Sometimes The Only Way Out Is Through

Hey guys, still alive – though not doing much kicking, understandably. Having good days and bad days; hopefully more good than bad moving forward, once the new meds finally kick in.

And if not, Mom’s been crushing it with the vanilla milkshakes.

The worst part of this whole situation is the fact is that I can’t get anything done. I finally have a perfectly legitimate excuse to quilt to my heart’s content, and I can’t, dammit!

And speaking of that, If I haven’t gotten back with anyone, I apologize; I really do appreciate all the cards and plants and letters. Especially the cards and letters – y’all know how much I love ephemera! And feel free to drop me a note anytime. I read everything. 

If you were wondering what my hypothetical BreyerFest selections are, they should be pretty obvious:

As far as Limited Editions go, it’s: Blue Zeus and the Best of BreyerFest Stablemates. Blue Zeus because he’s a Blue Roan Fireheart and the actual live horse I’m basing my Mesteno Custom on. 

The Stablemates are a no-brainer: Stablemates were the first  models I bought with my own money back in the Dark Ages. I am also pretty keen on the mold matches: they are uncannily on point this year, though one is also pretty darn obvious. (I can only imagine what kind of ruckus would have been kicked up if they didn’t pick the Fighting Stallion for Kick Up Your Heels.) 

I think Flowers, the 2021 Raffle Model Bonheur on the Loping Quarter Horse, is probably my favorite here. Such a pretty shade of Chestnut!

Special Runs: I Will Survive (Quagga), and either Fight Song (Pinto Lipizzan) or The Edge of Glory (Ashquar). In spite of my declaration to the contrary, it looks like at least one of my selections this will be chosen purely on sentiment alone. And partly because it’s unavoidable at this point: sometime the only way out of a difficult situation is through.

Sunshine and Cloudy Days

Another short one today: any day that begins with spiders is not a good one.

(Not being intentionally cryptic, but everyone I actually told the story to wigged out, so I’ll spare y’all the details.)

I forgot to mention that I got the Appaloosa Virkie:

I am not displeased – I liked all four color options – but the Appaloosa one was not what I was expecting. 

Another unexpected new addition to the herd: the Walmart “Sunshine Meadows” version of the #62031 Grey Thoroughbred & Dark Grey Foal set. 

With all the crazy awesome models I’ve been getting lately, my Duchess collection had been put on a bit of a backburner, but this set turned up at a price I couldn’t pass up. 

As most of you know, I tend to take a more organic approach to my collection compared to most collectors. While I definitely do have grails and molds I do collect (I just purchased a major grail this week, in fact!) I try not to obsess about them too much, because that only leads to heartbreak and foolishness, like overspending on hot new releases that turn out to be not that pricey six months down the road...

I am also fortunate that many of the models I do collect are vintage or vintage-adjacent, so the possibility of finding them “in the wild” or languishing on a lower shelf in someone’s room at the Clarion exists. I am not going to pay the premium if I don’t have to.

Though occasionally I do, because reality is hard to avoid. As I had to with this week’s big purchase. (I’ve been experiencing a lot of overtime lately, so it was easy to rationalize.)

I have no idea who the Celebration Horse is going to be for next year’s BreyerFest; all I’m hoping for is that the new Lipizzan Adonis is in the mix somewhere, because the rescue of the breed during World War II definitely fits with the “Against All Odds” theme.

And also, I just want a Traditional Lipizzan. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request. Heck, I’ll even take another Classic one.

Out and About

FYI: when the pharmacist says that the Shingles vaccine might kick you in the butt for a day or two, believe them! 

I don’t exactly have a lot of spare time right now, but most of my Friday had to be slept away: my body decided staying awake was not an option. Today I’m just mildly nauseous and have a slight headache: in other words, just your typical Monday, if it didn’t happen to be Saturday. 

This also arrived on Friday and was entirely predictable:

They don’t appear to have sold out yet – either they made more than they usually do of the Classic Gambler’s Choice Web Special, or since it’s a mold made last century nobody but us old farts want it anyway – so I’ll bide my time until the remainder get sold by other means. 

Earlier this week I was in the vicinity of another Tractor Supply that was even less well stocked than my local store, which only served to remind me just how rapacious my local co-hobbyists are. Just two lonely Snowbirds and a Zeke were left!  

Then I thought I’d take a chance at the local Dollar General that I hadn’t gone into in the past couple of months, and found these babies:

Yay, (the) cheap Stablemates! Someone had already swiped the Saddlebreds, but that’s okay: at least I found something. A win is a win, and I am taking it. 

I mean, cripes, even the Stablemates Sets at both Tractor Supplies – which are just early releases, not actually Special Runs or anything – were nowhere to be found.

(Yes, I am aware of the VIN numbers on the TSC releases kinda-sorta make them an exclusive variant, but the road to collecting Stablemate Variations is paved with madness.)

Like Johann, I am going to wait until the entire situation is less ridiculous. The Unicorn sets will be available everywhere eventually. And according to the Breyer web site, display cases of the standard, non-VINed version of the blind bags they sell at TSC will be in stock on the web site soon, so I will go with that as my XMAS present to myself this year, whatever series it happens to be. 

Will I get a chase piece? I’d love to finally get one of those ultra-rare metallic ones, but I am not counting on it. 

Whatever. I’ll just be happy to get a danged box. I don’t have the time to worry about it.

The Bluest Time of the Year

You have no idea how much the wholesome conversation contained in the post previous delighted me! 

As much as I would like to continue it, extended philosophical discussions about the intersection of two of my favorite pastimes will have to be put on pause: I’m now entering my money-making season (both online, and offline) and my spare time is not plentiful.

Speaking of money, some of that as-yet-unmade moolah has already been spent on a Johann: 

I have a feeling I’ll be getting one of the lesser-desired ones – will it be the Appaloosa, or the Palomino? – because that’s how my luck runs. While it does not matter to me (because I do WANT THEM ALL), it would make life less of a hassle if I could get one of the more desirable/expensive ones out of the way first.

While making a post office run earlier in the week, I swung by the local Tractor Supply to see if they had gotten in their Christmas goodies yet, and they did – with the Stablemates predictably absent. Although I don’t have any plans of buying anything from Tractor Supply this year, I rather liked the Future Farmers of America Benefit Horse Blue: I’m not a huge fan of the Geronimo mold, but that shade of indigo was very attractive.  

It reminded me quite a bit of the color of the Curio-sized Resin #9132 Lexington they released at BreyerFest in 2010, except with some added cross-hatching to mimic the FFA corduroy jackets.  

Close up, though, the cross-hatching looks more like scuffs or flaws in the paint, and I imagine a few years from now collectors will assume that they are, the same way many now assume the single eyewhite on the Five-Gaiter Special Run Wil Shriver is, or the black birthmark on the #817 Abdullah release of the Trakehner.

Will I be buying Blue? Unless they go on deep discount, probably not. I have other blue-colored things to buy first, like the third and final Jól: my recently purchased (and extremely affordable) Clear one still resides in his shipping box at the foot of the bed. Maybe tonight, after I get some sleep...

Johann

My schedule is changing again – back to third shift, starting Monday night! – so my posting schedule is going to be a bit messed up here for the next week or so. 

And then I’ll have to start getting ready for Worldcon; it’s been forever since I’ve been to downtown Chicago, and while I’ll probably spend most of my time in the hotel attending panels and stuff, I don’t plan on spending all of my time there. 

I’m already planning to meet up with a couple of other hobbyists while I’m in town; if you haven’t already contacted me, feel free to do so – the more, the merrier! (I plan on wearing at least one model horse-related shirt during the event as a conversation starter, if nothing else.)

My biggest concern about the trip, though, is whether or not I’m going to miss Johann:

As you might know, I’ve not had the best luck with buying “first come/first served” Collector’s Club Exclusives. Now that I’ll be back on nights AND will be out of town in late August/Early September – the window of time Johann will allegedly be released – well, things aren’t looking so great for this guy, either.

This is a huge potential bummer for me because I collect the Classic Lipizzan: I think I have every release except a couple of the Pegasi, including Cosmus and the weird 1985 Flocked Blue Christmas release. 

I don’t have any Test Colors either, but there aren’t a lot of them floating around, as far as I can tell. A Matte Five-Gaiter Sorrel one that sold on eBay a little while back went for beaucoup bucks. (I remembered because, alas, I had fleeting notions of bidding.)

I know everyone is freaking out about the Solid Bay, but I really don’t care which color I get, because I want all of them. Well, I suppose getting the Bay one first would definitely help me out financially, but my first concern is just in getting any at all at this point. 

I’m hoping that the fact that he’s not a newer – or particularly popular – mold will also help me out, but in this market I will take nothing for granted. 

(And yikes, Reeves, did you Google the Johann + Breyer combo ahead of time? That’s awkward, especially for something that debuted at a German-themed BreyerFest. Again, you left Horst right there on the table…) 

Fewer Clowns, More Horses

If I wrote a slightly fictionalized account of my Monday, the only parts of it anyone would find credible would be the fictionalized parts. 

To give you some flavor of what I went through, at one point during that day – in a rare moment of verbal acuity – I did actually say “I think I’ll run away and join the circus: fewer clowns, more horses.”

Anyway, because the way the week began, I fell off the caffeine wagon and now have a massive migraine and am not in much of a mood to talk. So I’ll let this picture of my Kaleidoscope, with the Classic Lipizzan cousin for scale, do most of the talking:

There is nothing particularly noteworthy about my Kaleidoscope; I was just glad that, as I anticipated, he wasn’t an immediate sell out. So many people were so focused on getting something special – like the Grab Bags, and (later) the Deco Variations – he’s largely been thrown down the memory hole. 

So let’s take a moment to appreciate his rainbow loveliness. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in acquiring rare things that we forget the easier-to-acquire things can be just as beautiful or meaningful.

(Well, that’s what I tell myself when every time I lose an online auction. Sometimes I even believe it!)

It’ll be neat to see this color on something bigger; I’d prefer it on a more vintage mold, either the Family Arabian Stallion or the Classic Lipizzan (duh!) would do. 

More Classic Lipizzans in general would be a great idea: I am not particular on the color, as long as it’s not another shade of White or Aged Gray. It’s funny that the Stablemate Lipizzan hasn’t come in any shade of gray yet, but the Classic has come in almost nothing else, except for its Fantasy releases. 

A Rainbow Decorator Classic Lipizzan would be a nice compromise!

Incidentally, I’ve also seen the blurry photo of this year’s Tractor Supply Specials that’s been floating around. 

I’m not going to talk about the specific details of them until we see something that’s more than blobs of pixels on the Internet. All I’ll say at this point is that I am relieved that there doesn’t appear to be anything that’s a must-have for me, other than the Stablemate Chase Pieces.

Cosmus

I was pretty excited when, after a nearly 20 year hiatus, the Classics Lipizzan mold returned in the Zodiac Series in 2015. I was hoping that the Sagittarius was a harbinger of the mold returning to production as an actual horse, and not strictly as a base for more fantasy releases.

So I was rather bummed when I walked into the NPOD this year and saw a big stack of the new Pegasus release Cosmus:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/cosmus?__wwbt=1192.989.27.2.1

The lavender shading is very appealing, but this is not what I was hoping for. In fact, it’s the exactly the opposite of what I was hoping for.

Horses are awesome and fantastical creatures on their own; while I am all for funky colors and gloss or metallic finishes – I would have bought him in a heartbeat if the paint job was all the “fancifying” had been done to the mold – the wings squashed my enthusiasm for Cosmus from the get-go.

It’s a bit of a stretch to call the Lipizzan my favorite Classics mold, but I do have most of them. I don’t have the last two releases prior to the Sagittarius – the Toys ‘R’ Us Special run “Pegasus III” on 2000 and the Regular Run “Mystical Pegasus” from 2002-2004 – because I was done with seeing him as a flying horse by then.

Nothing against Flying Horses or Unicorns – I just wanted more Lipizzans!

As the recent Premier Club releases of Carina and Selene show, you can extend the acceptable palette for Lipizzaners by simply going historical. Or with different shades of gray, different types of dappling, different finishes (Chalky, Glossy, Iridescent, Metallic…)

Or even a basic Bay or Chestnut. Why that hasn’t happened, when rare or less desirable colors on other breeds have had their time in the sun as Breyer releases, I don’t know.

FWIW, I will probably get a Cosmus eventually. Just...not right now.

When History Shakes Your Hand

Originally I was going to write about that cute Dally and Spanky Store Special Set, but I was just looking at the BreyerFest Blog – ostensibly to check out today’s post about the Sunday Raffle Model Rangoli – but I found that the post from the day before… was directly relevant to something I had been trying to write about for a week.

I guess now is the time!

On the blog yesterday they announced the addition of the author Elizabeth Letts to seminar schedule. She wrote The Eighty-Dollar Champion, about the famous show jumper Snowman, who has been made into a Breyer model a twice over – and I own them both. That alone would be reason enough to have her as a guest. (And get my copy autographed!)

But she’s written another book, The Perfect Horse, about the rescue of the horses – primarily Arabians and Lipizzaners – seized/kidnapped by the Nazis for their equine breeding program. I’m sure most of you are familiar with or have seen the movie The Miracle of the White Stallions? That’s part of that story.

Prior to seeing that movie in elementary school, World War II was an abstraction for me. Most of my relatives (Belgian, Polish, Hungarian) had left Europe earlier, and those relatives that did serve never spoke of their service, at least not when the kids were around.

Anyway, as I’m walking in to work one day last week I overhear two coworkers talking – about horses! This is not unusual when I am present, but (obviously) I had not been present when this conversation started.

This was completely unknown to me before, but apparently the family of one of my coworkers – an older, soft-spoken lady who is also a professional clown – owned a Lipizzan farm in Poland just before World War II. Their horses were among those seized by the Nazis. Her family eventually left Poland for the U.S., but not everyone made it out alive.

I wasn’t quite rendered speechless – I ended up filling in a few incidental details about the story to the other coworker – but I did end up walking around in a bit of a daze for the rest of the day.

As the title of this blog makes abundantly clear, history is my thing. Most of the time I have to hunt and peck for it, but other times – like last week – it walks up to me and shakes my hand.

Awesome Alabasters II: Classic Lipizzans

Long story, but I ended up working on Black Friday, so I managed to get through the biggest shopping day of the year (for normal people) without spending money on anything other than lunch and gas.

Nothing on the Breyer web site has tempted me to buy yet – I already had both a Sonny and a Banff, and I’m waiting for just the right release on the Ashquar. But there’s an entire day yet, and a couple of the Zodiac horses are tempting me, if not the entire set.

The week was not horse-free, as I did make a nice little upgrade with the beautifully shaded Classic Lipizzan in the foreground here:

My previous Lipizzan (in the background) is no slouch in the shading and detail department – and had, in fact, been an upgrade himself – but I just couldn’t pass up the new guy. He has so much shading on his neck and shoulders that he could almost pass for a Smoke.

Most of the Regular Run #620 Lipizzans I meet are fairly tame, usually running very light to nearly white, but every once and a while you’ll run into more generously shaded ones. Ventral stripes and extensive shading around the eyes and muzzle are typical features of these fancier examples.

I haven’t tracked the Lipizzans as closely as the other contemporaneous Classics – namely, the Love Racehorses – to see if there was a progression of the paintjob from dark to light, and when that could have happened.

There were no significant mold changes during the mold initial run from 1975 through 1980, and catalog and promo shots from that era aren’t especially helpful, either. All of the catalog examples are on the lighter side, and almost annoyingly consistent, which in itself is a little unusual for the 1970s.

The variation in the early Lipizzans could just as well have been random and dependent on whoever was assigned to painting booth that day. Or even what the painter had for lunch.

The Purple Lipizzan

The one nice thing about getting just one Just About Horses per year, instead of four? Only having to scroll through the "Where’s My JAH?" discussion once a year!

It's not that I am unsympathetic. We live in a semi-rural area where they’re constantly reworking the mail routes, so we go through periods where the local system is hyper-efficient, and periods when carrier pigeons seem to be a safer bet. I learned a long time ago to not freak out about not getting my JAH until it was at least a month past its expected due date.

And it would almost never fail: the missing issue would show up the day after I called - or even that afternoon! Often in one of those "Oops, we’re sorry your mail got mangled" baggies.

Anyway, mine came on Saturday, in good shape. Of all the interesting things worth talking about, the one thing that excited me the most was this guy:

The return of the Classics Lipizzan, in the Zodiac Collection. The Classics Lipizzan mold has been out of production since 2004, when he was released in another variation of the Pegasus (#3365 Mystical Pegasus). More importantly, though, the last time he was released as a straight-up horse - no wings, horns or other additional appendages - was in the early to mid-1990s, as a Special Run item for the Wonderful World of Horses Tour.

So he’s been out of production for at least a decade - an eternity in Breyer-time; I don’t think any of the others had been out of circulation that long. Even some of the Hagen-Renaker molds weren’t put into mothballs until 2005.

Sure, he’s Bourbon Street Purple (sorta, I think) and part of a series representing the Zodiac, but those are minor details.

Actually, I really like the Bourbon Street Purple color scheme, too. It’s just that I’ve been pining for a realistic color on the Classics Lippy mold that’s not another aged gray/alabaster, something either rare (Bay/Black/Chestnut) or historical (Appaloosa/Dun). Oh well, close enough!

Most of the other molds being used in the Zodiac series are being - or have recently been - used in production runs, which makes me wonder if we’ll be seeing him again, soon. As I mentioned in my initial discussion about the BreyerFest Western Horse Gossamer, it’s economically impractical to drop a mold for production just for a single, low-run special run item.

I do think the Zodiac series will sell better than the Blossoms series. The two negatives I heard/saw most often in response to the Blossoms series were the limited selection of molds used (only three) and the literal-almost-to-the-point-of-tackiness rendering of the floral decals.

In the Zodiac series, each sign is represented by a unique mold: no duplicates here. And instead of fancy decals, Zodiac signs rendered as hip brands, against Semi-Decorator/Decorator paint jobs. They're almost tasteful.

I don't have a problem with either tasteful or tacky, but I can definitely see that as a consideration in the homes of hobbyists fortunate enough to be able to integrate their collection into their decor.

Aside from the Lipizzan, the Bucking Bronco/Aries and the Warmblood Stallion/Taurus (my sign!) may be coming home with me. More, depending on how they look in person.

Red Flags

Reeves finally got around to crediting former JAH subscribers for the remainder of their subscriptions - online store credit codes, as I expected. I’ll save mine up for either the next Web Special I win, or for BreyerFest tickets, whatever comes up first.

I wanted to write about the Valentine’s Day SR, but since Reeves hasn’t "officially" released the body shots to the public yet (as of this posting), I’ll have to put off my commentary until next time.

That’s okay, it’ll give me time to polish it into something other than me complaining about other people complaining. Been there, done that. Repeatedly.

Instead, let’s complain about something else today - like that second dubious Red Pegasus that sold on eBay for an undeserving amount of money. There’s something I can get good and righteous about!

Sigh. There are some models that just set me off. You know about the Black Adios, and I’ve (so far) spared you the ugly details about why I don’t own an SR Buckskin Adios. I’ve already done a post about my annoyance over people claiming they have Kansas City Shams, and someday soon you’ll know why I feel the same way about the "Trakehner Society" Trakehners.

This week, the Red Pegasus has entered that hallowed canon.

I’ve written before about my frustration about giving advice to people about the authenticity of rare or questionable models. All too often, it’s merely a formality: what the owner is seeking is validation of their purchase. Tell them that you have serious doubts about a model's authenticity, and some of them will either (a) tell you you don’t know what you’re talking about, or (b) go find someone else that will tell them it’s authentic.

Not a lot, mind you, but enough to give me pause.

So anyway, in spite of the fact that the seller’s story was extremely dubious to begin with - and some details later proven demonstrably false, on Blab - the second one still sold for almost $400.

What I fear most is not that it will encourage this seller - and others of similar moral caliber - to mysteriously "discover" more Red Pegasi in the attic. That’s a given. No, it’s that these auctions will be used as proof of the authenticity of future auctions to come. "Gosh, two other ones just like it sold on eBay for mucho bucks, so it’s gotta be real! Collectors must know something I don’t know!"

Ah, if only that were so. I won’t point out anyone in particular, or name any names, but there are some profoundly uninformed hobbyists out there. The kind that buy first, and ask questions later. (A philosophy that I have recommended in the past - but only in smaller, more affordable doses.)

As far as I know, there’s only one Red Pegasus that I - and most other model horse historians - would consider above reproach. All we have is one model, and some theories. No ephemera, no other corroborating evidence of any kind.

This is not the kind of evidence to bet big money on.

Musings

As you might have guessed by now, my annoyance over the abundance of Weather Girls customs has now been replaced with annoyance over all the Sunshine Celebration models now being listed everywhere.

You know my opinion about these sort of events: I’m not keen on them. Most rank and file hobbyists are already at wit’s end trying to acquire more "common" items like Web Specials and Weather Girls. It shouldn’t be a surprise that when they hear reports of some attendees complaining that the special runs they’re being offered at said super-exclusive event aren’t up to their standards, they’re not going to take it well.

It’s more than mere jealousy, it’s also frustration - inelegantly expressed, sometimes, but something I think we shouldn't dismiss so easily.

Fortunately, another distraction came my way this week: my JAH.

The Sunday Raffle model, a loose-maned sabino Cleveland Bay named King Arthur, is nice. He doesn’t rock my work like the Saturday Raffle model Muse does, but if on the rare chance I do win him, I’ll cherish him just the same. If the universe decides I need one, who would I be to turn down the gift?

I think it’s love when it comes to Muse, though: a non-pastelly Pegasus on a Nokota Horse? Be still my heart! It doesn’t hurt that his name has some special meaning to me, too. (Nothing you need to know, other than it does.)


Oddly, I don’t have the same indifference to Breyer’s flying horses that I do to its unicorns. Maybe it’s because the wings are removable, and less prone to breaking. They may not look as "realistic" as the unicorn horns do, in execution, but clumsy me is willing to trade a little realism for safety.


The wings themselves are actually rather well-sculpted; I can remember making note of that when the first Pegasus - the Classic Lipizzan release #209 - was released in 1983. What I didn’t like the fact that they had decided to put the slots for the wings in the middle of the Lipizzan’s back. Sure, the same rules of logic and anatomy don’t necessarily apply to fantasy creatures, but it still didn’t seem like quite the right place to put a pair of wings.

Reeves was probably thinking the same thing: the more recent Pegasus releases - first on the Silver, for the second Treasure Hunt Redemption Horse in 2007, and now the Muse - have somewhat more plausible wing positioning.

I never did get around to getting the Treasure Hunt Pegasus - my lack of enthusiasm for the Silver mold is also well-documented - but I do have most of the other Pegasuses (Pegasi?) on the Lipizzan mold. All except the most recent release #3365 in 2003-2004, and the creepy blue flocked one from the 1985 J.C. Penney’s Christmas Catalog. (Actually, I did own the blue flocked one, briefly, but that was a little mix-up on Santa’s part.)

Hope I get the chance to add Muse to my plastic rookery. I might even - gasp! - buy a few more than my usual ten-dollars-per-raffle allotment.

Snowpocalypse Now

I can’t believe I have to go in to work tonight - on Snowpocalypse Eve. My boss just called and told me I didn’t have to work in the morning, which is sort of meaningless, since I’ll probably still be working from the night before. Or on my way home, if I’m lucky…

For no particular reason, I was thinking about the Classic Lipizzan mold today. It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen him last - in 2003 and 2004, as the 3365 Mystical Pegasus. And even longer since we’ve seen him as an actual Lipizzan, the last being a shaded Alabaster Special Run made for the touring show "The Wonderful World of Horses," in the 1990s (starting in 1993, and running until …well, I don’t know. Through most of the 1990s, at least. It was one of those open-ended Specials.)


This guy's the regular run #620, with better-than-average shading. Early ones tended to have extra facial shading and more pronounced ventral stripes. The two later SR Alabasters - the 1992 German SR, and the touring show SR - had grayer hooves, and more body shading.

Most of his releases have been of the fantastical type - either as Pegasi, or Unicorns - in various shades of Black, White or (inexplicably) Blue. I’m not a huge fan of the fantasy horses, but I do like the Lipizzan mold, so I have most of them. But not all: y’all know I don’t do flockies. I have not been, and never will be, in the market for one of those creepy flocked blue things from the 1985 J. C. Penney’s Christmas Catalog. (They disturb me so much I prefer to not even acknowledge their existence, most days. Glass eyes = Always a bad idea, Custom or OF.)

There’s a possibility that we’ll see the mold again at BreyerFest, if his prior history is any indication. They’ve already announced an SR Unicorn, so there has to be an SR Pegasus in the mix somewhere, and he’s the most logical candidate.

I’m okay with that, as long as they do something a little more original with his coloring - a wild Dark Dappled Gray (like the Traditional Pluto release of Embajador IX) would look pretty neat, as would a Charcoal or (swoon!) Silver Filigree. Anything Decoratory will do, just as long as they don’t fall back on their "Pastel Alabaster" cliché.

If I had the preference, I’d rather have him back as a plain old Lipizzan, again - no wings, no horns, no unnatural colors. He doesn’t have to be some shade of Aged Gray or Alabaster, either: there are all sorts of historical colors to choose from - Pintos, Appaloosas, Duns - but I’d be cool with a Dark Dappled Gray, too.

What I’m really pining for is a simple, straight up Bay. I’m not asking for anything fancy - a little bit of white, a little pangare, a hint of shimmer - all the usual details they pack on a standard OF paint job nowadays. I just hope that if they do make one - for BreyerFest, or any other occasion - they are not quite as rare as the real thing.

Spelling Test

I understand that standardized spelling is a relatively recent invention, and everyone has certain words and rules that are just beyond their grasp. (The "ie" rules are mine.) You might be an uncoordinated typist, or come to English as a non-native speaker, or suffer from a form of dyslexia. I get that.

What peeves me off is when folks consistently misspell proper names. The one that’s really been grating my cheese lately is The Nokota Horse. It’s NOKOTA, not NAKOTA.

It’d be one thing if it had been misspelled on the box, or in the catalog, or online through the official sources. But for the most part, it’s not. It’s hobbyists, being inattentive, indifferent, or just too darn lazy to look it up - all the things they accuse Breyer of being.

Breyer has committed many a serious - and sometimes amusing - spelling faux pas in the recent and not-so-recent past. For many years, they had trouble with the word Lipizzan:



They corrected it the catalog the following year, to the equally wrong "Lippizan." Not surprisingly, when they released the Classic Lipizzan in 1975, they managed to finally get it right on the box - but still spelled it wrong everywhere else!

You might have noticed that this is a twofer: notice "Palamino?" Palomino is consistently misspelled throughout this 1968 catalog, which is a bit of a mystery since Breyer didn’t have much problem spelling it before - or after. (Was there no time for proofreading, or was a rookie typesetter to blame?)

And then there’s my personal favorite, the Charcoal G2 Morgan BreyerFest "Kay Chain."

That one - and most of the more recent spelling errors - are probably translation or transcription errors. Amusing, but not offensive, except to remind us of the uncomfortable fact of overseas production.

And then there’s the term "Wedgewood Blue:"


Any pottery or antique collector worth their weight in Jasperware knows the correct spelling is "Wedgwood." (Type up both spelling variations in MS Word and see for yourself!)

The Wedgewood error is a very common and persistent one, especially among people with only a passing familiarity with collectible pottery. Some companies add the "e" intentionally when they use that word as an adjective or in a description to indicate they’re not officially affiliated with the actual pottery.

I’m not sure the higher-ups at Breyer were thinking that far in advance; I think it was just a simple spelling error. However, they did just have a run-in with Hagen-Renaker a couple of years earlier, so it’s possible that one of their lawyers may have advised them to add the extra "e" to cover their hindquarters, just in case another "nasty lawyer letter" arrived on their doorstep.