Forgettable

I can’t believe I forgot about the Llanarth True Briton model in my discussion of potential BreyerFest Pony specials. Again! What is it about that mold that sinks it down my own personal memory hole?

(Yeah, I also forgot about the Cantering Welsh Pony and Newsworthy, but the forgetfulness doesn’t sting as much with them, somehow.)

Another pony that seems to inspire forgetfulness is the Galiceno Pony. Here she is in her original release of Bay:


It’s easy to see why she’s overlooked: like a lot of Breyer molds from the late 1970s, she’s a little on the bland and generic side (Stud Spider, anyone?) The mold itself is competently done, with a rather nicely sculpted head, but it’s definitely not one that inspires collector passion.

The mold has come in a small, but not displeasing assortment of colors over the years. In addition to the Bay, there have been two shades of Dun - a lighter shade as the 743 Criollo Pony, and a more metallic one for the BreyerFest 2004 Maracas Contest Prize - and a masked Black Leopard Appaloosa, as the portrait model for the POA Foundation Sire Black Hand. (Very well done, in my opinion.)

Then there was Freckle Doll, another one of Reeves’ more inexplicable pinto paint jobs:


I know I wasn’t the only one who opened the box, flipped her around, and then proceeded to yell out loud "That’s it - one big white splotch? Are you serious?"

I like to imagine that the Powers-That-Be must have forgotten that the mold already came in Bay, rubberstamped it for production, only realizing a day or two later the magnitude of the mistake. Which some brilliant quick thinker "solved" with a bit of acetone and a cotton ball.

I have absolutely nothing to back me up on this hypothesis, other than the wealth of other crazy-but-true stories I’ve heard that would make it seem not-implausible, at least.

The one advantage to the mold’s generic nature is that you can dress it up any way you want, and turn it into almost anything you need. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Galiceno could turn up as a BreyerFest special this year. I think she’d be rather fetching in some shade of gray, dappled or otherwise.

Happily Ever After

First, I stand corrected on the two-point trot thing: yes, Llanarth came out in 1994, four years before Rejoice. I had a funny feeling I was forgetting someone! It would have to be the Llanarth - I don’t know what it is about that mold, but he always slips down my personal memory hole.

Regarding artists who shouldn’t be sculptors: there’s more to the topic than you might think, history-wise, but I’m not up for that level of research this week.

The only research I’m up for right now is for the BreyerFest Fairy Tale Ending Contest. I was trying to come up with something that was cute, clever and immediately recognizable - and I think I have! I’m about at the same level of giddiness for this idea as I was for my "Belgian Chocolate Belgian" idea back in 2008. A good sign, I hope.

There’s not quite the same amount of work involved this time around; the key this time will be in picking just the right models to pull the idea off. My body box is a little sparse right now; I could make it work with what I’ve got, but I’ve got the time to find something better, so I might as well take advantage of it.

This year’s Contest Prize Model is a little different: a Dapple Gray Justin Morgan. He’s a little different because he’s the first Traditional Adult Horse mold used as a Prize Model since 2003. (We had the Appaloosa Old Timer "Jake" in 2002, and the Solid Gold Western Horse in 2003.) Everything since then has been smaller either in terms of scale, or stature.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen Justin Morgan in Dapple Gray; Reeves tortured us for several years with a test piece they used to model the #2466 Benchmark Saddleseat Saddle:


What made that test piece stick out in my mind was that it was such a departure: like all too many Breyer molds, Justin Morgan seems to suffer from boring paintjob-itis. Bay, Bay, Bay, Bay, Chestnut and Black: that’s the story of this poor boy’s life.

At least they’ve done a reasonably nice job on most of those colors - the Mahogany Bay on the #822 Morgan (1990-1992) is very handsome, and I think he looks great in Black Sabino as the #945 Tri-Mi Boot Scootin Boogie (1996-1997). He seems to show pretty well, too, regardless of his conservative color palette.

(Or maybe because of it. Another topic one of those topics ...)

One of the few colors that did not turn out so hot was, alas, a more daring color: a Sooty Dappled Buckskin on the #1142 Montana Harvest (2001-2003). While he sold reasonably well - as most Justin Morgans do! - that funky resist underdappling with black overspray definitely did not win fans among hobbyists. Hey, I generally don’t have any problem at all with weird and/or funky paint jobs, but even he was just a bit too outre for me. It made him look moldy.

I’m sure we’re going to hear the requisite whining about the "Happily Ever After" paint job, too. Lately, though, I’ve been tuning out of any online discussion where the term "chicken wire dappling" comes up. I grew up with splash spots, gray oversprayed socks and cornflake-sized resist dapples: I consider "chicken wire dappling" an almost unimaginable improvement.