The Legions

Here I thought the reason I was in kind of a sour mood this week was because I just missed getting a really sweet deal on a Presentation Collection Bison on eBay. Nope, it was something else entirely:

https://ew.com/comic-books/keith-giffen-dies-superhero-comic-creator/

Most comic book dilletantes know Keith Giffen as the co-creator of both Rocket Raccoon and Lobo, but I first encountered him due to his work on The Legion of Super-Heroes. After I came back to comics after a brief hiatus, I was fortunate enough to do it literally at the very start of The Great Darkness Saga. (Why it has not been made into a DCAU movie yet is beyond me!)

Even though I was involved in Legion fandom during his tenure on the title, I never got to make his acquaintance. Other in my orbit certain did, and I heard stories, so I can perhaps still claim him as part of my “Six Degrees of Separation” circle.

And now, back to our program…

I’m sure the season is partly to blame, but I can’t generate the same enthusiasm everyone else is expressing over the 2024 Deluxe Collector’s Club membership exclusive Stablemate Horatio, who is a mini-me of Othello:

I was just wondering what the next “mini-me” Stablemate was going to be, and I definitely did not have Othello on my Bingo card. (I am still holding out for Ethereal!) 

I don’t dislike him, but much like the Silver, he’s already come in a lot of colors, and it’s hard to do anything original with him. (My first reaction to Horatio: another fuzzy gray one?) And with his legions of fans – no pun intended there, I swear – he’ll be very hard to acquire when they do. 

I like his larger counterpart better: the first 2024 Collectors Club Special Heath. You all know I am a sucker for roany paintjobs. But like most Othellos before him, I’ll probably be bowing out of buying him. I am quite happy with the assortment I already have. 

And one final note, because I know the right people will be reading and I don’t have a Facebook account to correct it at the source, and it’s bugging the heck out of me: the realistic Deer Family debuted in 1964, not 1974. That sell sheet/insert itself is from 1964!

There were the usual variations in color, finish and mold marks throughout the years, but the Deer Family was relatively unchanged from 1964 through 1997. The only thing “new” about the 1974 release – aside from the box and the model number for the gift set – was that the individual members of the family were no longer available separately.

(I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it’s a hint. Now that, I will buy.)

My Little Noriker

This week was a rough one, and I was feeling pretty blue by the end of it. So I decided to make a detour to work yesterday and buy myself something blue to cheer myself up, making the assumption that it was going to be the new Patriotic Web Special Washington. 

There were, indeed, several to nice examples to choose from, but something else blue caught my eye instead: the Blue Roan Brabant!

His paint job is very reminiscent of the original #415 Buckshot, right down to the “is he, or isn’t he?” Appaloosa vibe. So much so that I thought Reeves missed an excellent opportunity to label him a Noriker instead. 

The color for Buckshot was never clearly defined: it was sort of a combination/mashup of Blue Roan, Appaloosa and Grulla, and there was so much variation in the model’s modest four-year run that all of those labels fit to one degree or another, often simultaneously. I am not quite sure they even knew back then anyway: his color was (rather unhelpfully!) labeled Grulla (Blue Roan) in the 1985 catalog. 

The color wasn’t unique to Buckshot: it did appear on a Special Run of the original Hess Belgian in 1986. That release originally was going to be a reinterpretation of the Belgian’s original Smoke color – but with a black mane and tail – but due to customer feedback and some miscommunication, he ended up getting painted like Buckshot instead. 

Thus creating, unintentionally, Breyer’s first “Noriker” release, even if he wasn’t officially labeled or sold that way.

The first true Breyer Noriker was 2001’s Fine Porcelain Model Moritz, an untacked adaptation of Kathleen Moody’s Porcelain Household Cavalry Drum Horse from 1999. The untacked version of the mold was finally translated into plastic for the release of the 2007 Holiday Horse Winter Song. 

Although the mold now known as Othello was later released in Appaloosa as the Redemption Model for the 2010 Treasure Hunt, it wouldn’t be until 2020 that we’d get an Appaloosa Noriker that was identified as such: the BreyerFest Special Run Oak, on the Georg mold. 

Alas, my dear little Brabant has a factory scrape on his chest that probably limits his potential show career; I have plenty enough models in the stable more urgently in need of repair.

Four Mares

I bought another box lot of bodies, mostly because I was feeling some weird anxiety over the slim pickings now residing in my body box. They were super-duper cheap too, so even with the very modest (mostly single digit) prices I tend to assign to them, I’ll still make a nice little profit at BreyerFest.

As long as I don’t take too many of them for my own personal use. (One, maybe two, tops! I swear!) 

I still have a ton of stuff (nearly a whole ‘nother bin) I couldn’t bring last year, so now all I’ll “need” to restock for BreyerFest are a few more goodies for my totally decimated Dollar Table. 

I do plan on trying to sell as much as I can before Kentucky (still not sure if the Wyoming excursion is going to be right before, or right after!) but I like having a little bit of something for everyone. 

I put in for the Weather Girl Flamingo but, as I expected, nothing came of it. I have lots of pretty Weather Girls already (my exceptionally nice BreyerFest Jasmine places at every show!), and it would have been nice to add her to the herd, but I’m not going to fret about it. 

Another beautiful girl who’s probably not coming home with me:

But this one is by choice: like a lot of BreyerFest models this year, Othello is another shelf hog. “Tilly” certainly won’t lack for suitors, and at least that clears the mold from Surprise contention. On the other hand, that also means that the Hamilton speculation will get even more out of hand...

Speaking of Saddlebreds, the Crystal is based on the Calliope:

I don’t collect the Crystals – I may have mentioned this before, but I was (literally!) born clumsy, so I try to avoid buying breakable things unless they’re cheap, or already broken. I don’t think I even own a single glass or crystal animal of any kind or brand. I do have a couple of very inexpensive bits of slag glass I have picked up in my travels, though I would hesitate to say that I actually collect it. 

And finally, there’s the latest Test Color, a Bay Pinto Misty:

Oh, you precious creature: the one I want the most, and have the least hope of acquiring. Collectively, vintage Test Color Misties aren’t exceedingly rare, though most of the ones I’ve seen have been solid-colored: Bay, Black, Alabaster, and (my personal favorite!) Dapple Gray. I think there are some Appaloosa-flavored ones out there, too. 

I’ll be working quite a bit of overtime over the next month or so, so if the Universe happens to be listening, I can totally afford it.

Surprise Speculation

If I didn’t get drawn for the weird Decorator Bighorn Ram Montana, the likelihood of me getting selected for the latest Birds of a Feather release Cardinal is nonexistent:

A pretty Flaxen Red Chestnut on a Shannondell? Even though they upped the piece count to 500, I am not getting my hopes up. 

Speaking of Drafts, it’s probably a good time for my brief discussion/analysis of this year’s BreyerFest Surprise Model, which they’ve dubbed “Rotating Draft Surprise”.

The more cynical among us are thinking this is yet another head fake, the same way last year’s “Seven Arts Surprise” ultimately didn’t involve seven different variations. While it’s true that the Surprises aren’t always what their names lead us to think they are (I did not see the Bollywood Surprise Latigos coming) sometimes, they are. 

For the 2018 Off to the Races “Dark Horse Surprise”, they not only used a racing-appropriate mold – Smarty Jones – the rarity was the Solid Black: an actual “Dark Horse”!

So I think a Draft Horse is a strong possibility this year. It’s about time for one, anyway. 

To get the usual formalities out of the way: the “rotating” part will have nothing to do with that long-held BreyerFest fantasy of multiple molds being used for the Surprise. As I’ve explained before, that would be an absolute nightmare to execute, especially in person, since it would become very obvious what molds are what even in their opaque bags. The only way that’s a viable option would have been virtually, and that opportunity has passed. 

There’s the chance that they’ll interpret that word in a more literal sense, and if that’s the case: say hello to Bobby Jo!

But back to the Drafts: it’s not going to be Othello, and it’s very unlikely to be Georg. Othello not so much because it’s popular, but because it’s been done to death, and coming up with five new colors or takes on previously-used colors is difficult. 

Georg is still too popular. We’ll definitely see him at BreyerFest – either as a Live Show Prize Model (hello, Gloss Theo!) and/or as a Raffle Model. 

Shannondell is a possibility: Georg has stolen a bit of that mold’s thunder, and it’s still new enough that it hasn’t been released in a multitude of colors yet. It also has multiple mane and tail options, which is something we often see with Surprises. But it might be just a tad bit too popular yet.  

Two other choices I think might be possibilities include the always-popular Clydesdale Mare, and Brishen, whose popularity has muted just enough to finally qualify it as a Surprise-level model. Both have been used recently, so that may or may not rule them out.

Goffert and Wixom are slightly better candidates: both are at least moderately popular with solid fanbases, with some color options that haven’t been exploited yet. Goffert’s big with the younger crowd, which is often a factor in Reeves’s mold selection process.

Molds like the Bell-bottomed Shire, Big Butt Belgian, and Roy, with the Friesian Sporthorse and Welsh Cob being draft-adjacent enough to qualify as Surprise candidates, but I’d consider most of them pretty unlikely, though I think the Friesian Sporthorse might turn up as a Surprise in the not-distant future. 

Personally, I’m rooting for either Cleveland Bay or the original Clydesdale Stallion. The Cleveland Bay is modestly popular, comes with multiple mold options, and is popular with at least one member of the staff in New Jersey. 

There hasn’t been a true Vintage Surprise since the very first – the Quarter Horse Gelding in 2009 – and the Clydesdale’s reappearance in Stablemates form has rekindled interest in the mold, who hasn’t come in as many exotic colors as collectors might think.

Of course, the Cleveland Bay was most recently used as the Celebration Horse back in 2019, and the Stablemates Clydesdale is being used as one of the One-Day Stablemates (As a Beer! Hmm?) 

So in short, I have no idea. I’m just happy that it won’t be a complete shot in the dark this time around. For me, there are so many lovely Special Run options this year that knowing who or what the Surprise is, is not going to be a huge factor in my SR selection process. I might even opt out of it entirely, considering how many others are already on my “Must Have” list.

Equidae

I still haven’t opened up the box with the Gran Cavallo yet – not out of fear, apprehension or the possibility of disappointment, but because I am saving it as a reward for hitting the halfway mark in the inventory process. 

And that is taking a little longer than expected: I didn’t think I bought that much this year, but the inventory is telling me otherwise. Doing my year-end paperwork this year is going to be an absolute breeze, though.

I was kind of hoping to reach my target by the time the Second Chance Sale opens up to All-Access people on Wednesday, but it’s looking iffy. I kind of doubt my luck is going to be good enough to get me a second go-round at the Special Runs anyway, but I dutifully put my entry in just in case.

(If I do snag a spot, I will either go for a Surprise, or a Pech Merle.)

I have opened other recent arrivals, including the Equidae:

Apparently I have a thing for unusually-colored Othellos; the only ones I have in my possession that could be described as reasonably realistic are the production run BreyerFest 2012 Celebration Horse Mariah’s Boon, and the 2003 BreyerFest porcelain Galway Warrior. The 2018 Volunteer Model Churchill is also a “realistic” color, but one that’s very unlikely on a horse of his body type, at least without some very creative pedigree assignments. 

It’s been noted elsewhere that Equidae is the first production Rainbow Decorator where the rainbow is reversed: his head is purple, and the tail is pink. His paintjob is also flatter and less shaded, and most definitely more opaque, as opposed to previous Rainbow Decos, which tend to feature more translucent coloring.

I don’t know if this is a change in this color going forward, or simply an aesthetic choice specific to this mold and/or design. My guess is that Rainbow Decorators are going to be a lot like Silver Filigrees, where the kind of paint job you get depends on who painted it that day.  

Ashes

At last, a release that doesn’t do a whole lot for me:

And that’s fine. I’m sure he’ll be lovelier in person, as most Breyer releases are. I remember not being particularly in love with the Vintage Club Chalky Alabaster Cantering Welsh Pony when I initially saw him, and then when my Gambler’s Choice arrived, I found myself smitten.

What will be nice about the Chalky finish is that it’ll emphasize all of the sculpting details that tend to get overlooked in discussions about Kathleen Moody’s sculpting style; hobbyists tend to get derailed by her manes and tails.

(For the record, I am pro-hair. If my love of Emma does not make that obvious!)

But again, Ash doesn’t float my boat. There have been a lot of Othello releases, and a lot of Othello releases in some variation of Dapple Gray, like the 2001 Volunteer Model The Poet. If it had been in another color that the mold hadn’t come in as often (Bay Roan?) I might have considered him.

One positive outcome: no more silly talk about the Othello being the Surprise release! With the reveal yesterday at BreyerWest that Brishen is being used for a Store Special, though, that means I either have to recalibrate my guess there, or hope my second choice (Croi Damsha) is still in the running.

Another positive spin I am putting on him is that it might make my life easier if I – as is usually the case – am stuck in the middle or the back of the line during my ticket times. As others use their slots to snap up Ash, I’ll have a better shot at getting items I am more interested in.

The only release (so far) that I absolutely positively need is the Angus Bull/Hamish, with the Georg/Oak definitely being a contender. I’m pretty sure that’s going to change once we get the Drafter section out of the way and get a pony mold or two in the lineup.

Aside from the (obvious to me) Croi, who else? Will it be something more modern like the Bouncer or Emma, or more Vintage like the Shetland Pony or Cantering Welsh?

I am good either way.

Good News, Bad News, No News

The stores I went to earlier this week were a bust: nothing new on the shelves yet. As I was driving past a Walmart yesterday I suddenly remembered that I needed to buy some Romaine Lettuce. I noticed they were doing a reset of the toy department and decided to see if the newest Unicorn Series was in.

Nope, not yet. But they did still have some of the Series 2, and remarkably, there was a Rainbow Sherbet Magnolia to be had!

The collectors around here are so hardcore that I’ve never found a Walmart Chase piece in a Walmart ever, no matter how “common” they turn out to be. (Though at least they’re professional enough to not rip open the bags and leave all their unwanteds behind.)

I know they’re not particularly expensive on the secondary market, now that everyone’s had their fill, but you know I like to find things “in the wild”. If only for the purpose of injecting a small bit of color into an otherwise colorless week.

Yeah, I’m still not Seattle-bound. Yet. Or maybe ever.

I’m trying to not think too much about it. I’m having a hard enough time sleeping as it is!

Another thing that’s not going to keep me up nights? Whatever this photo is a reveal of:

You know that one of the things I dread most about the annual BreyerFest reveals is the almost-incessant “Othello is going to be the Surprise!” chatter.

If this guy happens to be an Othello, at least it’ll provide me with some small measure of peace and quiet. Until the “I hate the entire Special Run lineup this year” people start (predictably) complaining after the second or third reveal. (Sigh.)

My only hope and expectation for this year is a new Fell Pony.

Counting releases or announcements, True North has had six since his introduction in 2017, Duende five, and even Bristol has had five since his intro in 2018. But sweet, shaggy little Emma has had only two: her original release in 2015, and the 2016 Exclusive Event Black-Eyed Susan, in Red Chestnut.

I am going to assume that that’s because the original Emma has obviously been popular enough to still be in production, nearly five years after her introduction.

And yet the Bouncer release Brookside Pink Magnum has been in production since 2012, and in the meantime they’ve released both the 2013 Flagship release Icicle and the Decorator Christmas Ponies in 2017.

Most curious.

(A BreyerFest Bouncer would also be... acceptable.)

Bacon and ... Golden Corn?

These fellows arrived a day early:

More or less what I expected on both.

Even though I would have preferred the Green one – or the black Brighty, ‘natch – the color on my Gold Othello is very similar to the Perlino Duns I keep missing out on, so there’s that. The shading is softer and more natural looking than the Blues or the Greens (which, duh, makes sense!)

I won’t be pursuing trades or outright purchases of the others, though. Aside from not being able to afford it, I’m kind of in the middle of my end-of-the-year cleaning and purging phase: my mind is more on what I want to sell, rather than buy.

(I was pretty proud of myself, being able to walk out of the Tractor Supply Breyer-free on Wednesday! I’ll regret it later, more than likely…)

Plus space: Othello’s a big dude, and I’ve already been told the fireplace mantel is off-limits!

I do feel kinda sad about some of the Othellos that will now be resold, for the sole sin of not being a Solid Black Brighty. Gotta hand it to Reeves for turning the hobby’s general disdain for Solid Black paintjobs on its ear: first the BreyerFest Dark Horse Surprise, and now the Coal Brighty!

I would have bought the Santa Surprise regardless, and pretty much did.

The Brighty was a nice gesture, but ultimately unnecessary: selling out would have just happened slightly later in the day. I know some people have suggested that a Glossy Black Othello Unicorn would have been even better or more appropriate, but I personally think if that had been the case, it would have ended in tears and bloodshed.

Hawthorn is… interesting. The woodgraining is a little more subtle than I expected, but not out of the range for a vintage Woodgrain; I have a Shetland Pony with similarly low contrast graining.

I was also kind of hoping he’d have a dark drip mark on his underside, as the vintage ones do. Since they’re using a somewhat different technique now compared to what they used back then, and that drip was a consequence of the original technique, that was perhaps asking a bit much.

Some less seasoned hobbyists who might not yet have experienced vintage Woodgrains firsthand might have perceived it as a flaw too, and make a fuss accordingly.

One last little factoid before I call it a night: the last production Woodgrain – the #931 Fighting Stallion – ended production in 1973, and the Jasper mold was introduced in 1974. Since they would have been testing colors on him in 1973, vintage Woodgrain Jaspers are theoretically possible, but unlikely.

Christmas Aftermath

Interesting Day, wasn’t it?

I almost missed out on the Christmas Othello-corn: I got up at 8 a.m., poked around the Internet for a bit, then I decided to go take a shower and make myself an English Muffin. I log back in at 8:45, and…

At first I thought I was getting punked when I saw it. Three Unicorn Othellos, the fever dream of thousands of Unicorn- and Othello-obsessed tweens? Was Reeves actually trying to crash their servers today?

Nevertheless, I had been looking at the Xaviers the last few times I visited our local independent toy stores, and I had spent a longer-than-normal time staring at the Mini Brishen Virgil ornament at Tractor Supply when I stopped by last week to shop for some long-sleeve t-shirts.

And since I hadn’t bought the previous two Christmas Day Specials, and any individual Othello SR with a piece count under 1000 is generally a good investment, it was a no-brainer.

I didn’t even notice the part of the offer about the “12 lumps of Coal” Brighty until later. If I actually get one, I’ll be over the moon (or in the ER!) but I’m good, regardless. (Or should I be bad? Not sure how the math of this works out.)

I’m hoping for the green Othellocorn because I’m weird, but all three colors are lovely. Speaking of green...

I got lucky and my Fruitcake Fillies, miraculously, were not twins: one green, and one blue! I was slightly less lucky when it came to the CC Appreciation model. Not the Paint Me A Pepto I was hoping for, but the other pinto, Kodi:

I guess I was right about it becoming more plentiful, eh?

Factoring out the desirability aspect – the Shire being the most desirable, and the Marabella the least – it appears that the five Glosses had similar piece counts, which is how I think it should be, ideally. Drives me bonkers when people make purchasing decisions based purely on piece counts: just because something’s rare doesn’t make it automatically desirable! (And vice versa.)

As a parting shot before I get ready for bed – a ton of post-holiday errands to run first thing in the morning, followed by a matinee of Aquaman – here’s another pretty pony that I made my acquaintance with today:

Emma was one of the items that made up my CC Appreciation order, and probably the one item in that box that I was most looking forward to! She had been available locally and I had been tempted many times, but I thought I’d save her up for my order, just in case.

So now, for what will inevitably be a brief moment, my Emma collection is complete. (Tomorrow will be De-Boxing Day here.)

Hallway Beer

This isn’t going to make a lot of sense to most of you, but I just want to preface what I write today with the news that the thing that I was so excited about this week… did not pan out.

I’m not going to lie: finishing in second place your whole life is positively soulcrushing; this is why I take things like the various contests, competitions and random draws at BreyerFest and online so seriously.

The handful of times I’ve actually succeeded in winning something there – even if it was a totally random draw I had no control over whatsoever – it’s given me a sense of accomplishment and success that I don’t get on a regular basis in the mundane world.

I’ll recover because I have to, but I’d rather not have to, at all.

(In the meantime, anyone out there want a copy of my résumé?)

Moving on to slightly happier thoughts, here’s this year’s Volunteer Model, whose name is apparently Churchill:

As I explained not all that long ago, I only have a handful of other Othellos, all of them special in some way: the Silver Snow, the BreyerFest Mariah’s Boon, and my Juggathello (my freakish Mariah’s Boon Sample with the spooky eyes and little dictator moustache).

I wouldn’t mind more, but the Othello mold is one of those handful of molds that make hobbyists kind of crazy. With so many of them in the unaffordable or unattainable range, it’s probably wiser to wait for models to find me, rather than vice versa.

The Volunteer Models have been trending towards Connoisseur-level paint jobs on newer and/or more popular molds. Back when they still put Volunteer Models in the Benefit Auction, I even thought this Othello might have been one:

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/reddunovero.jpg

It used to be that the sheer scarcity of the Volunteer Model was what made it worth the risk of sunburn, blisters and the occasional verbal abuse. But as the size of the event has grown – and the need for volunteers – they obviously had to switch up their strategy to encourage hobbyists to apply.

And it seems to be working!

Aside from the fact that his paint job is amazing – Sooty Dappled Buckskin, man – I loved that the selection of Othello got a lot of younger hobbyists asking questions about volunteering.
My Churchill, of course, is not going anywhere. He’s even got a name, already: Hallway Beer.

I suppose now’s a good time to talk about it. In a suitably sanitized fashion.

During the course of BreyerFest – on Wednesday night, maybe? – I found an unopened can of Modelo in one of the hallways of the Clarion. I picked it up and popped in the fridge, figuring that somebody at some point would have something to celebrate, right?

Well, that obviously did not happen.

Saturday night, we drank it anyway. It was a free can of beer, and aside from our lack of success at almost everything we tried this year, we still managed to have a good time with friends.

(Two seconds after I took the above photograph, the sign fell down, Othello fell down, and now I have to do some research on restoration artists. Life, you suck.)

A Clearer Picture

I’ve been busy. Looks like Breyer’s been busy, too; they posted a blenderized version of the next BreyerFest Special Run, and they’ve got another Test Piece Raffle going.

Speculation seems to think the Special Run is a Buchiko-style extreme sabino on the Lonesome Glory; if that’s the case, I am intrigued. I’ll talk about it after they do the reveal later in the week, since I doubt I’ll be able to de-blenderize the photo any better than anyone else has at this point.

We do have a much clearer picture of the Red Roan Clydesdale Test Run, and golly he seems familiar:

Oh yeah, he’s in the Test Piece Archive graphic link on the Breyer web site!

Do I want?

Vintage mold + Red Roan + Blue and Silver ribbons (my stable colors) = Yes, I want.

As always, I am mildly amused and annoyed by the general community commentary about his desirability (or lack thereof) and the price.

These are actual Vintage Test Colors used for the actual testing of colors, and they have a rock-solid provenance: these are both qualities that many collectors find inherently desirable – regardless of the age of the mold, the color or condition.

And the ones that have been resold (the majority of them, sigh) have sold for significantly more than their $850 price tags.

The fact that he’s been used as part of a graphic on the Breyer web site makes him even more appealing to me personally, because you know how fascinated/obsessed I am with owning Photography Samples. You know, like my delightfully horrifying Mariah’s Boon:

He was the exact model used to illustrate the Mariah’s Boon Celebration Model on the Breyer web site in 2012:

I am somewhat indifferent to the Othello mold – he’s not a favorite of mine, but I don’t have any major issues with him, either – but I love that guy to pieces. Weird and Historical is a hard combo to me to pass up! (And it is frequently what gets me into trouble at the flea market...)

Regardless of my feelings toward the Clydesdale, whether or not he’ll ever get to sit on the shelf next to my Jugga-thello is not up to me.

My tax bill says I shouldn’t even enter for him at all, but I’ll just cross that bridge if and when I come to it.

Some Recent Shopping

A sampling of recent purchases:

A Border Fine Arts piece with original hang tag, an addition to the Duchess collection, a signed (!) first edition of Mr. Limpet (yes, the book that the film The Incredible Mr. Limpet was based on) and another sari.

It is hard to tell from the photograph, but the sari is handmade and of the most beautiful green and orange shot cotton. It’s more likely I’ll be cutting it up for a quilt than wearing it.

There have been a few other items – another Duchess, a body for my Diorama Contest entry, some interesting variations – but they’re either not ready or not suitable for prime time. I’ve been trying to keep the shopping excursions to a minimum, as some bills and the flea market will be coming up soon.

I also had the chance to see the new 2017 horses in person late last week, as work took me past one of the stores that carries the full line – including the Pocket Animals and CollectAs (though this is the one that stocked CollectAs before the deal with Reeves.)

They had a clean, perfectly masked Paint Me a Pepto, but the two new releases that almost came home with me were Xavier (the Unicorn Othello) and the Decorator Geronimo Bandera.

The Xavier was so iridescent it glowed, and the Bandera was really well executed and almost exactly how I imagined it was going to be: a plastic representation of a potmetal carnival prize horse. But after seriously considering them and a couple of the newer CollectAs, I managed to walk away from the store unscathed.

The new Reeves-CollectAs, if you haven’t already seen them, have the Breyer logo imprinted on their bellies in addition to the paper tags. Other than my Australian Stock Horse, I haven’t spent a whole lot of time examining the earlier pieces to see if there are any other subtle (or not so subtle) changes to the “new” pieces.

It’s good to know that we’ll be able to distinguish the Breyer “in the wild” sans paper tags, though.

The only other thing worth noting about the shopping trip was that they had BreyerFest brochures, that I happened to see a couple little girls pick up as they were shopping. Other than inform them that the CollectAs they were also looking at were now being distributed by Breyer, I left them alone; I figured they were already well on their way and Mom wouldn’t want some rando at the toy store to evangelize.

Frame of Mind

I haven’t been in the right frame of mind to do much speculating about What This Year’s Surprise Model Will Be. The current line of thinking is that it’ll be Lonesome Glory, based on an otherwise unidentified set seen during the latest Exclusive Event.

Except for the first Surprise Model - the old Quarter Horse Gelding - the Surprises we’ve had since then have been on modestly popular newer molds like Flash, Ethereal, and Roxy. Lonesome Glory would fit right in to that lineup.

I don’t have any other information or hunches to convince me, and there are a lot of other molds that would also fit. Two other popular guesses right now are Othello and (naturally) the Silver.

My primary argument against either of those molds is that they’re too popular with the segment of the hobby population that does go to BreyerFest. (What colors are left to put the Silver in is also a viable question to ask.) There’s already an inherent appeal in the Surprise Models - that they’re all very limited releases, but a few are more limited than others - that doesn’t need to be sweetened with the addition of it being a Very Popular Mold Already.

I can easily imagine the chaos that would ensue if either model was. The first words that spring to mind? Gasoline on a bonfire. 

They’d also probably be the only molds that would make me bypass getting one. I’m not a very athletic or agile person, and the weight of all the metaphorical daggers in my back that I’d get from people standing behind me in line might be enough to physically topple me over.

I’m not going to give it much more thought until the first bags get opened. And then act accordingly.

There’s been one line of questioning that I have been actively engaging in over the past couple of days - the identity of the mold in the sneak peek photo they gave us on Friday via the Blog and the Facebook:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/bf2014-blog

By the time most of you read this it will have already been revealed, but the first thing I thought when I saw it was: Western Horse?

It’d be both a daring and logical choice. There have been only a handful of actual Western Horse Special Runs: the 1990 Just About Horses Brown Pinto, the 1995 QVC Palomino Reissue, and the Solid Gold pieces given away in 2003 for the T-Shirt/Costume Contest. Frankly, we’re overdue.

There are a couple of other factors working in its favor. First, a Western Horse would be a logical choice for a BreyerFest that’s all about celebrating an Anniversary. Second, I believe a Vintage Club Western Horse Special - either as a part of the Series, or as a Bonus Model - is a matter of when, not if. It’d make sense from an economic standpoint to drop the mold to make enough for two releases, rather than drop it to just make enough for a more limited (350-500 piece) run.

If it’s something like the San Domingo or Old Timer, and I’m made to look silly by the guess, no matter. But I am so on board with the idea of a Chestnut Frame Overo Western Horse Special Run right now I’m already imagining the names I will give it.

I like Stetson.

The Most Interesting Model Horse in the World

This week will only be slightly better than the last, in terms of sleep/downtime/etc. Nevertheless, I promised you something you won’t forget, and here’s his headshot:

You’re welcome. Here’s the full body shot:

He’s another Friday morning Sample, simply labeled "Mariah’s Boon BF '12". I picked him up initially because, like the Gypsy Vanner, I figured he’d be an easy sell if he merely turned out to be ordinary. (We ended up selling all the other Othello molds we had in our room this year. And we had several.)

He’s not ordinary, obviously. He looks like a Mid-20th Century European Dictator in Juggalo face paint.

The first thing I did when I opened him up at the hotel was to start laughing hysterically. Wouldn’t you? The roommates wondered what was up, so I showed them, and then they started laughing hysterically. After the third or fourth young child fled the room in mock (I hope) horror, I spend most of the rest of the evening having way too much fun at the Clarion frightening other small children and threatening household appliances with him.

He deserves a YouTube channel, a web site devoted to his own memes, and possibly a recording contract. He’s so diggidy-dang awesome I want to build a platform to hang around my neck and stroll around the Horse Park with a sign that reads "The Most Interesting Model Horse in the World". Because he is.

His paint job - aside from his face, and some eartip rubs - is absolutely gorgeous. The masking is different from the production pieces, there’s no black in his mane, and his tail is almost completely gray, so I was almost certain he was a Test piece of some sort.

Then I figured out who he was.

Remember the original picture of the Mariah’s Boon model on the Breyer web site? The one with the mapping? Lots of people got all hot and cranky that the mapped piece was taken down and replaced with an unmapped one, because that meant that we weren’t getting any mapping on the Celebration Horses.

A lot of that grouchiness was for show, I’m guessing. People looking for a moral justification to either not attend or not keep their Mariah’s Boon model. They promised us mapping, and now they’re reneging? Those cads!

Reeves has a hard enough time getting 350 mapped pieces to look good, much less 3500 or more. Removing the mapping seemed like a wise move, to me.

They did end up selling the mapped piece during the Silent Auction that year, and for a tidy price, if I remember correctly.

Okay, so who is MY guy, precisely?

He’s the Revised/Reviled one. Here’s the picture, downloaded from the web site:

And here’s a link to the page, where he’s still visible:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/breyerfest2012_specialruns

I was doing a quick skim of MH$P a few days ago before catching a few rare snores, and clicked on a random Mariah’s Boon sales ad just for kicks. I took a closer look at the photo in the ad - the same one from the web site - and noticed the telltale arched eyebrow, and started laughing all over again.

OMG, It’s Adolf!

You know, it really is a total crapshoot when you buy Samples in the Ninja Pit. They’re wrapped in miles of bubble wrap and packing tape, so you only have a general idea of what you’re buying, and little time or space to reconsider your decisions. You grab, you go.

Sometimes, you get lucky.

Adolf was totally worth sleeping under a tree full of incontinent tree frogs.

And lest you think "Oh, he’s not so bad." Here’s a "Glamour" shot of his blue eye.

Unresolved Issues

This year’s crop of resolutions includes: buying less stuff (horses and otherwise), eating less sugar, being a little more efficient with my use of time, answering my e-mails/messages in a more timely manner, and reading more.

I’d also like to get caught up on the quilts. I had no idea I started somewhere between 30 and 40 new projects in the past year and half! (They’re not all bed-sized, but when you hit the double-digit mark, size is moot, y’know?)

Since we’re on the subject of unexpectedly bad inventories, today is apparently manure-hits-wind-generating-machine day at Reeves. They just didn’t oversell the Silverados, they oversold them by a lot, judging from the number of cancellations I am hearing about. (A lot of other things were oversold, too, but apparently not quite to the same degree.)

It just occurred to me today that there was a portent of these inventory problems back in July: remember what happened with the 2012 BreyerFest Celebration Horse, Mariah’s Boon? They oversold him, too - the first time ever that that sort of thing ever happened.

Doesn’t look so anomalous, now. (And on another Othello, too!)

I am not belittling anyone’s anger at the situation - anyone who knows me personally knows I can be pretty righteous in defense of my compatriots, even some of the more aggravating ones - but this is one of those rare cases where I do kinda-sorta understand why Reeves is behaving the way that it is.

I’m not saying that the way they are handling it is completely acceptable, or that anyone’s anger is unjustified, but that my personal indignation is tempered by the fact that I’ve seen it happen all too many times before.

Inventorying? It’s my job.

(Have there been instances where I’ve inventoried Breyers? Yes. Very distracting! As are shoes and books. And craft supplies.)

Nobody "loves" doing it, but it’s a necessary part of being in the retail business. If you don’t have the right stock to sell - or too much, or too little - you’ll lose customers, and money. Lose enough of them, and you lose the business, too. End of story.

I have wondered, on many occasions, how Reeves measures their own inventory - is it by overall financial value, or by the value per unit?

From my observation of and participation in the Tent Sale/NPOD at BreyerFest, it appears to me that they may be measuring it financially, rather than by SKU (Stock Keeping Unit). It’s not that they don’t keep track the SKUs sold, it’s that keeping track of the specific items isn’t as important as keeping track of the amount of money their inventory generates as a whole.

In the end, money is money, regardless of the way you count it, but some methods are better than others - depending on the type of stuff you sell, how you sell it, and who you sell it to. Obviously, whatever system Reeves has been using, they need to fix it. ASAP.

(And if they happen to need any assistance in that matter, I’d be more than happy to help, too!)

It appears that Reeves is contacting the customers on the oversold list for Logan and are offering them another SR Bull instead - same mold, in a somewhat different color, named Colton. It’s unclear if this was something that they made to fix the problem, or was another special item for another event, past or present.

The question then becomes - what becomes of the leftovers of this consolation SR? Gah! I don’t need to be thinking about that right now. I need to take a nap before my next two inventories, that’s what.

Smash and Grab

So, did we all enjoy our online NPOD last night?

For those few of you who didn’t know, Reeves had a "Vault Sale" at 8 p.m. on Thursday night; the notices for the sale went out around 1 p.m. that day, via e-mail, to all current Collector Club members.

From the description of the sale, it sounded like an online version of the fabled Ninja Pit of Death: "A collection of rare finds, limited editions and more await you behind this door."

I was half expecting some Passage to the Pacific leftovers (Like Thunders, and the Hear Me Roars) and Weather Girl redemption models (she’s been "retired to the vault", you know) and perhaps a surprise glossy or Silver Filigree. None of that showed up, but the following models did:

• Rubicon $150
• Silverado $150
• Moon Warrior $150
• Auld Lang Syne $175
• Giselle $250
• Pamplemousse $70
• Melange $70
• Valiant $150
• Gus $145
• Chestnut Esprit $300
• Silver Charm Newsworthy $75
• Logan - Gloss Red Walking Hereford Bull (40 pieces) $150
• Angel - Seal Point Tabby Kitten (50 pieces) $150

Not a bad selection! (Well, for most folks. Some people are never happy.)

The last two were Vault exclusives - Logan was a Gloss Red Walking Horned Hereford Bull, and Angel was a Seal Point Tabby Traditional Kitten (aka "The Creepy Meow"). It appears Angel is still available - because hobbyists don’t appreciate the sublime qualities of the Traditional Kitten mold, apparently - but the Bull sold out very, very quickly.

(BTW, am I the only one that thought "Where’s Xavier, Cyclops and Phoenix?")

The Silverado sold out very quickly, too - a little too quickly, I think. Looking at the poll numbers on Blab for the number of people claiming that they got either the Bull or the Silverado - 26 Silverados, and 30+ of the 40 Logans accounted for? - well, color me skeptical that all of those orders will actually go through.

Remember what happened with other white-hot super-limited online specials like Silver Snow? Cancelled orders, and not just a couple of them either. That’s what happens when you have several dozen people pushing the order button at the same time. 

(Wasn’t Silverado deemed to be some sort of horrific failure of execution on Reeves’ part when he was released? Why is he suddenly the "it" model, now? Silly collectors.)

I got a shipment notification on my order today - yes, I caved - but I’m not going to count the Logan and the Angel as "mine" until I actually open the box. (According to the notice, this should happen December 27th.) Except for a small handful of overly eager beavers on MH$P, most people seem to be following that same line of thought.

Monsters, Monsters from the Id!

(Caution: This post was composed while being very light-headed from an epic nosebleed. Which is nothing serious, BTW, just a consequence of a childhood’s worth of bad allergies. It’s not my blood pressure. No, really, my blood pressure is actually low.)

(Oh. Reader discretion is advised.) 

My first reaction to the newest Premier Club release, Brishen, was "Wow, that’s a lot of hair. It’s like Othello and Ethereal had a freaky love child."

(Yes, I know they’re both stallion molds, dearies. That’s what the "freaky" is for.)

I don’t dislike it, not at all, but like a lot of folks I am a bit bummed that it’s yet another Big Hairy Stallion. Nothing wrong with Big Hairy Stallions, per se, but sometimes it feels like the gender diversity of Breyer molds is about equal to that of your average Smurf village.

At one point during the latest epic "future of the hobby" thread on Blab a few weeks ago, the observation that our Sire/Dam lists back in the old days were pretty heavy on the Sires, not so much on the Dams.

Horse-obsessed teen and pre-teen girls bragging about the breeding prowess of the multitude of stallions under their stable’s banner? Boy, mental health professionals could have mined those old newletters for a half-dozen research papers, at least.

Thus giving context to my second reaction to Brishen: "About the only think missing from this package is a unicorn’s horn and a pack of cigarettes".

I mean, really. Brishen is like the hobby’s id, made manifest. You know, just like in the movie Forbidden Planet. And not as scary. But the Monster from the Id in the movie was animated by someone from Disney, and Kathleen Moody did work for Disney at one point. So, draw from that whatever you will.

(Okay, that was weird. Even for me.)

Judging from the commentary I’ve seen on the Breyer web site, he seems to be going over fairly well with the same kinds of kids that populated the pages of The Model Horse Shower’s Journal back in the day. Except that most of those kids today like their Big Hairy Stallions with unicorn horns.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that either, but, you know…

(Now going upstairs for a glass of orange juice and a good night’s sleep.)

British Flavoured

Spent some time yesterday poking the underbelly of the Breyer web site - the legal way, via the links, tabs and buttons.

I’d consider myself a fairly adept user - I even took some classes, back in the day, when I had delusions of being a webmaster. Even though I haven’t done much in that department since then, I still find myself obsessing over the structure of every web site I visit. If I get annoyed enough, I’ll even start sketching out - on paper, or even just in my head - how I’d reconfigure it.

I wasn’t super-impressed with the Breyer web site before, but now that I’ve spent some time wandering around the place, I think it annoys me more than almost any other site I visit on a regular basis. There’s too much "fluff" getting in the way of the "stuff". Fooey!

Rather than discuss how I’d completely restructure it, let’s discuss the BreyerFest material, which was my original reason for visiting the site.

I am not as upset as many are about the lack of true "Britishness" regarding the Celebration Horse "Mariah’s Boon", and the Store Special "Taskin". They are, if not true British breeds, at least British-flavoured.

I am as mystified as everyone else over the Early Bird Special: a Stretched Morgan mold, in Liver Chestnut? That’s one peculiar choice for a British-themed BreyerFest. Aren’t Morgans like the quintessential American breed? Kind of wondering how they’ll spin that one. (As a product of "New" England? Maybe? Whatever.)

"Bennington" seems a little blah from the picture, but that’s probably more the photographer’s fault than the horse. I certainly wouldn’t complain if I won one.

The dapply-dun-silver-whatever that is the SR Cigar "Aintree" is beautiful, but my preference between the two now public Tent SRs is the British White Bull "Bowland", on the Charolais Bull mold. I’ve wanted a British White for years, so that one’s a no-brainer for me. There’s at least one other Tent SR that’s on my must-have list, but since the photos haven’t officially been made public yet, I’ll have to continue refraining comment. (HINT: I kinda-sorta gave you a clue the last time I talked about them.)

I’m running way short of time today (work + driveway shoveling) so I’ll finish up the BreyerFest 2012 discussion tomorrow.

Apple Jack

Argh! My apologies to anyone who’s been expecting a reply or response from me; this novel appears to be eating my brain. There’s way more plot here than I anticipated. I have no idea where it’s all coming from. (Though I am grateful for it.)

It also made me completely forget about the Breyer Fun Day on Saturday. There was a live show this past weekend, too, but it was at least an hour and a half drive, through some fearsome traffic and construction. Just not worth the effort, especially since I wasn’t buying, selling or showing. Some serious and intense socialization would have been good for the soul, but hey. I decided to go with "novel" this month, instead. Too far in to give up now.

I did go a couple miles out of my way to buy a horse yesterday, though technically, it wasn’t for me, but a friend. It was an Apple Jack:


He does have a few flaws, but he was way better than the other one on the shelf. I’ll be stopping by another store on my way back from work on Wednesday to see if I can upgrade, and if not, no big whoop. He’s cute, but there's no shortage of cute here.

I might regret it a few months or few years from now, (as I am with the Classic Shire B, in Pinto), but I do not have infinite shelf space. I already have a couple Bouncers, including my lovely Seren, and I suspect we may be seeing another Bouncer as an SR for next year’s British-themed BreyerFest, anyway. (As a British Spotted Pony, maybe? Yes, please.)

As for the condition issues that everyone’s been freaking out about, I guess I should rephrase my commentary on my Pamplemousse a bit (which I haven’t bothered to return, and I rather doubt I will.) It wasn’t the flaws that made me question keeping him, it was the timing. Every year I think I can get a little ahead of myself in the fall, as far as my finances go, but this year - like the last few - it hasn’t worked out that way.

But when he came, well, I could think of a half-dozen more useful places the money could have been spend on, at that moment. That handful of flaws present became just a few more nits to pick.

If he were an A+ super awesome OMG oh so bee-you-tee-full paragon of perfection, it might have tamped down my apprehension a bit. But he wasn’t. Staring at that sample Pamplemousse at BreyerFest didn’t help either.

Oddly enough, some of the reactions I’ve been seeing about flaws - on both Pamplemousse, and Breyers in general - within the model horse web have provided me some much needed amusement. Oh, if only the greatest aggravation in my life was finding a couple pieces of lint on a plastic horse!

You know, I’ve been hearing that Breyers haven’t been made "the way they used to be" since I’ve been collecting, which is longer than many of you have probably been alive. (I used to buy my Stablemates at Kmart - for 99 cents apiece! You do the math.) If Breyers have truly been going down hill since then, we’d all be collecting little puddles of vaguely horse-shaped plastic by now.

The quality curve has been going up for some time; most of the quality control issues we’re seeing now are slight regressions on that upward trajectory, not some precipitous and unrecoverable drop.

Most of the production problems Reeves is going through now are a consequence of scale, not a lack of caring. They probably underestimated the demand for Pamplemousse, and in an effort to meet the demand, created an environment where some quality control issues cropped up.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the production demands for the Pamplemousse contributed to the relatively short - and flaw ridden - run of the Apple Jack. The production timing certainly seems about right.

Just Thinking

There were easily five times the vendors at the flea market this week compared to last, but there wasn’t a darn thing worth buying, at least not at a price anyone was asking. ($27.50 for a Gloss Palomino FAM? I don’t think so!) I’m sure a lot of the vendors were counting on a higher proportion of market visitors being tourists on their way to a cider mill, rather than the locals looking for a deal.

I bought a few groceries and sundries I needed to buy, and left. (A toothbrush, dog treats, potato chips, and a bag of green peppers, almost too beautiful to eat. Yes, the potato chips were a "necessity." You don’t need to know why.)

The fact that I had to pay the second half of the dental bill this week was also weighing on my mind. I wasn’t going to have a whole lot of "walking around" money for the rest of the week, and I didn’t want to fritter it away on stuff that was going to sit on my sales list for months.

(The dental bill turned out to be a little less than I anticipated, so I did splurge on a dollar’s worth of books at the Salvation Army yesterday. I may never get around to reading James Joyce’s Ulysses, but it does "class up" my bookshelves while it waits.)

My minding of the pennies probably explains my muted reaction to Pamplemousse’s arrival on Tuesday, too. He seems like such an extravagance now.


He looks good in Dappled Light Palomino Sabino, but I already knew that: I got to admire/fondle the sample piece up close and personal at BreyerFest in the Hobby Information Booth. Mine has just enough small flaws to make me consider returning him, though I’m not sure I want to bother waiting for a replacement. I will have to give it some thought.

Stopped by the local Tractor Supply on the way home today to check out the holiday selection; just because I’m not in a buying mood doesn’t mean I can’t look, right? Plus, I thought the sight of this year’s Holiday Horse might perk my mood up a bit.

It did. The teeny-tiny bells sewn into the costume just slay me: they manage to look simultaneously adorable, and ridiculous! The "Winter Belle" model itself, sans decorative ovenmitt, seems quite nice - definitely not the same as the red bay #950 Dover release from 1996-1997: the finish is slightly metallic, with an opaque base.

I might pick one up if there are any left after said holiday. Just like everything else this time of year, I’ll have to think about it.

I won’t have to worry about allocating my cash for anyone else this holiday season: it doesn’t appear that there are going to be any store-specific SRs for TSC this year, just the usual XMAS assortment and some regular runs, like Chub, Valentine and Heartbreaker, and the ASPCA Benefit Set. I’m okay with that, especially after last year’s glut of SRs.

I have a suspicion we’ll be getting at least one holiday-themed SR via the Web Special program in the next month or so. Considering my recent luck on those, I’m not even going to think about it until I absolutely have to.