Familiar Faces

Just letting you guys know that we’re now entering my full-panic-mode-before-BreyerFest season, and things are going to get a little weird from here on out. I just cranked out about 3000 words for the Sampler over the weekend and I’m feeling no pain.

My left foot is another matter. (Long story, hopefully nothing.)

The new Mid-Year releases are both beautiful and oddly familiar. First there’s the portrait model Full Moon Rising, on the Strapless mold:

Her paint job looks quite similar to the uber-popular Bay Roan Sabino G1 Draft Horse, from the 2004 Parade of Breeds Set. 

Apparently that little guy shows really well; I’m just annoyed by the high price the entire set it comes in goes for. It came out back when I wasn’t being diligent about buying all the Christmas Stablemates sets, and now I will have to pay the price. 

The first realistic, Regular Run release of Fireheart, a Flaxen Chestnut Overo named Mojave, also looks very familiar:

His warm undertones, poofy hair and rugged chonkiness reminds me a great deal of the #3065 Classic Love Mustang Family Stallion, who was originally in production from 1976 through 1990. My example is quite the looker, and always shows really well for me. I think he has NANed at least twice so far, in very competitive Mustang classes:

Oddly, the Classic Mustang Stallion has only come in Pinto once and Appaloosa once in the past 47(!) years; Fireheart’s very brief production history has been much more colorful!

The Trakehner Family

And… that upgrade isn’t an upgrade: it’s about the same condition as my existing piece, once I clean it up.

You’d think that after all those previous failed attempts to upgrade something good I already have into sometime great, I would have learned by now.

C’est ma vie. While I think I won’t lose any money on the deal in the end, I’ve managed to screw up sure things before.

In more cheerful news, I made some pretty good progress on the inventory over the past few days. I pulled out a few more duplicates and legit upgrades, a few scarcer pieces I really never fell completely in love with, and I’m in the process of sorting out some of my more obscure Classics.

A few of the Classics I’m letting go – more likes that never really turned to loves – but the “Trakehner Family” (from 1992-1994) is one set that’s sticking around:

There are a few reasons why. First, of course, is that there’s a Duchess in it. Second, the colors on all three molds are really well executed: the Jet Run looks especially good in Liver Chestnut, and the light, roany Dapple Gray is one of the prettiest colors the Duchess has ever come in, in my opinion.

And thirdly, it amuses me that this family was constructed from members of three completely different and unrelated “family” sets: Jet Run from the USET Gift Set, Duchess from the Black Beauty and Friends Set, and the Mustang Foal from the Classics Mustang Family.

That was borne out of necessity: this set came out at a time when there still weren’t all that many Classics molds, or at least not the variety we have today. Breyer had just started introducing new Classics molds right around this time – beginning with the Cheney Mestenos – after nearly a ten-year gap.

There was a slow trickle of new Classics molds after the Mestenos (the Western Performance Horses, some of the Nonplastics, the Draft Horse, and so on) but it’s only really been in the past ten years that we’ve seen a regular procession of new Classics molds.

Classic Mustang Mare Variations

There’s a new Collector’s Grab Bag up for grabs on the Breyer web site, but alas I have to take a pass on it: April is an expensive month around here, with taxes, dental appointments and license plate fees on top of all the usual bills.

The hint for the last BreyerFest SR is up, and as most of us thought it’s something of the Decorator variety. (Shrunk here for clarity):

It looks like something in the Moody family of molds, with a paint job similar to the Show Jumping Warmblood Sunny, from several Exclusive Events back:

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/DSC00707.JPG

If I recall correctly, Sunny was painted on leftover Translucent bodies of the Halloween Special Run Twilight Terror, so if that’s the look they’re going for, this might be another one of the Translucents we’ve been looking for. An equine representation of the Olympic flame on a Silver, maybe, with masked flames like last year’s wild and crazy auction piece Brishen?

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/2015-09.jpg

Back to the box lot…

This is one I’ve been meaning to spotlight for a while, but my other Mustang Family is currently in storage, and I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison. The box lot had a similar Mare, so here we go:

Some early Classics Mustang Family Mares have hand-airbrushed pinto markings, but the majority are masked with some overshading, and the ones near the end of the run are even darker and dispense with the extra airbrushing.

This photo clearly shows the first and second variations of the Mustang Mare; I don’t have the third “Clean Mask” variation because I haven’t made the Mustang Family the priority it now obviously should be.

The Mustang Family was the last of the three Classic Hagen-Renaker Family sets to be released, in 1976, and Breyer seems to have gotten a lot of the variability out of their Classics paint jobs by then.

But not all, obviously. Although my hand-airbrushed Mare is fairly close to the masking that was settled on, it’s not difficult to find ones that are not. Sometimes wildly so! The Stallion and Foal have some variability, too, mostly in the shades of Chestnut they wear (the Foal, especially) but their markings and masking stayed fairly consistent.

The Clean Mask variation of the Mare seems to be the least common of the variations among them, though none of them are particularly rare. Unlike the Arabian and Quarter Horse Families, if you want to track down and buy them, it should put much of a strain on your horse budget.