A Celtic Arabian

In case you haven’t seen it, this is Breyer’s official notice about COVID-19, which is about what I expected:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/news/a-message-from-breyer-regarding-covid-19-novel-coronavirus

In short: nothing’s cancelled, but we’re monitoring the situation and will update you if there are any changes. 

On a lighter topic, the latest BreyerFest is… a Sham?

I had assumed that at least one of the Specials this year was going to be an Arabian, but for some reason I thought it’d be the Proud Arabian Stallion and not the Sham.

The four Proud Arabian Stallions that have been Special Runs for BreyerFest are either expensive or hard to find: the 2003 Raffle Model Saturday Night Fever, the 2008 Gloss Prize Model Thee Desperado, the 2009 Volunteer Model After Party (my favorite!) and the 2015 Raffle Model Que Sera Sera.

But the Sham isn’t quite as challenging: just the 1991 Wedgewood Blue Raffle Model, the 1996 Celebration Horse Tseminole Wind, and the 2008 Decorator Pharaoh.

Hmm. I guess it was about time for another Sham.

We last saw the Gulastra Plume coloring on the 2018 Stablemates Club debut of Darley; I was hoping we’d see it again soon, and Sham’s swishy tail is ideally suited for it.

Although I love Glossy Bay, and especially a Glossy Bay with Gulastra Plume, this is another model I am undecided on. I guess I’m just starting to feel a little Special Run fatigue, right now. Or is it that I find the pony-shaped holes in this year’s lineup disorienting?

(Please don’t let one of them be a Diorama Prize model. That contest has been nothing but heartbreak for me. A Translucent Decorator Bouncer as a Pop-Up Store item will be perfectly acceptable.)

I also continue to be mildly amused by the fact that while many of these Specials aren’t all that conceptually different from previous BreyerFest Special Runs – in that their only connection to the theme is in their name – there isn’t that much uproar over that fact this year.

Some of it may be hobbyists finally getting over that particular bugaboo, and the quality of the Special Runs themselves, but I also think everyone else’s enthusiasm for the theme may be overriding that perennial complaint.

As someone whose ethnic background can be loosely described as “Eastern Barbarian”, I find myself kind of meh on the theme.

Bald-faced Bay Proud Arabian Foal

It’s a month before BreyerFest, and my sales list isn’t even done yet: so yeah, you could say that I’m edging into panic mode a little earlier and a little more intensely than usual this year.

If I push it, I should be able to get most of my paperwork done by the end of the weekend. In the meantime I will probably be even harder to get a hold of than I usually am.

(Yeah, I know that my accessibility is something I need to work on!)

Since I haven’t had much time to do my usual shopping, I’ve been casually perusing eBay for Breyer box lots: aside from the excitement of not really knowing what you’re getting until you open the box, you can usually recoup most of your investment once you pick out the handful of must-have pieces out of the box.

You should know me by now: even in the yuckiest of box lots, I usually find something!

Anyway, there was one lot that went for an unreasonably high amount of money recently, because it apparently had one of these in it:

A Mahogany Bay Proud Arabian Foal with front socks and a bald face.

Note: I don’t own this model anymore. I bought it off eBay – possibly in a box lot, I don’t remember – and then sold it several years later when it became apparent to me that my variation collecting was getting out of hand.

(When you have a half-dozen variations of the Hess Haflinger, you have a problem!)

I made a small profit on it – in the tens or dozens of dollars, if that – so I wasn’t exactly pleased to find out that this model was what triggered the bidding war that led to that lot going for at least ten times what I got for mine.

It’s okay, really – when I had to sell a Test Color Proud Arabian Foal a while back when I absolutely had to, I did all right for myself… but man, the market is just nuts right now. And if only my timing was good enough to capitalize on it!

(Now ponders the possibility that this Foal might be the selfsame Foal. No, don’t go there Andi...)

Just about any variation of the Proud Arabians – Stallion, Mare or Foal, and the Old Mold variants of the Mare and Foal – is going for big bucks right now. I remember being shocked at how much that pink-nosed Alabaster Old Mold Mare sold for a little while back. (So shocked I can’t remember the price, except that if it wasn’t in the four figures, it was darn close.)

The Bald-faced Bay Foal is one of the more unusual ones, I agree – I think I’ve seen maybe two or three others? – but even so, I certainly didn’t think it’d go for that kind of money.

As far as timelines go, I have no idea when the Bald-faced variation of the Foal occurred. Most of the better-known Proud Arabian variations appear to have occurred early on in their runs, so I would assume this to be the case with the Foal as well.

The Mystery Mare

Still busy cleaning; late Saturday night I started a long-overdue purge of out-of-date reference books and books-I’ve-lost-interest-in from the bookshelves, and it felt so good I’ve since moved on to other parts of the home and office.

It’s been a constructive way to work off some personal and professional frustrations, too. (Nothing y’all need to know about, other than that’s my operational mode right now.)

Anyway, much speculation has abounded about the Proud Arabian Mare silhouette Reeves has been teasing us with on all fronts since yesterday:

There’s been only one official BreyerFest Special Run on the Proud Arabian Mare: the elusive, desirable Silver Filigree Volunteer Model from 1993.

There have been a three of the Stallion – the 2003 Silver Filigree Raffle Model Saturday Night Fever, the 2009 Volunteer Special After Party, and the 2015 Raffle Model Que Sera Sera – but only one of the Foal: the 2003 Silver Filigree Born to Run.

I suppose the Palomino Appaloosa Fun Foals that were made available in the Ninja Pit with all of the other leftover Fun Foals could count as a BreyerFest Special Run too, since that’s where the majority of them (all of them?) were distributed.

I have no special insight as to the nature of this Special Run – whether it’s going to be a Raffle Model, Prize Model, Store Special, or straight-up Tent Special. I figured they’d give us at least one Arabian model this year, but the Proud Arabian Mare never came up as a possibility to me.

Most of the speculation seems to be focusing on it as being a Raffle or Prize Model, or the Pop-Up Store Crystal release – in other words, something extremely limited – but I don’t think we can rule out a larger release.

We had the Vintage Club Farah in 2015, and several recent larger-scale releases of the Hagen-Renaker Classic Racehorses too: the Terrang Coeur de Lion, the Swaps Web Special Scotty, and the re-release of the Man o’ War.

If they do go the Tent/Store route, I think a PAM release will be on the smallish side (1000 or fewer) – but it won’t be out of contractual issues, mostly.

It’ll be because she’s a Vintage mold, featuring an old-fashioned/dated body type.

The younger/newer hobbyists who make up a fairly large chunk of the BreyerFest crowd will be both unfamiliar with and unsentimental about her. And wondering why Reeves couldn’t have gone with a newer mold like Weather Girl or the Make A Wish/Justadream instead, because obviously.

(Remember the response to the Appaloosa Bonne Fete in 2014? More experienced hobbyists were unimpressed, but Reeves knew what it was doing: the newer hobbyists helped sell it out.)

I’ll be fine, regardless. If it’s a smaller release, I’m not going to let myself worry about it, and if it’s a larger release, it shouldn’t be too difficult to attain – if I like it, well enough.

While I think she’d look fabulous in a Gloss Dappled Red Bay with a lot of white, there’s already a lot of Bays in the lineup. It also happens to be her 60th anniversary as a Breyer release, so a Decorator release isn’t out of the question either...

FAMs as PAMs?

Several years ago I acquired a Matte Dapple Gray Family Arabian Mare in a Body Box lot. She was missing a leg and half an ear, but I didn’t care:

I knew there was at least one other Dapple Gray Family Arabian Mare like her out there, and where there are two, there are usually more. I assumed that she was either a Salesman’s Sample or very early production piece of the Proud Arabian Mare, produced before the Proud Arabian Mare mold was ready for full production.

I also assumed that meant there had to be at least a few Mahogany Bay Family Arabian Mares out there too, either sitting unnoticed in someone’s collection, or passed off as a simple variation of the Bay.

(Any Matte Alabasters that would have/could have been produced would have been virtually identical/indistinguishable from the original Matte Alabaster FAMs, save for a little extra body shading, perhaps.)

So it wasn’t a complete surprise when a Mahogany Bay Family Arabian Mare showed up – on eBay, of course. What was odd about it was that it came with the original White Cardboard Picture box, and a not-quite-matching Bay Proud Arabian Foal.

Oddballs and obvious Samples have turned up in retail boxes before, especially the enclosed cardboard ones of the 1970s and early 1980s. It might have been done to round out the production quota for the day, or (according to a rumor I heard from Marney herself) to give the hobby community a few little surprises to go hunting for.

But if these Oddball Mares were Samples or simply very early production items, you’d expect to find them with Corrugated Shipper Boxes: the Proud Arabian Mare debuted in 1972, but the retail-friendly White Cardboard Picture Boxes didn’t appear until 1973.

A random thought occurred to me a while back, now bolstered by this Mahogany Bay Mare and her box: what if these Mares were straight-up goofs? What if – like so many hobbyists – one of the factory painters simply confused the PAM mold with the FAM mold?

If so, it was obviously a mistake that was caught early. This is a darn shame, since I have grown rather fond of Mahogany Bay as a color.

I had the strange misfortune of actually finding the Mahogany Bay FAM auction very shortly after it was listed, and fumbled around the page for a few anxious seconds desperately looking for the “Buy It Now” button that was not there.

So I will simply have to be content with my three-legged mare…

The Mahogany Bay PAS Of My Dreams

Now here, my dears, is one of the most beautiful Mahogany Bay Proud Arabian Stallions in the world:

He’s one of the early ones – the “*Witez II” version, ca. 1971-4, or thereabouts – with the neatly airbrushed hind socks. Everything about him in fact, is neatly and lovingly done, right down to the wisps of his mane.

Later Mahogany Bay Proud Arabian Stallions – particularly in the late 1970s – were not so carefully painted, and were especially prone to having fuzzy gray oversprayed socks. Among other things: the late 1970s were really and truly not the best of times for Breyer’s quality control.

It was a constant source of frustration to me my younger days, when I wanted to add a Mahogany Bay PAS to my herd. Then I started going to live shows and found that neatly painted, two-stocking versions did exist, and were just as awesome I had imagined, giving me hope that I’d finally get the Bay Proud Arabian Stallion of my dreams.

It wasn’t until recently that I finally – finally! – managed to acquire one that was all the things that I had hoped for: Beautifully shaded. Neatly painted. In near-perfect condition. And (relatively) cheap.

The hardest part wasn’t finding one – he was a fairly popular mold back then, as Breyer’s first Arabian Stallion who really looked like an Arabian Stallion, or at least the way we imagined them. On any given day on almost any part of the Internet, you’re going to find multiple Bay Proud Arabian Stallion for sale somewhere, and some of them are the early two-sock version.

The biggest issue is condition: these models weren’t just popular and played with, they were also dearly loved: held, cuddled, taken to bed and taken to school. The lightly textured finish that was another hallmark of these earliest pieces was very prone to rubbing, so many Proud Arabian Stallions bear the wounds of that well-meaning devotion.

So I went through a lot of these guys – until I found this guy.

The only problem now is that the hobby’s standards of Arabian beauty have changed. While he would have crushed the competition in the late 1980s, he’d only be competitive in Vintage and Collectibility classes today.

No matter. I love him anyway. And his buddy, too, who is next up in the queue...

Whatever Will Be

As I was culling my way through some boxes over the weekend (the parts where I wasn’t asleep. Nasty little head cold!) I came across the Proud Arabian Stallion Kalico, a 1999 Show Special Run who I thought was especially pretty when I bought him.

And I still do, because he survived the cull. There’s something about the combination of Tobiano Pinto on the Proud Arabian Stallion mold that seems to work for me; I also am rather fond of the 2009 Volunteer Special After Party. I think the pinto patterning on both of them breaks up the mold visually, and makes him look a little less like the large side of beef he sometimes comes across as, especially in darker and less carefully shaded colors.

Even though he’s one of the less desirable Volunteer Specials, After Party’s price is still a bit too high for my budget.

I am going to assume the same situation will apply to this year’s Saturday Raffle piece, too, another Tobiano Pinto PAS, named Que Sera Sera. Ooh look, mapping!

Because even though it is a Proud Arabian Stallion, it’s still a Raffle Model, and there are enough Proud Arabian Stallion fans out there to make winning difficult, and reselling profitable and not too painless for less interested winners. My Kalico wouldn’t mind a long-term visit from his French cousin (Toile?), but alas, he’d have to fly coach.

Interest in the mold does seem to be on the upswing, which I attribute to partly to the upswing in "vintage" molds in general, to some rather nice recent Auction pieces (remember that beautiful Gloss Black Appaloosa?) and the last Exclusive Event rarity, the Gloss Chestnut Beignet.

As always, a nice paint job can cure a lot of ills. (Though not my cold. Probably.)

Snowflakes

Wait, I got picked for an Aphrodite? How did that happen? It has been so long since I’ve won one of these opportunities that I’m not quite sure what to do with myself now. (I’m not counting the Glossy Lucy Mule, since the variables weren’t the same, i.e. it was drawing from a smaller pool of potential winners.)

I see some people are willing to trade their Gris Gris for an Aphrodite; this notion is not unappealing to me.

The "win" also makes up for the past few days, which were of exceeding roughness. I spent a good chunk of Sunday at the vet; Vita’s pancreatitis flared up again. I haven’t been sleeping well, and people at work were working themselves into a lather (again) about the snow today.

I don’t particularly like talking about the weather. But I really don’t like it when people start believing what some random old guy says about the weather while standing in line at CVS. I have plenty enough experience with Random Old Guys at the flea market who also pontificate about the weather to know better.

(The weather was unpleasant today, indeed, but apocalyptic? No.)

Anyway, here’s a picture of a more pleasant and believable (and less opinionated!) Random Old Guy from Marney’s album:

It is not Dune, the Collector’s Edition model from 2000. It’s a Test Color either made or found by Marney, presumably some time in the late 1980s. (The photo itself is not dated, but is of a style similar to those from that era.) He predates Dune by ten to fifteen years, or more.

It’s doubtful Reeves was aware of the existence of this Test Color before making Dune. Both likely stemmed from the same logical and obvious notion: Why don’t we put an "Old Mold" color on the "New Mold" Arabian Stallion?

The fact that a Test Color did later become a Production Run doesn’t diminish the fact that this Test Color is still a Test Color. Perhaps not so good for the monetary fortunes of the person who now owns this guy, and who now must explain for eternity to anyone who sees it that what they think they see is not what they actually see.

But that’s one of the risks you take in buying a Test Color. And partly why so many of the Test Colors that I own are pieces that were once unique and special snowflakes, but now are not. I’m perfectly content with that - in fact, I prefer it. I like to think of every model I own as being unique and special, whether they’re a Regular Run, Special Run, Test Color or Oddity.

Ask me about any Random Old Guy or Gal in my collection, no matter how common, and you’re going to get a pretty detailed backstory about why he/she/it is special regardless.

Hmm, interesting. I just realized that the Proud Arabian Stallion has been issued - or proposed - on every original "Old Mold" color except Gloss Shaded Alabaster. Gloss Honey Bay "Dune", the Vintage Club Gray Appaloosa "Harlequin", and the possible Woodgrain Test Color piece/s from the mid-1970s. (Charcoal and Palomino didn’t get released on the Family Arabians until 1961, at the earliest.)

I’m wondering if they think that its similarity to the Regular Run Matte Alabaster might cause a Gloss release to be not that well-received? Silly Reeves - give him the same details as the Retro Release Racehorse I proposed recently, and he’ll be plenty different - and plenty popular.

More on the Woodgrain Revival

Feeling just slightly under the weather (probably due to the weather) so here’s a scan I wanted to include in my discussion about the new Woodgrain Clock Saddlebred. It’s from a note from Marney Walerius to Peter Stone, attached to a flier for the 1976 Model Horse Congress, and it gives you an indication of just how long the Woodgrain Revival has been in the making:

1976: that’s just three years after the Woodgrain Fighting Stallion was discontinued, in 1973. Positively microscopic in Breyer time.

Woodgrain Proud Arabian Stallion? Gah! I know he’s no fan favorite, but I can’t even imagine what would happen to the Internet if he (a) did exist, and (b) showed up on eBay or MH$P. (And the Mares and Foals, if they were properly vetted and documented? The very nature of time and space itself might be altered.)

I am somewhat doubtful of his existence, since actual Woodgrain Test Colors are exceedingly rare - modern or vintage. This makes sense, since the Woodgraining process is messy, toxic and is a few degrees more difficult to execute than your standard paint job.

And no, seriously, I have no idea about his whereabouts, or if he was even made at all. All I knew prior to this note is that the notion of bringing back Woodgrains had been in discussion for a very long time; I just didn’t realize it had begun almost from the day they were discontinued in the first place.

Or that a Proud Arabian Stallion may have been involved. It makes sense, though, since Test Colors of other Old Mold colors appear to have been made on the Mare prior to her rerelease in the 1970s, including this beauty from Marney’s photo album:

Lost and Found

Nothing is ever truly lost, only misplaced.

I’m going to show you something today that I’ve been looking for for a couple years now. I only found it yesterday because I was looking for something else entirely, and it just happened to be filed away with that something else.

I will apologize ahead of time: it is probably going to make some of you cry. The rest of you will either get angry, or wish for the invention of a working time machine. I had all of these reactions when I first saw it in a small archive I acquired a few years back. I’m grateful to have it - because it’s a wonderful documentary tool - but you’ll see why:

(Click to enlarge.)

This is a partial scan from the "Test Color" section of Marney Walerius’s Spring 1984 Saleslist. In addition to the portion I didn’t scan she also, for some strange reason, listed several Tests in the "OF Discontinued" section of the list. (Chalky Classic Lipizzan? Glossy Adios? Sandy Bay Appaloosa QH Gelding? Argh!)

The numbers in parentheses are the quantities she claims were made of each model. I would take these numbers with a grain of salt. This is not to cast aspersions on her accuracy, but is more a reflection of the resources she was working with. While she may have had access to resources we don’t have now, we also have access to information today that she did not that directly contradicts some of her claims. 

History is a consensus, constantly revised.

Aside from the Appaloosa Proud Arabian Stallion and the Bay San Domingo Test for the Stock Horse Stallion, Item #41 is worth noting: it was likely one of the early Tests for the "Mississippi Valley Live" Special Run Chestnut Proud Arabian Stallions. That show wasn’t for several months in the future at the time of this saleslist was issued, so her claim of only 2 existing was likely valid - at that moment.

As she states in another part of this list, these Tests "…will NOT be mass produced but no promise can be made to that affect [sic]…"  And as you can see from the scan, some of them were. Eventually. (I wouldn't mind owning a few of them, myself. Actually, I do, but that's another story.)

Meme's the Word

This is the kind of work week I had:

I feel like Vita looks, sans accessories. (I’ll totally do rhinestones, but I won’t do pink.)

Actually, Vita probably had a better week than I did: she acquired her grail. She finally caught the chipmunk living under the deck! She didn’t know what to do with him after she caught him, though, other than toss him up in the air several times until he limped off, presumably into the talons of one of our resident hawks. 

I wasn’t home when this incident occurred, unfortunately, to confirm any of those details. But she was strutting around the house yesterday like she had bought a Decorator with a cheap Buy It Now on eBay.

One other thing did brighten the week, or the end of it, was this little tidbit:

http://www.breyerhorses.com/npod_small

A Ninja Pit of Death t-shirt? On the Breyer web site? Well, I be gobsmacked.

Sometimes you study the history. Sometimes you are the history. Somewhere in the archives of Blab, I created the "Ninja Pit of Death" meme. I just thought it was a funny play on words that had a bit of truth in it. I was never expecting it to turn into a t-shirt on the Breyer web site.

I’m not expecting any compensation for it, just taking a little credit/blame. For historical purposes, you know.

(They also brought back the classic "I’ll stop collecting when I’m dead" tee, too.)

Since I’m still not fully up to speed, here’s another picture from the recent archive stash. Recognize him?

I’m guessing no, for at least 90 percent of you; he’s mentioned only in passing in Nancy Atkinson Young’s Breyer Mold & Models. This particular Chestnut Proud Arabian Stallion was one of those Marney Mystery Runs, distributed - according to the owner - at the Mississippi Valley Live Show in Barrington, Illinois in July of 1984.

His color is closer to the classic "Cinnamon" Chestnuts most prevalent on contemporary Stablemates, and not the slightly later reddish/orange Flaxen Chestnuts.

I had heard about him previously, and due to the quality and nature of the information, had more or less accepted the fact that he wasn't just a rumor. It wasn’t until I saw these photos (I have a full set of show pix!) that I finally saw one for myself.

Unlike other Marney Mystery Runs, this fellow is somewhat more obscure. He’s not quite as flashy or notorious as some of the others - like the Dapple Gray Man o’ War - nor have any of the five pieces in the run (that I know of) been up for sale. He’s just similar enough to later Regular Runs and Special Runs of this model that it’s also possible that one or two might have slipped under the hobby radar as mere variations.

(Programming Note: I will be home all weekend, but mostly offline, to take care of some "real-world" business.)

Harlequin

Well, at least I was somewhere in the ballpark: the fourth Vintage Club release is a Proud Arabian Stallion in Gloss Gray Appaloosa, named Harlequin.

Not exactly what I was expecting, but still cool. And it does look like they absolutely nailed the color this time, with darker gray (not black) legs, and black hooves. The smaller, finer spotting the earliest Gray Appaloosas were known for is also present, a nicely observed point. I don’t have either of the Old Molds (ha!) but I do have a Fighting Stallion of the same vintage with those same sort of spots:

Isn’t he neat? Most Gray Appaloosa Fighters have bigger, sparser and more random spotting patterns, so when of my roommates at an earlier BreyerFest pulled him out of her sales stash, I just had to snag him. He was a little bit pricey (back when) but I thought then - and still do - that he was worth the splurge.

(BTW, it was one of my better roommate years - even if we did break a chair and wasted a lot of toothpaste. And the gossip that year! Good times!)

You see a lot of variation on that release’s paint job, but the fine speckling is definitely on the scarcer side. It’s not something you even see in any of the earliest Breyer ephemera, either, including the 1961 insert pages.

They did get one little detail on Harlequin wrong, though: he has eyewhites, and most Gray Appaloosas back then didn’t. They do show up from time to time - I’ve seen a couple of the Appaloosa Mustangs sporting ‘em - but it’s very unusual, and the prices I’ve seen on those pieces tend to reflect that.

(You know, Reeves, you could solve most of this little issues if you just put me on retainer. A conference call once a month and a test color or two a year? That’d work for me.)

But man, what is it with all of the snarky, backhanded dumping on the Salt and Pepper sets that’s cropping up in the online commentary all of a sudden? The reaction to the set was mostly positive when it came out, aside from the silly argument over color, but now the grouchiness is starting to dominate. Weird.

Must be the change of seasons; everyone at work was on the cranky side, too, even the usually more even-tempered folks. (Me? Too tired to muster up rage about anything. I am so looking forward to my day off on Saturday!)

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.

Dwelling on the Pit, Pt. II

Spent the day yesterday trying to plow through the last crunchy bits of the paperwork; alas, I was hampered by a broken printer and a shortage of binders. (I should just start buying binders by the box, I swear.) I can’t believe some of the stuff I found this year - reference material for Melbaware? The show program for the Second Eastern Regional Congress? Bumper stickers from IMHCC? Wow. I can only imagine how much more I could have found if I really had the time to shop.

Let’s go back to the Pit!

I didn’t hear about THAT video - the narrated one of the shenanigans going on before, during and after the Pit - until late Friday night, and I wasn’t in any mood to watch it. I’m still not, especially if the allegations about the video makers being line cutters themselves are true. (I wouldn’t know: I have a dreadful memory for faces.) I was there, and I know what happened. And my reality is probably significantly different than the snarky, blasé one portrayed in the video.

I didn’t hear about THAT foal - the Palomino Appaloosa Proud Arabian Foal - until Friday night, either. By the time I had fought my way to the Fun Foal section of the Pit, all that was left was the Pintaloosa Standing Stock Horse Foal, and I was happy to get even him.

I have heard different reports about just how many of these Proud Arabian Foals there were - anywhere from 8 to 25. I didn’t see them in the first place, so I can’t confirm either the higher or lower end of the estimate. A couple people have brought up the notion that this might have been a "surprise" designed for the early risers; if so, that might explain what last year’s Gloss Summer Solstices were about - right down to the small, undefinable quantity.

(Isn’t it interesting that the Gloss Summer Solstices that were so casually dismissed as "not all that cool" last year are now a hot item? Such fickle creatures, hobbyists.)

If this is true, it’s very nice of them, but also potentially quite dangerous; one friend of mine who showed up at 4 a.m. panicked a bit over missing the PAF, and is contemplating getting up even earlier next year. Reeves, if you really are going to do this "Early Riser Special" thing, you better darn well institute the Estate Sale numbering system next year, because someone will get hurt. I saw a fight break out this year, over what I think was the last Escondido (I didn’t want to get too close to find out what it was, exactly.) I hate to imagine what would happen if they dumped something like a couple dozen Gloss Honey Bay Alborozos in the mix.

I certainly don’t think that he’s worth the high three-figure or low four-figure price tag hobbyists are asking (and apparently getting!) for him right now. I sold a test color PAF last year in the $400-500 range, which would seem a little more sensible price range for him.

But ZOMG! It’s a PAF! One of the few molds beneath the hobby’s collective contempt! Whatever. It’s getting filed in the same never-gonna-have-it list as all those other uber-rare Glosses and SRs I can’t possibly afford. (Or would even be willing to pay for, if I could.)

Like the FEI World Cup Strapless.

I didn’t find out about the Straplesses until much later, either. I think of all the models I missed out on, this one annoyed me the most - not because I didn’t see it (a situation I would have been more acceptable to me, if so) but because of the way they were distributed in the Pit.

They were simply handed out, by Breyer employees. It was either randomly, or to people they thought deserved one, without the fuss or having to find or fight over it. I guess I was neither random nor deserving enough.

I had heard of this happening in a previous year: a random shopper just being handed this random treasure. I thought maybe that was an Urban Legend, but nope, it really did happen this year: I got to talk to one of those gifted persons. (An interesting story I could tell you more about - in private. Yeah, one of those kind of stories.)

It wasn’t really a gift - the giftee still had to pay $300 for it, but still a bargain. I would have paid it.

And now the story about my hat.

Well, either sometime during my first or second trip in the Pit on Friday, I lost my hat. I didn’t notice that my infamous chapeau - the one illustrated in my avatar - was missing until much later in the day. I was oddly unconcerned about its disappearance: I figured I’d find it on Saturday, either in the Lost and Found, or via a friend or acquaintance. It’s gone missing before, and always makes it back to me.

So I’m in the Pit again on Saturday, picking up a second Radar for a friend of mine, and there’s my hat, casually perched on top of the stacks of Dealer Catalogs, near the checkout. I put it back on my head, and continued shopping. A short time later, a Strapless-free Breyer employee roaming the Pit stops me and mentions the hat. "We were going to take it to lost and found, but we figured you’d be coming back here anyway."

Gee, umm, thanks? Glad y’all know me so well, I think. (Now, wouldn’t happen to have a stray Chestnut Trakehner lying around you could gift me for a Benjamin or two, would ya? Didn’t think so.)

Running Out of Time

So tired! It’s not just the puppy, either - in addition to all the BreyerFest preparations, they’ve scheduled me with double shifts this week at work. I appreciate the moolah, but the lack of sleep is becoming a problem. The Little One had a little accident in the house yesterday while I was puppysitting, because I fell asleep almost literally the moment I sat down.

(Hey, it’s a really, really comfy chair. Sometimes I fall asleep in it even when I’m not exhausted.)

I also had to rewrite a portion of the partially printed Samplers because of what I found at the flea market on Sunday. Here’s a picture:


I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version of the story next week, once I’m settled in the HIN. Or you can read the full story in the Sampler.

One of the other things I found at the market this week: another slightly obscure piece of reference material. It’s a promotional brochure from the International Arabian Horse Association, extolling the awesomeness of Arabian Horses.


I used to love these sorts of things when I was in elementary school. When I discovered that you could get free stuff if you wrote to various organizations, I spent a big chunk of my allowance on stamps writing to every single breed association listed in the back of the All-Breed issue of Western Horseman. Nothing is more thrilling than a big fat envelope in the mailbox with your name on it!

I compiled all this free stuff into huge multimedia scrapbooks, with stickers, cutouts, envelopes, glitter and other embellishments - several decades before it was the cool thing to do. I carried them around me everywhere: even then, I wore my weirdness openly. I still have them, carefully stored in archival boxes in the closet, fragile artifacts of a compulsively creative childhood.

I can’t recall if I got anything from the IAHA, though. I don’t think so, but I’m in no condition right now to plow through some of my most treasured possessions to be sure. I’m pretty sure if they did, this wasn’t one of the pieces they sent me. The illustration on the cover, by Gladys Brown Edwards, should tell the story why I would have remembered: it’s one of the main references Chris Hess used to create the Proud Arabian Stallion!


Did Hess work from this brochure specifically, or was it among other reference materials he picked up along the way?

He did take a few liberties, not out of a lack of sculpting prowess, but probably to make the mold a little sturdier as a plaything, and more practical for production. Lots of hobbyists bag on the Proud Arabian Stallion, but outside of the Maureen Love-based Arabians, there aren’t any Breyer Arabians that escape that ire.

More Loose Ends

Have you seen the train wreck that is today’s Daily Breyer entry on the Facebook page? Holy cow, that’s bad! They’ve had some doozies before, but I this one’s so wrong, it’s not even wrong. It’s wrong in a way that should win a prize for wrongness.

The Old Molds were not introduced until 1958, and the Stallion - who became the Family Arabian Stallion - didn’t arrive on the scene until (probably) 1959. Except that Saturday Night Fever pictured on Breyer’s Facebook page is actually the Proud Arabian Stallion, not a Family Arabian Stallion. And the PAS wasn’t officially released until 1971.

Seriously, how do you manage to confuse the Proud Arabian Stallion with the Family Arabian Stallion? Even my Mother can tell the difference, and her only involvement in the hobby is pretending not to dust my collection when I’m in Kentucky for ‘Fest!

I know in the grand scheme of things these details don’t matter that much, but researching the details of Breyer History is what I do in the hobby and for the hobby. It’s upsetting to see how little the company I research seems to care about getting its own history right.

There, I feel better now. Every once and a while you’ve got to get a rant out of your system, you know?

My schedule for the next couple of weeks looks a little rough, so I’ll spend the rest of my post today tying up some loose ends.

The Woodgrain Donkey pics in the surprisingly robust Donkey discussion thread are duly noted. I’ll probably categorize it as a Test, or part of a small SR of the Ranchcraft type. I still think a lot of hobbyists may be confusing sightings of the Red Mill Donkey for the Woodgrain one, though. I don’t know how rare the Red Mill Donkey is, but it’s certainly less so than a Breyer Woodgrain Donkey would be.

I also live by the motto "Trust, but verify." I’ve had way too many experiences with folks swearing that they heard, or saw, or owned something that turned out not to be what they thought it was. It’s a big problem, especially in the realm of Glossies, Chalkies and Tests; anything questionable of that nature needs an in-person inspection before I’m comfortable in declaring it authentic.

Yes, I am aware of the eBay auctions with the dumbbell stickers - and the insane prices that went with them! The nature and limited release of these stickers means that they’ll always be numerically rare, but $400 rare? I don’t know how long that price point will be sustainable. And I thought the $25 I spent on mine back in the 1990s was a bit high.

A lot of foofah was made on Blab over a report that a couple of Web Specials (Riley, and Summer Solstice) turned up at a hardware store somewhere in the Minnesota, at a slightly discounted price.

The Sales Rep in question probably had some discretion of throwing in some choice items from the warehouse to help close this particular deal; instead of older regular runs or special runs with larger piece counts, they just happened to be Web Specials. This sort of thing happens way more often than most hobbyists realize. Hobbyists don’t pay much attention when the items in question are more common; if they notice them at all, they just write them off as old store stock, and walk on by.

If they still have Summer Solstices and Rileys come June, I think the remainders will end up in the NPOD. Along with the remainder of the Dealer Special Autumns, Medalist Ponies, and whatever "gotta have it" model turns up between now and then. And who knows - maybe the leftover LSE Frankensteeds, too. (From what I’ve read, all of the LSE participants had a chance to buy one, and passed them by; seems only right that the rest of us mere mortals have a chance.)

Toe to Toe

Hmm. Those Summer Solstices are nice. And me with a decent sized check coming this week. Oh, the temptation! I really need to pay off the credit card bill first, though. And fix my teeth. And get new glasses. I could use some new shoes, too, come to think of it. Darn you, life, for getting in the way!

Another short one tonight: tonight's gripe is about the whining and carping about the Proud Arabian Mare mold. To listen to the neighsayers, you'd think the poor mold was little more than a misshapen blob with a slight resemblance to a horse.

Get over yourself. It's a slightly bent leg, not a fifth one:


The degree of bend on the newer Proud Arabian Mares varies from Paso-like paddling to near perpendicularity. Here's a slightly blurry but still legible front end shot of my J.C. Penney's XMAS SR Solid Bay with stripe, ca. 1983. I bought her from a very reputable collector, so I know there was no funny business involved:


I've gotten conflicting stories as to what was wrong or missing from the original Mare's mold when they decided to bring her back. Was it half the mold, part of the mold, or just the cooling boards? I don't know.

The most common explanation I received back in the day was that the cooling board fixtures were missing. These fixtures are essentially metal "braces" that freshly molded parts are placed in to minimize warping and twisting while the plastic is cooling. You can see pictures of some of these fixtures on page 9 of Marney Walerius's Breyer Models:


This bending occurs because Tenite is a semi-synthetic plastic, and is subject to even minor changes in the environment. The heat, the humidity, the quality of the plastic, the quantity of regrind in the plastic, what the mold operator had for dinner the night before can affect the degree of warpage.

Another potential source of the problem is the original source material: the large H-R Zara. As reported in Nancy Young's classic tome Breyer Molds & Models, some Zaras also experience the toeing out phenomenon. In reworking or recasting whatever parts were necessary from the H-R original, the flaw inherent in the Zara mold as it existed back in the early 1970s may have been passed on to her descendant, the Proud Arabian Mare.

I've gotten some flack from a few hobbyists upset with the suggestion that Hagen-Renaker or Maureen Love were ever capable of mistakes - it just had to be Breyer themselves who screwed up something of incomparable beauty! (Those idiots!)

A lot of hobbyists are all too quick to attribute errors - intentional or otherwise - to malice. A mistake or flaw isn't simply a mistake or a flaw, it's just gotta be deliberate ignorance or incompetence!

Nonsense. Mistakes happen. They just do. It isn't incompetence, it's the law of averages at work. Even the most talented, most competence people in the universe make mistakes. Perfection is not achievable. And what would be the whole point of having horse shows if it was?

The Trouble With Marney

All tests are not equal: I’m still wrestling with the various definitions and categories of tests and how to best present the subject to you. The biggest problem is overlap; some models can fall into more than one of my categories, and I’m not entirely comfortable with that, for a variety of reasons I won’t go into today.

Nothing illustrates this problem better than the Palomino PAM that I discussed earlier. A few other hobbyists have informed me of the existence of other Palomino PAMs; I don’t doubt their authenticity. That's why I alluded to the possibility of others existing, before: the whole problem with Marney and the models that passed through her hands is that we still can't - and may never fully be able to - know what she had, what she did, or even begin to classify them properly.

First of all, I think we should add some nuance to our definitions, and distinguish the difference between a test color and a test run. A test color is a model with a unique (or nearly unique) paint job. A test run, on the other hand, consists of a small group of identically painted models: the quantity is usually in the single digits (5 to 7 are the most common quantities I hear about.) There may be some small variation in the run - color a little lighter or darker, or markings might vary a bit - but they are basically the same.

Marney distributed a lot of these small test runs in the 1970s and early 1980s. They were either sold directly to other hobbyists, or distributed as prizes at live shows, given away as gifts, etc. Nancy Young described a few of the more famous of these test runs in her book Breyer Molds & Models, including the Traditional Dapple Gray Man o’ War and the Shaded Dapple Gray Cantering Welsh Pony. (The Black Adios she mentions is another thing, and another topic altogether!) I have documentation for at least a couple more, including this heartbreaker from Marney’s album:


(The Appaloosa Performance Horse Proud Arabian Stallion - five pieces reputedly exist.)

Marney didn’t merely have access to the factory in Chicago, and whatever goodies it contained, she also had access to the painting booths and the painting equipment. While some of the models she acquired, either for her own collection or to sell, were actually test colors or test runs - done on behest of the management to test paint jobs, painting techniques, or to generate orders in advance of production - others were not.

Are these particular models actual test runs, or mini-special runs that Marney concocted herself? Honestly, it’s hard to tell. Marney passed away in 1992, and other than her photo album and a few letters, the only information I have comes from the memories of other hobbyists - and memory is not always reliable, especially after so many years have passed.

It’s possible that the Palomino PAM may have been a small test run, rather than a unique test color. These various Palomino PAMs could also simply be random models Marney made up over the years. Or a mini SR she made for whatever reason. It’s really hard to say at this point, until more evidence surfaces.

(Needless to say, if you have any paper documentation you'd be willing to share, let me know!)

Urban Legend: The Palomino Old Mold Mare

Here’s the first installment of something I hope becomes a semi-regular feature: Breyer Urban Legends!

There’s always been a lot of information of dubious quality circulating in the world of Breyer model horse history. This is due to a lack of existing documentation, the sometimes less-than-stellar quality of material published (especially online), and the utter hugeness of the topic (hundreds of models, some in dozens of colors, and some of those colors with multiple variations and releases!)

In the absence of reliable or consistent information, legends grow. And boy, there are a lot of them. I wince at some of the want lists I see published on MH$P, full of models that are little more than artifacts of bad research, rumor and wishful thinking. Perhaps this Urban Legend feature will help some of you cross off a few unattainable things from those want lists.

I won’t even try to cover the ones I don’t have any reliable information on; where I have an opinion stand in for a fact (usually in order to make a plausible argument or deduction,) I’ll try to make that clear, too.

Since we were all abuzz about the Old Mold Mare this week, the topic of my first Breyer Urban Legend seemed pretty obvious: the Gloss Palomino Old Mold Mare!

The original Old Mold Mare and Foal were made in four colors. In ascending order of rarity, they would be Alabaster, Bay, Gray Appaloosa and Woodgrain. (Alabasters are relatively easy to find; Woodgrains, not so much.)

It was assumed, back in the dark days of Breyer History research, that the Old Mold Mare and Foal came in the same assortment of colors that the Family Arabian Mare and Foal did. They were, after all, their replacements, right? Marney Walerius (the original Breyer history diva) thought so, and listed them in her reference guide published in early 1992. The fact that nobody had one in their collection, or had found any pictures or documentation of them - well, that just meant they were rare. Really, really rare.

Now we know better: the Palomino and Charcoal weren’t even introduced until 1961 - well after the mare and foal were switched over to their Family Arabian versions. There might have been a test color or two made back then - the Western Horse and Pony were solid sellers in gloss palomino throughout the 1950s, so it was in their repertoire. But there’s no known physical evidence that the Old Mold Mare or her Foal were ever formally released in that color.

But as is almost always the case with Breyer history, the story isn't quite that simple.

In the early 1970s, when Breyer was considering bringing back the Old Mold Mare and Foal as companions to the newly introduced Proud Arabian Stallion, there was at least one test color Gloss Palomino Proud Arabian Mare made. Here’s the picture I have, from Marney Walerius’s photo album:


(No, I don’t know her current owner or whereabouts. Sorry!)

There are test color reproductions of other Old Mold colors on the newly retooled mare in this album - Alabaster, Bay and Gray Appaloosa, at least - so I’m guessing that she was created to duplicate another member of the assumed pantheon. Instead of replicating an actual production piece, however, they ended up creating a legend.

It’s possible a few others were made - test colors from that era were rarely unique. (There’s another future debunkable legend!) And Marney had almost free rein to paint whatever she wanted in the Chicago factory until the move to New Jersey in the 1980s, so she could have conceivably created more of the pretty little lady pictured above. I have no concrete evidence one way or another, though.

And as for how we’d define the models Marney made on her own, for her own devices - true tests, mini-SRs, factory customs, or something else? That’s another very lengthy topic entirely.

Three Old Ladies

Since the topic has come up over the weekend, let’s have a little primer on the differences between the Family Arabian Mare, the Old Mold/Proud Arabian Mare, and the elusive In-Between Mare.

As the recent auction of an Old Mold Appaloosa Mare illustrated, this is no quibbling point of trivia for history nerds: this is a case where ignorance could have devastating consequences.

How so?

You can hook yourself up with a pretty, minty Gray Appaloosa Family Mare for a twenty (and maybe get some change back for your trouble); an Old Mold Appaloosa Mare might set you back about 100 twenties, and if you’re lucky she might not need that much restoration to make her presentable.

And an In-Between Mare? Try 250 twenties - yes, even in THIS economy. (You could conceivably knock off a couple hundred if she were body quality. But it’s not likely.)

With a value spread like that, is it any wonder why some of us go ballistic when some collectors so casually confuse them?

The easiest, simplest, most foolproof method of telling them apart is the tail. The differences aren’t subtle, either, as my illustration shows: the Old Mold/Proud Arabian Mare’s tail attached to her leg at the hock; the In-Between Mare’s tail skirts her body and flips out at the tip; and the Family Mare’s tail is relatively straight and otherwise unattached to any other part of her anatomy.


(For the record, I do not own the Woodgrain IBM illustrated: it’s a picture from my reference files. If I had one, trust me, y’all would know!)

If you know nothing else about Breyer History or trivia, the one thing you should know is how to tell these three ladies apart: it literally could mean the difference between buying lunch for two, or making your house payment - for two months! (Or more, depending on your local housing market.)