Scurrying About

Things are… better. And I’ll leave it at that. And I have to work this Saturday, too, but that’s mostly unrelated. It sets me behind a bit on my crafting, but I can’t argue with the paycheck! 

I am still moderately amused that I was not chosen for a Yellowstone, even from multiple waitlists. It just slays me that their efforts to make some Special Runs “easier” to acquire (i.e. significantly larger piece runs) usually result in making it harder for me. 

Aiming for the big stuff seems to be working out better, at least for now. I’ll pick up a Yellowstone eventually. 

I was thinking about going to BreyerWest next year, but the flights are all significantly more expensive than my Wyoming adventure was, so it might be a no-go. Off to research Derby tickets, I guess!

(Yikes! Maybe that wasn’t such a great idea either.)

Anywho, the rest of my week is full of meetings and appointments, I’ll keep it short again today. Here’s a better picture of my two Scurries, one of whom is actually a variation of a variation, but one that wasn’t necessarily planned for: 

I find it amusing that the two choices I made on my one and only ticket this year were both 50/50 variation splits. Considering that they were among the less popular choices this year, you think they would have included the variants in them to encourage sales, instead of including them in runs that would have sold out regardless, like Peanutine, and (eventually) Speos.

I also wasn’t overly enamored of them using Hamilton as the Surprise model this year – not because they didn’t turn out nice (most of the color options were really well done) but because it now sets an uncomfortable precedent.

Instead of the unpredictability that was part and parcel of the Surprise before, there’s now going to be an expectation that the Surprise must be the Current Hotness, and if you’ve had more than half of a day’s experience in the Model Horse Internet, you know that for the loudest voices among them that nothing else will now suffice. 

And if Reeves accedes to that demand, the Surprise will no longer be all that… surprising. Or for me, all that interesting.

(Still annoyed that we didn’t get an Old Timer this year. I know the reasons why, but I would have paid that premium, dammit.)

From KY to WY

Just passing through, obviously, since I am in between vacays here, but I thought I’d share a few things I picked up in Kentucky:

Yes, that’s a Glossy Marciea Bey. 

First I swore, then I started crying; I was doing pretty lousy at the show prior to that, and even briefly contemplated leaving early. But things got better, and I managed to exceed my goals in the end. (I mean, obviously: winning a Glossy Prize Model wasn’t something I imagined was possible!) 

Even so, if I ever get the idea to do show at BreyerFest Live again, you are all invited to come to my house (unannounced!) and hit me with a 2 x 4. With a nail in it, if necessary.

Because dang, that was hard work. I probably could have eaten an entire pizza afterwards and not even felt it. 

I also got Fifth in the Stablemates Collector’s Class, but didn’t do diddly in Commonality: it’s kind of hard to compete with people who are willing to spend $15,000 to win a $1,500 prize model. At least I gave it a shot, and I can now check off a couple more things off the Bucket List. 

Yes, that Surprise is Glossy, and represents the first time in over ten years since I’ve been able to pull a Gloss Surprise at in-person, from-the-actual-line BreyerFest. I ended up getting a second in the same color, but traded that for the Decorator; (I almost got the Gloss Roan Pinto, but there was a communications issue. Worked out in the end, anyway.) He’s super nice, too, so he might end up in the showstring someday.

I got both Scurries, thank goodness, so my Emma collection (except for the rerelease, and Test Colors) remains complete.

I also tried to get the Roan Araba variation in the Leftover Line, since my Gloss obviously needed a sister, and because I usually always end up with a Roan every year at BreyerFest. But she was just the regular Black one, alas. When my credit card was declined on the fourth(!) pass through the leftover line, I figured it was time to surrender.

I laughed a little when I saw that the BreyerFest Chevaliere was a Roan, because the majority of my Volunteer Models have been Roans. I ran into more than a few people who assumed (incorrectly!) that I was volunteering, but I just want to remind everyone that that was definitely not the case this year. 

It was a little annoying to see so many Chevalieres for sale, but that’s all I’ll say about it. Eh, I’m more “Team Smoky Black” this year…

I did end up with a Volunteer Model (not Chevaliere!) from a kindly benefactor, but that is another story, for another time.

As far as quantities on the variations, I have no idea what’s going on. They’re pretty scarce, but they don’t seem excruciatingly rare: I have a feeling that they’re going to be in the same range as the Horse of a Different Color variation quantities, so a few hundred of each, perhaps? I think that is a good number/range to shoot for, if they continue to do this sort of thing: that quantity range means that they’ll still be expensive, but theoretically “gettable” for people who collect those molds, especially less popular ones.

Jump and Drive and Wells are both 50/50; the loose mane JD and the Gloss Wells just seem a little rarer right now because those are the variations most people want right now. I also have a feeling the Stagecoach Surprises were evenly split, or close to; the Decorator seems a little rarer because the color is exciting and new and everyone wants it. 

The only other variation I “need” is the Action Foal, since I got the standard Standing Foal, and I don’t think that one will be hard to come by. I will not be in market for one for at least a couple of weeks, and by then we’ll know what the splits actually are and we will all be able to negotiate more fairly.   

There’s a lot more, of course, including some not so nice stuff, but now is not the time to dwell on any of that; I have to finish packing and printing my itineraries and stuff. And also apparently I have been assigned Encore Baby Watch, and I need to make sure my camera is in good working order!

Affectations

Completely missed out on the Vintage Club Grab Bags: I was in-transit to work. I’m actually a little bit bummed, since I suspect that there might be a few Gambler’s Choice items mixed in there, and that’s all I really have a hankering for. (Another Sailor would be nice. Or an Ali!)

That’s okay, I have a neat package to open up today that will make up for it. (Next post!)

My first reaction upon seeing the Patriotic Spring Decorator Washington was “Oh, at last a more easily obtainable and/or affordable Interference Blue Bay release.” And I happened to grow up in Washington Township and participated in a couple of Bicentennial-themed parades back in the day.

(Yeah: I am OLD!)

Then a few moments later: “C’mon you know better.” 

Most of the online dealers are already sold out, and with my current work schedule, picking one up locally is a dicey proposition. So I’ll have to wait and see what the situation on the web site will be. Quick sellout, or will he linger?

Last year’s Patriotic Decorator Anthem isn’t too hard to come by now, so I think I’ll be okay. The Show Jumping Warmblood mold isn’t super-mega-popular, or even as popular as the Ethereal mold. 

I only have two other Show Jumping Warmbloods: the 2010 WEG Special Run Cedric, and the 2020 Celebration Horse Ballynoe Castle RM. All the others I’d like on this mold I was either not drawn for (Magpie, Inconspicuous, Bolo) or are budget-busters (Here’s to You, Apollo). I might pick up a Sugar Maple eventually, if the time and price are right.

One model I will definitely be going out of my way to get is the rerelease of Carltonlima Emma, now with neck sash:

I know a lot of hobbyists are a little disappointed that Emma is Not A Glossy. We tend to forget, however, that Gloss finishes are a hobby affectation: something that is way more popular within it, and not so much outside of it. 

Since it’s being marketed to the general public, it makes sense to release the original model. The neck sash is a nice little perk, even if it does give off strong “Malibu Stacy” vibes.

Who knows? Maybe they’ll save some to Gloss for another promotion – the Collector’s Club Appreciation Sale, Live Show Prizes…

And speaking of that, I had my first BreyerFest nightmare last night: I was 4 hours late for the live show and missed most of my classes. It never ceases to amaze me how my brain tailors my terrors like that. 

Pardon me while I try to figure out whether or not to sign up for one Collector’s Class entry, or two…

Between Love and Like

You’ll have to forgive me for zoning out a bit today. Work was… extremely challenging this week. This has given me the incentive to finish that quilting project I recently restarted; if I’m lucky and the fingertips hold up, it should be done by Monday. Not very well, but done!

They finished up the Ticket Special reveals this week. First up: another gigantic and slightly tippy model in a gorgeous color? Argh!

Seriously though, I do love this color, and want to see it on more models in the future. I’m just not 100 percent sure I want it on a Shannondell.

(Pauses to imagine it on the Stretched Morgan. And now on the Bell-bottomed Shire. And finally on the Running Mare and Foal. Notice a trend here?) 

The Bristol is also lovely, in a color reminiscent of the 2001 Toys R Us Special Run Valiant, on the Five-Gaiter:

While I am a big fan the mold, I’ve become slightly disengaged from it because of my experience with Peregrine (and my lack of Redmond). I might change my mind, depending on what the display samples look like at BreyerWest.

And finally, my second must-have: Scurry, the Fell Pony Emma in Bay Pinto, who is very reminiscent of the Stablemate Emma in the most recent Blind Bag Assortment that has (so far) only been spotted at Tractor Supply:

I should be okay as long as she’s not the Gloss/Matte Split or the Color Split model (because what they did with Marzipan last year is apparently going to be a thing going forward now?) I suspect the Shannondell may be a stronger candidate for that treatment.

So what I’m getting so far consists of all the various Stablemates, the Store Special Via Lattea, the Lady Phase/SSHF set Surrey and Axle, and the Fell Pony Scurry: all things I love, and not just like. 

I’m not sure what I would get with a second ticket if that happens this year; Peanutine is tempting just because I don’t have as many Brighties as you think I might do, but I may just end up using them as pickup slots for people, if need be. I want things I love, not like, and too many things this year fall in that very gray area.

Contrary to Reeves’s semi-vague wording, there are actually quite a few more models to be “revealed”: an Online Only Traditional, the Individual Store Special Stablemates (online, and in-person), another Best of BreyerFest Stablemate Set, and possibly another Traditional Store Special. And of course, various prize and raffle models…

I am a little bummed there has been no Old Timer, and I’m not quite sure where it would fit in to the remaining reveals, unless – and I would not put it past them – they decided to create yet another class/type of Special Run this year to put him into. As one of their most popular Vintage molds, and one that literally has a harness molded onto it, it would seem rather odd not to include him in some way. 

And it would be a little heartbreaking to have it be another extremely limited item like Jake, the 2002 Hat Contest prize model.

A Few Random Thoughts on Emma

It was not a huge stretch of the imagination to believe that the Carltonlima Emma was going to go up in price after the Queen’s passing, but even I am a little taken aback by some of the prices. Nearly $200 for a NIB one? Yikes!

Especially since I sold an unboxed one (I received it as a duplicate in a box lot) for $20 at BreyerFest back in July. 

There was no way of knowing, of course. It was a very good box lot, priced very cheaply, and I more than made my money back on it. 

I think that’s one part of the problem with the rather “optimistic” pricing I see on the Internet: the haunting possibility that you might have missed out on even more profit if you had just waited long enough. 

I don’t have the time or room for that nonsense. 

I’ve sold, quite probably, thousands of models over the years, which isn’t as mind boggling as it may seem: a thousand models is about 100 models a year for ten years. I sell an average of 50 to 75 pieces at BreyerFest alone, and I have been going to BreyerFest for a very, very long time...

It does bother me when I find I undersold something, or that I took a gamble on something and lost (which has happened to me so frequently that I’ve become very risk-averse), but I can’t go back and make people pay me the profit I missed out on. Whether it’s bad timing, or an honest mistake on your part, you have to let it go. 

Tangentially related to talking about Emma: one thing that does boggle my mind is Original Finish models with solid black, unshaded paint jobs doing well at live shows. 

Back when I was first live showing back in the 1980s, Solid Black horses – other than the occasional Test Color – rarely placed well in halter, because it was assumed that minimal effort was made to paint it.

Even now, when I’m making my selection on who (and who not to) take, the unshaded black ones rarely make the cut. I think the only one I show semi-regularly is my Stablemate Quarter Horse Stallion Pancho, and that’s because he also has that very sharp, early mold detail that negates the “no shading” bit.

(And the fact that he’s a rare, early Stablemate Special Run!)

(FYI: The one on IDYB is not mine, but looks almost identical to mine. Not in a mood to dig mine out at the moment. He was one of the handful of horses that did NAN at the last live show I was at.)

But back to Emma: I think it’d be neat if Reeves brought Emma back in a special edition of some sort – Gloss, or maybe with a ribbon or bit of tack – and I’d definitely buy it. Buy just like my original Emma, I still couldn’t see her as live show material. 

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.  

My Three Emmas

And for a few brief glimmering moments, my Emma collection is complete….

… except for the one BreyerFest Auction Test Color, at least one Sample that I know of, and any inevitable Prize or Raffle models that are probably in the pipeline because we know how that goes.

But, it’s still pretty remarkable to be able to keep up with all the (technically) available releases of any mold for over four years.

It helps that she’s not insanely popular, and has had only three releases since her introduction in late 2015. And that I was lucky enough to attend Chasing the Chesapeake in 2016 to get a Black-eyed Susan first hand.

Everyone else was gunning for the Brishen Sagamore Rye or the Shire Testudo, but the heart wants what it wants.

With more popular molds like Silver or Othello, the sheer number of releases overwhelms all but the most resilient of hearts, minds and budgets. And with molds like Esprit, you were pretty much out of the running before you even got past the starting gate.

Actually, I was just thinking about this a few days ago: for collectors, most (but not all) Breyer molds that debuted from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s are not particularly challenging to collect. Sure, most have one or two really tough ones – the Pluto has the “stealth” Spiegel Special Run in Dapple Gray, the Stud Spider has Stetson, and even Morganglanz has Brigadeiros!

But being able to get most of the way there without emptying your bank account – and in the meantime possibly being able to save up for the one or two that just might! – is a not unappealing collecting strategy. One that I’ve been considering as I mull over what I might want to add to my BreyerFest want list this year.

Now that I have somehow, inexplicably, found most of my Man o’ War grails.

Emma and Lady Phase

Rough weather, more drama.

But on to happier things, like the restart of the Berries Ponies Series – as they hinted at in the January Collector Club newsletter. What I didn’t expect was that they started with the Emma mold!

(No really, I didn’t know ahead of time. The usual caveats apply.)

I especially appreciate the detail paid to Jujube’s off-side floof:

If I’m lucky, some of the money that I had allocated to the trip that’s not going to happen will now go towards purchasing her. (More about that below, if you’re interested.)

I’m still hopeful that the Emma mold will be making an appearance as a BreyerFest Special Run, too.

Prior to the 1980s, it wasn’t unusual for a mold to have only one or two releases over the course of a decade, but nowadays if something like that happens people start speculating about the reasons why.

And hobbyists being hobbyists, the scenarios are always something pretty dire, up to and including the destruction of the mold itself.

When the Lady Phase became kind of scarce in the late 1990s, I heard all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories, most of them premised on some version of the mold being destroyed, or being replaced by the Ideal Quarter Horse. Or not, or it being switched back and forth and good gravy it all gave me headaches.

Molds can sustain damage that merits pulling them from use either temporarily or permanently, though it the case of the latter, the reasons are more a matter of economics than a lack of technical expertise. Sometimes it’s easier and cheaper to simply create a newer mold in a similar breed or pose, updated for more modern tastes.

But more often than not, the lack of new or different releases is a matter of popularity and priorities. If it’s already selling well enough in the color it’s in – and in the case of Emma, her color is a pretty simple and inexpensive one to paint – developing new colorways is not a big priority.

Other considerations also come in to play, especially with portrait models. Again, Lady Phase serves as an excellent example: the reason why she came in three slightly different Buckskin Special Runs prior to 1988 was because that was the only other color her owner Lynn Anderson authorized.

I don’t remember which Model Horse Congress it was, but I remember Marney having a brief round table with attendees to ask for product ideas, with one exception: anything involving Lady Phase was probably off the table. I still wrote down “Dapple Gray Lady Phase with black points” anyway.

When it finally appeared a few years later, some celebratory fist-pumping was involved.

Finally, my last bit about Seattle.

Well, it’s pretty obvious at this point – barring some last minute cancellation or other miracle –that I’m not going. I’ve been struggling to find appropriate words to express my disappointment, but as a Michigander, I am afraid none of the words that immediately come to mind are the least bit appropriate.

Especially since “Plan B” – another event that happens the same weekend as Seattle – now goes into effect. That involves me losing not a little weight and fitting into a costume that looks a little something like this:

I’m trying to tell myself that this challenge will be better for me in the long run anyway, but right now the prospect is a little terrifying.

Good News, Bad News, No News

The stores I went to earlier this week were a bust: nothing new on the shelves yet. As I was driving past a Walmart yesterday I suddenly remembered that I needed to buy some Romaine Lettuce. I noticed they were doing a reset of the toy department and decided to see if the newest Unicorn Series was in.

Nope, not yet. But they did still have some of the Series 2, and remarkably, there was a Rainbow Sherbet Magnolia to be had!

The collectors around here are so hardcore that I’ve never found a Walmart Chase piece in a Walmart ever, no matter how “common” they turn out to be. (Though at least they’re professional enough to not rip open the bags and leave all their unwanteds behind.)

I know they’re not particularly expensive on the secondary market, now that everyone’s had their fill, but you know I like to find things “in the wild”. If only for the purpose of injecting a small bit of color into an otherwise colorless week.

Yeah, I’m still not Seattle-bound. Yet. Or maybe ever.

I’m trying to not think too much about it. I’m having a hard enough time sleeping as it is!

Another thing that’s not going to keep me up nights? Whatever this photo is a reveal of:

You know that one of the things I dread most about the annual BreyerFest reveals is the almost-incessant “Othello is going to be the Surprise!” chatter.

If this guy happens to be an Othello, at least it’ll provide me with some small measure of peace and quiet. Until the “I hate the entire Special Run lineup this year” people start (predictably) complaining after the second or third reveal. (Sigh.)

My only hope and expectation for this year is a new Fell Pony.

Counting releases or announcements, True North has had six since his introduction in 2017, Duende five, and even Bristol has had five since his intro in 2018. But sweet, shaggy little Emma has had only two: her original release in 2015, and the 2016 Exclusive Event Black-Eyed Susan, in Red Chestnut.

I am going to assume that that’s because the original Emma has obviously been popular enough to still be in production, nearly five years after her introduction.

And yet the Bouncer release Brookside Pink Magnum has been in production since 2012, and in the meantime they’ve released both the 2013 Flagship release Icicle and the Decorator Christmas Ponies in 2017.

Most curious.

(A BreyerFest Bouncer would also be... acceptable.)

Just Super

There’s no obvious or lengthy discussion to be had over the following photograph; I simply unboxed my Emma and wanted to see her with her sister:

There have been a lot of Breyer models that have used the tail as an actual or potential point of contact – from the Fighting Stallion to Lady Roxana, to Llanarth True Briton and Silver, and a host of Stablemates – but I think Emma is my favorite. With other molds it’s quite obvious that the tails are the way they are as a concession to the design, but with Emma it’s far less obvious, and more naturally integrated with the design.

I’d love to see more of her in 2019, though I am fearful that they’ll just make her either a Glossy Prize Model, a Micro Run, or a Diorama Contest Prize, all of those things being beyond my reach, typically.

Best not to think about it, really.

Speaking of BreyerFest, I just noticed the BreyerFest ad card included in the box of my CC Appreciation order is actually comic book-themed:

Ben-Day dots, and an unironic and actually appropriate use of Comic Sans? Be still my heart! Is it too much to ask the One-Day Stablemates to be interpretations of the Super Friends? It probably is.

Outside of Western-themed comics, horses as comic book characters are a bit of a rarity. Dell did have a series of comics featuring Fury, Trigger, Silver and Champion, with the latter three featuring sweet Sam Savitt cover art. And there is, of course, Comet the Super-Horse, whose history is weird and complicated even by Silver Age standards but I love him anyway.

That, combined with the much needed scheduling changes they announced a couple weeks back, are making me reconsider my position on participating in any contest-type activities at BreyerFest this coming year. I was going to wear a cape for the heck of it, anyway…

But I’m still way behind on all my other (non-hobby) projects, so at this point, still not. Probably.

The Fell Pony Emma

I’m just having the hardest time focusing on anything right now. I don’t know if it’s a consequence of the weather or this cold that’s been aggravating me for the past several days, but I’m beginning to get really annoyed by my inability to get anything done.

So today I’ll take it easy on the blog front and just pause to admire a recent acquisition, the Chasing the Chesapeake Special Run Emma, Black-Eyed Susan:

She was the only one of the Event SRs that made me panic a little bit; all the Special Runs were lovely, but I felt a burning need to bring the little Emma home.

I probably should not have worried. She had the highest piece count (76) outside of the Mason, and most were hoping for the popular Brishen Sagamore Rye (60) or the scarce Shire Testudo (50). If I was going to get one of the not-a-Masons, it was going to be her. With my luck, though, nothing is ever a guarantee...

The mold only came out about a year ago, so there’s not really much to say about it from an historical perspective.

Just about the only little tidbit I can add is that a Sample of the original black Carltonlima Emma was used as a table decoration in the Tailgating Tent at the Chesapeake Event. She was looking pretty rough, so I doubt most even gave her a second look. (Except me, because I am me.)

It seems obvious to me now that, duh, that’s what some of the Samples knocking around the Reeves office end up doing: they become table decorations for events, public and private. So keep that in mind the next time they post pictures of a party or event that they participated in.

(I’m still pining for one of those Cremello Belgians they used as centerpieces at some equestrian book event a few years back. Old Goliaths from the warehouse, or something else? Argh!)

She’s small, shaggy and adorable, so I doubt I’ll be able to keep my little Emma collection complete for long. While I think it’s more likely we’ll see the Galiceno Pony instead of the Emma as a BreyerFest SR next year, India was a British colony. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be at least one British-themed piece to commemorate that.

And Emma is a very British little (Fell) Pony.

So, maybe.