Christmas Day Ramblings

Alas, I did not win the (char)Coal lottery this year. In fact, I received my least favorite of the four attainable colors, the Red Filigree:

Meh, oh well. It’s been a pretty good year model-wise, I guess I shouldn’t complain; I need to save my luck for Oklahoma City, right? 

I will say that I do like the sparkly-glittery paint they used on these guys, and will look forward to seeing it on other molds more to my liking in the future – maybe something a little more vintage? I could definitely use a few more Five-Gaiters in my life, for instance…

I am a little baffled that some people are mad that the Coal is not solid glossy black? My guess is that since the Huckleberry Bey mold has come in several Black and Black-adjacent colors (my favorite being the lovely Polaris!) that they wanted to go with something a little more Decorator-y, and Charcoal was the logical choice.

I know he is not a “true” Charcoal – his hooves are gray, not pink or tan, and he has no bald face, either – but it works on him, and I’d take him in a heartbeat (as would most people lucky enough to receive one.) Especially since I only have a handful of Hucks here – including two variations of the Celebration Horse Atlantis Bey V, and Polaris.

As it is, I’m not quite sure what to do with my Wassail; I am elbow deep in quilting projects at the moment (I just finished one, yay!) and selling things just isn’t that big a priority for me for the next several months, and I do not have energy enough to arrange a trade. 

This is also why I decided to not take the plunge on the latest Grab Bags. Some of the stuff in them is better than the past few rounds – like SM Club models, Web and Store Specials, and Chadwick, et al – but adding more to my sales pile was a definite turn off. 

Hmm, that reminds me – I still need to renew my Stablemates Club subscription! The latest reveal – a G3 Thoroughbred named Dylan in that same, peculiar new style of dappling first seen on Anamar – isn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but I like the rest of the releases so far, so rejoining is a no-brainer.  

However, I would like to register a formal complaint about the unboxing video for the Polo Pony release Newport. It was unwatchable!

Due to my schedule and my lifestyle, my consumption of social media is currently limited to YouTube videos of hoarder house cleanups and crafting drama. (You think model horse drama is bad? Yarn drama will destroy you!) While I’ve sampled some model horse social media on occasion, I’ve found most of it way too intense and hyperbolic for my tastes. 

Yes, I know some of it is that this content is tailored to a younger audience’s sensibilities and not mine. I also have some minor sensory issues related to certain sounds, and most of the information that can be gleaned from it can be found elsewhere, so I tend to avoid most of it out of habit. Since it was basically a new mold reveal, I thought I’d try to stick it out. 

But seriously, I had to tap out about 15 seconds into it and go looking for screen shots. That... was bad.

Curveballs

I spent an hour last night rationalizing how I wasn’t going to buy the Christmas Surprise model unless it was Emma, and like the fool that I am I bought one anyway.

Ugh. 

My rationale now is that since it’s Huck Bey, he’ll be easy to sell if I don’t happen to love whatever one I get. And since I am also going to attempt (AGAIN) to go on a budget diet next year, I figured this is going to be my last “wild and crazy” splurge for a while. 

I don’t know why they’re doing it this way this year: early, and without pictures. I am assuming it is both inventory- and staff-related: I used to work in the inventory services industry, and a lot of companies do their physical inventories at the very end of the year, and the more stuff they can get out the door before December 26th, the better. 

Reeves doesn’t directly employ as many people as you think they do, and most people do not particularly enjoy doing inventories, even if it is their job, or part of it. (I did but, well, it got complicated at the end.)

No selling scenario Reeves can come up with can be entirely fair, no matter what any hobbyist out there thinks. Every scenario can and will be gamed, and not everyone can have equal access or equal luck all the time ever. (Yes, even random draws!)

I’m annoyed as heck that I struck out all three times with the draws for Garret – a model I personally campaigned for! – but I accepted my fate and moved on. 

You either choose to play, or you do not. That’s all there really is to this. For some strange reason (I blame both the back pain and the weather) I decided to play. If there is any silver lining to this, it’s that this marketing changeup will allow more people time to participate, and the ability to consider the purchase, rather than simply relying on impulse and timing.

I spent a lot of time last night considering the purchase and did it anyway. I’d like to think that was my intuition talking, but let’s get real here: even this year, my luck has not been that good. If it was, I’d be hanging out on Fiji like the guy who won two billion dollars in the lottery, and not giving two thoughts about a plastic horse on the Internet.

(Other than shopping for a BreyerFest Party Bus because really, what’s the point of having all that money if you can’t just randomly rent a party bus for all your friends?)

I take a little grim amusement in the fact that people were mad when Reeves first started selling special items on Christmas Day. And now they are mad they are not. And entertaining some odd fantasies that it will not sell out because of their ire.

There are far better things to direct your anger towards. 

Sand and Snow

Fortunately nothing I’ve seen of the Scottsdale Special Runs is making me mutter curse words into the freshly fallen snow here in Michigan. (Curse words about the snow, I can make no promises…)

Although I did have a brief moment of panic when I saw the word “Bolo” being bantered about – I thought maybe they had actual Special Run Breyer Bolo Ties, and that would have got me going!

Good for Reeves for correcting the flaw inherent in the distribution system at the last two Exclusive Events, and separating the models into two categories to avoid the unpleasantness some of us had to experience at the end of the line having to double up on the leftovers.

Anyway, if I were there, my choices would be the Bobby Jo Sonorah from Category B (because I love Perlino Dun, and all of the Breyer releases in that color have eluded me so far) and… either one of the choices from Category A (Buckskin Show Jumping Warmblood Bolo or Black Splash Lady Phase Oakley). Maybe a slight lean towards the Lady Phase, because of my current fascination with Splash Pintos.

(Just saw a picture. Yep, definitely Lady Phase. Not that that means anything, but there you go.)

I am mildly amused by the tizzy hobbyists are getting in over the Black Huck Bey Prescott. Yeah, he’s probably in that same lovely shade of Black they used on the BreyerFest Dark Horse Surprise Black and that is awesome.

But it’s still the Solid Black.

I guess being Huckleberry Bey and super-limited (44 pieces) trumps that stigma. And perhaps minds and hearts were finally swayed by the subtleties possible with such a paint job on the Dark Horse Surprise release, as well?

Not that I wouldn’t mind having him either, but I am being realistic with my expectations here. I would be happy with anything from the Event, if that were an option.

If I want a pretty, and relatively cheap Solid Black Breyer of recent release, I’ll finally spring for a Justin Morgan Black Jack. I’ve been eyeing them on eBay again, recently, probably because my Black Dark Horse Surprise Smarty Jones is just visible over my computer monitor, reminding me how pretty he is.

Heads up: I have a number of things I need to get done over the weekend, so I am going to be scarcer than l usually am (which has been pretty darn scarce, I know, but I’m working on it.)

Giverny

Well, I got parts of the puzzle right:

- It’s a Decorator!
- Green and lavender are involved!
- It’s sort of tie-dyed looking!
- The city was Giverny!

But it’s not translucent, and it’s on the Huckleberry Bey mold. I doubt most saw Huck coming, since we already had two Arabians in the lineup - the Que Sera Sera (the Bay Pinto Proud Arabian Raffle item) and the Gloss Bay Ashquar Ganache.

I’m not a big stickler for breeds-specific-to-the-theme, but seriously Reeves: Three Arabian Stallions? Sure, one’s a Decorator and the other is a "Pintabian" but I’m sporting some seriously skeptical Vulcan-style eyebrows here about your mold choices.

Only one Draft Horse so far? No Poitevin, Boulonnais, Breton, Percheron, or Auxois?

And very few Solids, too. Yes, I know spotted and speckled critters sell better, but some of my favorite BreyerFest Specials have been solid-colored: the Bay Big Ben Molokai, the Clydesdale Mares Lucky Lady and Opry, and the Andalusian Galahad.

There’s still time, and several more releases to go: Stablemates, Store Specials, Live Show Prizes, "Souvenir Shop" items, and a couple more Ticket Specials are still unrevealed. And whatever the Surprise is. (Maybe THAT’S the Draft we’re looking for?)

To give them some credit, at least they are three Arabians from three different "eras": the 1970s (Proud Arabian Stallion), the 1990s (Huck) and the 2010s (Ashquar). Perhaps they can make a quartet of them and give us a Family Arabian Stallion, too - to represent the 1950s, of course.

But I digress: back to the model in question. I’ve been a little cool on the Huck Bey mold for a while now - nothing personal, just not that into him right now - so my lack of enthusiasm was more a reaction to the mold than to the theme or its execution.

Those I find …interesting. Most of these abstract multi-colored finishes - outside of Test and Auction pieces - have been on translucent models, so seeing it on a solid white base is a little disorienting. It’s not unappealing, just not what I was expecting.

Since it’s the kind of nonstandard finish - pearled, dappled and unnaturally colored - that doesn’t seem to photograph well regardless of the caliber of the photography, he probably will look significantly better and/or different in person than he ever will on the Internet.

In other words, I’m going to withhold further judgment of whether I like him (or would consider buying him) until I see him in person.

That’s all for today, folks. The computer is acting funny tonight, and I have a ton of offline business to take care of over the next several days anyway.

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

More Shiney Variations

The BreyerFest leftovers now, too? Gah!

Okay Reeves, you can knock it off now. You’ve finally earned my last precious bit of walking around money.

Circumstances did not line up in my favor to even make into the Silver Anniversary Shop until Sunday, and everything of interest to me was long gone by then. So I was happy to see they had some of the Silver Filigree Misties in the leftovers sale somehow. I threw in the Sherman Morgan and the Bears onto my order, too. I wanted them anyway, so if either one turns out to be Silver, that’s just a bonus.

That means, of course, that I’ll have to redouble my efforts to get something up for sale in the next few weeks. One tough decision I’ll have to make is which one of my Production Run Smart and Shineys to keep. You see, I just happened to notice a few weeks back that the two I had left had more than a mere difference in shading:

The markings on the muzzles aren’t the same! Aside from the kissy spot, the masking on the lower lip is different, and the markings in the left nostril are neither the same size nor shape.

There’s always some variation with masked markings; it’s just about impossible to have masking be perfectly consistent in an item that runs in the thousands. But the difference here is enough to make me think that there were either two separate runs (like the Gooitzens) or two different production lines running simultaneously.

Significant variations within Celebration Model runs are not that unusual. The first one that springs to mind is 1996’s Tseminole Wind; some of them were made from leftover bodies from the Sham’s 1995 QVC rerelease, and have the "95" mold mark to show for it.

The second is the 2001 Atlantis Bey V: some have masked stockings, and some don’t. I received one of each, and I had such a hard time deciding between the two I ended up keeping both.

I don’t have that luxury with the Shineys, alas. Someone’s gotta go. Right now I’m leaning towards keeping the spotless one.

The Unsellables

I spent most of my waking hours over the weekend organizing the last of the tax paperwork: I sold more, it’s true, but I also bought more, and the difference between what I bought and what I sold is going to be almost identical to last year’s difference.

Funny how that works!

My downfall this year, again, was the retail end: too many store impulse buys. If my schedule continues the way it has been, though, that shouldn’t be much of an issue going forward. (Though I hear rumors of models reappearing at Tuesday Morning. Must. Stay. Away.)

A lot of what I sold was older, lower end items, and quite a bit from the dreaded period from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s: aka, The Age of the Unsellables.

Don’t let the online community fool you: now THAT was the true dark ages of Breyer quality control. Reeves had just taken over production and shipped it to New Jersey - with some, but not all of the Chicago crew. (Just the handful who were willing to move from Chicago to New Jersey.)

Coupled with the fact that Reeves had no idea what it had gotten into - well, it showed. Rough seams, undistinguished paint jobs with masking issues, questionable choices for sculptors, and problems with the plastic itself that later morphed into Shrinkies and Oozies.

Things didn’t seem so bad at the time, because there were some genuine bright spots. The first BreyerFest was in 1990. Models like Breezing Dixie and Precipitado Sin Par were early and moderately successful attempts at more complex paint jobs. Detailed, handpainted eyes and hooves reappeared on certain releases, as did Vintage colors, like Gloss Charcoal on the 1992 release of Memphis Storm.

The darkest parts were the new molds that they gave us: headshakers like Khemosabi and Rugged Lark, and pieces like Roemer and Misty’s Twilight that were more conceptual and "artistic" than realistic. While I didn’t have any problem with more artsy-fartsy molds, the increasingly complex and realistic paint jobs Reeves was putting on them did feel incongruous.

There is room for both approaches, but it’s rather hard to pull off on the same model.

By the end of the decade, however, we had molds like the Silver and the Huckleberry Bey, both of whom are still popular - almost too much so, in Silver’s case. While they may not be up to the almost too rigorous standards of today, consider that only ten years separates them from the likes of Khemo or Rugged Lark. They hardly seem like products of the same company, in retrospect.

Anyway, back to the selling aspect. I haven’t had too much trouble selling "Unsellable" Era models: at the right price, in the right marketplace, you can sell almost anything. I’ve found that New in Box items from that era sell moderately well at low - but not unreasonably so - prices.

For out of box items, it all depends on condition and relative quality - is it a good piece compared to others of the same kind? Is it something that at least has moderate value as a body (Adios, Lady Phase, G1 Stablemates, Love Classics)?

Fortunately for me, most of the items I resell from this era I pick up from my usual haunts, so my emotional and financial investment is not very substantial to start. For what they are and for what I invest in them, I do fine.

There is no model so homely that it cannot be loved by anyone.

Reissues Reissued

Another head’s up for those out of the loop: the much-talked-about BreyerFest Store Reissues have just made their reappearance - for sale, on the Breyer web site. They’re under the Traditional link, at a price slightly lower than they were in the store: $29.99, instead of $35.00.

The Huck’s already sold out, but the other four are still available, including the accessory-free Palomino Old Timer everyone was swooning over. (And yes, my chorus line of blinkerless Old Timers is now up to three! Huzzah!)

I kind of figured this would happen, though I thought it would happen a little closer to the holidays, maybe as a Black Friday Special.

More surprising still is that there were so few of the Huck Beys available; I don’t know if it’s because they produced fewer of them, if there was greater demand, or if they sold the bulk of them at BreyerFest.

Since they were still selling the Hucks on Sunday at BreyerFest, I’m sure it’s part of the equation somehow. On the other hand, they had - and still have - tons of Clydesdale Mares, too. More confirmation for my theory that there are/were several skids of Clyde Mare bodies loitering in the warehouse, mayhaps?

(Now imagining a huge army of Clydesdale Mare variations. Oddly, mostly in shades of Black. Ooh, now there's an idea: Black Horses for Black Friday! An entire family of Clydesdale in Solid Black with tan/brown hooves, like the original Special Run Family Arabians!)

(Wow, I'm way more tired than I thought. Rough day at work, but still...)

As far as the exact quantities, and purpose, that’s still a mystery. The next few days are going to be fairly hectic in my neck of the woods, so I’ll have to leave it to others to suss out that information.

Hot, or Not?

I did not think it possible to work 40 hours in the space of two and a half days. It sort of felt like BreyerFest, but with more air conditioning and fewer horses.

(Still haven't decided if this was a good thing, or a bad thing.)

So, there’s also this guy:

The box says "#430018 Arabian - bay" but he looks like a Huckleberry Bey. Sort of.

The color and finish is a little off from most Regular Run Huck Beys that we’ve seen. Those tend to have more contrast between their lighter and darker areas, way more black on their bodies in general, and are a little more brown than red, too.

While any one of these Ninja Pit Hucks wouldn’t look out of place in a random assortment of Huckleberry Beys produced over the years, collectively the Hucks in the sales tent all sort of looked…different, but in the same way. And they weren’t called Hucks.

So I bought one just to be safe, because I sold off my Huck Bey a few years ago, and have sort of been regretting that decision of late.

There were four other models of this type in the tent, as well:

430002 Old Timer - palomino
430008 Draft Horse - bay (Bell-bottomed Shire)
430009 Clydesdale - bay (Clydesdale Mare)
430013 Belgian - bay roan (aka "Trait du Nord")

(Rough reference only: I didn’t see any examples of the Belgian/Trait du Nord personally, and only saw the Shire in passing, so the labels/descriptors are likely off on those two.)

Anyway, they all looked like recent - or not so recent, in the case of the Shire - Regular Run items in new packaging, with Special Run style numbers. So the initial assumption was that that’s what they were: repackaged Regular Run leftovers, knocking around the warehouse.

But what were they, really? A new type of Store Special? A cancelled Special for an event or store? A part of the WEG reissue program/idea that wasn’t fully implemented?

The one that’s been getting the most currency is that they were repurposed leftover (whiteware) bodies from previous recent Regular and Special Runs, and not intended to be true "Special Runs". There was some second or third-hand information being passed around on Blab that this is more or less what a Reeves employee told them.

While I am not generally inclined to believe anything a Reeves employee says at face value, especially second hand, this makes some sense. The Old Timers = leftover Gus bodies. The Shires = leftovers from last year’s Cheerio Special Run. Huck Bey = leftovers from the Color Crazy Redemption Horse and/or upcoming Collectors Club SR Enchanted.

Belgian and Clydesdale Mare = I just happen to think they have a metric ton of those bodies lying around, for some weird reason, as they’ve been showing up for sale as "whiteware" in the Sales Pit for a few years now. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

I’ve heard one report that a VIN number was found on at least one of these models, though I haven’t had the chance to open up mine to see if this is true. If that’s the case, it bolsters the argument that they were very recently made, and not (just) leftovers.

The quantities are unknown: there were definitely more of the Clydesdale Mare and Huck Bey, and fewer of the Belgian and Shire. Although some were seen in the first wave of Ninja Pit action, they did replenish the stock in the store from time to time, and I was able to pick up my Huck late Sunday morning.

The only one of the others I really regret missing is the Old Timer, who was without hat or blinkers. As I’ve got a small collection of blinkerless Old Timer culls going now, it feels incomplete without its Palomino "kid brother".

If Reeves’ intent was to simply pass them off as Regular Runs, they need to study the minds of us collectors a little more closely: new number + new box + new paint job (even if it’s an "old" one) = new release.

Or maybe they do know, and it’s some sort of reverse psychology/Jedi Mind Trick/11th Dimensional Chess they’re all playing on us.  If so, mission accomplished.

Stringing Words Together

For some strange reason, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about last year’s NaNoWriMo novel recently. The first NaNo novel I did came out finished, more or less. It’s by no means publishable, but it’s structurally sound. Last year’s attempt …wasn’t. I thought I could just put it away and be done with it, but nope. It feels like it’s nagging me to rework it.

I really can’t: I have too much to do as it is without adding "novel" to the pile. It's a loose end that'll just have to hang loose for a little while longer. However, it is a good time to tie up some other loose ends...

One of these days I’m gonna "win" a Web Special with just a single entry. As you might have guessed by now, Zeus wasn’t it.

There are three main reasons why Hobo gets little love outside my corner of the blogosphere: he’s a Classic, on a wonky base that warps, and he’s a Hess sculpt. While I don’t consider any of those factors as strikes against him, lots of other hobbyists do. (Especially the Hess thing.)

The "Made to Order" Collector’s Club Special Run is a Glossy Dappled Flaxen Liver Chestnut Tobiano Pinto Huckleberry Bey, named Enchanted. I think he’s quite pretty, especially for a Huck Bey. Huck’s come in quite an assortment of attractive colors, so finding something that stands out is a challenge.

The reception elsewhere to Enchanted has been relatively cool, with most of the objections fixating on his color. This strikes me as very weird. "Glossy Dappled Flaxen Liver Chestnut Tobiano Pinto" sounds like a description that could have come from any random Stone Horse "Factory Custom" order form, verbatim.

I like the Huck Bey mold, but I’m no longer in love with him: the color is what’s attracting me to him. My indifference towards the mold has nothing to do with any anatomical deficiency, a dislike of Arabians, or bases, or anything like that. I’ve just …moved on. I like the ones I have - a Polaris, and a couple variations of the Atlantis Bey V - and someday I’d love to pick up one of those solid variants of the original Bay Huck (who I thought was just really attractive).

I don’t think I’ll be ordering one because I have other things I need to buy first. And if I do fall back in love again, I don’t doubt that - like Pamplemousse and Gus, before him - there’ll be a few leftovers to pick through.

Regarding my comments on the "Cash Cow" incident, it was the reaction to it - rather than its veracity - that struck me as ridiculous, and way too typical of how everybody in the hobby reacts to anything even remotely controversial, truthful or not.

Remember the situation a few years ago when the rumors about BreyerFest moving to a different locale cropped up? I was actually in a room at the HIN/CHIN at the very moment those rumors got their start - as casual, jokey, somewhat unserious throwaway comments - and saw them blossom in a matter of days to something kind of scary, intense and almost impossible to quash.

I recently remarked that many of my coworkers have a sad propensity for believing in fantasies and conspiracy theories. Many of my fellow hobbyists are, alas, no better.

BTW, I’m not implying that anyone reading or commenting here is one of those people (especially you, D), but it’s definitely an issue in the model horse community as a whole, and something that rarely gets addressed in a meaningful way.

This is something of a conundrum for me, too, in that some of the information I relay to you here comes from sources who wish to remain confidential. Sometimes I refrain from commenting about certain topics because I want to avoid bringing in details that could break those confidences. In some ways I am engaging in multiple "conspiracies" in the production of this blog. 

The things I do for y’all. You have no idea.