Oh, My Heart Again: The Sequel

Well, it looks like I have to completely rewrite this, again. 

Y’all probably didn’t want to hear me rant about my heart being slightly broken by the first BreyerFest Auction Previews. A Chestnut Splash Stretched Morgan AND a Glossy Pacer? Argh!

Or hear about me being slightly annoyed by BreyerFest going cashless. Mostly because that means I’ll have to add a trip to the bank to the already long list of things I need to do in the 24 hours I’ll be home before embarking on My Grand Wyoming Adventure. It is definitely a “First World” problem, I know…

(Also: I am still willing to bring along any stragglers with me! Me + Mustangs + Dinosaurs + The Actual Oregon Trail + Epic Scenery: what’s not to love?)

But apparently the treasure I owned in my heart for eight and a half hours has reappeared:

I am currently bogged down with personal and professional commitments for the next week or so, and consequently my Internet time is somewhat limited. This has also been posted somewhere I don’t go anyway (Facebook) so the whole discussion is inaccessible to me and probably moot by the time this gets posted.

Look, I would be willing to pay quite a bit of money to actually get him physically in my house: he needs to be home, with me, and you already know the reasons why. Just because I have the reputation for being thrifty does not mean I am not able to cough up the necessary money when I absolutely have to. 

One of the reasons why I am so cheap is so I can allow myself one big splurge a year, and I am more than willing to let this be it for the year. And maybe the next!

But I know it is unlikely: I also know how some other hobbyists are. This whole situation is all so awkward and uncomfortable for everyone involved. I probably have a better shot at that Stretched Morgan, and that would easily blow my budget for several years if I did succeed in placing the winning bid. 

And I would end up dealing with a different kind of uncomfortable: anything that breaks my standard 500 dollar barrier freaks me out a little, even if I do not actually pay that much. (Getting my Raffle Showboat home in 2000 was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying!)

Part of my plans for today included a little evil customizing fun with a Family Arabian Mare and a canister of Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty. I should probably log off now and do just that. 

In fact, I think I need to.

Someone Drops A Shoe

To work off the drama of the past several days, I spent a good chunk of my weekend either customizing or gardening. 

I didn’t get quite as far with the garden as I hoped: it was hotter than the bottom of a skillet outside, and it hasn’t rained in a while so the ground was the consistency of concrete. It’s definitely looking better, though.

I thought I was doing pretty well with a few of the customs I was playing around with, and maybe even close to done. Then I hit them with a little primer to check my progress, and discovered I seriously overestimated my customizing skills. 

Oof. 

But here’s a bit of good news: the vintage Black Stallion custom is finally finished! Just look at this beautiful boy:

I decided to go with a retro, poofy ‘80s-style hairdo. I am also inordinately proud of the base I made for him: most custom bases in the 1980s were rather crude (compared to the horse, anyway) and he deserved something classy to stand on. 

I am heartened by the support I received in the comments over the Performance Horse Affair. I was initially hesitant to come forward with the story, expecting that it might generate some negative feedback. 

But I thought it was important to put it out there, because (a) it was already a topic of discussion (b) it was something I was personally involved in, and (c) it did not have the happy ending people were imagining it did.

I have a feeling the model itself is now radioactive; I rather doubt we’ll be seeing it again anytime soon. If it does turn up again, it’s going to be awkward for everyone. 

Regardless, the best case scenario is that maybe this will lead to the hobby having a more open and thorough discussion about the etiquette and ethics of selling and reselling, instead of it disintegrating into insinuations that we’re price-shaming people by even mentioning money.

At this point there are between 500 to 750 BreyerFest Benefit Auction models floating around out there. One of them will be mine someday, I know it. There were a lot of weird, homely and unshowable things in those early auctions: Rugged Larks and Khemosabis and all manner of Classics, to name a few. 

This one would have been the best, most perfect ending of my quest. It was one of my favorite molds (Performance Horse), in one of my favorite colors (Red Roan), from one of the few BreyerFest Auctions I personally attended (1993), at an insanely good price.

Alas, no. But there’s an interesting postscript to the story. 

Here’s the other misidentified model I bought from the same seller the same day for the same price, and (fortunately) the sale wasn’t canceled several hours after the fact:

A nice consolation prize, I suppose, even though I already have another Classic Black Stallion Test Color in the stable. (I know, who gets to say stuff like that? Someone who’s not particularly particular about the Test Colors she buys!)

He feels a bit like a Marney Test to me, but his origins are unknown. The less flashy parts of Marney’s collection were being dispersed by sellers at BreyerFest in 1993 – including boring, solid-colored Test Color Classics, Hess Stock Horses and the like – so it’s entirely possible he was purchased around the same time as the APH. 

Not the happy ending I was hoping for, but I’ll take it. 

Eight and a Half Hours

A little bird has told me that a recent purchase I made is the source of a great deal of speculation.

Yes, I was the “lucky” soul who managed to score the 1993 BreyerFest Benefit Auction Red Roan Appaloosa Performance Horse on Thursday.

It took me a few seconds to see what I was seeing: that’s no ordinary Appaloosa Performance Horse. Buy It Now? Hella yeah. 

After a couple of tense seconds that felt like hours, the sale went through.

I started hyperventilating. Then I drank a massive amount of Mountain Dew (alcohol was off the table: I had to go to work in a couple of hours) and immediately texted a friend IN ALL CAPS, punctuated by swear words. As one does when someone scores a major grail. 

I’ve achieved a number of Grails in recent years, and the next “big one” I had been aiming for was an early BreyerFest Auction piece. That’s because most of those earlier models were probably actual Test Colors, and on the Vintage molds I prefer. They were what they were, and were not designed specifically to maximize bidding. 

I have also occasionally seen early Auction Tests turn up on eBay (and elsewhere), often misidentified. There was a not implausible hope that I could get lucky someday.

I was at the 1993 Auction; it was one of the few I actually attended, and probably the last where I could have afforded anything. I was in Art School and money was a little scarce, so I did not bid. (Though my BreyerFest roommate that year did.)

Do I remember this specific model from that year? Nope. I don’t remember many Auction Tests, recent and not so: these models slip from my mind, because I know they are not achievable in any way. 

And ultimately, so was this model. 

My ownership ended eight and a half hours later: the sale was canceled around 9 p.m., because “the item was out of stock.” I contacted the seller for more information, and the only explanation I was given was that it was “listed in error”. 

We’ve all had the experience of scoring something fabulous for a song on eBay, only to have the sale canceled a short time later, often when someone tattles after the fact. We’re not the only hobby where that happens, but we’re a small enough community to usually know who the suspects are.

Their story may be true. It may not. All I know is that when this model inevitably reappears, all I’ll be able to do is look away, and think: I owned you, once, for eight and a half hours. 

The Bland Brothers

Since you all enjoyed the Alabaster APH so much, here he is with his two almost equally bland brothers, Splash Spot Leopard Appaloosa and Red Roan!

Paint jobs in the late 1980s were not terribly innovative or daring, but the fact that three of the four Horses International Performance Horses – all save the Liver Chestnut, who is in storage and I’m not in a mood to dig him out today – were a similar shade of pale was a little much even back then. 

We bought them anyway because (a) our options were limited when it came to Special Runs, and (b) we were buying them sight unseen. “Red Roan” could have been the vintage-style Freckle Roan, and the Leopard Appaloosa could have been the same Leopard Appaloosa we originally saw on the #115 Appaloosa Western Prancing Horse. Right?

But they weren’t. 

The style of Red Roan seen on this APH was something relatively new – first released on the Signing Party Lady Phase that same year – and it represented one of Reeves’s earliest attempts to create more realistic Roans. 

That Lady Phase was pretty well received: as a fan of Roans in general, I thought she was pretty spiffy, too. But the Roan APH is probably my least favorite of the set of four, perhaps because I was hoping against hope that they’d still opt to put that crazy Freckle Red Roan on him anyway, even though they hadn’t been using it much since its brief renaissance in the early 1980s.

I still love him anyway, but dang, he looks a lot like Lady Phase’s slightly homely little brother, you know?

I still long for a vintage Freckle Red Roan on the Performance Horse I had originally hoped for. The pretty Dark Bay Roan they’ve used on releases like the 2012 Constellation, on the Roxy mold, will also do. Speaking of her, I’ve been meaning to pull mine out of storage here; I got a lovely Sample one in the NPOD at BreyerFest years ago, and I am looking to beef up the “non-collectibility” portion of my live show string...

Off to finish off my birthday cake (homemade Carrot Cake, yes!) and head to bed. I did buy some Stablemates to celebrate, by the way, but I left them in the car tonight and I don’t feel like going back outside. I’m not one to complain much about the weather, but I am so over this recent cold spell, and I’d rather not go outside and be reminded of it again. 

Alabaster Performance Horse

The garden looks less terrible now – not good, but also not completely embarrassing. And it looks like all I’ll have to replace are the Verbascums and the Lupines, which is strange because those are two perennials I thought could survive an actual nuclear winter. 

(And good news for me, those are two I can direct sow!)

But that will have to wait until next weekend; the weather is turning cold again for a few days, and I have other things to worry about between now and then. Like recompiling my sales list and writing rough first drafts of articles for this year’s Sampler. 

After taking a good, long look at all the places I want to go and stuff I want to do in the month of May, I finally decided against participating in the BreyerFest Breakables Photo Show: I think it might be one activity too far for me. There’s always next year, I guess.

I’m not in a super-talkative mood today – my schedule switched over to days this week*, and I’m still feeling a little jet-lagged – so here’s a picture of an old friend:

Even by the standards of the late 1980s, the Horses International Special Run Appaloosa Performance Horses were kind of boring, but I loved them anyway. The mold is very much in keeping with the unrefined, rat-tailed Appaloosas of my youth, and I’ll always choose him over the more modern Appaloosas. 

Three of those four releases were in solid colors. Although the mold has had its share of solid-colored Test Colors over the years, the Horses International SRs have been the only solid-colored production run pieces on the Appaloosa Performance Horse mold, so far. 

The Alabaster was clearly the most boring of the original four – if there was an award or class for “Most Generic-Looking Special Run”, he’d definitely be a contender. But I love the subtle touch of that single, natural-colored hind hoof.

*I have been told that this is temporary. We will see. 

Leopold

The name of second release in this year’s Vintage Club is an obvious play on its similarity to the word “leopard”, but what first sprung to my mind was this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt1V61SPI_w

The Leopold Bugs Bunny satirizes in Long-Haired Hare (1949) is Leopold Stokowski, a conductor best known today for his work on Disney’s Fantasia. And, as Bugs amply demonstrates, his flair for theatricality.

In light of all that, the name certainly suits him!

He was another one that was a tough secret to keep: pretty much a perfectly engineered Vintage Club offering, following in the footsteps of the first Vintage Club Stablemate Eagle, the Second Vintage Club release, the Buckskin Fighting Stallion King, and 2013 Vintage Club release Halo, on the Stretched Morgan…

…with the added difference/bonus being that Leopold is Chalky, as the first releases of the #99 Appaloosa Performance Horses were back in 1974.

As I have noted before, the Appaloosa Performance Horse color was groundbreaking by 1974 standards: prior to it, all Breyer Appaloosas were of the randomly splash-spotted variety. Splash-spotted Appaloosas continued to be made after his arrival – including several APH releases that followed – but so, too, did carefully designed masked patterns, too, like the original Leopard release of the Pony of the Americas and Stud Spider.

What’s interesting to me about the original Appaloosa Performance Horse is that the majority of that mold’s production run releases since his debut have been in some variety of Appaloosa – with the exception of three of the four Special Run releases made for Horses International back in 1989.

His body type is distinctively old-school Appaloosa, so that’s not a big surprise. What is a surprise is the lack of variety in the patterns they have chosen for him over the years: aside from two Semi-Leopards (the original #99 and Exclusive Event Ferris) and the Splash Spot Leopard 1989 Horses International release, it’s been one Spotted Blanket Appaloosa after another.

While I wait for Reeves to come to its senses and finally give us a slightly different look for the APH, maybe I’ll finally dig out the body I have buried in my body box and give it a whirl.

(Probably a Few Spot: you know how much I liked That Guy from last year’s auction.)

More Photos from the Slush Pile

Another random picture day. First up, my really handsome Dapple Gray Proud Arabian Stallion:

He’s an earlier variation, obviously, with two airbrushed hind socks just like the *Witez II variation of the Mahogany Bay. And like my *Witez II, he’s almost perfect – just a slight bit of yellowing, and some tiny hoof and eartip rubs. A bit of light restoration and he’d be showring ready.

Hmm. I guess I should get cracking and finally track down a minty-mint heavily shaded early Alabaster guy to complete the trio, eh?

(My guess is that it’ll be another incidental find like the other two: it’ll happen when it happens.)

Next up is something I scanned a bit ago to talk about the hobby really being an offshoot of science-fiction fandom:

Oldsters among us will recognize the name Dragonquest, as in Linda Leach-Hardy’s Dragonquest Studios. She was a local artist/customizer for me (other side of town, though) so I very occasionally run across some of her old customs at the local flea market.

The last time I did it was actually kind of funny; I was looking the model over, and the seller was trying to impress me with “And it’s signed by the ARTIST!” and I came back with something like “Yeah, I used to hang out with the ARTIST back in the 1980s. I even had her do a commission for me!”

(Hey, it was like 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. That’s about as sick a burn as I could muster.)

Here’s that wee custom, by the way:

While’s we’re at it, here’s a scan of the first official appearance of Comet, the Super-Horse, because why the heck not:

I think it was in my reference files because I was thinking about doing a Comet custom for the “Fantasy” division of the Customs Contest last year. Which didn’t happen last year, this year, or probably any time soon, because that giant scary pile of unfinished quilts in the laundry room isn’t getting any smaller.

And finally, here’s a fellow I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while, but I never got around to it for some reason. First, a more recent photo of him:

And the original photo of him, from Marney’s Album:

From the style of the original photograph, it’s pretty obvious that he’s a very early Test Color for the Appaloosa Performance Horse. But is he an actual pre-1974 Test for the Appaloosa Performance Horse?

I’d like to think so: even if the evidence is lacking, the timing is right.

It’s kind of interesting that they were experimenting with different types of roaning just as they were phasing out the old style of “Freckle” roaning, isn’t it? I’ll having to write that topic down for future investigation...

Back to (BreyerFest) work.

The AQHA Chase Begins

The annual town book sale was a bit of a bust – the only horse books there were ones I had donated myself earlier this year. The flea market was better: many fun things, including more minis and more bodies.

It is kind of hard to believe that I came home from Kentucky with a near-empty body box: now it looks almost as full as it was before I left! So much so, that I'm considering adding a few lots to my year-end sales blitz.

That extra money may come in handy, because it appears that the mysterious, much anticipated “other” colors of the 75th Anniversary AQHA release (i.e. anything other than Bay, Chestnut or Palomino) are starting to turn up now – in the Tractor Supply Holiday store merchandise assortment.

This makes sense, because they’ve been adding rarities into the TSC mix for a little while now. They included some of the Chalky, hand-printed Appaloosa Performance Horses (aka “Indian Pony”) last year, and the Gloss versions of the Bay Valentine and Heartbreaker Giselle/Gilen set a few years before that.

The one photo I saw was of the Grulla, and I liked it – a lot. But as I’ll not be home much in the next few weeks, I’ll probably miss whatever pretty little rarities they decide to ship to my corner of the world. (And wherever I happen to be, my co-workers are unlikely to consider “going to the nearest Tractor Supply Store” a fun lunchtime activity.)

Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to enjoy the hunt from afar, and hope there are no old-fashioned Breyer Bald-faced Buckskins found anywhere close enough to me to wince. (As I did when I discovered where a Charcoal rearing Silver had been found locally. Even though the store is now closed, I still give it the stink-eye every time I drive by.)

It’s nice to see this promotion generating some interest in the AQHA mold, that received a lukewarm reception within the hobby when he was first released in 1995 as the Ideal American Quarter Horse.

The general reaction was “You call that ‘Ideal’?”

While some collectors would rather get it now and not deal with the hassle of potential price increases down the road, or prefer the stress-free regularity of dealer handpicking or a subscription service, I like an occasional chase. The whole being-out-of-town thing is more of an annoyance than a negative.

Depending on what shows up.

Some APH Tests

It's been one of those days. So here's are some pictures for you to ogle at:

While Test Colors that utilize the original Appaloosa Performance Horse paint job are almost plentiful, Test Colors on the Appaloosa Performance Horse mold itself are not. The reasons why are obvious: the mold is very "old school" Appaloosa and not very flashy. The two vintage photos that I have from Marney's files are both, no surprise, Appaloosas. Here's the other guy:

Although both models appear to be from the mid-1970s - and may possibly even be Preproduction pieces - they utilize a softer, finer speckling technique to their roaning that wasn't used on a production run item until the later 1980s.

At the point these two were made, the only other roans in production were the "Freckle" Red Roans on the Running Stallion, Lying Down and Scratching Foal. So Breyer had the technical capability to make more realistic roans, and chose not to.

Interesting!

There are a few more recent APH Tests floating around, including that fabulous frame overo piece for the BreyerFest auction a little while back, and somewhere, out there, the Test piece they used as a stand-in for the Stud Spider in the 1977 J.C. Penney Christmas Catalog.

Wanna talk about grails? Sigh...

The Unexpected

Mostly personal (but not overly personal) stuff ahead, a lot of it not Breyer- or History-related, so if you want to skip today and go outside and play in the yard, feel free.

My weekend: taxes, errands, Spring cleaning. Boring but necessary stuff. I did swing a little out of my way yesterday while running errands to check out a few thrift shops and Tuesday Mornings, but I didn’t find anything worth bringing home. I was hopeful, because the weekend before I found a lovely little clutch of Schleichs and stuff in the Grab Bag box at the Salvation Army Store:

The fuzzy flocked thing is going to be turned into a Christmas ornament. Whenever I can find the time, he’ll be all decorated up with rickrack, glitter and tinsel, just like the ones that entranced me at the flea market some time ago. Everything else is dollar table material, for now. (The Mountain Goat is trying very hard to change my mind.)

Although I’m trying very hard to be good, I have been finding myself cruising eBay the past several days, looking up box and body lots. It’s still a few weeks before the flea market season begins here, but my need for a quick and cheap horse fix appears to have kicked in early.

The Vintage Club Mustang is coming this week, true, but what I’m thinking of is the delight of the unexpected. We’re about due for a surprise on the Breyer web site, anyway, aren’t we?

A Spring-themed Classic would be nice. A companion piece to the Flurry from late last year? (Or Classics representing all Four Seasons! I could dig it.)

My work schedule is easing up a little, finally, which means that with a little luck I should have some stuff on MH$P (and possibly elsewhere) by the end of the week. Money isn’t the issue as much as space. Need to make a little room for the newer additions to come.

Much to my disappointment, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get to a live show this Spring like I planned. I simply haven’t had the time to select horses and prep the documentation, and I have too much to do now that Spring is more or less here. The BreyerFest show is completely out of the question for a number of reasons (NPOD, space issues, too big, too high-stakes) so it might not be until Fall before I can entertain the notion again.

I have a few health concerns I have to take care of in the next few weeks that are weighing heavily on my mind, also. Tomorrow, for instance, I’m getting a couple of old fillings replaced. If that goes well (and it should) then I have to make some appointments to finally deal with my alopecia.

It’s not life-threatening, but it is humiliating, especially when you’re one of only four people on both sides of the family who has/had it - and everyone else has/had hair so thick it’s like fur. (Even the men!) While I don’t consider myself a vain person, I can’t simply rock the totally naked look, either. My head is too lumpy and unattractive for that, and I don’t want to scare small children and pets.

This condition may be part of the reason why I have so much affection for the Appaloosa Performance Horse mold, and Foundation-bred Appaloosas in general. I know what it’s like to deal with a sparse, unruly mane.

It Ain't Easy Being a Fangirl

Whatever had gotten into me has now gotten out of me. I suspect the shrimp I had the night before may have been involved.

Lots of news in the meantime…

The Reissues are starting to ship - and appear on eBay. A buyer is free to do with a model whatever they please, once they buy it, but I’m still going to find it tacky when that something is reselling it at a significant markup when it’s still available from the retailer.

A little bit of a markup, in acknowledgement of your error in thinking it might have been different or more rare than it turned out to be? Or as a fee for the service of dealing with the sometimes quixotic nature of the Breyer web site? Sure. Hoping to profit on your customers not doing their homework? Squicky. 

(PSA: Everybody except Huck is still available on the Breyer web site, folks. In plain sight.)

The RCMP Horse is now available for pre-orders, and is shipping by the beginning of October. He also appears to be more of a Dark Mahogany (a la the Adios release "Mesa") with a glossy ("clipped"?) maple leaf on his behind. For those of you ready to kvetch about the model having too much white for a RCMP Horse, the RCMP Foundation has apparently given its seal of approval to the release.

Also shipping in October - and even more exciting pour moi - is a sweet Appaloosa Performance Horse in Dappled Buckskin Appaloosa, with every sixth one being extra special in some way. (It’s a little unclear if Being Chalky or Having Indian Markings is the special feature. Or both.) This explains the happy reappearance of the mold at the benefit auction in Kentucky this year.

I want them all - whatever they are and in Glossy, if it comes to that. (Those of you attending the NPOD next year better secure your holy relics now, because if I see any extra special ones lurking in the Sample boxes, that’s all that’s going to protect you.)

Judging from the reaction I’ve been seeing on Blab, so do lots of other people. Warms my heart that I’m not the only APH lover out there.

Not so close to my heart: the reaction from The Usual Suspects about the latest Vintage Club release, which is (as I expected) the Jumping Horse "Kiowa" in Indian Pony-style Chestnut Pinto, with Indian markings. If you’ve seen the number of them up for pre-sell, you know what I mean.

I know I sometimes come across as a Breyer Fangirl (not without some justification!) but you know I’m also not above snarking molds and releases either. I have preferences for color, mold and scale, but I consider myself one of those increasingly rare creatures: a Generalist. I like a little bit of everything. I am a Breyer collector, not just a Glossy Breyer Collector or a Stablemates Collector or even an APH Collector.

I have no snark to offer about the Kiowa. I like him a lot. I love the color, especially - a rarely seen and rarely used one that would look good on a lot of molds, I believe. (Want badly, right now: the APH in Indian Pony Chestnut Pinto).

I like the Jumping Horse, even though I don’t have that many: size and shelf space are the biggest issues there. One of these days, when the price and time are right, I am definitely picking up the State Line Tack Special Run "Jumping Jupiter", and that funky Semi-Gloss Dark Dapple Gray 1997 Sears Christmas Special Run.

(Y’all might also remember my heartbreak/meltdown/pity party over not winning the Best of British Contest last year, with the Fleabitten and Dappled "Sterling" as the prize. Not my best moment, but I'll own it.)

Just remember: a few years ago, the notion that a Special Run on the Appaloosa Performance Horse could be as warmly received as it is now was considered risible.

Homely

The past few days were rough - both scheduling and personal issues came up. On the scheduling issue, apparently nobody noticed in the office that I was the only person not scheduled last weekend - nor did they bother to call me when everybody was begging for extra help because of call-offs. Because everyone assumed I was already working - just not with them.

(They’re blaming it on a software glitch. Sigh. I’ll deal with it after BreyerFest.)

One good thing happened this week - my Vintage Club Extra Lucy arrived:

Very pretty! (My desk not so much, I know.) As I’ve brought up before, I wouldn’t technically call that a "Vintage" paint job, other than the fact that it replicates the pattern on the Mule that appeared on the first color cover of JAH, back in 1980. Still, no complaints, especially quality-wise. Nice job, Reeves!

This year’s crop of Auction Items is especially nice, too. I think my favorite so far is almost everyone else’s: that stunner of an Appaloosa Performance Horse, in the most amazing sabino paint job I’ve ever seen. (Via the BreyerFest App, and up on the Facebook page.)

Not so crazy about the swish tail - on the issue of the Performance Horse, I am an originalist - but dang, if it wasn’t for the fact that I suspect a lot of other people will also be gunning for him, I’d actually consider bidding.

I make no apologies for have a near-complete collection of the Appaloosa Performance Horse. (It also helps that most of his releases are pretty easy on the wallet, too.) Here’s one of my favorites, the 1984 Christmas SR in Gray Appaloosa:

We didn’t need no stinking mapping, eyewhites or roaning on our Special Runs back then! Though I was a bit bummed they didn’t at least stripe his hooves.

I can’t recall seeing a lot of test colors on this mold before, either, past or recent present. The only one I can think of is the Black Appaloosa one they used as a stand-in for Stud Spider in the 1977 JC Penney's Christmas Catalog. Other than in his original fabulous colorway, he was never a hugely popular model, so the likelihood of spare Performance Horse bodies lying around was slim.

But I always thought he had potential. Just last week I was seriously mulling over a body lot on eBay with a Performance Horse body in it; I was intrigued by the idea of taking one and tweaking/improving it, in the hopes of getting other hobbyists to see what I see.

Then Reeves went ahead and did the job for me! I can only hope that means we’ll be seeing more of him soon, either as a Vintage Club release, or as a Buried Treasure/Vault/Surprise type model. He hasn’t seen a release, in any shape or color, since the #1140 Foundation Appaloosa was discontinued in 2002.

I am also intrigued by the Gloss Palomino Clydesdale Mare. She seems a little - just so slightly - less fancy a paint job than we usually see on Auction pieces, and first made me wonder if Reeves is being sneaky again and showing us the Volunteer Special and just not telling us so.

More likely, though, she’s an actual test for another Vintage Club release; I seem to recall a Gloss Palomino Mustang in that particular photo from way back…

The Rest of the APH Story

You know, you can get a lot of work done if you’re pretty much stuck to a chair all day, in front of a computer that doesn’t like playing YouTube videos. My knees look worse, feel better, and bending is still a challenge.

So anyway, back to the Performance Horse stuff. There’s not a lot more that needs to be said, but it still needs to be, nevertheless.

As I casually mentioned before, the earliest releases of the Appaloosa Performance Horse were true Basecoat Chalkies. This makes sense: he was introduced in 1974, right in the middle of the "Chalky Era", roughly 1973-1975. As a new mold in a daring and complicated new paint job, demand and production were both undoubtedly high.

Consequently, of all the documented Chalkies from that time period, the Appaloosa Performance Horse is among the commonest and easiest to find. A nice one will still set you back somewhere in the $25-50 range, but he’s not as pricey as a Misty, or most of the non-Palomino Family Arabians.

It took me a while to finally acquire even an ordinary Appaloosa Performance Horse. It wasn’t for a lack of desire: for some reason, Santa never seemed to see his name on my Christmas List. I suspected that Dad - who took a bit of a personal interest in that particular bit of holiday shopping - was not all that into Appaloosas, instead picking items from where our tastes overlapped: Draft Horses, and Racehorses.

(Draft Horses because his Grandfather had Belgians on his farm, and Racehorses because he idolized Native Dancer, as a kid.)

There is surprisingly little variation seen in the Performance Horse’s paint job, outside of the Chalky/Nonchalky thing: some are a little lighter, and some a little darker, but that’s about it. There are some Performance Horses without the two "topline" spots - the one near the base of the tail, and near the withers. These two spots weren’t masked like the other spots, and had to be added on slightly later in production - and sometimes got missed in the process.

I don’t have one of those variations, yet. He’s been a low-priority want, for a while. It’s one of those things where I keep hoping I’ll find one locally, but most of the APH variations I’ve found recently have been of the Chalky type.

It’s one of those rare instances where finding a Chalky is more annoying than exciting: darn it, have that one already. I never pass them up: they do make a profitable little addition to the sales list, especially nowadays.

Dinged and Scuffed

I took the Vita Monster for a walk earlier this afternoon, and we had an incident at the park with a bird that left me with two extremely scuffed and bloodied knees. So I’m now hobbling around the house in a moderate bit of pain. It’s not quite bad enough for hospitalization, but it’s bad enough that I don’t plan on leaving the house - and possibly, this chair - for the rest of the evening.

I don’t have to go back to work until Sunday afternoon, so no work will be lost. I did lose my favorite pair of jeans in the incident, though. (Not literally - they’re just unwearable now.)

So it’s just some housekeeping today.

I was stupid and procrastinated, so there is also no live show for me this weekend. To compensate, I took some of my frustration out on my body box. It’s also serving as an outlet for my archiving woes: I've been attempting to archive some of my recently acquired ephemera, but it’s going dreadfully slow. Props to the librarians and historians who actually do that work for a living, and not (only) for fun. You guys rock.

Someone has noticed the Modernistic Buck in the recent post about the Mules. I do plan on (someday, soon, I hope) rewriting and serializing the article about the Modernistic Buck and Doe that I did for my Sampler a few years back. It’s definitely the kind of information that needs to be here, especially now that Reeves is sending out a copy of the Buck and Doe’s "catalog" page as one of the Vintage Club extras.

I haven’t gotten mine yet, so I don’t know if it’s the one I already have in my collection, or something altogether different. The "no reproducing this on pain of death" disclaimer that was on the last ephemera freebie is also supposedly printed on it, so that might present some interesting legal issues if it is one of the same images I used in the article.

Speaking of Vintage Club business, it looks like I might be returning my Halo. Everything is awesome about him, except for one thing: they forgot to paint his eyeballs. I’m just as big a fan of variations as the rest of you, but frankly, his Zombie Death Stare is starting to weird me out. Maybe if I ask real nice they’ll throw in some eyewhites for free? The original APH didn’t have them, but the original releases of the APH were also (mostly) Chalky, and the Halo is not.

It’s only flaw I can see in him, which is a nutpicky one at best. Other than the Zombie Death Stare. (Hmm. Though that could work for a name...)

I’ll finish up with the APH stuff next time, when I’m able to bend at the knees again.

APH: Back to the Source

Scheduling problems, again. Everything I need to get done this week (work and nonwork) is taking too darn long to do.

Instead of weighing in on the pros and cons of Halo, I will focus on the inspiration for him, the original Appaloosa Performance Horse:

The APH was born out of Breyer’s experimentation in the late 1960s and early 1970s with more realistic paint jobs, per collector request. This experimentation also gave rise to the "Resist" Dapple Grays, more precise masking techniques, and (believe it or not) the now-beloved "Freckle" Red Roans.

Unlike the rest, the Performance Horse’s paint job was uniquely his own: it wasn’t seen on an Regular Run or Special Run release until last year’s Vintage Club Stablemates Eagle - and now, on Halo.

There are a small number of Test Colors with this paint job, most famously the Proud Arabian Stallion that is the grail model of so many. A Classic Quarter Horse Mare showed up on eBay a few years ago, and I know of an Adios in private hands. There may be others, too: it was a complicated paint job for its time, and it undoubtedly took some time to perfect.

(In case you were wondering: I don’t have a photo of that Adios, but he’s just as beautiful as you can imagine. And no, it’s neither mine, nor is it for sale. He just is.)

I know I’ve seen in some parts a bit of eyebrow-raising over the use of the Stretched Morgan mold with this color, since it is obviously not a traditional (or even untraditional) Morgan Horse color.

I tend to look at it from an historical perspective: Breyer was never one to let breed standards get in the way of pairing up molds and colors. Palomino Arabians? Not a problem. Have a Standardbred stand in for a Paint Horse? Also, not a problem.

And any light skimming of the live horse classifieds (and live show documentation) will reveal plenty of seemingly inappropriate or bizarre real-life outcrosses, planned or otherwise. Mostly otherwise, but you know some breeders and their "designer" crosses. (Not saying that I approve, just that they, like the APH Adios, do exist.)

So a wild Appaloosa paint job on a Morgan mold is entirely consistent with the Vintage Club aesthetic, and not a huge hurdle for the live shower to overcome. Though I’d be fine with an APH-colored release on just about anything, really. Belgian, Pacer, Lady Roxana …

While it is often said that a good horse can come in any color, in the model horse world the truism is slightly different: a good color can sell on any horse. Well, almost any: I can’t imagine a huge market for an APH-colored Lady Roxana, other than me. (She’d look fabulous next to my imaginary FAS Yellow Man o' War! And my not-imaginary FAMs. Yes, I have more than one.)

Since work ran rather late today - and I’ll be heading out the door again here in a few minutes - I’ll finish up my thoughts on the Appaloosa Performance Horse mold, and color, next time.

Halo

I worked nearly 19 hours total on Friday, and nearly 40 over the course of three days. Tired does not even begin to describe how I feel right now. ("Gelatinous" might work.)

I wish they’d get this scheduling issue resolved once and for all. I appreciate the hours and the overtime, but cramming them all in at the end of the week is not cool, especially since it leads entire days off being slept away.

Other than briefly skimming the Internet for breaking news, I haven’t had a whole lot of computer time to myself over those three days. I think that was for the best, considering the lack of sleep put me in a rather, ah, combative state of mind. Didn’t want to start any fights that I’d have to walk away from. What’d be the fun in that?

I did see that Reeves announced what I’m assuming will be the Vintage Club’s "Exclusive Offer" model: the Stretched Morgan in the Performance Horse colorway, named Halo. Yep, the same guy in last year’s group shot photo who was the source of much commentary and speculation.

Some hobbyists are claiming that it’s the second release in the 2013 Vintage Club series, but the wording of the e-mail - that he’s a "Club Exclusive", not a "Release"  - suggests otherwise, to me.

Besides, the two clues given for the second release - "Solid" and "Four on the floor" - don’t quite jibe: there’s nothing about Halo that could be described as "Solid", unless it is a retro/1970s reference to the level of his coolness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg92Y477XSI

I haven’t given much thought to those clues, by the way. They’re just too vague for me to work with. "Four on the floor" seems to be referencing a standing model (of which there are dozens) and "Solid" could be referring to a solid colorway (likewise).

The first thing that pops in my head is Adios, especially since when I hear "Four on the floor" I think of manual transmissions, street racing and horsepower. A subtle reference to race cars = a subtle reference to racehorses?

Interesting. There’s a Glossy Charcoal Adios, Dapple Gray Man o’ War, and a Gloss Alabaster Quarter Horse Gelding in that group shot: all solid colors, all racehorses. (Okay, the QHG is a bit of a stretch, considering his body type. Close enough.)

I wouldn’t object to any of those guys.

That’s really about the extent of my thinking on the subject, though. Of the three, I think the Charcoal Adios is probably the strongest candidate. A very popular mold, in a very popular vintage color.

Not unlike Halo.

Blind Spots

So much drama at work this week - what is it about me that draws people to confess their innermost secrets?

While I do take some pleasure in it - I love the reaction I get from coworkers when they drop the latest gossip on me, only to I find out I already know more about it than they do - being the keeper of all that confidential information does wear on the soul. (FWIW, I never "spill" any data until the story’s out and about, though. And only if it helps add context to the story. It’s just not kosher, otherwise.)

I guess I missed my calling as a therapist - or a gossip columnist. (Well, I guess I’m kinda-sorta a gossip columnist…)

The latest clue about the next Vintage Club release is another vague one:

Hint #3: "Three points touching."

Hind hooves and the tail: still doesn’t rule out the Fighting Stallion. The rabble seems to be moving slowly to that conclusion too, though a not-small portion of them are now fixated on the old Mustang for some reason.

If the unique feature they’re thinking of is that it can be posed in more than one way - on its tail, or on its from hoof - well, I covered that already. I called it "multiple posability" when I discussed it here back in August of 2009. And the Mustang isn’t unique in that regard either - both the original Robin Hood and the Bucking Bronco have that feature, along with newer molds like the Nokota Horse and Rain.

Someone on Blab made a brilliant observation today, however, pointing out the little something we’ve all forgotten about: "Eagle", the G2 Rearing Arabian in the Appaloosa Performance Horse colorway.

You know, the little gift that Vintage Club members will be getting in the mail around the same time as the second release. Could he be the "Mini Me" of the Fighting Stallion in that color, complete with striped hooves and resist dappling?

Does it not make perfect sense? Especially in light of the overwhelming positive reception - and huge selling price - that the Proud Arabian Mare and Foal in the same colorway generated at the BreyerFest auction last year?

I don’t know how I could have missed so obvious an idea, especially since I totally love the APH colorway, Everyone has blind spots, and I guess that was mine!

Even if it turns out to be something completely different, they should still do it as a Web Special or as some sort of generic Collector’s Club "Special Offer." Good grief, I can’t imagine that not selling well.

APH PAS, PAM, and PAF

You have no idea how angry I am at Blogger right now. The reasons why this post is so late are only partially due to the fact that I was on the road and otherwise indisposed with BreyerFest type things. I'll just ... leave it. I'm too tired to get any more righteous than that.

Checked into the CHIN about 5:30 p.m. The room is still a bit of a wreck, but that's because I've already spent way too much time socializing. (Dudes - Linda Walter is just down the hall!) I'm in Room 331, if you're looking for me, or The Toad, or a little souvenir of your trip.

(Have I mentioned before that I have a ton of stuff to sell?)

The hotel is ... different. So far it looks like mostly cosmetic changes - new carpets, new linens, new faces, that sort of thing. Which I mostly like, except for the wall color: it's baby poop brown! I'm sure it looked great on the paint chip, but y'all know what the lighting is like around here.

The carpeting in the conference all area leaves a bit to be desired, too. (Swirly red, yellow and blue? Must have been on sale.) I think they upgraded their wireless service - it seems much, much faster than in previous years.

I suppose most of you have seen - or heard about - the Appaloosa Proud Arabian Mare and Foal set in the Benefit Auction. The way Breyer worded the post on their Facebook page has convinced some people that these models are vintage Test from the Sample Room.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again - and again: there are no vintage, pre-1985 Test Colors in the Reeves Sample Room. The "vintage" they are referring to is the color, and possibly the molds themselves. The detailing and color aren't consistent with the period that a lot of people are convinced these models came out of (the early 1970s.) The dappling is too fine, and the detailing just a little too good for even the best paint jobs of that era.

(BTW, I just happen to have a pretty nice Appaloosa Performance Horse for sale in my room. You know, if you're looking for one.)

None of the leftover goodies that were in the Chicago facility prior to the sale in late 1984 ever made it to New Jersey. Whatever was faound was either sold to Marney, or to the Bentley Sales Company, who sold them at live shows in the mid-1980s. I know so, because I bought a lot of Tests and Oddities from them. (Remember the Classic Quarter Horse Mares and Foal in Five-Gaiter Sorrel? Bentley Sales.)

And also, I was in the Sample Room way back in 1992, and I didn't see anything that qualified as vintage back then. The stuff that was in there then that's still in there now probably qualifies as vintage, today. (Hey, I've been up since 5 a.m, so you're just going to have to cut me some slack on the grammar.)

It's unlikely that Reeves would be buying vintage Tests, either, especially something like that pair. I wouldn't doubt that Reeves may be discreetly acquiring some vintage pieces here and there, but if they were buying vintage Tests, that's something we'd be hearing about.

It's obvious that this pair is meant ot complement the Proud Arabian Stallion in the Appaloosa Performance Horse colorway - only one of the most well-know, and coveted, of all vintage Tests. Yeah, I've mentioned him here a couple of times, but he's famous enough for the Powers That Be at Reeves to have discovered him on their own without any help from me.

You know, it's funny, but there really aren't a whole lot of "famous" or even "notorious" Test Colors. You'd think with them being unique or distinctive, that they'd be naturally more memorable. But, they're not.

The ones you own personally are memorable to you, of course, but Test Colors other people own? Not really. I've seen several hundred Test Colors over the years, but I can't think of more than a half dozen that I covet. Of those, I think only one or two of them anyone else would have even heard of. (Those would be BreyerFest Auction pieces.)

It's getting late, and I really need to clean off the bed and get some quality sleep time in, while I can.