Sunshine and Cloudy Days

Another short one today: any day that begins with spiders is not a good one.

(Not being intentionally cryptic, but everyone I actually told the story to wigged out, so I’ll spare y’all the details.)

I forgot to mention that I got the Appaloosa Virkie:

I am not displeased – I liked all four color options – but the Appaloosa one was not what I was expecting. 

Another unexpected new addition to the herd: the Walmart “Sunshine Meadows” version of the #62031 Grey Thoroughbred & Dark Grey Foal set. 

With all the crazy awesome models I’ve been getting lately, my Duchess collection had been put on a bit of a backburner, but this set turned up at a price I couldn’t pass up. 

As most of you know, I tend to take a more organic approach to my collection compared to most collectors. While I definitely do have grails and molds I do collect (I just purchased a major grail this week, in fact!) I try not to obsess about them too much, because that only leads to heartbreak and foolishness, like overspending on hot new releases that turn out to be not that pricey six months down the road...

I am also fortunate that many of the models I do collect are vintage or vintage-adjacent, so the possibility of finding them “in the wild” or languishing on a lower shelf in someone’s room at the Clarion exists. I am not going to pay the premium if I don’t have to.

Though occasionally I do, because reality is hard to avoid. As I had to with this week’s big purchase. (I’ve been experiencing a lot of overtime lately, so it was easy to rationalize.)

I have no idea who the Celebration Horse is going to be for next year’s BreyerFest; all I’m hoping for is that the new Lipizzan Adonis is in the mix somewhere, because the rescue of the breed during World War II definitely fits with the “Against All Odds” theme.

And also, I just want a Traditional Lipizzan. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request. Heck, I’ll even take another Classic one.

Nikolas

Reeves threw us a curveball this time around with next year’s Celebration Horse: instead of a Draft or Warmblood on an existing mold – as many of us were expecting – we’re getting a new German Riding Pony mold by Brigitte Eberl!

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/breyerfest-blog/our-2022-celebration-horse

The prototype for Nikolas is very reminiscent of the 2009 BreyerFest Special Run Buttercream, on the Idocus mold. That release initially met with a cool reception, but has only grown in popularity in more recent years. 

And also, a little bit, like the Classics Buckskin Duchess released as a “Thoroughbred Cross” in 2006 through 2008. From personal experience she appears to be one of the tougher Duchesses to find, at least in good condition.

New mold introductions are nothing new for BreyerFest; the first was the Celebration Horse Rejoice in 1998, and one of the best known is (of course!) Eberl’s legendary Alborozo in 2008. 

It has been a few years since we’ve gotten an entirely new mold for the Celebration Horse, but it makes perfect sense that they’d enlist Brigitte Eberl to bring it to us. 

(I hope this means that we’ll get a Brigitte Eberl seminar, yes? In person, or at least online? Because I want to pencil that in as one of my activities if that’s the case.)

My only minor concern at this point is that there is definitely going to be some grumbling about the size this mold: as is the case with the paint, some hobbyists put a lot of weight into the weight of the materials used to make it. 

In this case, the fact that my Internet time is very limited right now is a blessing: not that I don’t think there’s some merit in discussing the issue, but now is just not a good time for me to engage in it.  

More stuff has arrived at my door – including Gingerbread! – but the boxes will have to remain unopened until the weekend. I did get a chance to open my Dahlia and she… was unsurprising. But more about all that next time.  

Wildlife Adventures

The past few days could have gone better.

First, it took me two days to renew my driver’s license because the system was apparently down. Nationwide. Of course.

Second, I scheduled an early appointment next week on a day I was originally scheduled off, then they sent me a revised work schedule with a double shift on that very day. Awesome. 

And third, work ran late yesterday, so I wasn’t able to do all the errands and other things I needed to get done. (What time I did have had to be spent waiting in line at the Secretary of State office.) There’s an “event” going on in town today that makes completing any task that doesn’t involve staying at home almost impossible.

And I’d really rather not deal with impossible on my birthday, y’know? So I have to spend my special day taking care of things around the house.

At least I’ll have carrot cake.

The nicest gift I received today was a bundle of letters Dad wrote home to Grandma when he was in the Coast Guard; Mom found them cleaning out her walk-in closet and wondered if I wanted them.

Well, yeah!

His handwriting and spelling were terrible, and even then he had a bad habit of randomly omitting words. (It used to drive us all nuts. Finish your darn sentences, Dad!) But it’s nice to hear his kind and silly voice again, now ten years gone.

So much better than dealing with the bluster going on outside.

Anyway, let’s talk horses: I have actually bought a few others worth talking about. This one especially so:

Yes, I have finally acquired the infamous Pink Camo Duchess and Gorilla, aka the Pony Gals Wildlife Adventure Gift Set! The stars aligned: the timing was right, the price was good, and I had money in the Paypal account.

This is not the first instance of a Breyer primate; that honor goes to the “Corky and Bimbo” Circus Boy set, who was portrayed on the television show by a pre-Monkees Mickey Dolenz, billed back then as Mickey Braddock. Here’s an article from the November 1956 issue of Toys and Novelties:

Zoom in on the article and you’ll see Breyer near the bottom of the list of attending licencees (at their original Lake Street address).

The original 1950s Circus Boy set is not particularly rare or expensive, but he’s definitely one of those things I want to find in the wild. Just because.

The Trakehner Family

And… that upgrade isn’t an upgrade: it’s about the same condition as my existing piece, once I clean it up.

You’d think that after all those previous failed attempts to upgrade something good I already have into sometime great, I would have learned by now.

C’est ma vie. While I think I won’t lose any money on the deal in the end, I’ve managed to screw up sure things before.

In more cheerful news, I made some pretty good progress on the inventory over the past few days. I pulled out a few more duplicates and legit upgrades, a few scarcer pieces I really never fell completely in love with, and I’m in the process of sorting out some of my more obscure Classics.

A few of the Classics I’m letting go – more likes that never really turned to loves – but the “Trakehner Family” (from 1992-1994) is one set that’s sticking around:

There are a few reasons why. First, of course, is that there’s a Duchess in it. Second, the colors on all three molds are really well executed: the Jet Run looks especially good in Liver Chestnut, and the light, roany Dapple Gray is one of the prettiest colors the Duchess has ever come in, in my opinion.

And thirdly, it amuses me that this family was constructed from members of three completely different and unrelated “family” sets: Jet Run from the USET Gift Set, Duchess from the Black Beauty and Friends Set, and the Mustang Foal from the Classics Mustang Family.

That was borne out of necessity: this set came out at a time when there still weren’t all that many Classics molds, or at least not the variety we have today. Breyer had just started introducing new Classics molds right around this time – beginning with the Cheney Mestenos – after nearly a ten-year gap.

There was a slow trickle of new Classics molds after the Mestenos (the Western Performance Horses, some of the Nonplastics, the Draft Horse, and so on) but it’s only really been in the past ten years that we’ve seen a regular procession of new Classics molds.

Updates on the Duchess Project

Neither of my attempts to get something special outta Breyer worked this week (Moritz and the latest Test Color on Roy) so yep, I resorted to eBay again for a quick – and potentially profitable – fix. 

It’s a possible upgrade of something scarce I already have. I don’t have it yet, so the jury is still out on whether its actually going to be an upgrade, or profitable. Chances are likely neither, but better than my odds of ever winning a Micro Run or Test Color Purchase Raffle, so there’s that. 

Here’s another something I purchased recently that I was quite pleased with – the Red Roan version of the Duchess Western Horse and Rider Set: 

It was both on sale and on clearance at the local Tractor Supply: the whole shebang came to less than ten dollars, tax included! Score!

And right there is the main reason why I chose to collect the Duchess mold in the first place: it’s not a particularly hard or expensive mold to collect. Here’s a sampling of the others I’ve managed to acquire this year:

I think the Grey Thoroughbred Mare and Foal set is my favorite of this group; while it’s among the most common of the Duchess releases, the shading on this particular Duchess is especially lovely.

That all these sets are still boxed was not intentional. They just worked out that way. And the Grey Mare and Foal will be unboxed when the inventory situation is settled to my satisfaction.

I’ve discovered that one of the harder Duchess releases to find, ironically, is the Walmart Sunshine Stables/Sunshine Meadows re-release of that set from ca. 2012-2013. Other releases and re-releases in that series turn up with moderate frequency on the secondary market, still boxed, but the Grey Thoroughbred Mare and Foal re-release (#755481) is not one of them.  

It’s one of the few items where I am specifically looking for the boxed version, because it’s otherwise indistinguishable from the original release. 

Getting that set in a timely fashion is not a huge concern or high priority; I wrestle with enough frustrations in my life, and I am not going to add to those frustrations by actively chasing the unobtainable. It’ll come to me in good time, just like most things do. Eventually.  

Literary Aspirations

The book sale on Monday was better than I expected – I ended up doing a nice little “restock” on my own sale books and added a few to the personal collection, including an older (but not a first edition) copy of Tschiffely’s Ride. It’s kind of beat up, and without a dust jacket, but I can live with that:

I know it’s still in print, but I’m a sucker for older editions: they tend to be cheaper than newer editions, and just as sturdy, if not more so. Chances are if I hadn’t picked it up, it would have gotten tossed into someone’s “decorative book” pile anyway, and that weirds me out to no end.

I’m not as averse as some are to using books in crafting (the “altered book” movement) but the idea of buying books strictly as decorative objects is not something I will ever be (or need to be!) into. If I’m going to have “pretty” books on the shelf, I want books that I would also want to read or find useful.

Another book in that stash was a more recent copy of Will James’s Smoky. I only bring it up here because I’ve been meaning to get the illustration that Chris Hess clearly modeled the Traditional Smoky on, because it’s not one easily found on the Internet:

(Not the best quality, I know…)

As to why Chris selected this pose and not the others, I’d suggest taking an online looky-loo at some of the other original Will James illustrations from the book: this pose was probably one of the easiest to adapt to injection molding!

Some Recent Shopping

A sampling of recent purchases:

A Border Fine Arts piece with original hang tag, an addition to the Duchess collection, a signed (!) first edition of Mr. Limpet (yes, the book that the film The Incredible Mr. Limpet was based on) and another sari.

It is hard to tell from the photograph, but the sari is handmade and of the most beautiful green and orange shot cotton. It’s more likely I’ll be cutting it up for a quilt than wearing it.

There have been a few other items – another Duchess, a body for my Diorama Contest entry, some interesting variations – but they’re either not ready or not suitable for prime time. I’ve been trying to keep the shopping excursions to a minimum, as some bills and the flea market will be coming up soon.

I also had the chance to see the new 2017 horses in person late last week, as work took me past one of the stores that carries the full line – including the Pocket Animals and CollectAs (though this is the one that stocked CollectAs before the deal with Reeves.)

They had a clean, perfectly masked Paint Me a Pepto, but the two new releases that almost came home with me were Xavier (the Unicorn Othello) and the Decorator Geronimo Bandera.

The Xavier was so iridescent it glowed, and the Bandera was really well executed and almost exactly how I imagined it was going to be: a plastic representation of a potmetal carnival prize horse. But after seriously considering them and a couple of the newer CollectAs, I managed to walk away from the store unscathed.

The new Reeves-CollectAs, if you haven’t already seen them, have the Breyer logo imprinted on their bellies in addition to the paper tags. Other than my Australian Stock Horse, I haven’t spent a whole lot of time examining the earlier pieces to see if there are any other subtle (or not so subtle) changes to the “new” pieces.

It’s good to know that we’ll be able to distinguish the Breyer “in the wild” sans paper tags, though.

The only other thing worth noting about the shopping trip was that they had BreyerFest brochures, that I happened to see a couple little girls pick up as they were shopping. Other than inform them that the CollectAs they were also looking at were now being distributed by Breyer, I left them alone; I figured they were already well on their way and Mom wouldn’t want some rando at the toy store to evangelize.

Single Year Releases

Here she is, my newest Duchess:

That’s the #62006 Pinto Sport Horse and Foal set. It’s one of the slightly less common Duchess releases – it was only available in 2010.

I was expecting my first purchase to be something a little more common – like the #62031 Gray Mare and Foal set that was also rereleased as part of the Walmart Sunshine Stables/Meadows promo in 2012, or one of the current releases like the Red Roan Western Horse and Rider set with the disturbingly oversized doll.

(Seriously Reeves, what the heck is going on with those funky horse and rider sets?)

But this pair turned up on eBay at an unbeatable price, so they became my inaugural purchase in The Duchess Project.

The bonus here is that this was a set I had been thinking about buying before I decided to collect the Duchess mold. She looks lovely in Tobiano Pinto, and I’m a big fan of the saucy little Sport Horse Foal mold, too.

Back when I started collecting – or more accurately, when I started learning all I could learn about Breyer History – Breyer models that were released for a single year (or two!), like the #191 Gray Bucking Bronco or the #169 Liver Chestnut Scratching Foal seemed so exotic and appealing for just that very reason.

In the 1960s, 1970s and well into the 1980s, it was unusual for a release to run less than three years. If it did, it was either a Decorator-level turkey, or had a manufacturing issue (too expensive to produce, or an actual qualitative problem).

I wince a little now when I see either of those two on eBay, usually unsold and endlessly relisted. I cannot offer a home here: I added examples of both of them to my herd a long time ago, with no pressing need for more. (Well, perhaps a few more of the Scratching Foal – there are some sock variations I don’t have!)

Time has not made them less numerically rare, but the market is now flooded with items of similar or greater rarity, on a seemingly endless number of molds. Our choices, and our focuses, are no longer as narrow or limited as they once were.

In a way, it makes collecting easier – as long as the focus you choose isn’t the mold of the moment.

So far, so good for me with the Duchess. Except for those darn Walmart releases with the Wolves in them; those sets may be the bane of my existence this year.

The Libra Duchess

One of the pieces from the Grab Bag that I am definitely keeping is the Zodiac Series Libra, on the Duchess mold:

I think I received an especially well shaded one, and the pink undertones (not visible in any of the promotional pictures that I can recall) are both a nice aesthetic touch and a subtle nod to the nature of the sign itself – balancing out a cool color with a warm one, and a “masculine” color with a “feminine” one.

I’m also keeping her because I was reviewing my collecting goals for the coming year, and I had just about settled on it being the Duchess mold.

I loved her pinto release in the Gato y Mancha set at BreyerFest this year, which in turn spurred my unsuccessful (so far) attempt to acquire the infamous Wildlife Adventure set with the Pink Camo blanket and Baby Gorilla.

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/720601set.jpg

The Duchess mold should be just challenging enough to keep me interested and motivated, without taking up too much of either my shelf space or money.  

The only possible frustration I’m seeing is that outside of one release (the #663 Buckskin “Thoroughbred Cross”, ca. 2006-2008) the Duchess mold has almost always been packaged as a part of a set. With the exception of things like the Zodiac Series pieces (that I will probably end up with a complete set of anyway, over time) I’m the kind of person who prefers to keep sets as sets.

Generally that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, except that some of the sets Duchess came in (especially those from the Walmart Mustangs Series) also came with popular and very desirable bits like the Wolf or some of the more modern Classics Foal molds.

My initial searches turned up a lot of sad, stray and stranded Duchesses, and that makes me only want her more.

Just Beachy

(Work ran really long today, so tonight’s post is really short.)

Breyer has issued a lot of really weird accessories over the years. But what would be the weirdest? Was it the Baby Gorilla from the Pony Gals Wildlife Adventure Gift Set?

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/720601set.jpg

(Because of my current infatuation with the Classics Duchess, I might be adding that one to my want list for BreyerFest.)

The scary-big Fly that came with the Summer Turnout Set? And the newer Turnout Set?

http://www.breyerhorses.com/summer_turnout_accessory
http://www.breyerhorses.com/2065-turnout-set

(Not a big fan of the mutant bugs, so not on the want list. Nope.)

However, my personal favorite has to be the original head scratcher:

Yes, the Bitsy Breyer Beach Set. It came with a surfboard.

My first thought upon seeing this set back when it came out in the early 1980s was – hey, it’s a Mr. Ed gift set! Because of course I remembered that episode where Mr. Ed goes surfing:

(Season 2, Episode 23: Ed the Beachcomber)

Because being the horse-centric girl that I was, my first assumption was that the surfboard was for the horse. The board was a bit small, but eh, most of the accessories then (and to a degree, even now) were never quite to scale anyway. Seemed perfectly logical to me then.

The only part that was not logical was that none of the Little Bits Arabians issued at the time came in Palomino. Just the standard and kind of boring actually Chestnut, Bay and Slate Gray. And Mr. Ed himself was not an Arabian.

Oh well, maybe someday...

Fit for a Duchess

Just yesterday I was cleaning out my body box; I was looking for some craft supplies I had tucked away in the same general area, and sorting happened. One of the bodies was of a Classics Duchess, a mold that I’ve grown rather fond of in recent years.

Like a lot of hobbyists ca. 1980, I dismissed the Duchess mold in the “Black Beauty and Friends” Gift Set as the plainest and least interesting member of the quartet. A standing mare, in unmarked Bay: a description doesn’t get any more nondescript than that.

In more recent years, however, she’s grown to become my favorite. There’s a casual, backyard beauty to her that’s been obscured not just by her initial paint job, but also a bit by the rougher finish Chris Hess went with with this set. One of these days, I tell myself, I’m going to do a custom that reveals it.

So after a long day at work today, I did a quick scan of the Internet for any breaking news, and look at the latest BreyerFest Special Run announcement: there’s a Duchess in it!

Dang you Reeves, for reading my mind, again. (The full announcement is on the BreyerFest Blog site, if you want to read the particulars.)

I probably shouldn’t get too excited about her, though, since this pair – Mancha and Gato – are items specific to the “Breyer Mercado” – aka this year’s version of the Pop-Up Store/Tent of Despair.

Nope, nope, nope. I’ll sleep on a sidewalk overnight, walk around a dirt arena in high heels and/or a funny hat, or saw models in half, but that’s just one line too many to stand in.

I really do not understand Reeves’s reasoning on these Pop-Up Stores. If they are as concerned about the Friday morning goings-on as they say they are, why add a couple more first-come-first-served scarce (but cheap!) Special Runs into the mix?

If the Pop-Up Store is really meant to have a more casual tourist/gift shop atmosphere, the items within can’t just be less expensive, they also have to be more plentiful. That’s about the only way I can think of that could cool down that situation.

If I want to add a few more Duchesses to the herd, shelf or body, I’ll just have to prowl the hotel for them. It’ll be a lot less stressful, and cheaper too.

Tour de Horse

The worst part of the back attack was not being able to go to the flea market. It wasn’t the potential goodies I probably lost, but the window shopping I really missed. Even if I don’t buy something - there’s actually quite a lot I pass up, for a variety of reasons - I still like to see it "in the wild."

It’s also interesting to observe other people in the market respond to them - what’s the market like when I take myself out of the picture? What I like and what other collectors like are two different things: stepping back helps me judge the general market a little bit better.

Yep, even when I’m shopping, I’m doing research.

Since I’ve regained some of my mobility over the past two days, I’ve gone on a window shopping bender, sort of a "Tour de Horse," to make up for that lost opportunity. Yesterday I had a work assignment that was a little bit out of my usual way, and gave me the chance to stop at a number of toy stores, Targets, and other places with Breyers in them.

The only horselike purchase I was going to allow myself was the one Target Pony Gal SM that I’m still missing: I didn’t find him. All I walked away with yesterday was some deeply discounted school supplies (hey, I WAS almost out of graph paper!) but boy, I was tempted.

I wasn’t so lucky today, but we’ll get there in a minute.

One of the stops was a Big Lots: yep, as reported elsewhere they did have some Wal-Mart leftovers: a couple of the Classic Mustang sets, and the SM Flicka set. The discount on them was surprisingly minimal, at least compared to the Breyer merchandise they clearanced out late last year. That’s where and when I finally managed to pick up those oddball, noncatalog Stablemates Accessory Kits that Target briefly carried. They had some of the SR and RR MiniWhinnies Sets last year, too, but I had already picked those up at regular retail.

I wonder if this means that Big Lots will be a regular clearance venue for Reeves in the future, just like T.J. Maxx and Marshall’s? Interesting that most of the merchandise has been Big Box SRs, too. Hmm.

Some of our local Meijer stores have changed their toy departments around slightly, as I suspected: a slightly bigger selection of Breyers, but no store exclusive or store-first stuff (yet.) But they do carry Schleich now! Good to know.

Today I went to the local TSC, nominally to pick up some spray primer and sandpaper, but mostly to look at the toy selection. They finally had the Breyer stuff up: the Banner, the Bonanza Set, the Waiting For Santa Play Set, Nutcracker Prince, and some odd quasi-SR Stablemates Play Sets. (The horses are mostly re-issued RRs; it’s the combination of accessories with horses that make them SRs, sort of. That and their stock numbers. Another one of those documentation thingies.)

The Bonanza Set came home with me, though it’s still hanging out in the car until I can manage to sneak it into the house without anyone noticing. I almost bought the Waiting for Santa set. The price was decent - $29.99, only a couple bucks more than its premiere price on QVC, but I thought I was pushing it with the Bonanza set, so I left it behind for now.

The Duchess is very nice - she’s that beautiful Dark Bay/Mahogany color that I’ve been really loving lately (most recently seen as one of the Color Crazy Huck Bey releases.) It was the Cochise that sold me though. The Cochise in the JAH promo picture was on the Ginger, and she was the one piece in the set I was ambivalent about. I love black pintos, but for some reason I wasn’t loving her.

On the other hand, I came very close yesterday to buying a really sharp, semi-gloss Warmblood Stallion in the RR Bay-going-Gray, so the mold’s surprise appearance in the Bonanza set was a winner for me.

(I wouldn’t read anything into the Ginger mold’s replacement - maybe they just liked the Warmblood Stallion better.)

Finite vs. Open-Ended Specials

I was home and (mostly) conscious for the QVC show on Thursday to see the "exclusive" Wild Blue and Little Prince Gift Sets. Like the Nutcracker Prince on the previous show, they’re "technical" exclusives. The exclusive part is that they came with hardcover versions of the books, rather than the paperbacks that will be included in the sets the rest of the world will be getting shortly.

Another one of those lovely documentation headaches.

I did like the Wild Blue: I love blue roans, and Duchess is probably my favorite mold in the Classic Black Beauty Family. I’ve always thought that she’d be incredibly fetching little thing, with just a touch of remodeling and the right paint job. Here’s my none-too-great photo of the pretty dapple gray Duchess from the 3347 Trakehner Family Set:


She’s coming out in a couple of new sets this fall that I might have to buy - the 1391 Cloud’s Legacy Set, and the 300311 Bonanza Four-Piece Set, which may or may not be a TSC exclusive. It probably is; it’s just that the page in the current issue of JAH that features them doesn’t make it entirely clear, which may be intentional, if it’s an open-ended special run, and not a finite one.

The defining characteristic of a finite special run is its limited quantity: a certain number is made and distributed, and that’s that. More may turn up later, but they’re almost always leftovers from the original run, which means it either didn’t sell out originally, or a batch of models that had been reserved for a specific event or clientele was not distributed.

Banner is a finite run, as is the Mid-States Red Rock. Connoisseurs, most BreyerFest items, and most JAH specials are finite. Finite specials are often numbered or certificated, but not always.

Open-ended special runs are made in quantities enough to fill orders - and can be reordered, within a certain time limit. Most Christmas items, store-specific items, and mail-order catalog items are open-ended, unless they’re specifically labeled otherwise. The initial batch may sell-out, but they can be reordered, for however long the catalog or program is considered current. For a mail-order catalog like J.C. Penney’s, that can be for up to a year. They may come with certificates, but aren’t usually numbered.

(There's definitely some overlap in the definitions; I'm not quite sure where the recent QVC exclusives would fall.)

That doesn’t necessarily mean that all open-ended special runs are more common than all finite special runs: it all depends on the popularity of molds and colors involved. Only 900 Red Bay Kelsos from the 1992 Sears Wish Book "Drawing with Sam Savitt" Gift Set were sold, and only 547 sets of 1997 State Line Tack Pinto Family (featuring the Classic Black Beauty, Ginger, and Arabian Foal) were distributed. Both were open-ended, as far as I know.

Generally open-ended SRs do sell more; the only time we notice this is after the fact, when some of the more entrepreneurial among us try to sell off our extras, and discover that, oops, so is everyone else.

This is what happened with the TSC Duke from a couple years ago: he was open-ended SR. The initial batch sold well, just like most other TSC Specials, so the stores ordered more - and got more. Unfortunately, they overestimated the demand, and once the season was over, they were stuck with a lot of leftovers. He wasn’t less popular than other TSC Specials - it could be argued that he probably more popular, based on the sheer number that were produced - they just miscalculated and made just a little too many just a little too late in the season.

The two different TSCs I’ve visited in the past week haven’t set out their Holiday Gift stock yet, so I haven’t had to the chance to inspect a set personally to see if they are numbered or not. It doesn’t matter to me (except in a documentary sense) because if I do purchase one, it’ll strictly be because it’s a darn attractive set, and I want it!