More About WinterFest

And if you’re wondering if I am excited about the Winter Animal Special Run Garret, I am, but I’m leaving that discussion for next time, hopefully when I’m feeling a little bit better. 

I still have not partaken of any WinterFest-ivities yet; it’s kind of hard to concentrate when your back is yelling obscenities at you. (“You need to sneeze? Good luck with that!”) I decided I really didn’t need either of the Special Runs designated for the event, so “attending” has been a low priority anyway. (Maybe later today?)

I was a little surprised that so many folks insisted on being there when the metaphorical doors opened; I thought it was common knowledge that the quantities made were not small – 3000 pieces! – so a quick sellout seemed pretty unlikely. 

My guess would be that some might have thought other surprises were in store; the thought crossed my mind too, but I wasn’t in any condition to worry about it when my alarm went off Friday morning. (Actually getting out of bed was my biggest concern!) 

I think some of it ties into the fact that a lot of hobbyists seem to hold a lot of contradictory notions about the hobby being both unimaginably large and incredibly small. And they are not 100 percent wrong: there are a lot of people who just collect, or who participate in the hobby in the privacy of their homes, but the actual number of people who are highly engaged is relatively small. 

And when I mean highly engaged, that includes live showing, photo showing, attending hobby events, customizing, making tack, blogging or vlogging, on a regular basis. 

Even events that are ostensibly designed for low-engagement collectors and hobbyists, like WinterFest, are not necessarily going to draw the majority of them in: in fact, I’m sure quite a few of them are completely clueless about it. 

I’ve spoken to a number of more casual collectors, for instance, who were utterly unaware of the existence of the virtual component of BreyerFest. Considering how much effort Reeves puts into advertising the event on its web site, via other social media, in their catalogs and other ephemera, you’d think knowledge of the event would be inescapable, and you would be wrong.

I think the WinterFest models will sell out eventually: the price points and quantities available are comparable to other seasonal, limited edition models. The only difference between them and the other “Holiday” Special Runs like Tinsel, Mittens and Wintergreen is that they are specifically tied to an event – and we know exactly number of models available. 

(And also free postage in the U.S. is being offered on the WinterFest items? I didn’t put any in my cart to confirm.)

I don’t know how many of the “Holiday” models were made, but it wouldn’t be surprised if it was less than 3000. And except for the Stablemates, they’re all still available.

WinterFest?

My life is weird, part one million: this past week included my shoes melting and an extended argument about a toilet. I also unintentionally manifested an entire box of French Vanilla coffee creamer.

(Yeah, the same nonsense I can do with models I can now do with food. Except a decent vegetarian corn chowder: that search continues.)

First, some of you were a little confused about the references to the legs on the Family Arabian Foal: I was referring to how she looked from the front, rather than the sides. Here’s a shot to show you how different the leg positions are on my belly-stamped FAF, compared to a slightly later Bay example.

Most of my FAFs (I have… so many) look more like the Bay than the Woodgrain. It could just be that this specific Woodgrain Foal was made this way, or got this way somehow; legs have a habit of going wonky in storage. Maybe there is something more to it, and maybe there isn’t. I haven’t seen enough of these Foals in person to make any assumptions.

Someone mentioned the Old Mold version of the Stallion in the comments – yes, he is most definitely an underappreciated early rarity! But ironically, not a hard one to collect: I think I have a complete collection of them now, and I don’t think any one example cost me more than fifty dollars (the Woodgrain, I believe: I think because he had a Tenite sticker? Back is still too achy for me to dig him out.)

The only significant difference between an Old Mold Stallion and an early Family Arabian Stallion is the mold stamp: Old Molds don’t have it, though most Gray Appaloosas seem to have the partial one. There may be some other subtle differences, but I’ve never been able to conclusively pinpoint anything that couldn’t be ascribed to an incidental manufacturing error. 

Second, this WinterFest thing is interesting; I was just thinking that it was about time for another Duende Special Run. I do like Trueno, and how this paint job makes his mane looks like icicles, but I don’t know if I like him enough to pursue him.

https://www.breyerhorses.com/pages/breyers-winterfest-2023

The same can probably be said of the braided-mane version of Nikolas, named Mouse. Other people have done some digging in my stead and discovered that they are going to be both relatively plentiful and inexpensive, so I may have time to change my mind.

Mouse reminds me a little bit of another one of the customs I’ve been working, too. I’ll probably be putting most of my customizing on hiatus after the Thanksgiving work break, though, to focus on my quilts instead. 

The garage is cold and quilts are warm; that’s all there really is to that.

What else they have in store for this thing we’ll all have to wait and see. I might do a workshop or two if I can find the spare time. (Tempted by the Zebra one, but I fear my patience for painting stripes is very limited.)