A Few Random Thoughts on Emma

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Awkward

I don’t know what was more awkward to witness on Tuesday. Those epically clueless contestants on Wheel of Fortune? That completely messed up auction where more than one person bid up something that was not only an obvious knockoff, but also in terrible condition? 

Or seeing all the Honeybears already for sale on the secondary – who, at the time of me writing this, almost 48 hours later(!), is still available on the Breyer web site.

Personally, I’d vote for the auction, because it would have taken all of twenty seconds to do the research to determine that just about everything about this lot was wrong. And all Wheel of Fortune does is confirm my suspicion that they deliberately put on less-than-stellar contestants to make the people watching at home feel smart. Which I think is a terrible idea, but I digress…

Anyway, since my sleep schedule was out of whack because of jury duty (that I later found out was cancelled – after I woke up!) I thought I had to make a quicker than average decision on whether or not to get the Honeybear, and I decided against it. 

Not because I didn’t like him – he’d definitely make a nice companion to my Fell Pony/Berry Pony Jujube, who has similar feathered pinto markings – but because I have enough physical Stuff to deal with right now.

I also had the suspicion that unlike Lafayette, Reeves would not get caught flatfooted this year. I am happy to be proven correct! Honeybear’s picture was prominently displayed on the web site for months as a perk of membership, after all, and it’s only right that they make enough for everyone looking forward to him. 

If it takes the wind out of the sails of the more aggressive flippers, even better. If there’s a sufficiently large number of overstock left over after a certain period of time, all they’ll have to do is “repurpose” them with Gloss, problem solved!

What’s nice about this situation is that now I can put off a decision on Honeybear for at least a little while without costly consequences; the extended window has also given a lot of other hobbyists the time to actually make an informed decision about it purchasing him. Or not.

Time I wish I had had last year, as my receipts from last year are quick to remind me.  

Compared to the heydays of the 1970s and 1980s, we get relatively few Regular Run Traditionals to choose from on a yearly basis, so it makes sense to have items that sort of “bridge the gap” between Regular Run items that are theoretically available for most of a year,  and (often extremely) Limited Editions/Micro Runs/What Have You that are gone in the blink of an eye.

Stablemate Freakout No. 6051

I know you know that I know things, but the fact that one of the newly revealed shrinkified Stablemates is the Missouri Fox Trotter mold in that fabulous Fleabitten Dapple Gray I was just waxing eloquent about is not one of the things I knew.

This is yet another total coincidence, I swear.

In fact, I am always double-checking myself to make sure that I am being extra discreet about the things I have a privilege to know about. It genuinely freaks me out to accidentally reveal things even if I had no idea I was actually revealing it ahead of time.

I wish that sort of predictive power worked with lottery numbers and other contests involving cash money. Life would be a lot... different.

Anyway, here is the short video they about them on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA57bDWnF--/

I figured this Blind Bag Assortment was going to involved Stablematized things when they released the picture of it the other day: you don’t just drop a picture of a blind bag like that for a run-of-the-mill blind bag mix.

What surprised me about it is that technically, there are only three previously-unknown-to-us Stablematized Traditionals in the assortment: the Fox Trotter (swoons), the Fell Pony Emma (screams uncontrollably) and the Indian Pony (collapses on floor, dead).

I didn’t expect the Clydesdale to be Woodgrain either: the only previously Woodgrained Stablemates were the BreyerFest Keychains from (ulp!) 1999. Including the G2 Clydesdale and Andalusian

(I see what you did there, guys!)

As for who the Chase pieces are going to be, my top three guesses:

• Rugged Lark: Maybe that April Fool’s photo was a total fake out!
• Big Ben: He’s the logo horse for the 70th Anniversary Celebration merchandise, and he’s yet to show up anywhere. Moody molds shrink really well (Emma and Brishen, hello) so duh…
• Alborozo as… Alborozo. Which would be perfect, really. With the “Super-chase” piece being either the Early Bird Alegria or one of the Auction Alborozos. Plus his silhouette is on the bag. 

Like everyone else, I need a case of these. Reselling duplicates is not going to be hard, I suspect, as many people will be buying duplicates to replicate their favorite molds in all their respective Traditional-sized colors.

The Indian Pony and the Fighting Stallion, especially.

Oh, and the Stablemate Best of BreyerFest Raffle Model Commemorative Set Numero Uno is also pretty great. Funny how that news was such a big deal back on… Monday?!

Just Super

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

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

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

Best not to think about it, really.

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas Aftermath

Interesting Day, wasn’t it?

I almost missed out on the Christmas Othello-corn: I got up at 8 a.m., poked around the Internet for a bit, then I decided to go take a shower and make myself an English Muffin. I log back in at 8:45, and…

At first I thought I was getting punked when I saw it. Three Unicorn Othellos, the fever dream of thousands of Unicorn- and Othello-obsessed tweens? Was Reeves actually trying to crash their servers today?

Nevertheless, I had been looking at the Xaviers the last few times I visited our local independent toy stores, and I had spent a longer-than-normal time staring at the Mini Brishen Virgil ornament at Tractor Supply when I stopped by last week to shop for some long-sleeve t-shirts.

And since I hadn’t bought the previous two Christmas Day Specials, and any individual Othello SR with a piece count under 1000 is generally a good investment, it was a no-brainer.

I didn’t even notice the part of the offer about the “12 lumps of Coal” Brighty until later. If I actually get one, I’ll be over the moon (or in the ER!) but I’m good, regardless. (Or should I be bad? Not sure how the math of this works out.)

I’m hoping for the green Othellocorn because I’m weird, but all three colors are lovely. Speaking of green...

I got lucky and my Fruitcake Fillies, miraculously, were not twins: one green, and one blue! I was slightly less lucky when it came to the CC Appreciation model. Not the Paint Me A Pepto I was hoping for, but the other pinto, Kodi:

I guess I was right about it becoming more plentiful, eh?

Factoring out the desirability aspect – the Shire being the most desirable, and the Marabella the least – it appears that the five Glosses had similar piece counts, which is how I think it should be, ideally. Drives me bonkers when people make purchasing decisions based purely on piece counts: just because something’s rare doesn’t make it automatically desirable! (And vice versa.)

As a parting shot before I get ready for bed – a ton of post-holiday errands to run first thing in the morning, followed by a matinee of Aquaman – here’s another pretty pony that I made my acquaintance with today:

Emma was one of the items that made up my CC Appreciation order, and probably the one item in that box that I was most looking forward to! She had been available locally and I had been tempted many times, but I thought I’d save her up for my order, just in case.

So now, for what will inevitably be a brief moment, my Emma collection is complete. (Tomorrow will be De-Boxing Day here.)

Chesapeake, Part II

Originally I was going to write about the Chesapeake trip as I’ve done with all my previous trips: as an epic Odyssey where model horses are the treasures, conquests, and victories sought.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that was the wrong approach: this trip was more about the experience, than any victories that would come along the way. Any models I acquired would be secondary. Completing the trip unharmed (physically, mentally, financially) was the only true victory I sought.

And find it, I did.

I did that by letting go: of expectations, of preconceived notions, of obsessively detailed to-do lists. Other than doing the things that I absolutely had to do ahead of time, I did very little to prepare for the trip.

It typically takes me a couple of months to get ready for BreyerFest, but for Chesapeake it basically took me an afternoon: a couple of phone calls, a trip to the bank, a trip to the dollar store for some snacks, and then toss some clothes (and my Jet Run) in a suitcase.

And I was off.

After taking Vita for a 45-minute walk, of course: she knew I was going on a trip, and demanded the last few minutes of my time before I left be all about her. After the walk – where she spent most of it glancing back at me and smiling that not at-all-innocent smile of hers – I gave her the carrot and the handful of marshmallows she usually demands in tribute, and then I was off.

Finally.

The drive itself was relatively uneventful, though a little bit slower than anticipated. I arrived in Pittsburgh about an hour later than I wanted, hitching a ride with a fellow hobbyist from there forward. It’s not very often that I have traveling companions for my horse trips, and I always forget how much fun – and how quickly the time flies! – when I have someone to talk horses with.

We arrived at the hotel sometime around 9:30 p.m., and settled in to our respective rooms for the night.

We were a little disconcerted the following morning at check-in, when we received our event packets and discovered that they did it to us again: there was another 144-piece run among the Special Runs being offered on Sunday, a Palomino Pinto Goffert named Mason. Oh goodness, not again, I thought…

The selections that were offered – outside of the Fell Pony Black-eyed Susan, that I think everyone was sort of expecting – did seem rather odd too, especially for the nature of the event. Three Pinto Drafts, a Pony and a Missouri Fox Trotter?

We were visiting the Fair Hill Training Center and the Fair Hill International: I was kind of hoping for at least one Warmblood or Thoroughbred in the bunch, aside from the Chesapeake model herself, and the little G3 Thoroughbred Cecil we had just received.

Like everything else on the trip, I decided to let go of my trepidations about the models and just go with it. I liked Mason better than last year’s Four Stars, and since I have found almost all my other Gofferts wanting in some way (and sent them to other homes), coming home with this one wouldn’t have been a heartbreaker.

It wasn’t about the models, it was about the journey, right?

And for the inevitable second Goffert that was probably in my future? Well, I did have an upcoming dental appointment I could pay off with it, I guess… though I really did hope I could at least get the Fell Pony. She might have been the plainest – and most “common” of the bunch after Mason – but the heart wants what the heart wants, you know?

I’d worry about it when the time came. Turns out that like everything else on this trip, I didn’t have to worry about it at all, but we’ll get to that next time…

Chesapeake, Part I

I’m still mentally – and physically – unpacking from last weekend, and with my work schedule it’ll probably be a few more days still before both tasks are anywhere near completed. As will be the full trip report, as well; but in the meantime, here’s what I brought home:

I was actually the second in line in my ticket time, so unlike the last Event, I found myself with the enviable option of being able to get whatever I wanted…

… and I chose the models that I liked (the Fell Pony, and the Fox Trotter) instead of the ones that would be easiest and quickest to resell (the Bell-bottomed Shire and the Brishen). Technically I did buy the Brishen, but I did it to help out one of my roommates who would have been just out of purchasing distance of him, and we swapped later.

Because I fully expected and planned on getting one or two of the high piece run item (again) I now find myself in the position of having to decide what else to sell to make up the small financial shortfall that came with actually getting what I wanted.

(Whatever I decide will probably go up on MH$P, as my schedule allows.)

I was still bummed that Reeves obviously didn’t learn its lesson from last time regarding the Four Stars: a significant number of attendees (up to one-third!) should not be put in a position of having no choice at all in their selection of Special Runs.

It was mitigated a little bit this year, in that apparently 24 of the 144 piece run Goffert Masons are Geldings rather than Stallions – an (allegedly?) unplanned for mold variation.

If they insist on doing another larger run again, they really need to do something along that line to soften the blow: gloss half the run, have some variability in the color or markings, or include a mold variation of some sort (hair or gender).

That way even if you have to get two, one of them still might be a rare kind of wonderful. And there’s the possibility that – if existence of a surprise is made known ahead of time – more people near the front of the line might be tempted to take a chance on it, and thus move and improve the selection down the line.

For what it’s worth, I actually liked the Mason. I’ve bought several Gofferts in the past, yet all but my Celebration models have consequently been found wanting, and sold. I am not sure that would have been the case here.

The next Event is in the Spring of 2018; it’s too early to tell if I am going, or if I can go, but I’ll cover that in the actual trip report.

And I would be remiss to not call out the awesome team of fellow hobbyists that helped make this trip possible and wonderful: Erin, Marcy, Ellen and Jennifer!

Vanilla, Valegro and Emma

I’ve been casually recompiling my want list – on a notepad next to the keyboard – and I was struck the other day at how random it was. AA Omner and the Black Pinto Picture Perfect Clyde Mare. The Black Stallion “Majestic Arabian” and the Bay Western Prancer “Prince”. Flim Flam and Galiceno Ponies.

Old and new, fancy and plain, “showable” and not. Those sorts of things.

Since most of my spare cash needs to be allocated elsewhere right now, it makes sense that I’m being drawn to what are, for the most part, cheaper and more readily available models. We all need a “horse fix” every once and a while, all the better if it happens to be inexpensive and easily obtainable!

We get so caught up in the models of the moment – this week, the Silver Filigree Croi Damsha Sugarloaf – that we sometimes miss the beauty in older or more common pieces. The ones that end up littering sales lists and eBay, begging for takers.

This is just a roundabout way of saying that I’m skipping out on the Sugarloaf drawing. She’s lovely, but there will be more new lovelies coming in the near future – including the new Fell Pony Carltonlima Emma, who’ll probably be one of my 2016 obsessions. She is being shipped and sold in the UK first, like Valegro and Banks Vanilla.

Pictures of in-hand models here:

http://chestnutridgeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/valegro-emma-vanilla-in-flesh.html?m=1

So cute, so little, so fluffy! She’s like a jazzed up, modern take on the Haflinger Pony, whom she is just a tad bit smaller than.

Banks Vanilla is the first Regular Run release of the Croi Damsha mold, in Matte Alabaster: all three previous Production Runs were Club-limited or Special Runs. Though search engines queries for that one are going to be rather frustrating, and possibly dangerous to your New Year’s-related weight loss resolutions. (If ever there was reason for an ice cream cross-promotion, this model is it!)

I find the Banks Vanilla is very appealing, by the way; I know a lot of people are complaining that the paint job is “too plain”. But I like how it hearkens back to the soft Matte Alabaster paint jobs of the 1970s.

Frankly, I’d like to see more plainer paint jobs than the fancier ones, if only because there’s less room for error, and more room for variation. I also think the sculpting on the mold is strong enough that a lot of shading is more of a bonus than a necessity.

As is the case in every other new release, it’s wisest to wait and see before passing final judgment.

British Relations

I don’t have anywhere else to put this, but as I was catching up on the news earlier today I came across this picture, and I think the hobby needs to see it:

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/12/spock-riding-a-unicorn-pegasus

That pretty much sums up my early experience in the hobby, ca. 1978-79. There are so many SF and Fantasy references in pre-Internet model horse newsletters and zines that a reasonable argument could be made that the hobby ought to be categorized as another subsection of that fandom.

Now for something more timely.

Here are some actual in-the-flesh pics of some of the Best of British line, including the mysterious reappearance - again - of the G1 H-R Draft Horse in the Stablemates set (as a Suffolk Punch). Not included are those of an upcoming mold, a new Fell Pony named Waverhead Model IV, by Kathleen Moody. There’s a picture of her with the original sculpt at BreyerFest last year: https://www.facebook.com/laurelhighland

I don’t know much more about the Best of British line than anyone else does, though if I had the energy and gumption I could probably pull a few strings and change that. Rumor has it that the launch will be in the UK first (naturally) followed by a US/worldwide release by Summer, with more items added to the line by Fall, including the Fell.

I’ll guess that his release will be tied somehow to the "international collector days" mentioned in the last Just About Horses annual - one in Canada, and one overseas.

In light of the recent controversies, it’s interesting to see just how many British breeds and/or British celebrity horses Breyer already has in its lineup, from the Clydesdale Stallion (ca. 1958) forward. Just speaking of Traditional molds, there’s the entire Clydesdale Family, the Traditional Shetland, the Bell-bottomed Shire, the Cantering Welsh Pony, Bouncer, Aristocrat, Llanarth True Briton, Black Beauty (ad infinitum).

More is always better, and better is always better, but objectively there’s been no shortage of "British" critters in Breyer’s past. What there has been - until recently - is a shortage of ponies, British or otherwise.

Think about all the times in the past when a new pony release meant one of four things: another Shetland, another Cantering Welsh, another Haflinger, or another Pony of the Americas. (And sometimes for variety’s sake, a Classics Merrylegs.) We had other pony molds, like Misty and Stormy, the Galiceno, Henry the Fjord, and Midnight Tango, but they rarely got a lot of love in the form of new releases.

Some molds, like the Hackney Aristocrat, didn’t see a lot of action because they were not well-received. But the others? Heck if I know.

The turning points came Flash in 2004 and Bouncer in 2007 - two well-received molds who have since been released in a rainbow of colors. Newsworthy arrived in 2008, and was a more modest hit; in 2011 couple of Classics-scale Eberl Pony molds received more acclaim, then late last year came Croi Damhsa.

And later this year we will be getting a Fell.

So things are getting better on the pony front, anyway. Now about that shortage of Draft Foal molds…