Palomino Hamilton

Since I am basically tapped out, and trying to end the year with as little credit card debt as possible, I passed on the Ambrose.

I had a feeling they were going to drop one more bombshell on us before the end of the year. I’m still sorting out my decidedly feelings about the whole thing, so I am going to talk about another topic I’ve put off for a while: the Palomino Hamilton.

If there’s one thing I’d like to say to the rest of the hobby that would actually get listened to and followed, it’d be: chill out about this Hamilton already, people.

If what happened with the first run of the Collector’s Club Appreciation Glossies is any indication, I think Reeves has the situation under control, and production will be calibrated accordingly: a little more of this, a little less of that, with the Pinto Smarty Jones chase piece remaining the rarest, regardless.

I am not going to worry about it until the middle of the year at least, and possibly not until after BreyerFest, when I presume the bulk of production on this particular Gambler’s Choice run will be concluded. And for those of your afeared that a substantial chunk of those will be going to Dremel-happy customizers, I wouldn’t count out another production item on the mold by the end of 2020, either. 

Seattle Soiree Special? Tractor Supply? Brick and Mortar? Any one of the multitudes of Holiday releases? It’s going to happen, people. Plenty of Hamiltons for everybody, whatever your hobby persuasion!

What I find kind of fascinating about this particular release of Hamilton is that he is an intentional callback to another iconic Breyer release: the #53 Palomino Five-Gaiter!

That release used to be such a cornerstone of many hobbyists’ collections in the 1970s and 1980s along with his brother, the #51 Albino, until the mold’s recent fall from favor.

What was interesting about the #53 Palomino was that it was made well into the “Matte Finish” era, not being discontinued until 1971. As far as I know, it was never officially made in a Matte version – sure, I’ve heard the rumors, but I’ve never actually seen one in person.

Later ones are definitely a different shade of Palomino than earlier ones, though some of that can be attributed to the fugitive nature of the Palomino paint Breyer used back then. (Under normal/average environmental conditions, early Breyer Palominos tend to turn slightly brownish with age, to a more golden honey color.)

But yeah, I am definitely not going to get my dander up about the Palomino Hamilton until I absolutely have to. And probably not then, either, likely because we will be obsessed with another (real or perceived) Reeves marketing flub by then.

Hamilton, and Occam’s Razor

Sorry for my relative absence the past week or so guys – things kind of got crazy there for a few days, and there were some lingering aftereffects from the whatever-I-had last week still causing me some inconveniences.

And consequently all my best laid plans for the weekend went out the window.

Although there was no auction or antique show for me today, I did get a chance to see some pretty horses. But that’s a long story, and time is short today.

Let’s (briefly) talk about another thing that flew past me in the week before and of BreyerFest: the Premier Club Hamilton!

He is lovely and makes me wish I had joined the Premier Club this year. When the first sneak preview picture was making the rounds the weekend before BreyerFest, I took one look at it (below), and the first (and only!) logical explanation that popped into my head: well, duh, that’s a Saddlebred. 

Conceptually, it also made sense because Reeves has slowly been “updating” their lineup, replacing Vintage molds of popular breeds with more modern ones. And no Vintage mold has fallen more out of favor than the original rough-and-chunky Five-Gaiter, who I sometimes refer to as “The Racking Drafter”.

In short: he was due for an update. 

So I was surprised (to say the least) at the number of people contorting themselves into explanations of how it could be... almost anything but a Saddlebred.

Occam’s Razor, people: the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Not always, but usually.

I need to stumble into bed here in a few moments, so I’ll close with a photo of one of my favorite Five-Gaiters from my collection, a Sample of the Regular Run CH Sprinkles release I picked up in the NPOD a few years ago:

He’s a Sample because you can tell in person that he’s a he, and not a she. And he is one of my favorites because his paint job is even more amazing in person!

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.

Raleigh, Etc.

This week was about on par with last week in terms of stress, drama and overall chaos. (But I did finally get my nachos!)

I managed to visit most of the local Walmarts within my usual driving area this week, but most of the stores were either just getting ready to do their reset, or weren’t even considering it yet when I visited. Since my schedule over the next couple of weeks is straight-up crazy, that’s probably the end of my local Walmart Stablemates search.

Bah! I picked such a bad year to focus on Stablemates!

At least the Stablemates Club Raleigh will be coming this way shortly:

Did you know that the Saddlebred was the first of the 16 original Hagen-Renaker molds adapted to plastic? That’s why it appears first in the Stablemates numbering sequence: the original releases were the #5001 Dapple Gray, and the #5002 Bay.

It’s also the only G1 Stablemates mold that is its own mold: all of the others are paired up with another Stablemate, to make it more cost-efficient to run. I believe his solitary nature is because they used the Saddlebred as their test piece before they went ahead and produced the other 15 molds.

Thus explaining the lack of detailing between the mold’s ears.

This is also why the mold was probably used to make the 25th Anniversary Silver-plated Promotional piece that makes everybody so crazy whenever it shows up on the Internet. Someday one of you kind shall be mine, G1 Silver Saddlebred!

(I have this strangely detailed fantasy that I’ll be rummaging around in someone’s old jewelry box at the flea market, and find one tangled up in a knot of funky rhinestone-encrusted owl necklaces from the 1970s. I’ve found things in stranger circumstances, so it could happen...)

Since they’re running a Stablemates sale this weekend, I might toss in a few others in my order just for the heck of it. After making it through the past two weeks, I think I deserve a few.

I wanted to wait until the end of the year – and the possible return of the Free Holiday Gloss Promotion – to buy all the newer ones en masse off the web site. But I recently added everything up I wanted, and there appears to be more than enough to fill up a couple of potential orders. So which ones will I buy first?

At the moment I’m leaning towards the 8-piece Blister Card Assortment; while I love them all actually, I really could use that Icelandic and Appaloosa Dungaree:

The Most Desirable Stablemate in the World…

...is now available as a “gift with purchase” in an auction on eBay right now. If you don’t know who or what I’m talking about, it’s the G1 25th Anniversary Saddlebred, as seen in this 1990 issue of Just About Horses:

Because I am not wealthy, not that lucky, and am rather fond of my internal organs, that picture is probably as close as I am going to get to owning one, outside of making one myself.

(I’ve thought of it. I really have. Making one, not selling my organs.)

There have been some questions online whether or not a model that was allegedly made in a piece run of about 1000 could or should be flirting with a four-figure price tag.

Oh yes, for at least two reasons.

The piece was made as a promotional giveaway item, presumably to both (a) celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Breyer Animal Creations line, and (b) help announce the arrival of the then-new Stablemates scale, of which the G1 Saddlebred was (I believe) the first mold actually cast.

As such, it was likely given to clients, potential clients, Sales Reps, and at industry PR events. The likelihood that some would end up in the hands of hobbyists at the time was very small.

In fact, I can’t recall even hearing about such a thing until 1990, when it appeared in Just About Horses, and one was auctioned off at the inaugural BreyerFest that year. They have occasionally trickled on to the market since then – though rarely quite as nice as the one up for auction at the moment (Mint in Box!)

A thousand pieces of anything can disappear quickly, especially when it’s distributed to the general/nonhobby public first. Special Runs and other oddities were not well or easily distributed to hobbyists back then, either: Just About Horses itself didn't even debut until late 1975, as a single-page folded brochure.

Though I do have evidence that Breyer did consider offering a Free Stablemate/Redemption program when the Stablemates line was introduced in 1975, it never launched and I have no evidence that the Saddlebred leftovers would have been a part of that even if it had.

But it wasn’t just the distribution method, but the composition of the item itself that makes it so hard to find: it’s silver-plated ABS plastic. (ABS is easier to “plate” than Tenite, which is why it was used then).

Silver tarnishes, and ABS plastic – the same stuff they use for (most) Stablemates now – breaks easily.

A free shiny plastic horse given to you as a gift, especially if you are not a collector yourself, most likely ends up as a gift to someone who would be enraptured by a small shiny plastic horse.

And being small, fragile, and quick to tarnish, it’s not hard to guess what happened to most of those Silver Saddlebreds.

My Elusive Electroplated Grail

Have we seen any BreyerFest auction models yet? It feels like we’re overdue. Normally I haven’t been all that interested in those things, but since Reeves seems to have been placing more actual Test Colors in the auction lately, I’m beginning to see them more as "Sneak Peeks of Future Releases", rather than "Things I Shall Never Have". (A healthier attitude to take, I think.)

It just occurred to me this week - yes, I can be a bit slow sometimes - that next year’s BreyerFest will be the 25th one. Wouldn’t it be appropriate if they somehow commemorated the Silver Anniversary of BreyerFest with another Silver Stablemate?

That’s sort of what the original G1 Saddlebred was created for, back in 1975: it was to commemorate Breyer’s 25th Anniversary. It was a very early example of a promotional piece - one given back then to sales reps, jobbers and worthy (profitable) customers. Most hobbyists didn’t know a thing about them until 1990, when one showed up at the first BreyerFest auction, and was later featured in an issue of Just About Horses.

The Saddlebred was chosen because it was the first completed Stablemates mold, and unlike the other Stablemates molds back then, it was not paired up with another. This was important because the plastic that was used to create these Saddlebreds was ABS, not Tenite. ABS - acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, commonly called (in the hobby) Styrene - is the same stuff they use for all Stablemates today. (Except for the occasional special runs that specifically advertise otherwise.)

It was used in this instance because ABS can be electroplated, while Tenite (Cellulose Acetate) cannot.

Of course, when I heard about the Silver Saddlebred, it crushed me. The G1 Stablemates were what really put me on the road to ruin as a hobbyist. Traditional scale horses were for birthdays and holidays, but Stablemates? Stablemates I could buy myself - for just a dollar, at the Kmart down the road! I quickly became obsessed with them and completing my collection.

Finding out about the Silver Saddlebred was the first inkling that that would never happen.

I managed to hold on to the dream until the late 1990s: I kept the collection up to date and (nearly) complete until then, when the sheer weight of new releases (and new molds) finally did me in. I still buy ones I like - or I can find - whenever I can.

But that Silver Saddlebred eluded me then, and will probably always elude me. He became a "Grail Model" for a lot of hobbyists, and when they do (on occasion) show up on the market, the prices are several degrees beyond my comfort zone.

(That’s part of the reason why, in spite of my adoration of Peter Stone Chips, I simply cannot collect them in any meaningful way, either. I love that little mule!)

Allegedly they made about a 1000 of those silver-plated curiosities, so it’s still possible that I could find one: that’s not super-duper rare, in the scheme of things. Most Special Runs from the 1970s and early 1980s had significantly smaller runs. Maybe I might get lucky some night on eBay, with a late night Buy It Now, or something…

If they do go that route and make another Anniversary model, I’m not particular: almost any mold will do. As long as it comes with a velvet-lined box - or even better! - a teeny tiny velvet bag.

The Chestnut G1 Saddlebred

That’s one thing I will confess to: there hasn’t been enough history on here lately. Some of it is related to my scheduling/time management issues - it’s easier to snark on current events than do deeper research on something more obscure, especially when the time you have to do it is at an hour when only vampires and cats are up.

But it’s also been technical: my computer set up has, shall we say, been becoming progressively less ideal. The computer is old and slow, finding a browser that still works with it a challenge, the scanner doesn’t work half the time, and even my keyboards give me heck. (Ever try to compose anything without using the letter "a"? "Bay" turns into "Light Brown with Ebony Points.") I have to work more hours to get the money for a new setup, which in turn leads to more scheduling issues…

Cutting to the chase: from now on I will endeavor to provide a little less hiss, and a little more history.

The other day I was trying to find the file about Hobo for a follow up on that post, when I got distracted by another file in the box, containing this gem:

The Stablemates Introductory Flier, from early 1975 - featuring the Chestnut Saddlebred! A model almost as sought after as its silver-plated cousin, but considerably more elusive.

Probably because I don’t think it was ever really released in Chestnut. I don’t know if they changed the color prior midstream, or if it was another instance of Breyer still having issues distinguishing between Bay and Chestnut. I’d like to think it was a last minute change, but they’d have some issues telling Tobiano from Overo a few years after that, so either theory is plausible.

Regardless, the Chestnut Saddlebred’s appearance in the 1976 Dealer Catalog and Collector’s Manual, and on the early backer cards caused a great deal of consternation among early aficionados of the Stablemates, including me. They released the Arabian Stallion as Citation, and the Morgan Stallion as the Arabian Stallion - it was not inconceivable that they could have made a mistake with the Saddlebred, right?

But none were to be found. A few did turn up eventually - I've never laid eyes on one, but people I trusted to know the difference between Bay and Chestnut have - but never in numbers sufficient to convince me that it was meant as an intentional thing. They had to be either factory escapees, or unpointed Bays.

Breyer nonetheless heard from collectors about it - any time a regular run turns out even slightly different from the catalog pictures, they hear about it. So much so in the Saddlebred’s case that they almost rectified the situation - over a decade later. (Better late than never, right?)

The Chestnut Saddlebred was proposed as a Special Run for Hobby Center Toys, in Ohio, in 1989. It even went so far as to get an item number - #415002 - but for reasons unknown to me, they went with the Dapple Gray Little Bit Drafter Horse, named "Charger", instead.

Charger’s a cutie - I’ve definitely been getting my groove on for the Little Bits molds lately - but he’s no Chestnut G1 Saddlebred.