More About WinterFest

And if you’re wondering if I am excited about the Winter Animal Special Run Garret, I am, but I’m leaving that discussion for next time, hopefully when I’m feeling a little bit better. 

I still have not partaken of any WinterFest-ivities yet; it’s kind of hard to concentrate when your back is yelling obscenities at you. (“You need to sneeze? Good luck with that!”) I decided I really didn’t need either of the Special Runs designated for the event, so “attending” has been a low priority anyway. (Maybe later today?)

I was a little surprised that so many folks insisted on being there when the metaphorical doors opened; I thought it was common knowledge that the quantities made were not small – 3000 pieces! – so a quick sellout seemed pretty unlikely. 

My guess would be that some might have thought other surprises were in store; the thought crossed my mind too, but I wasn’t in any condition to worry about it when my alarm went off Friday morning. (Actually getting out of bed was my biggest concern!) 

I think some of it ties into the fact that a lot of hobbyists seem to hold a lot of contradictory notions about the hobby being both unimaginably large and incredibly small. And they are not 100 percent wrong: there are a lot of people who just collect, or who participate in the hobby in the privacy of their homes, but the actual number of people who are highly engaged is relatively small. 

And when I mean highly engaged, that includes live showing, photo showing, attending hobby events, customizing, making tack, blogging or vlogging, on a regular basis. 

Even events that are ostensibly designed for low-engagement collectors and hobbyists, like WinterFest, are not necessarily going to draw the majority of them in: in fact, I’m sure quite a few of them are completely clueless about it. 

I’ve spoken to a number of more casual collectors, for instance, who were utterly unaware of the existence of the virtual component of BreyerFest. Considering how much effort Reeves puts into advertising the event on its web site, via other social media, in their catalogs and other ephemera, you’d think knowledge of the event would be inescapable, and you would be wrong.

I think the WinterFest models will sell out eventually: the price points and quantities available are comparable to other seasonal, limited edition models. The only difference between them and the other “Holiday” Special Runs like Tinsel, Mittens and Wintergreen is that they are specifically tied to an event – and we know exactly number of models available. 

(And also free postage in the U.S. is being offered on the WinterFest items? I didn’t put any in my cart to confirm.)

I don’t know how many of the “Holiday” models were made, but it wouldn’t be surprised if it was less than 3000. And except for the Stablemates, they’re all still available.

Red and Gold

Before they get lost in the shuffle, here’s another thing I was able to do recently: I traded one of my Red Christmas Clydesdales for a Gold one! (Thanks, Christine!)

Together, they kind of remind me of the unconventionally pretty White, Burgundy and Gold Christmas Tree we had a few years back that glowed pink when we turned on the lights. 

And now that I do have two different Christmas Clydes, I’m tempted to complete the set, though I think I’ll wait until BreyerFest, at least. Not so much because I want to handpick, I just think my life will be a little bit less hectic by then. Prices might be a tad bit better since lot of speculators may have moved on to the next hot thing, too.  

They guys also tempt me to make a Traditional Scale Christmas Clydesdale, something that I’m shocked hasn’t happened yet already, given the popularity of the Draft/Draft-adjacent Holiday Horses like 2020’s Yuletide Greetings, on the Shannondell mold. 

I’d probably stick to a more conventional color – or even go with the original, common-as-dirt #80 Bay, with the simple addition of Red and Green mane bobs and a fancy matching outfit made from my gigantic craft supply stash. 

Painting is my least favorite part of the customizing process, and if I can get away with gently modifying an Original Finish model instead, I’m going to go for it. 

(One of my most successful customs, back in that very brief heyday when I did customize for money, was basically a modestly modified Original Finish horse.)

But that’s another project for another day. One that is way, way into the future. Probably. 

Taking out Glossies, all the various Resist Dapple Grays, and quasi-Decorators like the 2012 Web Special Magnus (Extremely Chalky!) and the 1992 Semi-Metallic Grullo Sears XMAS Special Run, the Traditional Clydesdale Stallion mold has come in only three Decorator colors officially. 

The first was, of course, the #980 Woodgrain, recently reissued in Stablemates form. The second was the 1998 Tour Special Major, in a fabulous Gloss Charcoal with metallic gold ribbons and bobs. And the third is the 2002 Volunteer Special in Gold Florentine with metallic silver ribbons and bobs. The Volunteer Special was – briefly – one of the less popular/less expensive Volunteer Specials, but I’m not sure that’s even a category anymore. 

I’m secretly hoping that this year’s BreyerFest Rotating Draft Surprise is the Clydesdale Stallion, but they haven’t gone with a “vintage” mold since the first Surprise in 2009, so I will honestly be a little stunned if they do it again. Delighted, but still stunned.

Winter Wonderland and His Hooves

Last week at work, after having to listen to the local radio station that plays Christmas music all day play “Winter Wonderland” for the umpteenth time, I turned to a coworker and said “If they play this song one more time, I swear, someone’s gonna get hurt…”

It’s not that I dislike that song, particularly, but sound repetition drives me crazy.

So what shows up on the Internet this week? Pictures of next year’s Holiday Horse, named (naturally) Winter Wonderland:

The past few Holiday Horses haven’t done much for me. Though I liked the partial Chalky Mulberry Esprit in the Bayberry and Roses set in 2014, the decorations/“costume” it came with screamed “We got such a deal on ribbon this year”. This year’s Woodland Splendor, on the Lonesome Glory, was more my Mother’s style of holiday decorating, not mine.

(Feathers. Always with the feathers…)

But you know what? I love Winter Wonderland. A Pearlescent Palomino Totilas covered in white fake fur and owls? It sounds as absurd as the Holiday Horses that preceded him, but this one somehow works for me. I want to rein in my horse spending a bit more next year, but Winter Wonderland still makes it on my want list.

I especially like the gray hooves, which are a nice Vintage touch. Gray hooves used to be the standard hoof color for Palomino paint jobs, pre-Reeves (ca. 1984/5). There were some exceptions – most notably the Fighting Stallion, Five-Gaiter, and earlier examples of the Rearing Stallion – but if any model was issued in a generic Palomino paint job in the 1970s or 1980s, gray hooves were the norm.

Gray hooves on Palominos were never completely phased out, and they still turn up on releases with solid-colored legs. But tan or pink-hued hooves are now more likely to be seen on legs with socks or stockings.

So that’s why that little touch on Winter Wonderland stood out so much to me.

One thing I’ve found aggravating about some of the more recent Vintage-styled releases is that while they get the general concepts correct, the littlest details often go wrong.

Hoof color has been one of those littlest details. For instance, for some strange reason Reeves can’t grok the idea that Gloss Honey Bays usually came with Black hooves, not Gray ones. The Vintage Club Honey Bay Cantering Welsh Pony, for instance:

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/712169bay1.jpg

Yeah, yeah, I know that several Matte Bays from the 1960s and 1970s came with Gray hooves, like the Grazing Mare and Foal and the Stretched Morgan. But Glosses were almost always Black, darn it!

But they do seem to grasp the overall picture of Vintage Palomino paint jobs, and Winter Wonderland is more evidence of that. (Yes, I am still hoping for a Vintage Club SR in Neon Yellow Matte Palomino.)

Just Thinking

There were easily five times the vendors at the flea market this week compared to last, but there wasn’t a darn thing worth buying, at least not at a price anyone was asking. ($27.50 for a Gloss Palomino FAM? I don’t think so!) I’m sure a lot of the vendors were counting on a higher proportion of market visitors being tourists on their way to a cider mill, rather than the locals looking for a deal.

I bought a few groceries and sundries I needed to buy, and left. (A toothbrush, dog treats, potato chips, and a bag of green peppers, almost too beautiful to eat. Yes, the potato chips were a "necessity." You don’t need to know why.)

The fact that I had to pay the second half of the dental bill this week was also weighing on my mind. I wasn’t going to have a whole lot of "walking around" money for the rest of the week, and I didn’t want to fritter it away on stuff that was going to sit on my sales list for months.

(The dental bill turned out to be a little less than I anticipated, so I did splurge on a dollar’s worth of books at the Salvation Army yesterday. I may never get around to reading James Joyce’s Ulysses, but it does "class up" my bookshelves while it waits.)

My minding of the pennies probably explains my muted reaction to Pamplemousse’s arrival on Tuesday, too. He seems like such an extravagance now.


He looks good in Dappled Light Palomino Sabino, but I already knew that: I got to admire/fondle the sample piece up close and personal at BreyerFest in the Hobby Information Booth. Mine has just enough small flaws to make me consider returning him, though I’m not sure I want to bother waiting for a replacement. I will have to give it some thought.

Stopped by the local Tractor Supply on the way home today to check out the holiday selection; just because I’m not in a buying mood doesn’t mean I can’t look, right? Plus, I thought the sight of this year’s Holiday Horse might perk my mood up a bit.

It did. The teeny-tiny bells sewn into the costume just slay me: they manage to look simultaneously adorable, and ridiculous! The "Winter Belle" model itself, sans decorative ovenmitt, seems quite nice - definitely not the same as the red bay #950 Dover release from 1996-1997: the finish is slightly metallic, with an opaque base.

I might pick one up if there are any left after said holiday. Just like everything else this time of year, I’ll have to think about it.

I won’t have to worry about allocating my cash for anyone else this holiday season: it doesn’t appear that there are going to be any store-specific SRs for TSC this year, just the usual XMAS assortment and some regular runs, like Chub, Valentine and Heartbreaker, and the ASPCA Benefit Set. I’m okay with that, especially after last year’s glut of SRs.

I have a suspicion we’ll be getting at least one holiday-themed SR via the Web Special program in the next month or so. Considering my recent luck on those, I’m not even going to think about it until I absolutely have to.

Cobbler, not Scones

Up until Thursday night, I had a leisurely Saturday all planned out: bake some scones in the morning, write a long, detailed blog post in the afternoon, and then an evening finishing up a couple of small sewing projects that I’ve allowed to drag on just a bit too long.

Nope, nope and … nope. Sigh. The scones are going to have to wait. Hope you don’t mind the quick little cobbler I’ve thrown together today.

If you’re doing another Appaloosa Connoisseur model and you’re going to go with a "Great Artist" theme, the guy who did the spotty-dotty thing was Seurat, not Kandinsky. It was Kandinsky’s friend and contemporary Franz Marc - cofounder of "Der Blaue Reiter" (The Blue Rider movement) - who had the larger fondness for horses. Google "Franz Marc" and "Blue Horses": you tell me that a big-butt Belgian in the same shade of blue as the "Big Lex" would not be an absolutely perfect addition to this series.

I’m not holding out a lot of hope for the idea: I doubt they’d go for two German Expressionist artists in a mere four-horse series. (How about the Traditional Zebra painted in a primitive bay or dun, as a Lascaux Cave horse? Too obscure?)

This is no knock on the winner, but the winning entry for the Diamond Dreams Contest was almost exactly what I imagined it would be. Most of my fondest - or best - model horse memories involve fires, plane crashes and celebrity cameos: more like a Nicholas Cage movie, than a Hallmark Special. My live hasn’t had all that many Hallmark moments. (It’s not a knock on Hallmark, that’s just how my life’s turned out.)

I do have one story with a talking animal … no, that one wouldn’t have worked, either.

I think most of you know my opinion about events like the Sunshine Celebration down in Florida: they’re contrary to the spirit of egalitarianism that helped build the hobby. Having a super-exclusive event with super-exclusive horses that the same handful of people go to every darn time is a bad thing.

I wish they would stop doing them, but it apparently makes them enough money, and strokes the egos of the right kind of people. I’ve been studiously avoiding adding my commentary to all of those discussions, because I’m just too tired and distracted to deal with the ensuing Kabuki theatrics.

It looks like the "Oven Mitt" Horse really is the 2011 Holiday Horse. Some hobbyists are using it as another reason to Breyer-bash, but really, it’s more funny-bad than bad-bad. No matter how much thought or effort you put into something, every once and a while you’re going to end up with a first-class turkey.

Speaking of Breyer and Christmas, look what I found in The Spirit of Christmas, Book Four (published in 1990, by Leisure Arts):


If Reeves was looking for something a little bit different in their Holiday offerings, they could do worse than to offer a Santa on a Reindeer. Add a little dressy, carousel-inspired tack, a Victorian-inspired Santa with a sack full of (preferably non-candified) treats, and there you go. And if they really wanted spice things up, every ninth one would have a red nose (the Elk, not the Santa.)

FYI: the creepy brown thing next to the clock is supposed to be a gnome. The book includes a pattern for it, if you're the kind of parent inclined to dement your children's holiday dreams.

(And it's not even the scariest thing in this alleged holiday idea book. Two words: Santa Moobs.)

Ooh, Shiny!

Sorry about the unannounced mini-holiday. I recently restarted serious job-hunting, and I had forgotten how enervating the whole process was; I guess it finally caught up with me this week. I know I shouldn’t be reading too much into the initial lack of responses, but it does mess with your head regardless.

As a result, I haven’t been able to work up much enthusiasm over this week’s spate of announcements and new releases. The Walkabout Farms Rolex SR Strapless is nice, but I liked the subtler dapples of the 2007 FEI SR Dapple Gray better. The Porcelain Esprit is pretty, but it’s a Breakable. I love the Big Ben mold, but I despise LeRoy Neiman, so the Deco Big Ben leaves me …conflicted. The newest BreyerFest SRs just annoyed me: another Silver? Really?

The one model that did catch my eye was the 2010 Christmas Horse: a light bay, loose-mane Show Jumping Warmblood named Jewel. This surprises me, since it is not a series I have a lot of emotional or monetary investment in. I have Snowball and Snowflake; I liked the Snow Princess Rejoice and Noelle Goffert too, but not enough to buy either one.

But Jewel really strikes a chord. I think it’s his resemblance to a Carousel Horse that’s doing it: just like a real Carousel Horse, he sports a fanciful but not entirely implausible saddle, encrusted with rhinestones and beads.

I’ve always loved Carousel Horses; I sketched them obsessively in high school, fantasizing that I’d someday have the time and talent to create a Traditional-scale Carousel, complete with mirrors, motors and lights. That never happened; I’ve created a couple of Stablemate-scale ones, and I may cobble one or two Traditional ones yet out of my Body Box of Nightmares, but an entire Carousel? Not likely.


Original Carousel Horses were painted realistically, more or less; some of them came with gilded manes and tails, and pintos weren’t necessarily based on real pinto patterns, but the intent was obvious. It was the costuming that made them otherworldly: tigerskin saddle blankets, wreaths of roses, cherubim, ribbons, tassels, swags, chains, feathers, flags, armor, scimitars - sometimes all on the same horse!

You could say I was more than a little bit disappointed by Breyer’s first attempt at replicating a Carousel Horse: the "Merry-Go-Round Horse" from the 1985 J.C. Penney’s Christmas Catalog. He’s a Little Bit Morgan, painted mauve and bubblegum pink …with a boring little hot pink English saddle. Yawn:


The Carousel he was supposed to fit into never materialized; it and the Carousel Unicorn that were advertised in the 1985 Montgomery Ward's Christmas Catalog were never sold as far as I know, at least through Ward's. Some of the Unicorns eventually turned up for sale in the early 1990s, untacked and unmounted, via the Riegseckers, who were contracted to do the finish work on them. (They also had some leftover Morgans, similarly undressed.)

Reeves finally did the research, and got the Carousel aesthetic right in 2000 with the release of the 50th Anniversary Carousel Musicbox, and the Carousel Ornament series. I have a few of the ornaments, but not the Musicbox - it’s beautiful, but a bit too pricey (and fragile) for my tastes.

Jewel might be more my speed, and price. Like everything else, I’ll have to wait and see.

QVC and Midnight Tango

This shows you where my mind has been lately: as I was watching QVC hawk the “Waiting for Santa” Play Set on Tuesday, all I could think about was the fabric in the flipping sleeping bag. Were the fabrics also exclusive? Could I get bolts of them anywhere?

I'd so totally buy a bolt of Breyer-branded fabric. I've been itching to make a Breyer-themed quilt for years. Fabric with preprinted logos and models would make things so much easier. And just imagine all of the other possibilities: show bags, table covers, tote bags and purses, slipcovers, curtains, evening apparel...


Back to the Play Set. It's nice to see the Midnight Tango mold again; poor thing hasn't been getting much use lately, which is a shame. Since his introduction in 2000, he's only had four other releases:

461 Midnight Tango
1173 Boone's Little Buckaroo
1180 LTD's Red Cloud
4116 Paint By Number Kit

Contrast that with the Traditional Silver, who has had over twenty different releases since 2001. (I don't have a particularly strong opinion of the Silver mold itself one way or another, so I'm sorta baffled by his popularity. And mildly relieved I didn't get pulled for the Early Bird Raffle Silver at Fest this year.)

Even Bouncer has had as many releases since his debut in 2007 (five, if you count the Gloss show prize pieces.)

I didn't get the set, partly because I finally found some of the Pony Gals stuff at a local Target (more Mini Whinnies, yay!) and because they pointed out, several times, that the set would be available later in the year through other retailers. Other retailers they didn't identify, naturally.

I'm going to guess that this set is going to be another one of those “Big Box Specials,” available for somewhat limited distribution either at one or several of other Big Box retailers like Target, Kmart, Wal-Mart, etc. or through the various local farm chain stores serviced by Mid-States Distributing. Or some combination thereof. Maybe even Tractor Supply: even though the TSC specials are usually labeled as TSC exclusives, the past couple of years they've also been getting a lot of semi-specials in their Holiday toy mix (repackaged older specials, re-issued discontinued items, leftover Wal-Mart stuff, etc.) We'll find out soon enough.

Yes, I am aware that TSC and Mid-States have their own exclusives independent of the other retailers; I'm just trying to come up with a suitable term that covers items that don't appear in any catalog, yet appear in a multiple store chains (i.e. the Bay Appaloosa Classic Frolic Stallion – first at Meijer, now also in Kmart.) “Big Box Specials” is about the best I can come up with at the moment.

Speaking of the notion of “exclusives” I wonder how much the Burbank controversy affected the sales pitch on QVC. I know other collectors have been annoyed by the fact that QVC has advertised other items as “exclusives” that have turned up elsewhere, either as regular runs or store specials. In my admittedly limited exposure to QVC, they've generally been pretty good about parsing their words to cover that possibility, but not pushing it too hard, lest it affect their sales. It was interesting how they really went out of their way to point out the fact that “exclusive” really meant “on QVC first, at this special price.”

I believe that The Nutcracker Prince is technically a true QVC Exclusive; it's not the horse, but the ornament that's packaged with it that makes it so. It probably has its own issue number and all that, but that's something I haven't followed up on yet. (Most QVC items do, or used to, regardless of the model's status as a regular run or special run. Another one of those documentation quandries we have to deal with.)