opened up my Lafayette after all:

Nice! I am pleased.

When they mentioned “silver basecoat” in the original notification e-mail, I assumed that meant that Lafayette would be the same silvery black color as Summer Solstice, Gwendolyn, and the Weather Girl Thunderstorm. 

I own all three of those models – I like them enough that they’re all a part of my display collection – so I was perfectly fine when that did turn out to be the case. I was lucky enough to get a Lafayette without any significant condition or box issues either, and that’s good because I don’t have time for any of that right now.

People are very quick and not at all discreet when it comes to expressing negative opinions on the Internet about any darn thing, so it appears that my opinion (currently) seems to be in the minority. 

Apparently he’s not black enough? Weren’t folks complaining not that long ago that they didn’t like solid black or near-black horses? Stuff like this is why I buy what I like and try not to get too caught up in the opinions of what other people like. 

Personal preferences are personal preferences. Nobody should be shamed or bullied for liking or disliking something on an aesthetic level. 

I’m a visually-oriented person, so trust me, I am judging people’s aesthetic choices all the time, especially when it comes to clothing. And sometimes I do find them wanting. 

But I do so internally. The only time I tend to verbally comment on anybody’s apparel choices is when I am either envious, or it looks really great on them and I think they deserve the compliment for their good taste. As long as as it meets all of the the legal definitions of acceptable attire, it’s none of my business if they think they look great in magenta.

(Nobody looks good in magenta. Okay, almost nobody.)

Anyway, I’ve liked popular things that have become unpopular, I’ve like unpopular things that have become popular, and every shade in between that. 

And Here We Go

When I said SOON, I wasn’t expecting NEXT DAY!

Well, I was kind of hoping it would be, because it would have been a perfect way to celebrate National Model Horse Day and all. But I also know that NMHD is pretty much just my personal holiday (it’s the 57th day of the year!) and not anything outside of this blog even knows about, so it’s almost purely a coincidence. 

I think. 

Anyway, I didn’t get a chance to access the Internet until almost 5:30 p.m. that day, so the initial batch of Lafayettes were long gone before I even knew they were available. But fortunately Reeves did go with the backorder option, much to the delight of almost everyone except hobbyists with an unusually narrow definition of the term “limited edition”.

It’ll take six month or so for the backordered ones (including mine) to get here, but thank goodness I don’t have to rely on the secondary market to get one at all. A few are selling in the $125-135 range, but for the most part I think people actually read the e-mail/understood the maths before pulling the trigger. 

I hope that all Collector’s Club Exclusives are done this way from now on, especially ones that are advertised for months in advance. There are a lot of models offered through the CC that are not guaranteed in any way – Web Specials, Test Colors, Exclusive Event models, BreyerFest items – and there should be some models available to anyone who has a CC membership, if they want it. 

As for the small handful of folks complaining that Lafayette is not really all that special anymore because he can be backordered... well. I have said this before, but it needs repeating: quantity is only one factor of many when it comes to aftermarket prices on any given model horse, whether it’s a Special Run or Regular Run. 

There are many models with pretty substantial runs that command pretty high prices because collectors love them and want them. Some of the pricier Exclusive Event models, for example, are the ones with 80-125 piece runs, oddly enough. Heck, look at the prices for the Seattle Soiree model Redmond!

When Reeves started labeling things “Limited Editions” and “Commemorative Editions” back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, those items regularly outsold Regular Run, open stock items. Sometimes by A LOT.

So I would always roll my eyes whenever a flea market vendor would try to tell me how “rare” those models were. The quantities specified on the Commemorative Editions had no relation to how well other models made that year were selling. Just because they limited a model to 10,000 pieces in a year did not mean all regular run models made that year were selling more than 10,000 units. 

In fact, I would not be surprised if these “Limited Editions” were the best-selling items in their respective years. (I do not have the time to dig out those files for specifics.) It was just a marketing tactic. People see a number, and they automatically assume that if there is a fixed number, that means it is rare.

Limited does not mean rare. It just means something about the run of an item is fixed in some way: by location, by time, or by quantity. Sometimes those models retain their value. Sometimes they do not.

Collectibles are an unreliable and unpredictable investment, and your money should be better spent on models you intend on keeping long term. End of story. 

Personally, if I really want to get down and dirty, I would propose that Reeves consider making all of their more aesthetically pleasing Special Runs the higher piece count ones, and the more challenging/less showable pieces the scarcer ones. Let’s see just how much money some collectors will cough up for a metallic magenta Khemosabi with lime green points, a Lady Roxana in “Baby Poop Brishen Brown”, or a Fuchsia Pintaloosa Family Arabian Mare. 

The fan base of these molds is sufficiently high enough for most of them that smaller runs will still sell out, handily. (In fact, I am certain that more than a dozen of you are now saying to yourself “I would buy a Fuschia Pintaloosa FAM in a heartbeat.” Me too people, me too.)

If they want to make something extra nice and showable, put it in the Benefit Auction and make sure that money goes to charity.  

In short: if you want to make short-term profits by buying low and selling high (arbitrage) go play that game in the actual stock market, not the plastic one.

The Choices Given

My Gambler’s Choices are…

…the Glossy Winx and the Appaloosa Valerio! 

The Winx was what I was hoping for, but the Appaloosa Valerio is a surprise, because I usually don’t get the Appaloosa option with Gambler’s Choices. I thought it’d be either the Rose Gray (who I think is the prettiest of the four) or the Unicorn (weird, but awesome in its own way).

Like most of the Valerios out there, he does have the “squish” problem with his neck, which some hobbyists are assuming – and as someone who did work for a plastics injection molding plant for five years, I nod in agreement – is probably a consequence of him being molded out of Cellulose Acetate instead of ABS.

As someone who sometimes goes out of her way to collect mold oddities, it doesn’t bother me in the least. Though I do hope that they resolve the issue for the 2021 Deluxe Club Membership Stablemate Alborozo, because I know my fellow hobbyists are not as forgiving. 

The only (slight) disappointment about the 2020 CCA offer is finding out about the other Glossies that they only hinted at. And that one of them was the Sable Island Pony. 

Dang it! I was afraid of that.

I’m definitely not considering trading my Winx for one, because her gloss is nice and thick and her shading is top notch and I love the Emerson mold. But I might consider trading either of my previous CCA Glosses (the Pinto Wixom Jake, or the Pinto Roxy Kodi) for one. Eventually. 

Or for a Gloss Catch Me. The ones I have seen are pretty nice looking, too.

Ah well, probably better to savor the choices I have been given, and not worry so much about what I haven’t.

In the meantime, I will be spending the rest of my weekend cleaning up and sorting out the horses that are now out of the car. Turns out that that most of the them are in better shape than I expected (yay!) except for one of the sets I was hoping to keep (boo!) The Bay Old Timer looks pretty good, and is more appealing than I remember, though it might be the nostalgia talking.

There’s also a freakish neon yellow and tan Shrinky Misty in the lot too that I shouldn’t keep, but I find myself… hesitating. The weather is going to be nice all weekend, so pics may be coming of her, next time.

Hindsight Is So 2020

How is it only Thursday? This week has felt at least a month long! 

The first thing I’ll say is that I will devote an entire post to the Celebration Horse controversy, but not today, because I’m still recovering from… all the other stuff.

I get that Reeves is trying to recoup some of the sales “lost” to the absence of an in-person BreyerFest by extending their holiday sales promotions into October. But I paid off my credit cards earlier this year and I kind of want to keep it that way by the end of it, you know? 

I mean, my family is going to be asking some questions in the next week or so about the sheer number of Reeves boxes getting dumped on our doorstep… 

Anyway yes, to start the week I did participate in the Customer Appreciation Sale: all of the revealed/mentioned items – Winx, Buckeye and the Catch Me – were acceptable to me. The Winx and the Buckeye had already been “revealed” through leaks to dealers a while back, but the Catch Me was a surprise. 

The one I’m most forward to seeing in Gloss is the Catch Me: all the ones received by my local retailers were heavily picked through before I got to see them, and therefore probably not the best or most representative examples. And I do love the True North mold.

Like everyone else, I am all hubba-hubba-yowza about a Gloss Winx: Emerson, in Gloss Dark Bay? Sold. 

And I’ve been casually searching for affordable Brown Sunshines for a big chunk of the year, without much success. I had no idea how popular that mold is right now!

Just last week I was thinking that I should probably put together a couple of alternate CCA “buy” lists, but since they dropped it on us two months early, I just went the easiest route possible and bought 5 of the 6 Fairytale Friends. I was planning on getting them all anyway, saving them as order fillers for free postage, but since my week started out pretty rough (not hobby-related) and I didn’t feel like doing any complicated math, in the cart they went. 

(The last one in the set will get added to my Honeybunch order here in a day or two, because you just know I’m not going to pass up an affordable Pearly Possibly Pinto Palomino Fell Pony Emma.)

As for what other Glosses might show up in the CCA mix, I have no idea. I saw some suggestions that the Brick and Mortar Special Lionel could be a possibility, and I am very much in favor of that, please and thank you, especially since I never got to see any locally and I had plans on handpicking one. 

But I am not going to worry about what I get, regardless.  

That Hamilton Horse

I took a chance at the Walmart in the road construction zone today… and success!

While I’m tempted to go for broke and complete my collection of the Warmblood mold – especially now that the Fairytale Friends releases, including Sage, are open to anyone, club member or not – I  am still annoyed about the BreyerFest Arya release and I do not give up little grievances easily. 

In other Stablemate news Chalice, the Bonus Stablemate for next year’s Deluxe Collector’s Club membership, is a replica of the model that broke the bank at the 2019 BreyerFest Benefit Auction, and he’s pretty spiffy. I originally thought that he’d be a chase piece for the 70th Anniversary Stablemates set, but this will also do. (And be much easier to acquire!)

But the model that’s got me all twitchy and bothered is this hot ham and cheese sandwich of a horse:

Glossy. Dappled. Black. Hamilton. 

Pardon my French, but damn. Reeves, you ain’t playing!

Well actually, that I already knew, but the rest of you will see why in a few weeks. 

That Hamilton Horse better be either a pre-order, or a run of 3000+ pieces, because if my recent interactions have been any indication, their beleaguered Customer Service Reps have been through enough in the past year and really deserve a break. 

In fact, probably all deserve gift baskets. (Saturday is Sweetest Day in these parts…)

Some Days Just Be Like That

Yesterday was ridiculous.

First, I apparently wore my tee-shirt backwards the entire day and nobody bothered to tell me.

Second, I had an eBay transaction canceled on me. The seller gave me fifteen minutes (!) to respond to a question about shipping costs. In the middle of the day, when I had no access to any electronic devices whatsoever. 

Third, as I was going through the rest of my e-mails I discovered that there was a second Collector’s Club release – an Appaloosa Lonesome Glory named Sassy – but it was sold out already so never mind.

Truth be told: (a) I wasn’t in a situation where anyone would have either noticed or really cared about the shirt, (b) that deal was probably too good to be true, and (c) I am not all that into the Lonesome Glory mold anyway.

As for the quick sellout on the Sassy, it’s mostly a combination of Glossy finishes making hobbyists dumb and people with multiple accounts taking advantage of their fellow hobbyists’ desperation for anything glossy. 

There’s nothing that can be done to counter the all-gloss, all-the-time mindset; y’all know I’ve tried my best. But we can counter the opportunity for profit-taking by resisting the urge to reward that behavior. 

That’s why I don’t have a Buckskin Adios or the Polled Hereford Bull Marshall and (probably) never will. (Yeah, I saw the Marshall on eBay. Wasn’t me that bought it, that’s for sure….)

I’m good. You know I’ve gotten my fair share of goodies this year. I’m mainly kvetching because of other, more serious nonsense I had to deal with today and it takes my mind off of all that. 

But back to the topic: I don’t know why they switched the Collector’s Club Exclusives to a first-come, first-served basis when they had been doing pre-orders before. I am going to assume that there’s some logic to the decision that currently escapes my tired and exasperated brain. (Too much extra hassle for the additional profit?)

I will get myself a Fabio eventually, but like the Dapple Gray Belgian I was hoping for, I will have to wait until the next in-person BreyerFest. Not going to bother with Sassy, unless I see it in person and find myself smitten. 

That’s it for today; I need to get back to cleaning and sorting out the mess of models that I have, and not worry as much about the mess that I missed out on. 

This Year's Appreciation Offer

Oh boy, I don’t even know where to begin.

Well, this has been an interesting three days, hasn’t it?

I was excited for the Collector’s Club Appreciation Sale – until I discovered that it was going to go live at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, with no way for me to get Internet access until 3 p.m. at the very earliest.

Initially I thought that because previous sales took hours to sell out, that I still had a chance but alas, no. 

While I was a little on the fence about participating anyway, I did bypass a couple of sales on items that I already had in my cart, just in case. The Double Discount Sale weekend was especially hard to ignore!

My luck has been exceptionally good model-horse-wise for the past month, though: that beautiful Yellow Mount, the Showcase Collection Grazing Mare, an Avoriaz and (literally arriving just hours ago, and still in his box) a Reuben, too.

So I wasn’t as bummed as I could have been.

I was not entirely surprised that Reeves decided to open up the offer again over the weekend for people who were not available to participate previously. The start time (2 p.m. on a Wednesday) was awkward for a lot of people, and there were several reported instances of ordering glitches – Regular Run items that the site interpreted as ineligible for the program.

But the most important factor in their decision wasn’t the whiners on Facebook: it was the fact that it sold out in 27 minutes. (In case you were wondering about the math, that’s an order every two seconds. Yikes!) It’s pretty clear that they vastly underestimated the demand for this offer.

I made some suggestions elsewhere online that next year’s sale should be tweaked to be more inclusive – like (for instance) shifting the start time to something a little bit later to accommodate shift workers on the East Coast, and people on lunch breaks on the West Coast who might not have Internet access at work. (Because surprise, people: not a lot of us do, nor do many of us see it as a hardship.)

And/or also truly making it a Customer Appreciation Sale by opening up the window of opportunity to everyone – but limiting it to a set number of hours. Have a quantity of Glosses on-hand to accommodate the first X number of customers, and have the rest of the orders that get in before the expiration time put on backorder.

And I’ll be darned if I find myself reading the new offer in my e-mail box this afternoon and finding variations of these two ideas being implemented for the Second Chance offer right now.

I also suggested the possibility of making the Gloss item selectable – thus neutralizing the desirability issue a bit, since that means they’d make more of the popular ones and less of the less popular ones. But that was clearly wish fulfillment on my part – who wouldn’t love the option of Glosses made to order?

Speaking about the less popular ones, I feel so sad for all those poor, unwanted Glossy Enzos! I don’t have any particularly negative feelings toward the mold itself (other than its narrowness) and you know I love minimal pintos, so I would not have been among the disappointed if I had gotten one. Though of the original five Glosses, Latigo Dun It is the only one that’s making me wince a bit. Another expensive and possibly unattainable Smart Chic Olena, ouch…

(Looks at my Gloss Kodi, wonders if trading is a possibility.)

Other surprises/not really from the sale: that that goofy Classics/Freedom Series Cupcake sold out, as did the larger sizes of that totally boss Fighting Stallion t-shirt.

The Cupcake has since been restocked, and since the t-shirt is part of their 70th Anniversary lineup it will be, eventually.

It will be interesting to see what the CCA sale will be like next year; I suspect it will be more like the second offering than the first.

The only other changes I’d like to see is (a) fixing the notification issue: in light of the bajillion e-mails they send off during the holiday season, adding another e-mail notification of the sale the day before to all Collector’s Club members shouldn’t be all that hard, and (b) adding a link on the Appreciation Model page to the page that lists all the eligible purchase items would actually be super helpful, especially when one of your first or second choices is sold out and you don’t want to go wandering/wondering around the site looking for a substitution.

Shrink Ray, Activated!

Alas (and as I feared), it appears I will not be able to make it to the local Fun Day next weekend.

Darn it! The past week has been kinda stressful and I really could have used a “Horse Girl’s Day Out” kind of thing. I guess I’ll just have to content myself with pizza and the Friday night TCM Godzilla movie marathons for the next few weekends instead. (Original Japanese cuts with subtitles, because that is how I roll!)

Anyway, I noticed last night that Reeves was starting to put up all of next year’s club and event stuff on the web site, and some of the pages went live today, including the 2020 Collector Club memberships.

With the “Deluxe” level of membership, you’ll get a Stablemates-scale Fighting Stallion in Gloss Palomino:

Reeves turning its “shrink ray” on some of its Vintage molds is something many of us had hoped and/or expected, and it makes perfect sense that the first of these is being released in conjunction with next year’s 70th anniversary celebration.

It’ll be fun to see who – or what – else gets shrinky-dinked. I’m assuming that the rest of the original “Decorator Five” – the Mustang, Five-Gaiter, and Running Mare and Foal – will be up next. But then who? The Family Arabians? The Clydesdales? Man o’ War (please?)

It should be pointed out that the item in the promotion pictures probably isn’t the Stablemate Fighting Stallion itself, but – more than likely – a Test Color on the Traditional mold. (I’m not 100 percent certain of the Test Color part, because the images a just a tad bit too low-resolution for me to determine.)

(And if so, can I call “dibs”?)

More on the Vintage Club stuff another time, because obviously.

All In

Well, it’s official: in April, I’ll be attending my first live show (Pansies & Ponies) in 15 years. It’s something that I’ve been promising myself to do for a while now, and since I’m now in a place – more or less – that I can do it, I’m doing it.

Putting a show string together is going to be a challenge, though. Collectibility won’t be an issue (of course!) but everything else is essentially shiny, new – and a little bit terrifying, to be honest.

I think this is a good thing. Everyone needs to push the boundaries of their comfort zones once and a while. I think too many people define themselves by what they can’t do – or think they can’t do – and I don’t want to be that kind of person.

I definitely can’t snap my fingers, knit, dunk a basket, or parallel park. But I’ve gone rock climbing, travelled cross-country alone, officiated a wedding, and cosplayed in public. Those all took some measure of bravery, and I survived.

I’ll be fine. A little overwhelmed at first, but fine.

Second, I bought some costuming and crafting supplies for BreyerFest last week – new supplies, not stuff pulled from my already-voluminous stash – so I am now officially all-in on that endeavor, too. Even so, everything that was purchased was on sale, and can/will be used or repurposed for other projects. In other words, those purchases weren’t quite as existentially fraught as hitting the Paypal button on live show entry fees.

The final thing that I thought I’d be all-in for, but I find myself hesitating on – is the release of the Collector’s Club Special Run Out of the Blue:

(Props to their photographer for thinking outside the box for this shot! I love it!)

This release hits all my “marks” – the Bobby Jo mold, a relatively simple and well-executed roan pinto, a reasonable price – but I am hesitating. I haven’t finished my taxes yet, and I am still in the process of figuring out my new monthly budget with the new car et al. And I want to keep my new model purchases to a minimum as long as possible this year, because I still feel like I own just too much danged stuff!

Breyer introduced Red Roans in 1968 – on the Running Stallion first, followed by the Lying Down Foal, Scratching Foal, and Running Mare in successive years – but it wasn’t until the late 1980s that they finally attempted to produce Blue/Black Roans.

(Yes, some Tests and Oddballs existed in between, but are scarce even by Test Color/Oddball standards.)

The earliest examples were more like unusual-looking fleabitten grays, like the #830 Quarter Horse Stallion release of 1990, on the Adios mold, or the 1989 JAH Special Run Quarter Horse Yearling.

Neither one of those releases went over that well, so Reeves moved on to slightly-more-accurate (though still a bit greenish) interpretations with the likes of the JAH Special Five-Gaiter Moon Shadows and Stock Horse Stallion Shane. And so on and and so on, with Out of the Blue being just the latest iteration. A pretty attractive one, I must say.

Collector’s Club Specials tend to stick around a while, so I think I can afford to hesitate.

There’s Another Fine Mess

Happy National Day of the Horse! And Collector’s Club Appreciation Offer Day!

https://www.breyerhorses.com/products/2018-collector-club-appreciation-model

It’s a surprise which one you'll receive, and they are all beautiful, exclusive pieces!  Will you get a lovely glossy Shire?? Or will your surprise be the beautiful Paint Me a Pepto in high gloss finish? Or superstar athletes PVF Peace of Mind and Cobra sporting high shine? Or a glossy Kodi Paint horse? We know you’ll enjoy each one of these lovely models! 

I had a sinking feeling that they’d do this today. Dare I leave the house? Can I hold off on grocery shopping until tomorrow? Is a quick run to 7-11 in the cards?

Fortunately I managed to catch the offer only about an hour after it went up, and I had already written up several theoretical orders ahead of time so I could just zip right on through my order…

Well, first I spilled my Diet Dr. Pepper Big Gulp on the kitchen rug. So I had to mop that up first. (Vita helped.)

Then I ended up typing my web site password wrong a couple of times, resulting in me cussing up a storm and Vita giving me a very concerned look. (Though that also could have been a “Do you have any more of that deliciously-flavored crushed ice to throw on the floor?” look.)

I filled out my “first choice” order, and started to panic because one of my items was, for the love of everything Cellulose Acetate, now on sale. Fortunately the discount wasn’t huge, and my order still comfortably met the monetary threshold. Whew!

So I followed the instructions in the e-mail and on the web site to the letter – Mom used to be a big couponer back in the day, and I had it drilled into me that you always had to be super careful about following the wording on offers exactly – since I had been waiting all year for this I made darn sure I did not screw it up!

I added the Appreciation Horse to my cart, which added $150.00 to my order. Then I typed in the redemption code, which subtracted the $150.00 from the order, and proceeded with my order as normal.

Checked my order (see above) and everything looked peachy keen.

If I had a choice in the matter, my preference would be for the Paint Me a Pepto, because I have been eyeing a nice Semi-Gloss one at the local Tractor Supply for a while now. But really, they all sound nice and I’ll be happy with any of the five. And I get a bunch of stuff I had been wanting, besides! (I ordered more than the Tote, obviously.)

After all that I decided to check out what the rest of the hobby was doing/thinking/ordering, and…

Apparently it was raining fire, cats and dogs were living together, and ice cream now tasted like aluminum siding.

What the heck, my peoples? I didn’t think it was that hard or obtuse!

I mean, yeah, I practically ran a Ninja-style obstacle course to complete the offer (did I forget to mention that I almost ran into a tree this morning?) but most of that’s on me. I’m big and clumsy and kind of shamble my way through every day that way. Today was only slightly more chaotic than average.

Anyway…

I don’t know what’s going to happen with the mess; I am assuming that all orders that had the code for the offer, but not the actual item entered might be corrected. (Though if you did screw up, or thought you did, contact ‘em ASAP.)

I’m guessing that the ability to buy the model without the purchasing of other things was a design flaw that will not be repeated. Logically you’d think most people, in the absence of finding anything they would want on the web site for themselves (unpossible!) would just use the purchase requirements as an opportunity to get Toys for Tots donations, PIFs and items for people who don’t have CC accounts, saving themselves the extra $25 or so in the process.

I am not sure what they’re going to do with people who took “the expensive route”. That’s a “spirit of the law” vs. a “letter of the law” kind of problem, and I am not a lawyer. The web site let them do it, and I didn’t see any specific wording that forbade it, though I didn’t look that closely.

I don’t know what they will do, though I certainly wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall in their offices Friday morning…

Double Take

No, not that Double Take. This one:

When I caught my first glimpse of the new Collector’s Club Special Celeste, my first thought was “That’s kind of a bold move Reeves, going with a Misty’s Twilight mold.” 

Then I did a face palm and realized it was actually the newer Eberl Andalusian Mare, instead. But take a gander at the 1997 State Line Tack Special Run Kokopelli’s Gold, and you can (maybe?) kind of see why someone like me might have been a wee bit confused?

Yes, even I conflate one model with another. Maybe moreso than the average hobbyist, since I have a bigger-than-average reference file: my brain goes straight to old stuff, instead of the new.

Maybe conflating Misty’s Twilight and the Andalusian Mare is also another reason why I’ve been having a hard time mustering more affection for the newer mold? If anything, I slightly prefer the Misty’s Twilight, and the historical shout out to Currier and Ives prints.

(If I had had the time – and more motivation – to do it, my Diorama Contest entry for BreyerFest this year would have been a recreation of a Currier and Ives harness racing print, preferably one of the legendary Maud S.

In addition to the customizing involved, I would have also had to do a fair bit of tackmaking, sulky-making, and some crazy engineering to suspend the whole shebang inside a shadow box with a vintage-looking picture frame.

So yeah, obviously that wasn’t going to happen.)

Since I’m still enjoying a horse-buying semi-hiatus, whether I really liked Celeste or not was sort of irrelevant anyway. I’ll save my cash for whatever other end-of-year holiday silliness they have planned.

To be honest, all I am asking for is to actually have the opportunity to see the Special Run Holiday Animal – whatever it is! – before it’s sold out.  Since we already got the Special Run Elk Inari at BreyerFest this year I am probably safe even if I do miss it (again). Just having the chance means more to me than the actual buying.

Unless it’s the Deer Family. All bets are off on that.

FYI everybody: while I’m still “out” for the duration, I’m hoping to have more of a hobby and online presence again, soon. While I am nowhere near done with my literal and metaphorical housecleaning, I may be in a more manageable place in the near future.