Letting It Be

The waitlist is also now apparently out – I say apparently, because well, you know.

So now I’ll put the entire affair in a box, stick that box in the closet, and move on; this is a rare situation where my limited access to the Internet is probably a blessing.

You know what I’m gonna do now? Unbox a few more things! 

I have a lot of things that need to be unboxed. If you saw what my office currently looks like, you’d understand. If you saw what my tomato seedlings look like, you’d understand.

(I think maybe a half dozen might make it? The pepper plants look great, though I’m not sure how or why. Best to stop fussing over it and just let whatever happens, happen.)

Anyway, here’s the La Molina and Masella:

I was ambivalent about this set initially, because Benasque is clearly not going to happen ever, but now I’m hoping that another Electric Blue Filigree release can step in and be Masella’s stepdad. Something more affordable and attainable, I hope.

Next up – my Nonoma!

Aside from the Brighty, I think Nonoma is my favorite Vintage Club release this year. Man, when I was 12, the Foundation Stallion was absolutely the bomb-diggity, and even now I find myself wanting to collect them all – all the variations of the Azteca, the original Indian Pony releases, throw in a vintage Marney Test or two somewhere, too…

I have no idea what the distribution pattern/quantity/desirability of the various Indian marks variations are with Nonoma – not my call – and I’m perfectly fine with just the Nonoma I have. (Unless an inexpensive one wanders by. I know, I know…)

I am very glad he’s gotten such a warm reception. I know he’s been on a lot of hobbyists’ want lists as far as the Vintage Club goes, so I’m so glad he’s finally here. 

Back to the video project that is eating my brain. It’s actually going pretty well, but ugh, I really need to learn this program properly for the next project, to save myself a metric ton of time. 

(Also: anyone have a photograph of a Rainbow Weather Girl I can borrow? A Dapple Black Belgian would be nice too, but I think I can work around that.)

Alabaster Foundation Stallion

Although I did “win” a Rialto, I had to give him up for a multitude of reasons; seeing just how lovely he is from the in-hand pictures is making me wince even more than I usually do and I probably should just stop looking at those pictures, already.

(I’m hoping karma doesn’t bite me in the butt over that decision to pass, but I’m the kind of person who has to have contingency plans for my contingency plans, so… yeah, probably.)

I was tasked with dusting over the weekend (long story) and as I was finishing up very late last night, I paused to consider this pretty little SR from years past:

It’s the Special Run Alabaster Foundation Stallion, from 1985. About 700 pieces were made for the mail-order company Horses International in Arizona, though some were also sold elsewhere.

In terms of color, shading, quantities, distribution pattern et al, this model was typical of Special Runs sold in the 1980s. These were the kinds of Special Runs we got back then, and were happy to get them!

(Shakes fist at passing cloud.)

He pales in comparison to recent releases like Rialto – whose glossy, roany, elaborately masked paint job and hand-painted eyes would have blown our minds in 1985. Most customs didn’t have that level of detail back then!

Of course, the Rialto costs over a dozen times what the Alabaster Foundation Stallion cost – then, and now. (The original price for the Alabaster was $12.50, not including postage.)

That Foundation Stallion is not easy to find nowadays, but only because no one is looking for someone like him. I have known the feeling all too well, lately….

The Alabaster Foundation Stallion falls into that hole of undesirability a lot of Special Runs from the 1980s now do: a little too common to be considered rare, with a paint job considered too bland/boring to modern tastes, on an older mold that’s not all that popular at the moment.

He’s no Rialto, but I still love him.

Appaloosa Aztecas

And here is the second beautiful creature from that box lot:

The rare “Appaloosa” variation of the original #85 Azteca!

The #85 Azteca release ran from 1980 through 1987 and is well-known for the number of distinct variations it has: Semi-gloss, Matte, dark manes, light manes, white tails, gray tails, heavy dappling and sparse.

But the earliest, rarest, and least known variation is the “Appaloosa” one, featuring light roany dappling over most of the body, and cornflake dappling on his butt similar to the spotting seen on the original Gloss releases of the Dark Dapple Gray Running Mare and Foal.

I was vaguely aware of the existence of this variation much earlier, but I had written them off as Test Colors, Oddities, or some sort of Marney-related thing. Until I acquired some reference materials – a page from the 1980 Aldens Christmas Catalog, to be precise – that confirmed that they were actually the earliest variation of the Azteca:

There he is! (Click on image to enlarge.)

Pictures for Christmas Catalogs were taken fairly early in the year, so seeing prototypes or early variations wasn’t all that unusual – and often led to some disappointments when the product didn’t quite match its advertised appearance.

(The sighs you may hear faintly in the distance are of those collectors of a certain age still pining for a Dapple Gray Classics Ruffian.)

That didn’t happen with the Azteca, as far as I remember. The Aldens catalog didn’t have the same circulation as the Montgomery Wards, JC Penneys or Sears catalogs, and the picture was small and of low-resolution. So this bit of documentation simply passed from hobby memory.

Until I acquired both a model and this documentation, and did the math.

I’ve found just enough of these variations to confirm that they were, indeed, a production variation, and not just (or only) part of a lot made as Salesman’s Samples.

It did take me a while to finally find one that was in this fine of a condition: due to the nature of Dapple Gray paint jobs in the early 1980s, early Aztecas of all variations are very prone to rubbing.

Early New Roans

I’m sort of obsessed with my BreyerFest Diorama Thing right now - which will be one for the ages, if I can get it done in time. The only problem I’m having is the same one I always have, once I have (what I think is) an amazing idea: I’m freaking over the littlest details.

The only good thing in this instance is that I might - might! - have the time to pull it off. Eh, it’s not like I’m sleeping anyway, with the Horrible Chicken Death Flu wracking my body. (Today’s symptom du jour: lots and lots of coughing. Eating an ice cream cone today was…interesting. And messy.)

Speaking of details, here’s a little game. Here’s a Test Color of the modestly popular Breyer #710 Indian Pony. The model ran from 1988 through 1991 - a pretty long run, even back then. This fleabitten-y, pale Roan with the tiny freckles was one of Reeves’s earlier attempts at improving/updating Breyer painting techniques.

Can you tell what distinguishes this model as a Test Color? I’ll give you a minute or two to think about it.

I love Roans in general (and Blue Roans, in particular!), and I was thrilled back then that we’d be getting more and better roany Breyers, but I have to admit that these Early New Roans left me a wee bit cold, initially. They looked more like Fleabitten Grays or really Weird Appaloosas.

I like Fleabitten Grays and Weird Appaloosas, too, but I was kind of hoping that if they were trying to "improve" their interpretations of horse colors, the naming of those colors would also improve.

I love the older, Big Freckle Red Roans to pieces, but I think of them more as a peculiar later Decorator color than a realistic one, in the same category as Charcoal: clearly inspired by a realistic color, but definitely its own thing.

Reeves is a lot better now about this - not perfect, but close enough to be forgivable, in most instances. There’s still some oddness going on with some of the Pintos, some of the Dappled stuff, and the proper formula for Silver Bay seems to be a mystery to them. But they’re right more often than not, and they do seem to be trying. Just not always succeeding.

Give up yet? The detail you may be missing: this one doesn’t have socks! My production run one is currently in storage, but he looks a lot like this one, via Identify Your Breyer:

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/00710.jpg

The Test is also a little bit more brown than red. He’s a shrinky though, too, and this may be affecting his color in some way.

Still, he’s a neat guy, even if his color is a little off - either by nature, or by design.

My Birthday Buckskin

I was a little annoyed at first when I saw this week’s schedule: What do you mean, no overtime? I was just getting used to the not-sleeping thing!

Then I realize, duh, I could actually do things like answer e-mails and open packages, which made it not so bad.

So I finally did open my Buried Treasure: oh, is he purty. Really one of the nicest buckskin paint jobs I’ve seen in a long time, which my photograph (and Reeves’, on the web site) in no way can convey:

Warm, shaded, shimmery - now that’s buckskin, baby!

He has a slight eartip rub from the funky packaging - bagged, bubblewrapped, loosely tossed in a box - but other than that, I have no complaints. Actually, I can’t stop staring at him, he’s just that nice. I want to see this color on everything, right now. Even on the Creepy Kitten, if it’s possible.

There’s no VIN number, no belly stamps, and no certificates, so with the addition of the cobbled together packaging, that pretty much tells us that they were painted in New Jersey. 

As I was updating my research files, I noticed an interesting "something" about the issue numbers: the Glossy Joeys were issue number 712073; the Buried Treasure - Lusitano is issue number 712074.

Hmm, okay. I guess that means that they were something a little more recent after all - since the planning stages of the Glossy Joey giveaway, at least.

They must have had a substantial number of Foundation Stallion bodies left over after they ran the 2010 Mid-States Special Run Thunderbolts. Aside from being the most recent production piece on the Foundation Stallion mold, it also had an odd piece run - 2900 pieces, instead of a more standard 2500 or 3000.

I had figured that the Joeys had come out of bodies leftover from the Thunderbolt run; the Buried Treasures must have come out of the leftovers of the leftovers.  

This raises an interesting possibility: will future Buried Treasures come out of Reeves’ leftover body bins? They had enough of some unpainted older bodies - like the Stock Horse Stallion, the Belgian, the Clydesdale Mare, and Gem Twist - to sell them in box lots of "whiteware" at BreyerFest a couple years ago.

Interest in them was tepid, at best.

Now that they’ve seen success in putting a simple, yet well executed paint job on an older mold - and marketing it as an extremely limited surprise special run - I can’t imagine them not trying it again.

Buried Treasure?

Another crazy work week, with an extra helping of drama. (This particular "drama" was something that was a long time coming. Didn’t make it any easier to deal with, though.)

I should just go back to bed (because I need it!) but there’s been quite a bit of drama in the model horse world over the past two days that I need to deal with, too.

I had a small window of opportunity to do a little web surfing on Thursday, so I dropped in on Blab for a few minutes of lurking. I noticed a new thread entitled "Buried Treasure?" and thought oh, someone must be talking about that self-published book about restoration I wrote a while back, of the same title. I still get the occasional inquiry about it, so I clicked on the thread to see if I needed to answer any questions about it, and …

Well, here’s what’s pretty much an accurate rendering of my ensuing internal monologue:

OMG! It’s a super-limited 62-piece metallic buckskin Foundation Stallion hidden on the Breyer web site! Where’s my credit card? @#$%! GAH!

Not only that, I just happened to find it literally minutes after the thread was posted, so when I clicked on the link, I think they still had 61 of 62 pieces left. I had no idea at that point if they had, or were, going to do any other advertising for it, so I spent a good ten minutes in utter panic mode, until I received the "confirmation of your order" screen.

It was a rough week, and I was definitely in a "I deserve a pony!" frame of mind. Plus, it’s my birthday this weekend, and I hadn’t yet bought anything specifically for that reason.

I exhaled, crashed for a bit, then I woke up with a start and realized I needed to post a little something here, at least in the comments. (Note to self: really need to look into this "Twitter" thing.)

According to the write up on the web site, they were "discovered in the Breyer archives", though judging from the style and quality of the paint job, they hadn’t been sitting in the archive for very long.

What were they originally intended for? Prizes? Raffles? Volunteer giveaways? Heck if I know.

I know some people are doubting the truly "lost" nature of such a Special Run, but as someone who works in inventory management services, I am not. You’d be shocked how easily inventory can become lost or misplaced, even in a relatively small warehouse. All it takes is a couple of missed keystrokes, or a few mislabeled boxes, and POOF! There goes a few thousand dollars worth of merchandise. 

We’ve also seen from recent finds in the NPOD - like the Glossy Summer Soltices, and the Palomino Appaloosa Proud Arabian Foals - that this is not an isolated incident. (Reeves, if you’re reading, I can gladly get you in touch with somebody to help you with that. No, really.)

I happen to think in this case that since they had significantly more than a dozen pieces for this horse, they decided to go a different route. Since they didn’t do any advertising at all, I could see it being a "word of mouth" marketing experiment - one that obviously worked!

Are there other "lost" SRs knocking around the Breyer warehouse? I have no doubt about it. Are any of them "piecey" enough to do this again? Time will tell.

Rinty and The War Horse

I should probably go buy a lottery ticket: not only did I win one of those auctions I didn’t think I had a shot on, I got picked for the Glossy War Horse giveaway, too.

I had completely forgotten about it most of Christmas Day, until my brother asked me about it. I had a good excuse: dinner included Barbecue Ribs, Mashed Potatoes with cheese and bacon, Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic Breadcrumbs, and Rhubarb Pie. I think cookies may been involved, but I might have passed out before then.

The office was already looking a wee bit crowded, but now it looks like my plans to lay off any serious selling until Spring might have to be modified.

I might still put it off. Other than the Vintage Club stuff, and the "Limited Edition Retro Release" of the Fury/Prancer next year, I don’t foresee myself adding too many more herd members between now and then. I like the Roan Bouncer, too, but as hot as that mold is right now, I’m more than happy to let other folks buy up the first few batches. There's always the possibility that Reeves might pull another semi-random gloss/matte thing too, like they did with the Valentine and Heartbreaker set.

(With the Lady Phase set most likely, if they do. Because the possibility of random gloss Bouncers is a little too terrifying to contemplate.)


Among my more conventional holiday gifts was the book about Rin Tin Tin I had mentioned earlier. Just as I suspected, the "figurine" that inspired the author Susan Orlean to write the book - and to which she devotes the entire prologue to - was a Breyer Rin Tin Tin: there’s a picture of one right on page two.

I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, but from my brief skimming of the text, it's not only central to the narrative, it's actually called out as a Breyer. So what we’ve got here is a book by a bestselling author that really was inspired by a Breyer model.

Sweet. I mean, I would have bought the book anyway, since I'm also a little obsessed with silent movies in general, but goodness, silent movies and Breyer models, all in one book? Put the cookie dough back in the freezer, ladies, I am out for the count.

In light of their promotion surrounding The War Horse (another story about an animal, set during the First World War), of the launching of the Vintage Club, and (what I presume will be a series of) Limited Edition Retro Releases, re-releasing the Rin Tin Tin seems like the most logical and obvious thing to do, n’est-ce pas?

Regardless, it’s still a book worth adding to your Breyer reference library, if you’re into that sort of thing as much as I am. (As I assume a significant portion of you do.)

Mont Tremblant, Etc.

In retaliation for the kind of crummy day I had today, I ate most of a large bag of M & Ms. Probably not the best move on my part, but it really was the best choice of solutions I had available to me.

I also opened my Fall in Love today; he’s very nice. A couple of odd little flaws, but nothing to freak out about. His masking is very clean, and he has just the right amount of shimmer in his coat. I’m not quite sure where to put him yet; the odd shape of the Nokota Horse mold makes it a little difficult to accommodate on a shelf.

The name of the SR Mont Tremblant Weather Girl suggested to me the kind of vacation "the right kind of people" take during their winter break. So I was fully expecting the announcement of the lottery/drawing to happen over the Christmas weekend, with the winners being notified on the first day after the holiday (as just the thing to blow your gifted moolah on!)

This weekend? Okey-dokey.

The piece count on her is interesting - 350, instead of the 150-200 piece runs we were assuming were (going to be) the norm with the revamped Web Special program. It may still be the case, with Mont Tremblant’s upped piece count due to the overwhelming demand the Silver Filigree special runs have had in the past. I don’t think it’ll affect the resale value too much, either: the run is still (technically) quite small, and the demand for Silver Filigrees (and Weather Girls) is still quite high.

The announcement of a "gift horse" drawing - in the form of a 100 piece gloss SR for The War Horse, on the Foundation Stallion mold - is a very pleasant surprise. I may be indifferent to the charms of the movie itself, but not to a super-limited glossy Foundation Stallion.

I wonder if they’ll be making gifting a semi-regular thing? (Hmm. Limited Edition pastel-colored Stablemates in Easter Egg packaging, for Easter? I could go for that!)

Lost in the hubbub surrounding the special runs was announcement of the resolution of the international ordering problems on the Breyer web site. Remember when everyone was getting all righteously indignant about this last month?

It gets fixed, and nobody seems to notice or care, presumably because they’ve all moved on to the next outrage. Which I’m guessing is Thrillseeker, based on the length of that thread about it on Blab. (I didn’t get drawn for one, so my interest in that discussion has been fairly minimal.)

Speaking of, it seems that Reeves has finally decided on making its presence known there as "NewBreyerHelper." They haven’t formally said as much, but it does appear to be someone using the editorial we in postings about matters pertaining to the web site today. An interesting development, to say the least (I wonder how many "friend" requests they’ve gotten by now?) I’m guessing it’s part of a run up to the "forum" Reeves has mentioned in passing on the new web site.

I’ve got holiday projects to finish, so toodles…

A Brief History of Dapple Grays, Part 1

So, did you hear about the 2010 Mid-States Horse? Yeah, I know, the 2009 was just out a few months ago - apparently someone’s boss on Blab took a pic of the 2010 model at the Mid-States Hardware show; here’s a link to the discussion if you missed it:

http://www.modelhorseblab.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100312

If you don’t want to click for whatever reason - it’s in an open access section of the forum, BTW - it’s a Gray Appaloosa Foundation Stallion named Thunderbolt.

He isn’t like the Gray Appaloosa Foundation Stallion I wrote about a few weeks ago. (Just another creepy coincidence; if I were shilling for Reeves, I think I'd have seen a check, or boxes of horses by now. And I haven't.) This guy is gussied up with splash spots, extra shading, Indian markings and resist underdappling.

"Underdappling" is a term I use to describe dappling that’s underneath another layer of paint. "Resist" is the term generally used hobby-wide to describe the earlier, pre-airbrush style of dappling, where a type of grease was splashed on the model before painting. The dapples were created when the grease was washed off.

Thunderbolt is very appealing, but whether or not I’m actually getting him will depend on how my space situation finally plays out. And it doesn’t look like that extra space I had hoped for will be materializing. The remodel is about 75% done, and most of my stuff is back to where it should be. Except where it doesn’t fit. And what doesn’t fit includes about 50 models.

Major culling will be necessary. I am not looking forward to it.

Did you know that the full-body resist Dapple Gray paint job (aka "Wild Dapple Gray") was a relative latecomer in the Breyer world? It wasn’t until 1964 that we see the appearance of the true Dapple Gray paint job. That’s right, the dappled Decorator colors of Florentine (gold) and Copenhagen (blue) actually premiered before the more "realistic" Dapple Gray. While the Decorator experiment might not have been a success, initially, it did apparently lead to something that was.

Yes, I know, Running Mare and Foal came out in a color called "Dark Dapple Gray" ca. 1962. But it appears that Breyer considered that particular colorway separate and distinct from the "Dapple Gray" of the Belgian and his descendants. Except for the occasional color variation, and some pieces from very late in their run, the Mare and Foal retained their dappling pattern - and their unique color appellation - until they were discontinued in 1973. (I don’t quite know how to classify the Nebraska SRs in all this; they’re definitely "Wild" Dapple Grays, but I don’t know the precise color description they were sold under.)

The Dapple Gray Belgian was discontinued rather quickly - by the end of 1966 - but his color was carried forward on Old Timer, who also debuted in 1966. The color was scarce until the early 1970s, when yet another variation of the Dapple Gray paint job debuted.

That discussion I will leave for my next post. But here’s a sneak preview of the model at the center of that discussion: Marney Walerius’s "In-A-Tiff."

Appy New Year

Just spent the entire weekend going through and cleaning up my research notes - I think I ended up with more than what I started with! One of these days I’ll finally be able to "touch bottom" and work my way back up to the surface. Not any time soon from the current state of my desk, however…

In light of my increased work schedule, I’ve come to a decision on my blog posts for January: I’ll be sticking to smaller, shorter topics for the time being, instead of the graduate-level dissertations I’ve been lapsing into. I’ll profile some historically-interesting models from my collection, spotlight rare or noteworthy color variations, offer annotated scans of some rare or unique items from the archive, that sort of thing.

(Don’t worry, the dissertations will be back - eventually!)

To kick things off, I offer you a rare and unusual variation many collectors miss: the "Gray Appaloosa" Azteca:


The #85 Dapple Gray Azteca is know for its many color variations: white tail, gray tail, semi-gloss, matte, wild dappling, and so on …but this variation is distinct enough to be mistaken for a test color or separate release. (And sometimes is.) It’s very similar to the paint job seen on the Dark Dapple Gray Running Mare and Foal, but with the addition of fine, roany dappling over the rest of the body. You can catch a blurry glimpse of him in the 1980 Alden’s Christmas Catalog:


Christmas catalog photo shoots occur very early in the year - not long after the previous holiday season, usually. So that means he’s an early variation, possibly the earliest. However, the Dapple Gray Azteca I bought in early 1980 (with my leftover Christmas money!) is the standard wild dapple version. So either he was a variation who was quickly replaced with a more standardized paint job, or a painter might have either received less than clear painting instructions for a day. ("Paint ‘em up in dapple gray - you know, like the Running Mare and Foal.")

In either case, there weren’t a lot of them painted this way. I think I see maybe one "Gray Appaloosa" version of the Azteca a year, at best. It took me quite a while to acquire my specimen, and I’ve had no luck in upgrading him since then.

This brings up an important point: dapple gray paint jobs from the late 1970s throughout most of the 1980s were not very durable - in some cases, they’ll rub right off with a little vigorous handling! That’s because by then Breyer had abandoned giving them the clear topcoat that acted as a sealer. It wasn’t until near the end of the 1980s that they "reformulated" the way resist dapple gray paint jobs were done, and made them a little less prone to everyday wear and tear.