On Being Underwhelmed

Not that it matters, but:

Group A: Old Timer, because obviously.

Group B: Either the Ruffian because I love the color and I love splash pintos; or the Clydesdale Mare, because I’m not one to turn down a pretty Clydesdale Mare. (I would have had a Palisades – in an alternate universe where I grabbed a completely different box in the NPOD – but that’s a story best told offline.)

The Old Timer has been offered without its hat and blinkers before: first as a part of the Warehouse Finds program a few years back, and a couple of years ago some of the Web Special LaFittes also came that way. 

(Mine came with.)

Filling in the blinker slots is a relatively easy thing to do, especially if only a hundred or so models are involved. 

Anyway, I’m going to keep this short because I had a lot of drama to deal with yesterday and I am in no mood for more. 

I am not surprised to hear that people are complaining that the Specials for the True Blue Event are “underwhelming”. Some of it is a coping mechanism for not being chosen, and that I can understand somewhat. That’s pretty much been my operating mode for the past several months.

As for those who are upset with the choices: there is absolutely no reason for Reeves to “up the ante” with the Special Runs at these events.

It’s already impossible for most of us to attend these events, and there have been enough new hobbyists with lots of disposable income entering the hobby that have made purchasing any of them second hand also nigh-impossible. 

You are attending this event as a hobbyist, not a reseller. Reeves is under no obligation to make things to maximize your profits by swapping out the Rejoice with Hamilton, or the Mangalarga Marchador with Duende. 

Making these Special Runs even more desirable would only make the competition for these slots even worse. Sometimes I wish they would get rid of these extra Special Runs altogether – I think the past three Event Models have been worth the price of admission, alone! – but it makes them money, so of course it makes sense for them to do it.

If the desired effect of these “underwhelming” Special Runs is to discourage a portion of people from entering or attending these events, I say to you that this is a good thing. Maybe then I might have a shot at getting picked for one.

Cornflakes

I’m somewhat short on time today, so here’s a picture of that fascinating Dapple Gray Old Timer variation with the Cornflake Dappling from the Dirty Pony Lot:

Large, irregular dappling, also known as “cornflake” dappling, is a variation that randomly occurs on resist or splatter Dapple Grays, primarily in the 1970s. It’s most commonly seen on the Proud Arabians, but is occasionally spotted (no pun intended) on other models that sported this style of dappling, like the #205 Old Timer.

While the #123 Dark Dapple Gray Running Mare and #133 Running Foal did have large dapples from their release starting in ca. 1962 onward, those dapples were restricted to their hips in a paint job that was uniquely their own during their 10+ year production run. 

I once saw – and almost purchased – a striking Dappled Smoke Running Mare from the 1987 Sears Wishbook “Graceful Mare and Foal Set” with cornflake dappling, at BreyerFest several years back. 

The fact that it does pop up so sporadically like that makes me assume it is either a truly random phenomenon and not something intentional (as so many early Breyer painting peculiarities were) or perhaps the handiwork of a particular but now-unidentifiable production worker at the factory.

Off to find an unoccupied window to sun him in! 

My Dirty Ponies

While everyone else was plotzing about the Space Bears or Star Wars spin-offs yesterday I was having a grand old time with a big box lot of dirty ponies:

Here’s a close up to give you an idea of what I’m dealing with:

I know I am not alone here, but cleaning dirty plastic ponies is my happy place. Buying a lot like this is not about adding to or upgrading in the collection, or even about making any money off the deal, though when all is said and done I will probably make a small profit. 

I just really enjoy taking something dirty and unattractive and making it presentable and/or pretty again. In some ways it’s much like a customizer’s impulse to make something beautiful out of what they presume is less so. 

The only difference here is that instead of rejecting the original color, shape or design, I’m restoring it.

Some are already done, some are still in process, and some (like the deeply yellowed Shire, and the Proud Arabian Stallion who I’ve nicknamed “The Trainwreck”) are definitely long-term projects. 

The only one I think I might be keeping (so far) is the Clydesdale Foal, who turned out to be a Pearly underneath all that muck. The Clydesdale Foal is one of the less common vintage Pearlies, and she has rather pretty shading too, so that’s cool.

The Shire might also stay, depending on how well the de-yellowing goes. While she has some condition issues above and beyond the yellowing, her shading and dappling are so superior to my already existing Dapple Shire that it’s definitely giving me something think about.

The Old Timer has “cornflake” dappling (sparse, giant dapples), which is also a thing. On the other hand, I definitely don’t need another Dapple Gray Old Timer variation. 

The Diamond P Knockoffs are fun, but I have enough already and they will all be moving on eventually. The big standing one that seems to be an original design might stick around a little longer than the rest since I find him intriguing overall, even if his face is disturbingly serpentine. 

Turkey Day

So this long-lost package greeted me today when I got home:

This is not a frozen turkey: there were four horses in there and fortunately/miraculously none of them appear to have been damaged in any significant way. 

But still, yikes. This is not a good way to start out the week.

In other news that was not news because last week was last week, the 2020 inductees to the Toy Hall of Fame were Baby Nancy, Jenga, and Sidewalk Chalk.

I understand Baby Nancy: the original write up was a little too detailed and well-written for me to not think it was a foregone conclusion. History, and all that.

As far as games go, I thought Yahtzee or Risk had a better chance than Jenga, but Jenga does have an appealing (yet deceptive) simplicity to it. It takes two minutes to explain, if that, and there are no notepads to tally or rulebooks to follow. 

But Sidewalk Chalk? We got beat by craft supplies? Sigh.

Okay, I’ll admit that I kind of got my hopes up just slightly, based solely only the fact that one of the hosts of the morning radio show I usually listen to very briefly mentioned the hobby in passing when discussing the Toy Hall of Fame story a few weeks back, during the voting phase of it. 

Then again, that guy is/was a toy train nerd, has a daughter that is the right age, and the two primary independent toy stores in this area both have extensive selections of both Breyers and Trains.

In other words, it was probably just an exceptional circumstance. 

But still, it’s an optimistic sign that we’re not as peripheral to the public consciousness as some hobbyists believe, and that this campaign was not as quixotic as it originally seemed. Heck, Lisa was outed as a model horse collector on The Simpsons last year: 

https://www.laughingplace.com/w/articles/2020/05/10/tv-recap-the-simpsons-season-31-episode-21-the-hateful-eight-year-olds/

There was a shot of an extensive (20+) model horse collection in her room, and she gave one of horsey friends “a toy horse, with a hat” for her birthday! (Any model horse hobbyist who watched that episode immediately whispered Old Timer.)

I’m kind of curious just how far Reeves is willing to go to continue pursuing it, though, since they obviously saw it as part of their 70th Anniversary marketing strategy. 

Off to bed now; I have a sinus headache that’s not going to get any better staring at a computer screen.

Another Funky Old Timer Variation

(FYI: This is as political as I am ever going to get here, and as you will see, it’s just barely.)

Like a lot of folks, I’ll be checking out of most media for the next couple of days because I need a break. I live in a battleground state where even my smudge of a town has seen several campaign stops, and I think it’s probably best that – having done my civic duty – I just retreat to my workshop for the next couple of days to decompress and be, you know, productive.  

There’s an applique quilt project I pulled out of storage last week that needs to be completely redrawn (I’ve found that commercial quilt patterns from the 1970s are almost always wrong in some fundamental way.) 

And there is, of course, that big box of (mostly) body-quality Breyers still sitting in the car that I need to get out of said car before I take it in for an oil change later this week, because I’ve had to deal with enough awkward conversations recently. (See above)

One of the pieces in this lot is (supposedly) a fairly decent #206 Bay Old Timer. I had one years ago and sold it, because it was produced at a time when Breyer Bays were not all that interesting. Then I found another who was a lot better, and a variation too, but I sold that one also because I needed the money and Old Timers are reliably good sellers, even the boring ones. 

But I’ve been thinking a lot about the Old Timer mold since last year’s Web Special LaFitte, so if this one turns out to be in reasonably good shape, I may keep it. 

The lot that the Indian Pony came in also included a Dapple Gray Old Timer that I was originally going to send directly to my sales list, because I have a lot of Dapple Gray Old Timers already and didn’t think I needed another. 

Guess what? It’s probably staying:

The gold trim on the harness and headstall are painted on one side… but not on the other!

It’s kind of neat, though, to confirm one little production factoid with this horse: details were painted from side to side, and not from the head down. At least with this particular painter, whoever he or she was. 

Myth, Legend, and Celtic Flings

There’s been some speculation that – because of the variation promotion they ran this year – that there won’t be a BreyerFest Leftovers Sale. Because there weren’t any (or precious few) leftovers.

They might not be the leftovers you were hoping for, but there are always leftovers, people.

But I’m moving on from waiting for that sale to inevitably drop: I’ve got better things to do with my time and money. Like haunting my local Tractor Supply stores waiting for the Mystery Unicorn Stablemate bins to magically fill, swinging by my favorite local hobby shop to finally pick up that Bisbee I’ve been eyeing for a couple of months, or binge watching all the shows I had to bail on during the run-up to BreyerFest.

Or lurking around eBay for cheap Old Timers. Not just for ones to add to the herd since LaFitte reignited my interest: because I haven’t been sleeping well lately and my mind wanders, I now find myself with more creative ideas I may need to explore.

(As if I don’t have enough!)

Speaking of that, while it’s probably a bit too early to make any concrete plans and plots about next year’s BreyerFest, I’ve been giving a little more thought to next year’s “Celtic Fling” theme.

It’s probably already too late to make any substantial changes of plan for next year – guests, Special Runs, contests et al – but I am going to make one weird request of Reeves: easy on the Leprechauns, please?

Seriously. I’ve been a huge fan of myths, legends and fairytales forever: my favorite books in elementary school were D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths and Book of Norse Myths, and Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books (Brown was my favorite!)

But I never did warm up to the notion of Leprechauns. I don’t know if it’s because I was never a fan of sugary cereals, or the cheesy-bad horror movies, or perhaps a lingering mild resentment that the Irish got a nationally-celebrated holiday while the best holiday my family’s ethnic background could muster was Pączki Day.

If there’s one thing I am dreading about BreyerFest next year is the likelihood that I am going to have to deal with leprechaun-related stuff at the expense of more interesting Celtic things, like Kelpies, Pookas, Celtic Gold Hoards, The Book of Kells, Boudica, the Tuatha De Danann…

Though I am pretty sure they aren’t going to bypass Epona, at least. Any horse-crazy girl worthy of the adjective knows about the fertility goddess who is also the protector of horses, ponies, donkeys and mules.

Up next: a few final thoughts about BreyerFest, including some of my predictions for next year.

My LaFitte

The first concrete details of this year’s variations and finish splits are up:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/breyerfest-blog/2019-special-run-breakdowns

Originally I was going to write this next post about the variations and some other issues – and possible solutions – I had with BreyerFest this year, but my thoughts are still a little too disorganized, so I’ll go with my backup plan and show you my LaFitte instead:

He literally arrived the very moment I stepped out the door on my way to Kentucky: the mail carrier handed the box to me then said “Do you know your car door is open?”

(Uh, yeah?)

Until a couple of days ago, my LaFitte remained unopened, because BreyerFest got in the way, as it does.

I wasn’t lucky enough to get the blinkerless version, but I am okay with that – I have a pair of blinkerless Chicago-era Culls that I am pretty chuffed to own. If an affordable one crosses my path someday though, I will consider it.

Old Timer is one of those molds that I’ve always wanted to actively collect, but space and circumstances have worked against it. Whenever/if ever that time comes, I already have most of the “harder” to get ones, like the Reissues, the Montgomery Ward’s Alabaster, and of course the Vintage Club Gus.

(I love Gus!)

Only real rarities I don’t have are the McCormick Decanter set – which isn’t really hard to find, so much as it is expensive – and the 2002 BreyerFest Hat Contest Jake, who I’ve just accepted is never going to live at my house.

Test Colors on the Old Timer – especially from the Chicago (pre-1985) era – are somewhat uncommon, presumably because they either never saw a need to test new colors on him back then, or because that would also involve painting all of his fiddly bits, and they just did not have time for that.

But anyways, I love my LaFitte: the paint job is beautiful, intricate and completely suits both the mold and the theme – though I wish they could have somehow made the purple a little more obvious, for the King Cake reference.

It’s also worth noting that they appear to be experimenting with a new/different dappling technique with LaFitte – it looks more like a mask than hand airbrushing, but a little more subtle.

Personally I am fine with the hand-airbrushed dappling technique (I grew up with resist dappling, yo) but if this somehow leads to me seeing the words “fish scale” and “crapples” less often, then I would consider the change a net positive.

Bernadette’s Box

Bernadette arrived – in pretty Wedgewood Blue!

The graphically, her Touchability Box is pretty close to the original, but made of far better materials, which was basically the same corrugated cardboard the original shippers were made of – just reconfigured and with fancier (two-color!) printing!

The original Touchability Boxes only came with the Family Arabians, for a very brief period of time in the late 1960s. They were an experiment in more retail-friendly packaging that went… poorly.

Horses got scuffed, horses got stolen, and they were hard to stack and store on the shelf. It’d be another five years before they’d finally just go with the closed “white boxes” all of us who bought horses in the 1970s knew and loved.

They did an updated version of the Touchability Box in 2009/2010 for the My Favorite Horse Series, a line of older molds – like Buckshot, Sherman Morgan, Quarter Horse Yearling – designed with younger kids in mind.

They experimented with it again on the presumption that touching a Breyer horse will make a kid more likely to want it.

(Well, it certainly does in my case!)

That experiment didn’t last long either – same problems as before, duh – and they went right back to the standard clear plastic boxes shortly thereafter.

The original Touchability Boxes are extremely scarce, and I’m lucky to have the one that I have, that I purchased back in 1998 for the then kinda-scary price of $50.00 – and sight unseen, too!

Technically, Breyer originally referred to this type of packaging as a “Display Carton”; the word “touchability” only appears in the text of the original announcement flier, and in the intervening years that name has stuck.

I would say that in spite of the steep price tag I paid for my Gray Appaloosa FAS over twenty years ago, it was a good investment. I could probably sell it for at least ten times that in less time than it would take me to go to the fridge and grab a drink.

In case your rare packaging radar went off, this is not going to happen. Though when things like this happen, it makes me think twice:

Oh no, not again!

In spite of my shortage of fun money so close to BreyerFest, one does not let a scarce and pretty Old Timer slip by. I’ll just have to extra careful with my trip money this this year, I guess.

(Which I should be doing anyway, but we all know how that goes!)

The Other BreyerFest Stablemates

I knew it was coming, but this one is still going to hurt:

I sure hope they (a) parcel these 30th Anniversary Stablemates Sets out more or less equally/equitably every day and (b) limit them to one per customer, no dang exceptions.

Not that I see that helping me in any way. I am occupied/indisposed early Saturday and Sunday morning, so the only time I’d be able to pick it up would be Friday morning.

This is… not likely.

I gave up the late Thursday/Early Friday KHP campouts a few years ago – not necessarily because of the whole diminishing returns thing, but because I had too many other things to do and something had to give.

Shopping and socializing at the hotel were far more important to me than possibly snagging something rare/weird/valuable early Friday morning at the Horse Park. And to be honest, with my skill set I’d probably have a better shot at finding something rare/weird/valuable at the hotel nowadays, anyway.

Even though they only made 500 of the original 20th Anniversary BreyerFest Stablemates set, I had a relatively easy time acquiring it: Friday morning shopping in 2009 wasn’t as excruciating an ordeal as it is now; Stablemates weren’t quite as hot a commodity back then; and we only really knew about its (rumored) existence a day or two before, not three weeks before.

All these things have changed.

So even though they’ve quadrupled the amount available to 2000 sets, I am not optimistic. I’ll give it a try, because OMG Tiny Carrick, but I am not going to risk life, limb, or a good night’s sleep over it.

In other news, I hope I didn’t jinx myself passing up the last America the Beautiful Web Special Teton, because I love the next one –  Pepper’s Cajun cousin, the Old Timer LaFitte:

Not sure what’s up with the weird capitalization – some people and places with the name do capitalize it that way, but not the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park that this special honors.

My only other criticism is that the timing is bad for this special, but anything released in June or July that’s not BreyerFest related is difficult to deal with.

If I get picked, I’ll deal with it then.

The Burden of History

Update on the BHR situation - they are now also accepting offers for some pieces via MH$P:

http://www.modelhorsesalespages.com/searchlist.asp?Accid=19554

Interesting. Glad that they’re going to spread the wealth in multiple ways. Hope there are some direct (no bid) sales in the pipeline too.

As for the absence of the promised social media presence, we may still be in the "soft opening" phase here - a low-key launch made prior to a bigger announcement, presumably to test the market and work out any potential issues.

On the issue of the museum … that’s a complicated one. At some point in their hobbyist "careers",  I believe most hobbyists fantasize about the notion of starting, having, or at the very least donating their little beloveds to a museum.

Most of us abandon the idea rather quickly: we don’t have the time, the money, or the enthusiasm to follow through on the task. Even if we do, other things get in the way, like work, family, or the sheer amount of storage space required before it ever gets to the actual working museum phase.

The history of past efforts is not encouraging, either; it gotten to the point that whenever I hear rumor of someone else taking up the task, I involuntarily start make painful-looking faces. "Oh, this has a high probability of not ending well."

Small museums dedicated to idiosyncratic hobbies have a difficult time making a go of it, especially after the founder’s passing. Even if a building and a curator (full, or part-time) are secured without much money or fuss, it’s the funding needs that accrue over time that become the bigger issue. Things like general building maintenance, marketing, utilities, and finding someone who knows how to dust correctly. (A bit of an issue on my end, but let’s not go there. Sigh.)

Unless you are independently wealthy and/or manage to set up a healthy endowment fund, you’ll find yourself competing with hundreds of other small museums for a relatively small pot of grant money. Money that’s more likely to go to a local Civil War history museum than to a collection of horse-shaped objects.

In the end, the needs of today often end up outweighing the needs of the yesterday.

Even if the collection itself disperses, though, the legend of it still lives in the provenances of the pieces that disperse. That’s not a bad thing.

Ooh boy, that feels like a bit of a downer. To lighten the mood a bit, here’s a little speculation about the latest BreyerFest Special Run clue on their web site blog:

A wise woman once said "Fashion changes, but style endures." Our next horse is stylish and timeless too.

Like many others, I think this reference to Coco Chanel refers to a vintage (for me, pre-1985) mold. Personally, I’d like to see it be an Old Timer: we haven’t had a widely available Old Timer release since 2004’s Starman and Noddy.

We have had the Vintage Club "Gus" in 2012 and the Reissues of #935 McDuff (the Blue Roan Appaloosa) and #1260 Noddy (the Gloss Palomino) but none of those releases were readily available to the general public or low-involvement hobbyists.

After the Western Horses and Family Arabians, the Old Timer mold is probably the most recognizable model to the general public. And they love him: I have never had an issue selling Old Timers of any color, of any vintage, in any selling forum.

I think it’d be both funny and appropriate if it were the Family Arabian Stallion. Not only does clue "fit", it also segues rather neatly into the "Four Arabs from Four Eras" theory I floated earlier.

The only problem there would be color: he’s come in just about every color, outside of some Decorator ones, and another Decorator in the Tent lineup seems unlikely. Unless it’s a Translucent.

A Translucent Family Arabian Stallion would be several levels of awesome.

We’ll find out soon, if not already.

Feeling Old

On Friday I got a speeding ticket - less than a mile from home! - and had a minor shelf accident in the office that resulted in a tragic break on a not-easily-replaced item.

Then I apparently caught some nasty flu-like thing. At first I thought I was having an allergic reaction to something - the plants outside are growing like crazy with all the rain we’ve been getting - but I’m beginning to suspect that it’s something more than that. I was hoping to see the doctor before my trip anyway…

So yeah, poopy weekend. Nothing much at the flea market, either, outside of a few interesting books (from a large collection of vintage Archaeology textbooks - neat!) So here’s a find from last week I never got around introducing you to, a nice older Alabaster Old Timer:

He has residue from a small Blue Ribbon sticker, a green hatband, no in-fill on his headstall, and no USA mark, so he’s definitely early-early (1966-1968). He was found with a really pretty two-sock Bay Jumping Horse, and an excellent early Pacer with a brick-red halter.

Since I already have plenty of variations of both the Jumper and the Pacer, I left them behind for others to discover; I have too much to sell as it is. On the other hand, the only Alabaster Old Timer I had previous to this fella was an early cull.

Although the Alabaster is less common - discontinued in 1976, eleven years before the Dapple Gray - it's not THAT rare. But I have had a much harder time than I expected locating a passable Alabaster for my collection locally.

Some of the reasons have to do with condition: Old Timers of all colors don’t weather the years well. They literally get loved to pieces: hats go missing, ears get chipped, blinkers get broken off. The Dapple Grays have a tendency to suffer more paint flaws, rubs and scuffs than the Alabasters do; unlike the slightly more modern Alabasters of the 1970s and 1980s, most of the gray shading was sprayed under the clear topcoat/sealer, and not over.

As to the specific reasons why the Alabaster Old Timers aren't as plentiful here as I expect, presumably it's the same reason why I can't find nice Liver Chestnut Quarter Horse Yearlings around here.

This guy does have a few minor dings, but everything else about him is wonderful - and he has his hat! The hat was worth the price I paid for him, alone.

(Seriously Reeves, you could make a mint selling the hats individually.)

The Giant Brown Bunny is a Ucago, and not for sale. Not sure how he ended up in this corner of the office, but I decided not to argue with him. 

Oh No, Not Again - Again!

I had heard rumors about as-yet-unreleased Reissues being spotted at the Factory Tours during the latest Exclusive Event, but I hadn’t given them much thought. I assumed that they’d spring them on us the way they did last year. You know, just setting them out in the Sales Tent, no announcements or nothing.

Nope. Say hello to the latest Warehouse Finds.

I swear I did not know they were being released on the web site this week, just a few days after I mentioned my hunch. I had a hunch something was coming because we had the White Moose Ghost in March of last year, and the Buried Treasure Lusitano in April the year before.

Logic and recent history.

Sometimes, though, I feel like Reeves is punking me. (Decorator Khemos? Let’s do it! Another web site surprise? Let's move it up to this week!)

So anyway, I bought a Pacer and an Old Timer. because those are molds on my "Approved to Buy" List. I picked up a Sucesion and LeFire too because I’ve been wanting to upgrade my set for a long time, and the prices for them on eBay have been out of my league.

430006 Quarter Horse - Blue Roan (AQHA Horse)
430007 Standardbred - Chestnut (Pacer)
430010 Thoroughbred - Chestnut (Halla/Bolya)
430011 Arabian Mare and Foal (Sucesion and LeFire)
430012 Redmond - Bay (Midnight Sun)
430019 Paint Horse - Bay (Cody/Ranch Horse)
430020 Old Timer - Appaloosa

The Old Timer is sans blinkers and hat, like the Palomino, but it’s too soon to tell just how much the other Reissues vary from the originals, outside of the VIN numbers and better executed paint jobs.

I have a feeling that the Midnight Sun will be the Huck Bey of this group - different enough from the original it was inspired from to qualify as a distinct release on its own. It even has a "real" name as opposed to a generic descriptive one, which I find interesting.

Plus, it’s been 25 years since the original #704 was discontinued, back when Reeves was still having some significant quality control issues. He’ll be different just by virtue of that. (I remember liking the release back then, and having a very hard time finding one that did not have major issues.)

It might be worth noting that this may represent the last official production release of the Midnight Sun mold. Due to the ongoing issues within the real world of Tennessee Walking Horses, there hasn’t been an official production release of the Midnight Sun mold since the last Special Run was made for WCHE in 2002.

The only other Midnight Suns we’ve seen in the meantime have been either auction pieces, or the Unpainted ones Reeves has periodically tried to sell us at BreyerFest.

Those "Whiteware" collections might be the key to figuring out what Reissues may be coming down the pipeline in the future. (There are gaps in the Reissue numbering system that still haven’t been accounted for yet. Seems inevitable to me.) The last boxed Whiteware sets included the following molds:

• Sucesion and LeFire
• Gem Twist
• Belgian
• Cody/Ranch Horse
• Midnight Sun
• Clock Saddlebred
• Clydesdale Mare
• Family Arabian Stallion
• Stock Horse Stallion (original tail)
• Shetland Pony
• Western Prancing Horse

Six of the twelve have turned up as Reissues! So I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the other six show up soon. Gem Twist seems the most likely choice, but I would be most excited about the Western Prancing Horse. (Another one on my Buy List!)

Reeves has disabled the parts of the inventory system that allowed us to figure out the rough counts, but (no surprise) the Sucesion and LeFire sets are already gone. Everything else still seems to be available, though.

Reissues Reissued

Another head’s up for those out of the loop: the much-talked-about BreyerFest Store Reissues have just made their reappearance - for sale, on the Breyer web site. They’re under the Traditional link, at a price slightly lower than they were in the store: $29.99, instead of $35.00.

The Huck’s already sold out, but the other four are still available, including the accessory-free Palomino Old Timer everyone was swooning over. (And yes, my chorus line of blinkerless Old Timers is now up to three! Huzzah!)

I kind of figured this would happen, though I thought it would happen a little closer to the holidays, maybe as a Black Friday Special.

More surprising still is that there were so few of the Huck Beys available; I don’t know if it’s because they produced fewer of them, if there was greater demand, or if they sold the bulk of them at BreyerFest.

Since they were still selling the Hucks on Sunday at BreyerFest, I’m sure it’s part of the equation somehow. On the other hand, they had - and still have - tons of Clydesdale Mares, too. More confirmation for my theory that there are/were several skids of Clyde Mare bodies loitering in the warehouse, mayhaps?

(Now imagining a huge army of Clydesdale Mare variations. Oddly, mostly in shades of Black. Ooh, now there's an idea: Black Horses for Black Friday! An entire family of Clydesdale in Solid Black with tan/brown hooves, like the original Special Run Family Arabians!)

(Wow, I'm way more tired than I thought. Rough day at work, but still...)

As far as the exact quantities, and purpose, that’s still a mystery. The next few days are going to be fairly hectic in my neck of the woods, so I’ll have to leave it to others to suss out that information.

Hot, or Not?

I did not think it possible to work 40 hours in the space of two and a half days. It sort of felt like BreyerFest, but with more air conditioning and fewer horses.

(Still haven't decided if this was a good thing, or a bad thing.)

So, there’s also this guy:

The box says "#430018 Arabian - bay" but he looks like a Huckleberry Bey. Sort of.

The color and finish is a little off from most Regular Run Huck Beys that we’ve seen. Those tend to have more contrast between their lighter and darker areas, way more black on their bodies in general, and are a little more brown than red, too.

While any one of these Ninja Pit Hucks wouldn’t look out of place in a random assortment of Huckleberry Beys produced over the years, collectively the Hucks in the sales tent all sort of looked…different, but in the same way. And they weren’t called Hucks.

So I bought one just to be safe, because I sold off my Huck Bey a few years ago, and have sort of been regretting that decision of late.

There were four other models of this type in the tent, as well:

430002 Old Timer - palomino
430008 Draft Horse - bay (Bell-bottomed Shire)
430009 Clydesdale - bay (Clydesdale Mare)
430013 Belgian - bay roan (aka "Trait du Nord")

(Rough reference only: I didn’t see any examples of the Belgian/Trait du Nord personally, and only saw the Shire in passing, so the labels/descriptors are likely off on those two.)

Anyway, they all looked like recent - or not so recent, in the case of the Shire - Regular Run items in new packaging, with Special Run style numbers. So the initial assumption was that that’s what they were: repackaged Regular Run leftovers, knocking around the warehouse.

But what were they, really? A new type of Store Special? A cancelled Special for an event or store? A part of the WEG reissue program/idea that wasn’t fully implemented?

The one that’s been getting the most currency is that they were repurposed leftover (whiteware) bodies from previous recent Regular and Special Runs, and not intended to be true "Special Runs". There was some second or third-hand information being passed around on Blab that this is more or less what a Reeves employee told them.

While I am not generally inclined to believe anything a Reeves employee says at face value, especially second hand, this makes some sense. The Old Timers = leftover Gus bodies. The Shires = leftovers from last year’s Cheerio Special Run. Huck Bey = leftovers from the Color Crazy Redemption Horse and/or upcoming Collectors Club SR Enchanted.

Belgian and Clydesdale Mare = I just happen to think they have a metric ton of those bodies lying around, for some weird reason, as they’ve been showing up for sale as "whiteware" in the Sales Pit for a few years now. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

I’ve heard one report that a VIN number was found on at least one of these models, though I haven’t had the chance to open up mine to see if this is true. If that’s the case, it bolsters the argument that they were very recently made, and not (just) leftovers.

The quantities are unknown: there were definitely more of the Clydesdale Mare and Huck Bey, and fewer of the Belgian and Shire. Although some were seen in the first wave of Ninja Pit action, they did replenish the stock in the store from time to time, and I was able to pick up my Huck late Sunday morning.

The only one of the others I really regret missing is the Old Timer, who was without hat or blinkers. As I’ve got a small collection of blinkerless Old Timer culls going now, it feels incomplete without its Palomino "kid brother".

If Reeves’ intent was to simply pass them off as Regular Runs, they need to study the minds of us collectors a little more closely: new number + new box + new paint job (even if it’s an "old" one) = new release.

Or maybe they do know, and it’s some sort of reverse psychology/Jedi Mind Trick/11th Dimensional Chess they’re all playing on us.  If so, mission accomplished.

Gus

The reason why I haven’t been all that gung-ho about finding horses at the flea market for the past few weeks: I just finished up sorting, tagging and bagging all of my current sales items. More stock I don’t really need, unless it’s something spectacular. I’m a little short on spectacular.

Got lots of cheap, though! Some of it so cheap I’m considering dumping it in our upcoming garage sale. (Nothing worth making a trip for, unless you’re into bodies. Or you just want to shoot the breeze.)

I almost completely forgot about the Vintage Club Special Offer "Gus", who’s a Gloss Medicine Hat Pinto Old Timer. Like the Pamplemousse, he’s being "made to order", so his piece run will be somewhat less than 500 pieces (the limit of Vintage Club memberships).

There are a few reasons why I think they offered him as a "Made to Order" Special, rather than as a "Subscription" Special.

First, he’s a little "outside" of the official Vintage Club parameters: I’m getting the vibe that official releases will be (for the time being) Vintage colors on Vintage molds. Although the color Gus comes in was originally released on the San Domingo back in 1978, it never came in a Gloss Finish.

Second, there’s a strong aversion among a certain subset of hobbyists - some of them Vintage enthusiasts, even - against molded-on tack in general. Those that don’t like it wouldn’t even remotely entertain purchasing such a model.

(That’s why I found it a little surprising that two of the selections they gave Vintage Club members to vote on for a future club release, two of them came with molded on halters: the Quarter Horse Gelding, and the Man o’ War. I love the Man o’ War mold, and his fortunes have been on the upswing lately, but I’d be shocked if he ends up on top of that poll, in spite of his not-boring Gloss Wild Dapple Gray paintjob. Because, you know, there’s a halter.)

Third, because of the labor costs inherent in a piece as complicated as Old Timer, there’s not much money to be made in producing him. There’s a hat, and a harness, and blinkers that have to be glued in and then decorated, and all those itty-bitty gold details that have to be handpainted…way more work than almost any given production model. He gets produced from time to time because the general buying public loves that mold, but it’s almost done as more of a goodwill gesture than for profit.

So it makes sense that they’re offering it this way: they’ll only have to make a certain number of pieces that are already presold, at a more profitable/higher-than-Regular-Run price point. The handful of pieces that don’t get "redeemed" in December will then go up for sale to other Vintage Club members, and then Collector’s Club members.

Sounds like a win-win, all around. 

On Uniqueness

Since my scheduling situation was only partially resolved, I’ve been spending most of my free time over the past two days trying to get my tax paperwork finished up. I’m hoping for a decent sized tax refund to make up the shortfall in the meantime. I needed to do it anyway, but the sooner, the better.

So, Reeves released a "clue" about the next Vintage Club release the other day:

Hint #1: "Had unique feature that no other Breyer had."

Depending on the degree of specificity you take it to, almost any vintage mold could be said to have a "unique" feature. The Five-Gaiter was the first mold to have molded in horseshoes. The Western Prancing Horse was the first to have an "overo" paint job. The Fury version of the Prancer came with a paper saddle. The Elephant was the only Nonequine mold to have a rider (Corky!)

For some crazy reason, most hobbyists seem to be fixated on the Old Timer. Sure, he’s the only horse to come with his own separately molded hat, but he’s not the only Breyer mold. Most of the molded/rigid riders did so, too - like Davy Crockett, the Cowboy, the Indian (sorta), and the Canadian Mountie. Corky and Robin Hood had hats, too, but they were integral to the mold.

While I’m certainly not averse to the idea of an Old Timer - my avatar is the Old Timer’s hat, after all - I think the Fighting Stallion is a far more logical choice in the "unique" feature department. It was the only model that came with factory footpads.

From time to time other Breyer models turn up with footpads, but every one that I’ve seen or personally inspected has turned out to have store bought pads made out of felt, cork or flocked paper. You can still get ‘em today at your hardware or home improvement store of choice, if you’re so inclined.

(I’m not, but I always smile when I see them.)

It’s true that the Fighting Stallion has a limited range of colors to choose from; there have been roughly 40 releases on him so far, and that’s not including the variations. But there are still a few notable vintage colors he hasn’t been seen sporting, yet.

For example, there’s the old Buckskin paint job that was featured on the Quarter Horse Gelding - and for a brief time, on the Running Mare and Foal. Just think how nice old "King" would look in it, complete with a bald face, dorsal stripe, eyewhites and a satiny, semi-gloss finish. Love it!

Or Matte Black, a la the Stretched Morgan and the Grazing Mare and Foal, sporting a bald face, four stockings, jet black hooves, and lots and lots of body shading. Or if not that shade of Black, one of the original "Black Beauty" paint jobs originally found on the Western Horse and Pony would also do: solid Gloss Black with gold hooves, or Gloss Black with chalky/overpainted stockings and facial markings (either starred, or with bald face).

Then there’s one of my personal favorites, the "Slate" Gray color found on the original release of the #191 Bucking Bronco, again with lots of body shading, bald face, four stockings, and with a slightly darker mane and tail.

Like I said above, the clue is vague enough that could pretty much encompass any vintage Breyer mold. The first thing that popped in my mind was the Fighting Stallion, and until I get other clues to the contrary, I’m sticking to it.

Back to my spreadsheets. Bleh.

Old and Cranky

I’ve been in a bit of a funk for the past couple of days. Aside from a rough work schedule that completely messed up my sleep cycle, it rained - almost on cue - on Sunday morning. Grr. Nearly a month’s worth of flea marketing, lost. It’s nice that I’ve gotten so much work on the garden done, because it did need it. But darn it, I seriously need a cheap pony fix!

I did pick up a halfway decent archive/reference lot on eBay last week; lots of duplicate material (finally, something to sell!) but some previously unowned stuff, too. I haven’t had a chance to go through the "new" material in detail yet, but I’m pretty sure there’s a couple of future blog posts in there somewhere.

(What always cracks me up whenever I sort through one of these archives is when I find some of my own material in it. Duh - don’t need an extra copy of THAT!)

Because I am lazy, tired, cranky and just not into it today, here’s another semi-obscure Special Run for your enjoyment, on a rather appropriate mold: Old Timer!


It’s the Special Run Alabaster Old Timer, from the 1983 Montgomery Wards Christmas Catalog. Most hobbyists just assume he’s a reissue of the Regular Run #200 Alabaster Old Timer, which ran from 1966 through 1976. When compared to a Regular Run - here, my Old Timer cull - the difference becomes quite obvious:


Older Alabaster Old Timers have body shading, while the SR does not. Older Old Timers have so much, sometimes, that it seems wrong to call them Alabasters. It’s more like a softer, paler version of the "Slate Gray" color that first appeared on the #191 Bucking Bronco, who also debuted in 1966. (A coincidence?)

(The hats are different, too, I know - later hats don’t come with a painted hatband. But they’re not that reliable an indicator of oldness, since they are so easy to lose, switch or replace.)

Earlier Gloss Alabaster paint jobs, on models such as the Five-Gaiter, Mustang, and Old Molds, did come with variable amounts of gray shading, but rarely as extensive and consistent as the #200 Old Timers. Other contemporary Matte Alabaster paint jobs were all over the map: the Family Arabians rarely showed much shading, but the earliest releases of the Proud Arabians did. The slightly later Classic Andalusian Stallion and Lipizzan varied from model to model and year to year (with earlier pieces tending towards the more dramatic). But Classic Johars tended to be pretty tame.

In short, it’s hard to say whether the color on the SR Old Timer meant to be different from the original, or was just a consequence of the time period it was manufactured in. More the latter than the former, I'm guessing.

Old Timer Cull

The end of last week was a rough one, whew! Multiple shifts, sleep deprivation, home remodeling, a mild sinus infection and a death in the family. (I knew her, but not well, even though she lived nearby. Like most family matters, it’s … complicated, and that’s about as much as I’m comfortable sharing.)

Let’s spotlight another treasure from my collection: the Old Timer cull!


Culls, for the otherwise uninformed, are unfinished or partially painted models that somehow escape the factory. Somewhat more "finished" culls - like this fella - were reportedly donated to orphanages and other child welfare organizations.

This one is pretty old: he has no USA mark, and he has tons of shading, typical of early alabaster Old Timers. (Some of them have so much gray shading, in fact, that you could almost classify them as "light smoke" or slate gray.) Another feature that gives away his age is the lack of "infill" in the upper corners of his headstall: just the straps are painted, not the area inside them. I don’t know when this detailing changed, but it happened very, very early in the original run. (A handy visual tip to keep in mind, if all you’ve got to judge an Old Timer by is a not-so-great photograph.)

There are several things wrong with this old boy. First - and most obvious - is that his blinkers are missing. In this case, they weren’t broken off, they were never added in the first place. The slots where the blinkers were to be inserted are free of any traces of glue or broken blinker bits.


The blinkers were molded separately and attached late in the production process, after most of the painting had been completed. There are two reasons why it was done that way. One, making them integral to the mold would have been problematic, because thin and projecting pieces of plastic like blinkers would have been prone to warping and breakage during the molding process. Second, it made painting the eyes a lot less challenging for the painter!

He’s missing his hat, too, an occurrence so common that Reeves could probably make a tidy profit in selling spares. (Hint, hint.) Being a cull, it’s just as likely he never had one to begin with. The gold detailing is missing too - all of the rings, buckles, keepers and chains are unpainted.

As you may have guessed by now, the Old Timer is an extremely complex, and expensive, mold to produce. There’s so much work that goes into an Old Timer that rumor had it that Breyer/Reeves was losing money on every one they made. However, customer demand was so great that they felt obliged to continue production even after it ceased to be profitable.

This brings up an interesting point: the models that collectors might see as being the most popular aren’t necessarily the most popular among the general, non-hobbyist public - and vice versa. We see it happen from time to time online (remember the bizarre run on the Khemosabi mold on eBay a while back?) And it happens in the physical world, too, especially with Old Timer. Some of the antiquers I deal with will slap a premium price on an Old Timer - and they know they’ll get it, eventually. The "serious" collectors will walk away, but the casual collectors? They’ll consider it.

The same dynamic explains the inexplicable prices found in your average antique shop. They’re catering to dilettantes and interior decorators, not the serious hobbyists. Occasional trips to your local antique malls are a lot less stressful, once you keep that in mind.

Heavy Metal Horses

Ach! I am so completely unmotivated. It's my reflective time of the year; I'd rather sit and contemplate the greater mysteries of the universe, than the smaller ones of Breyer History. I'm not going to force it, because I have faith that this deeper contemplation will lead to something productive in the end. Like Douglas Adams's "holistic detective" character Dirk Gently, I believe it doesn't matter where I start, because eventually I'll end up where I need to go. From The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul:

"... A few turnings later and I was thoroughly lost. There is a school of thought which says that you should consult a map on these occasions, but to such people I merely say, 'Ha! What if you have no map to consult? What if you have a map but it's of the Dordogne?' My own strategy is to find a car, or the nearest equivalent, which looks as if it knows where it is going and follow it. I rarely end up where I was intending to go, but often I end up somewhere that I needed to be. So what do you say to that?"

"Piffle."

"A robust response. I salute you."

Not a terribly useful line of thinking if you find yourself wandering around the parking lot of Target the day after Christmas, in the rain, wondering where the heck you parked the darn car, but perhaps moreso in more intellectual pursuits. Like running keyword searches on Google for cast iron doorstops.

Like this one:


It's part of an extended series of Breyer knockoff doorstops. In one of my luckier days at the flea market, I found a small collection - five pieces, to be precise. I sold most of them off for my own safety: they were extremely heavy, and I am extremely clumsy and value my feet.

I did keep the Old Timer: I have a modest interest in Breyer knockoffs, and I was a little obsessed with the Old Timer at that moment in time. He was also in the best condition of the bunch, and he still had his hat. (Cast Iron Doorstop with removeable hat = cool. 'Nuff said.)

I do know a little bit about these cast iron knockoffs For the record, there are at least eleven of them:

4510 St. Bernard
4511 Horned Hereford Bull
4512 Bassett Hound
4513 Appaloosa Foal (Lying Down Foal)
4514 Tennessee Walking Horse (Midnight Sun)
4515 Fighting Stallion (Alabaster)
4516 Arabian Stallion (Palomino FAS)
4517 Famous Thoroughbred (Traditional Man o War)
4518 Clydesdale Stallion
4519 Jumping Horse
4520 Old Timer

I know this much about them because I have multi-generational copies of two pages from a catalog that lists them by these names and numbers. It's obviously some sort of wholesale or manufacturer catalog, because the copy states: This new handsome group of animal reproductions in Cast Iron is becoming a popular and fast-moving line among our customers.


There's some truth in the statement about their popularity, because they do turn up with some frequency in antique stores, on eBay, and on antique web sites that don't know what they are talking about.

Those antique websites usually identify them as being very old. They can't be: they're all copies of models made from the 1950s onward; the St. Bernard wasn't introduced until 1972! My guess would be that they date from the mid- to late 1970s: cross-reference the manufacturing dates, and you'll find that these models were all current and available from 1972 through 1980.

Who the manufacturer is, is the mystery here. The antique web sites and references sometimes identify them as Hubley, which is impossible since Hubley stopped manufacturing in the mid-1960s. They did make a few horses, but they don't look anything like the Breyer knockoffs. It's just wishful thinking on the antiquers' part: Hubley pieces are very collectible, and often very pricey.

The only clue to the real manufacturer is a logo that appears in the upper corner of the two catalog pages: a Currier and Ives-styled horse with the letters ASC.


I've done several different keyword searches looking for this company, with no usable results. At this point I think randomly typed keyword searches would probably be just as fruitful.

Old Yeller

At a BreyerFest several years ago, I remember getting into a mildly heated argument with a hobbyist who insisted that her heavily yellowed Palomino Rearing Stallion was, in fact, a special run. Or a variation, at the very least - there was no doubt in her mind that this model was special. It was issued in yellow plastic, had always been that yellow, and how dare I even suggest that it could merely be yellowed!

(He was also sprayed with an aftermarket gloss finish that was not only uneven, but flaking off in places, too. And probably contributing to his yellowness. Pointing all of this out did not dissuade her opinion one bit. At that point I did what a normal person would: I walked away.)

That story came to mind while observing the kerfuffle last week about the heavily yellowed Old Timer on eBay. Of course it’s heavily, and quite obviously yellowed - the fact that it was yellowed to the point of looking like a chestnut did not change the fact that it was, and still is, an Alabaster.

It’s also another case where a little knowledge leads to a lot of trouble: in this case, it’s the existence of at least one genuine chestnut Old Timer. A picture of one was published in the July/August 1985 issue of Model Horse Gazette, in an article about test colors and special runs by Jill Rademacher (now Guitterez). Even though the pic is in black and white, it does seem to bear some similarity to the heavily yellowed fellow in the eBay auction:


At first glance, a black and white picture in a defunct, 24 year-old hobby magazine may seem like a rather obscure reference to cite. But it’s not: many hobbyists are packrats of the highest order, especially when it comes to old magazines, newsletters and other reference materials. (And woe to you being the one trying to buy that old ephemera from them: been there, done that.)

I’ve seen hobbyists use more obscure, and much less reliable sources to base their buying decisions on. So while the $75 final selling price was disappointing, it was not unexpected. It just takes two hobbyists to bid something up, and there were certainly more than two hobbyists watching that auction.

What complicated the argument over the Rearing Stallion is the fact that Breyer did - and still does - use colored plastic as a deliberate decorative technique. For a brief time in the 1970s, Breyer used unpainted light gray plastic as a base for some of its gray and black painted models, such as the Donkey, Elephant, and the Spanish Fighting Bull (and less successfully on a few non-gray, non-black models, too!)

As far as I can tell, yellow plastic was not one of those deliberate techniques. Not in the 1970s and 1980s, anyway.

What causes yellowing in Breyer horses is actually quite a complex subject - worthy of it’s own post, easily. To keep it short and simple for today, I’ll just state that it is not unusual for a model to yellow out evenly over its entire exposed surface. It’d be far more unusual, and suspicious, to have a model that was unevenly yellowed.