Weird Places

Nothing special here, just the standard (initially offered) Surrey and Axle:

When I heard about the variation, I was mildly freaked out that I’d get the Action Stock Horse Foal: even if it had turned out to be a one-in-ten variant, I would have been kind of annoyed, the same way I was a little miffed about having to find the Cremello Uffington secondhand.

A big part of the reason I bought the set was for that Standing Stock Horse Foal. A Few-Spot Appaloosa Lady Phase didn’t hurt, either. I know a lot of hobbyists aren’t fans of Few-Spots, but I am definitely not one of them!

Anyway, crisis averted.

The Standing Stock Horse Foal, incidentally, was one of those “more common” models I was looking for to fill in some holes in my collection, but all the ones I was specifically shopping for were in short supply. Which is super-weird, considering how popular the mold used to be as Breyer’s generic, go-to Stock Horse Foal!

Again, I am not in a rush. I am assuming I will pick up what I need in a box lot somewhere along the way. 

Since I had an unexpected day off last Saturday, I used that opportunity to look at – but not actually buy – some of the newest “Paddock Pals” at my local Dollar General.

I haven’t bought any of them since the initial batch dropped at Five Below a while back, and we didn’t know what the heck was going on. But now we kinda do. It’s what I speculated all along: it’s a budget-priced, entry-level line sold at dollar/discount stores and marketed to younger kids. They even have a web site now with backstories for every single release:

https://paddockpals.breyerkids.com/meetthepaddockpals.html

I like a lot of them, and I may end up buying a couple more in the future, but actually collecting them looks like it is out of the question. 

It’s not just that I don’t have the time or space, it’s that they exist in such a weird place. It’s a completely new scale that’s somewhere in between Traditional and Classic, that’s both realistic in terms of anatomy and conformation, but also not really live showable as-is (without special accommodations). And they gave the whole shebang the obsolete name of a now largely obsolete scale: the Little Bits. 

My brain doesn’t quite know how to process them. 

Old Timey Goodness

As someone who eats candy professionally (yes, really!), I may be legally obligated to buy Peanutine:

I had never heard of “peanutine” before, but I guess it is the peanut brittle variation of Saltine Toffee? Interesting. 

In reality, I’m not too crazy about peanut brittle per se – if you need to know, I am currently obsessed with the maple sugar candy I got for Christmas – and I am trying to behave myself this year, so I’ll take a wait and see approach on him. I mean, he’s cute, and I’m glad it’s not another bull, but I was hoping for something just a tiny bit more “outside the box” for a cart-pulling nonhorse, like a Goat or a Dog mold. 

The next Special Run – the Mare and Foal Set Surrey and Axle – might be my first must-buy of the ticket lineup, but not for the reason you might think:

If you could look at my notes for this year’s Sampler sitting on my desk right now, you’d see that the very first article I planned to write for it was (will be!) about the Standing Stock Horse Foal. 

This sort of thing usually happens after I publish an article, not before. So either Reeves and I are on the same wavelength, or some strange time travel thing just took place that I am only now finding out about.

The poor little guy doesn’t get a lot of love, but from an historical standpoint, he’s way more interesting than most collectors realize. I just wasn’t expecting to see a BreyerFest SR of him like, ever: he’s not exactly the flashiest foal mold on the block. He’s kind of like a blank canvas of a mold: how interesting he is is entirely dependent on how interesting his paint job is. 

Which is this case, is quite.

I certainly won’t turn down a few-spot Lady Phase with the package, either. I’m definitely not understanding all the online Lady Phase hate, though. When did she become “one of the ugly ones”? Heretics!

While you could argue that she’s occasionally been overused, she is never not beautiful. 

The next thing you know, you’ll be telling me that Iced Oatmeal Raisin is not, in fact, the best cookie in the world. 

Anyway, I am glad that my intuition about the turn towards “vintage” has been proven somewhat right. And has piqued my interest. Will the Old Timer be turning up soon? I’d definitely be on board with that…

And then they dropped the next Store Special, which was the Troubadour I was expecting, in a colorway I was also (more or less) expecting:

Lovely, but I’m a little reluctant about him for one simple reason: I don’t have a lot of space to spare right now, and he’s one hecking chonk of a model. And I am still holding out for an affordable Stretched Morgan Special Run, as unlikely as that now seems to be. 

Not One for the Win Column

All my Spoon Tomato seedlings are either dead or dying for no discernable reason, and I didn’t get picked from the waitlist for Goldfinch, so I am putting Tuesday in the “bad day” column and moving on. 

(I am more bummed about the tomatoes than Goldfinch – I spent actual money and time on those!)

I don’t care if I get called out for price shaming on this, but seriously, I need to rant right now. Prices are completely out of control not just for the Silver, but for just about… everything right now. Who are all these people buying $1000 Alborozos? 

Speculator markets like the one we’re apparently in the middle of are scary, dangerous, and never end well. I want no part of this.

This is also why I am not optimistic about getting picked for the True Blue Exclusive Event: people like me who actually want to participate in the event are going to be outnumbered by the resellers.

(I kind of wish there weren’t any exclusive items for these events at all, beyond the one model and the one Stablemate. But I know I am dreaming.)

One of the side effects of this speculator’s market is the sheer abundance of White Boxers that have come up for sale. The White Boxer is one of the few Traditional Breyer Dogs I don’t have – and at the prices they are currently going for, it’s going to stay that way.

Years ago it was assumed that only a small quantity of White Boxers existed – I think the number that floated around was 25? – but that’s since been disproven by both documentary evidence and the sheer number of them that have turned up over the years. 

Scarce? Yeah. Eight hundred dollars worth of Rare? Nope.

Some of the pricing on these Boxers is a consequence of misinformation still being circulated. That was the case with the Buckskin Lady Phases for years, as well.

Collectors, for the most part, now realize that not all Buckskin Lady Phases are the same, and “rare, extremely limited quantity” label attached to her referred to her slightly (but noticeably) different Model Horse Congress and VaLes Bead Trailer runs, not her later and actually pretty numerous JC Penney’s Christmas catalog run. 

But the White Boxer? It looks like I am going to have to continue biding my time until (a) I get lucky, (b) this nutso speculator’s market we’re currently trapped in finally abates or (c) the hobby finally comes around to the idea that it’s not THAT rare of a model in the first place, and moves on to something else.

Preferably something I do not want, or already have.

(I know, also dreaming.)

Stories

To make a long story short: I had a bad weekend because I broke my new sewing machine in one of the dumbest ways possible, because I was born clumsy. 

(I mean that last part quite literally: I was born with congenital hip dysplasia. This is why I have mismatched feet and occasionally walk into walls. But I digress...)

Let’s just say I am not looking forward to calling the service center tomorrow to explain things. On the plus side, I did get a lot of weed-pulling done.

Although I haven’t sold much in the past couple of weeks (the post-BreyerFest sales slump!), my online sales have been good enough this year to make up for the lack of room sales. So much so that my sales list is beginning to look pretty darn skimpy.

Especially since I have not been able to replenish it: the flea market is basically a no-go area, all of my recent online purchases have been grails and other necessities, I haven’t snagged a decent box lot of anything in ages, and even the local book sale has been canceled due to the pandemic.

However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. One of the arguments in favor of me attending the live show at BreyerFest next year is that since I won’t have that much to sell, I’ll have room in the car for my show horses, instead!

One big “score” could change everything, of course. I do need to do a little herd culling too, and (once the sewing machine situation is copacetic again) possibly make other merchandise worth selling. 

Even though I haven’t been going as regularly as I used to because time is also an issue, I’m still finding a small handful of items at local thrift and antique stores, including another addition to my shelf of “books with model horses in them”: Crescent Dragonwagon’s Margaret Ziegler is Horse-Crazy.

They are not just on the cover, but are a part of the actual story:

The book was published in 1988, so those “seventeen […] made of plastic” are definitely Breyers. (And do I spy a Lady Phase in the middle of the herd?)

This copy is even signed by the author, which is probably a moot point because it’s not going anywhere, regardless.

A Brief Interlude with Lady Phase

I bought another thing today. Not a grail, but something cool that I could not pass up for the price, regardless. Dang it!

I didn’t have “sell more stuff” on my To-Do List until (checks calendar) late September. Ima gonna have to move that up the list...

There are also more Walmart Exclusive Stablemates out (Series 3? Series 4? I forget…) and Tractor Supply stores are just getting in their Holiday merchandise too, which apparently includes the 70th Anniversary Stablemates in their assortment of Breyer merchandise.

Bringing with it the possibility of more easily obtainable Chase pieces, which is what has happened the past few years. I was kind of hoping to save my $25 Live Show “Store” credit for a case when they finally come back in stock, but if this turns out to be easier and cheaper option that involves less selling of duplicates, I will go for it.

The other thing I bought earlier this week arrived yesterday, but I’m not in a mood to take any pictures today. Instead, let’s talk about something I already have a very pretty picture of: my #40 Lady Phase!

Like a lot of common, long-running models, it took me quite a while to find just the right Lady Phase: some were too red, some were too grainy, others had too much overspray or weird masking issues, but when I found this girl she was... as close to perfect as I could get at the time. (And in spite of my half-hearted later attempts, never surpassed!)

I think I traded someone a #300 Bay Jumping Horse for her at a live show back in 1985, shortly before she was discontinued? That particular show (Autumn in Michigan) was in October, so news of her discontinuation might have been known by then.

It was a good thing I got her when I did, because she became very scarce very quickly afterwards. Part of it was because people were hoarding them for customizing purposes – she was the go-to Stock Horse body back then – but another part of it was that (according to the rumor) the last production run of Lady Phase was lost in a truck fire.

The body hoarding became less of an issue a few years later, when Breezing Dixie (1988), the Signing Party Red Roan (1989) and countless other Special Runs and Regular Runs were released in the early 1990s.

But it was dicey there for a couple of years, as both collectors and customizers found themselves competing for an increasingly smaller pool of models.

Mine didn’t do diddley at the show, by the way. Which is kind of a shame, because I just love the way her picture turned out. Next year, maybe?

Lucky Enough

My brain is melting, the cursed deer are eating my beautiful Purple Ammi Flowers, and my office looks like a tornado hit it.

Since the cause of most of this is the BreyerFest Photo Show that’s basically taken over my life this week, I’ll entertain you with one of the photos that didn’t make the cut because I had too many entries for that particular class, and someone had to go:

Yes, the Mother Lode. While I was very lucky to manage to actually get one - because history nerd me went back to the web site after the initial rush and subsequent crash to download the documentation anyway, and it just happened to be moments after the web store rebooted and restocked - alas, it was only merely the 80-piece Solid Gold Buckskin, not the 10-piece Appaloosa or Pinto.

Which should have been absolutely fine, since I was completely not expecting to get anything at all. I was so shocked my order went through that I called Reeves the next day to confirm that it actually happened.

And yet… not lucky enough.

At least three times now - starting with this offer, and continuing with the latest two Christmas Day Surprises - somehow someone ended up with not just one, but two of the super-rare variations.

If it had just happened once, I’d chalk it up to random luck and all that. Random means random, and sometimes some people really do get all the luck.

But after it happened with the last two Santa Surprises too, it makes me wonder (a) what the heck is going on and (b) how can I get in on this action?

It also reminds me of the 2009 BreyerFest Surprise Models - you know, the Quarter Horse Geldings in Silver Filigree, Gloss Charcoal and Smoke - where someone screwed up and all of the ultra-rare surprises ended up… in the same time slot.

Which was great for folks in that time slot… and not so much for everyone else.

(And I, among the latter - and who completely accidentally “predicted” them several months prior. Oh, the pain….)

Still, I am very happy to even have gotten a Mother Lode at all, even if the whole experience was slightly bittersweet.

As was the acquisition of several of best/rarest horses, as the photo show is also illustrating to me. (Broke a tooth, broke a foot, locked myself out of the car on the way back home from BreyerFest, nightmare roommate experiences… the universe sure has a weird way of making me pay for “winning” things!)

And head’s up, guys: because of the photo show thing, I am going to be even scarcer than usual for the next couple of days. The uploading process is less complicated that I thought it would be, but as per usual, I’m obsessing over documentation because that is what I do.

Emma and Lady Phase

Rough weather, more drama.

But on to happier things, like the restart of the Berries Ponies Series – as they hinted at in the January Collector Club newsletter. What I didn’t expect was that they started with the Emma mold!

(No really, I didn’t know ahead of time. The usual caveats apply.)

I especially appreciate the detail paid to Jujube’s off-side floof:

If I’m lucky, some of the money that I had allocated to the trip that’s not going to happen will now go towards purchasing her. (More about that below, if you’re interested.)

I’m still hopeful that the Emma mold will be making an appearance as a BreyerFest Special Run, too.

Prior to the 1980s, it wasn’t unusual for a mold to have only one or two releases over the course of a decade, but nowadays if something like that happens people start speculating about the reasons why.

And hobbyists being hobbyists, the scenarios are always something pretty dire, up to and including the destruction of the mold itself.

When the Lady Phase became kind of scarce in the late 1990s, I heard all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories, most of them premised on some version of the mold being destroyed, or being replaced by the Ideal Quarter Horse. Or not, or it being switched back and forth and good gravy it all gave me headaches.

Molds can sustain damage that merits pulling them from use either temporarily or permanently, though it the case of the latter, the reasons are more a matter of economics than a lack of technical expertise. Sometimes it’s easier and cheaper to simply create a newer mold in a similar breed or pose, updated for more modern tastes.

But more often than not, the lack of new or different releases is a matter of popularity and priorities. If it’s already selling well enough in the color it’s in – and in the case of Emma, her color is a pretty simple and inexpensive one to paint – developing new colorways is not a big priority.

Other considerations also come in to play, especially with portrait models. Again, Lady Phase serves as an excellent example: the reason why she came in three slightly different Buckskin Special Runs prior to 1988 was because that was the only other color her owner Lynn Anderson authorized.

I don’t remember which Model Horse Congress it was, but I remember Marney having a brief round table with attendees to ask for product ideas, with one exception: anything involving Lady Phase was probably off the table. I still wrote down “Dapple Gray Lady Phase with black points” anyway.

When it finally appeared a few years later, some celebratory fist-pumping was involved.

Finally, my last bit about Seattle.

Well, it’s pretty obvious at this point – barring some last minute cancellation or other miracle –that I’m not going. I’ve been struggling to find appropriate words to express my disappointment, but as a Michigander, I am afraid none of the words that immediately come to mind are the least bit appropriate.

Especially since “Plan B” – another event that happens the same weekend as Seattle – now goes into effect. That involves me losing not a little weight and fitting into a costume that looks a little something like this:

I’m trying to tell myself that this challenge will be better for me in the long run anyway, but right now the prospect is a little terrifying.

The Charcoal Lady Phase

Taking a brief break here from another project with a hard deadline (how did I get so busy in December?) so I’ll get back to the Collector’s Club Appreciation stuff another time, when I’m a little less stressed and less likely to voice some of my thoughts in the form of ALL CAPS, anyway.

In the meantime, here’s something short and sweet that will make everyone happy: I found those pictures of the Matte Charcoal Lady Phase! They are not the best, but that (for once) is not my fault:

After the Family Arabians were discontinued in 1973, it’d be nearly 20 years before we’d see another production run of a Charcoal, with 1992’s Gloss Charcoal Memphis Storm.

There are a few other Charcoal Test Colors and Oddities floating around that also date from The Great Charcoal Interregnum, though as with most Test Colors from that period, it’s hard to tell whether they were done to actually “test” for the color’s possible return, or someone (like Marney) simply wanted a Charcoal something-something.

(I know if I had painting booth privileges, I would have painted my share!)

I can’t offer any context for these photos, other than the fact that they predate the arrival of Memphis Storm by at least a few years, and Marney may have/probably had something to do with her.

Where this Lady Phase is now, I have no idea. I’d snap her up in a heartbeat, for the right price.

(Charcoal + Lady Phase + Vintage Test Color = No gonna happen.)

This is Not About Lady Phase

The car is back today, and running great. I spent most of the rest of the day running all the errands I couldn’t for the previous five. I had access to the truck, but some of the places I regularly go are a little dodgy, and an old station wagon with 150,000 miles on it is much less likely to be messed with than a shiny red truck with less than 25,000 miles on the odometer.

(Fear not for my safety - I’ve lived in the Metro Detroit area my entire life. I know what I’m doing!)

Just the other day I was moving a few things around, and I was struck by the need to look at the mold marks on my Lady Phases. I was aware the copyright horseshoe/mold mark changed a while ago, but like a lot of those molds, I hadn’t been keeping track of exactly when those changes occurred on the Lady Phase.

I think it was relatively early; unfortunately, I packed away most of my more recent (post-2004) Lady Phases during the latest inventory. The oldest recent one I have out right now is a 2009 BreyerFest Sprinkles, and she has the newest mold mark. So before then, at least.

So why am I nattering about this? Well, I took a peek at my Mother Lode Lady Phase, and guess what? She has an older mold mark.

What that means is that Reeves (probably) wasn’t exaggerating when they said that they found them in the warehouse somewhere. They really are old stock - or were painted on old unpainted stock. (Leftover bodies from Hope N Glory?)

This may or may not be news to you. I tend to gloss over discussions of the Lady Phase mold online because the conversations tend to go hyperbolic quickly, and sometimes involve conspiracy theories, and I’m not a big fan of those. So if the mold mark thing is not news to you, that’s why.

I kind of wish more hobbyists approached things that way: not that of willful ignorance, but a studious distancing from group opinion and/or peer pressure. If everyone looks at something the same way, from the same angle or perspective, I do not think it is truly being seen or evaluated properly.

What everyone is looking at, essentially, is an image. As Rene Magritte pointed out in his famous painting The Treachery of Images (i.e: the "Ceci n’est pas une pipe" picture): a painting is a painting of an object, not the object itself.

I know, a little deep. It’s just my Art History degree showing. (It does that sometimes.) Still, something worth thinking about, the next time one gets into a discussion about anything Breyer-related. Especially mold- or sculptor-bashing threads. Remember: every mold is someone's favorite. Even Lady Roxana or Khemosabi.

Something a little less philosophic next time. Maybe something on one of my recently acquired grails. (Another one this week, quite unexpectedly!)

Body Box Adventures

Before I go on, I just wanted to point out that the next round of Munda auctions is up tomorrow. I actually bid on a couple this time, partly because eBay is annoying me this week. (There are a couple of very inexpensive items I am trying to acquire for a project, and I keep getting sniped. Sniped, on cheap stuff!)

We got out of work unexpectedly early yesterday, so I took that extra time to clean out my Stablemates body box. Aside from the fact that there was no way in heck I’d ever get around to working on them any time soon, my "Dollar Table" selection was looking a little skimpy. I like having a certain amount of inexpensive items for kids, cheapskates, and people who’ve already blown their budgets but still want to buy more stuff anyway.

None of them were specifically bought as bodies, but most were "comes with" box lot items. Some of I wouldn’t necessarily classify as body quality, but I decided to just sell them all that way anyway, just because I didn’t want to deal with the drama.

The most painful experiences I have had at BreyerFest - aside from the Roommate Issues, and the actual incidents of me injuring myself - have been when I’ve had to deal with people who put up big fights over condition, often over the most minor of flaws.

We’re not talking about honest pricing negotiations: these were the kinds of folks who wanted me to sell them a $40-50 Special Run for ten bucks, because of a single smudged dapple. It’s gotten to the point that if more common models with already low price points have even the tiniest of flaws, I sometimes relegate them to the body box, just so I don’t have to get into arguments with people over what constitutes a "body".

What pains me more though, are the models that aren’t so common - yet are technically classifiable as body quality.

My thinking is this: just because something is classified as body quality doesn’t necessarily mean that it should be used as a body. I have a small but significant assortment of models I’ve fished out of body boxes myself, and place on the shelf right next to LSQ Test Colors.

The problem is that the prices for pieces that are meant to be bodies - and pieces that are simply rare, but in poor condition - are indistinguishable. The price for a body-body is a reflection of its value as a "base" or armature for a new work, while the price of a body-rarity is because it still has some residual value even in spite of its condition. (A coverless, poor-quality copy of Action Comics #1 may not be worth much, for instance, but there’s certainly still a market for it.)

One particularly painful year I had a body quality Adios for sale. Normally this wouldn’t cause me much consternation, but this guy was a Chalky - a white plastic Chalky, to be precise. While Yellow Mounts are not too difficult to come by, Chalky Adioses definitely are - even in body condition.

I was reluctant to sell him, but my sales stash was quite skimpy that year, and he was a recent flea market pickup that I had not yet grown too attached to. Since he was technically quite rare, I put him on the shelves with all of my other stuff. I figured he’d be a fairly easy sell, right?

Nope. He lingered on my shelves straight up until Saturday. I’d happily chirp to anyone who looked his way about his Chalky status, and his exceeding cheapness, but no dice. This was a bit before the current Chalky craze, and it was true he wasn’t in the best shape, but I kept thinking what the heck?

When I pointed out his Chalky nature to someone who appeared to be genuinely interested in him, the expression on the (eventual) buyer’s face was clearly one of "And I should care why?" She needed it as a body, nothing more.

My first reaction was "No, you do not deserve him! Begone!" But I needed the money, and I needed the space. Who was I to deem her money unworthy? I swallowed my pride, bit my tongue, and took the money, because she was willing to at least pay the asking price.

So the way I deal with this situation now is by tossing quality models of dubious condition status into the body box. That way, if someone happens to find it and recognize it for what it is, it cheers my heart a little.

Honestly, I think I have an easier time selling models like that in the body box because, well, I am not the only one who specifically goes hunting for buried treasure there. Other hobbyists are all too eager to show me Chalkies, Pearlies, and vintage customs from famous customizers pulled out of other people’s body boxes - things that I would have been proud to add to my collection.

It happened last year, with an early Lady Phase. Some of the earliest Lady Phases, for some odd reason, come in a very white - but not truly Chalky - plastic. I don’t know if they decided to go with virgin Tenite (no regrind = minimal yellowing over time) or it was a last little remnant of Chalky white plastic mixed in with the standard semi-opaque stuff.

She was, unfortunately, very much a body: her condition much worse than the Adios, even. I’ve been running a bit of a surplus of models here, so keeping her wasn’t even remotely an option.

The person who fished her out of the box stared at her a good long while, turned her over in the lamp light several times, and then said something to the effect of "She’s something special. I think I can fix her up." 

I think I ended up selling her for the same price as the Adios. It wasn’t about the price, though.

Radioactive

I made the mistake of going on the Breyer web site forums the other night. Now I remember why I avoid that place like the plague.

Look, I think that Reeves should use multiple means of distributing models to us. Some of us like the rush we get from a Black Friday-style sale, and others simply want to place their order and walk away, with minimal drama.

The solutions of letting people know what "mystery" models are for sale, and boosting the piece counts to some ridiculously high number - very popular ideas in the Breyer web site forums - completely miss the point of this kind of sale. The mystery and the rarity are the source of the excitement. Taking them away would be like taking the scary bits out of a horror movie.

If everything went to a lottery/raffle system, I would probably lose complete interest after a while. I like a little mystery and excitement. I find Breyer History fun to research because of all the mysteries, that some of them may never truly be knowable - and the excitement when I find out that it is.

And let’s face facts: raffles/lotteries not necessarily any more fair than any other means of distribution. Some people are naturally more lucky than others and that, pardon my French, kinda sucks. We all know people who seem to win every single contest they enter - and people who have never won anything at all, ever. After not winning ten or twenty times in a row, you’re going to be disinclined to consider the system "fair".

Even if it is only an illusion, some of us also like the sense that skill and knowledge play a part in our collecting efforts. Nothing cheeses me off more than the insistence, in some quarters of the hobby, that collecting is a passive activity. Not the way I - or a lot of my friends - do it!

Allegedly the overselling part of the equation that plagued the last sale of this kind was remedied, but it appears that the solution may have been the cause of the premature sell-out notification. (I’m not privy to the inner workings of that particular system, but I’ve seen similar issues with other inventory systems before.)

In other words, it was a classic "fixing one problem creates another" issue.

I’m not trying to be a suck up here, because anyone who knows me knows some of the [road apples] I’ve had to put up with dealing with Reeves in the past. This wasn’t a malicious or callous act of greed. The only thing they’re truly guilty of is underestimating us.

Again and again, it’s true, but we’re always upping the ante ourselves, aren’t we?

Let us speak no more of this affair again. I’m not even going to say anything here if one really and truly shows up on my doorstep. If I need money badly enough, I’m going to sell other, less radioactive things first.

I’m going to be home - and online, mostly - through most of the weekend, trying to catch up on some long-overdue paperwork and e-mails, so this might be a good time to ask me any questions, if you got ‘em.

Spring Cleaning: Getting the Funk Out

Honestly, I have no idea if I got one of the Mother Lode models listed on the Breyer web site tonight. Like everyone else I spent 10 minutes trying to log on, and then having it taken out of my order queue when I went to pay.

Then they reappeared again, about an hour later, and my order allegedly went through. I figured that the worst that could happen is a cancellation phone call or e-mail from Reeves, right?

Look, I can accept not getting a super-limited model. I’ve been really lucky the past couple of years, with the Glossy War Horse, the White Moose, the Buried Treasure Lusitano, and the first Vault Sale. So missing out on a pretty gold Lady Phase would be no biggie. (My favorite was the Gold Buckskin! The "common" one of the three, allegedly.)

It’s the waiting that kills. If I’m going to be disappointed, I want the pain and suffering over with quickly, like pulling a Band Aid off. That’s all I’m asking.

Moving on…

I had an interesting experience with a piece of vintage fabric over the weekend. I wanted to give it a quick rinse or two to get the flea market "funk" out of it, but it turned into a two-day-long ordeal to vanquish the "Old Lady’s Ashtray" smell emanating from the washtub. I’ve had stinky fabric before, but this so bad I was having flashbacks to a particularly odoriferous family road trip in 1979.

(Four chain-smoking adults in a GMC Jimmy with the windows rolled up most of the time because of the rain. Good times!)

"Destinkifying" is a topic that comes up with regular frequency in my e-mails, and since flea market season is in full swing, it’s probably a good time to bring it up here again, for reference.

The Cellulose Acetate that Breyers are made of is semi-synthetic, and semi-permeable. In other words, it can absorb stuff it comes into contact with: water, grease, oil, cigarette smoke, perfume, and all manner of airborne pollutants.

Cigarette smoke is among the worst: not only does it make the model smell bad, the nicotine from the smoke also makes the plastic look dingy - and in more extreme cases, darkly yellowed.

The first step should be a basic cleaning: dunking and soaking in very warm water with a good amount of high quality dish soap. Dawn seems to be the brand of choice among most hobbyists, but if some other brand works well for you, it should work for your horses, too.

This should get the top layer of grime off, and unyellow the model slightly by consequence. I wouldn’t recommend a dunk any longer than overnight, because the model will start to absorb the water as well, possibly lifting the finish. (Glossies are especially prone to this!)

Naturally, this is not an ideal solution for any model with labels or stickers. And surprisingly, anything with metallic paint - either as tack trim, or as the base body color. If you’ve ever had any experience with vintage Decorators, you know that the gold paint that Breyer has used in the past has been of variable permanence: it fades, it tarnishes, it corrodes.

It’s not that those models can’t be cleaned or unyellowed, but they should be done with extreme caution.

Squirt bottles are a useful tool for those models that can’t or shouldn’t be dunked. Mix up a solution of warm water and a little bit of dish soap, and set to stream. Spray and blot quickly, as necessary; a cotton swab comes in handy for the nooks and crannies of the mane and tail. But again, be gentle: there are some finishes that are prone to rubbing (Alabasters and Dapple Grays), and the less pressure you put on their finishes, the better.

Once the initial cleaning is done - by dunking, or by spray bottling - put the model in a sunny window with cool exposure: this should dissipate the remaining odor after a couple of days. If not, either repeat the procedure, or take the cleaning process to the next step: baking soda.

Sprinkle the model liberally with baking soda and seal it in a plastic bag, preferably with the rest of the box, and let it set for several days. Periodically pull it out and check to see if the funkiness has reached an acceptable level.

I’ve also been told that dryer sheets could do the trick, but this is something I haven’t risked yet, as Vita finds them to be a treat of the same level of desirability as the "candy" the deer leave on the lawn. She hasn't shown any interest in my horses lately, no need to give her any incentives, right?

More BreyerFest 2013 Releases

I did get the Vintage Club "Ephemera Extra" the other day: it IS the 1961 Duotone Catalog Insert pages that most of you should be at least vaguely familiar with. And which was used as one of the illos in my original article.

I’ll work around it. As for any further commentary on the Extra itself, I’ll leave to private communications. (Nothing racy, just unduly speculative.)

Reeves also released photos of three more BreyerFest releases - a Decorator Blue Bandana Bucking Bronco named Rock-a-Billy for the Boots & Bling Store, a Decorator Blue Overo Pinto Lady Phase named Twill, and a "new" Moody Iberian Horse named Laredo, who’s pretty over the top - even for a Moody. He’s apparently a reworked Brishen, with multiple swapped out parts, so he's only partly new.

I’ll reserve my final judgement on him (as always) until I see one in person. There are a few photos of a sample from Equine Affaire last weekend, but they’re taken at a weird and difficult to judge from angle.

I’m also going to assume - until the artist issues a statement otherwise - that the increasing over-the-topness may be a Reeves directive/suggestion, and not artistic derangement/degredation, as some people seem to be suggesting.

Wild, crazy horses with big hair sell better - not to us, maybe, but definitely to the rest of the world. Anatomical realism? Not as much as we might think, outside the live showing niche.

As for as much attention as they lavish on us, we have to be reminded of this simple fact: we are not the center of Reeves’ universe, or at least as much they are of ours.

The front leg does bother me a bit, but I think it’s more because I’m used to Breyer molds having abnormally short raised forelegs, like the Western Prancing Horse, the Running Stallion, the Belgian... It’s almost like an artistic marker/tic for Chris Hess’s work, the more I think about it. It makes me wonder if it was also related to any molding issues.

I suspect that Laredo’s funky foreleg may be the victim of a similar problem, though from the opposite direction: instead of erring on the side of caution, I have a feeling that Reeves is pushing the molding technology a little bit too close to the edge of what’s possible.

I do like his hair. And the paint job is very pretty. Like some commenters have been saying, I think some of the people making yucky faces over him now may be swooning over him in the future, once they get to know him.

Or not. He’s not really designed for "us", anyway.

Twill was the one who finally pushed me over the line in ordering another BreyerFest ticket, though. Not because I’m a huge Lady Phase fan, but because she’s painted to resemble denim - like the Fighting Stallion centerpiece for the original "Denim and Diamonds" Exclusive Event in Texas.

With overo pinto marking that look like (to me!) holes ripped into those jeans. Which, duh, obviously means something to me, in light of recent events: if I manage to snag one, she is so going to be called "Vita’s Fault". (She was a bad girl again, yesterday, though not for me.)

Lest you think we’re running out of surprises, other models we can still speculate about include: the Stablemates One-Days, the Live Show prizes, the second day Raffle horse, the Volunteer Model, all of the Auction pieces, and possibly a few more Store Specials.

And who’s going to be the Glossy/Matte Half and Half SR. Because if they’re doing a Gambler’s Choice model, they’re doing a Half and Half. (My current bet? The Haflinger Buckaroo.)

Next up: another "secret" project, you say?

Beauty Is Not Box Deep

First of all, let me apologize for any testiness I’ve shared with the rest of the class this week. I’ve been working a lot of hours (and consequently not getting the best sleep) and I’m experiencing some technical difficulties at home you don’t really need to know the specifics of (other than the fact that it is, again, something I literally can do nothing about).

On the plus side, I got my sewing machine back from the shop, so at least I have sewing projects I can now distract myself with.

Also, if there are any issues with my facts that you want to correct, feel free to e-mail me privately, and I will deal with it on the front page, rather than leave it to the comments. I don’t want to be responsible for floating bad data around. It might take a while for me to get to it, since my schedule is so out of whack, but if it’s a nontrivial matter, I will get to it eventually. (I think I might actually have some free time next week, in fact …)

So, here’s the model that I’m currently obsessing over:

Weird, huh? In this era of super-limited-this and glossy-that, the model that’s been the focus of my attention for the past week is a plain old Treasure Hunt Lady Phase in Black Appaloosa.

She was one of those last-minute pick-ups at BreyerFest; I went into the sales tent on Sunday morning just to look around, and to mull over this year’s SR leftovers (I eventually decided to pass on all of them.) I had gotten to the park a little on the late side - not until about 10:30 - so I wasn’t expecting to find anything fabulous, but I wandered around anyway, hoping I might find some small treasure that everyone else might have overlooked. (Because, as you might have noticed, I have a talent for that sort of thing.)

I found a small assortment of the Treasure Hunt Lady Phases, and recalling that someone had mentioned that chalky-blanketed variations of the Appaloosas had been found in the mix earlier in the weekend, I decided to give them a quick once-over.

That lovely little girl above caught my eye: her masking was crisp, I saw no flaws, and her blanket definitely had a chalky cast to it. She was practically daring me to take her home with me. So I did.

Her (now disassembled) box also had a bit of a rough, cobbled together look, which suggested to me that she might have been a Sample, too. I saw a couple other of these Lady Phases on the table, of a similar quality and in similar packaging, reinforcing the notion.

Another secret I probably shouldn’t be telling you, but I will: when it comes to boxed models in the Ninja Pit, the rougher the quality of the box, the closer attention you should pay to the quality of the horse inside the box. It’s a good indicator that the contents aren’t necessarily what they appear to be.

The irony is that it runs contrary to convention thinking - where the so-called "serious" collectors focus just as much, if not more, on the condition of the box. So it’s no surprise that they turn up later in the BreyerFest weekend - after all the "pretty boxes" have been picked up, over and away.

Since the Treasure Hunt Lady Phases predated the VIN number program by several years, there’s no way to be sure. I bought her mostly because she was beautiful, and for the very adolescent notion of her competing for the affections of my far-too-many Stud Spiders. (Her name? Spider’s Bride, silly.)

More Condition Issues

I sometimes joke that if I were any more clumsy than I already am, I’d qualify for a handicapped parking permit.

Well, just to let you know, I’ve fallen down the steps twice now, in three days. Nothing damaged, as far as I can tell, but I already have a rather high threshold for pain (on account of the clumsiness) so I might not be the best judge.

My Silver Filigree Weather Girl also survived a slight tumble, fortunately while still boxed. (It wasn’t me, I swear.) I have to say that I’m liking these new shipping boxes Reeves is using now. They’re a lot strong than they look, and a lot sturdier than the ones they were using previously, which looked and felt like they were made out of recycled paper towels. They are a bit snug in the size department, though. I know they’ve got size requirements to meet, but an extra half-inch here or there would definitely inspire a little more confidence.

While we’re on the topic, look what just happened to show up on eBay this week - a 1979 Lady Phase, with some interesting condition issues:

1979 Lady Phase

Before y’all get super-upset with the hobbyist in question, let me remind you that things were a little different back then. Making alterations - adding or removing markings, or tweaking the mold - wasn’t that big a deal back then. Even I did it: I will not go into detail, but I did some unspeakable things to an SR Red Roan Running Mare.

We were all young and kinda dumb. Plus, you know, there were a bunch of different buckskin Lady Phases floating around, and we didn’t bother trying to distinguish between them until much later, when we realized, duh, that some of them really were sorta rare. (And I didn’t realize that the Running Mare was an SR one until the damage was done.)

It looks like the latest NAMHSA controversy has flamed out. As expected, it was much ado about nothing. Not nothing nothing, but blown out of proportion to the actual incident. More proof that an e-mail list is good for nonlinear information (announcements, requests, questions that do not require lengthy answers) and not for anything that requires follow through, or follow up (debates, discussions, socializing.)

Just to clarify, the kind of web site or hub I’m envisioning probably wouldn’t include a discussion forum. Discussion forums are good for the things that e-mail lists generally are not (debating-discussing-socializing), but not so great with handling nonlinear information, especially when topics start to drift.

It’s the nonlinear information that I’m most concerned about: news and general information that should be available to most people - hobbyists and nonhobbyists alike - with just a click or two, without any further involvement or commitment. The bulk of it would include announcements about special runs, contests, live shows, volunteer opportunities, real horse stuff of specific interest to hobbyists, model horses in the media, etc.

(I'm not sure articles on more narrowly defined topics would be necessary, or helpful, at least in the beginning.)

The rest of it would be devoted to promoting the hobby online, especially to the hobby-curious, with general information of what the hobby is about, what it entails, and where to go for more information. The sort of thing I imagined that NAMHSA should have been doing from the onset, rather than going all in on a national show, instead.

If we want to get serious about making the hobby to grow and prosper, we need to make the online hobby presence less intimidating to newbies, and easier to navigate.

Buckskin Lady Phases

The Seasonal Affective Disorder must be kicking in, because I’m feeling spectacularly unmotivated today. I haven’t even begun making one of Mom’s Christmas presents, and the other two aren’t looking so hot either.

I have lots of time on my hands for the next two weeks, so everything will be fine. It’s just the getting started part that’s hard, especially when you’re trying to finish at least a half dozen other projects, too.

Here’s one of those handful of things - besides Fall in Love - that I’ve added to my own herd recently:


It’s the 1980 Model Horse Congress Buckskin Lady Phase, the one with the pinked nose, B mold mark, and black eartips!

That means I now have examples of all three Buckskin Lady Phases special runs: the 1979 VaLes Solid Buckskin with charcoal/black nose, the 1980 MHC Special Run, and the 1983/84 J.C. Penney’s Buckskin with bald face.

(Yes, I know the JCP one comes in a solid-faced variation. Notice that I prefaced my statement with the phrase "examples of"? )

One of the most infuriating bits of misinformation that gets passed around on the Internet is that of the alleged rarity of the Buckskin Lady Phase. A case could be made for the 1979 or the 1980 ones being especially difficult to acquire, and I wouldn’t argue with that: there were only about 200 made of the 1979 SR, and about 240 made of the 1980.

On the other hand, however, the J.C. Penney version was probably one of the most popular Christmas special runs Breyer ever made: according to Nancy Young’s Breyer Molds & Models, around 8,000 sets were made over the course of its two year run.

Eight thousand pieces is not "rare," neither then nor now.

I can remember a time when Buckskin Lady Phases were so common that customizers resorted to using them as bodies. Lady Phases became unexpectedly hard to find right around the time she was discontinued in 1985. The story goes - as I heard it from Marney, anyway - was that the last batch of Lady Phases made before she was discontinued in 1985 were lost in a fire.

With no fresh bodies available in the store, no new regular runs on the horizon, and several hundred - if not thousands - of Buckskin ones cluttering up hobbyist shelves, what else are you going to do?

(FYI: I don’t believe enough Buckskin Lady Phases were lost to customizing to affect their overall rarity. Enough to skew the perception within the hobby, maybe, but not overall.)

In the intervening years, a lot of hobbyists conflated the 1979 and 1980 special runs with the later J.C. Penney run. You’d think with all the Buckskin Lady Phases floating around that hobbyists would do the math and realize that they weren’t quite as rare as they thought they were.

Alas, many of our fellow hobbyists just aren’t that good at math. And are all too often plagued by the ghosts of wishful thinking.

Even so, the 1979 and 1980 special runs are still genuinely hard to come by. On average, I see about one of the 1979 pieces up for sale or auction per year, if that; the 1980 examples aren’t a whole lot more numerous.

I was lucky enough to get my 1979 one in 1979, straight from the dealer (yeah, I’m THAT old.) I had been shopping around for a 1980 for some time now, but the few that had come up recently had been significantly out of my price range.

This little lady wasn’t because (obviously) she wasn’t mint. I’m not much of a shower, so I’m totally okay with that. I’m not exactly mint, myself.

Swap Meets and Holy Grails

When most hobbyists fantasize about their holy grails, it usually involves test colors, vintage rarities, or an ultimate fantasy dream horse done by a hot, in-demand artist.

For me, right now? It’s a job with a desk and a chair. I appreciate all the hours I’ve been getting at the part-time job recently, but a regular schedule with "normal" hours would be heaven right now. The unpredictability is exciting, but it’s hard for me to meet my other commitments, like blog posting and swap-meet organizing.

(And getting a puppy, finally! More on that at a later date, though.)

Anyway, the swap meet/party/model horse get together is a go for May 15th; once I finish up this post I’ll be working on hammering out the rest of the details. It’ll be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., set up beginning at 9 a.m. There will probably be a small, nominal fee for tables to help cover the cost of the hall rental. More details early next week.

Since it’s being done on such short notice, it’s going to be a relatively casual affair; if the response is any indication, though, a bigger and better event may be planned for the future. There’s definitely a demand for small, regional model horse conventions that don’t necessarily revolve around live showing. We’ll see how it goes, and take it from there.

So it appears that the "final" list of Tent Line SRs has been made:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/blog/

Pictures of most of the samples, on display at Equine Affaire this week, have also been circulating; as expected, new photos are starting to change opinions, mostly for the better. I’m not normally a porcelain person, but the level of detail lavished on the Indian Horse "Dances With Wolves" is giving me pause. Wow, seriously wow.

There’s also a mystery horse: a long-tail Lady Phase in what I’m guessing is a really peculiar (yet intriguing) no-spot Appaloosa. It’s not shown in the list of SRs on the blog, so there’s some speculation about her status - is she Tent Line Special, Store Special, or something else?

Radar has been more or less confirmed as the Store Special, but there’s nothing to say that the Lady Phase couldn’t be either. Or maybe she’s an entirely new type of SR classification we don’t know about yet. As for Radar, I’m definitely warming up to him; the close up shots of his sweet face are winning me over.

Has anyone else noticed that Reeves is being very forthcoming with the item numbers this year, too? We even know the item number for the Early Bird Special Opening Night - according to the Facebook page, he’s #711126. Much appreciated, Reeves, really and truly. Keep it up!

More and better posts next week; the work schedule looks a little less hectic.

Smoking Hot

Another rough week, over with.

Finished doing the purge today - and it wasn’t quite as drastic as I thought, or hoped for. I did not expect to be so unreasonably attached to certain molds, for one thing (the Cantering Welsh Pony? Really?)

But the process is as done as it’s going to be, except for the selling. I am most definitely not welcoming that; I’m contemplating on the wisdom of getting a table at the swap meet this year instead of dealing with all the fuss and bother of eBay or MH$P.

Of course, now I have the immediate issue of where I’m going to store all of my "new" sales items. It’s only going to get worse, now that the flea market season is almost upon us, too. While I’ve been pretty good about staying out of the stores and off of eBay, I feel like I have a moral obligation to rescue any lost little equine souls I happen to find there.

I’ll just have to postpone worrying about it until it actually becomes an issue. I have enough real problems to deal with at the moment.

So Reeves announced the QuarterFest and BreyerWest SRs: the Gloss Dapple Gray Lady Phase "Smokin Hot Chic" and the light chestnut/dark palomino El Pastor "Escondido," respectively. They both seem quite nice, given the photographs they’ve provided. I don’t think it’s likely I’ll be adding either to my herd due to the ongoing space issues, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Of the two, I’d pick the El Pastor over the Lady Phase; I have a soft spot for the Spanish Breeds, and I already have the earlier version of the Dapple Gray Lady Phase, with black points and the resist dapples. A second dapple gray would be nice, but not a necessity.

Here’s a nifty old file photo of the real El Pastor, from the October 1969 issue of Western Horseman. The similarity of the El Pastor mold to this photograph (right down to the swish of his tail!) makes me wonder if Chris Hess used this photo as one of his sculpting references.


I have to say I’ve been quite amused by the frenzied online reaction to the Lady Phase: it sort of reminded me of the good ol’ days of JAH, when they still ran classifieds. Whenever someone wrote an article about a particular mold or model, the next two or three issues would be filled with want ads begging for the featured model. (Sometimes quite literally: "If you have any free models, send them to me!" ads were just as much a nuisance then as now.)

It makes me wonder if one of the factors influencing the online frenzy is the same absence of information that drove the desires found in the JAH classifieds. You’d think that with all of the information available online, that hobbyists would be somewhat more informed about upcoming and current releases, but it’s just not the case. How many times have you seen some new SR or variation discussed to death on some online forum, only to see it brought up a few days or weeks later by a clueless someone who thinks they found something new and mysterious?

(Seriously people, would it kill you to do 30 seconds of research before you post something? Gah!)

The somewhat more muted reaction to the Escondido tells me that most of the crazy for Smokin Hot Chic is it being a combination of "Lady Phase" and "Gloss Finish." I like Lady Phase, but I’m not going to lose my mind if I don’t get one. A lack of space and money tends to reorder your priorities that way.