Still Surprising, Sometimes

Well, I’ll be diggidy-danged – they did make all the Slainte Surprises the equal amount! 800 for each of the Mattes, and 325 for each of the Glosses.

I was beginning to suspect that was the case; after the initial rush of horse trading, I noticed that the numbers seemed to be leveling out, and that no particular item seemed significantly “rarer” than the other.

Good!

It took a few years for the BreyerFest Surprise Special Run to evolve into what it has become today. With the first Surprise – the Quarter Horse in 2009 – we knew what the mold and colors were ahead of time. The only real “surprise” (aside from the Smoke, Charcoal, and Silver Filigrees that were supposed to be randomly distributed throughout the weekend, but were not) was in which one you’d get.

They switched it up a little bit with the Spun Gold Surprise Ethereals in 2011: we didn’t know the mold initially, but the quantities – again, aside from a Gloss Palomino Appaloosa that actually was randomly distributed – were more or less equal.

It wasn’t until 2012’s Stoneleigh Surprise on the Flash mold that the BreyerFest Surprise became more “standardized”: scarce Gloss variations of the Mattes were introduced, with variable amounts of each color (now four, instead of three). There’s been some variation since then – extra surprises for Anniversary years, the “Dark Horse” in 2018’s Dark Horse Surprise Smarty Joneses – but the formula has been more or less stayed the same.

I know some are lamenting the “chase” aspect, or the delightful mathematical models we build to determine which one is the rarest while we wait for Reeves to actually tell us, but I am perfectly fine with going back to equal quantities across the board. It’ll minimize scalping, encourage trading, and people who suddenly discover that there are eight variations of a mold they NEED NOW won’t find themselves maxing out their credit lines to do so.

It also doesn’t come as a surprise to me that the Glosses were at almost a 1 to 2 ratio compared to the Mattes – I figured there had to be more to my luck this year than The Universe glancing my way and saying “Fine, fine, humor her with a Gloss this time.”

I’ll still take it, though.

One of the other “surprises” this year – the Epona coming in two variations, both loose-maned and braided – is simply a case of Reeves catering to our fondness for variations, nothing more. I fully expect to see unannounced mold variations on BreyerFest Specials going forward, on any mold that comes with that possibility.

(Like most of the Special Runs, she is much lovelier in hand than the photographs suggested, though she is another I will wait a few months on before I even consider purchasing.)

As for the third Surprise – the Volunteer Model being a Gambler’s Choice – that was also something I did not find completely unexpected. With the increased need for volunteers, introducing variations to the Volunteer Special lowers the individual piece counts and therefore increased the potential resale value on the secondary market.

It seemed odd that they would introduce it this year, when the need for Volunteers was significantly reduced (therefore rendering the need for a lower piece count kinda moot). I suspect that this was something that was already planned ahead of time, when an in-person event was still on the table.

BreyerFest in a Box

More technical difficulties this week, that (I hope) are finally worked out.

On the plus side of being mostly offline, I’ve been able to (a) finish dusting, (b) clean the garage, (c) sort and “triage” my quilt projects and even work on them a bit.

(The situation there is not as bad as I thought – I may still be able to hit my original pre-pandemic target by the end of the year!)

I’ve also – mercifully – been able to avoid most of the Online NPOD/Grab Bag “reveals”, which have become something of a sore point with me this year. While I am glad that I managed to get what I could get when others could not, that was one thing I was really hoping to “participate” in this year.

But alas, like so many other things this year, I could not.

My “BreyerFest in a Box” arrived Tuesday, and I’ve slowly been opening pieces throughout the week, as my emotional needs warranted. The first model I opened wasn’t the Surprise, but the Thorn:

I knew when they revealed that the Thorn was the Gloss/Matte Split model that that meant I was still probably getting the Matte, because my lack of luck with Glosses extends even to releases where I have a 50/50 shot (or better, with Lancelot!)

And as chance would have it, the Gloss Thorns are especially nice, and all the people who had him as their 5th or 6th choice and ended up with the Gloss are now either deciding to keep him, or using his “new hotness” to procure something more to their likings.

As you know, I do not play that game, so it’ll probably be a while before I add a Gloss Thorn here. I’m hoping it’ll only be a year, maybe, but the prices for a lot of not-that-rare things are absolutely nonsensical now so it’s hard to judge. Either way, it means I’ll have to wait.

(I was not expecting to see Kochab – the Stablemate MiniMe of the Duende North Star – going for nearly a hundred bucks on eBay, but that’s where we are right now.)

So I didn’t have a whole lot of hope when I finally decided to open my Surprise Friday night. When I took off the orange outer bag I could see that it was the Silver Dapple Black, so I immediately and logically assumed it was the Matte – who appears to be the most common color/finish combo of the Surprises this year.

And I was fine with that, since the color is beautiful and something that they could definitely put on all the things going forward. So when I took off the inner plastic bag and discovered this instead:

My brother and I used to joke that if Mom ever had the luck of actually winning the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes, they’d never be able to use the footage in their commercials. Instead of immediately bursting into tears or screaming for joy, she would yell something along the lines of “It’s about [expletive deleted] time!” grab the giant check from the hapless Prize Patrol people, and slam the door in their faces.

And only then she would have cried.

Yeah, that’s what I did.

One tiny bit of redemption in a BreyerFest that was otherwise not what I wanted, or expected.

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!

Having vs. Wanting

I can’t believe I did this, but I passed on the Web Special Teton.

Most of my weekend – well, the parts where it wasn’t raining – I spent taming my long-neglected garden. And while I was gardening, I though a lot about my BreyerFest plans.

Because, believe it or not, I haven’t really had much time to do it, at least in the last month or so. I committed myself to finishing the unfinished this year, and my usual BreyerFest timetable was an unfortunate casualty in all that.

(If something needs to be sacrificed, I am not all that invested in my Diorama Contest thingie, for obvious reasons.)

One thing I do plan on doing at BreyerFest is focusing on selling a higher volume of stuff I bring to sell. I usually do okay regardless, but I have a lot of odd (and not so odd) items that have been languishing on my sales list for a few years, and honestly, the space is more important than the money at this point.

This is also why I have not been my usual enthusiastic self at the local flea markets and thrift stores. (Though I did manage a pleasant side trip to an antique mall today. Lots of horsey stuff, but nothing I needed. Whew.)

I’m not going to give the stuff away, but if it takes a little extra effort – and accepting a little less money – to let it go, I’m going to do it. Perhaps with the help of some crazy sales and promotions, too. (Open Bar? Free Stickers? Corn Dogs? Pinata in the shape of Khemosabi?)

Anyway, back to Teton: while I liked her enough to enter for her, I did only enter for her once, in my usual “enter once, just for kicks” policy for models that I am not 100 percent gung-ho about.

I’ve found when I’ve done that – and beaten the odds – that I’ve ended up selling those Web Specials after a while. I am reminded of the immortal words of Spock, from my favorite Star Trek (The Original Series) episode Amok Time:

“After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but is often true.”

Preach!

This is also not very logical of me, but I hope passing her up doesn’t jinx me later on when/if something comes up that does make my heart flutter.

Random Yelling at the Clouds

First, this happened – with one entry, on one account:

Good thing I have until Monday to decide and/or scratch up the extra cash!

Then they posted these guys on the BreyerFest Blog:

Oh good grief, a Few-Spot Appaloosa Indian Pony AND a Palomino Pinto Shagya-Arabian as the big prizes at the BreyerFest Open Show?

Again, this bears repeating: my mention of the Shagya-Arabian mold last post was purely coincidence. I swear. I was hoping that my ability to attain a complete Yasmin collection would be left theoretically possible for a little bit longer.

Alas, no.

And I should have seen the Few-Spot Appaloosa coming, after the rather enthusiastic reception the Few-Spot True North received at auction last year, and the Special Run Fighting Stallion Pima did at Scottsdale Exclusive Event back in November.

What I’d like even more is a Few-Spot Appaloosa in an attainable Special Run or Regular Run. So help me, if the Surprise Model this year includes a Few-Spot in the assortment….

(I always thought Foalzilla would look awesome as a Few-Spot Appaloosa, hint-hint.)

After my better-than-expected success at Pansies and Ponies back in April, I did briefly consider entering the Open Show. But that would have required a massive rearranging of plans that were already in process, all because I did better than I expected at a local show.

I think I want to participate in a few more shows before going all-in on an event with stakes that high, if only to get a better lay of the (live show) land. The last time I showed actively, documentation was unusual and collectability was a single group-entry class.

There’s an All-Collectibility show in Indiana in September that I am seriously considering. It’s just a tad farther out of the way than I would usually consider traveling for a live show, but if there’s one thing I am strong in, it’s Collectibility, right?

It’s been a while since I’ve visited Indiana, and I’m always up for a road trip, too.

Spotted Again

Survey says: Matte Appaloosa. Not unexpectedly so.

As I’ve noted before, the more “common” Glosses become in assortments, the less likely I seem to be in getting them – even in this case, where Glosses constitute the majority!

I hope that tendency works in my favor for the Vintage Club Shannondell Claude later this year.

Since I want to complete the set someday, I was fine with getting any of the three – though getting the Blue one first would have definitely made life a little bit easier, since this New Blue color is making everybody kinda crazy.

Though to be honest, since Lancelot still hasn’t sold out yet, it’s not something I am going to invest a lot of worry about for the time being. (Cool your heels: I don’t plan on shopping for them until BreyerFest, so I’m technically not in the market for them – yet.)

And to be clear, the paint job on the Appaloosa is amazing, and I will take it on almost anything. (Give me a moment: I am currently fantasizing about either the Western Prancing Horse, or Emerson.)

Another thing I am not worrying about: the latest America the Beautiful Web Special Teton:

I really like her, and I was just thinking that I could use another Giselle in my life, but all of the other releases on this mold that I don’t have are also wildly unaffordable (Hera, Minnie Pearl, Rosalind and Rigel.) But I’ve got both a dentist appointment and a possible road trip coming up in the next two weeks, so my heart will not break if I am not drawn.

I still have a few recent purchases here I haven’t gotten around to unboxing yet anyway, like the lovely Unicorn-Yasmin Zena I picked up at Tuesday Morning about a month ago. (Yep, keeping her: after I found an awesome LV Integrity at one of my local toy stores a couple weeks back, that decision became an inevitability.)

Whether this rules Giselle out as the possible BreyerFest Surprise horse, I don’t know. The blog post refers to the model as a “he”, so I’m still thinking along the lines of the Moody Andalusian, Valegro or even the Wyatt, since they are all boys, or have the potential to be.

Valegro might be just a wee bit too popular for a Surprise, still, but I wouldn’t rule him out as a Volunteer Special. After last year’s Churchill, I won’t rule anything out for that. (Worth noting: there hasn’t been a Pinto since 2016, or an Appaloosa since 2015. Take that for whatever it is worth in your guessing games.)

I don’t have much else to say today – it’s been a sleepy, rainy day and the rest of it is probably better spent cleaning house, or finishing that one quilt project that’s 90+ percent done and just bothering the heck out of me.

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!

Catch and Release

Spent the past couple of days trying to get through a bit of a philosophical roadblock in the NaNo novel, and catching up on the word count. Haven’t had much time to think about the horses in the meantime. (Though, ironically, one of the few bits that involved the horses came up in the plot today.)

I did spot another Gloss Valentine and Heartbreaker set, though, at a store I normally wouldn’t have gone to, except for work. I was sort of surprised to still see it there, especially since it was unaccompanied by any of the more common matte-finished ones, on the shelf.

I didn’t buy it: I didn’t need it. I did a "catch and release" on the set, and let it go. Let someone else have the joy of finding it.

Sometimes hobbyists forget - and even I forget - that what an active, vocal subsection of the hobby wants or prefers isn’t necessarily what the general public, casual collectors, or the silent majority of hobbyists want or prefer. They didn’t switch over to matte-finishes in the late 1960s for nothing.

Reeves seems to have done a better-than-average job in estimating the desire of the online hobbyist community for this variation. The prices are a bit elevated on eBay and MH$P, but not hysterically so.

It’s a little too soon to tell if the prices will remain there. The market is in such a state of flux right now. It’s really difficult to tell if the determining factor in that state of flux is the economy, or market saturation. I tend to think it’s the economy: people aren’t buying, because they don’t have the money to spare.

When you’re flush with spendy cash, you can always find room for more horses. Don’t lie: I know you’ve spent just as much time as I have "rearranging" your herd to accommodate just one more horse to the shelf.

Of course, you could switch to Stablemates, but considering the sheer number of Stablemates releases there have been in the past 35+ years - and the average Stablemate addict’s propensity for rationalizing away every slight variation as "essential" - that’s really only a short term solution.

(Been there, done that.)

I’m hoping to be all caught up where I need to be on the novel by tomorrow, so the next post should be somewhat more substantial.

Presenting Itself

I just happened to be in That part of town where That farm store is, and what’s sitting on the shelf waiting for me? I swear, I was there just to see if they might have one of those Rocky Mountain Horses!


A glossy Valentine and Heartbreaker set. Sigh. I couldn’t just leave them there, either. Who knows whose hands they’d have fallen into? I had to rescue them! Such a quandary - keep, or sell to one of my regular customers, who’s still looking?

Argh! Time to futilely list more items on MHSP while I decide. (If any of you are interested in a cheap thrill or two, all my listings include postage, just to simplify things. Sometimes when you start dickering about postage, it slows the process down. Money’s great, but I want ‘em gone, too.)

(BTW, that store still had a couple of older Zenyattas from last year, if anyone’s still looking, and any deal needs sweetening.)

To clarify the book scanner thing: book dealers go to used book sales with handheld devices that can tell them how much a book’s current resale value is; if it’s greater than what the book sale is charging, they’ll buy it for their inventory.

I go to used book sales for (a) cheap/obscure reads, (b) to add to my collection, and (c) to stock my BreyerFest sales stash with fun little extras. I don’t make enough to justify buying a scanner, plus I think it’s tacky and a buzzkill. There are some sales that ban the use of scanners outright, though the local sale is not one of them, unfortunately.

I might be listing a few of my better sale books on MHSP too, once I run out of horses to list. Nothing expensive there, either. (Sorry, no Paul Browns - those are keepers!)

So yeah, I saw the Presentation Man o’ War on eBay; I didn’t even bother bookmarking it for later. It went for well over double what I could theoretically pay. Paying for my teeth and my tires take priority right now.

You know, it wasn’t that long ago that Presentation Series pieces were considered … well, not all that big a thing. A lot of collectors then (as now) weren’t too keen on the whole attached base thing. Why spend extra for one with a base, when you could get a freestanding one cheaper? It was nerdy-cool to have a few in your collection - especially if you were a completist - but they weren’t the high demand budget-busters they are now.

Some have been found in this area - mostly Adios, which is not a surprise: there used to be a number of Standardbred farms in the area. The Adios model itself is a fairly easy find around here. I’ve come close: I’ve found a few mounted trophy-like things, but no true Presentation pieces, yet.

I’d be happy with any of them. I’m not particular; I only "need" one for the collection. Aside from cost and rarity, those bases take up an ungodly amount of shelf space: it just wouldn't be practical. Now, I wouldn't turn down a nice-sized collection of them if they did happen to fall in my lap somehow, but what are the odds of that?

(Yeah, I know, it's me we're talking about. When, not if, etc.)

Accidental Vacation

Sorry about the unannounced vaycay - all the year-end paperwork I had planned for next week got bumped to this week, because of heavy additions to my work schedule. I also made the mistake of picking an "easy" project to make for Mom’s Christmas present this year:


French-beaded Marigolds.

My original intent was to make a Christmas Tree, but I thought the Marigolds would be less time-consuming. Ha! You’d think I’d know myself by now.

(And no, I’m not taking orders. I'm still in the "gifts to family and friends" stage. Quilts, I'm willing to discuss.)

Looks like I’m going to get stuck with my Grab Bag leftovers for a least a couple of months - have you seen the race to the bottom the prices took on MH$P? I don’t necessarily think its reflective of a lack of demand for any of these models in particular, it’s more a matter of lots of people being desperate to unload, no matter the cost. I guess I can wait - I’ve got room in the sales boxes, and if all else fails, I can always move them out at BreyerFest. It’ll be a non-NAN year, and I’ve found that you get a higher percentage of offline, low-information or lower intensity hobbyists who wouldn’t have had the knowledge, means or opportunity to take advantage of the deal in the first place.

If anyone wants to make a modest offer on anything in the meantime, though, be my guest.

I don’t know what to make of the random awesome goodies some people got in their Grab Bags. Was it an intentional thing to get us stoked for the next round of Grab Bags, or another one of those "blame it on the intern" type of mistakes? The former seems more likely than the latter, since I don’t doubt we’ll have at least one more Grab Bag dump before BreyerFest next year. There are just too many things floating in the warehouse that didn’t make an appearance in this round. (Why no Pink Poodles?)

I’m all talked out of this Grab Bag topic. Let’s move on to something else.

It’s nice to see that the "one gloss set per case" on the new Giselle and Gilen has been confirmed as a year-long thing. I'd love to have a set, but I was in no mood for more mall crawling, especially this time of year.

I do wonder how long it’ll take the rest of the hobby to find this news - or if they'll even "discover" it at all? I’ve been doing a lot of lurking lately, and I’m a little appalled at both the quality of news being distributed, and the unevenness of the distribution.

You know what this hobby needs? A good, all-purpose, nondenominational news hub. Not a list of links, terms and general information, but honest to goodness news. When things are getting released, contest/entry deadlines, live show and club events by region, artist announcements/open houses, etc. and so on. I do plan on expanding my Internet "presence" next year, so maybe I’ll pencil "…and establish an online model horse news network" on the bottom of the to-do list.

More tomorrow, after I finish unwrapping and assembling the presents. (Including a comfy new office chair! Yay!)

More Glosses. Whatever.

All this whining about the Winter Othellos is starting to turn me off Glosses. Reeves should have made the Winter a Gambler’s Choice: if the off-the-shelf models in the series were available in Matte and Gloss from the very beginning, the Winters should have been too.

Then the whining would have been confined to individual tales of personal bad luck, instead of devolving into tedious arguments about the incompetence of Reeves’ marketing strategies. There’s much to be criticized there, no doubt, but the level of discourse rarely rises above "I didn’t get exactly what I wanted" = BAD.

I fall into that trap sometimes, myself: it wouldn’t take much effort on my part to construct a fairly righteous rant about my inability to secure a reasonably priced Diamond Jubilee, and the crazy way they seem to have distributed them. (No rhyme or reason, there.)

Speaking of crazy distribution patterns, I have no idea how the whole Gloss Valentine & Heartbreaker thing is going to pan out, either. Is this just a one-time thing, or all year/run long? Totally random, or a true one to five ratio?

It’d be nice if they did stick to the "one gloss for every five matte" ratio. That’d mean 1000 Gloss sets for every 5000 Mattes produced. If we peg the sales at a conservative 18,000 pieces, that’d be 3000 gloss sets out in the wild - more than enough to satisfy demand.

(Yes, really.)

It’s still too early to tell what Reeves is doing at this point. Trotting over to your favorite online dealer and placing an order for a Gloss one seems a little presumptuous to me.

It’s clear that they’re tinkering with different distribution patterns. I’m all for that: the more equitable or random the system, the better. The way it is now, some hobby-specific retailers have sort of gamed the system, and taken the "hunt" out of the treasure hunts.

I like the possibility that any given store might contain some rare or random treasure, even if it means that I might not get everything I want - like a Diamond Jubilee. The trick for Reeves is going to be in finally finding just the right plan - and hoping they won’t have ticked us all off by the time they do.

I do feel kind of sorry for the dealers: this should be the time of the year when everyone starts to get excited about the next year’s releases, tour stops, and the first real news about BreyerFest. Instead, everyone's having another meltdown about another glossy that may or may not be all that rare. And taking it out on them.

If I get lucky, I get lucky. I don’t have the time or the money to chase every shiny object waved in front of my face.

Melanges and Marmalades

I’m so conflicted about Melange. I don’t really have the money or the space for her, but I don’t know if I’ll have the luxury of leftovers in the NPOD next year, judging by the full-on freak outs occurring online over the late-as-usual JAHs.

Unfortunately, I have a lot of debt to pay off over the next few months - mainly stemming from that emergency dental appointment - and most of my spare change has to go towards that, plain and simple. My recent sales listings have been helping a little bit but not enough to justify Melange.

The fact that customizers are confessing a willingness to pay almost double RR price to use Melange purely as a body - regardless of the quality of the model they receive - is also weighing heavily in my mind. I’m sorry, but that’s just flat out nuts. That, and the hobbyists who are trying to sell the ones they haven’t even mailed away for yet, are almost motivation enough to throw my order in the mail. (And shout "No Melange for you!" as I do it. No harm done - the mail ladies already know I’m a little daft.)

The flea market was rather quiet today: not a lot of vendors - or merchandise. Even though the weather was as perfect as a September morning could be, it had rained almost perpetually for the three days previous. The sky was blue and almost cloudless, but apparently not cloudless enough for a lot of people. (Pansies!)

One thing there was a lot of were kittens there - the real-life puffballs, not the plastic kind. Oh, I was tempted: Vita was raised with cats and would probably be fine with one in the house, but I’m not authorized to bring home anything that eats, so there they had to stay. I did spend an inordinate amount of time admiring the fiesty little monsters, who were the spitting image of our favorite "creepy meow," the #336 "Calico" Kitten:


While this particular Kitten was referred to as a "Calico" in the Breyer catalogs throughout its entire run (1966 through 1973) it’s not actually a Calico, it’s a Tabby. To be more precise, it’s a Red Mackerel Tabby. "Mackerel" Tabbies have stripes, as opposed to "Classic" Tabbies, which have swirls and splotches. If you need visuals, there’s an excellent chart on top of this page:

http://www.messybeast.com/spotted-cats.html

(It’s also a useful link to help you impress, annoy or disturb your friends with your knowledge of cat color genetics.)

So the Kitten is painted in a real cat color, more or less. They just gave it the wrong name. (Something they did with the horses, too. "Bay" Racehorse, anyone?) It’d be several years before they’d release an actual "Calico" Kitten - the 2000 BreyerFest SR Patches. And to give props where it’s due, they did a pretty good job on her, too.

Back to the Kitten above: I found him at the very same flea market, years and years ago. He was an upgrade: my first "Calico" Kitten only had a handful of stripes, while this has more than your average zebra. Since these stripes had to be hand-airbrushed, fewer stripes tend to be closer to the norm on this release. I don’t know how to explain mine. In my imagination, I see a couple of bored painters having a stripe-painting contest, but it’s probably something more boring than that.

BreyerFest 2010 Wrapup

An unremarkable day at the flea market this Sunday: quite a few vintage Hartlands, a smattering of Breyer bodies, and some common H-R minis. All I really bought was some old paper - vintage craft magazines, and a huge stack of early NASA promotional brochures, ca. 1958-1964. Astronomy and early space flight are another minor interest of mine; I don’t go out of my way to collect any of that stuff per se, but I pick it up if I find it. The graphics tend to be quite beautiful, too, including this little gem:


Speaking of paper, I’m almost finished sorting out my BreyerFest ephemera finds - I sort of had to, considering that Evil has finally figured out how stairs work, and my office doesn’t have a door. ("No honey, Escondido is NOT a chew toy!") I’ll probably be posting a few things on MH$P soon, including a small number of late 1970s-early 1980s Dealer Catalogs. (Managed to do a little upgrading!)

Just a few more thoughts on this year’s BreyerFest, before I resume the straight up history-talking again.

There were some minor improvements - the Bag Check line and Store Special limits, for example - but overall, BreyerFest this year seemed more disorganized that average. Was it a change in personnel, a result of restrictions imposed by the park because of the WEG, or some unknown financial considerations that threw everything off kilter?

As always, I found the judging for the Custom Contest - the "Look-A-Like" Contest, this year - baffling. Looking at the entries left on the table, and comparing them to the winners, didn’t make much sense to me. I was relieved to overhear that I wasn’t the only one who thought that way. Hey, I knew my entry was a bit of a long shot - a Classic Foal painted metallic black, mounted on a base with a PhotoShopped poster of "The Maltese Foalcon" - but all the ones I thought were legitimate contenders also went unplaced. (Lest you think it sour grapes, I found 2009’s winners equally mystifying, and I didn’t even manage to muster an entry that year.)


The Costume Contest could have been handled much, much better, too. Some of the chaos surrounding that event was due to the short notice, but there was no excuse making everyone wait … and wait … and wait around for judging to begin. And then making us parade around the ring, after telling us we’d have a "red carpet" to walk on. And then not announcing the winners until after the raffle, after most of the audience had left for dinner or the hotel. It takes a little of the excitement of winning away when most of your audience disappears. (Isn’t playing to the audience sort of the whole point of dressing up like a celebrity?)

The way food was handled this year was also an issue for me. There was no opening night reception at the HIN on Thursday, and only a smattering of snacks - cookies, lemonade, popcorn - Saturday night. Served on the floor of the Covered Arena. (Seriously?) I know there have been issues with the food in the past; I haven’t had many complaints about it, but I’m evidently not the gourmand everyone else in the hobby thinks they are.

(Lest you think I was raised with an unrefined palate, my Mother’s main creative outlet is gourmet cooking; she has as many - if not more - binders of clipped recipes as I have of reference materials. She knows how to use ‘em, too. On the menu today: Chicken Cacciatore!)

I had no significant condition issues with my Tent Ticket models, other than slightly bent legs on my Child Star/Stage Mom set. It would have been nice if we had had the opportunity to look at the selections Thursday night; that’s when I usually make my final selections. The uncertainty was unnerving.

I briefly considered going with the Color Change Huck Technicolor, but opted for my original second choice instead, which was the Red Carpet Royalty Goffert. His subtly dappled paint job would have won him greater acclaim - and better sales - if he had had a chance to show off the night before, I think.

I was not pleased at the number of people who were obviously buying the Giselle/Gilen set to customize. What, you can’t wait for a more reasonably priced, and less collectible version to come out in a few months? Yeesh. That sort of thing always leaves a bad taste in my mouth, especially when the models being customized are already limited, and in high demand. It feels like a thumb in the nose of us mere OF collectors, y’know?

Loved the Volunteer Model this year, an iridescent red chestnut Missouri Fox Trotter. A favorite color, on a favorite mold? That one's gonna hurt for a while.

Next year’s reservation’s been made; I’m a little uncertain about next years theme of "Fairytails:" I’m in the minority when it comes to the frou-frou princess-y Unicorn and Pegasus thing. (Am I the only one in the world who wasn’t all that excited about the Dragon Horse Merlin Raffle a few years ago?)

Deja Vu, All Over Again

Something quick and dirty today - more scheduling difficulties, again. I promise to make up for it by finishing all of those half-written blog posts I have sitting in my hard drive, including my latest flea market report (almost as awesome as last week), the swap meet analysis, and maybe even the Tenite and injection molding follow-up. (I think the Universe is trying to drop me a hint along those lines anyway: among the things I found at the flea market yesterday were some injection molding manuals. All the subtlety of a sledge hammer, yeesh!)

I just noticed something the other day - another possible case of mold updating/replacement. First, the much-anticipated BreyerFest Giselle/Gilen combo of Stage Mom and Child Star:


And, from the 1963 Breyer Dealer’s Catalog, here’s the Running Mare and Foal combo, Sugar & Spice:


Ooh, spooky!

I have no idea if this was intentional or not, but it sure seems like it, doesn’t it? Running mares, running foals, two distinct shades of gray/black, with cutesy alliterative names? Has someone at Reeves - gasp! - been doing their homework?

If so, good job guys - and this time around, don’t wimp out on the Buckskins. I think they’d look fantastic in that color. Though true Charcoals and Alabasters would be nice, too. (Gloss or matte - I’m not picky!)

Spring Break

Had to take a few days off from the Internet - the weather’s been so nice it seemed a crime not to go out and enjoy some of it. Though I’m sure some people definitions of enjoyment would not include so much yard work, heavy lifting, and the trapping of groundhogs. (Evil beasties, grr!)

I have to admit I haven’t been paying too much attention to the horses this week, either: I think it’s the collection purge and repack that did it. I’ve been doing my daily lurking and a little field research, but the horses were definitely not my first priority.

Once the flea market opens (two weeks!) I’ll be just fine. Nothing like cheap, plentiful horses to get the heart going again. (I know, I know, I shouldn’t be rubbing it in. I’m perfectly willing to share the wealth, provided you’re willing to meet me at my house at 5:45 a.m. on Sunday mornings to caravan it. No joke - neither the time, nor the offer!)

I did spot new Pony Gals merchandise at Target this week: new molds, even. Smaller, unjointed, My-Little-Ponified versions of Jasmine, Chloe and Dixie, in Play Sets with hair manes and tails and various accessories:

7088 Jasmine Travel Boutique Play Set
7089 Dixie Travel Barn Play Set
7090 Chloe Travel Arena Play Set

They’re cute, but not my thing. The whole MLP thing was a little after my time.

I’m a little more excited about the small-scale resin "Big Lex:" a SR being done in conjunction with Lexington’s visual identity program, which will include a big giant blue horse:

The dramatic sculptural likeness of "Big Lex" will become a beacon for visitors and a popular tourist attraction during the World Equestrian Games. A banner based on traditional horse racing graphics can be draped across the Big Lex sculpture to announce special occasions and upcoming events.

http://pentagram.com/en/new/2009/03/new-work-lexington-kentucky.php

I’m not normally a big fan of resins, but as this will be a small-scale reproduction of a big giant blue horse, I’m all in. Because y’all know about my obsession with giant fiberglass livestock - and if you don’t, you will in the near future, now that the weather’s all nice and stuff…

Like everyone else, I’m also excited to see that Giselle and Gilen will debut in plastic at BreyerFest, presumably as a Tent Ticket Special. They’ll be sold as a set, with Giselle in light gray, and Gilen in baby black. I guess that solves the riddle of what the hot, must-have item will be this year. I hope that means a 2011 regular run release - or dare to hope, a Fall 2010 release - follows. (If only to save those coveted SRs from the customizer’s knife.)

There’s also some talk that Reeves is in talks with the owner of one of the horses that played Gandalf’s horse Shadowfax in The Lord of the Rings films, as a possible 2011 Celebration Horse. That’s led to speculation on next year’s theme, with the bulk of commentators seeming to think that it’s "Horses in Literature." Yeah, maybe, but there are other possibilities: "Legends," "Fantasy" or even the dreaded "Pretty, Pretty Princess" theme that was hinted at in the beginning of the Theme Suggestion thread on Blab a few months back would all work with Shadowfax.

I’m not a big fan of the Literature theme, mostly because (gasp!) I’m not big into horse-themed literature, beyond Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley. Too much sentimentality and wish-fulfillment for my tastes. The rights issues could be a bit of a problem, too; the Tolkien estate can be difficult to work with.

Giselle and Gilen

Darn, picked up another shift, so something short again today...

I'm actually somewhat relieved that I didn't get pulled for Gilen. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the Breyer Nonplastics in general. I am clumsy and I tend to break things: this is why I collect plastics.

I cherish the chinas I do have: I love my Gloss Brown Heather, my beautiful Bay Xayal, and the fabulous Galway Warrior, among others. But except for rare instances like the Galway Warrior, I try to avoid spending full retail on Nonplastics, because it would absolutely crush my heart when the time comes for me to accidentally break it.

I'm about as clumsy as someone can be without qualifying for some sort of disability. I trip over my own feet, fall out of bed, walk into walls, and unintentionally drill holes into myself. I'm so clumsy I once injured myself while READING. So the damage will occur at some point in the future, as long as the model in question remains in my custody.

It's a tragedy to break something regardless of how much I pay for it, of course, but breaking a $10 piece is a smidge less painful than breaking the $150 one.

I suspect that's one of the reasons that left a number of the Connoisseur Giselles unclaimed.

I was rather surprised by the appearance of the Giselles in the sales tent. Connoisseurs in the tent isn't something that's happened before, to my recollection. (I've heard rumors, but nothing substantiated.) At first most of us assumed that these may have been overruns to compensate for broken and damaged pieces, but that turned out to not be the case: they were numbered, and part of the run.

I grabbed one at first, and then put her down. She's pricey, and she's not plastic. As beautiful as I think she is, I just couldn't justify it, on top of all of the other goodies I had sitting in my buy pile. A lot of other collectors thought the same way, since there were still a handful of them left even on Sunday, when the tent pickings are notoriously slim.

She was also not distinctly and overtly glossy, or sporting a flashy pattern, factors that helped the previous Nonplastic Connoisseur Tenacious. Being a brand new mold by a relatively popular artist wasn't quite enough to convince your average Breyer collector that she was worth the investment.

The interest in these molds is there, in plastic: I overheard one Reeves employee give a practiced, and pointedly noncommital answer to the question in the Gallery this year. (And I suspect that was only one of many times they were asked.) I have no idea if or when the Gilen and Giselle will make the transition to plastic. I suspect we'll be seeing the Great Horse Shire first, since the test piece for Party Time was plastic.

If I had been drawn for Gilen, I suspect I would have found myself on the hunt for a Giselle anyway, just to keep the family intact (because keeping him apart from his Mama would just be mean!) And then would have secluded them into the deepest, darkest, and safest part of my china cabinet, away from my awkward self.