Gwendolyn

I have a million and one things to do today so I’ll be ready to go when I get up tomorrow morning to drive the two or so hours to get to the live show. I’m not in terrible shape – certainly better than the last show I tanked at – but I’m freaking out a little bit because it’s just far enough away that there’s no turning back once I hit the road. 

Here’s one of the ones I’m leaving behind, incidentally. My Gwendolyn:

She was a 2005 BreyerFest Special Run, and a pretty limited one at that, even in those less-crowded times: they only made 550 pieces of her! I got super-duper lucky and managed to snag one of the last ones in my ticket time that year.

The other models I got that year included the Moody Andalusian Galahad – who was way more fabulous in person than his pictures suggested – and the Isabel & Chloe Unicorn set, which was also cuter than I imagined them to be. 

I wasn’t attracted to the Gwendolyn because of her piece count – the lowest of all the Special Runs offered that year – but because I thought she was the prettiest. When I saw what her piece count was, I did get a bit nervous. Hobbyists are hobbyists, you know...

I would have been fine with the Belgian Arthur – and I’ve even priced them occasionally, because his paint job is really well-shaded – but I’ve never had the gumption to pull the wallet out and actually pay up.

That was a bad year for Reeves in terms of piece counts: they miscalculated the demand for the plastic Specials in favor of the Porcelain Romantico. There were a lot of unhappy campers at the end of the lines that weekend.

The reason Gwendolyn got the cut from the showstring was because she’s just every so slightly yellowed, and the experience of my also very faintly yellowed Premier Club Marwari finishing second – in BREED!!! – to an Old Timer at the last show still stings. 

I mean, you could make an argument for the placement in terms of Collectibility, but Breed? Old Timer? Judges, man....

There Is Always Hope, I Guess

At first I was going to opt out of the Collector’s Club Appreciation Event because I have enough inventory issues of my own, thank you very much, but I found some Stablemate-y things I didn’t already have, so the order is now just sitting there, waiting for me to push the darn button.

(LOL they just sent me a “don’t forget your order!” notice.)

I kind of wanted an Adamek, but I’d rather handpick one than depend on the luck of the draw. There’s just something about that shade of Red Bay that I find really appealing, but I want to make sure when I get one, he’s absolutely “the guy.” If they have a bunch of them in the NPOD this year, I am definitely spending some time sorting through them. 

I’ve been looking a lot at the Classic Standing Morgan Fairfax in that regard, too – the current release is also in a nice Red Bay, but none of the ones I’ve seen in person have told me that they want to come home with me. I was kind of hoping he’d be my first on that mold, since all the original Silver Bays I found here had masking issues, and the Black one in the current Spanish Mustang Family does nothing for me, which is weird because you know rarely pass a Black Morgan by!

Anyway, that’s where I am at right now. Other than having kind of dark fantasies about what I want to do to the chipmunks in my garden. (Why do I even bother planting beans or sunflowers anymore? How does anyone grow these things where chipmunks even exist?)

In other news, they made the Exclusive Event news officially public, though they’re still being coy about when the entry window and drawing will be. I’m not trying to get my hopes up. Like the Web Specials nowadays, a lot of hobbyists will enter strictly for the financial windfall the models bring, and they tend to outnumber the folks who want to go because they want to attend the actual event. 

(Barbecue and Polo Ponies? Dang it Reeves, stop teasing me like that!)

The models are a nice bonus, no doubt, but most of the models from the recent events haven’t quite caught my attention as much as the Event Models like Phantom Face, Redmond (sigh), and Bondi. The Event Models used to be at least… kind of attainable before the market went insane? Heck, I remember getting to handpick a Like Thunder in the NPOD because everyone else was looking for something “better”! 

(Okay, I also wouldn’t turn down a Sonorah, either. Darn elusive Cremellos…)

I’ll still try to bank a couple of days of personal time from work just in case lightning strikes and I actually get picked. 

Nikolas

Reeves threw us a curveball this time around with next year’s Celebration Horse: instead of a Draft or Warmblood on an existing mold – as many of us were expecting – we’re getting a new German Riding Pony mold by Brigitte Eberl!

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/breyerfest-blog/our-2022-celebration-horse

The prototype for Nikolas is very reminiscent of the 2009 BreyerFest Special Run Buttercream, on the Idocus mold. That release initially met with a cool reception, but has only grown in popularity in more recent years. 

And also, a little bit, like the Classics Buckskin Duchess released as a “Thoroughbred Cross” in 2006 through 2008. From personal experience she appears to be one of the tougher Duchesses to find, at least in good condition.

New mold introductions are nothing new for BreyerFest; the first was the Celebration Horse Rejoice in 1998, and one of the best known is (of course!) Eberl’s legendary Alborozo in 2008. 

It has been a few years since we’ve gotten an entirely new mold for the Celebration Horse, but it makes perfect sense that they’d enlist Brigitte Eberl to bring it to us. 

(I hope this means that we’ll get a Brigitte Eberl seminar, yes? In person, or at least online? Because I want to pencil that in as one of my activities if that’s the case.)

My only minor concern at this point is that there is definitely going to be some grumbling about the size this mold: as is the case with the paint, some hobbyists put a lot of weight into the weight of the materials used to make it. 

In this case, the fact that my Internet time is very limited right now is a blessing: not that I don’t think there’s some merit in discussing the issue, but now is just not a good time for me to engage in it.  

More stuff has arrived at my door – including Gingerbread! – but the boxes will have to remain unopened until the weekend. I did get a chance to open my Dahlia and she… was unsurprising. But more about all that next time.  

Namaste!

And here’s our BreyerFest Decorator, Namaste:

I love the base color – a pearly pale Gloss Palomino similar to the 2008 Christmas Goffert Noelle – and the mehndi designs themselves are beautifully executed and complement the mold’s contours. Nice job, Lauren!

I figured we’d get a model with some mehndi tattoo designs, but I thought it’d be a Classic, and sold in the Pop-Up Store/Tent of Despair – like the Bandana-themed Broncos from 2013.

Rejoice is of the few molds that’s been made into a Celebration Horse twice: 1998’s original Rejoice, and slightly modified (with the addition of “boy bits”) as 2010’s All Glory. She also appeared as a Ticket Special in 2005, as the scarce and lovely Gwendolyn.

(The other Celebration Horse two-timer is Smart Chic Olena: 2006’s Joker, and 2013’s Smart and Shiney.)

Rejoice was last seen as a part of the 2014 Warehouse Reissue craziness, with the Buckskin Madison Avenue being reissued as a “National Show Horse”. The last true/original Production Run was in 2012 for the Passage to the Pacific Exclusive Event Like Thunder (an underrated Special Run, in my opinion).

The Rejoice mold is more popular with younger collectors than old, and who seem to be a little less bothered by her tipsy ways. I haven’t had much problem with that issue either – both my Gwendolyn and my Like Thunder have been display regulars for quite some time here, without accident or injury.

Her tail is a bit goofy, but as someone with hair issues myself, I am not unsympathetic to others also having a bad hair day.

Alas, I decided late last week that – barring extra tickets that mysteriously appear in the mail or get slipped under my door at the hotel – it’s going to be a one-ticket year. I was pretty circumspect with the spending money last year, and the surplus I came home with sure came in handy, especially when Chasing the Chesapeake rolled around.

Kaalee is a must, but Vahana is also gorgeous, and Darjeeling is so shiny and spotty... and we still have a couple more Specials to be revealed! We still have yet to see the One-Day Stablemates, the Surprise Model, the second Raffle Model, and the rest of the items for the Pop-Up Store, too.

Oh, goodness.

Desirability is Weird

I just spent about an hour on the phone with Paypal trying to resolve some crazy issue that apparently came up today. I think it’s fixed, but you know, it’s Paypal. So I’m trying real hard to think happy thoughts right now, in lieu of eating massive amounts of ice cream.

This model’s presence in my office definitely helps:

The 2012 Passage to the Pacific SR Like Thunder, on the Rejoice mold. It’s another Early Friday find, and one of my favorites this year.

I thought the model was pretty enough in pictures, and since I have the start of a nice collection of Rejoices going here, I thought I’d take a chance on one. When I opened it up a few days ago (finally, I know) I was surprised and delighted at how captivated I was by this model. Crisp masking, delicate shading, clean and precise hoof striping: there’s lots to love here.

There’s going to be some shuffling in the display collection to keep this beauty out in the open.

I’ve noticed that at least one person is claiming that the Like Thunders found in the NPOD were Samples, It’s possible that one or two Samples might have been mixed in the boxes too; my Sample Kiowa was found mixed into a box of standard issue Kiowas. But all indications I see - backstamps and bag labels - point to most if not all of them being the unsold/unclaimed leftovers, instead. It took a while for all of them to find happier homes; there were several to be had, and they were priced around (or a touch higher) than current market value.

We’re so used to assuming that all of these Exclusive Events are going to sell out that we sometimes forget that at least one didn’t.

It did seem weird to me that these models - a Special Run of a mere 200 pieces - floated around the sales area for a while, while Store Specials three to four times that number in quantity (or more) were being so fiercely fought over. Sure, the price differential had something to do with it, and there’s the thrill of the new (with the Novelisto D being a Brishen/Laredo mashup). And Silver Filigree driving collectors mad in general.

(Would you believe I still haven’t actually seen a Silver Filigree Misty in person yet? Sigh.)

Desirability is such an odd thing.

Rejoice is also a mold that’s a bit of an acquired taste. Her proportions are a little cartoonish, and that skinny tail of hers bends and breaks easily, causing tipping issues. When it comes to more recent Gaited molds, I wouldn't say that hobbyists actively dislike it, they simply happen to prefer the Clock Saddlebred, or the various Stablemates more.

It is worth noting, though, that the Madison Avenue (the Buckskin Rejoice) seemed to be one of the better-selling Reissues at BreyerFest this year; it is also possible that they had fewer to sell, and couldn’t restock. I didn't notice because I spent most of my time in the Reissue selection of the store distracted by those magnificently shaded Smokies. I still don’t know how one DIDN’T come home with me.

Another weekend off coming up, so a few more posts coming sooner, rather than later.

More Housecleaning

Time for a little housecleaning.

I had to pitch a couple of bodies in the trash yesterday. I hate to throw out anything, but it wasn’t a total loss: I did learn a lot from my experimentations. That’s sort of the whole point of experimenting, right? You’re not going to learn anything if you don’t open yourself up to the possibility of failing.

My "October Surprise" has nothing to do with the Passage to the Pacific thing. Y’all realize I live in Michigan and, by the conventional standards of measure, am poor? And that I just laid out a fair bit of change to get my car repaired?

There’s a photo of the event horse "Like Thunder" on the Breyer web site now, and it’s quite nice. Unlike a lot of the kvetchers, though, I prefer the Rejoice mold to the Clock Saddlebred. It’s still not going to motivate me to buy a ticket at the last minute. I need more horses going out, not coming in.

Speaking of, I managed to avoid the charms of that pretty Bear at Tuesday Morning this week. Whew.

Looks like the Gloss Zenyatta Foals may be sold out; if so, they went a little quicker than I expected, but I also suspect some speculating going on. I already see it on the Mid-States Specials, which I find a little strange. I know Roxy’s popularity’s been on the rise - especially with the new mane she got at BreyerFest - but the Mid-States SRs have typically averaged around 3000 pieces, more than enough to go around.

My Harlequin (whom I have dubbed "Mista J") arrived a couple of days ago, and (being the contrarian, again) I am actually rather unimpressed with him:

His hooves aren’t black, and the spots are, frankly, a little weird and unrandom. The speckling in his gray areas is untypical of vintage gray appaloosas, and dang it, his face isn’t bald enough.

The eyewhites bug me, too, but that's already been discussed.

He’s not going anywhere, though. I am not one of those people who joins clubs just to skim off any "good stuff".  Because it’s all good - chocolate is still chocolate, regardless of whether it’s Hershey or Callebaut.

(Reeves persons who might be reading: my consultation offer still stands.)

As an art historian (I have a degree, really I do!) I’ve been keeping up with the story of the "Flea Market" Renoir, which now appears to have been stolen:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/flea-market-renoir-was-allegedly-stolen-from-baltimore-museum-of-art/2012/09/27/193d6162-08bd-11e2-a10c-fa5a255a9258_story.html

Here’s a quote from the story linked above that piqued my interest:

The Virginia woman, who wants to remain anonymous, bought the landscape in 2010 for $7 in a box with a doll and a plastic cow. She stashed the box for nearly two years before her mother suggested that the painting might be a real Renoir.

Did you see that - and think what I was thinking? Was that a Breyer Cow in that box?

Dang. How come I’ve never found lost Impressionist masters at the bottom of my flea market box lots?

I can just imagine what would have happened, though, if I had bought said box home with me. Mom would have appropriated the painting - both the picture, and the frame being very much to her taste. I would have insisted on taking it to the DIA or DuMouchelles for an appraisal, then the whole "OMG it might have been stolen" part would have come out, and then Mom would be all ticked off at me because I couldn’t let a sleeping dog lie…

Still would have been worth the trouble, though. Seven dollars for a Breyer Cow - even a beat up, body quality Holstein - is a good price.

GaGa a Go Go

Still recovering, still unpacking. It’s not that I bought all that much - I actually sold quite a bit, and managed to rein in my spending - it’s just that I picked up a nasty bit of something on the way back, in addition to nursing several blisters on my feet from the boots.

Yeah, I did it. I wore the boots. And a wig, and a sparkly cape with feathers: I was Lady GaGa for the Costume Contest. In spite of the blast-furnace heat, the creepy stares of dirty old men and Japanese tourists, and the fact that they made us parade around on the dirt floor of the arena, I rocked my way to the top, babes, taking home one of the ten Gloss All Glories awarded:


He’s not going anywhere, so don’t even ask. (Someone already did.) I earned that baby! I still can’t believe he’s mine. And I still can’t believe I actually did that. I blame the boots - or should I thank them? In a roundabout way, they’ve become one of my best flea market finds ever.

(No, I don’t have any pictures of myself in full costume, but I posed for several, so they’re out there. Maybe in the next issue of JAH, even.)

I didn’t score either raffle model, I washed out in the Look-a-Like Contest, and while I did okay in the Ninja Pit of Death, I missed the really good stuff, like the World Cup Strapless and the Palomino Appaloosa Proud Arabian Foals. (That’s what I get for the unpardonable sin of sleeping in until 5 a.m.!) I didn’t get a chance to do as much shopping as I would have liked, but more than I did last year. (I spent an awful lot of time staring at Appaloosa Performance Horses, for some reason; looks like they’re going to be my next fixation.)

My roommates were all uniformly excellent, and we got along fabulously. No complaints, except for the hotel’s chronic towel shortage. (Douglas Adams’s advice is as relevant as ever: when traveling, always bring a towel.) It might have been one of the best BreyerFests ever for me, honestly. I can’t recall having that much fun in a long time.

And to all the naysayers: the All Glory model doesn’t look anything like Naranda. The color varied on them from a dark chocolate (like my Matte) to a lighter Golden (like my Gloss), all of them well-shaded and detailed. His anatomical "enhancements" did look more like a certain part of the female anatomy than the male one, but that’s a minor (and very amusing) quibble.

William Shatner showing up on Sunday was also pretty awesome. I had heard the rumor the night before, and had my camera ready, but I spazzed out and dropped the camera. I got a few blurry distance shots, but no good close up shots of the Shat. I’ll just have to be content with actually having been there when ‘Fest met Trek.

There’s much more to the story, but I really need to continue catching up on my sleep; more BreyerFest news and gossip tomorrow.

Rejoice, and my Opinion of Opinions

The birthday was not unpleasant; I got a new paper shredder, some spendy cash, and dinner was topped off with Bumpy Cake. (A local delicacy - basically a giant chocolate cupcake with two layers of frosting. Add a scoop of chocolate ice cream to that, and you’ll be napping to bedtime. Which is exactly what I did.)

Then the mail came and my new driver’s license was in it. Gah! The makeup didn’t help. It’s not awful, per se, but I definitely don’t look well - I look more like a potential organ recipient than a potential organ donor.

Speaking of bad photographs, the usual nattering nabobs of negativity are ripping up the newest Connoisseur model - a homozygous bay pinto Rejoice, named "Pandora" - based on what’s clearly another awful photo job. How many times do we have to go over this, folks? Never judge a Breyer by its PR photo.

(And c’mon Reeves, you’re no better! It takes all of what - fifteen minutes? - to lighten, brighten and do a little minor color correction in Photoshop. I’m still trying to figure out what color Hollywood Glamour is supposed to be!)

I prefer the Rejoice mold to the Clock Saddlebred. It has nothing to do with anatomy or breed correctness: she’s more lively and animated than the Clock Saddlebred, who seems a little bit like a poseur to me. I think I have the same number of examples of each in my collection, though with BreyerFest (and maybe, the Connoisseur drawing) that may change soon.

One of my all-time favorite BreyerFest Specials is my lovely, lovely Gwendolyn, one of the more desirable specials for 2005. She was already at the top of my list before I arrived in Kentucky that year; her scarcity and striking looks made her many hobbyists’ top pick, as well. I got lucky and managed to snag one of the last ones in my line time:


I love her color - whatever it was supposed to be. I presume it was an attempt to create a shaded black with a metallic sheen, since it’s not too dissimilar to Summer Solstice, and the Bluegrass Bandit "Devil’s Food Cake," who were both advertised as such. Whether it’s actually realistic or not is not a concern of mine; she looks good in the paint job, and that’s all that matters to me.

As far as the "metallic" debate goes (which - good grief! - managed to ooze over into Haynet during Blab’s down time last week) I’m not a hater. Sure, there have been a few instances where I think Reeves has gone a bit overboard with the metallic paint, but I think that’s been the exception, not the rule. A healthy horse, well-groomed, does shimmer; a little touch of metallic in the paint actually adds to the realism.

I wish I could find the picture I took at a BreyerFest several years ago of the Haflinger Aristocrat TOF to illustrate my point; you’ll just have to trust my word and my memory here. He and a few other guest horses were walking past the crowds assembling near the tent for the raffle drawing; the light of the afternoon sun raked across his chestnut coat, and at that moment he looked just like a living, breathing Golden Charm. I remember turning to the person next to me and remarking "And some people say that Decorators aren’t realistic!"

From the commentary on the boards, though, you’d think that metallic paint was the Worst! Idea! Evar! in the history of model horsedom. I suspected that the reality was a little bit different, and probably more in line with my closer-to-neutral opinion.

Not because I think my opinion is always right, but because I don’t think Reeves would be doing something for so long if the models weren’t selling.

A poll on Blab from several months back backs me up on my opinion of the opinion. As I’ve explained before, I don’t normally hold most online polls in very high regard; they’re just too easy to manipulate. This poll was a little bit different: it only allowed a user a single vote, and the voter’s name was attached to it. You couldn’t "swing" the poll one way or another, unless you managed to persuade your compadres to vote likewise.

And the majority opinion? Most folks were fine with metallics, as long as they were done well, and within moderation.

So what explains the disparity?

I've struggled for half a day trying to come up with an elegant, inoffensive way of putting this, but the brain just isn't cooperating, so I'll just plow right to the heart of it, instead: just because a small handful of people - or even one person - expresses the same opinion over and over (and over and over ...) does not mean that their opinion represents the majority. One opinionated person expressing the same opinion twenty times is not the same as twenty different people expressing the same opinion, even if it takes up the same amount of bandwidth.

Boldly Going

Interesting choice of BreyerFest Celebration Horse this year, don’t you think? I was wondering how they’d bring the "Hollywood" theme: All Glory’s owner is William Shatner. Yeah, the one and only. Sweet!

The story so far is that only his wife Elizabeth will be on hand; man, could you imagine the autograph line that would ensue if he did? I don’t normally get my models autographed, but I’d make an exception here!

I’ve long considered the model horse community to be just one of the more peculiar offshoots of SF fandom. When I received my first issue of the MHSJ, back in September 1978, I was both delighted - and relieved - to discover that so many of my fellow hobbyists shared my other nerdy obsessions.

I was a bit too young to watch Trek in its original run, but my brother and I both avidly watched the animated series in the early 1970s. I received the complete series as a Christmas present a couple of years ago, and was surprised at how well it has held up. (The animation was cheesy - pure Filmation - but the stories were solid.)

This isn’t Reeves’s first encounter with Trek: remember the 2003 Best School Horse Contest Winner #1251 Commander Riker? He only happened to be named after TNG’s "Number One," but it still gave me a bit of a thrill to my hobbies collide unexpectedly.

Come to think of it, I did pick up a Commander Riker in the NPOD last year, among the boxed up warehouse leftovers. And he was in a leftover "Madison Avenue" box. You know, of the Rejoice mold. (Spooky!)

I’m not all that displeased with the mold choice; All Glory may be a Standardbred, technically, but in a photograph on the inside cover of the BreyerFest 2010 supplement he looks almost exactly like Rejoice mold. I think we’ve become a bit spoiled on the "new mold for BreyerFest" idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if a new mold shows up in the Tent Line SRs, or in the NPOD itself.