Mystery Surprise Rivet

The weather has turned cold and I am not a fan. (Vita is, but let’s not discuss what the BAD GIRL was up to today, shall we?)

What I am a fan of? Stablemates, obviously:

This isn’t even all of them now cluttering my office, just the ones I could fit on top of the printer. I am quite enamored of this fellow, the Bay Overo Rivet from the 2018 Mystery Horse Surprise Assortment:

You know I love the Rivet mold in general, but I hadn’t bothered to acquire this example until recently because what assortments I found locally were well-picked-over by the time I got to them. But I noticed an untouched box at our local Family Farm & Home store last week, and decided to scratch that particular itch.

(And yes, I did look for the Florentine chase piece, too – without success, obviously.)

I’ve said this before, but it’s really remarkable that Stablemates of this quality – especially compared to the very first Breyer Stablemates issued way back in 1975 – can be had for less than five dollars.

Sure, most of the newer molds aren’t as conformationally or anatomically correct or “showable” as the original Hagen-Renaker G1 releases, but in every other way these new Stablemates are superior. The seams are cleaner, the assortment of molds is crazy, and there’s a greater variety to the paint jobs – enhanced by clean and remarkably detailed masking that would have blown my ten-year-old mind back in 1975.

And this little guy isn’t even the “Chase” piece – just another “Regular Run” in a blind bag assortment!

The only thing that is a bummer about the current Stablemates boom we are going through? Being a completist is now (probably) out of the question.

Before I give in to my desire to hibernate, I do want to address a question in the comments from the previous post: yes, there is a Vintage Club Stablemate for this year. Who or what it is, on the other hand...