Stating the Obvious

I like it, but I’m not sure if I love it. He just seems sort of really obvious? And not just because of the Irish Draught mold’s absence with the One-Day Stablemates reveal made it so. The name, the mold, the color, the shamrock on the butt, all of it…

I mean, I really dig Translucent Stablemates in general, and Éire reminds me a lot of the BreyerFest 2017 Stablemate Navya on the Django mold that I love for all the wrong reasons.

(Long story: I always imagined that the ugliest possible Breyer release would be a Metallic Lime Green and Magenta Khemosabi. Navya probably the closest I’ll ever come to that, but I find him so inexpressibly cute I can’t even.)

But we already have 1.5 green-hued releases for BreyerFest this year – the half being the Store Special Dappled Buckskin Topgun, because I’m tired and feeling a snarky today – and as much as I like the color green in general, I was kind of hoping for something a little bit different.

Like something in the Golden Charm family, drawing inspiration from legends of Celtic or Leprechaun gold. But there are still a few more things to be revealed, and who the heck knows what kind of surprises they have in store for us this year?

Besides whatever they were teasing us with today, which I am assuming is the third Pop-Up Store whatsit, which also looks Stablemate-like.

For the record, I’ll still try to get all things Stablemate anyway, timing and money willing.

Rather than now going on a weird ramble about how a movie about swordfighting vampires is a way more appropriate and authentic(!) media inspiration for this year’s Celtic-themed BreyerFest than a depressing medieval soap opera with dragons in it, I’m going to “peace out” for the rest of the day.

(Yes, my mind goes in weird places when I am bored. Which is why I try my darndest not to be. Bored, I mean.)

I’ll also be somewhat incommunicado for the next few days for all sorts of reasons, so don’t make a mess of the place while I’m gone!

The Past is the Future

I was initially noncommittal when I first saw the last 2019 Stablemates Club release Corbin on the cover of this year’s Just About Horses: he really didn’t do anything for me one way or another. A bigger, higher-resolution photo on the Breyer web site changed my mind:

As just about everyone and their dog has pointed out, he’s basically a Mini Me for the 2008 BreyerFest Special Run Limerick, on the Cleveland Bay mold.

With the mold being used for the Celebration Horse Oliver this year, and as the Open Show Grand Prize Model Cassia in 2017, it’s unlikely that we’ll see the Cleveland Bay used as a BreyerFest Special Run again next year.

This new Stablemates Irish Draught mold, though, is a strong contender as either one of the One-Day Stablemates releases, or as the Pop-Up Store Stablemates Special.

I keep thinking that we’d be seeing more BreyerFest stuff on the web site by now, but I just went back into the web site archives and didn’t notice any significant news about the 2019 event until late December last year, with releases (other than the Celebration Horse) not being teased or revealed until January at the earliest.

This makes sense, because they’ve still got club memberships to promote, Regular Run 2020 releases to launch, and all of their 70th Anniversary celebration stuff, too…

And just to let y’all know, I don’t know much more about any of the anniversary stuff than you guys do, beyond what’s already been revealed for the Vintage Club. I am going to assume that there will be more vintage (pre-1985) mold releases than average, a slew of newer molds vintage colors, and perhaps even some molds and items we haven’t seen in a long time.

The In-Between Mare is back, after all: it now seems all things are potentially on the table. I know what I’d like to see, but what I’d like to see doesn’t necessarily correlate to things that would actually sell to anyone but me.

(Except for the Wedgewood Blue Polled Hereford Bull. Basic math, people: Decorator Color + Bull Mold = Winner!)

If there’s an Exclusive Event planned (seriously, I have no idea guys…) I’ll make every effort on attending, especially since I am considering dialing back – or refocusing – my BreyerFest plans next year, since I’ve obviously not been happy with the results of my competitive efforts for the past several.

I am also considering attending more than one live show next year, depending on how the first few months of 2020 go. My schedule got away from me for the past three months, so I have a lot of catching up to do on some of my other extracurricular activities that’ll probably run well into the front part of the year.

After that? The world is wide open.