Hoping For Better Days

I’ve occasionally made the joke about how any time I’ve done “well” at BreyerFest, I always end up paying for it in the end, regardless. 

I was hoping to avoid that fate this year – or at least, mitigate the damage – but the shoe might be dropping this week, and to be frank I am kinda scared. I can only hope that I am believed and that I come out of the experience relatively unscathed. 

But there is no guarantee, and I did not sleep a wink Saturday night. 

Needless to say, any positive energy you can send my way would be very appreciated. 

I had some shopping to do on Sunday – mostly craft and storage supplies – and while I was out I finally managed to see some of the Tractor Supply Specials. The Stablemates were quite tempting, and the FFA Decorators were much nicer than I expected, but I managed to walk away without pulling out my wallet. 

If any of the Gibsons had been the Chalky variation, I would have bought one, but they were not. 

Since I’m not feeling particularly chatty again today, here’s another BreyerFest purchase:

This Seabiscuit – and another one painted a semi-leopard Appaloosa, in hobby enamels – were the only purchases I made from the Linda Walter estate. By the time I had made it into the room, most of the better Breyer items were already gone, and I didn’t trust myself to bring home any clinkies unbroken. 

But for some reason this little guy (and his partner) really caught my eye. I already have several variations of the original G1 Seabiscuit, but this one was – as you can see – exceptionally well-shaded. So well-shaded, in fact, that for a brief moment I mistook him for the Hagen-Renaker original.

The melancholy part of all this is that the context is missing. Was he just a lucky find on Linda’s part? Did Marney find a particularly nice one at the factory and send it Linda’s way, because of her love and advocacy of Hagen-Renakers in general? Or nothing at all?

I’ll probably never know.

I had another Stablemate in my showstring that I was having some second thoughts about, and I swapped him out for this guy. 

And I believe he was the first model that even placed for me in the show. For a while I was worried that that would be my only placing (and a tenth, at that), but things got better for me.

I can only hope this week ends the same way. 

Conveniences

Great: I saw a pair of shoes at the Salvation Army, and suddenly I found myself inspired. Now I think I have an idea for the Costume Contest, when I’ve barely started my paperwork – or anything else.

I’m blaming it on the cold medication. Usually it makes me groggy and tired; I’m not sure “sudden fits of creative inspiration” is an improvement though, given that I don’t think I’ll have the time to exploit it! (It will be a few more days before I am fully functional, health-wise.)

According to the paperwork sent to BreyerFest vendors, the Decorator release’s name is Newmarket: I don’t know if this is the first time we’ve gotten the name of a BreyerFest release before we’ve seen the release itself, but I am still foggy from this cold so my memory may be mistaken.

The paperwork also – inadvertently, or not – revealed that the Proud Arabian Mare Sierra Rose is the likely Gloss/Matte split model, which I was not expecting.  It will be a larger release, then? That is interesting.

I’ll be happy with whatever I get, if I decide to get her. (My budget is still up in the air.)

Incidentally, these Vendor Packs have fascinated me for a while. It’s not the contents – it’s basically just one of each BreyerFest release. And it’s not what they were designed for – vendors and other designated attendees who wouldn’t otherwise be able to pick up their timed ticket models.

It’s the convenience.

It’s been a long time since I endeavored to get all the BreyerFest releases: cost is one issue, and space is the other. But I know there is a certain subsection of hobbyists who still do, and how easy and convenient would it be to have some of those sets set aside for them, too? Then they could spend the rest of BreyerFest participating in all the other stuff that gets in the way of line-standing.

However, if a program like that is opened to the general public, the potential for abuse is high, especially if there are rarities involved – like a high-demand lower-piece count item, or rare and random oddballs thrown into the mix.

I could see it being implemented for the One-Day Stablemates, though: a couple hundred prepacked sets of the four could come in mighty handy in keeping the line moving during the Friday morning rush at the Help Desk! (Been there, done that!)

Now that the Early Bird deadline has passed, it won’t be much longer before we’ll get to see them – presumably right after full picture of the Newmarket is released.

With the floodgates apparently opened for Hagen-Renaker releases, I’m curious to see if any of the G1 Stablemate Thoroughbreds – the Mare, and any of the portrait models like Swaps, Citation or Native Dancer – will be utilized.

It doesn’t matter to me either way: whether I get them or not depends entirely on the answers to two questions: Do I like them? Can I afford them?

The Mystery Mare

Still busy cleaning; late Saturday night I started a long-overdue purge of out-of-date reference books and books-I’ve-lost-interest-in from the bookshelves, and it felt so good I’ve since moved on to other parts of the home and office.

It’s been a constructive way to work off some personal and professional frustrations, too. (Nothing y’all need to know about, other than that’s my operational mode right now.)

Anyway, much speculation has abounded about the Proud Arabian Mare silhouette Reeves has been teasing us with on all fronts since yesterday:

There’s been only one official BreyerFest Special Run on the Proud Arabian Mare: the elusive, desirable Silver Filigree Volunteer Model from 1993.

There have been a three of the Stallion – the 2003 Silver Filigree Raffle Model Saturday Night Fever, the 2009 Volunteer Special After Party, and the 2015 Raffle Model Que Sera Sera – but only one of the Foal: the 2003 Silver Filigree Born to Run.

I suppose the Palomino Appaloosa Fun Foals that were made available in the Ninja Pit with all of the other leftover Fun Foals could count as a BreyerFest Special Run too, since that’s where the majority of them (all of them?) were distributed.

I have no special insight as to the nature of this Special Run – whether it’s going to be a Raffle Model, Prize Model, Store Special, or straight-up Tent Special. I figured they’d give us at least one Arabian model this year, but the Proud Arabian Mare never came up as a possibility to me.

Most of the speculation seems to be focusing on it as being a Raffle or Prize Model, or the Pop-Up Store Crystal release – in other words, something extremely limited – but I don’t think we can rule out a larger release.

We had the Vintage Club Farah in 2015, and several recent larger-scale releases of the Hagen-Renaker Classic Racehorses too: the Terrang Coeur de Lion, the Swaps Web Special Scotty, and the re-release of the Man o’ War.

If they do go the Tent/Store route, I think a PAM release will be on the smallish side (1000 or fewer) – but it won’t be out of contractual issues, mostly.

It’ll be because she’s a Vintage mold, featuring an old-fashioned/dated body type.

The younger/newer hobbyists who make up a fairly large chunk of the BreyerFest crowd will be both unfamiliar with and unsentimental about her. And wondering why Reeves couldn’t have gone with a newer mold like Weather Girl or the Make A Wish/Justadream instead, because obviously.

(Remember the response to the Appaloosa Bonne Fete in 2014? More experienced hobbyists were unimpressed, but Reeves knew what it was doing: the newer hobbyists helped sell it out.)

I’ll be fine, regardless. If it’s a smaller release, I’m not going to let myself worry about it, and if it’s a larger release, it shouldn’t be too difficult to attain – if I like it, well enough.

While I think she’d look fabulous in a Gloss Dappled Red Bay with a lot of white, there’s already a lot of Bays in the lineup. It also happens to be her 60th anniversary as a Breyer release, so a Decorator release isn’t out of the question either...

Clearing Off the Desk

Cleaning off the desk here today, so a few odds and ends follow…

You probably do not know this, but I am a huge fan of novelty socks, so I am very pleased to see Reeves kicking up their branded clothing and accessory program a notch and giving us Breyer ones!

http://www.breyerhorses.com/breyer-socks

My only issue with them, naturally, is that they did not appear on the web site until the day after I paid for my Vintage Club Clara and Mae.

If they’re still around when the next Stablemates Club purchase is available, a couple pair will hitch along for the ride. (One to wear, and another for the archives.)

My local Tractor Supply finally stocked the two TSC Specials earlier this week; I stopped by the Salvation Army next door for my weekly shopping run and decided to check in to coo at the chicks and ducklings.

I managed to walk away without buying anything feathered – horse or fowl. The Clydesdale Mare was tempting, but then I reminded myself that I’m saving up to splurge on museum-quality archival supplies for my recently reorganized hobby papers.

Since it appears that these Specials may be more limited than the standard TSC Specials, I may live to regret it. But considering my most recent attempts at speculating, maybe not.

Sigh. 

Not everything in my last box lot was a body when I bought it, but by the time it got here, they most certainly were. I’ll still break even with it – if it’s one thing I’m good at, it’s salvaging something out of nothing – but darn that luck of mine, again!

The box lot of unicorns I bought back in February was a little less derelict, mostly because I had a chance to repack it myself before driving it home from a local auction house. Among the treasures in it I didn’t mention before was this lovely pair: Hagen-Renaker releases of Freeman-McFarlin designs, I believe?

I’d love to keep them, but as I am clumsy and in possession of a small and highly destructive dog, they’ll be packed up for BreyerFest. (Sorry, guys: I don’t ship larger china figurines.)

Looking over my saleslist, I have to say I’m pretty pleased at my assortment so far. Since my vacation spending money is drawn from my sales, it looks like in this one regard I am already ahead of the game. I won’t have to put too much pressure on myself to “stock up” once flea market season gets underway in another month.

I’m considering taking a similar approach to all of BreyerFest this year: ditch all the self-imposed pressure of trying to win something, and just chill.

My Contest attempts are memorable and (so I’ve been told) inspirational, but they are bigger emotional and financial drains on me than you might realize. And there’s not a lot in my trophy case to show for it.

To put it in business-speak, my ROI has been terrible.

I do have some ideas, but as I am also on a bit of an efficiency kick, I am beginning to think my time and resources might be better invested in something else.

Necessary Treasures

The flea market has been mostly a wash the past few weeks, but darn it all if the rest of the retail market is trying to make up for it. First up:

Yes, I managed to swing by one of the local participating stores yesterday, and they still had a Markus on the shelf. He’s obviously not the best of the lot – he’s got mane masking issues, like a lot of them seem to do – but considering I didn’t think I’d score one at all because of my work schedule, I am perfectly okay with that.

I’m not 100 percent sure he’ll be staying – that’ll all depend on what other necessary treasures Reeves decides to foist upon us through the end of the year – but until further notice, he’s here.

The Bubble-dappled Gray Stock Horse Mare and Black Tennessee Walker/Bear Reissues, along with the latest Stablemates Club release, are also on their way. It appears that the web site photos of the Warehouse Finds are more or less accurate, and these “reissues” are as different from the original releases as we suspected.

In other words, if you’re a fan of one of these molds or releases, go get ‘em! (FYI: discount codes work on the Warehouse Finds. So if you got one, use it.)

Oh, and this thing happened earlier in the week:

On the way home from work one day I decided to swing by one of the more upscale Salvation Army Stores, ostensibly to see if the vintage fabric that piqued my interest the week before was still there. (It was – and it was on sale!)

I had also noticed that this same store had received a fairly high quality figurine collection donation – including a (sadly, broken) Boehm. There was nothing that had to come home with me during the previous visit, but since I was there again for the fabric I thought I’d take a quick swing by the scary-clown-and-Precious-Moments section of the store to see if they had put out any fresh stock.

And obviously, they did! So in addition to the fabric, I came home with a Zsolnay Hedgehog and an early DW Hagen-Renaker Mallard Hen with extremely crisp detail.

So my luck with both Hagens and Hungarian porcelains continues!

(As for why there are so many Hungarian porcelains to be had, this area of Michigan has one of the highest percentages of people of Hungarian descent in the U.S., including me. I haven’t been to Hungary myself to visit the alleged family castle, but maybe someday.)

I’m just going to take all of these goodies as the Universe’s pre-emptive “so sorry for your loss” consolation gift stash for the latest Micro Run Cornelius, on the Brighty mold.

I’ve been trying to remind myself that I am not a fan candy corn. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s one of the candies served in the waiting room to Hades, along with Circus Peanuts, Spearmint Leaves and Ribbon Candy. 

But I am pretty sure I am still going to be disappointed anyway.

And Then, This Shoebox Turns Up...

Well, that was a pretty spectacular start to the flea market this morning, as I found it:

Yep, that’s four Monrovia Hagen-Renakers in a shoebox, including a DW Arabian Foal Fez, a Buckskin Quarter Horse Stallion, and a Bay Thoroughbred Mare and Foal.

Except for a tiny flea bite on the Foal, all mint. The shading on the Mare is especially pretty, too!

I don’t normally brag about the prices – or at least, give them out – but since those four aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, this time I will.

Five dollars for the whole box!

I nearly passed out, quite literally. As in, I had to lean against the car for a moment to steady myself. It’s about the best find I’ve had in years, in terms of cost-to-value.

I find the occasional broken or chipped H-R, and there are always a few Miniatures floating around somewhere – I found an Eaglet to match my Bald Eagle last week, for instance – but Hagens of this age and quality are a real rarity for me.

I knew I was about due for some good Clinkies (well, more Clinkies after the Boehm Schnauzer) but ooh boy, I was not ready for this. I would have been happy with a box containing their Breyer counterparts, for the same price. And those I could have sold, at least….

(FYI: All the other non Hagen bits are coming to Kentucky.)

The rest of the flea market was pretty darn good, too. No Breyers, but just about everything else a girl could hope for, including a cute Walker-Renaker Dog, another piece of Aquarium Furniture, an odd little wooden purse made out of an ancient cigar box and a plastic suitcase handle(!) and a beautiful little oil painting of a woodland scene that looks straight out of Tolkien. (But isn’t. Probably predates it by a couple of decades.)

So yes, a very good day at the flea market. The kind of day you want to capture in a bubble forever.

Back to my prep.

Coco, Coeur de Lion, Swaps et al

Whew – made it through the holiday weekend without buying anything model horse hobby related! (I did buy some sewing supplies. Vita has acquired a taste for my leather thimbles, grr.)

Though those Web Special Classics, especially the Coeur de Lion, definitely gave me a lot to think about. And now he appears to be sold out, so that definitely helps…

With the Terrang Coeur de Lion, the Stablemates Club Thoroughbred Mare Coco, the 2017 Vintage Club releases of both the Classic Quarter Horse Family and the Stablemates Standing and Lying Down Foals, and that Classic Swaps Poll they had us voting on back in July, it’s fairly obvious that these aren’t all warehoused bodies, but totally new production.

Clearly something changed in regards to the Hagen-Renaker leases.

How so, exactly, I am not privy to. And you know what? I’m fine with that. The official story will come out eventually. The primary focus of my research is investigating the mysteries Reeves cannot answer for lack of time, resources, or even (gasp!) interest.

And even though they were the models I grew up with, truth be told I am not as wedded to the Hagen-Renaker molds as many hobbyists are.

I’m not ever giving up my Classic Racehorses or G1 Stablemates, heck no! But given the wider range of choices we now have in regards to Classics and Stablemates, the Hagen-Renaker molds are not always going to be my first choice.

While I may have hesitated on the Terrang mold Coeur de Lion, I’m definitely not skipping out on whatever Classics Swaps won the popular vote for release next year. I think Swaps was one of Maureen Love’s masterpieces, and he looks great in every color they put him in. Yes, even that totally weird gray one in the 1990s where they gave him rubber-cemented Chubari Spots:

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/00266.jpg

Action!

This year’s One-Day Stablemates are food-themed, in some of the "yummiest" colors I’ve ever seen put on Stablemates. The Reiner Crème Brulee is a Gloss Dappled Sooty Palomino Appaloosa:

The G3 Cantering Warmblood Crepe Suzette has hoof stripes and a blue eye, and bears a striking resemblance to the popular Ethereal Fire:

Ten years ago this level of detail was only considered "normal" for a Connoisseur release. Wow!

The Reiner is my pick of the litter so far; he and the Bucking Horse/Rivet are easily among my favorites of the newer Stablemates. As someone who grew up on the G1 Stablemates - and remembers fondly plowing through piles of them at the local Kmart when they were first released - I cannot get enough of these new and more dynamically posed ones.

You have to remember: for the first 20+ years of the Stablemate line’s existence, we only had 16 different molds. Sort of. One of them - the Quarter Horse Mare - was taken out of production by 1988 because of molding issues. The two foal molds - the Standing and Lying Down Thoroughbred Foals - were out of production for most of the 1980s and early 1990s.

So in reality, us Stablemate hoarders really only had 13 molds to choose from for years.

The pose choices were limited: outside of the Saddlebred, the running Seabiscuit and the pawing Quarter Horse Mare, most of these "Generation 1" Stablemates were rather tame. The Quarter Horse Stallion jogs a bit, the Morgan Stallion walks calmly, and the Morgan Mare prances a little. (She was one of my favorites, consequently.)

That conservatism was partly a result of the selection of molds they had available to them: all of what we now refer to as the "G1 molds" were derived from Hagen-Renaker miniatures. H-R did have some wilder and crazier equines, including an awesome Rearing Horse. Since the scale was new and unfamiliar to Breyer, I guess the more sedate ones seemed less risky.

There’s no shortage of standing or walking molds among the 40-plus post-G1 molds but the running, jumping, bucking, rearing and all-around vitality were a welcome sight to of us who grew up with the G1 molds.

This fact brings up another important point: it wasn’t just the OF collectors who suffered through this lack of variety. Think of the customizers. You think it’s a challenge trying to come up with something dynamic, beautiful and correct now? Back then they labored mightily to sculpt G1 Stablemates into more vigorous poses with little more than plastic wood, plumber’s putty, and spackling compound.

What some of these newer molds may lack in fineness of detail or anatomical accuracy (compared to the original Maureen Love Calvert sculpts), they make up for with their sheer variety of positions and body types.

The narrow range of molds and colors of the G1 molds does come with one distinct advantage: for the Original Finish collector of Stablemates, it’s not too difficult or expensive to acquire a complete or near-complete set of pre-1998 Regular Run pieces.

Even the Christmas Catalog Special Run sets aren’t difficult to find, by and large.

The earliest Special Runs - like the Black Quarter Horse Stallion, the Silver Saddlebred, and the Emperor’s Gold Bar (aka "The Poop Paperweight") - are another story entirely. Sometimes I think the ready availability of the earlier Stablemates is partly to blame for pushing the prices on these rarities up so high.

More Stablemates = more collectors. ("Must. Complete. Collection!")

These lovely paint jobs sure aren’t hurting, either. Don't even get me started on the quality of the SM paint jobs back in the early days ...

Love, Love, Love?

First they promised us the G1 Draft Horse as the Gift Stablemate for the 2014 Vintage Club. That was easy to rationalize: all the Warehouse finds were from previously molded - and warehoused - bodies. You can fit hundreds of Stablemates in a single storage drum, easy-peasy.

Then they offered us Cosette - the Classic Arabian Mare in Chestnut Pinto. Another Hagen-Renaker mold. An apparently open-ended run, too - though limited to two per customer - but still available on the Breyer web site as of my writing this. Well, maybe that one could have been warehoused too, but I was beginning to have my doubts.

Then they sent us a picture of the cover of the soon-to-be-mailed Just About Horses Annual:

Ooh, a new chestnut Carrick! The Zodiac Collection that they hinted at a while back? I’m cool with that. Fan-niversary - is that what they’re calling the next Exclusive Event, or is it just another themed anniversary promotion? Interesting; whatever it is, I hope the Western Horse is involved. The Maureen Love Story…

Whoa, wait a minute. Does that mean what we think it means? 

Then we received notice about the offerings for next year’s Vintage Club:

Oh Good Heavens, a Gloss Palomino Pinto Proud Arabian Mare? I suppose we’ll all find out in a few weeks, as the Annuals make their way out into the world, the circumstances behind the return of the Hagen-Renaker molds. For now, or for good?

Rats, just when I thought it was safe to start upgrading my Proud Arabians!

While everyone is squealing in delight over the Proud Arabian Mare’s return, the model that made me melt into a puddle was the Quarter Horse Gelding. In Black Splash Spot Leopard Appaloosa, like the Western Prancing Horse? Oh, goodness.

The full lineup, in case you haven't heard:

• Black Splash Spot Leopard Quarter Horse Gelding
• Gloss Red Bay Pinto 4-eyed Misty and Stormy
• Gambler’s Choice Decorator Running Stallions
• Gloss Palomino Pinto Proud Arabian Mare - Yellow Mount pattern
• Bonus Model: Dark Dapple Gray Loose Mane Cleveland Bay, aka "Murphy"
• Gift Stablemate: Gloss Alabaster G3 Rearing Andalusian

Interesting that they’re doing a Gambler’s Choice on the Running Stallion; presumably for the benefit of those lucky ones among us who have vintage Running Mares and Foals in need of a match. I thought they'd go with a Gloss/Matte Gambler's Choice first, since there was precedent for that back in the 1960s and 1970s, when they transitioned from mostly Gloss to mostly Matte finishes.

So signing up for the Vintage Club this coming year gets you a rare and lovely PAM, and a super-scarce (125 piece) Decorator? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

There goes my hard-earned Paypal balance.

All About the Timing

First, another Test Color from the picture files. I only wish I had this one!

Black Traditional Man o’ War with star, gray hooves and a black halter. There are actually quite a few of them floating around - at least four that I know about, according to my reference materials. This does not include other Black Tests in different marking configurations, or the unpainted Solid Black Plastic ones that came later (I think). I have no idea how many of those were made.

Those selfsame reference materials indicate he was a later Test from the 1980s. The better known Dapple Grays were from the 1970s.

I don’t know who owned this one when the picture was taken, or where he ended up; there was nothing on the back of the photo to help out.

The fact that there is more than one out there gives me a tiny bit of hope that I might acquire one someday. I've come real close on the Black Plastic ones, but my timing was a bit off both times. (Yes, I know, I already have a Test Color Man o’ War. I’ll stop whining now.)

I’ve been distracted with some inventory-type business this week, so the rest of this is just general light housekeeping.

I didn’t get drawn for the Gloss Mr. Chips, which is something I was expecting to happen. The coin flips on almost everything from traffic lights to eBay auctions haven’t gone my way for weeks. Not that big a deal, really, just mildly annoying.

There’s another drawing this week, too, for the Mischief Night Hobo. I was fortunate enough to get one while he was still to be gotten, so I’m not worrying about it. I am curious why the drawing is on Halloween, and not on Mischief/Devil’s/Angel’s Night itself; I guess the reference is just obscure enough that they didn’t want cause any more annoyance or confusion.

Modell Pferde Versand apparently have/had the leftover 2014 WEG models:

http://shop.modellpferdeversand.de/Breyer-Modellpferde/Breyer-Modelle/Breyer-WEG-2014-Sondermodelle:::194_323_786.html

So if you start seeing them turn up in quantity and in the usual places, that’s why. No, I didn’t order any - yet. I’m still trying to focus more on selling than buying until the end of the year, though the Universe seems to be conspiring against me on that point.

How so? After dropping off a couple of packages at the post office yesterday, for instance, I had a hunch and swung by the local antique mall across the street. And just look who was waiting for me:

A Hagen-Renaker Harry with his original name sticker. Leave him behind? I don’t think so! He has a broken leg and the mold detail is a little soft, but I don’t care - he’s my first DW H-R in I can’t remember when. A nice way to end to the shopping season!

Some of Our Stablemates are Missing!

Like everyone else, I am perplexed by the lack of new new Stablemates. You know, those cute little guys who debuted as the One-Day Stablemates at BreyerFest last year. I was able to secure three of the four this year. No Icelandic "Indigo", alas!

The Andalusian "Chrome" turned up as a raffle item at the Big Easy Bash back in February, as a miniature version of one of the earliest Exclusive Event items, the Legionario Bourbon Street. The Appaloosa/Stock Horse "Dungaree" showed up at the same event as the 200-piece run Moon Pie, in a pretty Gloss Red Bay Overo. And the Icelandic is schedule to appear as a "Mini Me" freebie for Premier Club members, for the new Traditional Icelandic Falhófnir.

There has been no sign yet of my personal favorite - the Bucking Horse "Rivet". (I love the look Chrome is givingt Rivet in this photo: "Dude, seriously, what’s your problem?")

It’s only been about a year since they’ve been released, but we’ve grown so accustomed to such a fast pace to new releases that a year feels like an eternity. Even the original BreyerFest pieces are somewhat hard to come by; Reeves miscalculated the demand for them, and they were sold out by mid-day Saturday. (Some were held back for Will-Calls.)

There have been other Stablemates who have vanished for much longer periods of time. The original H-R/Love Quarter Horse Mare mold disappeared in 1988 due to a molding issue. The rest of the Hagen-Renaker molds eventually followed suit when the lease with H-R was not renewed.

The infamous Palomino "Playmat" Horse came and went in an eyeblink in 2007. Technical/molding issues were also the reasons, allegedly, why he was quickly replaced by the G2 Warmblood for the remainder of that item’s production run.

(One of our local stores had three or four of these Playmat Sets - with the original horse - for the longest time. Silly me didn’t want to spend the $20 on the set just for a single Stablemate. Not one of my brighter moments, to be sure.)

Most recently I have been troubled by the lack of Reining Horse releases. While all of the other WEG 2010/G4 releases have been issued in multiple colors and multiple sets since then, the Reining Horse has seen only one additional release, a Black Splash Spot Leopard Appaloosa in the 2011 J.C. Penney Parade of Breeds set.  I had a fun little project in mind earlier this year that was quashed because there were no affordable, body-quality Stablemates Reining Horse to be had.

Other than possibly some concerns about breakage with the Andalusian's slender ears, I have no idea what the hold up might be. Guess we’ll just have to cross our fingers and hope the problems are more conceptual in nature, rather than technical or legal.

Cosette

On my way home from work yesterday (Early! On a Friday! Yes!) I was thinking to myself "Isn’t it about time for Reeves to spring another surprise on us?"

I get home, log on, and there she is:

Bonjour, Cosette. (Photo taken from Breyer website and slightly cropped and formatted to fit here.)

(Collector Club homepage.)
(Direct order link for CC members.)

I don’t know what this release "means". A return of the Hagen-Renaker Love molds? A random Classic Special Run Thing, like the Flurry? Using up old bodies in the warehouse? Some sort of special stay-at-home promotion for the WEG 2014 (in Normandy this year)?

The last one seems most likely to me, though honestly I don’t know any more than the rest of you. The "Collectors Club members get early access" and "Limit two per order" in the web site banner suggest that she’ll be a fairly substantial run.

I do know is that there has been some discussion - initiated on Reeves part, I believe - about how to make the Classics molds more appealing to collectors in general.

The Classics Arabian Mare? In an elaborate Pinto paint job? Designed by Tom Bainbridge? If Cosette is in any way related to that effort, then Reeves certainly started it off with a bang.

All those years of packaging and marketing them to a slightly younger market, as toys, has taken its toll on the Classics scale’s reputation. They’re seen as unsophisticated stuff, suitable for little kids. Ironic, considering the noble origins of the originals.

When the Classics Racehorses first came out in the 1970s, I was a little indignant that these portraits of Awesome and Famous Racehorses even my Dad knew were smaller than some of the wholly imaginary ones in the Traditional line.

But I got over it and bought them all, eventually. The smaller scales also meant I could buy more. More horses = good!

Yet there still remains a strong bias in the hobby against anything non-Traditional scale, independent of the quality of the molds themselves. For me, a good model is a good model, regardless of its size or scale.

One thing I think did hamper the appeal of Classics was the lack of product development. There was a flurry of new molds in the first few years after the Classics were introduced - the Andalusian Family, the USET Set, the Black Beauty Family, the Black Stallion Returns …

Then for the next nine years? No new Classics molds. When they did return, with the Mesteno Series in 1992, they were not greeted warmly by hobbyists. The Western Performance Series then followed shortly afterwards, also to a somewhat lukewarm response.

It wasn’t until very recently that Reeves put more effort into expanding and revamping the Classics line, also with mixed success.

And now we have…Cosette? Interesting. 

Beautiful Things from Scary Boxes

The flea market made everything better yesterday. All the Breyers were boring and body quality; on the plus side, they were cheap. But so were these little guys…

All found loose at the bottom of a shoebox of other miniatures, on a junk table! Mostly vintage Hagen-Renakers, with a few Josefs and Japans mixed in. The ones on the left are probably staying, the ones on the right are probably going. Some might be upgrades. I haven't had the time to sort it all out yet.

(Yes, that’s a Toadstool up in the corner. Mine, mine at last!)

From the releases and the quality of the paint jobs, it appears most of these little ones are from the mid-1970s, or earlier. I’m having a hard time believing what nice shape they're in. Most of them did have Sticky Wax or putty on their bottoms, so I figure that they were well cared for before their brief stint in the Shoebox of Doom.

I did pass on a couple of chipped pieces, which I later found out to be a bad move, since one of them was quite rare. Actual Rare, not eBay Rare. It’s usually the other way around for me, regarding H-Rs: I’ll toss in something extra to round out a box lot, and it almost always turns out to be the one ridiculously scare or desirable thing.

It’s a dealer who’s a semi-regular, so maybe I’ll luck out again next week. It’s not like I "lost out" on a huge amount of money, but it’s going to bug me anyway. The ones that get away always do.

As you can see from the relative size of the left side (keep) compared to the right side (sell), I’m not going to be making bank on this deal. I thought I was, at first, until I started doing the research and realizing that these were not the pieces I assumed I had.

My overall knowledge of Hagens is good, but I don’t have the deep knowledge like I do with Breyers. Whenever I see miniatures at the flea market, I rely on this simple equation to solve most of my problems:

Cute + Cheap + Possibly H-R = Buy It!

Rarely fails.

Then I found this on top of the used book dump bin at the local Salvation Army today, on my way home from work: Big Red of Meadow Stable: Secretariat, the Making of a Champion:

It’s not in the best condition, but it’s a first edition with intact dustjacket. I didn’t realize how scarce this book was until I did a quick search on Google when I got home. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with it now - put it on the shelf with all of my other vintage horse racing books, or go for the bucks on eBay? Money good, but the odds of me finding another in the same or better condition for the same price is nil.

Argh! But a good argh.

A Funny Story, Because We Need It

I’m currently in the middle of making cookies (dough’s chilling in the fridge) because it was that kind of week. The kind that really needs no explanation.

As this week has demonstrated, every day you wake up, everything you think you know about the world could be completely turned on its head. It was the "every day, for a week" part that finally made me retreat to the kitchen.

(Raspberry Jam Thumbprints. New recipe, looks good. Taking them to work Monday morning, because it looks like a rough week ahead too, and cookies always help.)

The next "big thing" that I’m working on will have to wait a little longer to be revealed, since it now appears that a road trip might be involved. All I can say about it at this point is that it is (a) model horse related, (b) involves some hobby history type stuff, and (c) more people will be able to participate.

And also: no Decorator Belgian will be involved. I think.

Some follow up posts about will also be involved, but more about the philosophical issues related to it than the actual history-and-minutiae part. But there might be some of that, too; I’m just not sure about the status of the whole situation either, at this point.

Trying to think of happier thoughts…

The flea market opens tomorrow! It’s going to be cold as heck, but as long as it isn’t windy and isn’t snowing, I’ll be there. Don’t care if I’ll find anything, though a body or two would be nice. Maybe some minis, too.

In honor of "opening day", I’ll relate that funny story about the Hagen-Renaker Cutting Horse. It’s not directly Breyer-related, but I think many of you will relate, nonetheless. It’s a little long, but it’s got a great finish.

I don’t go out of my way to collect H-Rs or chinas of any kind, but if the opportunity arises, I’m going to take it. (A nearly perfect Glossy Brown Heather, for ten bucks? SOLD!) Alas, the area I live in was once populated by some China-collecting hobby titans so those opportunities, until recently, were relatively rare.

One day, about twenty years ago, a very peculiar character came to the flea market. If you’ve heard or read my stories before about my flea marketing adventures, you know that it takes a certain level of oddness to stand out in the crowds that hang out in my particular haunts.

Anyway, this lady had a large assortment of vintage china pieces from the 1950s and 1960s on her table, including some Hagen-Renakers. Everything was in various states of disrepair - minor things like glaze flakes, major things like leg breaks - and contained in those little plastic containers that bakeries use to house cake and pie slices. And all the really noticeable damage? Touched up, very sloppily, with what looked like housepaint.

Yeah, really.

I managed to buy a few H-R dogs from her, including the beautiful Weimaraner Blue Boy. She explained to me that she had a gift shop back then, and that Hagen-Renakers were "very good quality", and "very expensive, at the time". Sensing my opportunity, I mentioned to her that I mainly collected horses. "Oh, I have some of those too. They’re all broken, though."

She then described that she had one with a Cowboy on it, and that’s when I almost lost my cool. Dang, she’s got a Cutter. I still hadn’t acquired any Monrovia H-R horses at that point, and good gravy, a Cutting Horse and Cowboy was almost within my reach!

I told her that one sounded especially neat, and I would love to have it.

"It has a broken leg, though. You wouldn’t want the broken ones."

I know, it didn't make a lick of sense, since I had just bought a bunch of broken dogs from her. I guess she thought the housepaint and rubber cement she used counted as "professional restoration" or something.

I then proceeded to explain to her that I didn’t care. I’d take whatever she had, broken or not. Didn’t even have to have all the parts or anything. I just liked horses.

She then told me she had plastic ones, too. From a business trip she took to New York City, once.

You think I almost lost it before? That’s when I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from hyperventilating. "Oh, I’d be interested in those, too."

It took me a while to convince her I was serious. Her clearly exasperated husband was in the background, shaking his head and muttering to himself. From the contents - and condition - of the van they traveled in, they had a lot of stuff to get rid of. (This was well before the TV shows about hoarders, but I was already familiar with the type.)

She promised to get back in contact with me. I haunted the flea market for weeks afterwards, but it was a considerable length of time before I saw them again.

I was excited when I did, though the length of time that had passed had disturbed me, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that (a) she barely remembered me, and (b) then told me that she had sold the entire collection for a considerable sum to someone else.

I was too mad to continue shopping, so I went straight home after that.

All that effort, and someone else profited. I had my suspicions who, but what could I do? I had done everything I could have done. She had taken a sampling of her nonhorse H-Rs to another flea market, and someone else had the same conversation I did. They just happened to catch her during a more lucid - or more desperate - moment, and succeeded where I had failed.

It still bugged me for years because … well, because. I don’t think I need to explain that to you guys. Most of you have been down that road.

Anyway, several years later, I was ferrying another local hobbyist down to BreyerFest with me. She needed a ride, and I liked the company. She was a little bit more of a Chinahead than me, but I know enough about "Clinkies" to hold my own on the topic. The commute was wonderful: the hours flew by like minutes, and involved a hilarious stop at the "World’s Most Redneck McDonald’s", but that’s whole 'nother story.

So we were in the middle of Ohio, regaling each other with some of our most interesting flea market adventures, when she started talking about this time that she picked up some H-Rs from this really weird old lady. With a totally trashed van, and the models were touched up with gloppy paint…

My jaw dropped. I turned to her and said. "Oh. My. God. You have my Cutter!"

I told her my story.

Then we laughed. Because it turned out, she did.

She hadn’t been one of my "suspects" and enough time had passed that the story had become more wistful than painful. And now it had become hilariously absurd.

As "big" as the hobby gets, it’s still so very small and intimate. It was a lovely reminder of that.

So, now you know why that Cutting Horse was so big a deal to me.

I picked up the Steer that goes with it a few years ago, so I know I’m gonna catch up with one sooner or later. I doubt the ending will be half as funny as the rest of the story, but who knows? The world could go all upside down tomorrow, again. I'll just have to roll with it, and see where it takes me.

The Flip Side

The other side of that Stablemates Flier is interesting too - and will you look at that!

It looks like I have to make a correction on an earlier claim, then: here’s another instance of those unproduced Arabian and Morgan Foal sets being mentioned in Breyer ephemera. (I previously thought they only appeared in the 1975 Pricelist - my bad!)

This sort of thing happens all the time in historical research - not just of the Breyer type. Corrections have to be made because new data shows up, and more often than not, it makes fools of us.

In this case it’s not TOO big a deal: the foals were never produced or released, and hence will (probably) never have to have documentation written up about them. (Unless they, too, show up just to spite us all. With all the things I’ve seen over the years, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.)

However, it has become something of an issue with other items over the years. Hobbyists can become overly fond of their particular history resources, and as a result some of the errors in those resources get carried forward, even when more recent editions or research corrects or contradicts those errors.

In a lot of those cases, the corrections are minor - an errant misspelling, a transposed number, confusion about actual release dates versus catalog release dates - but in some cases, they are not.

The one that bothers me the most is the Boxer. Breyer, back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, sent out a "Complete List" of Breyer Releases to hobbyists who asked for it. Although it was extremely helpful as a starting point for many of us (including me!) what we didn’t know at the time was that Breyer had an extremely small base of ephemera to work from.

The earliest dated piece they had was from 1958, so most of the earliest items were given a release date of 1958. Including the Boxer.

Since then we’ve been able to conclude otherwise: the Boxer came out in 1953 (maybe a little bit earlier, but 1953 is the earliest dated appearance in print.) That’s a five-year difference - enough to make a relatively common early Breyer even more so.

And then there’s the case of the Old Mold Mare and Foal, which Marney Walerius was convinced came out in 1956 - and which couldn’t have happened, since the Hagen-Renaker molds they were based on (and sued over!) came out in the Spring of 1957. Claiming the 1956 date insinuates (albeit innocently) that the legal action H-R was pursuing wouldn’t have been valid - though it’s pretty clear from Breyer’s actions in the matter that they most likely were.

(I say "most likely" only because I haven’t seen the paperwork, and with legal paperwork, wording is everything. That paperwork is one of MY holy grails, BTW.)

Neither one of those instances will necessarily affect the value of the pieces in question: Boxers are still going to be modestly priced and lightly collected, and hobbyists will still covet finely preserved specimens of Old Molds almost as much as the H-Rs they were derived from.

The only instance where I see it really mattering - other than in an official/popular history sense - is in the terms of collectibility documentation. If someone judging collectibility prefers one source over another - and theirs isn’t yours - well, I could see some issues there.

(Speaking strictly hypothetical here: not implying anything about anybody.)

I See Stars!

Another one of those got-nothing-done days; I’ve liked getting more hours at work the past couple of weeks, but I hate having to leave some of my more ambitious blog post ideas in my head. Anything that gets stuck in my head too long either ends up getting lost, or getting weird.

(Though a disturbingly large portion of you don’t seem to mind the weird, for which I am grateful.)

Anyhow, since I’m short on time, again, I’ll spotlight another relatively obscure (yet significant) variation from my fabulous herd: the original version of the Classic Quarter Horse Family, ca. 1974.


There are a number of small details that make the original versions stand out from the later releases. The color on all three molds is softer and less "bright" compared to later versions, with the Foal verging on Buckskin. Both the Mare and Foal feature dark tan or "natural" colored hooves, that were changed to gray later in the run.

The Mare also has what I like to call "black to the belly" points: instead of blending the black points on the legs into the base color, the legs are solid black all the way up to the barrel - and sometimes, then some. It’s a peculiarity not uncommon on Bay paint jobs from the early to mid-1970s; I’ve seen it on the Bay Cantering Welshies and the Mahogany Bay Proud Arabians, too.

The earliest Stallions also do not have the "copyright horseshoe" mold mark - although, oddly, the Mares always did; I have a couple of Test Color mares I believe were Preproduction pieces, and they both have it. The Foal never had it in the first place.

The most obvious difference between the earliest Classic Quarter Horses and the later ones, of course, are the small stars on all of their foreheads:


The stars are a charming little detail, but it’s pretty easy to see why it got eliminated early on: because they were so darn little. The painters probably found them to be a nuisance, and the vast majority of their customers at the time - nonhobbyists, mostly - wouldn’t have noticed them one way or another.

The Star-faced Classic Quarter Horses are definitely not common; I see a handful of them a year, at most, which leads me to believe that this variation was extremely short-lived - to the first few months of 1974, perhaps. The gray-hooved versions were featured on the 1975 Dealer’s Catalog and Collector’s Manual, though the Stallion (but not the Mare or Foal!) does have a star.

In spite of their rarity, however, there’s not a huge demand for them. A lot of new hobbyists that didn’t grow up with the Hagen-Renaker "Love" molds just aren’t all that into them, or can’t see past the rougher seams and less sophisticated paint jobs of the era. The absence of the molds from the Breyer line, due to legal reasons, doesn’t help matters either.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Proof that Spring is Coming

The flea market is still a month away from opening, but cool stuff is starting to show up elsewhere. Look at what I found at the local Salvation Army Store:


A Hagen-Renaker mini Greyhound, and a later re-release of the sitting Siamese cat "Sookie." I've taken quite a shine to Sookie, and find myself yelling a Bill Compton-style "Sook-ayh!" ever time I walk into my office. (When does the new season of True Blood start, anyway?) Sookie's gotta couple of small chips on her right ear, but I'm totally okay with that. I sorta prefer that my chinas come pre-damaged. Less pressure on clumsy ol' me.

The Greyhound is mint, which would be awesome if I wasn't so worried about the Vita Monster taking him out. Aside from the ongoing issues we have with her very, very loose definition of what's edible, she's also figured out how to open doors and bypass doorstops. (Not so much intelligence at work, as deviousness.)

My topic for today was going to be something Hagen-Renaker related, but my computer has apparently caught something, and rendered all my work on that fabulous post totally unusable.

I also caught something myself - whatever yuckiness everyone else at work's been getting (the details of which you need not concern yourselves, my friends.) The fact that I gave up candy for Lent probably didn't help either. I'm so craving some Swedish Fish right now...

Terrang

Alas, this weekend’s trip to the flea market did not improve my mood. In spite of the nice weather and lack of competing local events, most of the regulars didn’t show up. And those that did were the crazy ones - not "will show up in a snowstorm" crazy, but "I bury my money in a coffee can in the backyard" crazy. Not a single Breyer, Hartland or H-R in sight, either. Bah!

On the positive side, I did manage to score some interesting new research materials, and track down a couple of new leads. I hope to have a little spare time next week to work on them; the rest of the family wants to take a field trip down to the library where some of material is located, coincidentally. (Not so odd: the main branch of the Detroit Public Library is pretty awesome, actually, and right across the street from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Which is one of the greatest public art museums in the world, people. Totally worth the trip, even if you’re not interested in model horses.)

In the meantime, here’s another little dip into the deeper end of my archives. It’s a real-life photo of the racehorse Terrang. I’ve published it before in my Sampler a couple years back, but it’s worth reprinting here. You don’t see photos of the actual horse very often - I haven’t found any other, but it’s been a while since I went looking.


This photo (credited to Allen F. Brewer, Jr.) is from the book American Race Horses 1957, published by the American Thoroughbred Breeders Association. This book is chock full of all sorts of Thoroughbredy goodness: you’ve got Gallant Man, Round Table, Bold Ruler - and look, Silky Sullivan as a two year old!


(Photo credit also to Allen F. Brewer, Jr. The caption reads "Already his was a come-from-behind style.")

Terrang’s half-brother Swaps makes an appearance, too, in the lengthy entry on Iron Liege, whose famous Sports Illustrated birth photo is the frontispiece. When Sports Illustrated was launched, one of their publicity stunts was to follow the career of a foal for three years, up to the Kentucky Derby. (Boy, did they get lucky!)

Three of the five Love Thoroughbreds in one book - it’s no surprise that this book has become a treasured part of my archives. (It’s also special because it was Dad who happened to spot it in a pile of books at the flea market. He was a big horseracing fan back in the 1950s, when he was a kid.)

Terrang’s not so well known today, at least on the level of a Man o’ War, Swaps or even Kelso. That’s too bad, because Terrang had a very respectable career as a handicapper and stud. I won’t go into the finer details of all that; his Wikipedia page is a decent place to start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrang

The 1950s were truly one of the great golden ages of the sport, and over time many very good horses have lost some of space in the spotlight to the great ones. Thank goodness Hagen-Renaker - and later, Breyer - saw fit to bring him back a little of his lost glory.

Let it Rain

Now I’m not only not getting anything done, I think I’m regressing. This time it’s genuinely the puppy’s fault: I had to baby sit her yesterday, and in the space of two minutes, she came close to destroying our basement as we know it. All because she absolutely, positively had to chew on the quilt I was working on - and that I now have to partially disassemble and repair, among other things.

Little stinker is lucky she’s cute. Happy thoughts, think happy thoughts…

Here’s a happy thought - a Lady Liberty I picked up in the Pit this year:


I’ve really taken a shine to the Rain mold recently. People don’t realize just how hard it is to adapt a two-dimensional animated character into a three-dimensional one. I’m not talking about the popular trend of making cartoons into live action films, a la Garfield, Scooby Doo, or Yogi Bear: frankly, I think virtually all those attempts to make cartoons "realistic" or set in the real world fail from the get go. By trying to make them realistic, they do not look like the characters they’re meant to represent.

(Have you seen any of the Yogi Bear movie stuff yet? Classic nightmare fuel, if you ask me. Those eyes! Argh!)

That’s because cartoons aren’t meant to be - or should aspire to be - realistic. It’s not a lesser medium, it’s a different medium with different goals and aesthetics. Realism isn’t a big part of the equation.

It’s important to point out that realism and three-dimensionality are two different things. Cartoons have been dealing with the issue of three-dimensionality since the silent era - both from a merchandising standpoint, and within the cartoons themselves (stop-motion, multiplane cameras, dioramas, live footage, or rotoscoping.) The most successful attempts at incorporating three-dimensionality into cartoons are the ones that don’t sacrifice the character’s inherent cartooniness.

Good, successful examples of that can be found in vintage ViewMaster reels. Here’s an interesting, older discussion about them:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/cartoon-culture/hanna-barbera-in-3d.html

The person responsible for creating the beautiful sculpts featured in those reels was Martha Armstrong-Hand. Some of you might recognize the name, because at one time she sculpted for Hagen-Renaker, working on both more realistic items (such at the DW Persian Cat "Starlite" and her kittens) and on more cartoony ones (such as the Disney licenses.)

I don’t think it’s a coincidence, either, that Kathleen did work for Disney, too, in their Imagineering department. In the translation to 3D, Rain’s cartooniness has not been compromised. I created some line art of the Rain mold a few years ago as illustration fodder for my Sampler, and was amazed at how well it translated back into being a two-dimensional character:


That’s why I find the Rain mold so fascinating. She’s not the least bit realistic, but I find her a more accurate, and more satisfying rendition of the character than the more "realistic" attempts made on the Classic and Stablemates Scale pieces.

We’ve only seen her in her original release (in both a standard plastic, and "chalky" version) and as Lady Liberty, and her overtly nonrealistic nature probably limits her potential for a lot of releases in the future. Though with next year’s BreyerFest theme being "FairyTails," I could easily see her making a very lovely Unicorn. (In an equally nonrealistic color, naturally. None of this white or pearly-pastelly nonsense!)

Before I go back to repairing the damage done to the basement, yes, I am aware of my picture being on Breyer’s Facebook page. I kinda figured it would happen, considering the photographer specifically stopped me and asked to take it.

Another Winning Sunday

As I mentioned before, this past Sunday’s flea market was another winner. It wasn’t as mind-blowing as last week’s spend-a-rama, but any day with cheap Breyers, Hartlands and Hagen-Renakers in it is most definitely not a loser:


Yeah, I’ll confess to it: the first thing I did when I got home from the market was run into the closet and test the Hartland Child of Prague for glowiness. No such luck, but I didn’t have that version before, so I’m still keeping him. The Buckskin Polo Pony is another keeper, even though he has significant condition issues: I love that mold, and that color is not easy to find.

I have no idea what the big goofy-looking horse is; it appears to be styrene, mounted on a solid oak(!) base. I’m assuming it was some sort of beer/liquor promo: it certainly smelled like it lived in a bar for a couple of decades. (And he was …sticky! Eww!) There are no identifying marks or labels anywhere, though. My reference files come up a little short in advertising promo department, so if anyone out there can provide clues, or point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated.

At first glance, he almost looks like a high-end home décor piece, the kind interior designers would pay good money for if he was made of wood, metal or stone. Sculpturally, he reminds me a little of the Mortens Studios horses - awkward, yet appealing and well-finished - but I have absolutely no clue if there’s any actual connection.

Even though I have a sneaking suspicion he might actually be worth something, I think I might be keeping him, too. I have no idea where I’m going to put him if I do. He's huge!

The booklets are those injection molding manuals I mentioned in passing last time. Lots of fun bedtime reading ahead of me - no, really, I do love reading about the mechanics of polymer flow, and methods for correcting flow lines and flash. It’s all relevant to the discussion here, you’ll see.

Here’s a close up of the H-R I found: the A-297 Prancing Arabian. (I didn’t put him in the group shot, because there are a couple of giant, hairy mutant spiders crawling around the basement floor. Big spiders and little H-Rs don’t mix - not in this house, anyway.) I can’t remember the last time I found an H-R horse at this flea market. I’ve found other minis, dogs, and even a few Disney pieces, but the horses are super-scarce. It’s probably a consequence of having several major H-R collectors in my territory: there just aren’t that many left in the wild here anymore, at least compared to other manufacturers.


He was in a large grouping of Japanese China dogs, that I only happened to notice because there were H-R knockoffs among them. (Including yet another Greyhound "Comet" - one of these days I’ll find the real thing!) I bought the best of the bunch, but other than the Greyhound (and the horse, of course), they’ll probably all end up in the sales stash.

Most of the rest will be going on the sales list, too - a nice mix of stuff, with a little bit of everything for everybody. My room sales prospects are definitely looking up this year. Sales weren’t bad last year, but that was more a result of having a superior location - in the 100s - and being somewhat confined to my room due to me injuring myself (and thus making extensive room hopping out of the question.)