Going Green

My first thought upon seeing the third Store Special – W. H. Topgun, a Dappled Buckskin Connemara on the Newsworthy mold – was that’s a pretty subtle way of working a green horse into the BreyerFest lineup:

But seriously, it’s more than likely that this is just Breyer’s often-questionable photography messing with us again; I’m sure that the actual pieces will be a warmer, more appealing shade of Buckskin in person and not a repeat of the classic, but still a little cringeworthy Green Bay #3163 Sham from 1994.

(Because, as I discovered in the Ninth Grade during Ms. Eberline’s Painting class, “olive green” is what you get when you mix yellow with black.)

No, this sneak peek teased the intentionally Green Horse to be revealed next week, a Decorator that is most likely the Pop-Up Store Classic release:

The current line of speculation is that in addition to being dappled lime green with gold and purple accents, it’ll probably be a unicorn as well, since the Unicorn is the national animal of Scotland. And also possibly on the Classic Brabant/Mighty Muscle mold.

If all that is true – or even most of it – you can sign me up for that one. Especially since it’ll be a while before I’m able to procure my current funky Decorator obsession: the Walmart Series 3 Dappled Glossy Purple/Carbonated Grape (!) Standing Warmblood Unicorn Chase Piece.

(Completely unexpected, and I love it!)

With BreyerFest being a virtual event this year, it definitely throws a monkey wrench into my selection process: I don’t make my final purchasing decisions until I’ve seen the actual items in person, usually. I’m hoping that they’ll offer other, non-studio photographs of the sales pieces available prior to us having to make choices on things like W. H. Topgun.

I’m generally good with surprises, but keeping them to a minimum this year might be a good idea, all things considered.

Off to do some gardening. And sewing (Anyone need face masks? I’m only making about a bajillion!)

There He Is!

That was a rough patch of days. I finished a number of lingering projects, another one is well on its way, the garden is almost done (thought the rain is not helping) and I even managed to finish a quilt I though would be the death of me.

(Note to self: Matchstick quilting by hand? Bad idea!)

There was a dentist appointment in there, too.

And now I am completely exhausted. The “sit back in a chair, blink your eyes and immediately lose three or four hours” kind of tired. (Which is also why I am putting off seeing the new Godzilla movie for another day or two.)

So of course the Mid-year photos had to drop today, when I have absolutely no energy to be excited.

The most talked about of this year’s Mid-Year crop is obvious: the Bay Bristol that had all of us so consternated late last year, who is now a portrait model of champion show jumper Voyeur.

(I think I speculated that he was likely a Mid-Year portrait model. I’m pretty sure? I am rapidly losing my will to brain.)

Unlike the model seen in the GoldieBlox video, though, Voyeur has a braided mane, instead of a loose one. But it’s not necessarily a big revelation that the model in the video was a Test Color, either. Even if it was absolutely identical to the regular production run piece, it’d still likely be a Test Color by dint of the date the video was published.

(I mean, yeah, they have made models before and sat on them for months and months before unleashing them on us, but… just go with it for the sake of simplicity, okay?)

Voyeur will be a big seller, either way. Breyer has been killing it with their Bay paint jobs lately, and everyone is pretty hot to get their hands on an affordable Bristol since his Premier Club release, BreyerFest 2018 Gloss Chestnut Leopard Appaloosa Raffle model, and now the Black Pinto Custom Contest Prize model Leap of Faith are all – more or less – either unaffordable or inaccessible to the majority of us.

Just like the Newsworthy mold, my personal preference leans more toward the loose-maned version to the braided one. In fact, one of the few “personal collection” purchases I’ve made so far this year was a loose-maned Newsworthy, specifically the Best of British Connemara Pony one:

I originally purchased him with nefarious purposes in mind, but then I got caught up in other business and lost the will to do nefarious things by the time he arrived at my doorstep. Then he sat in his box for a couple of months until I decided to open him up for my birthday because it is not a birthday without a new Breyer horse, right?

(I bought an LV Integrity specifically for my birthday, too. But more on him on a less delirious day.)

In spite of my current space issues, I managed to find the perfect place for him, perched on top of my printer and looking like he’s about the dive into a mosh pit of Stablemates Unicorns on the desk below.

Enough with the silliness. Time for bed.

The Expected, and The Unexpected

I’ve been trying to not pay too much attention to the Auction models – I haven’t won the lottery, yet, for that to even be a consideration – but ooh, I really like the Cremello Tobiano Newsworthy:

We’ve had Cremellos (BreyerFest Surprise Lonesome Glory) and Perlinos (Desatado Orion), but I can’t recall if we’ve had a production run Double Dilute Pinto or Appaloosa yet.

I think I need that to be a thing, now!

Some of the more recent Auction pieces have been previews of coming attractions, so I’ll cross my fingers and hope to see a similar paint job on something easily available and somewhat affordable…

(Also trying to pretend I didn’t see the Gloss Silver Bay Fell Pony Emma, but at least that one wasn’t as delightfully unexpected as the Pinto.)

Oddly enough, I’m slightly less enthused about the new Premier Club release Duende. Don’t get me wrong: the sculpt by Mindy Berg is beautiful, and I am all for more standing models. Some of my favorite molds – the Traditional Man o’ War and Trakehner come to mind – are standers.

But my first reaction was something I never thought would cross my mind:

Oh Jeez, Is that ANOTHER “Spanish” horse?

I love Andalusians. I was thrilled to pieces when the Legionario and the Classic Andalusian Family came out in late 1978 – so much so that I made my Aunt Arlene order them from the Bentley Sales Company for Christmas that year. (Yes, they are still here).

We have a lot of Breyer Spanish molds now. Sure, okay, we didn’t have a standing one. And I would be all over a Lipizzan doing a capriole.

But still, they are fairly well-represented across the various lines and scales. And yet we still wait for a new Traditional Shetland Pony, another Draft Foal, an updated Man o’ War, a new TWH Stallion, a true Akhal-Teke, a typey Morgan…

I know: gripe, gripe, gripe. Andalusians and their relations are flashy, beautiful, and popular, that’s why they keep doing them.

And if they put a paint job on it as beautiful as the Newsworthy, I will buy them, too.

Back to the BreyerFest prep, I guess.

And Now, a Regular Run Gambler's Choice?

Loose-Maned Newsworthy/Connemara Ponies have been found in the wild; apparently Reeves is doing a “Gambler’s Choice” with the two different versions, though I suspect the Loose-Maned will be scarcer, at least at first.

It’s nice to know that the option is out there, since the positive online response to Persimmon is making it less likely for me to get picked for one. (More people entering, more often = worse odds.) I’ve heard almost nothing but nice things about the paint job for the Connemara, too, so it won’t be a mere consolation prize when I find one.

While we’ve had simultaneously released finish variations (Gloss vs. Matte) for both Regular Run and Special Run items for a while now, simultaneously released mold variations are a relatively new thing.

This is because the ability to release multiple mold variations simultaneously is a relatively new thing.

But not a new-new thing. We’ve had separately molded and theoretically swappable parts on molds since the 1950s, primarily via the various “saddled” horses (Horse, Pony, Fury/Prancer, Western Prancer) and the cattle with their separately molded ear and horn pieces.

The closest corollary to the Connemara, I believe, would be the original Breyer Dairy Cow, who had unique horns or sets for its five different releases: Ayrshire, Holstein, Brown Swiss, Jersey and Guernsey. They were not always consistently placed, or done with the correct pieces, but the effort was made.

The Dairy Cow experiment ended after a couple of years, but not due to technical issues: being the most popular dairy cow breed in the U.S., the Holstein outsold all of the other Dairy Cow releases, plain and simple. So much so that many of the subsequent releases, reissues and Special Runs were some flavor of Holstein, like the Weber Scientific Cow:

The two-year production run for the other Cows (and Calves) was atypical for Breyer releases in the 1970s, but it’s fairly average for a release today. It’s a different market, requiring different marketing techniques, so I wouldn’t “read” too much into the length of the Connemara Pony’s run, one way or another.

Though I do think the release will get a little bit of a bump in sales, since a scarcely produced and previously much more difficult to obtain mold variation is now in the mix.

All I’m asking for is that it run long enough for me to find and procure one at a reasonable price. This might take a while, since my work schedule has not been conducive to pony shopping lately.

Persimmon

The next release of the Web Special “Berries Ponies” series is out (already?), and it’s a loose mane/tail version of the Newsworthy mold:

Other than the Connoisseur release Golden Boy, all of the other Newsworthy production releases since the mold’s introduction in 2008 have had the braided mane and tail.

Intriguingly, a promotional picture of the Best of British Connemara Pony release also features the loose mane and tail, and is shown on the web site alongside the braided version:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/connemara-pony

Only braided versions of it have shown up – so far. I’ve heard conflicting information about whether or not we will be seeing this loose version in the wild; I think it’s just a matter of time. After all, those pictures have been up on the Breyer web site for a while, and we now have an actual (albeit small) release using the loose mane and tail.

When there is one, others usually follow. Whether or not the photo was intentionally used or not, Reeves might have to make them now just to get us to stop bothering them about it: for better or worse, we hobbyists tend to be a rather annoying and persistent bunch.

I’ve always preferred the loose mane/tail version; the loose mane, in particular, is just better sculpted than the braids. In this form, he also looks like a more refined and updated version of the old #300 Jumping Horse.

While the Connoisseur Golden Boy isn’t necessarily the hardest of the Connoisseurs to find, and the prices aren’t too crazy, I’ve been pretty good at limiting my Connoisseur collection to those pieces that I’ve won. (With the sole exception of a Tortoiseshell Buffalo Taima, who is actually a Sample.)

That being said, I’ll probably only do my “enter once, hope for a lucky draw” thing again here. While I think Persimmon is adorable, and I certainly would not turn him down if I get drawn, that money could best be used elsewhere right now.

Still Waiting for the Other Shoe

Well, that didn’t take long: Glossy Vintage Club Mr. Chips, yo.

The piece count this time is 95; Lucy’s was 80, so it seems safe to say that they’re making 500 pieces of these Vintage Club Bonus models anyway, and just glossing the unsold remainder. That they sold fewer of the Mr. Chips than the Lucy makes sense, since only his paint job could be classified as Vintage. 

Since it’s technically a Vintage Club exclusive, I’m a bit hesitant to put it in the same category as Frosty, Cosette, Mischief, the Warehouse Specials, the Two Foal Set, et al. What I’m think of will be something available to more people, and it’ll make a significant portion of the hobby lose it.

I know what you're thinking, but the Premier Club Croi Damsha doesn’t count either. I am a little surprised at the intensity of the drama leading up to her (presumed) unveiling this week, especially since the only thing we didn’t know about that was the specifics. (Me, the Vintage Models Forever person, almost joined the Premier Club last year because of it. My loss!)

Anyway. Here’s another BreyerFest addition I haven’t talked about yet, the little Pink Appaloosa Stablemate Birthday Cake:

I’m not normally a big fan of the color pink, but my first reaction to seeing it in person was Oh, I could just eat you up!

Like almost everything else in the Anniversary Store, Birthday Cake sold out too, in spite of having a 2000 piece run. (I received mine through the kind graces of a friend, since my schedule and circumstances kept me from even attempting the Anniversary Store).

I’m assuming that the experiment succeeded, and this means we’ll be seeing another Commemorative/Souvenir Stablemate next year - I hope with either a bigger piece count, or a stricter limit enforced on purchases.

There’s been some talk among hobbyists about a Stablemates-of-the-Month Club: namely, why don't we have one yet? The demand is certainly there for one. The primary prohibitive factor there is cost: once you factor in postage, packaging, promotion and manufacturing, the price per month would end up being $12-15 each.

This is not out of line for what the BreyerFest One-Day Stablemates go for, but for hobbyists used to getting individually carded Stablemates for four bucks, retail? It might be a bridge too far. Part of the addictive nature of Stablemates is that they’re cheap: forty bucks can get you one nice Traditional Horse - but 10 Stablemates! More, if you do your homework. (Y'all know about the Ollie's sale, right?)

Double the price, and some are going to hesitate. That Birthday Cake sold out as quickly as it did was partly because she was only five bucks, not ten.

There are creative ways of getting around the cost problem. They could double them up (like the Classics Foals), sell them quarterly in sets rather than monthly, charge a one-time flat fee for a year’s subscription, or set up various BOGO offers (Buy One SR, Get One RR Free!)

Actually, I think they did consider doing something like that when Stablemates were first introduced, if I’m remembering right. I’ll have to go digging for the evidence later this week.

One, Two, Three...

Head’s up: I was just informed a few days ago that the basement, where my office resides, going to continue being messed up through July and part of August. So you’ll be seeing more "scenic" photos here in the next several weeks.

I haven’t been online much the past few days; I’ve been spending most of my free time dealing with BreyerFest stuff. (My printer was possessed by demons yesterday. Grr.) All I’ve done online is skim the auction pictures, download the PDF of this year’s program, and do a few quick look-sees to make sure the model horse world hasn’t burned down while I was out.

Crazy things start happening the closer we get to Kentucky, you know, and I don't want to be completely out of the loop!

Like everyone else, the price on the Bluegrass Bandit Store Special Champagne Wishes gave me pause. I want her, badly, but $250 for a 350-piece Special may be just a bit too far for me; I was expecting something more in the $200 range. The pricing seems a little out of place, too, since everything else - except the Surprise SR - seem so modestly priced this year. (The Western Horse Gossamer is only 50 bucks?!)

I know they’re just trying to get a cut of that sweet secondary market cash, but I might just pass her up and stick to the danger-mystery-excitement of the Sample boxes.

I'm also a bit shocked that the piece count for the Surprise Model "Pop the Cork" is so high - 2700 pieces? Which works out to 675 pieces per color, though I am also assuming that those colors may  be split into Gloss and Matte. (If so, 550 Matte and 125 Gloss? Just wild guessing.) My first ticket isn’t until Friday afternoon, so I’ll have some time to decide if he/she is worth it to me.

Since I need to get back to wrestling for the soul of my laser printer, here’s a picture of my Mr. Chips:

He’s pretty! I wouldn’t mind seeing this colorway on anything, old mold or new.

My only quibbles are that (a) I would have preferred the loose mane to the braided, and (b) I’m a little disappointed he’s not the six-spot version! You know, like this:

I have no idea why Breyer made the earliest of the Leopard Pony of the Americas that way. As you can see above, I do have a splash spot Test Color of the original Leopard POA, and she has just a sprinkling of spots on the near side, too. So the sparseness of the spots was intentional.

Truth be told, I actually prefer few-spot Appaloosa patterns, but I’d rather have the whole horse be that way, not just one side. The six-spotted version is so odd that my only guess is that they might have based the pattern on a specific horse or reference photo.

Because you know how good real horses are at following the rules and stuff. Every time I see a real live Splash Pinto, my first reaction is always "Who dumped a couple buckets of paint on you?" Yet I'd still bid on the Splash Pinto Strapless auction piece, if I had that kind of cash to spend. (I don't.)

Happy Grab Bag Day!

Darn these Grab Bags - I didn’t get anything done today! Grab Bag "Y" landed on my doorstep around lunchtime. The contents consisted of:

• WEG Mandiba
• WEG Jamaica
• Enchanted Forest
• Bats in the Belfry
• Pokerjoe
• Pharaoh
• Patagonia
• WEG MiniWhinnies Set
• Ponies Gone Wild "Gina"
• Pony Gals SM Swedish Warmblood
• WEG SM Reiner

Yep, definitely worth it.

I’ll be keeping Jamaica, Bats in the Belfry, Enchanted Forest, the MiniWhinnies Set, and the PGW "Gina." I may or may not keep the Stablemates (as bodies). Everything else will be put up for sale (preferably) or trade.

I haven’t settled on prices yet; I want to wait a bit and see how the market shakes out. I’m not too concerned about making all of my money back on my investment, but getting a little of it back before the end of the year wouldn’t hurt. I just wish other hobbyists would be a little less cagey about revealing their pickings so far.

I’m not surprised to hear that there are multiples occurring from box to box: it seemed overly optimistic of the "8 boxers" to think that there’d be 48 to 54 unique Traditional-scale items spread across the eight different assortments. Haven’t heard about too many porcelains showing up yet, which I find odd, but it is still a bit early yet. How I ended up being one of the early birds this time around, I do not know…

Disappointments: no WEG Snow Globe or doggies. Guess I’ll have to wait ‘til next year’s NPOD for a Beethoven. I was also hoping for one of the bigger plushie horses, for Vita: I’m thought she’d dig having a plushie as big as she is, to play with. (No, not THAT way - that’s what the doggie bed is for.)

My favorite of keepers is the Enchanted Forest. What a lovely paint job on this boy!


You know me, I’m a sucker for a simple, well-executed color. Which, in this case, is a rich, shaded chocolate bay with subtle dappling.


The Jamaica is really nice, too, even if he is just another bay on the Trakehner mold. I’m glad that that mold has had something of a comeback in recent years: whatever his faults, I’ve always considered him one of better of Chris Hess’s later efforts. In this era’s obsession with wild paint jobs, crazy hair, and increasingly extreme action poses, it's nice to see a lot of other hobbyists are rediscovering his understated charms.

Bats

The flea market was cold and quiet today. I found a few good deals, including a quilt hoop (for a buck!) and a 1968 copy of The Care & Training of the Trotter & Pacer (with dustjacket!) There were a few models, but nothing worth the effort. I need to move more models out of the house, not into it. Gotta get cracking on the sales listings again…

If one of my pending deals goes through this week I just might buy myself a Bats in the Belfry as a reward. I love the mold, and the paint jobs on the ones I have seen so far have been exquisite.

To be honest, I never had a problem with, or really understood, the hate-on over the fuzzy bats on the original Nosferatu. The reason I never got around to buying one was because the Cigar mold doesn’t fit on my shelves. I love my Wanderlust, my QVC Seabiscuit, and my Glossy Affirmed (swoon!) but darn it, those suckers eat up a lot shelfy real estate. The Nokota Horse isn’t exactly petite either, but he’s got that multiple posability thing going on, and I can work with that.

I was making a few minor corrections and additions to my Nokota Horse file yesterday, in my ongoing effort to get my pile of research notes under control. Sigh: out of its 12 releases so far, 6 of them have piece runs of 100 or less. Here I thought the whole Esprit thing was bad. Fully half of the runs of the Nokota Horse are completely inaccessible to me, and likely always will be.

The Newsworthy mold isn’t a lot better: out of the eight releases so far, only the original release would qualify as a regular run, and even that only ran for about a year and a half. I'm not sure what to call the Enchanted Forest - a midyear release already on the Discontinue list? I guess that’s what he gets for the sin of merely being Bay.

All of these super-brief runs and micro-runs on new molds got me thinking about that question I posed earlier this year: is Reeves really heading towards a "Test Colors For Everyone!" business mode, a la Stone?

I hope not. It’d completely wreak havoc in the hobbyist sphere, where there’s already a huge issue being made over the effect that a handful of "big spenders" have been making on the hobby as a whole. What happens when they can - for a price - pretty much order whatever the heck they want?

I take a little comfort in the fact that most of the models I’ve seen come out of all of these "Make Your Own Test Color" programs haven’t been all that appealing to me. I guess it’s a side effect of being able to get whatever you want: most hobbyists are going to go for something completely, utterly idiosyncratic. It’s so completely tailored to their likes and dislikes that it won’t "fit" anyone else.

That’s also why I’m one of the lone voices out there arguing that models coming out of those programs aren’t really Original Finish. They meet all of the technical requirements - painted in the factory, with factory techniques - but in every other regard, they’re customs. They’re made to order, with a single defined customer in mind.

At best, I could concede them being another category: the Factory Custom.

Most shows are starting to break the RR and SR categories into further subdivisions - separating earlier Regular Runs from later ones, and low-piece count Specials from the more plentiful ones. I suppose, in the not so distant future, they’ll have to have a Factory Custom/OOAK subdivision, too.