The POA Pippin

I’m feeling completely antisocial today - a week’s worth of unpleasant news, allergies and insomnia will do that to you. So you’re getting another spotlight on another Fest purchase. This one is the 2009 UK Special Pippin:


I found him in the Pit, in a box with a "Racing Legends" backer and absent the "UK Special" sticker. He was correctly labeled on the front and back of the box, so I’m just going to assume that it was either a mistake that was set aside, or something cobbled together from spare box parts lying around.

It could have been a box sample of some sort, too. I’ve seen a few of those in the Pit before, and I’ve even bought a couple for my own collection. Unlike the Pippin, the boxes were rather obviously something out of the ordinary, and the models contained within were not exceptional in and of themselves.

This Pippin though - man, he’s beautiful. Immaculate too, except for a slightly bent front leg, which probably occurred during his brief stay in the truck while waited for my line ticket time. It’s an easy fix, whenever I get around to it. I’m still not crazy about that tail, but the rest of him? He just about demanded to be taken out of the box!

I have no idea if he’s representative of the entire run, since he was the only example of his kind I found in the Pit, and I never bothered to look at others at the Park or the hotel. I suppose I’ll have to look into the possibility of him being a sample or test or something, eventually.

I have set the box aside, with all its various ties and trimmings, just in case there might be more to the story. It’s not something I’d normally do: I’m about as anti-MIB as they come. I try to keep a representative sample of every kind of box and packaging, but unless there’s something rare or significant there, most of the modern boxes get trashed. They’re not very sturdy, and they’re just about useless for storage. I cut off all the relevant pieces, peel off the stickers, and then we have a parting of the ways.

I haven’t taken my All Glories out of their boxes yet, either. It has nothing to do with any added value the box might bring to the model. I just really, really like the look of the box - the color scheme, the graphics, the whole "package." Kudo to the designer or designers responsible for it.

Just Say No. To Mullets.

Technical difficulties today. Sorry about that.

I got all excited the other day – I found another test color splash spot Pony of the Americas! Well, okay, he was in the 1976 Dealers Catalog and Collector's Manual, and I wasn't actually looking for him, per se. I was researching another topic entirely, and I just happened to notice that he wasn't the same pony on the white picture box. That's how research works sometimes: you make discoveries while you're busy looking for something else.

I already knew that the POA in the catalog was a test piece – I just assumed that the one featured in the ephemera was the same one that was on the box. Silly me, making assumptions again. (Alas, he was not the same fellow in my collection, either. So that means there were at least three of them.)

I'm not sure why I have this mild obsession with the POA: I remember when it came out in 1976, and there was just something about it that I really, really took a shine to. I think it was its unique appearance: roached mane, short tail, that leopard appaloosa paint job. The POA was no ordinary, generic pony!

Like everyone else, I finally managed to get a look (via the Internet) at a “live” version of the UK SR Pippin on the newly remodeled POA mold. They “updated” it with a new mane and tail. It wasn't necessary, in my opinion; my first reaction was annoyance. They took away the crew cut and gave him an equine mullet!

I don't like mullets. On horses, or people. (I don't have a preference for crew cuts, but on the right person, it works. If I had a preference, it'd be towards the Byronic. For both men and horses. Let's just leave that discussion ... at that.)

I know “big hair” is back in style, for both horses and people, but I never really struck me as either attractive, or practical. And just like people, some look good in big hair, and some don't. The mane is fine – the mold has a nice enough neck to pull off a short mane. But that tail is weird: it's not an improvement to me.

I'm already predisposed to buy the first two near-simultaneous SR releases of the POA in spite of the less than appealing tail – because of the roany paint jobs on both the UK Pippin, and the not-quite-sure-what-it-is Toby. I love roans! Speckled, freckled, or airbrushed, I'm not fussy. And I'd seriously trample people for a freckle-style black roan – you know, like the old-fashioned red roan paint job with big honking freckles, except in black.

And speaking of trampling people, rumor has it that the Toby is an in-tent BreyerFest store special, like the Porcelain Stablemate from last year. This little nugget of information, however, came in the form of a verbal comment from an unidentified Reeves employee: as I’ve explained before, that’s not the kind of information you can completely rely on.

(I’ve received neither a thumbs-up nor a thumbs-down from the powers-that-be to my attempt to organize the Ninja Pit of Death line last year. The issue has been brought to Reeves's attention, but I’ve heard nothing personally. Yet.)