Broken

Dealing with a lot of petty annoyances over the past few days. First, there was this:

As for what happened to my beautiful big Chocolate Moose… I bumped him. Nothing dramatic at all, I just happened to brush him as I was putting a binder away and ploop! Off popped the antler. 

He is over 50 years old and a lot of the plasticizers in the plastic that keep it flexible have evaporated over time, so it is not a complete shocker. But it’s still a bummer: I spent forever looking for the perfect Chocolate Moose, and now he’s no longer perfect!

Then I caved and bought one of the Deluxe Grab Bags. Yeah, I know the last round of Grab Bags didn’t go over well, but I just got a nice (and not so little!) profit sharing check and the next thing you know, click-click-click. I’m just hoping that there’s one or two things in there worth the gamble; I’m pretty easy to please, so I’m guessing maybe? 

I’m not feeling lucky, just optimistic. Spring is just around the corner, you know.

I’m not so optimistic about the latest Birds of a Feather release Magpie:

It’s in that beautiful Gloss Midnight Blue-Black color I love so much on my Omega Fahim, but it’s been a while since I’ve been picked for something. But you can’t win if you don’t play, so…

More annoying is the fact that the e-mail for Magpie (and the last several e-mails from Breyer, in fact) have ended up in my Spam folder. While actual Spam… has not. Oh, except for the VIP ticket e-mail that was completely redundant. That’s some messed up spam filter you got going there, Yahoo!

Rolling my eyes at the Cleveland Bay Paddy Sample Breyer put on eBay, too: at the price (over $1000 already, really?), and the preponderance of commenters on Facebook who had no idea that this model was actually released over ten years ago. 

It’s just depressing: I know that history is not everybody’s thing, but when a significant (and/or very vocal) subset of hobbyists can’t be bothered to either read or do 15 seconds of research before commenting, it makes you question your life choices.

And finally, and darn, someone just listed a beautiful old Julie Froelich model on eBay – on a Running Mare, no less! As much as I’d love a vintage Froelich, that’s not going to go cheap. Sigh. 

That’s one thing I do need to add to my BreyerFest shopping list this year: Vintage Custom fixer-uppers. I’ve been enjoying the process so much with that Black Stallion mystery custom that I wouldn’t mind adding one or two more to the craft table. 

The White Moose

Lots of news in the past few days, but I think I’ll finish up the Moose story first.

He arrived around lunchtime today, but I won’t be opening him until tomorrow afternoon, to cap off my crazy work week. I have been looking at some of the online pictures of everyone else’s, and I have to say that I’m very impressed: Reeves really went all out on the details, especially the hyper-detailed blue eyes.

It makes me wonder if the Moose - along with the Vault Sale Kitten Angel - might be precursor/harbinger/test of a super-premium Special Run program? It’s easier to manage the quality control and consistency on very small (less than 100) piece runs, and they’d also be able to offer items targeted to narrow hobbyist niches - the kind of niches that tend to have very high quality expectations anyway.

For those of you who don’t Blab, the origins of Ghost might have started in a discussion thread about the Special Run "Alpine" back in late 2010. When we first heard about Alpine - who was later revealed to be a Silver Filigree Esprit - all we had was the name. Speculation ran rampant about who/what Alpine could be, with a very vocal faction cheerleading long and hard for …a White Moose.

(Which I discussed here.)

I still stand by my assertion back then that there’s probably no way they could have sold 250 pieces of the Moose: the market for the Nonhorse molds, especially within the hobby, is not big. Most buyers/collectors of those molds exist slightly off to the side of the hobby spectrum and probably don’t bother with belonging to any clubs or programs. The only time they encounter Special Run items like Ghost is on the rare chance that they show up "in the wild" - at an estate sale/auction, or maybe on eBay.

While Special Run items for Nonhorse molds (outside of the Cattle and Pigs) have been fairly uncommon, Test Colors are even moreso. They do exist - you all know I’ve been around long enough to have seen almost everything - but when they do show up, they tend to cause quite a stir, even among hobbyists who aren’t normally into that sort of thing.

There are several reasons why Nonhorse Tests are so uncommon.

As I explained above, it’s partly because of the market: it’s not a big one. Until the advent of Internet niche marketing, there hasn’t been much of an incentive to test out new colors and ideas on these molds.

Second, the nature of the Nonhorse market prior to the Internet era was very different from the Horse market. The Nonhorse molds were slow and steady sellers: they didn’t need to change colors or experiment as often. They’d just run whatever they needed when the stock ran low, which wasn’t necessarily every year.

And thirdly, the target market for these molds wouldn’t have responded to change or variety as enthusiastically as the Horse market does, either. While hobbyists are going to be open to the idea of a White or Pinto Moose, nonhobbyists looking to buy a Moose figurine are looking for one in some shade of brown. End of story.

Wasn’t expecting Reeves to make one, but glad they did anyway. Perhaps the FAS Yellow Man o’ War of my dreams isn’t so improbable after all?

Right Place, Right Time

What a strange day that was.

On the way home from work in the morning, I had to make a split-second decision: faster, or shorter? If I took the freeway, I’d get home sooner, but if I took the shortcut, I’d save about five miles. I turned left, and took the shorter route.

It should have been an inconsequential decision, one that we make by the dozens every day. But it turned out to be a huge one that left me rather…well, you’ll see.

A few miles down the road I took, a flurry of official vehicles flew by: cop cars, fire trucks, emergency vehicles. I turned on the radio to listen to the traffic report, and before the sounds of the last siren had faded, I found out that the section of freeway that I would have been on had I taken the faster route was completely shut down due to a roll-over accident.

I was relieved that I had - by sheer luck - missed being in a very bad accident, or at the very least stuck in traffic for hours. Then I felt bad for feeling happy that I had avoided the situation, when clearly someone else had not. And then I started feeling anxious imagining what would have happened if I had taken the freeway instead.

Suddenly, my "slightly shorter" drive became very, very long.

I somehow managed to make it home without incident, almost in time for lunch. I decided to hop on the computer for the few minutes lunch was still baking in the oven, and I logged onto Blab to check up on the latest crises, only to see…

Another "Buried Treasure" type Special Run on the Breyer web site? An albino Moose named Ghost? Holy goldfish!

I clicked on the link, completely expecting the item to be sold out by then: it had been at least an hour and a half since the first post had been made in the discussion thread, and it was not a short one, either. Kind of a bummer, but if I could at least get a screen shot for my records, I’d be okay with that.

Wait - they were still available?

Click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-send. 

I go upstairs to have lunch and discuss my drive home, with my family. (Except the dog, who is at the doggy beauty salon getting her hair and nails done. Hence the late lunch/early dinner.)

Then I go back downstairs to confirm that what just happened just happened. And it did.

I was extremely lucky yesterday. There really is no other explanation for it.

I have to admit, though, that I’m feeling some ambivalence about buying the Moose, now. It almost feels like I’m celebrating not being in an accident, and that doesn’t feel quite right.

More in a couple days, when the stupor finally dissipates.

What to Keep

I didn’t get quite as much done on my paperwork last week, due to some last minute additions to the work schedule. I was out of state almost all day for work, yesterday - as much as I need to get my stuff together for BreyerFest, I needed the hours more. So I may continue to be a little spare on the postings this week, to catch up.

More chinas at the flea market again, today - a couple of nice Japans, and a very distressed (but still adorable) Walker-Renaker Elephant, missing most of his flowers. I’m trying not to keep any of them, but I’ll probably lose the battle on the Elephant, and maybe the Drafter:


There were some bodies and a few interesting books, too, but I gave them a pass; I figured the wallet could use a break this week. I did buy this beautiful framed photograph, though:


It’s definitely a photograph and not a print, in its original frame and matting. It’s entitled "Wild Ponies of Assateague" and it’s dated 1976; I can’t read the signature on the matting. The dealer that I bought it from tends to bring fairly high quality merchandise, so I’m guessing it comes out of the same estate sales that the rest of her wares do. I love it, but I have no idea if I can justify keeping it, especially if it turns out to be worth more than the pittance I paid for it. (Her prices? Also excellent.)

Another item that’s setting my possess-o-meter off is that Moose I picked up in one of those big collections I bought recently:


It’s not just the adorably off-kilter rack he’s sporting, or that he’s got the bubblegum pink nostrils typical of early Breyer Moose (though they don't hurt.) It’s his color: his rack is the basically the same color/tone as the rest of his body. Usually, it’s a couple shades lighter, or a slightly different color.

It’s not a rare variation, but it’s not common, either. Just different. Different enough to make me want to keep him, even though logically, I can’t. The dude’s gigantic! I think the Vita Monster takes up less space, and she’s always getting in the way. A half dozen or so more Moose - nope, not even going to think about it.

(On the plus side, the Moose wouldn’t chew on my shoes, demand to go on long walks to the park 5 or 6 times a day, or whine incessantly whenever we don’t "accidentally" drop enough popcorn on the floor.)

My problem is that I haven’t packed him away in my sales stuff like I should have. He’s a big and awkward shape, and he doesn’t pack well, so he’s taken up more or less permanent residence on the shelf where I keep the most recent sales acquisitions - the ones awaiting cleaning, processing and packing. I see him every day I walk into my office, and the more I see him, the more I think of him as my newest "little" office buddy, and not just as money that could go towards my hotel bill.

You know, every once and a while I have fantasies about being a dealer. I have the contacts, I know my stuff, I’m good at haggling, and I have a knack for finding some of the best things. But darn it, when I buy things, I buy things that I like enough to consider keeping, just in case I can't unload it later on. If something sticks around long enough, I get attached, and attachment leads to sentiment, and sentiment's not a good thing to have a lot of in that line of work.

I’m not too bad about managing my herd - the lack of time, space and money help - but I know I have too many items that are hanging around for strictly sentimental reasons. On the other hand, I could never contemplate being one of those hobbyists who only own a small handful of horses, or none at all though. That just doesn’t comport with the way I think about the hobby at all.

I really can’t keep him. I’ll have to wrap him up in bubble wrap and stick him in another room until BreyerFest.

Moose Variations

I swear this local flea market has a sense of humor. Among the odds and ends I found this week? A Bergen Toy Cow:


It was in one of those giant miscellaneous junk boxes full of finger candy - cheap plastic toys, buttons, beads, ephemera, other crafty bits. I laughed, and tossed it in my buy pile. It wasn’t my best find of the day - that title would have gone to an Old Mold Stallion in Woodgrain - but it was the most amusing one.

I want to take a brief break from the Tenite tech talk and focus on less research-intensive subjects this week; most of my attention right now needs to be on getting my BreyerFest paperwork in shape. Let’s begin with another beloved denizen of my office: this lovely "Chocolate Moose."


He has handpainted pink nostrils and black antler tines. He does have the USA mold mark, so he’s not a super-duper early one, but he’s one of the nicest ones I’ve had the pleasure of setting my eyes on. I’m quite delighted to share his company.

The original #79 Moose ran from 1966 through 1996, and his color ran the whole gamut from nearly black to almost tan. While the darker ones tend to be from earlier in the run, and the lighter ones later, there was no true consistency to the paint job from batch to batch or year to year. The "Chocolate Moose" variation is, naturally, among the most desirable.

The most desirable Moose is, without question, the Presentation Series one. Actually, all of the Presentation pieces are considered quite rare, with the exception of the Adios, who is only slightly less so. I’ve found a few trophy mounted Breyers in my time, but no true Presentation pieces so far, Moose or otherwise.

He has had only two other releases: the #387, in a pale chestnutty color, and the #398, in a dark shaded dun with tan antlers. I haven’t had any luck securing a decent #387; he was only available for two years - 1997 and 1998 - and the paint job seems unusually prone to damage. I do have the #398, and a unique one at that. How unique? Here’s his head shot:


Isn’t he adorable?

He’s another one of those "newtoymens" models. I don’t know if he’s a test piece, an oddball who was pulled from production, or a little something someone at the factory whipped up for their own amusement. Maybe they were experimenting with different antler placements? Or was it merely a fortuitous fixturing failure? I haven’t examined enough of these later Moose to make the call.

The Moose’s antlers were molded separately and attached post-molding. He’s not unique in that respect: lots of models, including the Big Poodle, Elk, Bighorn Ram, Cow, and most of the Bulls also have separately molded body parts. What’s unique about my Moose is his complete lack of symmetry, well beyond the normal degree of variation we usually see for these sort of things. The Longhorn Bulls are notorious for the amount of variation in their horn placement, but individual models tend to be symmetrical, whether they’re pointing up or pointing down.

And not quite as amusing.