Confirmation Bias

I decided to skip out on the online show; I made so much progress over the weekend with all my other projects that I’d rather keep that momentum going, rather than get sidetracked by something else again. Photography is not my strong suit, and I would have obsessed over every single picture…

You know what? I’m skipping out on Santino, too; it’s not that I don’t love the Polo Pony mold, or that I have issues with the base warping (though that is pretty annoying). 

It’s just that I’m still just a tad bit overwhelmed with my leftover BreyerFest inventory. I haven’t even gotten around to getting all of the Johanns from last year (and affordable Bays are nonexistent anyway!)

I am still undecided on the Halloween stuff; I love all the Stablemates and the Classic too – I was not expecting a “Creepy Quagga” concept, and I really dig it! I have a little bit of time to think about those, at least.

In case I didn’t make it clear, I did get a Peanutine during my first pass-through the leftover line at BreyerFest. Mine just happened to be one of the perfectly ordinary ones:

Fortunately I was close enough to the front of the line that there were a few left when I went through, so I was happy to get one, regardless of the color. 

I was thinking about the Peanutine today because I made the mistake last night of watching some YouTube videos, and in spite of my impressive haul, I was still mad jealous at the people showing off Raffle Models, Volunteer Models, or even multiple Volunteer Models. 

This led to an extended internal monologue about what a terrible person I was for even going there in my head. I had to remind myself that for a lot of hobbyists, just getting a Peanutine in the first place would have been satisfaction enough. 

Would more be better? Of course! But sometimes you need to pause to enjoy what you do have and what you have accomplished, and not indulge in confirmation bias. It never ends well.

Painted Ribbons

Breyer has never been consistent about painting molded-on ribbons and bobs, so the latest hobby perturbance over Alejandro’s unpainted ribbons has floated past me.

Earlier examples of the original Cantering Welsh Pony had painted ribbons; later ones generally did not, and even later releases have been all over the map. Most of the new molds released in the late 1970s and early 1980s that featured braiding – like Halla, and the Classic USET horses – also didn’t come with painted braids, outside of a few possible Samples and Tests.

The Classic Polo Pony rarely got the painted ribbon treatment – I believe the 1994 Show Special Silver Comet is the only Production Run release that did – and the Clydesdale Stallion’s forelock ribbon is also only occasionally painted. (And only after Nancy Young pointed out the fact that it was even there at all!)

It’s not like it’s something new with the Brishen mold, either: of the three previous releases featuring the fancy plaited “down” mane, only the BreyerFest 2013 Laredo release has handpainted ribbons. Tesoro de Oro and Dag Dia didn’t get them.

Why some models get the painted ribbon treatment and some do not nowadays is complicated, and not entirely cost-related. If cost was the sole factor, we wouldn’t see painted ribbons on $4.00 Walmart Stablemates like the recent G2 Saddlebred release in the Mystery Surprise series:

With the Walmart Stablemates I suspect it’s a matter of quantity and bulk pricing – Walmart sells tons of Stablemates! – and creating the appearance of value. Adding detailing to small, incidental items like Stablemates increases the likelihood of impulse sales. More sales? More money!

By the way, painted ribbons on Stablemates releases are a relatively recent phenomenon, all around. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the G1 Saddlebred finally got them, in the Sears and JC Penneys Stablemates Assortments available through their respective Christmas catalogs – over twenty years after the mold debuted in 1975! Considering the execution, however, they probably should have waited a bit longer.

Indu and the Missing Polo Pony

And the final Special Run in the Ticket lineup is a Valegro, in a Dapple Gray paint job designed by Tom Bainbridge:

I have a funny feeling that Indu might be another Chanel or Galahad – BreyerFest Specials that were both quite fine-looking in their early PR photos, but on a whole other level in person.

I haven’t bought myself a Valegro yet – the Regular Run release, the Gold Chestnut one, last year’s Raffle Model Cinza (ha!) or one of the pre-release Samples (that I am pretty sure they still have leftovers of, somewhere).

I want to be more excited about Indu, but I’m trying to reconcile myself to the smaller budget I told myself I had to stick to this year – and hoping the Surprise model is not Legionario!

By the way, I don’t think the Bollywood Surprise is going to be a Polo Pony like everyone else seems to believe. I have a feeling if we are getting one, it’ll be in the form of the Classic Polo Pony and in the Pop-Up Store, since that’s where they’ve been relegating Classics-scale/sized Special Runs.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the original Classics Polo Pony – BreyerFest 2008’s Patagonia was the last – and there have been only four official releases, total. The original #626 Bay ran from 1976 through 1982, and came with or without socks (the sock-free variation seems to be a bit scarcer). The other three were some shade of gray: Patagonia, the 1994 Show Special Silver Comet, and the 1998-1999 Regular Run release #733 in Dappled Rose Gray.

While I’ll give them credit for making each one of these grays distinctive – something they sometimes struggle with other molds and other colors (Traditional Hanoverians in Bay, ahem) – seeing the Polo Pony in other colors would be a welcome change of pace.

Unless it is the same shade of Dapple Gray as Indu.

That would be fine. Totally fine.