The Narrative

Way to ruin the narrative guys…

Since this is like the fourth, fifth or sixteenth draw, I’m not sure this even counts as pull from the waitlist anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely taking him, but it all seems so anticlimactic now, like being told you can eat that last piece of birthday from a party held three days ago you weren’t invited to in the first place. 

I mean, I will say yes to cake always, but it definitely feels weird.  

There’s been a lot of news in the past several days and I’m not quite sure where to begin; I suppose I should begin with the giant elephant in the room: the Spokes & Spurs Exclusive Event.

Remember how I was telling you how my vacation plans for next year were so completely messed up I had to come up with an alternative to my alternative plan? Not only would this event fit perfectly into the alternative plan I had been cooking up, it is almost like it was planned with me in mind. 

Originally I wanted to go to the Kentucky Derby, but unfortunately so did a couple million other people, and because my back still hurts and I am super-judgey right now, my mind imagines (mostly unfairly, I know) that many who did secure tickets either don’t know one end of a horse from another, or cannot even rattle off three random Kentucky Derby winners off the tops of their heads. Grr, argh….

(If on the slender but not impossible [for once!] chance that the Detroit Lions make it to the Super Bowl, I am not going to stand in the way of people who have been waiting since 1957. That would just feel mean.)

I did not get picked for the ticket lottery, and due to a series of unfortunate events, I did not find out about the public part of the sale until five days after it happened. All that’s left now are infield (drunk people), box seats (nobody I know who wants to go has the money to split one with me), insanely expensive luxury seats, and scalpers (both self-explanatory). So yeah, unless a miracle happens, I will not be attending.  

My backup plan was San Diego Comicon.

(Yes, I can hear you laughing.)  

The backup to the backup plan was Iceland, but since one of my cousins expressed an interest also, that’s going to require more planning and coordination.

Which left me with… the Redneck Roadtrip Redo. My family had a weird, epic roadtrip to the Southern parts of the U.S. in the summer of 1979; it was the closest thing our working class family had to a “real” vacation, and included stops at Graceland, Lexington, Nashville and Little Rock, Arkansas. Other than Lexington – where I got to go to the Kentucky Horse Park for the first time, and met Forego – a lot of the places I wanted to visit along the way were nixed. 

I always thought that someday I’d redo that roadtrip, but do it right. Dig for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park! Take my picture in front of the post office in Gurdon, Arkansas! Actually go inside of Graceland! (Technically it wasn’t even open to the public in 1979.) And other stops Dad didn’t bother to slow down for, for reasons both known and unknown.

(Known: my always impeccably-dressed Grandmother wasn’t going to go digging in the dirt for anything, even diamonds.) 

I had thought about taking this roadtrip the week before or after the Derby, as a way of both avoiding and thumbing my nose at the Derby festivities I will be missing out on, and because life is too short to be hate-watching anything anymore anyway. 

Combining this roadtrip with an Exclusive Event in the middle of it would be perfect. But will it actually happen? 

Getting Lucky

Something crazy lucky happened today. 

I think. 

More on this story if and when it officially arrives.

In response to a comment in the previous post: I have been a model horse hobbyist since 1978, a comic book reader since before I entered grade school, and have attended all manner of conventions since the mid-1980s. My favorite Golden Age SF author is A.E. Van Vogt, my favorite kaiju is Gamera, and my family has seen every single Star Trek film ever made in the movie theatre. Even the one where Kirk picks a fight with God!

Today is not the day I write my opus about the model horse hobby being a subcategory of Science-Fiction Fandom. But as someone who’s lived the life, and met several others who have done likewise, I’d like to think that I can write it with a measure of both authority and persuasion when I do. 

Now, back to the Model Horse Nerdery, and the topic of getting lucky: 

I’m not sure how this happened, but I’m taking it! Since I do not consider myself especially lucky, my mind immediately went to several different rationalizations as to why and how I actually got drawn for this opportunity. 

It was only open to VIP ticket holders: okay, there were fewer entries to choose from. That helped.

The fact that it happens on a Wednesday, and a lot of people already have their plans in place and could not accommodate the date: sure, that is definitely a factor.

The cost: yeah, this could be a budget-buster for some folks. Been there, done that: I get it. 

And finally, the cost-benefit analysis: I am not one of these people (obviously!) but if there’s no money to be made at an activity, a lot of hobbyists simply won’t do it. 

I’m a little bit short on extracurricular activities at BreyerFest this year: some of the things I could do I want to save for my future “Redneck Family Roadtrip Redo” either next year or the year after (Derby comes first, and then a still undetermined international location!) And most of the alternate excursions are either not viable schedule-wise or (in at least one instance) ethically questionable.

So the Hillcroft Farm Tour was a perfect fit for me. And I actually get to go!

Whether or not there will be any added “benefits” to the package aside from what’s already been mentioned, I have no clue. This is new territory: this feels more like the farm tours that Reeves used to facilitate at BreyerFest rather than the farm tours that come with Exclusive Event experiences.

But we really have no way of knowing what it will be like, until it happens.

I am going into this experience with that thought in mind. Anything extra that comes out of it is just extra.

Gaiter Bait

I was very fortunate to get the one model (aside from the Centerpiece, which will never happen ever) I wanted out of the event, the Cremello Five-Gaiter Okeeheelee:

(I only just realized today that the Park he’s named after is… full of ‘gators. Nice one, guys!)

I had decided that this was going to be the year I was going to finally acquire those Gloss Alabaster/Albino and Palomino Five-Gaiters that had eluded me all these years. Especially since all the Saddlebred love now belongs to Hamilton, who appears to have replaced both Othello and Silver as the model on everybody’s BreyerFest Surprise Model bingo card.

(Except mine. It’s going to be a while, guys. Seriously.)

But until I got Okeeheelee, it looked like the year was going to be a washout. I kept missing all the good ones – online, and in person – sometime by minutes. Like most models (and most recently, my Alabaster Proud Arabian Stallion) it looks like I’ll have to bide my time until the right ones come along.

So I was plenty pleased – and a bit worried – when I saw Okeeheelee, sitting there right in that sweet spot in between Albino and Palomino. He was my first choice, and my luck in getting picked near the front of lines is generally not good. The same goes with cremellos, sometimes in the most bizarre ways: it took me a year to finally get the “ordinary” Uffington, because the Holographic Silver just had to happen.

I got so lucky: I was seventh in line! I probably shouldn’t have worried, since everyone was having a conniption over the Bouncer, who would have been my first choice if the Gaiter hadn’t been there.

A few more thoughts about the trip itself…

Three things I miss about Florida:

The weather, obviously. Other than the hurricane part: snow is much easier to shovel than water. I spent a lot of my extended Thanksgiving weekend buried under a pile of blankets. 

Secondly, my friends – or more precisely, getting to hang out with other humans I can have interesting conversations with. And by interesting conversations I mean the engineering of stagecoaches, notable Florida Thoroughbreds, or the differences between Puerto Rican-bred and Colombian-bred Paso Finos. You know, normal stuff.

My family doesn’t really want to hear about the horses anymore (something I’m sure some of you might understand), and all my coworkers talk about are reality shows, football and their hair, three things I could not care less about if you paid me to.

And finally: passing as a reasonably put-together and competent person. I sometimes (okay, often) deal with Imposter Syndrome, and being able to walk around and not feel like a completely out-of-place weirdo was nice. 

I get a little of that at BreyerFest, too – the Imposter feeling, not the not-a-weirdo feeling, because I completely lean into the weird in Kentucky – but as I’m not on Facebook (or even the Internet all that much, lately) I managed to avoid knowing who else was going to be present in Florida (with a couple of exceptions). 

So I walked into that situation without any preconceived notions of how I had to behave or who to expect. Kind of like a real vacation, except with the happy coincidence of some of friends coming along for the ride. (In two cases, quite literally!)

And as I mentioned before, all the freaking out at the CSRs in the days leading up to the event also probably helped.

Time to crawl back under those thick, heavy blankets, and look at seed catalogs. 

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 Luxuries of Time

Nothing particularly noteworthy to end the week on, other than (a) my clothes finally arrived in the mail from Florida and (b) it was a good week for Stablemates:

Premier Club Lyric, Deluxe Collector’s Club Ellington and the Exclusive Event Stablemate Del Rey. So hard to pick a favorite, they’re all pretty sweet!

The other items I acquired in Florida are still largely unpacked; I’ve been spending most of my spare time this week catching up on my sleep. This is the first week in ages where I have no immediate commitments or deadlines, and I’m going to take advantage of it while I can. 

And do normal human things. Read a book. Watch some TV. Finish embroidering some quilt blocks. (That particular project is so close to being done!)

While I do have several pictures of the Florida trip (and according to my coworkers, some of them can already be found on the Internet) I’m not sure I’ll be posting a lot of them here. While they’re not embarrassing per se, and I don’t mind pictures of myself being taken, I don’t like looking at pictures of me. It feels unnatural and super weird, like I’m looking at my own ghost. 

As for not telling you guys about the trip ahead of time, that was just a personal decision on my part. For one, I wasn’t 100 percent sure I was going to make it (my family history with the State of Florida, and all that) and well, I like the surprise. Just another footnote in my Year of Adventure.

If it happens again, I’ll be a little more forthcoming with my plans. (If anyone wants to come along for Wyoming, feel free to contact me. The more, the merrier!)

I didn’t get a centerpiece model – as I suspected, another unacquireable Polo Pony version of the Smarty Jones – but I was lucky enough to get one of the leftover models, the Strapless Sarong. I just missed getting the Belgian, dang it....

I didn’t even bother to unwrap her prior to packing her in my carry-on; I don’t dislike the mold by any means (I love my Bluegrass and my Pottery Barn Bay!) but reselling her to recoup the remainder of my trip expenses is a huge temptation. A temptation that would be easier to give into if I don’t spend too much time looking at her in any great detail.

I budgeted the heck out of this trip, so the short-term financial “hit” was not terrible at all. (In fact, I’m on track towards having my best year ever, monetarily.) So I have the luxury of time to make that decision, too.

Light Housekeeping

Still recovering from Florida; aside from the weather, I work nights, so switching back to my vampire’s schedule can get a little messy. I should be back to “normal” in another day or two, I think. I have another five day weekend coming up next week that should help. (Thanksgiving, already?)

So today’s post is mostly housekeeping.

First: RIP Kevin Conroy. Every nerd has their Batman, and he was mine. I had hoped that, had there ever been a live-action Batman Beyond, he would have been able to also play him “in the flesh”. The closest we ever got was his depiction of a bitter, broken Batman from an alternative Earth in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event in the Arrowverse back in 2019. 

Second: It looks like I’ll have to take a pass on going to BreyerWest in Denver. The possibility of a couple of other trips has been dangled in front of me, including one overseas. More on them at a later date, if they transform into something beyond the hypothetical. I have a lot of other things to focus on, in the meantime.

Third: I apologize to any Customer Service Reps within earshot about my behavior in the two days prior to me leaving for Florida. I am not good on the phone even under the best of circumstances (I have telephonophobia), so having to make phone calls about a possible cancellation of a long-anticipated event just a few days before because the first ******* hurricane to hit Florida in November in nearly forty years is barreling straight towards your final destination is just about my worst case scenario.

The only positive outcome of all that was that I got all my anxiety out of the way before I arrived in West Palm Beach. I was so chill, in fact, that as I was going about my business on Friday afternoon I was mistaken for a resident. 

(Or maybe it’s just that I look very much like a Michigander, and so many of us move to Florida at some point, either permanently or temporarily, that we’re considered Appendix Floridians?)

And finally: my Atli arrived while I was away:

Breyer’s Silvers (the color, not the mold) are kind of hit or miss with me – with their Gloss Red Bay version first seen on the Uncalled For being a miss – but this fellow is just right! Incidentally, I managed to get a Lyric at the Early Access Black Friday Sale while I was down in Florida, after I finally remembered my web site password, LOL…

Florida, Maybe?

If everything goes according to plan I shall be in Florida attending the Ponies & Palm Trees Exclusive Event this weekend.

It’s not looking so good as I write this, because of course it is. A hurricane this late in the season? More stuff that gets filed in the already overstuffed “weird **** that only happens to Andrea” folder. Great, just awesome. 

(Time to Google “Summer snowstorms in Wyoming” just in case, I guess...)

Though I suppose I should have anticipated to hit a few bumps in the road during my Year of Adventure. I mean I did: most of this trip is either free or (mostly) refundable, so I should not be worrying as much as I do, but I do. You plan for every contingency, and the Worst Case Scenario Gremlin pops up on the horizon and waves like an old friend, because he is. 

Why can’t that little dude take his own vacations and leave me the heck alone? (Okay fine, I didn’t see much of him in Chicago. But still!)

Anyway, enough with the doom and gloom. Maybe everything is cool and I am chilling with my friends in a semi-tropical environment that is not a post-apocalyptic landscape! Or maybe I am stranded in North Carolina reading a book. Or in my basement pouting, eating pizza rolls and waiting for a last minute virtual event. It will be an adventure regardless, even if it was not the one I was hoping for.

As a native Michigander, it’s almost a legal obligation to make at least one trip to Florida in your lifetime. There was one attempted family road trip in the late 1970s or early 1980s that got us as far as Tennessee before we turned back, but otherwise I have never been, until now. 

My brother was obsessed with Jacques Cousteau back then, so seeing the oceans and maybe the Manatees might have been a motivation, but I honestly don’t even remember the reason why we were going to go there in the first place. I know that my paternal grandfather had a place down there before he died (about ten years earlier), but I have no recollection if the trip was in any way related to that.

The opportunity to attend this event was presented to me, and since I had a friend who recently moved there and begged me to visit at least once, the stars aligned.

It’ll also been a good practice run for next year’s trip(s). It’s been a while since I’ve actually flown anywhere, and while BreyerWest is not impossible, it is a little impractical. I’m a warm weather person and flying to Colorado in February is not on my bucket list of travel destinations. 

See y’all on the other side.

Maybe. 

I hope.

Feeling the Entropy

The information for the Exclusive Event Ponies and Palm Trees was finally posted:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/pages/ponies-and-palm-trees-general-information

I want to be more optimistic about my chances, but I also know how the current model horse market is and how cutthroat many hobbyists are. When it comes to getting picked for these things my luck is not good, and I only have one Collector’s Club membership. 

Keep in mind that I am currently surrounded by absolute chaos and entropy, and that is very much coloring my worldview right now. I’m just trying to focus on my trip to Chicago in a week and a half and after that, a live show later in September. If the Florida event doesn’t come to pass for me (the more likely scenario) there are some mostly minor, but annoying health issues I need to address.

It didn’t help that I also tried pricing the Vintage Club sets that were damaged in the flood. And let’s not forget the Tractor Supply Stablemates: I literally haven’t even found a single unopened blind bag for the Series Three in person locally – or even seen them actually be orderable on the Breyer website! And now you’re telling me that Series Four is out? 

I originally got into Stablemates in 1975 (when they came out: yes, I am old) because they were cheap and accessible. And now they are not.

It’s not so much that my local selection of models is lacking – I didn’t have any significant difficulties locating all of the other Tractor Supply merchandise last year – but that my options have become more limited than I am comfortable with, and there is not a lot I can do about it. 

It is not financially or emotionally worth it to me to drive around to all my local stores, and I do not have the time for that nonsense in the first place.

I yearn for escape and possibilities, and right now the only thing offering me this is planning for Chicon 8. So you’ll have to forgive me if I seem a little checked out for the time being. 

To end on a little bit of horse content, here’s the Buckskin variation of the Pech Merle that I traded my Warehouse Box Furano for:

I don’t know why I was so enraptured by this model; I don’t think I even have any other John Henry models in my collection at the moment. I’d like to get an original John Henry eventually, especially a brindled one, but it’s not a priority.  

Maybe it’s because I’m in a customizing mood right now, but I think some of the Pech Merle’s appeal is in the way the paint job was designed. Customizers – in general – give a lot of consideration to the paintwork to both highlight a mold’s better qualities and downplay its flaws, and I think Pech Merle is a perfect example of that. 

Gris Gris

I passed on the Collector’s Club Appreciation. I considered finishing my order around lunchtime on Friday, but I couldn’t remember my Paypal password and I didn’t feel like manually entering all my data, so I took that as a sign to just let it all go. 

Plus I have a couple of other CCA Glosses I suppose I could trade with, if the need arises. 

In less good model horse news: I have to wave goodbye to my potential Diorama Contest entry. Too many other deadlines for more important things are looming, and I am rather fond of the concept of sleep. 

I don’t feel too bad about abandoning it, since I hardly had a chance to work on it anyway. But that early pre-entry photo deadline was my downfall. I mean, I understand why they did it – it wasn’t entirely about having the photos of all the entries available online, incidentally – but if this is going to be a thing moving forward, the dream of even completing an entry anymore is likely now gone. This time of the year is just so busy for me, so pushing another deadline up three weeks does not work with my schedule, at all.

Which is a huge bummer!

Since I’ll be heading back into lurk mode again shortly, here’s a picture of a not-so-recent acquisition I hadn’t gotten around to unpacking until this weekend, literally: the 2014 Exclusive Event Morganglanz Gris Gris!

He wasn’t that expensive, mercifully, because he’s a Morganglanz: the mold is almost the definition of unloved. I don’t think there’s even been an BreyerFest Auction Test piece of this fellow since… wow, 1996? Really? Poor guy!

Even when he was something new in the 1980s, he didn’t exactly catch the hobby world on fire. While we appreciated that he was doing a (more or less) correct trot, and thus made excellent performance and customizing fodder, that’s about all he had going for him. 

He had a brief renaissance in the early 1990s as a generic, all-purpose sport horse, until prettier molds overtook him. The Gris Gris was preceded by a UK Special Run of Locarno 62 in a nice dark bay in 2008-2009, and followed by the BreyerFest Open Show Reserve Grand Prize Brigadeiros in 2016. 

These last three official production runs of Morganglanz are the only ones actively being sought by… some of us, at least. I haven’t seen a Brigadeiros for sale in forever (they only made 10, so not a surprise). The piece run of Locarno 62 was substantially larger, but since most were sold overseas, he doesn’t turn up stateside much. 

Gris Gris show up occasionally, but most of the ones I’ve seen for sale since the market lost its mind have also been priced way out of proportion to reality. 

(Checks MH$P out of curiosity. Someone is asking $8,000 for a Blue Banner? Oh, lordy….)

This one was in a price range I was comfortable with, and since I’ve made some pretty good deals in recent years, I decided to splurge a little. 

And you know what? He’s so gorgeous in person! I am so glad he is here. Now to find a place for him on my very crowded shelves. 

Now let us end with some good gardening news: while the sunflowers are a lost cause, some of the milkweeds I started last year have finally returned, and there may be beans after all. (It will be dependent on how persistent the deer are.) 

There Is Always Hope, I Guess

At first I was going to opt out of the Collector’s Club Appreciation Event because I have enough inventory issues of my own, thank you very much, but I found some Stablemate-y things I didn’t already have, so the order is now just sitting there, waiting for me to push the darn button.

(LOL they just sent me a “don’t forget your order!” notice.)

I kind of wanted an Adamek, but I’d rather handpick one than depend on the luck of the draw. There’s just something about that shade of Red Bay that I find really appealing, but I want to make sure when I get one, he’s absolutely “the guy.” If they have a bunch of them in the NPOD this year, I am definitely spending some time sorting through them. 

I’ve been looking a lot at the Classic Standing Morgan Fairfax in that regard, too – the current release is also in a nice Red Bay, but none of the ones I’ve seen in person have told me that they want to come home with me. I was kind of hoping he’d be my first on that mold, since all the original Silver Bays I found here had masking issues, and the Black one in the current Spanish Mustang Family does nothing for me, which is weird because you know rarely pass a Black Morgan by!

Anyway, that’s where I am at right now. Other than having kind of dark fantasies about what I want to do to the chipmunks in my garden. (Why do I even bother planting beans or sunflowers anymore? How does anyone grow these things where chipmunks even exist?)

In other news, they made the Exclusive Event news officially public, though they’re still being coy about when the entry window and drawing will be. I’m not trying to get my hopes up. Like the Web Specials nowadays, a lot of hobbyists will enter strictly for the financial windfall the models bring, and they tend to outnumber the folks who want to go because they want to attend the actual event. 

(Barbecue and Polo Ponies? Dang it Reeves, stop teasing me like that!)

The models are a nice bonus, no doubt, but most of the models from the recent events haven’t quite caught my attention as much as the Event Models like Phantom Face, Redmond (sigh), and Bondi. The Event Models used to be at least… kind of attainable before the market went insane? Heck, I remember getting to handpick a Like Thunder in the NPOD because everyone else was looking for something “better”! 

(Okay, I also wouldn’t turn down a Sonorah, either. Darn elusive Cremellos…)

I’ll still try to bank a couple of days of personal time from work just in case lightning strikes and I actually get picked. 

The Weight of Missing Souls

I was going to open with some exciting developments in my garden – some of the seedlings may survive after all! – but the news of Liz Bouras’s passing kind of squashes that “Spring is my favorite season because it represents the triumph of life over death” vibe I wanted to go for. 

Although I wouldn’t consider her a close friend, our paths crossed many times, and we had several friends in common. I entered the hobby just as she was coming into her own in it, as it was transitioning from its wild and wooly early days to something a little more formalized and organized. 

It wasn’t until last year that I was able to acquire a custom of hers – a vintage Arabian from that very era! – in a body box lot early last year.

I also ended up becoming the caretaker of a (large!) portion of her hobby papers a few years back. Today I feel that in doing that, I now carry a piece of her katra with me.

I also have a funny memory of (not meeting) her at the Motor City Comic Con several years ago. That memory will be on my mind quite a bit at Motor City this weekend. But I’ll have to tell it another day, when I am not feeling so melancholy.

In other news…

Information has leaked (possibly prematurely?) of the next Exclusive Event, which is supposedly going to be in Florida in November. My Google-Fu turned up these images of the banner ad and the possible guest horse Salvino that were pulled from the Breyer website:

I’m not terribly bullish on the idea Florida, but I do have a standing invite to visit from a friend who, in spite of my protests to the contrary, is bound and determined to move there in the very near future. 

And I do want to go to at least one more Exclusive Event in my lifetime. But I’ll probably have just as much luck getting draw for the event as I was for (the actual) Kingfisher – which was none, in case you weren’t able to figure that out:

I know I don’t really need more models right now (I won’t officially cop to anything, but I’ve been… bad) but winning something for a change would be nice, you know? As acknowledgement, at least, of my existence as a human being. That’s kind of a pet peeve of mine, and all of these drawings that go nowhere feed into my phobia of being forgotten.  

I am not super-crazy about the clean-legged version of the Brishen mold, but I do love me a Gloss Blue Roan Pinto. 

I will now log off and think happier thoughts. (My new nerd t-shirts arrived today, and I have to decide what to wear the convention on Saturday: Kingdom Come Superman, or Green Lantern?)

On Being Underwhelmed

Not that it matters, but:

Group A: Old Timer, because obviously.

Group B: Either the Ruffian because I love the color and I love splash pintos; or the Clydesdale Mare, because I’m not one to turn down a pretty Clydesdale Mare. (I would have had a Palisades – in an alternate universe where I grabbed a completely different box in the NPOD – but that’s a story best told offline.)

The Old Timer has been offered without its hat and blinkers before: first as a part of the Warehouse Finds program a few years back, and a couple of years ago some of the Web Special LaFittes also came that way. 

(Mine came with.)

Filling in the blinker slots is a relatively easy thing to do, especially if only a hundred or so models are involved. 

Anyway, I’m going to keep this short because I had a lot of drama to deal with yesterday and I am in no mood for more. 

I am not surprised to hear that people are complaining that the Specials for the True Blue Event are “underwhelming”. Some of it is a coping mechanism for not being chosen, and that I can understand somewhat. That’s pretty much been my operating mode for the past several months.

As for those who are upset with the choices: there is absolutely no reason for Reeves to “up the ante” with the Special Runs at these events.

It’s already impossible for most of us to attend these events, and there have been enough new hobbyists with lots of disposable income entering the hobby that have made purchasing any of them second hand also nigh-impossible. 

You are attending this event as a hobbyist, not a reseller. Reeves is under no obligation to make things to maximize your profits by swapping out the Rejoice with Hamilton, or the Mangalarga Marchador with Duende. 

Making these Special Runs even more desirable would only make the competition for these slots even worse. Sometimes I wish they would get rid of these extra Special Runs altogether – I think the past three Event Models have been worth the price of admission, alone! – but it makes them money, so of course it makes sense for them to do it.

If the desired effect of these “underwhelming” Special Runs is to discourage a portion of people from entering or attending these events, I say to you that this is a good thing. Maybe then I might have a shot at getting picked for one.

The Plastic Things

When it became obvious to me that I hadn’t been picked for the True Blue Exclusive Event – as I suspected – the first thought that crept into my head was “This shouldn’t be this painful.”

Part of the reason I went all in on the hobby all those years ago (more than 40 – ulp!) was because the world of living, breathing horses was essentially inaccessible to me. My family made it very obvious that “the real thing” was a luxury and absolutely not something that was going to happen. 

They paid for a couple of years of horseback riding lessons, but after that, it was all on me.

The world of model horses was cheaper, and fit into my lifestyle better anyway – even when I could technically afford the real thing.

I could afford some of the ridiculous prices people are already putting up for their True Blue loot ($500? For the Stablemate? Okay, maybe not.) but I won’t do that because I don’t want to have anything to do with making the hobby less affordable or accessible to others. 

Yes, yes, there have always been ridiculous prices in the hobby. And people (unfortunately) able to pay them. 

That’s why I started research Breyer History and stuff: if I couldn’t compete with money, I could compete with knowledge. Which works with older models, vintage models, obscure releases nobody much cares about.

But as far as modern models go? I am just as much as wit’s end as the rest of you. A little worse off, even, because people sometimes blow off my rants, assuming that I have more fabulous modern things than I actually do. 

Look: it’s just me and my one account and my vast and impressive library of reference materials. None of which really help when it comes to lottery drawings. 

Lottery drawing don’t care if you can categorize all of the different stocking variations of Stud Spider by rarity or that you are one of the handful of collectors who actually does collect the Polled Hereford Bull, thank you very much. 

That’s also why I am not the biggest fan of these Exclusive Events. I don’t get picked for these things, and there’s nothing I can do to improve my odds. 

Of course money is always a solution, but here is the thing: there is no way I can justify paying for anybody else’s vacation. 

Or their couch. (I actually saw an ad for a Raffle Model once that stated that explicitly. Needless to say, I did not find it persuasive.)

Trust me, people have tried that nonsense on me. Do not come at me with an offer that’s not really a bargain at all. Y’all should know by now that not only do I not play that game, I will put you on my personal “naughty” list forever. 

(If it’s one thing my family has taught me, it’s how to hold grudges.)

I know they’re only plastic horses. But this shouldn’t hurt so much. It’s beginning to feel a little like my high school days, where the world of real horses was essentially closed to me. 

I don’t want the world of model horses to be that way, either.

And anybody who trots out the “But drawings are the most fair system!” excuse can also pound sand. We all know that is not true. The fairest system would not allow people who have gone multiple times to go again and again, and some people to never go at all. 

I also wonder just how many people would enter for these events if there were not any limited edition models involved? 

Anyway, to make up for my griping (my throat is also sore!) here is a picture of something that is actually making me happy at the moment: I finally opened up my Christmas Space Bears!

A Game of Wanting

I put in my lone entry for the True Blue Exclusive Event; as I’ve said before, I’m not optimistic, especially since so many hobbyists are treating it like a Lotto drawing. 

The Traditional for the event – Bondi – is a Light Dapple Gray on the Valegro mold, and it appears to be Chalky as well as Glossy. He’s beautiful and I want him, but that’s not up for me to decide.

I won’t go to the secondary for this one either because the math doesn’t work out for me. It’s a pretty simple equation, really:

Gloss + Chalky + Valegro + Exclusive Event Model = Unaffordable.

The next Premier Club release is a new Fjord Mare named Astrid, and I also love her. I think I’ll be okay waiting for a more plentiful Regular Run or Special Run, though. I don’t want to get too attached to her, because I had my dreams dashed with the previous Fjord release Henry when they made him the 2015 BreyerFest Diorama Prize Truffle.

(Oddly, I wasn’t as upset with the 18-piece WEG 2010 reissue; maybe because I knew I never had a shot at that one?)

The Spring Decorator release is a Flag-themed Translucent Esprit name Old Glory. I actually like him more than most of the previous patriotic horses – no kinda weird bloody red points, yay! – but I’ll probably take a pass on him, too. Too much stuff, not enough room, others love him more than I do, all that jazz. I think I’ll like him more in person, but we’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

And finally, there’s this pretty little girl:

Sigh. You know how long I’ve been wanting a black or gray variation of the Appaloosa Performance Horse color? On anything? A very long time. Knowing that this Test Color is going to be out there, and probably not at my house ever, is discomforting.  

Not One for the Win Column

All my Spoon Tomato seedlings are either dead or dying for no discernable reason, and I didn’t get picked from the waitlist for Goldfinch, so I am putting Tuesday in the “bad day” column and moving on. 

(I am more bummed about the tomatoes than Goldfinch – I spent actual money and time on those!)

I don’t care if I get called out for price shaming on this, but seriously, I need to rant right now. Prices are completely out of control not just for the Silver, but for just about… everything right now. Who are all these people buying $1000 Alborozos? 

Speculator markets like the one we’re apparently in the middle of are scary, dangerous, and never end well. I want no part of this.

This is also why I am not optimistic about getting picked for the True Blue Exclusive Event: people like me who actually want to participate in the event are going to be outnumbered by the resellers.

(I kind of wish there weren’t any exclusive items for these events at all, beyond the one model and the one Stablemate. But I know I am dreaming.)

One of the side effects of this speculator’s market is the sheer abundance of White Boxers that have come up for sale. The White Boxer is one of the few Traditional Breyer Dogs I don’t have – and at the prices they are currently going for, it’s going to stay that way.

Years ago it was assumed that only a small quantity of White Boxers existed – I think the number that floated around was 25? – but that’s since been disproven by both documentary evidence and the sheer number of them that have turned up over the years. 

Scarce? Yeah. Eight hundred dollars worth of Rare? Nope.

Some of the pricing on these Boxers is a consequence of misinformation still being circulated. That was the case with the Buckskin Lady Phases for years, as well.

Collectors, for the most part, now realize that not all Buckskin Lady Phases are the same, and “rare, extremely limited quantity” label attached to her referred to her slightly (but noticeably) different Model Horse Congress and VaLes Bead Trailer runs, not her later and actually pretty numerous JC Penney’s Christmas catalog run. 

But the White Boxer? It looks like I am going to have to continue biding my time until (a) I get lucky, (b) this nutso speculator’s market we’re currently trapped in finally abates or (c) the hobby finally comes around to the idea that it’s not THAT rare of a model in the first place, and moves on to something else.

Preferably something I do not want, or already have.

(I know, also dreaming.)

Feeling a Bit Blue

I am… apprehensive about this:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/pages/save-the-date-for-true-blue-breyer-weekend

My luck getting actually drawn for Exclusive Events under normal circumstances is terrible; having an Exclusive Event that’s online – and thus not subject to the normal constraints of travel arrangements and extended time off from work (i.e. more than one day) – is only going to make the situation worse. 

I am also not encouraged by the wording here: Purchase is limited to one ticket per Collector Club account.

I’d like to think that this is just an awkward and economical way of saying “no plus ones” that I think is not only a good idea but should be an idea with all Exclusive Events going forward amen. 

But let’s get realistic here: there are people who have more than one Collector Club account and are definitely going to read it an entirely different way.

As we saw with the BreyerFest VIP ticket situation, many hobbyists are terrible and will definitely attempt to get more than one ticket purely for the financial windfalls they come with. If that does happen, it will feel especially grievous this year because they will not have “I need to pay my travel expenses” as an excuse.

And also thus denying some hobbyists the opportunity for the experience above and beyond the models involved. I have a fancy new computer here, folks, and I’d like to use it!

(As I’ve mentioned several times before, I’d volunteer at BreyerFest for a t-shirt and a sandwich. This is not normal, I know.)

All I can do is put my entries in and hope for the best, I guess. 

(Sorry to be so spicy today – I’ve been dealing with a lot of negative attitudes over the past few days and I am totally done with people for at least the rest of the week.) 

Strange Times

I did go ahead and splurge on one thing this weekend: since the Stablemates discount code worked on the Starry Skies Stablemates, and adding one to my Starlight order didn’t bump up the shipping costs, that’s what I did.

I don’t know if I’ll open it when it gets here, or wait until my birthday. Depending on what the situation is with their warehouse and shipping, that question might be moot…

As you might have heard, as of last night and for the next three weeks, Michigan is currently under a Stay Home/Stay Safe executive order.

Without giving too much away about my current life situation, nothing has really changed that much for me, other than suddenly finding myself doing all my shopping for the next couple weeks in a single afternoon.

These are strange times, indeed, when you see people panic-buying glitter and scrapbook paper at Michael’s.

FYI: I needed rhinestones. Though there is a distinct possibility that the event I need them for will be cancelled: it’s the same weekend that the Seattle Soiree was supposed to be, and it’s a far bigger event with celebrity guests and stuff. (Right now it is looking about 50/50.)

Speaking of which, I assume you’ve already heard the news about the Seattle Soiree being cancelled:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/news/breyer-covid-19-updates-03-24-20

I thought Reeves would announce on Monday, but it looks like they took the extra time to hammer out a couple different solution options – either cancel out and get an automatic bye into the next event (but not for your “plus one”), or get the Event Model Redmond and Stablemate Puget, and the other models will be purchase-raffled off online.

I am assuming there will be a little bit more to it than that, since some of the “plus ones” don’t have Collector’s Club accounts, not to mention the entire conundrum of dealing with the leftovers in an entirely virtual setting.

The decision to cancel the Fun Days appears to be up to the venue and what the local situation is at the time. (Last time I checked there was nothing local to me anyway.)

BreyerFest is still proceeding normally – we’re still getting sneak peaks and blog updates, anyway – though I would not be surprised if there are changes made, and possibly some activities made virtual, like this year’s Science Fiction Writers of America Nebula Conference will be.

Not sure how their virtual room parties and dance party are going to work; I don’t think I even want to contemplate what virtual room sales would be like.

But to end on a happy note: my flower seedlings look great! I am so glad I decided to start some plants indoors this year.

(African Marigold: Kilimanjaro White)

Health and Safety

The primary components of cellulose acetate, the stuff that (most) Breyer models are made of, are cellulose and acetic acid. The vinegary “New Horse Smell” we experience when we open up our latest acquisitions is the acetic acid: vinegar is, more or less, a diluted form of it.

Vinegar is considered a disinfectant, though it is not as effective as commercially made disinfectants.

What I’m saying here is that your new 2020 Traditional-scale Breyers don’t pose a significant health risk, because the stuff they are made of is somewhat self-disinfecting.

Once it’s out of the box it’s another game altogether. Anyone who’s bought anything second hand – sometimes even from other hobbyists – knows Breyers can get real funky, real fast.

(Oh, you know I have stories!)

When that happens, the safest and most effective cleaning solution for most Breyer models is warm water and a good quality dish soap like Dawn.

Diluted Bleach or Vinegar (not both together!) can also be used, but come with some risks. They can cause “milkiness” (basically turning the clear topcoats found on earlier Breyers opaque), can corrode metallic paints, and if left in a solution for an extended period of time can flake the finish off completely.

I am supposing – I am not in the loop about this, so don’t quote me – that in regards to COVID-19, Reeves is in the process of developing contingency plans for both the Seattle Soiree and BreyerFest.

Cancellation is probably their very last resort. As in, I think it is extremely unlikely. But being prepared for worst-case scenarios is never a bad thing.

For what it’s worth, my hobby plans have not changed. I am relatively healthy (aside from some minor chronic conditions) and I’ve had good hygiene practices drilled into me from an early age. (Many members of my extended family have worked in either healthcare, or in food services.) 

But I am not a health care expert, and I am not you. I would urge you to take the time now to review your own situation and plan accordingly.

Behaving Yourself

No surprises here – I got Peppermint!

This is totally fine, since the plan is to acquire all the acquirable ones eventually anyway, and pretend the Licorice/Coal doesn’t exist. Unless it magically does, somehow.

(That is the story I tell myself.)

But the other Zebras can wait: January’s agenda includes culling the herd, finishing my collection inventory, wrapping up the last of my BreyerFest memory boxes, and figuring out how the new sewing machine works. Along with all the other usual resolutions that come with the New Year.

The Seattle Soiree information is up (the page accessible to Collector Club members only, sorry), and so is the picture of the Event Model, Redmond:

Ooh, pretty! He’d make a very handsome companion for Chesapeake, assuming I get picked.

Speaking of this, forewarned is forearmed: Reeves is not making any exceptions this year in terms of tickets: if you name a partner in your entry and you get picked, either both of you go or neither of you do.

If you can’t guarantee that your partner can and will come, you have the option to enter by yourself.

End of story. No exceptions, no substitutions!

They have made exceptions before on a case-by-case basis in the past, but after some of the shenanigans that happened with recent Events – hobbyists attempts to “sell” their Plus One slots on Model Horse Sales Pages(!), and a rather brazen attempt at theft at the Scottsdale Event – they’re drawing a hard line.

And I honestly can’t blame them.

As much as I’d like to think that my co-hobbyists are all awesome people who would never do something so unseemly, I know this is not true. Heck, I’ve had some hobbyists confess in completely casual conversations to things that gave me pause.

Rules are created because people can’t be trusted to behave themselves.

Corrections as of Tuesday January 7:

The cancellation policy has changed – or at least been clarified (again). If the guest cancels or cannot attend, the originally drawn attendee can still go, but they cannot replace their guest with another guest-to-be-named-later, and the guest’s ticket will not be refunded. 

The gist of the post still stands: just get your nonsense together before you enter!

Looking Forward

Tickets for BreyerFest went on sale officially this week – for some reason I thought it wouldn’t be until next week, but that’s probably the insomnia talking.

(It’s not one of those little health issues I was talking about addressing before, it just happens from time to time. I suspect that it’s just the moody weather and the lack of sunshine wreaking havoc with my circadian rhythms, again.)

I’m a bit of a procrastinator, so I won’t be buying my tickets until at least March, after I have a good idea of what’s going to be in the Special Run lineup. Workshops aren’t that big a deal for me; the only thing giving me slight pause is that the notion of entering the live show this year has entered my brain. Whether or not that becomes a reality all depends on what transpires between now and the end of February, I suppose.

I am not particularly upset about the absence of a Costume Contest this year. I was already thinking that I was going to focus my creative energies elsewhere – maybe on the Diorama, maybe on the Live Show, maybe even on the (ha!) Customs Contest.

As Reeves pointed out in their posts about the topic (along with other hobbyists) the entire contest needs to be rethought and restructured, because it’s obviously causing a lot of consternation among past and future participants. The stakes are far too high (prizes worth up to $1000!) for the amount of judging involved (over, literally, within minutes) that also seems totally arbitrary and variable from year to year to year.

Personally, I’d like to see it move a little more towards the kind of cosplay standards you’d see at genre-oriented conventions, with less emphasis on age breakouts, and more toward categories for workmanship and performance. Maybe even different prizes for different placements, like the Customs Contest? Just spitballing, here...

Incidentally, there’s a larger than zero chance that I might end up participating in a cosplay contest this year anyway, depending on whether or not I get selected for the Seattle Soiree. The local comics convention is the same weekend, and if I do not get selected for Seattle, a friend and I have concocted a delightfully hair-brained way we could possibly participate.

(Hijinks may ensue. And swordplay!)

Props to the designer of the Exclusive Event logo, by the way. If you have ever taken a gander at my design sensibility (via my MGR Samplers, most likely) you should know that I am a big fan of the Less is More approach.