More About WinterFest

And if you’re wondering if I am excited about the Winter Animal Special Run Garret, I am, but I’m leaving that discussion for next time, hopefully when I’m feeling a little bit better. 

I still have not partaken of any WinterFest-ivities yet; it’s kind of hard to concentrate when your back is yelling obscenities at you. (“You need to sneeze? Good luck with that!”) I decided I really didn’t need either of the Special Runs designated for the event, so “attending” has been a low priority anyway. (Maybe later today?)

I was a little surprised that so many folks insisted on being there when the metaphorical doors opened; I thought it was common knowledge that the quantities made were not small – 3000 pieces! – so a quick sellout seemed pretty unlikely. 

My guess would be that some might have thought other surprises were in store; the thought crossed my mind too, but I wasn’t in any condition to worry about it when my alarm went off Friday morning. (Actually getting out of bed was my biggest concern!) 

I think some of it ties into the fact that a lot of hobbyists seem to hold a lot of contradictory notions about the hobby being both unimaginably large and incredibly small. And they are not 100 percent wrong: there are a lot of people who just collect, or who participate in the hobby in the privacy of their homes, but the actual number of people who are highly engaged is relatively small. 

And when I mean highly engaged, that includes live showing, photo showing, attending hobby events, customizing, making tack, blogging or vlogging, on a regular basis. 

Even events that are ostensibly designed for low-engagement collectors and hobbyists, like WinterFest, are not necessarily going to draw the majority of them in: in fact, I’m sure quite a few of them are completely clueless about it. 

I’ve spoken to a number of more casual collectors, for instance, who were utterly unaware of the existence of the virtual component of BreyerFest. Considering how much effort Reeves puts into advertising the event on its web site, via other social media, in their catalogs and other ephemera, you’d think knowledge of the event would be inescapable, and you would be wrong.

I think the WinterFest models will sell out eventually: the price points and quantities available are comparable to other seasonal, limited edition models. The only difference between them and the other “Holiday” Special Runs like Tinsel, Mittens and Wintergreen is that they are specifically tied to an event – and we know exactly number of models available. 

(And also free postage in the U.S. is being offered on the WinterFest items? I didn’t put any in my cart to confirm.)

I don’t know how many of the “Holiday” models were made, but it wouldn’t be surprised if it was less than 3000. And except for the Stablemates, they’re all still available.

WinterFest?

My life is weird, part one million: this past week included my shoes melting and an extended argument about a toilet. I also unintentionally manifested an entire box of French Vanilla coffee creamer.

(Yeah, the same nonsense I can do with models I can now do with food. Except a decent vegetarian corn chowder: that search continues.)

First, some of you were a little confused about the references to the legs on the Family Arabian Foal: I was referring to how she looked from the front, rather than the sides. Here’s a shot to show you how different the leg positions are on my belly-stamped FAF, compared to a slightly later Bay example.

Most of my FAFs (I have… so many) look more like the Bay than the Woodgrain. It could just be that this specific Woodgrain Foal was made this way, or got this way somehow; legs have a habit of going wonky in storage. Maybe there is something more to it, and maybe there isn’t. I haven’t seen enough of these Foals in person to make any assumptions.

Someone mentioned the Old Mold version of the Stallion in the comments – yes, he is most definitely an underappreciated early rarity! But ironically, not a hard one to collect: I think I have a complete collection of them now, and I don’t think any one example cost me more than fifty dollars (the Woodgrain, I believe: I think because he had a Tenite sticker? Back is still too achy for me to dig him out.)

The only significant difference between an Old Mold Stallion and an early Family Arabian Stallion is the mold stamp: Old Molds don’t have it, though most Gray Appaloosas seem to have the partial one. There may be some other subtle differences, but I’ve never been able to conclusively pinpoint anything that couldn’t be ascribed to an incidental manufacturing error. 

Second, this WinterFest thing is interesting; I was just thinking that it was about time for another Duende Special Run. I do like Trueno, and how this paint job makes his mane looks like icicles, but I don’t know if I like him enough to pursue him.

https://www.breyerhorses.com/pages/breyers-winterfest-2023

The same can probably be said of the braided-mane version of Nikolas, named Mouse. Other people have done some digging in my stead and discovered that they are going to be both relatively plentiful and inexpensive, so I may have time to change my mind.

Mouse reminds me a little bit of another one of the customs I’ve been working, too. I’ll probably be putting most of my customizing on hiatus after the Thanksgiving work break, though, to focus on my quilts instead. 

The garage is cold and quilts are warm; that’s all there really is to that.

What else they have in store for this thing we’ll all have to wait and see. I might do a workshop or two if I can find the spare time. (Tempted by the Zebra one, but I fear my patience for painting stripes is very limited.)

Greenacres

More strangeness in my life: I think I might have sold a vintage quilt to a kinda famous quilting world person? I was packing up a couple of eBay sales earlier this week and did a double take on one of the labels!

It was a beautiful vintage African-American summer top that needed extensive repairs. I purchased it years ago at the local flea market, hoping to make those repairs myself. But in my efforts to get my sewing projects under control, I made the decision to let it go to someone with more time and/or technical skills.

I’m sure I’ll see it again someday. Probably in a magazine I’ll be skimming while standing in the checkout line at Kroger, or something…

Back to horse stuff. Or more specifically, mule stuff:

Some of my fellow Ponies & Palm Trees attendees were a little dismissive of the Green Group models, presumably because of their similarity to earlier releases: the 2015 Limited Edition Jubilation for the Mule Greenacres, and the 2008 Just About Horses Special Run Party Girl for the Strapless Sarong. 

And also, I suppose, their lower potential resale value. (This notion always blows my mind. Unless you happen to also be a retailer, Breyer is under no obligation to help hobbyists make money.)

I’ve been on a bit of a Brown Sunshine kick recently, so it was pretty clear to me that I’d be coming home with the Mule, regardless of secondary market. With the secondary being so messed up now, who’s to say if I even made a “bad” decision, anyway? It’s not like he’s going anywhere anytime soon.

The only member of the entire lineup that didn’t do anything for me was the Duende Golden Sunset; I have no special attachment to the mold (though I wouldn’t mind getting a Fabio, some day) and I wasn’t overly enamored of the color on him. Although my heart was set on the Cremello Five-Gaiter from the get-go (and I got him!), I would have been happy with the Solid Bay Belgian too, the only mold left in the leftovers from the Blue Group.

I am going to assume that the fact that the two Vintage molds used for this event just happened to be the very same ones I decided to focus on collecting this year was purely coincidence. (And I almost got both. So close!)

The Naming of Colors

On one hand, I think I’ve finally found the colors on the Eberl Andalusian Mare and Foal that finally do it for me, with the Winter Web Special La Molina and Masella:

But on the other, it is highly unlikely that I’ll ever be able to complete the family with a Duende Benasque. 

Eh, I’ll enter anyway and see what happens. If I get them, great! 

If I don’t, I’ll just sit back and watch the trainwreck that the aftermarket sales will be. Since the piece count is 450 (as opposed to the usual 350) on this set, I’m hoping not very, but I’ve seen some frankly very scary prices on eBay lately so I am not that optimistic.

(In case you were wondering, I didn’t even try for that White Boxer.)

It’s interesting that they appear to have settled on the name “Blue Filigree” for Masella’s color: that seems awfully generic and mundane for a color that glossy, iridescent and color-shifting. 

Unless they come up with something better (Glossy Metallic Heliotrope? Dappled Iridescent Cyan? Purple Monkey Dishwasher? Or my personal favorite: Blue Raspberry Snowcone!) I’m going to keep calling it Benasque Blue. 

There is logic and precedent to this: the “Sorrel” color that originated on the #52 Five-Gaiter is often referred to as “Five-Gaiter Sorrel” when it appears on other Breyer releases. (Yeah, Breyer tried rebranding it in the 1970s as “Honey Sorrel” when they put it on the Bell-Bottomed Shire, but that did not stick.)

Speaking of, I’ll close today’s brief post with a picture of my semi-gloss Sorrel Five-Gaiter with eyewhites who also did nothing at the BreyerFest Photo Show this year. I bought him years ago in a box lot on eBay with a mint Sorrel Family Arabian Foal; this is one of the reasons why I presume that the Sorrel Family Arabian Variations are from the early 1960s, and not the later. 

That’s all for today, folks!

Not Hard At All

What’s nice about the Misty’s Twilight mold, the subject of this week’s Test Color Purchase Raffle, is that it’s a ridiculously easy mold to collect. The only two that pose any moderate difficulty - the 1996 Jamboree Flabbehoppen and the Spiegel Dressage Set Black in 1993 - both had piece runs of about 1000.

In other words, not hard at all.

Test Colors aren’t all that common on her, though. This isn’t surprising, since she’s probably the least collected of all the Jeanne Mellin Herrick molds, and there are a number of other more popular models in a similar running position that are far more likely to have bodies knocking about the factory.

I certainly wouldn’t mind owning her, though. I’ll put in some entries, and see what happens.

So I went to buy my Florian over the weekend, and decided what the heck, I was going to toss a Fabio into my order because this was the first Duende that I both liked AND could afford.

(Benasque and North Star? Yeah, not going there.)

And apparently a lot of others thought the same thing, because he’s already sold out!

Unless it’s a supply issue, like the Winx and Crystalline.

Probably not, and it’s not something I’m going to worry about too much, regardless, because I’m eyeing plenty of things on eBay. Nothing expensive, just body lots and potential upgrades, because I am an apparent glutton for punishment.

My attempts to upgrade things rarely work out, but hope springs eternal! And what’s a few more bodies for the body box, right?

Since I was determined to buy something else on the Breyer web site, I ordered the Fighting Stallion Tee-Shirt instead. I’ll probably have nowhere to wear it, outside of my possible imitation BreyerFest in June or July, or whenever I get my act together here.

Like everyone else, I have absolutely no idea what this undefined blob of a sneak peek actually represents:

I am going to assume it’s either a Classic mold or a Pony because (a) we haven’t seen the Pop-Up Store Classic Special yet, and (b) we’re still grievously short of Ponies. 

The Expected, and The Unexpected

It’s interesting to me that of the two BreyerFest Raffle items, it’s the Duende North Star that intrigues me more – perhaps because it was slightly unexpected?

Only slightly – Straight Bet was one of the more popular items at BreyerFest last year. What I didn’t expect was that they’d follow up with another BreyerFest release of Duende a year later, also in a Glossy Solid colorway.

He reminds me of two previous BreyerFest releases: the 2011 Diorama Prize Model Happily Ever After, on the Justin Morgan mold, and the 2000 Raffle Model Showboat, on the Stretched Morgan mold. The previous I didn’t win, but the latter I did!

Will lightning strike again? Considering the two times I won the Costume Contest, both prizes were Solid Glossy Bays, it would be fitting and appropriate that the Glossy Dapple Gray North Star could be my second Raffle win.

But I don’t buy that many tickets, and I wouldn’t consider myself one of the lucky people who wins regardless of the number of tickets I buy.

Some folks seem to be a bit “meh” on his color, but like most of the recent solid releases, he’ll probably look amazing in person. It’s a modern, updated version of Smoke, but with Dappling, Gloss, and a Pearlized mane and tail.

(Yes, I know, there’s that Ranchcraft Gloss Smoke Belgian Lamp that proves that Gloss Smoke was once a thing! But it appears to have been a one-off of mysterious origins, so I still think the jury’s out on that one.)

North Star also appeals to me because I think I might have a marginally better shot at winning him compared to the Sunday Raffle pieces Valour & Honour, on the new (and not-yet-released) Premier Club Welsh Mare and Foal by Josine Vingerling.

That’s partly because that’s one that was… expected? A lot of hobbyists were speculating that this set would end up as a Raffle or Prize of some sort. The only really eyebrow-raising thing about them is that they’re Appaloosa.

Incidentally, both Raffle prizes are only tangentially related to comic books. Marvel’s Northstar was a Québécois superhero who was a member of the Canadian team Alpha Flight; Valo(u)r was a name Legion of Super-Heroes member Mon-el adopted after one of the team’s many reboots, though he’s since gone back to being Mon-el.

I doubt either one is intentional; Northstar’s never been seen on the big screen, and Mon-el’s stint at Valor was relatively brief.

Shades of Blue

While reading this post, keep in mind that (a) it’s been in the upper 20s and low 30 degrees up here since Friday, (b) our furnace has been on the fritz since Saturday and (a) it’s Monday.

(It is getting repaired tomorrow. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.)

Reeves, seriously, what’s going on in your office?

The e-mail you sent out about the new Winter Decorator Special Benasque announced it as a “New Test Color”. Umm, no.

According to the web site copy, he’s marked “Benasque 2017”. Last time I checked, it was still 2018.

Why are you calling his color “electric blue filigree” when you have another perfectly fine name for it – Copenhagen Blue? Is it actually different in some way – with iridescent, metallic, or purplish undertones? We know better than to trust your photos…

And speaking of photos, you even misspelled the name Benasque as “Banasque” on the photo. Normally I’d not even give this a mention because I mangle names all the time when I’m saving photos, because spellcheck can’t save anyone’s behind there.

But as I was pulling a copy of it from their web site all I could manage to mutter from underneath the pile of blankets, quilts and sweatshirts I’m currently residing under…

“… and that, too? Cripes!”

At the very least, the nitpicky distractions of this new Duende have kept me from fixating too much on the Scottsdale Stampede Table Centerpiece Model Peplum.

The Camilla/Foalzilla mold doesn’t move me either way, but they just had to paint her Turquoise with copper veining! I figured they would do some sort of Turquoise-themed SR, but I assumed it would be the Stablemate or maybe one of the Event Specials. You know, something in the neighborhood of affordable.

Alas, no.

Before I was a Breyer Collector, I was a pretty serious Rockhound. I still am to some degree, though I rarely go so far as to buy rocks, minerals or fossils outright. Part of the reason why I took a Metalsmithing class several years ago was because I wanted to incorporate some of my favorite specimens into art and jewelry.

I am too cheap and not terribly lucky, so Peplum is not going to happen. All I can hope for is that she might be a precursor to other (more affordable) rock and mineral-themed* Breyer Decorators in the future.

Not just Alabasters, but I’ll settle. Benasque would be nice, too. I love how his mane looks like icicles!

(*FYI: for a variety of reasons, I don’t do Stones.)

Being Stubborn

Normally I have no issue with offbeat mold choices used for BreyerFest themes, but this Duende Special Run Straight Bet is rubbing me the wrong way:

I have nothing against the mold itself, per se, other than being not overly thrilled about getting another Andalusian/Spanish type Traditional mold, when so many other breeds and types continue to be unrepresented (Akhal-Teke), or underrepresented (Morgans).  

The hobby’s initial reaction to the Duende mold was fairly predictable: the promotional pictures showed a model with a paint job that simply wasn’t possible from a large-scale production standpoint, molding issues aside.

(I have no idea what is going on with their current mold making issues, other than they really need to address it ASAP.)

Duende does look nice in Glossy Liver Chestnut, I’ll give it that. In any other situation I would be all over this guy. But it’s just so obviously a pander and a marketing push for a new mold, forced to fit into a theme.

You guys have so many molds and possibilities to work here, Reeves: if it’s one thing you do not have a shortage of, it’s molds representing breeds and types that are regularly used in racing events – flat track or otherwise. Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, Arabians, Quarter Horses, Appaloosas – and even Mules?

Okay, now I’m moderately excited for a Special Run Brown Sunshine. Speaking of, here’s my Sergeant, and his NPOD Sample Brother:

As you can see, there’s not a lot of difference between the two – the production piece is slightly warmer and pearlier than the Sample, but the rest of differences could be chalked up to normal day-to-day production variability.

These are the only two Brown Sunshines I have currently. I would not mind another. (But what color? Hmm.)

The Duende is only one model out of a line up at least two dozen, so I’ll give it a pass; it’s not that big a deal, really. Work has been leaving me short of sleep this week and I am a bit crankier than normal, which might be affecting my initial reaction.

Didn’t I promise myself to buy less stuff this year anyway?