Reinterpretations

A little over a month to BreyerFest, and I don’t even have my sales list done yet. (About the only thing going remotely well is my diorama entry, for some strange reason.)

Sigh.

I am guessing that there is not going to be much sleep for me between now and then?

One of the pieces I have managed to pull is my 1995 QVC Gem Twist. I have a lot of Jumping Horses as it is – including one Test and a Sample Kiowa – and I’d like to make room for a State Line Tack Jumpin’ Jupiter, because I think it’s just flat out the prettiest Jumping Horse release ever.

The QVC Gem Twist wasn’t technically a rerelease or reissue of the original Gem Twist – the former USET team member and Olympic medalist was still available in his original color and mold #495 – but a reinterpretation, I guess?

I found it very strange.

In 2002, they did another QVC “reinterpretation” – this time of the #718 General Lee’s Traveller. Instead of using the original Traditional Man o’ War mold, they used the San Domingo:

In this case, it made some sense to use a different mold, since he had been discontinued for a while (since 1999) and they also reissued the Traditional Man o’ War for QVC that year, too – as Man o’ War. Two releases on the same mold in the same year probably wouldn’t have flown with QVC.

Normally I’m not a fan of San Domingo in solid colors, and I had been having a hard time finding an acceptable Man o’ War Traveler to add to the herd – most of them either had weird trimming flaws or paint goobers – but I went ahead and bought this Traveler anyway.

And it turns out, I not only really liked him, he’s probably one of my favorite San Domingo releases ever, of the ones I can afford.

(The ones I love that I can’t afford? The 1997 Volunteer Model Moccasin, the BreyerFest 1999 Raffle Ransom. Or those Dealer Catalog Tests for the Stock Horse Stallion that EVERYBODY wants….)

Time, Timing, and Sparkles

In spite of my already overscheduled weekend, I went on a last-minute “wild horse chase” this morning. My sales list for BreyerFest is looking a little spare (no time to finish herd culling!) and I was hoping I could supplement it with a few bodies, at least.

There were no horses worth bringing back. The trip wasn’t a total loss – I did find exactly the vintage fabric I needed to finish off another old quilt project – but for the time. BreyerFest is coming up way too fast, and it really feels like I don’t have a moment to spare this year.

Speaking of impromptu road trips, I did manage to make a quick stop at one of the better stocked toy stores earlier this week on my way home from work, and finally manage to catch an up-close look at several of those new Translucent Patriot models that everyone’s going gaga over.

And… I’m still not all that impressed by it. It’s mostly the mold: it’s very hard for the Clock Saddlebred mold to impress me. The 2005 BreyerFest Raffle Dragon Horse Merlin was another extremely popular piece that left me wondering what the hubbub was about.

I wouldn’t have turned one down if I had won it, of course, but not-winning that year didn’t have the usual sting. (And it also came with a bit of relief, because me and somewhat delicate things made of resin don’t mix.)

I was hoping for a little more oomph on Patriot’s paint job, too: you could barely see the stars on the ones I got to examine. And there were no sparkles! The Horse Crazy Stablemates have ruined me for that.

The store also had a Toro – the Buckskin Appaloosa Nokota Horse Flagship Horse – and him, I liked. But since I need to be on this super-tight budget a few weeks more, I left that one behind too.

I also skipped out on the Vintage Club Blind Bag Drawing, in spite of the temptation of Glossy Kiowas. Aside from the lack of fun money being an issue, my luck has not been so good with winning random Glossies/goodies lately – whether it’s a super-limited (12 pieces?) Glossy Kiowa or one of the Decorator Running Stallion Sailors I don’t have.

Besides, I already have that Sample/Test Kiowa – the non-Chalky one with the acrylic handpainted markings, on a Warehouse body – that I found in the Ninja Pit couple years back, and I’m plenty happy with him. Two is company, three’s a crowd, right?

Let’s hope tomorrow’s road trip to the flea market is more productive than this morning, and last week. (The market was busy, but the pickings were slim for me.)

Changes to the Pit

When I got home today from work, I had a late lunch, sat down in a chair, and fell asleep for the rest of the afternoon. So I didn’t get a darn thing done at all today - or even get a chance to follow up with the doctor’s office.

I am not overly worried, however. The toe is less purple and hurts somewhat less, though the painkillers did make me want to sleep every time I sat down at work.

The car is still not completely unpacked. It may remain that way for a few more days because of an issue unrelated to my left foot. (A something I had nothing to do with, that I had no control over, but for which I’m being used as a convenient scapegoat anyway. It’s a story so long that it involves chapters and character guides.)

One of the few things I have been allowed to unpack is this lovely creature, one of the last things I found in the NPOD - late Sunday morning!

As you might have guessed, it’s no ordinary Vintage Club Kiowa: not only does he not have any VIN numbers or stickers, he’s NOT Chalky. He also has the old copyright horseshoe mold mark, and it looks like the Indian markings are handpainted in acrylic paint (though I’m not willing to test that theory).

I’m not 100 percent certain that he’s the guy in the Vintage Club batch photo, but I would not be surprised if he is. (All I can say is I haven’t seen anything that would indicate otherwise.)

I found him mixed in the bagged horse boxes, along with several other Kiowas and BreyerFest SRs of years past. I’m pretty sure he was a newer "plant", rather than something that had been overlooked before. Even though many of my fellow Ninjas were avoiding the leftover Vintage Club models like the plague, he did have one of those generic labels - and a handwritten price - that screamed SAMPLE SAMPLE BUY ME NOW.

The NPOD was … different this year. Reeves threatened to "spread the wealth" throughout the weekend, and as this fellow attests, they did. There were some quality items to be found Friday morning, but a lot of them were either priced accordingly - or buried and mixed into things.

I did get some other Samples - most notably a couple of the Reissues - and a few other items that I will eventually get to sometime in the next few weeks.

The most important development is that they HANDED OUT LINE NUMBERS. They were laminated and everything! They should have done it earlier than they did (shortly before the gates opened) but it was wonderful to see the usual linecutters wandering around and looking disoriented. The line to the Arena was neat and orderly and almost stress-free.

About danged time, you guys!

As to some of these changes to the Pit, I have mixed feelings.

Changes needed to be made, no doubt; the line standing had escalated to the point where some people were skipping out on the Thursday night room sales entirely and heading straight to the Park, which just feels wrong. Something had to be done to prevent a Walmart-style Black Friday Stampede from occurring.

(Seriously people, they gave us cake and ice cream at the hotel!)

Salting the Pit with the occasional rarity also encourages people to go back, again and again. And we love surprises, as the continuing popularity of the Surprise SR attests. I was somewhat concerned that this would lead to people camping out around the Arena and stalking Reeves employees, but after an initial bit of that Friday morning, it seems to have dissipated. (The heat and humidity also helped with that, I think.)

Putting out a portion of Store Specials - and enforcing the "one per person rule" - every day makes sense, and should have been a feature of the Store Specials from the get go.

On the other hand, I do not want to see the NPOD phenomenon eliminated entirely. Not because I have a vested interest in it (though I do) but because for some of us, it’s one of the few means of getting something special and rare that’s at least partially under our control.

Not all of us are lucky, or talented, or blessed with good financial fortune, or live near wonderful flea markets and antique shops. For those of us in that situation, camping out at the Park to be among the first in the "Pit" is the best opportunity to get something really awesome. It’s not just a matter of being the first or the most aggressive, but of capitalizing on the skill of being able to spot the rare and unusual at a moment’s notice.

Eliminating that opportunity - and making all rarities completely random - would deprive some of us of our "thing". It would become just another means for the very lucky among us to continue to be very lucky.

It’s not just about the "power shopping", it’s a social event, too, and one I’m a little surprised that Reeves has not capitalized on. I’m not saying that they should be handing out SRs or special offers to the Ninjas, but arranging for some food carts to provide a picnic-style breakfast (bagels, donuts, muffins, fruit, coffee, etc.) would be a wonderful thing, for instance.

It’d be something that other people who like to line up early anyway, and not just for the Pit, would appreciate, as well.

On the Dots

It’s been a quiet weekend here, for the most part. I had a touch of …something, so I thought I’d just stick close to home and sleep whenever the body told me to, which was quite a bit.

It was a good news-bad news sort of weekend, too. The good news? The medical bill I was worried about is only a fraction of what I thought it was going to be. (Whew!) The bad news? The minor repairs I took the car in for on Thursday turned out not to be.

In the end, though, it was a wash. Basically, what I thought I’d be paying for the car, I paid for the doctor, and vice versa. And I had been saving a little extra for the medical bill, so there’s no sense of financial urgency. Everything’s covered, everything’s good - for now.

Still, more money would be even better, so it was good motivation to work on the sales stuff in between my periodic lapses into unconsciousness. I should have a few more goodies up on MH$P on Monday or Tuesday. One piece that won’t be up for sale quite yet is this fascinating fellow:

An earlier Bay Jumping Horse with a fourth, short sock on his left hind leg! Usually it’s either no sock, or a full stocking on that leg. It’s not one of those "faux" socks you see sometimes when the painters stopped a little too short of the hoof in order to paint it tan or gray, and end up creating fuzzy little oversprayed pasterns and coronet bands. No, it’s an actual sock, as this shot makes even more clear:

Also clear in this shot, obviously, are his scrotum dots. I have no idea why Breyer started painting those things like that in the late 1960s. Since it was around the same time that Breyer was taking hobbyist demands for greater realism and detail more seriously, I suspect this was one of their more unusual responses.

It’s not like they hadn’t lavished painted detailing on those areas prior; it is not difficult to find earlier Fighting Stallions, Rearing Horses, and Bulls with enhanced assets. Still, kinda weird, and something we haven’t yet seen in any Vintage Club release. (I wouldn’t mind personally, but I can understand if others might object.)

The Jumper won’t be for sale for a while yet because he still needs a bit of clean-up work; he was probably the messiest of that lot I picked up last week. He is definitely not staying: I still have way too many Bay Jumping Horse variations in the herd. Most of them, I’m not sure how, managed to survive the last purge.

Kiowa

There was a last minute change to my schedule the other day that actually left me with (gasp!) a small window of time to myself. That I promptly used to open up my Kiowa, because I had heard rumors that they were Chalky. (And also because the box was dented in troubling ways, and I needed to know if I had to make time for the phone calls. Fortunately, no.)

Chalky, he is! I cackled with the glee of a comic book super-villain. If it’s one thing that drives Vintage collectors mad, it’s Chalkiness. I doubt it’ll persuade some of the bigger grumblers to change their opinion of him, but you have to gives Reeves a little credit for giving us a little bit more than we expected, right?

As others have pointed out, his paint job is probably the closest and most faithful reproduction of a "Vintage" color since the program began.

The Brown Pinto Indian Pony did come in a Chalky variation; it’s one of the scarcer and more desirable Chalkies, too. I lucked into a Chalky Brown Appaloosa a while back at BreyerFest, but the Pinto one continues to elude me, mostly for financial reasons. The only Chalkies that go for more money are the Proud Arabian/Old Mold Mares, Test Colors and a few Rarities/Oddities. Some of the Family Arabians, too, depending on the mood of the market. 

The Indian Pony Pinto colorway was a scarcely used one as it was - and most of the ones that were not the Indian Pony are extremely hard to come by, like the Ford Pinto Family Arabian Foal. (Another one that eludes me still, in spite of being in the Metro Detroit area and surrounded by auto industry retirees.)

I’ve always interpreted this color a little bit differently than other hobbyists: I don’t see it as an attempt at creating more realistic Pinto paint job. They were already doing that with the Yellow Mount who, with his elaborately masked markings, came out the same year the Indian Pony did (1970).

It wasn’t a case of "let’s try two new techniques and see what sells better", either, but two different artistic approaches. With Yellow Mount, they were attempting a realistic portrait. With the Indian Pony, they were going for something more painterly and impressionistic. The mold - and presumably, the initial colors - was based off the works of the artist Charles M. Russell, who is specifically called out by name in the earliest press release mentioning the Indian Pony.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, there should be room enough it the hobby for all lovers of equine art - not just those who favor the most strictly realistic ones.

Crawling Out of Lurk Mode

Since I was either not home, or not awake when I was this week, I missed most of the big Blab Outage drama. Which is just as well, since I’ve been - and will continue to be - in lurk mode there a while longer. (Work, other commitments, some commenters I’d rather not deal with right now…)

Reeves sure has been busy cranking out these new releases while I was away; three more have appeared since I posted last.

First up was the Vintage Club Special Stablemate - a G3 Jumper in Gloss Gray Splash Spot Appaloosa, named Jackson. While you might have noticed that I’m big on the word play, his name - a riff on the Jumping Horses’s original nickname "Stonewall" - made me groan a little. 

The prototype/PR picture shows actual Splash Spots, not the painted dots of the Harlequin, which I hope is certainly the case with the actual release. I was rather depressed reading some of the commentary about him on the Breyer web site; not at the implied (and increasingly tiresome) sniping about the Kiowa paint job, but over the fact that a not small number of hobbyists are completely unaware of the existence of the 1995 Raffle Model Mystique.

Not the Most Popular Raffle Model out there, but also not that obscure. If you’re going to commit to collecting Vintage colors or releases, you ought to know your history, a little.

After a brief hiatus, the Tractor Supply Holiday Special Runs have returned; this year’s model is the old Traditional Mustang/Diablo in a Matte Resist Dapple Gray/Blue Roan Appaloosa with masked blanket and spots, named Dillon. He reminds me a lot of the recent Mid-States Special of Thunderbolt, on the Foundation Stallion mold. I like the TSC SR a little better, just because the dappling is so over the top.

I don’t know if I’ll be picking that one up yet; I still haven’t gotten around to dealing with the overflow caused by the BreyerFest purchases. The nearest TSC is literally just a few minutes away, so it won’t be a hardship to go take a look-see, anyway. Maybe tomorrow, while I'm running my errands.

There’s also a new Web Special drawing this weekend, for a Decorator Smarty Jones painted like a King Cheetah, named Kimbia. Apparently he’s the first of a new Web series of "Big Cat" releases.

My first reaction was "What the…?" as I’m generally not the kind of person who buys those sort of Decorators. Unless it’s really cleverly done or detailed, my eyes glaze over; while I don’t buy many customs, when I do I tend to go more for interesting (and realistic) reinterpretations of older molds.

A Silver repainted/sculpted into a Pegacorn? Blah. A Five-Gaiter turned into a Friesian? Now you have my attention!

The more I looked at his picture, though, the more I liked Kimbia. The paint job appears to be well-designed, and it really suits the mold. I won’t be heartbroken if I don’t get him - again, the space issues - but if I do happen to get picked, I won’t be putting him up for sale before most folks have opened their "Congratulations!" e-mails.

I’ll get around to discussing the Reissues - and some of the more interesting developments and discoveries about them - in my next post.

Time to go back to bed.

It Ain't Easy Being a Fangirl

Whatever had gotten into me has now gotten out of me. I suspect the shrimp I had the night before may have been involved.

Lots of news in the meantime…

The Reissues are starting to ship - and appear on eBay. A buyer is free to do with a model whatever they please, once they buy it, but I’m still going to find it tacky when that something is reselling it at a significant markup when it’s still available from the retailer.

A little bit of a markup, in acknowledgement of your error in thinking it might have been different or more rare than it turned out to be? Or as a fee for the service of dealing with the sometimes quixotic nature of the Breyer web site? Sure. Hoping to profit on your customers not doing their homework? Squicky. 

(PSA: Everybody except Huck is still available on the Breyer web site, folks. In plain sight.)

The RCMP Horse is now available for pre-orders, and is shipping by the beginning of October. He also appears to be more of a Dark Mahogany (a la the Adios release "Mesa") with a glossy ("clipped"?) maple leaf on his behind. For those of you ready to kvetch about the model having too much white for a RCMP Horse, the RCMP Foundation has apparently given its seal of approval to the release.

Also shipping in October - and even more exciting pour moi - is a sweet Appaloosa Performance Horse in Dappled Buckskin Appaloosa, with every sixth one being extra special in some way. (It’s a little unclear if Being Chalky or Having Indian Markings is the special feature. Or both.) This explains the happy reappearance of the mold at the benefit auction in Kentucky this year.

I want them all - whatever they are and in Glossy, if it comes to that. (Those of you attending the NPOD next year better secure your holy relics now, because if I see any extra special ones lurking in the Sample boxes, that’s all that’s going to protect you.)

Judging from the reaction I’ve been seeing on Blab, so do lots of other people. Warms my heart that I’m not the only APH lover out there.

Not so close to my heart: the reaction from The Usual Suspects about the latest Vintage Club release, which is (as I expected) the Jumping Horse "Kiowa" in Indian Pony-style Chestnut Pinto, with Indian markings. If you’ve seen the number of them up for pre-sell, you know what I mean.

I know I sometimes come across as a Breyer Fangirl (not without some justification!) but you know I’m also not above snarking molds and releases either. I have preferences for color, mold and scale, but I consider myself one of those increasingly rare creatures: a Generalist. I like a little bit of everything. I am a Breyer collector, not just a Glossy Breyer Collector or a Stablemates Collector or even an APH Collector.

I have no snark to offer about the Kiowa. I like him a lot. I love the color, especially - a rarely seen and rarely used one that would look good on a lot of molds, I believe. (Want badly, right now: the APH in Indian Pony Chestnut Pinto).

I like the Jumping Horse, even though I don’t have that many: size and shelf space are the biggest issues there. One of these days, when the price and time are right, I am definitely picking up the State Line Tack Special Run "Jumping Jupiter", and that funky Semi-Gloss Dark Dapple Gray 1997 Sears Christmas Special Run.

(Y’all might also remember my heartbreak/meltdown/pity party over not winning the Best of British Contest last year, with the Fleabitten and Dappled "Sterling" as the prize. Not my best moment, but I'll own it.)

Just remember: a few years ago, the notion that a Special Run on the Appaloosa Performance Horse could be as warmly received as it is now was considered risible.

White Jumping Horses

For your viewing pleasure, pictures of the White Jumping Horses mentioned in the previous post. First, the QVC SR Gem Twist, in a semi-chalky finish:


He’s not super common; one of the many QVC Special Runs that flew under the radar, due to a lack of promotional support. He was one of those weird reissues - like the San Domingo "Traveler" - where they put the paint job distinctive of the original release on a completely different mold.

It’s an interesting, and a not unappealing idea. Five-Gaiter Sorrel on a Clock Saddlebred? Yellow Mount on the modified Stock Horse Stallion? The old Leopard pattern from the POA, on a Bouncer? I would buy most of these.

I suspect others would, too. Especially the Sorrel on the Clock Saddlebred; I think he’d look great in that color. (Semi-gloss - with eyewhites, of course!)

Here’s the Jumping Horse that I found in the Bentley Sales dump bins at Model Horse Congress, back in the Dark Ages. He originally came with a factory unpainted jump, which I still have; when I do display him, I usually put him on one of my spare painted jumps, for a dressier look.


I’d actually classify him as a borderline Test Color/Cull, since he doesn’t have a lot detail on him, outside of his head, and there’s a little roughness to his body texture that suggests he may have spent some time in a cull bin. I still think he’s pretty darn cool, regardless. He was one of my earliest Tests/Culls, so I have a lot of sentimental attachment to him.

Most of my Jumping Horses are not out for display right now, because like a few other molds that shall remain nameless, he takes up way too much shelf space. I used to have a substantial number of variations of the Bay - whose sock variations verge on the countless - until I realized that I’d never be able to display them in a way that would do them justice.

I still have more than an average collector should have, though. Just not as many as I used to.

I’m taking it as a very, very bad sign that I have already given the Best of British Contest Prize Horse a name, in the exceedingly rare possibility that I might win one. It’s based on one of the ideas I’m thinking about for my entry, so of course I can’t tell you what this cool name is.

This idea I’m mulling over at the moment will likely go over the heads of the judges, again; I have a bad habit of being a little too clever for my own good. I sure wish I could figure out what the judging criteria for that contest is, because some people seem to have figured it out.

And regarding the Costume Contests, I think I need to remind some of newer or more casual readers that I was Princess Beatrice last year. I could potentially use it - with a little modification - for either contest, but using it for both might be tacky. I do have another idea for the Poppycock Parade that might be worth pursuing (funny + only slightly inappropriate) but I might not be able to fit the components in the vehicle, on top of all the other things I usually bring along.

Argh! It’s way too early for me to be spending this much brainpower on anything for BreyerFest!

Little Miss Dressup

I was in a really strange place yesterday, during and after work. I felt almost euphoric. I didn’t have any reason to be, other than at the prospect of finally getting more than a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. It was more likely from the lack of sleep itself, and the sugar buzz I got eating half a bag of dried pineapple for breakfast (Hey, I was running late, and it was the best available option in my car’s pantry. Yes, my car has a pantry.)

So they released a couple more pics of BreyerFest SRs - a Bay Semi-Leopard Cantering Welsh Pony as a British Spotted Pony, and a Fleabitten Dappled Gray Jumping Horse, as the Best of British Contest Prize. Neither one of these pics were a part of the leaked batch, so they were both a surprise to me, too.

http://www.breyerhorses.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=1955

Well, I was expecting a CWP, and a British Spotted Pony; wasn’t expecting them to be the same model. Kinda cute; don’t know if I want her yet, but I won’t rule her out, either. The only thing that worries me about it is what it means about a potential Bouncer SR: now it seems more likely to be a raffle model, or a live show prize (the Brookside Pink Magnum, in gloss.)

That would be scary. Hobbyists haven’t exactly been rational on the topic of Bouncer, lately.

I am not extremely excited by the Contest Prize Horse. It’s not that I don’t like the model or the color, or the combination thereof: it’s that I already have two - a QVC SR Gem Twist, and a Test Color Alabaster Jumping Horse, from the mid-1980s (another Bentley Sales Dump Bin Find, at Model Horse Congress.) So it’s not like I really NEED another.

I’m still entering the contest, regardless of the quality of the prize. It’s about the competition, man! I’m sure he’ll be beautiful in person - I’m imagining a paint job something like the FEI World Cup Strapless from 2007. Loved it.

I need to start brainstorming some ideas, though. I’m trying to not be like everyone else and go with something Beatle, Dr. Who, Harry Potter, or Royal-related. (Or, heaven forbid, Austin Powers. There’s something about Mike Myers that makes me want to hit things with a hammer.)

As far as the Costuming contest goes, I fear we might be seeing much of the same. We’re not as imaginative (or knowledgeable) a group of people as we think we are. (Just how many "Maid Mare-ians" are we going to see? Or boyfriends/husbands dressed as James Bond?)

All the ideas I have so far are potentially illegal, possibly immoral, or dreadfully obscure. I think, for instance, a Professor Quatermass costume - complete with a giant stuffed grasshopper tucked under my arm - would be brills, but everyone else? Would be clueless.

Neil Gaiman? Incredibly easy: black jeans, black leather jacket, black Lou Reed tee, sunglasses. Not sure anyone except a few of my friends would get the reference.

The Avengers? Benny Hill? Dame Edna? Gordon Ramsay? Ada Lovelace? Space:1999? See where I’m going here? I am not lacking ideas - just ideas that might be recognizable to more than a half-dozen people.

I could just go the easy route, and reuse last year’s costume, but I think I might be reusing part of it for the Fascinator contest. The same concept, for both costume contests? Seems a bit tacky, to me. On the plus side, it’ll save me time and money.