Blue-debaker

I’m almost completely caught up on my sleep, but the unpacking – especially from Kentucky – still remains undone. It’s going to be a long time before I finish going through all my mostly-probably-crummy photos too. And I have a project I need to finish ASAP…

I am also now thinking that my travel experience might be best expressed in a book form, rather than a bloggy one. It’s a trip – and a notion – that had been with me for most of my life, and I don’t think the experience can be summed up in a few extended blog posts. 

No worries, you’ll get some photos and deets here eventually, especially the Kentucky bits.

The first day back to work after a long vacation always kind of sucks, regardless of your feelings for the job, so I waited until I got home from it to open the most anticipated package on my doorstep: Studebaker. 

I was a little surprised she was actually still available when I got back to the hotel Friday night. While I wanted the variation like everyone else, I thought that after getting the Holographic Uffington a couple years back that another scarce variation was not in the cards for me, at least not for a good, long while:

No. Freaking. Way. 

How did this happen? Do I need to consider buying lottery tickets this week? Hit the casino? Troll eBay at 3 a.m.? 

Speaking of variations, I still might give the Araba another shot during the second chance sale: her conformation issues aside, her variant sports one of the prettiest production run paint jobs I have ever seen. Since my luck seems to be running very, very hot at the moment, it just might be worth taking the shot, credit card bills be damned.

All that being said, I am not terribly pleased by Reeves deciding to apply the term “Micro Run” to these variations. This is simply not acceptable, people: the general hobby consensus on that term is that it applies only to Special Runs of 100 pieces or fewer (give or take a few, particularly when it comes to some of the Exclusive Event pieces). 

Most of the Special Runs released in the late 1970s and the early 1980s were in the 200-piece range, and we never refer to them as Micro Runs. That’s partly because the term is a recent development – the first time I used it on the blog was back in 2014, I believe – and we really didn’t distinguish smaller runs from larger runs back then, regardless. Christmas Catalog SRs (produced in the thousands) and Model Horse Congress exclusives (produced in quantities of 200-300) were both “Special Runs”, plain and simple.

I think it might be useful to coin a new term for this new class of models, but nothing seems immediately obvious. Short Runs? Small Runs? SR Variants?

The Chase Never Ends

Blizzard + A Job Cannot Be Done Remotely = Snow Day! Whoo-hoo!

I slept in, made Chocolate Chip French Toast and finished another quilt top that had been a thorn in my side for years. (No more!) I also took a picture of my new beautiful thing I thought I would never have:

I was tempted to cuddle him like a teddy bear the night that I got him, but realized that was probably a bad idea – not because of what he’s technically worth, but because he really is shaped like a brick paver and not all that huggable, really.  

But alas, the chase never really ends, does it? There’s always another grail, or another oddity or rarity on the horizon. I flaked out about a week ago and forgot to bid on a Polled Hereford Bull Nightlight on eBay, and there’s a Woodgrain PHB Lamp on there right now at a price that bigger than my entire travel budget this year, and I plan on travelling quite a lot

(Which consists of two conventions and three live shows, so far.) 

Of all the rarities, oddities and the like, the Lamp is the one I worry least about. Like most of the Ranchcraft Lamps, they were purchased by nonhobbyists fifty some odd years ago, so the possibility of finding one “in the wild” is quite tangible. It’s certainly a stronger possibility than finding Micro Runs, Test Colors and scarce but affordable Special Runs on Craigslist or a local estate sale, outside of the Chicago area or maybe northern New Jersey.

(There’s a Mosaic on our local Craigslist who periodically gets relisted at $1000. Uh, okay…)

Marshall is currently residing on my very crowded nightstand, though I’ll definitely be rearranging things around here so I can admire his beefy, glittery loveliness on a daily basis.  

Montana

My CCA Box is here! Even though I genuinely don’t care who’s hiding within, I’ll still wait until Christmas to open it. What’s a few more days, right? I’m almost more excited about the Omega Fahim I know is in there: there were a couple at the last toy store I visited a few moons back, but they were clearly the ones left behind after handpicking had been done.

Well, I certainly didn’t have THIS on my Breyer Bingo Card:

I had to do a double take and make sure that the e-mail was actually from Reeves, and not some spoof account, because I thought one of you wiseacres was having a little bit of fun with Photoshop filters or something.

You know I am all for the Outrageous Animal Special Runs - just a few days ago I suggested, completely unironically, a Rainbow Calico Unicorn Kitten – but a Black Florentine Bighorn Ram?

Dude, just… no. 

The color looks cute on the Stablemate Chase pieces it previously appeared on, but here it’s just weird. And not a good way: more like a person randomly poking a model with a metallic paint pen weird.

It’s funny because I was just thinking that the only Web Special Micro Run that I’m almost completely uninterested in is the Bighorn Ram Rodney. I entered for him and would have gladly taken one, sure, but seeing the odd one for sale doesn’t take me to the same dark place other Micro Runs do. 

Same thing will go with Montana. I won’t turn him down if I get one, but I will also not be terribly upset if I don’t, either. I’m pretty sure he’ll look better in person than his press photo, but with a release like this is almost doesn’t matter.

The piece run on this thing is also kind of crazy: 490 pieces? What a completely random (and large!) number. Methinks they’re cleaning out the warehouse and possibly repurposing older/unsellable merchandise. 

For a quantity that large I would have gone with a Gambler’s Choice of two different colors instead – Gloss Chalky Alabaster and Charcoal, or Red and Green Filigree – but that wasn’t my call to make. You know, he might have also been kind of interesting in a patinated color, too, like the old Smoky release Durango. 

Hmm. Any of the older Hess Wildlife molds would look great that way, come to think of it. But then again, we’d have to put up with hobbyists complaining about the eyes not being painted, and that’s not how patinated bronzes work, people…

I have a nice example of the original release of the Bighorn, and both the Gray and Tan horn variations of the Dall Sheep. I’d eventually like to upgrade them to ones with stickers, which aren’t necessarily scarce, but are still a little pricey, nonetheless.

Micro Run Madness

Just another reminder here that while there have been cases where I have sometimes been extremely exasperated by the direction of online speculation about future releases, I have never intentionally revealed anything in advance that I did actually have knowledge about. 

Zugspitze is here, but like my other Christmas gifts – including a set of Carbide Scrapers, and a Mini Hand Jigsaw – he won’t be opened until Christmas Day. Not that I’m expecting any sort of surprise within, I just want to open something on Christmas besides the Breyer e-mail.

Not that I’ll be getting around to using my new customizing tools any time soon; I’m currently making halfway decent progress on several long-term sewing projects as I’m also trying to catch up on a couple years’ worth of TV shows I’m rather dreadfully behind on.

(Yes, I’m multitasking while watching TV. I know I have a problem!)

But let’s get back to the Blue Bull Bunyan. 

This is the first Web Special Micro Run in a while – since Waban, I believe, in early 2019. There have been Micro Runs since, but they’ve either been straight-up Raffle Models, Prizes or variations/surprises within larger Special Runs, or tied to Exclusive Events. 

Web Special Micro Runs have been problematic since their inception nearly ten years ago. Early examples like the Lusitano and the Moose Ghost were sold on a first-come, first-served basis, which favored people who were at the right place at the right time – and had the money on hand to make it happen.

Then they switched to the online raffle distribution method, and that’s when things really went haywire. It happened very quickly: I don’t think I need to reiterate what happened with the Polled Hereford Bull Marshall, but it wasn’t pretty. 

Collectors who didn’t give two patoots about the models in question entered anyway, because the stakes were low (entering is free!) and the short-term financial rewards for flipping were high.

Now that’ve we’ve entered this current period of massive model speculation, I am genuinely fearful of the aftermath of this particular Micro Run drawing. How bad is it going to get?

Some of the prices of previous Micro Runs have been mitigated by the fact that many of them were on molds with a rather narrow fanbases: once the handful of people who were both sufficiently motivated and financially willing to buy them at elevated prices did so, the market flattened out. Prices didn’t necessarily get better, but they didn’t get… worse. And they can still occasionally be found for sale.

That hasn’t been the case with others, like the aforementioned Marshall, and (cringe) the Brighty Cornelius. All the bullet points suggest that Bunyan will fall in the later category: a popular Decorator color, on a rarely used mold that also happens to be a Bull.

Right around the holidays, when a lot of people are looking for a little extra cash to spend. 

I’m not getting my hopes up, because I know better. But I seriously considered – and had, within my means – almost completing my collection of the Walking Horned Hereford Bull this year. 

All I really needed before Bunyan was the Woodgrain, the Chalky variation of the original release, and Colton. While I consider the Vault Sale Colton a lost cause, several examples of both the Woodgrain and the Chalky have turned up in the past year that I either just missed out on or hesitated about. 

I’ve had a pretty good year, model-wise, so I shouldn’t complain too much, and maybe things will be fine and people won’t be too terrible. But still, not the way I hoped to close out the year, hobby-wise.   

A Reintroduction

I am not completely happy with it – the curses of an artistic temperament, alas – but this year’s Sampler is up! 

It’s been up since early Thursday morning, but I wanted to do my shopping trip yesterday and I didn’t have time to make my formal announcement. My “trip” was unusual, but I’ll talk about it another day when I’m feeling a little less out of sorts.

(How unusual? At one point I was stuck in traffic behind the 2023 Corvette! That is not a typo, and no time travel was involved.)

As a bonus, I’ll offer up color versions of the pictures accompanying the Early Micro Runs article. I was originally going to include them in color in the Sampler, but I decided to keep it all in black and white instead. 

(By the way, printed copies will be available next week: I’m kind of wiped right now and I just want to chill for most of the weekend.)

It really is kind of remarkable that I have pictures of all these things, especially since I physically own none of them. I was present for raffles of the Rose Gray Proud Arabian Mare and the Red Bay Cantering Welsh Pony, but didn’t win either of them, naturally. Even back then I was not so lucky.

Oh, and for those of you joining us for BreyerFest, howdy! The current content has been a little BreyerFest-focused because it’s that time of the year, but it can – and does – change. 

I try to post about ten times a month (every three days or so) and while most of the content is about Breyer History, it sometimes veers off into other topics I am interested in, including: quilting, comic books, art history, old movies, gardening, and the weird stuff that only seems to happen to me (yes, I’m one of THOSE people!)

I’ve been collecting since 1974, been involved in the hobby since 1978, and I’ve done work for Breyer – off and on – since I published my first article in the original Just About Horses in 1985. I still occasionally do work for them, but as you’ll see, I’m also not afraid about calling them out when they sometimes do dumb things. 

I’ve done everything in the hobby from live showing to customizing to pedigree assignment (we called it “breeding” back in the old days!) but my first love has been researching and obsessing over model horse history, particularly Breyer History. 

I will confess that I don’t know everything, I am occasionally wrong, and I am sometimes a bit of a drama queen (if you didn’t already get that from the blog title). 

I also occasionally – and absolutely unintentionally, I swear – talk about models before they’re released. This is super-awkward because there are some things that I’m not supposed to talk about. 

Like the Corvette, time travel is not involved, and I make no claims of psychic abilities: I just know the market and the product well enough to be able to make better predictions than most. Whether I realize I am doing it or not.

And in case you’re going to ask, my social media presence is a light one. I have a pretty busy offline life, and other than this blog, my Internet activity is not a priority. 

I also do not have a Facebook account, and hope to keep it that way. Long story short: aside from the fact it is not a good fit for the way I socialize in general, I also happen to think that Facebook’s business model is doing more harm to the world than good, so I try to keep my interaction with it to a bare minimum.   

Lucky Dog

Of all the Micro Run Drawings I haven’t been pulled for (essentially, all of them) the two that hurt the most were the Polled Hereford Bull Marshall (of course) and the Basset Hound Dugan.

With all of the others – like the Collie Maurice, the Ram Rodney, and the Brighty Cornelius – it would have been lovely to have been drawn for them, but they were not quite the heartbreakers Dugan and Marshall were.

The Polled Hereford Bull has been a favorite mold of mine for years, and I have way more variations and oddballs of the Hound Dog mold – both its original #325 Brown Bloodhound release, and the very popular and long-running tri-color #326 Basset Hound that followed – than I care to count.

When it comes to Bull molds in general, hobbyists are not entirely rational when it comes to Special Runs. (Have you seen the prices the BreyerFest Hamish lately?) Things got real ugly real quick with Marshall, so unless I come into substantial bit of money or more luck than I usually am accustomed to, he’ll probably never end up here.

Dugan I was more optimistic about; while the initial prices were also way out of my league, I also knew that the market for Breyer Dog molds is smaller and less… crazy? While some releases are perennially popular and/or pricey (the White Boxer, the Woodgrain Poodle, the Blue Bucky) the rest of the Breyer Dog market is more modest in both price and demand. I figured that after the initial rush, the prices for Dugan would eventually drift back closer to my comfort zone.

I did find one “in the zone” at BreyerFest a couple years ago. Even though I take some starter money with me, one of my personal rules for BreyerFest shopping is that I try to avoid spending what I haven’t yet made in room sales. Alas, I hadn’t made quite enough money at that point to buy him. 

When I finally did, some other lucky dog had already snapped him up.

Since this seems to be my Year of Grails, it should come as no surprise that another one turned up last week. This time, I did not hesitate:

I cannot even imagine what is going to turn up next. In fact, I am almost afraid to.

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.

Mold 36, Where Are You?

I just went poking about on MHSP for a bit to check out some prices on things (my sales lately have been surprisingly… good?) and I have to tell you, it feels genuinely weird to be the contrarian on the Seattle Soiree models.

I have to wonder if my recent “grail fatigue” has anything to do with it: once you start scoring Presentation Series or Showcase Collection models for less than the initial cost of modern Micro Runs, it sort of puts things in perspective?

That, and the fact that the former are so much easier to find on the secondary market than the latter. As you all know, the local markets here are totally my jam.

Not for the time being, though – it’s been nearly a month since all the thrift stores closed and it’s not likely the flea markets will be open before mid-May, this year.

(If at all, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.)

One mold that’s been on my mind a lot lately has been the #36 Racehorse. The two original releases – the #36 Bay-that-was-actually-Chestnut, which ran from ca. 1953/4 through 1966, and the #936 Woodgrain, who ran ca. 1959 through 1965 – are not terribly hard to find. As is the 1997 Just About Horses Special Run Phantom in Matte Dapple Gray.

The #36 Racehorse was among the first batch of vintage molds revivals in the 1990s that included many of the Dogs, the Kitten, and even the Elephant and Donkey. But unlike many of those molds – particularly the Dogs – we haven’t seen much of the Racehorse mold since then.

In fact, the only other production runs we’ve had on the mold since Phantom have been two Micro Runs: the 2000 Tour Special Raffle Model Daisy in Dun Blanket Appaloosa, and the 2014 Exclusive Event Dixie in Gloss Dapple Gray Tobiano Pinto. Only 15 of the Daisy were made, and 24 of the Dixie: both, I presume, made from leftovers of the 1997 run.

There have been a handful of Test Colors – in Honey Bay, Red Roan, and that swoon-worthy Charcoal from the 2018 BreyerFest Auction – since then, too.

I mean, I get it, the mold is neither conventionally pretty nor typey, but I’ve been genuinely a bit saddened that this historic mold hasn’t been included in this year’s 70th Anniversary plans in any way.

(Yet?)

Overwhelming, Part One

It took me a while to put my finger on it, but I finally found the source of my lingering dissatisfaction with BreyerFest this year: there were something in the neighborhood of fifty different Special Runs this year.

How you count them depends on whether you’d count the Stablemates Anniversary set as one item or ten, or whether you’d count the Plushie as an official Special Run or merely swag. Regardless, you still get at least halfway to one hundred.

First, the Store Specials: Rico, Hal, and Zipped in Black Magic. (3)

Then the Pop-Up Store items: Defiant (the Crystal), the RCMP Classic Horse, Sarge, the Anniversary Stablemates Set. (7)

The One-Day Stablemates: Toe Tapper, Andante, Arya, and Chiffon. (11)

The Tent Specials: Rocket, Pinto Variant Rocket, Loose Mane Diana, Braided Mane Diana, Splash Variant Diana, Pepper, Salt Variant Pepper, Bucky, Blue Variant Bucky, Natasha, Variant Liver Chestnut Natasha, Gloss Quill, Matte Quill, Amber Champagne Variant Quill, Banner, Blue Variant Banner, Matte Chestnut Pinto Surprise Andalusian, Matte Rose Grey Surprise Andalusian, Matte Dark Dapple Grey Surprise Andalusian, Matte Dappled Pearl Surprise Andalusian, Gloss Chestnut Pinto Surprise Andalusian, Gloss Rose Grey Surprise Andalusian, Gloss Dark Dapple Grey Surprise Andalusian, Gloss Dappled Pearl Surprise Andalusian, Lime and Silver Decorator Surprise Andalusian, Leopard Appaloosa Variant Surprise Andalusian. (37)

Prize/Raffle Models: Cap, Cavalcade, Leap of Faith, Top Hat and Tails, Victory, Triumph, Gloss Harley, Gloss California Chrome, Valour and Honour, North Star, Gloss Oliver. (48)

Volunteer Model: Man of the Hour. (49)

And finally, the Celebration Horse: Oliver. (50).

My first thought: thank goodness I am not a completist anymore!

My second thought: a large majority of these models I had no shot at attaining – I only had two Tent Tickets, and several of the contests I had no entry in (Live Show, Custom Contest, Diorama Contest). And about 40% of them were technically Micro Runs (that I’ll define here as anything less than 100 pieces) so purchasing them on the secondary is also not an option.

I was lucky enough to actually have models/choices left to me in the Tent Ticket lines when I went through – unlike some attendees on Friday, because (allegedly) somebody forgot to ship a pallet or two of Special Runs from the warehouse – and I had relatively few troubles attaining all of the Pop-Up Tent items I needed to get. And I of course got this beautiful boy for busting my butt for four days in the Kentucky July heat:

But yeah, after typing out that list of Special Runs, I can see why I felt the way I felt, and still do to a degree. It also reminds me that I need to do something to get back to happy – by getting back into customizing, or more live showing, or ditching the chase altogether and doing my own things.

The event itself – independent of my experiences – went about as well as I thought it could, outside of the usual technical and logistical issues. I was sort of surprised that, after last year’s big oops with leaving the Volunteer Special Churchills behind, that that wouldn’t be a problem again this year. (But this time, with Tent Specials!)

And the overselling of the event – both online, locally and through the usual media outlets – was also more intense than I expected. They predicted attendance at 30,000: I rolled my eyes at first, but after experiencing it? I believe it.

Normally a little bit of overselling isn’t that big a deal – as anyone who has been in the NPOD can attest, ticket redemption rates are never 100 percent – but when you throw in high-demand One-Day Stablemates (Andante, ahem) and rare variants in the Tent Specials, whatever cushion you have is going to disappear.

I also think that as BreyerFest approaches Disneyland-level size and complexity as an event, more effort needs to be put into making the event less taxing for everyone, newbies and pros alike.

I know Reeves does have signage, a flier at the Help Desk, includes all the relevant info in the program, ticket packet, blog posts et al, but as a volunteer I know all of that gets bypassed somehow by a significant number of attendees.

It’s not that the information is hard to find, but it is not clearly labeled or packaged as such in one convenient place. First timers especially are often overwhelmed, and hunting down all that necessary info is just another task added to a long list of other things to juggle.

While I’d still keep all signage and info – because even us pros need an occasional reminder – I think what’s really needed is either a simple bifold or trifold brochure included in the initial ticket packet (and also included as a PDF on the web site) that’s clearly labeled “A First-Timer’s Guide to BreyerFest” in big letters on the cover.

First and mostly importantly, it would have a picture of each ticket they receive in the packet and direct them exactly where and how they redeem each one.

I’d also include important stuff like: locations of all the bathrooms, air-conditioned areas, Lost and Found, ATMs, Breyer employee contact stations, and the most popular attractions – like Stablemate Painting and the Autograph areas.

I would also include some basic information: wear sunscreen, wear good walking shoes, drink lots of water, don’t try to do everything, ask volunteers for help, etc.

They already have something similar that they distribute at the Help Desk, but it’s very text-heavy and not user-friendly: most tired and overwhelmed people aren’t going to slog through several paragraphs of text to get the information they need. An illustrated brochure with one or two sentence explanations – preferably written at a fourth or fifth-graders level – gets right to the point.

(I say fourth or fifth grader level because you know that it’s the kids who are going to pour over it like a sacred text!)

What’s nice about that format is that once it’s been created, updating it yearly would be fairly simple: just drop in new pictures of the tickets, update the theme graphics, and tweak events as necessary (like the location of this year’s water station.) It wouldn’t even have to be in color!

Hmm. It’s getting late and this post is running longer than I am comfortable with, so I’ll take a break right here and finish up next time, mostly with my thoughts and predictions for next year.

Waban

Just when we though we were safe, after the 350-piece release of the Woodgrain Special Run Jasper Hawthorn back in December, Micro Runs are ba-ack with the Gloss Charcoal Buffalo Waban:

The problem that comes with Micro Runs – namely, that so many people enter Micro Run drawings not for the item itself, but for what they can get for it – seems so insoluble that I’d feel like an actual genius (and not just a presumptive one) if I could somehow engineer an equitable solution to it.

But so far, nada.

The closest I can come is this: since many Nonhorse collectors are also Vintage enthusiasts, future Micro Run Animals could be exclusive drawings for Vintage Club members. The odds would be better – competing against 500 people instead of a couple thousand – and nonwinners could take some consolation that a bigger percentage of the entrants were entering because they actually wanted the model itself.

Considering Reeves upped its game on the Vintage Club, that might not necessarily be an extra perk worth throwing into the pot.

(But if it’s the only way to get another affordable #36 Racehorse Special Run, I am all for it. That darn Charcoal one in last year’s Benefit Auction was the first thing that popped in my head when I saw Waban.)

Special Run Nonhorses are a niche market, at best – certain cattle molds always do well, and items that can be targeted for very specific non-hobby markets (like the Donkey and Elephant, naturally) can usually sustain a larger piece run.

But everything else is a gamble, sales-wise – hence my mild hesitation about the BreyerFest Saint Bernard. I don’t want to “blow” my ticket slot on a Bucky if there will be substantial leftovers, especially since I’m liking/loving so many of the other releases that will be harder to acquire in the secondary market.

Unless they make the quantity on Bucky sufficiently low that the question becomes moot.

Necessary Treasures

The flea market has been mostly a wash the past few weeks, but darn it all if the rest of the retail market is trying to make up for it. First up:

Yes, I managed to swing by one of the local participating stores yesterday, and they still had a Markus on the shelf. He’s obviously not the best of the lot – he’s got mane masking issues, like a lot of them seem to do – but considering I didn’t think I’d score one at all because of my work schedule, I am perfectly okay with that.

I’m not 100 percent sure he’ll be staying – that’ll all depend on what other necessary treasures Reeves decides to foist upon us through the end of the year – but until further notice, he’s here.

The Bubble-dappled Gray Stock Horse Mare and Black Tennessee Walker/Bear Reissues, along with the latest Stablemates Club release, are also on their way. It appears that the web site photos of the Warehouse Finds are more or less accurate, and these “reissues” are as different from the original releases as we suspected.

In other words, if you’re a fan of one of these molds or releases, go get ‘em! (FYI: discount codes work on the Warehouse Finds. So if you got one, use it.)

Oh, and this thing happened earlier in the week:

On the way home from work one day I decided to swing by one of the more upscale Salvation Army Stores, ostensibly to see if the vintage fabric that piqued my interest the week before was still there. (It was – and it was on sale!)

I had also noticed that this same store had received a fairly high quality figurine collection donation – including a (sadly, broken) Boehm. There was nothing that had to come home with me during the previous visit, but since I was there again for the fabric I thought I’d take a quick swing by the scary-clown-and-Precious-Moments section of the store to see if they had put out any fresh stock.

And obviously, they did! So in addition to the fabric, I came home with a Zsolnay Hedgehog and an early DW Hagen-Renaker Mallard Hen with extremely crisp detail.

So my luck with both Hagens and Hungarian porcelains continues!

(As for why there are so many Hungarian porcelains to be had, this area of Michigan has one of the highest percentages of people of Hungarian descent in the U.S., including me. I haven’t been to Hungary myself to visit the alleged family castle, but maybe someday.)

I’m just going to take all of these goodies as the Universe’s pre-emptive “so sorry for your loss” consolation gift stash for the latest Micro Run Cornelius, on the Brighty mold.

I’ve been trying to remind myself that I am not a fan candy corn. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s one of the candies served in the waiting room to Hades, along with Circus Peanuts, Spearmint Leaves and Ribbon Candy. 

But I am pretty sure I am still going to be disappointed anyway.

And Now, the Collie

Sigh.

I’m not even sure where to begin with Maurice, the latest Micro Run on the old Lassie/Collie mold. I mean, I saw a Collie Special Run as an inevitability (I think I predicted it on page two of one of the Rodney discussion threads on Blab, back on April 22nd) but I wasn’t expecting another Micro Run so soon, and so close to BreyerFest.

As a somewhat avid collector of the dog molds, of course I want him. Those blue eyes, that sweet face? He’s adorable. He needed to join the rest of his family – Lassie, Jester, and Honey – here with me.

But yeah. No. Again.

The “tools” I rely on normally to compete in the collecting area – my timing, intuition, and deep knowledge base – are of no use or consequence with these Micro Run Purchase Raffles. It’s hard for me to get too excited about them now that acquiring them has become purely a matter of random luck, or money. Since I can’t rely on the former, and I have an uneven supply of the latter… I almost didn’t enter at all.

But hope springs eternal. So I tried. Every day, I tried.

I suppose it’s just the Universe balancing things out: I did get the four “pre-raffle” Micro Runs that came before – and assorted other Buried Treasures and surprises and stuff.

Still doesn’t make it any less of a bummer, though. Especially when it involves things you actively collect and campaign for. And when you actually have a little cash in the Paypal account, for once. (More money for NPOD?)

In the meantime, here’s a scan of a copy of the original sketch of the Lassie, prior to a few minor alterations suggested by Lassie’s licensing agency (Stone Associates – no relation to Sam and Peter Stone, as far as I know):

This sketch is also a useful corrective to some of the naysayers who tend to dismiss Chris Hess’s artistic skills.

Another corrective is that, contrary to Reeves’s copy on the web site, we do know when Lassie was introduced: 1956. Here she is, being featured in the January 1956 issue of Toys & Novelties magazine:

(Click to enlarge)

Rin Tin Tin was introduced at the same time, more or less. But I’ll cover that (and why it’s extremely unlikely we’ll be seeing a Rinty Micro Run) some other time.

Silver Linings and Gold Trims

Not that one either:

Even though I wasn’t as emotionally invested in Rodney as I had been the two previous Micro Run online Payment-Raffles – Marshall and Dugan – and I’m stretched rather thin financially at the moment, I still entered every day anyway.

I have the two variations of the Dall Sheep – Gray Horn and Tan Horn – and a nice early example of the original Bighorn Ram itself. But I do not have one of the later Reissues, from which the bodies of this Special Run were likely drawn.

I did at one point, but I must not have found the example I had to be particularly appealing enough to keep. (I didn’t find the “right one”, I guess.)

That makes me 0 for 3 since the switch to the online raffle system for Micro Runs, by the way. Y’all know my opinion on this new system, and since I seem to be in the minority about it, that's as far as I'll go.

In the meantime, on to happier things. Here’s another Traditional Man o’ War. There is something special about this guy – can you see it?

He doesn’t have any gold trim on his halter!

Generally hobbyists are quick to label something like this a Cull, but since this model is otherwise flawless (for a model from the early 1970s), I think he is better classified as an Oddity: the gold trim was the last, or one of the last steps in the decorating process, and it was obviously skipped.

A detail like that could have easily been overlooked, especially if it was the end of the day and/or they had to rush an order out. A lot of times even we don’t notice these subtle mistakes, unless it’s a mold we obsess about – like me with the Traditional Man o’ War, currently.

(Which may have been the reason why I got him so cheap!)

Since he has lighter gray (but not Battleship Gray) hooves, a USA mold mark, and warmer orange-brown tones to his body color, this example is probably dateable to the period from 1970-1973.

He also happened to be purchased from the same collection as that mighty fine Bay Proud Arabian Stallion I recently spotlighted, who also from that same time period.

Dugan

Why yes, I am super-duper excited about the new Special Run Basset Hound Dugan, thanks for asking!

I have no idea how long this particular item has been in the works, but with all the mumbling I made here about not getting a Basset Hound SR as part of last year’s BreyerFest lineup, I’ve been walking around the house like a proud auntie, anyway.

I am not as excited about it (a) being a 40-piece Micro Run, and (b) being up for purchase-raffle. Items so oddly specific as a Gloss Black and Tan Basset Hound should just be straight-up for sale on a first-come, first-serve basis.

And I say that as someone who had to work late on Thursday, and most likely would have missed out if it had been. I’ve had good luck with Micro Runs in the past, so missing one wouldn’t have killed me (probably.)

But anyway, I’m not thrilled by the method of distribution because purchase-raffles on weird rarities like Dugan tend to encourage our more mercenary tendencies. It’s one thing to purchase and resell items from the open market, but doing so with direct sale items is an ethical gray area for me.

Though I am glad to see some hobbyists are marshaling their goodwill and trying to enter for the benefit of hobbyists other than themselves. I’ll play by the rules of the game and see how it turns out.

Dugan is the first “official” Special Run on the Basset Hound mold, and only the fourth official release of the mold ever, which includes the #325 Bloodhound, the #326 Basset Hound, and the #324 Chaser. There are a few Tests and Culls floating around – in fact, I think I saw a cull on eBay just a few weeks back – but they are not common.

However, those four releases would not constitute a complete collection: by my reckoning, you’d need at least three more dogs to do that.

Who are the other three?

The first is the American Interinsurance Exchange Basset Hound: the one with the little sign hanging around its neck by a chain. Although it was an aftermarket creation, they are common and plentiful enough that most avid Breyer Dog collectors consider it a semi-official SR anyway.

The second is a common but distinctive variation of the #326 Basset I like the call the “Sober” one: those are the standard Bassets that don’t have the droopy red eyeliner. As I am not able to pin it to any particular time or outlet, I consider them an incidental/accidental variation and not an intentional one. But like the Interinsurance Dog, it’s common enough – and distinctive enough – to merit inclusion on a want list.

The third is a little more difficult: it’s the Post-Production Special Run of the Bloodhound, made ca. 1970; I believe I wrote a post about his discovery back in May of 2009. These are basically Bloodhounds that were made, likely as a special order, a couple of years after the original Bloodhound was discontinued. It is primarily distinguished by having a USA mold mark, something the Regular Run Bloodhounds will not have; it wasn’t added to the mold until ca. 1970.

The color on those pieces may also be lighter and more Chestnut than Dark Brown, but I only have the one piece to go by, so it might not be a representative sample.

If you want to get real crazy, you could start adding even more variations – the #326 Basset ran from ca. 1969 through 1985, and being a largely hand-airbrushed paint job, subtle and not-so-subtle variations are numerous. Both the Bloodhound and the Basset come with Blue Ribbon Stickers, too, if you look hard enough.

I have quite a few – they were sort of a thing with me for a while, and for some strange reason I don’t think I ever got rid of a single one of them – but I hope I can make room for just one more.

Boxer Day

Cripes, not again. I swear, when I posted this on Christmas Day:

A 40-piece Special Run Wedgewood Blue Pronghorn Antelope? Didn't see that coming. (What I thought might be coming? Either the Elk, or the Boxer.)

I had no idea that they would actually be doing a Boxer a few days later. Here’s Rolly:

He was available only to people who didn't buy Glacier, so I couldn't have gotten him anyway - which is good, because my follow-up doctor's appointment was that afternoon, and it would have bugged the bananas out of me to think I missed it-missed it!

(All is well on that health issue, BTW. It was something rare, unusual, and benign. And now gone for good.)

I like that they offered him only to people who did not order Glacier - that’s a nice way to spread the wealth around a bit. It’s an interesting and potentially viable workaround for future Vault Sales: drag it out during the holiday week when most people have some extra time and/or money, and limit the rarities to one per person.

It’s sort of like "Let’s Make a Deal"! Do I choose the contents of Door Number One, or pass it up for what might be behind Door Number Two?

My only complaint with being excluded from the Rolly sale is that I wasn’t able to directly print out the offer page for my archives, as I usually do.

I’ve seen some people compare these sales to what Peter Stone has been doing, but I think the comparison is a little off. What’s true: they are superpremium models with prices that reflect both the esoteric nature of the mold and paint selections, and the amount of detail that goes into creating them. Like with Ghost Moose’s eyes:

On the other hand, it’s Peter Stone who is duplicating himself, not the other way around. As I’ve mentioned before (most recently, here) Breyer has been doing these "Micro Runs" for years - some as early as the 1960s and 1970s. Surely all of the various prize models over the years - live shows, JAH contests and BreyerFest - also count. (Anything under 100 pieces, or 50? I can’t recall if I defined a piece threshold.)

And as for other differences, there are lots, and entire forums dedicated to arguing about it. The most fundamental difference is in the marketing. Running a boutique operation where every run is either a Micro Run or Factory Custom is basically Peter Stone’s business model. Reeves sells models of every production level and price point to everyone, and their Micro Runs are just one of the ways they market their product to the higher end/more dedicated segment of their customers.

Rolly's neat, and I had been planning on working on gaps in my dog collection next year anyway: looks like another one just opened up! I'll have to do a trade of some sort down the road, because the original $250 price tag would have been a stretch for me, regardless.

If I had the time - or the mind - to do it, I’d call up Reeves and ask if they are just deliberately messing with me now. If you guys are, could you please hold off on the Special Run Elk a few more days?

The bank account is a little low, and I don’t get paid until Friday.