The 2020 Early Bird

The Early Bird Special Run has been announced, and it’s an Esprit named Dyflin:

The Esprit mold has been used as a BreyerFest Special Run numerous times: as the Celebration Horse Pecos in 2011, the 2012 Decorator Prince of Chintz, and in eight different variations (four Matte, four Gloss) in 2016’s Samba Surprise.

It’s also come in a number of scarce and/or difficult to find Special Run releases, including the 2010 Web Special Silver Filigree Alpine, the 2011 Equine Affaire Dappled Bay Steppin’ Out, and the 2010 World Equestrian Games Dappled Flaxen Chestnut and Glossy Silver Bay.

So, in short, the Esprit mold is one tough little bugger to collect, and Dyflin is not going to make the task any easier. They’re taking a different approach this year and drawing the names not long after the Early Bird’s April 15 deadline, presumably to shorten the already-too-long raffle process Saturday afternoon.

It’s a good idea in theory, but many people buy tickets for pick-ups because they have no conceivable way of attending in the first place. I don’t see how finding out that you were drawn for an Early Bird Raffle model will change your travel plans. (“Sorry about that deadline boss, but I have to fly to Kentucky on Saturday to pick up a plastic horse.”)

And in the end, it will still probably lead to a name or two having to be pulled, anyway.

At the 2003 BreyerFest, Reeves thought they could do a variation of that – pull all the names for the Raffle Models first, and then call them out – and that didn’t go over so well, either. Even though I know the names that got tossed out of the pile were simply duplicates (you know, from those folks who buy 500+ tickets) it still looked a little hinky from the crowd’s perspective.

There are a lot of ways to improve time management at BreyerFest. This is not one of them.

Dyflin reminds me of both the 2017 Early Bird Raffle Model Sokkar, and of one of my favorite BreyerFest Special Runs – the Decorator Ethereal Times Square. (What can I say? I love a Glossy Black!) But I am not going to work myself up over it like I did with the Man o’ War Riddle.

The Alborozo Chase

My Darley came the other day, and he brought a friend with him!

Since the Unicorn Surprise Blind Bags have been extremely scarce around here, I decided to toss one in to my Darley order and be happy with whatever the warehouse randomly shipped me.

Like the Blind Bag Stablemate that I ordered earlier this year that netted me an Appaloosa Django, it actually worked out better than I hoped for! While the standard Pearly Lavender Mini Alborozos aren’t that rare or expensive, I also wanted to wait and see if I could get around paying the (modest) premium anyway.

And I did! The Navy Blue Chase piece would have been even better, but I am not one of those people. (Lucky, or obsessed.)

Alas, it appears that the Alborozo will be the chase piece in this year’s version of the Stablemates Mystery Horse Surprise Assortment, too – though hornless, this time.

This is turning into the Traditional Esprit all over again, isn’t it? Take a mold that’s popular from the get-go, but make all the initial releases difficult to get…

I get it: the short-term sales are great! But it also ends up spoiling some of us on the mold to begin with. What’s the point of trying to collect it, if you find yourself starting out in a deep hole right from the beginning?

It’s not like a vintage mold, where the chance of a rarity turning up in the wild is an actual possibility. That’s what’s the most disheartening about collecting more modern and/or popular molds, and especially the newer Stablemates. With older molds, at least, I can usually count on the chance that if I miss a new release of it now, I’ll still be able to find it out “in the wild” eventually.

Most of the Stablemates Alborozos being bought are going straight into to secondary market, with few making intermediate stops in wider world.

The Alborozo is also a part of the Walmart Exclusive Unicorn Crazy Surprises, too, but I don’t know if he’s going to be the chase piece in that one yet, or not. They’re only just trickling out to the stores now, and I haven’t made much of an effort to seek them out online or offline.

I am in no mood for playing games this year, so I might just skip the Stablemates search efforts entirely and focus my energies on more rewarding hobby pursuits.

(That Appaloosa Mini Brishen, though. Argh! And the Purple Mini Magnolia!)

I do have that one Mesteno custom I started last year that I could definitely work into the “Great Hair Day!” Theme Class. Yeah, maybe that instead.

Rangoli and True North

Here’s the Sunday Raffle Model Rangoli, in case you haven’t seen him yet:

That paint job – an extra dark Sooty Dappled Buckskin Sabino – is amazing, and the rest of him isn’t too shabby either. But you know what I really like about the True North mold?

The shaggy buzzcut of a mane! It’s just so stinking cute. If he were a real-real horse, I’d want to run my fingers through it. 

I tend to appraise sculpts not purely on their anatomical or conformational correctness, but on the finishwork at the edges: the mane and tail, the ears, the hooves, and the muzzle. For me, that’s where the sculptor’s care and passion really shows: everything else is a matter of technical competence.

Getting the technical aspects correct is important, but it doesn’t always make you fall in love. Sometimes it does; but its things like pooky lips, fuzzy ears, and artfully messy manes that quickly turn admiration turn into adoration.

However, I am not real fond of having the first several releases of new molds (mostly but not exclusively the Premiers) be either expensive, or of extremely limited quantity. It’s difficult to get passionate about collecting something that becomes almost immediately hard to collect.  

That’s what turned me away from the Esprit mold, initially. Although I’ve since added a few to the herd – most notably the quirky BreyerFest Special Run Prince of Chintz, and the beautiful Dappled Bay Steppin’ Out – I’ve been hesitant to sink any more effort into it. I wouldn’t have minded getting the Decorator variation of the Samba Surprise from last year’s BreyerFest lineup, but I got only one shot at that guy last year and it didn’t happen. So I sold the one I did get (Matte Palomino) and moved on.

Part of the appeal of collecting Vintage is that unless you pick an exceptionally hard mold to collect – like the Elephant, or the In-Between Mare – the ratio of rare and difficult to not-so-rare or -difficult is better. You can collect for a while before the rarities start to bother you too much. And unlike most of the newer molds, there is a small but real possibility that you just might run across one of those rarities at a yard sale or late-night online auction. 

I never expected to own an Elephant with Howdah, but I somehow managed to snag one on eBay some years back, for considerably less than the going rate. (The Pink, Blue, and Woodgrain? Ah, well, I guess that is what the flea market is for.)

The actual True North release isn’t even out yet, and the likelihood of winning Rangoli is going to be pretty slim (I mean, just look at him!) but it’s a little too early to abandon hope yet. 

Hiding In Plain Sight

The schedule went all haywire on me again. It was supposed to be a nice, quiet week before the Easter break, but rumor has it that some work policy changes are forthcoming, hence all the last-minute changes.

All I can say is that I am so looking forward to my three-day weekend.

The newest Collector Club Web Special is up and it’s a "chalky blue roan overo" Esprit, named Poseidon. I actually like him, a lot: I love pretty much anything roan, and if any mold can pull off a semi-Decorator paint job, it’s Esprit. I won’t be brokenhearted if I don’t win him, but if I do, he probably won’t be going anywhere.

It’s interesting that the announcement e-mail specifically used the word "chalky" in his color description, as a selling point. They have before - the Clydesdale Magnus comes to mind - but with the current uptick in interest in vintage Chalkies, it did stand out to me.

Chalky prices have been crazy for a while now, but with the recent discussion on Blab about the Decorator overpaints, the market for some of them - the molds used for Decorators, specifically - has really gone through the roof.

(For those of you who are not familiar with them, they would be: the Five-Gaiter, the Running Mare, the Running Foal, the Fighting Stallion, and the Mustang.)

As more collectors hold their Chalkies up to a strong light (literally), more are being revealed. I’m now comfortable with saying that it appears that a significant chunk of the unsold warehouse stock of Decorators was probably "chalked" into other, better-selling colors.

Not all Chalky Gaiters, Running Mares and Foals et al should automatically be assumed to be overpainted Decorators: only the ones without the USA mark have that potential. And the solid colors (Golden Charm, Wedgewood Blue) will be harder to discern in the light than the dappled ones (Florentine, Copenhagen).

I have always wondered why the vintage Decorators were so gosh-darned-it rare, especially when other models from the 1960s with similarly short production runs aren’t quite as hard to find. A nice #191 Gray Bucking Bronco, for instance, can be tough, but not on the same level as almost any given Decorator.

I just assumed that the rarity was a consequence of just how badly the sales did tank. Not entirely: it now appears that Breyer made a concerted effort to make their first dismal foray into the home decorating market disappear, almost completely.

I do have a Chalky Five-Gaiter in my herd; alas, like most of my other Chalkies, he’s in storage somewhere. I haven’t run across him yet in my current culling, mostly due to (again) the time issues. He used to be quite a dependable little show horse for me back in my live showing days. It would be absolutely hysterical to me if he turned out to be a Decorator, too.

Whether he is - or is not - is not going to be found out this weekend. Too much other stuff to catch up on. Like my taxes - and my sleep.

Lumpy, Bumpy, Scratched and Dinged

Looks like the Lionhearts have shipped this week after all. Which is fine by me, since I lost big on an auction I was bidding on today anyway. I sliced my finger open yesterday while walking the Vita Monster, and I deserve a pony for my suffering, darn it!

(Finger got caught up in the leash just as the Fuzzy Little Ball of Rage happened to spot vermin running across someone’s yard. She's usually pretty good about not taking off like that on her walks; the cooler weather does put a bit of pep in her step, though.)

I didn’t win a Luna, either. I only entered for her once, so it wasn’t like I was heavily invested in winning. Would have been nice, but we have the "Winter"/Black Friday/Cyber Monday Web Special to look forward to in a few weeks, right? (Who shall wear the lovely Silver Filigree coat this year?)

Reeves put up the "official" sneak peeks of some of the 2013 releases yesterday, too, confirming my suspicions about the Vintage Western Pony. Sigh. I’m sure she’ll be quite pretty in person, but the only thing "vintage" about this release is the fact that it’s a Western Pony. She looks more like a glossed 1990s release, almost a "Mini Me" of the Western Horse Royal Te.

http://www.breyerhorses.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=2921

If they wanted "Vintage Appaloosa" they could have gone with the Western Prancing Horse Black Splash Spot Leopard, the Performance Horse Roan Semi-Leopard, or even a Glossy Gray Whatever a la the Fighting Stallion or Traditional Mustang (provided they get away from the polka dots that plagued the Harlequins, of course.)

It just feels like Reeves is conceding to the "Glossy = Vintage!" people. Fooey.

You think I’m being a whiner? The online commentary about the Northern Dancer release makes me look like an amateur: you’d think that Reeves just committed a marketing disaster on the same level of "New Coke".

I really do not understand the antagonism in some circles of the hobby over the John Henry mold. Other than the lumpiness - which has been largely remedied - the only great sin I see with the mold is the uninspiring paint jobs he’s come in: Bay, Bay, more Bay, Bay Pinto, Bay Roan. Bleh. (The ELCR releases on Red Dun and Gray did break the pattern a bit, but the point holds: the dude's got a rather limited wardrobe.)

To be fair, some of those Bays are pretty nice. I’m still trying to track down - for a reasonable price - an early "Brindle" Bay John Henry. All the ones I find are either beat to heck, or out of my price range. It didn’t help that he was also a rather unexpectedly popular mold among the younger set at BreyerFest this year. Don’t know why that was, it just was.

(Though nobody saw fit to make an offer on my rather nice Cincinnati. Their loss!)

As with most new Thoroughbred releases, we’re being bombarded with the usual arguments about how This Very Important Race Horse needs - no, DEMANDS! - an entirely new mold of his/her/its own. Anything less is a travesty of justice, yadda yadda blah blah. 

Look, I’m not arguing that a few more nice Thoroughbred molds wouldn’t be appreciated, but we go through this discussion Every. Darn. Time. If Reeves had to create a new mold for every latest and greatest legend in the racing world, they’d be doing nothing but Thoroughbred molds.

I don’t know about you, but I'd rather they get hopping on a new Draft Foal, a more correct Akhal-Teke, and a few more Ponies of the British Sort, first.

On a positive note, I do like the Sergeant Reckless on the Galiceno. That mold deserves more releases, and the chestnut paint job  - what can be seen of it - looks appealing. Might have to make some room on the shelves for that one.

And the sparkly, translucent Stablemates are so full of win, it hurts. Now that’s the kind of "girly" stuff even this self-confessed tomboy can squeal about.

An Old Lady Who Stares at Goats

Another short and sweet post today, as I’m in the middle updating my files. I’m being hampered by the fact that every time I try to "Google" for a minor detail or two, the first twenty or thirty sources that pop up are those danged obnoxious Breyer tweener fangirl videos.

None of which are any helpful in the least. I hate to sound like an old lady in a muu-muu yelling at the clouds (not far from the truth, some days), but dang it kids, stop messing with my data!

(I appreciate your enthusiasm, I really do, but I wouldn’t hold it against you if you spent a little less time making shaky cam vids of your collection and a little more time obsessing over boy bands or nail polish.)

There. Got that out of my system.

Here, for your consideration, is another Friday Morning Sample I picked up, this of one of last year’s Special Runs, Gruff the Goat:

Other than the usual subtleties - the slightly finer paint job, and the absence of a VIN number - there’s not much difference between the Sample and the Production piece. Except for the blister packaging I don’t remember seeing with the original Goats. It even has the item number - 711128 - impressed into it.

Some of you might have seen this type of packaging before with another very recent Special Run: the Equine Affaire Steppin’ Out:

(It also has the item number impressed into it.)

I’m guessing that they were briefly experimenting with these partial blister packs in 2011, as a way to minimize damage in transit. They’ve been using smaller and less complicated blisters for some of their more awkward to package items for a while now, like the Nokota Horses, and those pocket-sized MiniWhinnies sets with all the teeny-tiny pieces:

It’s a relatively inexpensive molding process, which is what made a 200-piece run for the Steppin’ Out even feasible. Don’t know why they didn’t bother following through with the Goat’s packaging, if they already had the mold form made.

Money is usually the answer. Just because it doesn’t cost much doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost anything.

Another Kind of Sampler

I found myself facing another strange hobby disconnect the other day whilst lurking about another Blab BreyerFest thread, the one where they were all complaining that "prices were too high" at the hotel and that they "couldn’t find anything worth buying there, anyway."

To which I can only say "T’wasn’t my reality."

My sales were a little bit down from last year, but that’s only because I had less to sell - I forgot a box of clinkies at home, and I didn’t have time to thin the personal herd like I wanted to. My roommates had the same experience, pretty much: we were never lacking for customers with cash. I did notice that more customers this year were unfamiliar with the concept of haggling, though, something I attributed (to a degree) on the relative newness of the attendees.

For the record, folks, there's absolutely no offense taken when dickering over price; tagged prices are intended to be optimistic. In fact, some of us take a more offense if you don't make the effort.

I also happened to find quite a bit I wanted to buy, but I was somewhat hampered by the fact that I had, ahem, overindulged a bit on Friday morning. I had the money: what I didn’t have was the room. And I’m too cheap to mail stuff home to "make" the room.

In fact, I am so bereft of sellable merchandise that in my rare spare moments, I’ve found myself trolling eBay for box lots. (Which usually stops right quick when I remind myself "Don’t you have some storage boxes to go through, lady?")

As I've mentioned above and before, I did pretty darn well in the NPOD this year. Aside from the WEG and Equine Affaire Esprits - which would have made the wait in line worthwhile, alone - I managed to score more than a half dozen Samples. On my way to check out something else that had caught my eye, I was lucky enough to stumble upon (and then get pushed against!) one of the three or four Sample boxes that littered the sales floor.

After the person in front of me (darn!) had taken her share, I rummaged through what was left that - as you may have guessed by now - was definitely not nothing.

One of the things left on the bottom of the box did look like nothing - or more precisely, like a crumpled wad of tissue paper, until I picked it up and realized "Hey, there are Stablemates in here." Those Stablemates being a complete set of the 2009 Funfetti Stablemates, still in their original mini tote bags:

Sweet! Couldn’t beat the price, either, which was considerably less than the $20 apiece they originally were. And them probably being Samples? Even better! (BTW, since they were marked as a set, I’m counting them as "one" Sample, not "five".)

Since they slightly predate the introduction of the VIN numbers, there’s no definitive proof that they were Samples, but all the evidence seems to point in that direction. They were on the bottom of a box full of Samples, many of whom were marked as such. This, for instance and honest to goodness, is the actual tag that came with my Sample Palomino Weather Girl:

Hard to believe something with a tag like that was actually getting tossed around the NPOD at one point, no? Because, OMG, she had a couple of scratches. (The horror!)

Most of my other Samples are live show quality, so a couple of scratches on another wasn't going to crush my world or anything.

Kids Only

I’ve been in a really weird mood all weekend. I still haven’t gotten around to opening my packages yet, for instance. I only got about three hours sleep last night, but I feel absolutely fine. And today I bought all sorts of crazy stuff at the flea market, including a vintage umbrella:

There were a few horses, but for some reason I had to come home with a crazy plaid umbrella with the swirly green bakelite handle, that I’ll probably never use, not even in a costume-y kind of way.

I also bought a trenchcoat, for pretty much the same reason. Plus, the old lady who was selling it told me I looked good in it, and who was I to argue with her?

I did managed to pass up the Napoleonic hat with the giant ostrich plumes, though. Not because it wouldn't have gone with the umbrella and trenchcoat, but because I was almost out of money.

(I’ll blame it all on the supermoon.)

I haven’t talked much about the Kids Only Event, because there wasn’t much about it to talk about. Reeves designed a very age-appropriate event, with age-appropriate "freebies" - a Welcome to the World of Breyer Kit, a signed Brookside Pink Magnum, and a current NIP Stablemate.

To the disappointment of some of the adult attendees, I’m sure. But I’ll get back to that in a minute.

The only "news" that broke from the event was the BreyerFest SR Prince of Chintz, who was posted on the Breyer web site a few days later. Barely news at all, then. Most of the actual kids, when talking about the event, seem to have been more excited about meeting Magnum in person rather than of any news of future releases.

Which is as it should be. Although I had a fairly intense interest in Breyer History at an early age, meeting someone who was made into a Breyer model would have been just as exciting, if not more. Touring the Sample Room would have been great, too, but I wouldn’t have been able to distinguish the Rare from the Common, the Test Colors from the Regular Runs. I would have just gravitated towards my favorite molds and colors.

And then spun around in circles repeatedly just to drink in the aroma, and then passed out.

(Which is sort of what I did the one time I did get to see the Sample Room - as an adult. No actual passing out occurred, that I can recall.)

Actually, I’m sort of relieved that we haven’t heard much about the potential/future Special Runs that were on display, such as the Volunteer model (especially since I’m not volunteering). It’s not that I’m jealous of people knowing things I don’t know - which happens way more than you think, though I’m pretty good at camouflaging it - but that information like that tends to warp expectations.

Sometimes it’s better to not know what could have been. Whenever there’s a proposed SR that either doesn’t get made - or undergoes some modification prior to release - there’s always lots of whining and moping about it.

The only other news I was able to glean from coverage of the event is that a depressingly high percentage of the "adult" accompaniment was not of a parental nature. In other words, kids were "borrowed" to attend.

This does not surprise me. While I’m sure some of them - like me - would have just liked the opportunity to "tour the facility", I’m also sure that some of them were hoping there would be a little something "extra" in it for them.

Nope, blessedly, the Event was pretty much as advertised.

More Flower!

See, what did I tell you? No Web Specials for me this time around. S’okay, though, since my two newest additions (I’m Yours, and Buried Treasure) have arrived and are currently sitting in the foyer, waiting to be opened. Sleep’s been in short supply this week, so I won’t actually be seeing them in the flesh for another day or two.

Being dead tired from couple of days of long-overdue yard and garden work doesn’t help, either. (Low maintenance doesn’t mean No maintenance.)

Speaking of gardening, the next BreyerFest SR that’s been announced is called the "Prince of Chintz": he’s a Glossy Baby Blue Esprit covered in flowers - like the fabric (and pottery) of the same name.

My first reaction was "What the?" followed by "dang, that’s kinda clever" and finally "a lot of hobbyists aren’t going to ‘get’ it."

The English love of tea, a horse that sort of looks a little like a teapot, with a finish that replicates the chintz pottery finish…that’s seriously high concept for a BreyerFest Special Run.

(Sort of like most of my BreyerFest contest entries.)

(Scratches another idea off list of potential "Best of British" contest entries.)

My only complaints are (a) it could use more and/or bigger flowers, and (b) I wish they had used some other base color instead of blue, because I’m already tired of the whining about "Why couldn’t he just be a Glossy Wedgewood Blue instead?"

Because Wedgewood Blue doesn't come in glossy, that’s why. That’s just how it is.

Yes, Wedgwood is a British institution, and a Wedgewood Blue Special Run would not have been inappropriate item to make for this BreyerFest. But Reeves decided to go one step further and give us something kind of "out there." Gotta give ‘em some props for trying new and different things.

And if he really isn’t your cup of tea, here’s a thought worth considering: they might still have some Wedgewood Blue SR in the mix that we don’t know about yet.

Looking for Sunshine

My Paddy arrived yesterday. He’s no Pot O’ Gold, but he’s fine. Leans a little more than he should, but not enough to send him back. I probably should have waited a few days to open him, since I was not in the right frame of mind to receive him properly.

The weather’s been beautiful, but I’ve had to deal with a lot of grimness in the past few days, the kind no amount of sunshine can fix. One coworker’s ex-husband (her younger son’s father) died suddenly, and another’s father had a heart attack, and the prognosis is not good. And a third coworker lost her mother two weeks ago after a brief and frightening illness.

That much death - on the cusp of Spring, no less - is not conducive to a happy frame of mind.

Even if the sunshine didn’t help, walking the dog did, a little; there’s something to the act of walking, for walking’s sake, that always clears my head.

I even came up with a clever bit I wanted to do for the blog today, but when I came home I realized that was a no-go because, yet again, access to that part of my collection has been blocked off for another neverending remodeling project.

Dang it, man! Foiled again!

(Which is also one of the primary reasons why there’s been a shortage of pictures here lately. Anyone familiar with my home situation also knows it’s something I can do absolutely nothing about. Sigh.)

Let’s look for sunnier things to talk about …

Reeves "officially" announced the Esprit Brick and Mortar Special on both Facebook and on the web site, and confirmed that his name is indeed Lionheart. He has stripes like a tiger, spots like a cheetah, but they name him Lionheart because of … his color? The mane? Just because it sounds kind of cool? I’m sure we’ll find out the real reason why before they officially announce it anyway. Because that’s how this community rolls.

(Always cracks me up when The Powers That Be act all surprised that we know stuff.)

They also released a picture of another BreyerFest Line/Ticket SR, a Palomino Strapless named Bees Knees, that’s refreshingly free of frivolities like dappling, sootiness, pinto-ness, or wildly complex hoof detailing. Just a straight up, light and clear Palomino paint job.

She was another one of those models that was "leaked" early; that first picture didn’t impress me that much initially; I am much more enamored of her now. I think the Strapless mold looks smashing in palomino, and she’s definitely a contender for my pocketbook - depending on what she looks like in person, and the size of my pocketbook. (The latter, not so good right now.)

Palomino is a color that renders really well in Gloss, so if they do decide to repeat the half Gloss/half Matte experiment that they did with last year’s Bay Appaloosa Show Jumping Warmblood, I’d consider her a prime candidate.

It wouldn’t matter to me either way, since I’m already falling in love with her in Matte.

Page Clicks

The most exciting thing about the WEG Chestnut Esprit giveaway for me was that they finally gave us an official name and item number for it: it’s the WEG 2010 Media and Athlete Gift Esprit (item#9142). Yes! And thank you! Another tiny hole in the data patched.

I’m putting my daily clicks in, but I haven’t cleared a space on the shelf for him quite yet; I still think I have a better shot at getting one via other means. Even after all this time, they still have to have more than just one knocking around the office.

If they are cognizant enough of the demand to estimate the value of the prize at $500, though, I’m becoming increasingly doubtful that they’ll dump them in the NPOD, but one never knows. They haven’t been averse to unloading high-end merch in there in the past.

I don’t take any pleasure in reading the commentary everywhere about how so confusing the Breyer web site is. (Other than pointing out that maybe now more people get my point about the confusing graphics.) Instead of trying to navigate around the site manually, I just visit via the link in the e-mail they send. They get sent to the e-mail address I have to check in on every day anyway.

It would be helpful, though, if the Powers That Be had most of the bugs worked out and the typos corrected before they send the e-mails out.

(And if you’re not getting your e-mails from them, could y’all just call them up and take care of it, instead of complaining about it Every Darn Time it happens?)

Reeves is just trying to generate page clicks, which is all well and good. I’ll start actually clicking around the site when, you know, they start putting up a little more content worth clicking on.

They did post a couple more Bfest specials today - a Store Special Irish Draft "Killarney" in a lightly dappled reddish bay, and Line/Ticket SR "Cheerio", a Glossy Dun Tobiano Pinto Bell-bottomed Shire. Just a couple of days ago I was thinking it was about that time for a few more photos to come out. Yay!

The Shire is the one I was (very) tangentially referring to in my last post about the Web Site Photo Fiasco. The first photo I saw was from a different angle, I think, but I like her even more from this one.

On my want list? Yep, so far. I love the Bell-bottomed Shire; a lot of others do, too. Gloss + Pinto + Vintage Draft mold = Winner! (Not if you listen to the younger set, who seems to think any mold released prior to Silver is "icky" and "unpopular", but I’ve been working on that for Lent, too.)

Don’t know if I’ll go for the Killarney yet. The Ballyduff mold looks wonderful in that color, but the Porcelains make me nervous. It is interesting that they’re putting him in the store instead of as a Line/Ticket Special. Does that mean that the resins from last year were a dry run towards putting the Nonplastic SRs in the store itself, or will they continue to do both?

I suppose we’ll find out in a few more weeks, as other SR pictures get (officially) released.

Because It's My Job

I’ve given up fast food, carbonated drinks, candy bars, and quilting for Lent. I decided to forego giving up caffeine, because that would simply not be pleasant for anybody. I haven’t entirely given up sweets either, but if I want any, I have to make it or bake it.

Since I have little time for that kind of thing, it most likely ain’t gonna happen.

I finally opened my Dandy today - very nice! The paint job is beautiful, and the sticker is a spot-on reproduction of the original. Though I must point out that most Gloss finishes were discontinued before the "Big" Blue Ribbon sticker debuted ca. 1969.

I know, I know, they picked that style of sticker so they could print the name on it legibly. It’s sort of my job to be nitpicky, you know.

My other nitpick with it is the certificate - as far as I know, the Clydesdale mold debuted in 1958, not 1957. It’s true that the Poodle was technically "debuted" at the 1958 Toy Fair, but it was available from multiple retailers in 1957; I haven’t seen any evidence of the same situation for the Clydesdale.

If it wasn’t available for retail sale in 1957, it wasn’t "released" in 1957, period.

A picture of the Fall Dealer Special Esprit is finally making the rounds - and he’s Dunalino, not Palomino. He still appears to be Glossy, and an Appaloosa, and somewhat limited, so the alternating fits of hysteria and swooning continue unabated.

He is pretty spiffy, though I was secretly yearning for an airbrushed blanket with splash spots, instead of the masked one. Totally okay with it, either way.

(BTW, thanks for the tip, KD ~)

So let me get this straight: a Dunalino Appaloosa paint job on the Esprit is acceptable. The Fun Foals Chestnut Pintaloosa Standing Stock Horse Foal is acceptable. But a Silver Pintaloosa on the Weather Girl is a crime against nature?

(Does that mean desirability of an exotic paint job is inversely proportional to the anatomical correctness?)

I’ve never understood the hatred in some parts of the real (and model) horse world over the very existence of pintaloosas. I’m not a big fan of breeding for color, but if you just happen to get a lot of color on an pretty nice piece of horseflesh, all the better.

I never did get around to sending away for my Rainbow Weather Girl, even though I did manage to luck into the Black one fairly early on. If I happen to find one in the NPOD this year - matte or gloss - I won’t hesitate to pick it up. Because I’m certainly not going to pay the prices some sellers seem to think their "ugly, undesirable" Weather Girls are worth.

If its very presence pains you that much, slap a body price on it and let it go where it goes. That’s what I do with the stuff that annoys me. Just keep lowering the price until someone bites. Or sell it as a body. The end.

Fall Dealer Special, and Facebook

Something no so substantial today; I got maybe two hours of sleep last night, due to work. The only things keeping me from slipping into a semi-conscious state are a half a can of Diet Dr. Pepper and a blueberry muffin. (FWIW, the muffin was homemade. And delicious.)

So it appears that Reeves will be attempting another Fall Dealer Special this year, one exclusive to "Brick and Mortar" stores (ones with actual storefronts, and not just online presences): a Glossy Palomino Appaloosa Esprit.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Playroom/175400942521144

The details are vague, and obviously incomplete: each "store" will be limited to 18 pieces. But does that limit apply to each location, or for each business entity? (Note: I’m not dealer, and have no pretensions of ever having a storefront beyond renting a booth at the local antique mall.)

I was apprehensive at first when I heard it was going to be another Esprit: oh great, another super-limited Esprit I won’t be able to see, much less own. However, the fact that the 2009 Glossy Sherman Morgan "Autumn" wasn’t as hard to come by as many initially feared (after the initial "OMG-Gotta-Have-It" freakout), gives me some hope that the piece count on him will be in the more attainable range, too.

(One of my local stores still had an Autumn Sherman on the shelves, before Christmas. Haven’t been back to that part of town lately, so I don’t know if it’s still there.)

There are no photos, and no official data to go by, except for that one little bit posted on a dealer’s Facebook page. Even though it’s little more than a rumor at this point, hobbyists are already attempting to get on dealer wait lists for it.

I thought the Gray Appaloosa Esprit from the Benefit Auction last year was pretty spiffy, and I imagine the Palomino version of that would not be any less so. If I manage to score one somehow, great - but I won’t worry about it in the meantime.

Since I have a little space and time, and still feel reasonably coherent, now seems like a good time to elaborate a little bit on my policy regarding Facebook.

I don’t have an account - and I don’t intend to, unless I either become famous, or get a job that would require it. (Either scenario? Unlikely.) I’ve had some identity theft issues in the past: my first inclination is to not put too much of myself "out there". A site that’s dedicated to doing that? So not going there.

But the main reason why is because that’s not how I use the Internet. As someone who jumped feet first into that ocean well over a decade ago, Facebook feels like a wading pool. I have a blog, two e-mail addresses, and several forum accounts: I barely have time to do what I already need to do, much less update my status every couple of hours, or approve friend requests from people I didn't particularly like in high school.

The only time I do interact with it is through publicly available pages that might actually have information that I may find both useful and reliable (hence the link to the Breyer Facebook page, to the right.) There’s not a whole lot of that on Facebook (the above link also includes some amusing misinformation about the Pink Elephant. Only three others in existence? I don’t think so, darlin’.)

Anything you really need to know about me will either be here, or via my domain, whenever I get around to working on that. (‘Tis a sad thing right now - all it does it redirect you here.)

(I will admit that I’ve been Twitter-curious, of late. Only because the notion of live-tweeting BreyerFest amuses me. "Entering NPOD. Mortal Kombat!")

Pecos

So, what do I get for trying to make up a month’s worth of neglect in my garden, in the space of two days? Puffy eyes, a runny nose, and itching in unmentionable places.

At least the garden’s looking respectable now. It’ll be a few more days before I can say the same of myself. Stupid allergies!

I finally got the chance to debox my Pecos; I’m usually pretty diligent about that sort of thing, but as I’ve said before, been busy (and of late, itchy.) I think I got a pretty nice one, with good dappling:


He has a couple of very slight scuffs on his left hip, but they blend in with the dappling. And I don’t intend on showing him anyway, so whatever. He was the nicest of the three I had, and I was not displeased with the ones I had to choose from. Most of the flaws I saw were minor, nitpicky things. Nothing to harass the guy at the ticket window about.

I was hoping to bring home a few more Esprits this year, but that didn’t happen. I think everyone was expecting some form of Esprits in the NPOD - the Chestnuts, the Bays, or at the very least the Dapple Grays - but if there were any in there, they were few and far between.

I can understand their hesitation about the Chestnuts causing some commotion in the Pit, but I thought they’d at least have a decent pile of the Dapple Grays in there. Very odd. (Come to think of it, there was very little WEG stuff, period. Where was Snow Globe Mountain?)

From the lay of the land that I got while scoping out the Pit, I did get a sense that they were holding a few things back, so maybe there’s some crazy Grab Bag-style promotion in the not-too-distant future. Not saying there will be, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

I thought I still had a shot at getting a Gloss Pecos at the Costume Contest this year. I briefly considered not going ahead with my entry, due to the previously mentioned engineering problems, but once I saw the one they had in the Silent Auction, I doubled down and got it done. (After a quick trip to Lowe’s, for supplies.)

As I exited the "Dressing Room" in my full Princess Beatrice regalia - yes including The Hat - I was feeling pretty good about myself. One of the ladies at the Raffle Ticket booth actually burst out laughing at the sight of me. Awesome.

Alas, if you look at the picture of the winners, you will not see me among them. After the first two winners were called, it became pretty clear that the judges and I had differing judging criteria. Most of the entries I thought had a legitimate shot also went unplaced.

Admittedly, I was stretching the definition of a "fairytale character" just a bit by doing a real-life person, but no more so than many of the other entrants. Hey, she’s a Princess, she attended what was described as a "fairytale" wedding, and she wore a hat that defied both the laws of physics and common sense. Seemed like a perfect fit to me. Besides, after I found the matching dress at a local Salvation Army, I felt like it was something I had to do.

Next year’s theme is "British Invasion," so if the Costume entries call for your favorite Brit, past or present, Princess Beatrice just might make a return appearance.

(Because despite of entreaties to the contrary, I’m not selling The Hat for charity.)

Silver and Gold

I’ve been occupying most of my spare time over the past three days to spring cleaning, primarily of the outdoor gardening kind. It was messier than I imagined, but isn’t that how most cleaning projects are? Another day or two and I should be ready to start planting and rearranging things.

In the process of raking, weeding and pruning, I completely forgot that the Equine Affaire was this weekend. Not completely completely, I guess - it just got pushed down the list of things I needed to worry about. (Today’s list: "What inedible thing did the dog eat today?" "How much did I lose by on today’s eBay auctions?" and "Where on Earth did my brother hide the chicken taquitos?")

I hate feeling so apathetic about Steppin’ Out; I’m more than willing to be a fool for love over many things, but the Esprit mold is not going to be one of them.

The BreyerFest-related news coming out of the Equine Affaire was pretty exciting: two more Special Runs were announced! A Decorator Bluegrass Bandit "Under the Sea," and another Gambler’s Choice piece called "Spun Gold," on a mold-to-be-named-later.

The Bluegrass Bandit is a blue translucent piece done in what appears to be the same style/technique as the Pink Ribbon Andalusian, except with ocean/mermaid motifs, I presume. (The one available picture is a tad unclear.) I can’t imagine her not being popular, considering how well received Translucents like Gala, Carnivale, and Tortuga were. (Reeves has decided to call them "Clearware," but I’m going by my preferred term, for now.)

The "Spun Gold" SR is a bit more of mystery: we don’t know the mold, and we’re not sure of the color, either. The copy on the signage says "One mold has been transformed into three different strands of gold!" so the popular line of thinking is that they’ll be three different shades of gold - white, yellow and rose - in either Golden Charm, Florentine, or some combination thereof.

I think it’s just as, if not more likely, to be an iteration of what we had with the previous Gambler’s Choice, but all in Golden Charm: solid, pinto, and appaloosa. If there are going to be surprises within the surprises - as there were with the Quarter Horse Gelding, before - I think they might go with either Florentines (to keep with the theme) or Silver Charms/Filigrees (to keep with the history.)

I also think it would be darn funny if they went with the Silvers, because for the first time in the history of ever, Silver would be worth more than Gold.

I have no idea on the mold they’ll be using for it. The first two thoughts that come to mind are "vintage" (that’s what they went with before) and "pony" (because Rumplestiltskin was an evil little gnome.)

Heck, maybe they might go with one of the molds celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, as I mentioned in a not-too-previous post? All three of those horse molds - the Fighting Stallion, Mustang or Five-Gaiter - have already come in Golden Charm, and the Fighter has come in a couple versions of Golden Charm Pinto, so I don’t think it’s very likely.

So here’s the tally so far, on Line Specials:

711127 Aurora (Porcelain Unicorn)
711128 Gruff (Mountain Goat)
711129 Under the Sea (Bluegrass Bandit)
711130 Once Upon a Time (Show Jumping Warmblood)
711131 Wish on a Star (Big Ben)
711132 Jasmine (Weather Girl)
711133 Hansel & Gretel (Black Forest Ponies)
711134 Spun Gold (Gambler’s Choice)

The grumps among us will say otherwise (because they always do!) but this is a darn nice lineup. Except for the Unicorn (duh, breakable!) I would not be unhappy with any of them. I am so not unhappy with them, in fact, that I’m actually thinking about buying another ticket. At full price.

Drama Overload

I didn’t think the drama surrounding the Weather Girls could have gotten worse, but it has. No to Glossies, yes to Glossies, no to Glossies again, and now maybe Glossies but rare - is it any wonder I stick to more ancient Breyer history? So much less of a hassle …

How sad is it that when I heard the news about "Steppin’ Out," my first reaction was "Well, Ohio isn’t that far away…" Then I plugged in the numbers: 480 miles round trip, with gas at $3.50 a gallon? Not gonna happen, unless I can get a caravan of locals to split the costs.

http://www.breyerhorses.com/news/detail.php?eventid=880

As I’ve said before in the comments, the whole situation with another super-limited Esprit - this time, an almost generous 200-piece run - is ridiculous. Is there some sort of arcane plan to make this mold totally uncollectible to almost everyone on the secondary market, except the rich and/or crazy (and their wannabes)?

There’s only been one "large scale" release of the Esprit mold so far, and contrary to what a lot of hobbyists seem to think, it wasn’t all that large. Just because some Tuesday Mornings got one in their latest Breyer shipment does not mean that Reeves had a gigantic surplus of them. There have been low-piece count BreyerFest SRs that have ended up in Tuesday Morning stores, for heaven’s sake.

The market for pricey Breyer SRs is not that big, either - just take a look at all of the high-priced beauties gone wanting on MH$P recently. Most of them, it seems, being sold by previous attendees of super-exclusive events in order to fund their attendance at the next super-exclusive event.

Sorry, no can do, not even if I could. I just can’t wrap my head around the idea of being that fickle with my horses. If I go through the trouble and expense of getting something that rare or desirable, I mean to keep it long term. More than a year or two, anyway.

Yeah, I do something similar with the stuff I find at the flea market, but on a much smaller scale financially - with lower expectations, and less grandiose ambitions. And most of it stays in the more affordable ranges: it’s been a couple of years since I had a sales item in the three-digit range, and those were models I never intended to sell, except out of financial necessity. (As in, I needed money to pay my bills, not finance another extravagance.)

Eh, enough with the griping - let’s cover a little history for a change. As promised, here’s the scan of the Poodle’s big announcement in the January, 1958 issue of Toys & Novelties:


Even though the photo is in black and white, it seems pretty obvious to me that the color of the collars is probably blue, not red. Reds tend to turn darker in black and white photography, and blues look lighter. (The collar on the white one looks much lighter in the original copy - my scanner’s being all naughty and contrasty.) There’s no real news here, only confirmation: it jibes with what we were already able to ascertain from the physical evidence.

In case you were curious, the books in the background appear to be about home decorating. That’s interesting. Was Breyer already thinking about a "Decorator" line at that point, or was it just a subtle suggestion to potential buyers about their product's potential as decorative accents?

Insert Sheets, Pt. II

If I come across as a bit of a cranky-puss today, I apologize. My work schedule was completely, utterly messed up this week; I ended up driving about twice as far as anyone else, for about half the hours. Listening to other people complain about all the overtime they’re getting gets very old, very quickly.

I am still Esprit-free. This is not really a surprise - I know how the hobbyists are around here - but it did irritate me more than I thought it would.

I think there’s just something fundamentally flawed about the way this mold’s been marketed. Restricting availability to a new item does drive up demand; overdo it, and it becomes a deterrent. I’ll have at least one in my collection eventually - the BreyerFest Pecos - but that may well and truly be it.

In other words, there’s no need for anyone to go out of their way to get me one. If I find one eventually, at a price I can afford, awesome. If not, no big whoop.

Back to the Insert Sheets discussion. First, here are some scans of the little seen 1964 Inserts:




I really like the way these pages are designed; if I had the money-time-inclination, I’d have them blown up to one-sheet poster size and frame them for my office. (Note to the folks at Reeves, if you’re reading: you might want to look into this idea. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who’d be into that sort of thing.)

You’ll note that unlike the 1963 Dealer’s Catalog, these sheets are not full-color. The 1963 Catalog was a bit of an outlier; most of Breyer’s marketing materials prior to the late 1960s were not printed in full-color. It wasn’t purely an aesthetic choice: full-color printing was expensive. If they could get away with printing something in a duotone, or with a spot color or two, they would.

A restricted color palette isn’t that big a deal, as long as the materials themselves are designed and rendered well. And for the most part, they were, but that’s another topic I haven’t even begun to research yet. (I met Richard Lewis once, in passing, about 10-12 years ago. Another one of those "wish I had a time machine for a do-over" moments.)

As far as I know, the 1962 Insert Sheets haven’t shown up - yet. Now there’s something I’d pay an almost-crazy amount of money for. It’s possible they may not even exist, but we didn’t know the 1961 Sheets existed, until they resurfaced.

We’ve got a good idea of which molds those sheets might feature - the Running Mare and Foal, the Western Prancing Horse, and maybe the Texas Longhorn Bull - but having those sheets would prove it, definitively. I’d be fine with finding that information via other routes, but the sheets themselves would be sweet.

Insert Sheets, Pt. I

In case you haven’t heard, the rumor is that some of the leftover Esprits - the Dappled Gray ones, NOT the Chestnuts - are in the Tuesday Morning store sales mix this in this go-round. Not a lot, but some. The thought of a half-priced Esprit is enough to consider amending my budget slightly.

It looks like I’m not going to be anywhere near a Tuesday Morning this Tuesday morning, though, so it doesn’t look like any amending will be necessary. I’ll still be doing a look-see in the afternoon (we do need some new garden trellises) but the store I’ll be hitting gets shopped hard. The other stores are a just a little bit too far out of the way to make it worth my while, with gas prices being what they are. So it looks like I’ll have to wait until BreyerFest before I add an example of the Esprit mold to my collection.

Speaking of that, I just noticed that the deadline for the Early Bird pricing on BreyerFest tickets has been moved up to April 1st this year, instead of the more customary late April date. Good thing I noticed that when I did. I hate putting more money on the CC, but it’ll save me a few bucks in the short term, and hey, there’s always that teeny-tiny possibility of winning one of those Early Bird Raffle horses, right?

Otherwise it’s been pretty quiet on the model horse front here, again. It’s still a good six weeks before the flea market opens, and the pickings at the antique malls and thrift stores have been a little slim. There have been a few items that caught my eye on eBay, but we’ll deal with them if and when they get here.

Work will take me near the main branch of the Detroit Public Library next week, and you know what that means - another research field trip! I’ve just been itching to go, especially since I’ll be tacking the critical 1957-1961 timeframe. We’ve been able to infer quite a bit from the references we already have, but paper confirmation would totally rock my world.

As you all know, my world is sorely in need of some rocking.

A couple of you in the comments wanted some further discussion of one of those rare references we have from that time period - the 1961 Insert Sheets. Since I’m a running a little short on inspiration today, it seems like a good time to provide it.

The 1961 Insert Sheets materialized in the 1990s, and consisted of 4 single-sided duotone sheets, featuring the Fighting Stallion, the Mustang, the Five-Gaiter, and the Modernistic Buck and Doe. The sheets are physically undated and as far as I know, came without any other supplementary materials to help date them.

They are assumed to be from 1961 based on corroborating evidence from contemporaneous mail-order catalogs and magazine ads. They also have greater similarities to the design and color scheme of the 1960 Dealer’s Catalog than the 1963 one.

Back then, Breyer didn’t issue a new Dealer’s Catalog every year: it was just too expensive. They’d print one base catalog, and make additions via separately printed sheets that could be inserted later - either loosely, or stapled in a signature.

This was pretty much Breyer’s standard operating procedure up until the early 1970s, when they finally started printing new (or at least reformatted) catalogs every year. It sometimes makes for some difficulties in dating, especially in the Dealer Catalogs of the late 1960s.

The 1964 Dealer Sheets - featuring the Deer Family, Stretched Morgan, and Belgian - are a little less notorious, mainly because there’s less mystery surrounding them. For one thing, we already knew that these molds appeared in 1964: we have copies of the 1964 Breyer pricelist to prove it.

We don’t have any pricelists for the period of 1959 through 1962, however. (Oh, how I long for them!) That those four sheets appear as a set implies that they were all released within a short period of time from each other. Some of them in that group might have been released earlier than others, but they were all (I assume) available by the time the sheets were printed. And the most logical date for them is 1961.

The scanner is misbehaving, and I’m running a little short on time, so I’ll finish up the insert sheet discussion in my next post.

BreyerFest 2011 Sneaks

Most of my headspace has been occupied, inexplicably, with obscure quilt patterns from the 1930s, so the follow-up to the molded-on tack discussion will have to wait a few more days. I’ll talk about some of the just-announced BreyerFest SRs and stuff instead.

First and foremost, let me do a virtual Snoopy Dance on the return of the Mountain Goat. I’m sure this guy was in the works before I brought up the notion in my Alpine post back in December - the idea seems quite obvious, in retrospect. I’ll probably have to buy a couple of them - one for me, and one for one of my regulars, who’s been politely hassling me for a Mountain Goat for a few years now.

The Unicorn is, alas, predictable and boring. You’d think they could have dressed it up with something a little more imaginative than twee bits of garland - what, they couldn’t spring for a gold mane and tail, a jade green paint job, or some stylized flames? Nope, it’s the same old pastel blandness. I wasn’t likely to buy it anyway, since it’s a porcelain, but I was hoping they'd at least put a little effort into it.

I’m feeling a little indifferent to the Black Tie Affair, a model I’m assuming will be the Store Special. The mold looks good in pinto; I just haven’t been feeling it for the Huck Bey mold lately. Interesting how the Store Special seems to have evolved into the undercard/second string guest horse SR.

The Big Ben looks good in pinto, too, but I’m feeling equally indifferent to the dingy-looking pinto SR. He’s come in a couple of pinto SRs recently - Monaco, and the Collector’s Choice Gathering Storm - so maybe that’s why he’s not really wowing me at the moment. Maybe he’ll look better in person. (Duh, what am I saying - of course he’ll look better in person!) But will he be better enough to overcome my current lack of enthusiasm?

The Red Bay Appaloosa Show Jumping Warmblood is interesting; I don’t have a loose-mane version of that mold yet, so it fits into my buying program. I’d need to see one in person - and all of the other as-yet-unnamed SRs - before I make my final selections. (Aside from the Goat: he’s non-negotiable.)

No complaints here on the Celebration Horse: the Esprit mold looks very nice in a lightly dappled pearl white. He reminds me a little of a gorgeous, near-perfect Templado I had to part with last year. I do need an Esprit for the collection, and all the other Esprit releases aren’t really available to me.

(The whining and sniping about him on Blab, though - yeesh. Every release can’t be designed specifically for you, darlings.)

I can’t think of anything at the moment for the "Happy Endings" contest. The fairytales I’m familiar with are the undistilled, unDisneyfied versions that mostly end in death or maiming. (Go find the "original," pre-Perrault version of Cinderella and you’ll see what I mean.) When I do think of "happy endings," I can’t think of anything that’s not a little - or a lot - risque (the inevitable consequence of having a masseuse for a roommate last year.)

It might be moot, since I already have a pair of shoes for a potential costume contest entry, if there is one.

Or maybe I’ll get really, really lucky and win one of those Early Bird Raffle models. A silver bay splash spot appaloosa El Pastor? That’s … different. Certainly more imaginative than the porcelain unicorn.

Flying Green Unicorns!

Will I be getting the latest Web Special, Alpine? Maybe. You know how I am when it comes to Silver Filigrees. It’s the fact that it’s a telephone-only sale that’s making me hesitate: I’m somewhat telephone-phobic. The sale isn’t until Tuesday, but the thought of spending a couple of hours hitting redial is already giving me the heebie-jeebies. (Yeah, I’m not a very happy camper on HIN Reservation Day, either.)

I’m also a little annoyed by it - not that it’s another super-limited Silver Filigree, but that it’s another super-limited Esprit. Another one, really? Great. That means is that we’re in for several days of hobbyists dismissing him as an "easy pass," and then attempting to buy one anyway to resell to the people who really do want one.

Personally, I was hoping for a Decorator Mountain Goat. Now there’s a mold we haven’t seen in a while - since 2005, to be precise. But could they sell 250 Decorator Mountain Goats? Alas, probably not.

I don’t think they could sell 250 White Moose, either, but that was the speculation du jour on Blab today. Seriously - a White Moose? I love the Moose mold myself, but I can’t imagine them making a white one. Yeah, they exist, but what would be the rationale for making one - aside from a slight association with Christmas, or cuteness?

If you’re looking for an idea that might have some genuine selling power to it, a White Stag would be a better choice. Google "White Stag" or "White Deer" or even "White Hart," and you’ll see what I’m talking about. A "White Stag" would be a natural for next year’s "Fairytails" BreyerFest theme, especially as the non-horse item for the Line Specials.

I doubt they’d do it. One, they already sorta did one for the BreyerFest auction back in 2007: hobbyists kind of get annoyed when a "test color" becomes an actual production run. (Even though that used to be the whole point of test colors.) Two, breakage issues with the tines would be a nightmare, especially if they’re bubble-wrapped and bagged like most Line Specials. I imagine the inevitable Unicorn SR is going to be trouble enough.

Oh, and if you’re going to do a little more research on mythical or legendary horse-type things, do yourselves a favor and check out the awesome Táltos Horse. Here is how he’s described on the Wikipedia (via the page on Táltos, or Hungarian shamans):

The táltos always had a horse, frequently appearing in Hungarian folk tales as a white stallion with wings. However, the Táltos Horse always had jade colored skin, causing them to be mocked by everybody. It is said in myths, that only the táltos could see the real powers hidden in the horse.

When they met, only the táltos could ride the horse, and it was always "flying like thought". This way the táltos is able to meditate (révül).

The horse can have a unicorn horn and wings, visible to the táltos during meditation (révül). The unicorn horn signifies the horse's special spiritual power, as it is a single horn that grows straight out of the brain. The wings define the ability to fly between the three worlds of Hungarian mythology. The táltos horse could have "gold hair", and also eat hot cinders.

Doesn’t he sound like something straight off of a Dethklok album cover?

I know it’s Wikipedia, and therefore of dubious veracity, but dang it - a jade green flying unicorn that eats fire? Now that would be one badass BreyerFest SR.