Lucky Breaks

To give you an idea of just how tired I was this week, I came home from work yesterday, ran a few errands, ate dinner, decided to take a quick nap clutching one of my favorite finds from BreyerFest (as one does), and didn’t wake up for nearly 14 hours.

Here is the model in question, who somehow managed to survive the experience unscathed:

A Glossy Bay Appaloosa Quelle Surprise from a $200 Warehouse Finds Box! Who is, of course, not going anywhere because I almost never get Gloss Surprises, when I manage to actually get a Surprise at all. (The Appaloosa was my second choice after the Perlino that year. The spotting pattern is really nice, and Gloss Dark Bay is never not awesome, duh.)

The rest of that box was also pretty decent:

• BreyerFest 2016 Special Run Furano
• BreyerFest 2021 Crystal Sherman Morgan “Prisma”
• BreyerFest 2018 Special Run Scamper Boxed Set
• BreyerFest 2020 Gloss Cheesecake

I traded the Furano for a Buckskin Pech Merle, and sold the Prisma and the Cheesecake for cost (more or less) at the hotel later in the day. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the Scamper set yet; he’ll probably be for sale later in the year when I finally (ha!) get my act together and start selling stuff regularly again. 

Other people were not as lucky with their boxes, and others moreso. I believe someone received a box that had both a Purple Gran Cavallo AND a set of Silver Bears. If I had gotten that one, a medical intervention would have ensued, because screaming and fainting would have definitely happened.

But I think I did okay. Better than I expected, anyway. Definitely worth sitting on the pavement for two and a half hours watching Gamera movies. 

Anyway, since my body decided to sleep half a day away, that’s all you’re getting today. More tomorrow, I promise!

Some Days Just Be Like That

Yesterday was ridiculous.

First, I apparently wore my tee-shirt backwards the entire day and nobody bothered to tell me.

Second, I had an eBay transaction canceled on me. The seller gave me fifteen minutes (!) to respond to a question about shipping costs. In the middle of the day, when I had no access to any electronic devices whatsoever. 

Third, as I was going through the rest of my e-mails I discovered that there was a second Collector’s Club release – an Appaloosa Lonesome Glory named Sassy – but it was sold out already so never mind.

Truth be told: (a) I wasn’t in a situation where anyone would have either noticed or really cared about the shirt, (b) that deal was probably too good to be true, and (c) I am not all that into the Lonesome Glory mold anyway.

As for the quick sellout on the Sassy, it’s mostly a combination of Glossy finishes making hobbyists dumb and people with multiple accounts taking advantage of their fellow hobbyists’ desperation for anything glossy. 

There’s nothing that can be done to counter the all-gloss, all-the-time mindset; y’all know I’ve tried my best. But we can counter the opportunity for profit-taking by resisting the urge to reward that behavior. 

That’s why I don’t have a Buckskin Adios or the Polled Hereford Bull Marshall and (probably) never will. (Yeah, I saw the Marshall on eBay. Wasn’t me that bought it, that’s for sure….)

I’m good. You know I’ve gotten my fair share of goodies this year. I’m mainly kvetching because of other, more serious nonsense I had to deal with today and it takes my mind off of all that. 

But back to the topic: I don’t know why they switched the Collector’s Club Exclusives to a first-come, first-served basis when they had been doing pre-orders before. I am going to assume that there’s some logic to the decision that currently escapes my tired and exasperated brain. (Too much extra hassle for the additional profit?)

I will get myself a Fabio eventually, but like the Dapple Gray Belgian I was hoping for, I will have to wait until the next in-person BreyerFest. Not going to bother with Sassy, unless I see it in person and find myself smitten. 

That’s it for today; I need to get back to cleaning and sorting out the mess of models that I have, and not worry as much about the mess that I missed out on. 

Fun Daze

Interesting: apparently most – but oddly, not all – of my Breyer e-mails have been going into my spam folder for at least a month now. Not quite understanding why some were marked as spam and some came through just like normal, if they’re all marked with the same address and originate from the same server. The problem is now fixed, I hope…

Second – there’s a National Fun Day planned for October 19 at retailers across the country. Normally I don’t go to these events because they tend to be tailored to a younger crowd – justifiably! – but one of the participating retailers is only about twenty minutes from my house.

Hmm. Interesting.

Since it appears that I won’t be able to make it to any live shows or other model horse type events until next year, I might swing by just for the model horse chatter. While I might not be the same age as most of the participants, we definitely speak the same language!

And sometimes that’s all that matters, especially when you are surrounded in your “mundane” life by people who don’t know Bay from Chestnut, or a Saddlebred from a Standardbred. Or, when they hear you mention Breyer think you’re talking about ice cream.

Right now it’s too soon to tell if my schedule will even allow it. I hope so.

Third, all of the Halloween stuff is now sold out except the Plushie Boo, who they are now offering as a freebie with qualified $50 purchase while supplies last. Not my thing because of the dog, but in case you were planning on some shopping over the weekend, there you go. 

And finally, the Giraffe is not the Giraffe I was expecting: it’s Lonesome Glory and not Forever Saige.

Nadifa is very nicely executed, but the over-the-top craziness I require in my modern Decorator purchases is not quite there. I will enter once, but other people love Lonesome Glory far more than I do, and I won’t stand in their way.

On the plus side, I can now go purchase a Khalid (and whatever else tickles my fancy) without the budget guilt. If anymore are left to be found; I just saw what they are going for on eBay, and now I know why my local store just ran out!

Color Shifts

We had the mold for the Pop-Up Store Stablemate figured out all along, but the color is an… interesting choice:

Color shifting purple and green? Okay, sure. I still think painting it to look exactly like a mini Alborozo would have been a better choice, but there could have been some legal issues that probably made it problematic, so I can respect that.

It’s funny, but I am not as enthused about color shift paint jobs as other hobbyists are. I don’t actively dislike them, but I find them kind of simplistic. There is not a lot of artistry to it: the fancy paint does most of the work of shading and color mixing on its own.

The first true Color Shift production run was the 2010 Just About Horses Special Run Gambler’s Choice Mirror Image/Reflector, on the Lonesome Glory mold.

My history with that release reflects (no pun intended!) my ambivalence about the paint itself. I bought one in the initial offering, and got Mirror Image; he really didn’t do anything for me, so I sold him a short time later. Not long after that, I found another boxed one in the NPOD at BreyerFest – and when I opening it up, it turned out to be Reflector!

I liked him a little bit better – if you’re going to go weird, go weird all the way! He hung around a little bit longer than the Mirror Image, but even he got sold, eventually.

When it comes to Lonesome Glory Special Runs, my heart belongs to more realistic releases, like Red Rum or Phar Lap. I suppose the Perlino version of the 2015 BreyerFest Surprise Model Quelle Surprise also falls into that category, though just barely. (The realism part, not the wanting part: I still totally want him.)

If I want something in the Decorator family, give me something straight up pearly or metallic! What’s nice about those types of paints is that they can be used either for the outright fantastical – like the current crop of Unicorn releases – or used to give an other ordinary color a wonderful extra pop, like that gorgeous light blue iridescent sheen on last year’s BreyerFest Celebration Horse Brass Hat.

While I will still be looking to add a “Sarge” to my BreyerFest tab, the way my schedule is shaping up, it doesn’t look I’ll be able to swing by a store at a time early enough for them to still be in stock at one of the Pop-Up Stores – unless they plan on making a boatload more of them than they usually do.

Beautiful, or Useful?

This is one of my favorite quotes, from the Victorian writer and artist William Morris, that I hope requires no explanation:

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. 

It’s a good quote to keep in mind while cleaning, decluttering, or redecorating!

The quote came to mind a while back when I was skimming through some discussions of the Surprise models, and what constitutes a popular mold. Is a mold that gets put into production frequently – at least as frequently as the Lonesome Glory has in the past 18 years – actually popular, in the same ways the Traditional Silver or Lady Phase are?

I don’t necessarily think so.

The most frequently produced Breyer molds – like every other object in your home – can also be categorized as either useful, or beautiful. The ones considered “useful” fit a certain type or fill a certain niche; while those considered “beautiful” are considered aesthetically desirable, independent of any other qualities it might have.

I consider the Lonesome Glory mold to be more of the former, than the latter. It fills a niche – a more modern mold that represents a racing condition Traditional Thoroughbred jogging up to the gate. The mold also has a relatively small “footprint” – it doesn’t take up nearly as much space as a Ruffian, Cigar or Smarty Jones does, and requires no base – but it’s still in an active (nonstanding) pose.

That I think explains why the Lonesome Glory mold has had so many releases over its relatively short life span. It filled a niche, irrespective of its aesthetic qualities: for 18 or so years, it has been Breyer’s go-to mold for a racehorse.

The Carrick mold now fills a similar niche – and is newer – which is why I think we’ll be seeing more of him and a little bit less of Lonesome Glory over the next few years.

For those of us who’ve been around the block a dozen or few times, the Lonesome Glory – released in 2000 – may seem modern, but to many younger or less experienced collectors, he’s positively ancient.

I think back to my experience collecting, starting in (ulp!) 1974: the Traditional Man o’ War mold had only been in production since 1967 – so, about seven years – and most of the other Traditionals that filled the line back then were not that much older.

And when I “officially” entered the hobby in 1978, the “Old Mold” Mare and Foal had only been introduced 20 years earlier! It does not seem so deep a distance in retrospect, but back then it felt like an eternity.

Back to bed for me; I’ve now moved on to the coughing portion of the cold, and my family would prefer that I do that in the privacy of my sickbed…

Hitting Jackpots

I know some folks were expecting an actual portrait of Buchiko, but BreyerFest Portrait Models tend to be actual Guest Horses or performers. Some earlier Guest Horse Portrait Models were made as Ticket Specials – like The Lark Ascending – but Reeves has now relegated most of those to Store Specials.

That makes sense, because casual attendees and One-Day ticket purchasers who might not be able to snag a Celebration Horse model might still have the (theoretical) opportunity to purchase a model of a different Guest Horse.

(I still think the Scamper Reissue is going to be way more popular than most hobbyists realize – the original release ran forever for a reason!)

I like it! But. 

I ended up selling off my 2015 Lonesome Glory Quelle Surprise, and I’m on the verge of selling my 2016 Bozeman, who has a similar color if not pattern. I thought I’d love him, but like has not yet turned to love, and I’m doubting it’ll happen soon…

I guess I’ll have to wait until I see an By a Nose in person. And see what else is being offered: there are still the Stablemates, the Decorator release, and the multitudes of Pop-Up store merchandise to come.

The Sunday Raffle Horse Jackpot is pretty faboo, but he is (a) a Glossy (b) Leopard Appaloosa (c) with halo spots (d) Raffle Model on the (e) Hot New Bristol Mold.

In other words, his name is very appropriate: I have a better chance of finding a five-dollar Decorator at the flea market between now and then. Or being hit by a meteorite.

(Note: We did have a “close” call on some meteorites a few months ago. Decorators? Not so much. As in ever.)

But I’ll put in my tickets, all the same. Every time I think my luck is the absolute pits, I have to think back to last summer and the five-dollar box of Hagen-Renakers.

I had some additional stuff I wanted to say about the Lonesome Glory mold, but the brain is starting to get a bit foggy. I appear to have contracted a rapidly escalating cold, and my body is telling me it’s already made plans for the weekend.

Things You Wish For

I’ve resisted the siren call of the Breyer Black Friday Pre-Sale so far. I already had a Charlie and a Bravo, and the only other thing calling my name – the Deer Family – is a Regular Run item I can wait on.

In the ongoing end-of-year hubbub I forgot to mention that I got the Gambler’s Choice Reiner that I wanted – the Brindle! Yay!

Getting what I want doesn’t happen nearly as often as I’d like (my recent eBay bidding history is testament to that!) so he’s been sitting just under my monitor here as a reminder that every once and a while, you do get what you wish for.  

Since I am not in a very talkative mood today – partly because my fingers are sore from all the quilting I’ve been trying to catch up on this week – here’s another picture of another piece that was something wished for:

Yes, this is a Connoisseur Thrillseeker. Sort of: it’s actually from a group of unnumbered Thrillseekers that were found in the Ninja Pit a few years ago. I grabbed one, but in the ensuing melee, another Ninja pilfered it from my buy pile while my back was turned.

I still did okay that year – that was the year of the Stablemates Hermes, I believe – but it did sting a bit nonetheless. I had won the first Connoisseur Mosaic, and had hopes of winning the last, Thrillseeker, but that didn’t happen.

To make a long and complicated story short, I obviously and eventually did end up with one!

Since I still don’t have a “normal” Thrillseeker for comparison, I don’t know if there are any subtle or significant differences between the NPOD Thrillseeker and the numbered Thrillseekers, beyond the numbering.

They were probably overruns, but a few years later some equally mysterious Smart and Shineys – with no VINs, a different backstamp and slightly different shading and markings – were also made available in the NPOD.

Those pieces were very obviously a different item from the standard Smart and Shineys that were distributed at BreyerFest in 2013. Which is why I can’t yet shake the nagging possibility that these Thrillseekers might have been something similar. I mean, technically, I guess...

So this is why I still have a Thrillseeker on my want list.

Such is the case of getting what you want, or what you think you want: you just end up moving on to wanting something else.

Rainy Parade

Alas, I was not visited by the Gloss Fairy this year at BreyerFest.

The last time I missed the Ninja Pit was in 2007, due to volunteer commitments; that’s when they tossed in the then-mysterious weighted Home Decorating models and super-rare German Stablemates Sets.

So it came as no surprise that when I had to skip it this year because of the wedding and volunteer commitments (again) that rare stray Glossies, some of last year’s Silver Charms, and other former prize models showed up.

I saw it coming the day before.

When I was taking care of some volunteer business at the Park Thursday afternoon, I took a wide swing by the Pit and saw Glossy Things in the distance, and sighed. I’ve had my share of fabulous finds over the years, so I should complain too loudly. But it did sting a bit still, especially since some of the models found included ones that I busted my behind to win, unsuccessfully.

I did end up getting a nice Sample of the Reissue/Warehouse Find Smoky, and a couple of variations of the new Polled Hereford Bull release, but that was the extent of what I bought in the NPOD this year. That was one of the reasons why I came home with money.

My number draws for the Special Run lines were bad, and I only managed to get one Quelle Surprise Lonesome Glory, and the commonest of the lot, too: the Matte Chestnut Overo. He’s actually quite lovely and well-executed; all four colors were, I thought.

But of the four, my favorite had to be the Cremello/Perlino/Pearl or whatever it was, which just coincidentally happened to be the rarest. (I wouldn’t have minded the Appaloosa one, either. I’ve been loving those Dark Bays lately.) My luck on previous surprise models has been really good, so even that didn’t dampen my mood too much, on its own.

Then came the Costume Contest. I thought I was playing it safe with Le Petit Prince. I’ll let Wikipedia explain why:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince

The novella is the 3rd most-translated book in the world and was voted the best book of the 20th century in France. Translated into more than 250 languages and dialects (as well as Braille), selling nearly two million copies annually with sales totaling over 140 million copies worldwide,‪ it has become one of the best-selling books ever published. 

There’s also a movie coming out very shortly:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPqgSNLfK8

But after the fifth person walked up to me backstage and asked who I was supposed to be, my heart sank. I felt like the only person in Kentucky who took French class.

I put on the brave face anyway. Not only did I not win, I ended up with a dented fender in the Alltech Arena parking lot.

Any one of these incidents wouldn’t have been all that traumatic: upsetting yes, but not in a want-to-hide-under-the-covers way. But all those little raindrops – plus Chicago, plus the weather, plus all the other usual dramas of Kentucky – combined to rain rather profusely on my parade.

There’s always next year. I’m less emotionally invested in a “Rio Carnival” theme, so that might help.

Me and the Triple Crown

The flea market was excellent; some good bodies were present, but mostly I went for the non-model stuff, including a Palenske print of Whirlaway I found in a box of loose ephemera. It was dirty and damaged, but I thought it deserved a better fate than becoming part of someone’s scrapbook project. A much better looking example here:

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/3347297

Speaking of Triple Crown winners…

I didn’t want to be like all those other folks jumping in on the bandwagon, so even though I was home at the time and had no pressing commitments, I decided to not watch the Belmont.

You know how I have a knack for predicting upcoming Breyer releases? I used to have that same "gift" with horse racing. It’s not really a gift, as much as it’s a side effect of deep research: the more you know your stuff, the easier it is to make more-accurate-than-average predictions - sometimes even unintentionally.

I was good enough that I even briefly considered - much to my parents' horror - a career as a bookie.

I haven’t followed racing with that kind of intensity in years. It is interesting that in spite of that I still retained a bit of my horse racing senses: this was the first year I can remember since Affirmed that I didn’t dismiss the idea of another Triple Crown winner to anyone who mentioned the possibility to me.

Horse racing - especially the Triple Crown excitement of the 1970s - is what brought me into the hobby in the first place. Although I had been collecting for a few years prior, and I had been talking about the hobby with a couple of acquaintances I had met on the junior high school bus, I didn’t officially enter it until a few months after Affirmed’s Triple Crown in 1978. I received my first issue of Just About Horses shortly afterwards, and an issue of The Model Horse Shower’s Journal (via JAH) in September of that year, and it’s been downhill ever since.

If recent Breyer history is an indicator, there will be an American Pharoah model, possibly by the end of the year. In general, there haven’t been that many issues with getting permission or licensing rights. I know if I owned a famous/successful racehorse, I’d certainly be welcoming that phone call!

It can take several months or even years to create a mold from scratch; we didn't get the Classics Ruffian mold, for instance, until 1977 - a year and a half after her passing. Since they’ll want to get the model out as soon as possible, the likelihood is that they’ll reuse an already-existing mold.

I could see some slight mold modifications to an existing mold - the simple changes to manes, tails and ears that they’ve been doing for a while now. The suggestion I've seen most often is for the Lonesome Glory mold, and they’ve made changes to that mold before (for the last official Connoisseur, Mosaic), so that might be a good choice.

Second, for those still clamoring for an entirely new mold, let me remind you that only two other winners have had their own dedicated molds: Secretariat, and Citation. The Secretariat mold was not well-received, and the Citation is a G1 (Hagen-Renaker) Stablemates mold.

Everyone else - save the Christmas ornament series - has been on a repurposed mold.

There’s no shame in that. Affirmed was my guy, and I love the example they made of him on the Cigar mold - especially the one in Gloss.

Frame of Mind

I haven’t been in the right frame of mind to do much speculating about What This Year’s Surprise Model Will Be. The current line of thinking is that it’ll be Lonesome Glory, based on an otherwise unidentified set seen during the latest Exclusive Event.

Except for the first Surprise Model - the old Quarter Horse Gelding - the Surprises we’ve had since then have been on modestly popular newer molds like Flash, Ethereal, and Roxy. Lonesome Glory would fit right in to that lineup.

I don’t have any other information or hunches to convince me, and there are a lot of other molds that would also fit. Two other popular guesses right now are Othello and (naturally) the Silver.

My primary argument against either of those molds is that they’re too popular with the segment of the hobby population that does go to BreyerFest. (What colors are left to put the Silver in is also a viable question to ask.) There’s already an inherent appeal in the Surprise Models - that they’re all very limited releases, but a few are more limited than others - that doesn’t need to be sweetened with the addition of it being a Very Popular Mold Already.

I can easily imagine the chaos that would ensue if either model was. The first words that spring to mind? Gasoline on a bonfire. 

They’d also probably be the only molds that would make me bypass getting one. I’m not a very athletic or agile person, and the weight of all the metaphorical daggers in my back that I’d get from people standing behind me in line might be enough to physically topple me over.

I’m not going to give it much more thought until the first bags get opened. And then act accordingly.

There’s been one line of questioning that I have been actively engaging in over the past couple of days - the identity of the mold in the sneak peek photo they gave us on Friday via the Blog and the Facebook:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/bf2014-blog

By the time most of you read this it will have already been revealed, but the first thing I thought when I saw it was: Western Horse?

It’d be both a daring and logical choice. There have been only a handful of actual Western Horse Special Runs: the 1990 Just About Horses Brown Pinto, the 1995 QVC Palomino Reissue, and the Solid Gold pieces given away in 2003 for the T-Shirt/Costume Contest. Frankly, we’re overdue.

There are a couple of other factors working in its favor. First, a Western Horse would be a logical choice for a BreyerFest that’s all about celebrating an Anniversary. Second, I believe a Vintage Club Western Horse Special - either as a part of the Series, or as a Bonus Model - is a matter of when, not if. It’d make sense from an economic standpoint to drop the mold to make enough for two releases, rather than drop it to just make enough for a more limited (350-500 piece) run.

If it’s something like the San Domingo or Old Timer, and I’m made to look silly by the guess, no matter. But I am so on board with the idea of a Chestnut Frame Overo Western Horse Special Run right now I’m already imagining the names I will give it.

I like Stetson.

Chocolates

It feels very strange to be relaxing in an office chair and not have to go to work or to bed within an hour or two. After nearly two weeks of that, I’m not quite sure what to do with myself! Other than clean up the debris left behind. I’ve been picking up stuff all day, and I’m still finding articles of clothing in inappropriate places. (I have a better throwing arm than I thought!)

My Vintage Club Levi arrived a few days ago, but he still hasn’t been opened yet, because work. I am somewhat encouraged by most of the comments I’ve seen in passing this week. More on him next post.

The Grab Bags appear to be what I - and most other hobbyists - assumed they would be: a mix of BreyerFest Specials, Regular Runs, Classics and MiniWhinnies sets. I haven’t seen any reports of crazy-awesome things like Samples or Artist’s Proofs, but it’s still a little early yet, and not everyone wants or needs to share. (Which I am totally fine with, BTW. Some joys are best enjoyed in private.)

I wouldn’t have minded getting a Tinseltown - the dun Lonesome Glory BreyerFest SR from 2010. I wasn’t real crazy about his color back then, but I’ve warmed up to it considerably since then.

Speaking of duns, one of the more captivating new releases for me is the GVF Sjokolade, on the Henry Fjord mold: http://www.breyerhorses.com/gvf

I know there’s been some concern expressed that there might be some difficulty distinguishing his paint job from the original Henry release, or from the WEG Reissue, but if the web site photos are anywhere near the ballpark, I don’t think we have a lot to worry about.

The real horse has brown points, not black or charcoal, which makes sense since his name means "Chocolate" and his barn name is "Hershey"! Even if the color isn’t quite there on the model itself, it looks like they’re loading him up with a different order of detail than the previous Fjords had - better than the Henry, and just plain different from the WEG model.

I think it is a safe bet that this model - in Gloss or Semi-Gloss - will turn up as a prize model in this year’s BreyerFest Youth Show. A highly coveted prize, if my recent experiences with the mold continue to hold. Popular fellow he’s been, lately.

If I’m not lucky enough to locate the Sample "Hershey" this year, I’ll be more than content with just a nicely shaded Regular Run one. Assuming I have the room for him by then.

Off to enjoy the rest of my evening, lounging in flannel jammies, eating clearance Christmas candy and catching up on my TV time. Boring and mundane never felt so inviting.

Being Good

I was so good the other day.

I had a couple of hours to kill between assignments, and it wasn’t worth the effort (or the gas) to go home in between, so I stopped at a hobby shop nearby to peruse the latest Breyer selections.

The prices were excellent, as was the selection (over a half dozen of the Man o’ War version of the War Horse Gift Sets on the shelf, alone) but I didn’t walk out with a single one. The Brookside Pink Magnums were especially tempting, but then I remembered I still had King in the box at home waiting for me. And a flea market opening up in a couple of weeks.

(My King is lovely, by the by. He may not have a dorsal stripe or scrotum dots, but his color is spot on.)

I suppose I am contractually obligated to mention the controversy that’s sweeping the model horse world this moment: a 2005 Early Bird Raffle Model - the fleabitten gray Lonesome Glory - that ended up in a picker’s lot on eBay.

I have nothing against picking; it’s essentially what I do to support my hobby "habit." I have an aunt who does it, and a great many items I buy at the flea market - judging from the contents of the booths I shop at - are from storage auctions. Heck, if I had the time and money, I’d be buying storage lots myself.

What’s at issue here is the quality of the picker, and the nature of the pick itself.

The picker, judging from his feedback and his merchandise, doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of respect for said merchandise. It’s one thing to not be knowledgeable about everything you end up with in a storage unit: that’s essentially impossible, unless you’re a professional auction house with in-house researchers and stuff.

But what distinguishes a good picker from a questionable one is respect for the merchandise. Stuff that’s been put into a storage unit was put there because it had some value by the owner. True, that value may be subjective, or highly personal, but it was there, presumably. You don't pay good money to store things you don't value.

Taking the extra effort - such as doing a bit of research, or putting a little more care into the selling or packaging - may not pay off with every transaction, but it will in those odd cases where a truly rare or valuable item shows up.

Take care of the small things, and the big things will end up taking care of themselves. Or something like that.

Even if I had the money to invest in that auction, I wouldn’t do it, because it feels like I’m rewarding unethical behavior. I have a hard enough time with a few of the vendors I deal with at my local fleas, and the sums I’m dealing with there are sometimes (literally!) pocket change in comparison.

The nature of the pick itself troubles me even more. How did this model this rare, and this coveted end up in these dire circumstances in the first place? All of the scenarios I can imagine are sad ones: job loss, foreclosure, illness, or death.

Many of the things I buy at the flea market are a result of some sort of loss, too. What is so striking about the Lonesome Glory was the rapidity of its decline in fortune - less than seven years, from raffle model to a picker's inventory.

He’s a disquieting reminder of how quickly things can go bad for any of us.

Ravel, Zenyatta, and Returning the Favor

I was in a slightly out-of-the-way farm supply store (not a TSC) for work yesterday. (It’s not far away at all, just in a direction I very rarely go.) I was a little surprised at the sheer size of their Breyer selection: there were cases and cases of Rising Suns, S Justadreams, and Zenyattas just stacked on the floor. They even had a bunch of the Costco Deluxe Stable Sets - the ones with the Palomino Duchess and the "Mini-Me Dallas" Johar.

Anyhow, after work I found myself going back to take a second look at some particularly attractive Idocuses. (Idoci?) I grabbed a couple to compare - a deep, dark bay one, and a very pretty lighter bay with just the right amount of metallic undercoat. For a moment, I found myself thrillingly contemplating the possibility that I had run across a super-cool variation, until it finally dawned on me that I was comparing an Idocus with … a Ravel.

In my defense, I had been running on about five hours of sleep over the past two days. Nor had I seen a sufficiently large enough sample of Ravels and Idocuses in person to discern the amount of natural variations in the two releases, and the point at which they would start overlapping.

I would have bought them both, regardless of the status of their finishes, had I had the money in the budget for them. But, I didn’t. I did sort of tuck the nicest Idocus of the bunch in the back of the shelf, just in case I change and/or lose my mind in the next few days.

One thing that might draw me back to that store is that huge stack of Zenyattas. Wasn’t she supposedly sold out at the warehouse? Well, I found out where they were stashing them!

The real kicker was that they had been on sale since before Christmas, if the date on the sign next to the stack was any indication. Even the not-sale price was pretty darn reasonable. I’m going to assume, given the nature of the area the store is located in, that the only horsepower the local heathens truly appreciate is the kind that comes with four wheels and a tonneau cover.

I’ll admit I haven’t been all that into the horseracing scene lately either - to the degree that I was in the late 1970s, anyway - so the apparent shortage of Zenyatta models wasn’t a huge concern of mine. She’s pretty, and I do love the color, but I’m well stocked here on Lonesome Glory molds. If I have to buy another Lonesome Glory, it’ll be either the Phar Lap (because of that beautiful color), or the Red Rum (because I was so in love with the real thing, back then.)

It did feel a little weird leaving that huge stack of them behind. I know that the arrival of a fresh batch of Zenyattas to dealers is imminent, so buying a few to gamble on eBay would probably backfire on me the way it always does whenever I attempt to speculate.

However, as a way of returning the favor(s) done for me on the Diamond Jubilees, I’d be more than willing to pick up some for anyone out there, for cost + tax + postage. Cost + tax would be either $28 or $35 each, depending on whether or not they’re still on sale. (I can’t imagine why not, but maybe someone at the store might have heard about that little "Horse of the Year" Award a certain someone picked up this week.) Postage would be actual cost plus insurance, of course.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I didn’t find any Diamond Jubilees in the store, thank goodness. That would have made for a decidedly untidy workday - and a completely different kind of blog post.