Credit, Where Credit Is Due

I am still not feeling great, but I am definitely better than I was a couple days ago; I’m hoping this course of treatment is successful, so I can actually move on and finish all the stuff around the house I couldn’t do over my Winter Break. 

Technically I am not in any condition to rant further about the distressing turn the generic (nonportrait) Special Runs for this year’s BreyerFest have taken, but I have to say that I am finding it increasingly more depressing than the Horse Heroes situation. At least those were named after “heroes” of a sort; the connection between “overcoming adversity” and “Girl Power ballads” is more than a bit stretched.

All marketing, in the end, is a cash grab capitalizing on current trends and fads, so I tend to cut most companies a lot of slack when it comes to new product marketing: the purpose of a company is to make money. (I get into this argument with people at work all the time. “Why are we making this, and not that?” Because that’s what’s selling right now.)

But this turn feels so obvious, contrived, and contrary to what they themselves have been trying to do for the past several years, which is make the hobby more inclusive. A balance could have been struck here; you could have folded “Girl Power ballads” into it with just the Stablemates, and not steer the entire theme in that direction.  

Nope, never mind, let’s go back to yet another variation of Princesses and Cowgirls!

Bummer for all of us who are not sparkly pink aspiring Girlbosses. 

(I wear size 11 shoes look terrible in pastels, and am a bookish introvert: it was never an option.)

The 2024 Regular Run releases are actually pretty great, though. I especially like the Element Series Collection Classics, based on the Eastern – rather than Western – Elements. I think my favorite is the Harper Iridium, because it reminds me of the metallic Super Chase Stablemates I have been utterly unable to locate. Teak is also intriguing; is he the first official Classics-scale release in Woodgrain? My brain is a bit addled by the painkillers, so I am not so sure at the moment…

I am absolutely not a skier (hello, total lack of coordination bordering on disability), but I really like this year’s Christmas Horse Après Ski, too. A Red Bay Big Ben with a Gulastra Plume? Clever, attractive and imaginative – now that’s the (lift) ticket!

I’d like to comment further on the Halloween Horse Beowolf, who initially garnered a pretty enthusiastic response because hello, we are all nerds here. But now that it appears that the design may be at the center of a potential controversy, I’ll wait for more info on that developing story before I say anything more. 

Mostly Right

First, let me give a shout out to whomever is doing the history posts on Breyer’s social media: you’re getting it mostly right! That hasn’t always been the case, and it’s nice to see that they really are taking the historical stuff more seriously.

And that’s not “damning with faint praise”: Breyer History is complicated, often sparingly documented, and many points are legitimately debatable. (That’s why I’m here!) “Mostly right” is about the best we can hope for.

What bothered me in the past were instances so wrong they made me wonder if I had found myself on an alternate Earth: you know, like the time they confused the Proud Arabian Stallion with the Family Arabian Stallion.

With 70+ years of history behind it, Breyer is legitimately a “legacy” toy brand, and deserved better. And now it appears to be.

Anyway. Enough of that.

The weather put a damper on my shopping plans this weekend, so my search for 2020 releases will have to wait until later this week. My last serious horse shopping didn’t start out that way – back in December I had a coupon for Ollie’s and found myself coming home with these guys: the Walmart Special Run Sarafina and Serendipity!

One of the diorama ideas I was contemplating involves a Mariah/Morgan mold, and this Serendipity is just an exceptionally well-painted piece, with lots of pink shading around her head and neck.

And I couldn’t pass them by: after all the discounts and coupons were applied, they were basically body price. In other words, they were a no-risk investment. If I change my mind on either, it won’t take much to recoup my money!

I bought a few sets of those Stablemates-scale Lanard Royal Breeds horses during the same sale too, the ones sculpted by Maggie Bennett:

They were also purchased on the same presumption as the Classic Unicorns: if eBay is any guide, they’ll be astoundingly easy to sell if my plans for them – one of each to keep, others to mangle and/or paint – change.

(For instance, if Seattle becomes more than just a possibility…)

Harper, Ginger, and Inventory

This was the first week of the year I was able to devote myself to one of the scarier tasks on my resolution to-do list: inventory. For various sundry reasons I straight-up abandoned inventorying early in the year, and now I have nearly a year’s worth of models to sort out and catalog.

I think I thought it’d be fine because I was being good about restraining my horse purchases, but my lack of shelf and office space says otherwise! So until I sort out this mess (where did all these Stablemates come from?!) I guess I’ll have to really rein in my purchases even harder…

January is nearly over and done with and so far, so good: the only “nonessential” models I’ve purchased have been those in the Tractor Supply Mustang Set, the one from the first half of last year that featuring the Harper and the Sport Horse Foal. I spotted them at Tuesday Morning a couple weeks back, while I was looking for craft supplies to finish up some even older items on my to-do list:

I’m willing to forgive myself with this one, since it’s not sticking around: I bought it primarily for research purposes. I haven’t owned or examined a Harper mold prior to this, and the price was good enough that recouping my investment later in the year shouldn’t be an issue.

Many hobbyists see Harper as a modern replacement/upgrade of the Classic Ginger mold. Although the Ginger mold is a little further down on my “Favorites” list, I do still have a certain fondness for her.

I like Harper’s pose (obviously) and I like the way the mane and tail are sculpted: sculpted hair is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I think the way a sculptor handles the terminal elements of a mold – the mane, tail, muzzle, ears and hooves – says a lot more about the artist’s mastery of the subject matter and the medium than the biomechanics do.

(Which is why I think the selection of “Great Hair Day!” as the BreyerFest Custom Contest Theme Class this year is secretly brilliant.)

But nice hair is not quite enough to overcome my nostalgia for the Ginger, just yet. Put her in the right color, finish or set and I might eventually change my mind, but for the time being I have a couple hundred uninventoried equines telling me to turn my attention elsewhere.