Rare Enough

Sorry guys – for some strange reason I did a little poking around the family tree just for fun, and now I appear to be knee deep in some serious genealogy research. With all the business I have to catch up on in the next several weeks, it’s not something I thought I needed to do, but here I am doing it anyway…

But I have held you all in suspense long enough with this package that arrived a couple of weeks ago already, so here it is:

A little background information: this all happened the same day that the Starry Skies Stablemates dropped on the Breyer web site. As I said before, I was a bit hesitant to buy more Blind Bag Stablemates, so I wandered over to eBay to clear my head a bit.

Aside from the fact that there were a couple of sweaters on there I was eyeing, I was also poking around on eBay because I had missed several good model horse auctions over the past several weeks previous as a consequence of my still-ongoing scheduling issues.

Perhaps lightning would finally strike for me, right?

Then, it actually happened.

I saw an honest-to-goodness Grail Model.

It had just been listed.

The seller was accepting offers.

So I made an offer.

It definitely wasn’t the price you still may see on eBay, but it was what I thought was (a) reasonable, and (b) within my budget.

I wasn’t expecting to offer to be accepted. Surely others had also seen it, and it’s something that’s on a lot of collector must-have lists. Even if I didn’t get it in the end, I figured I made an honest effort, at least.

An hour later, my offer was accepted.

I didn’t believe she was actually mine until the package arrived about a week later:

Yes, a Showcase Collection #1430 Palomino Grazing Mare!

Showcase Collection packaging (ca. 1970-1972) was one of the few examples of early Breyer packaging I had not acquired yet. Because of its fragility, it has been described as one of the “rarest” types of early packaging, but I don’t necessarily think that’s the case. Dumbbell stickers and the original Touchability Boxes are almost equally fragile, and far more scarce.

What the Showcase Collection packaging has got going for it is desirability: it’s just rare enough that even average collectors can reasonably dream of eventually adding one their own collection. And there are just enough of them turning up on a yearly basis to encourage others to dedicate themselves to actually collecting them as a thing, the same way some of us collect Chalkies, Stablemates, or color variations.

As you know by now, I am more of the former, not the latter. Though if I were lucky enough to find another, I certainly wouldn’t pass him or her by…

Newest Member of the Body Box Gang

The two clues for the next Vintage Club release are "Family matters" and "Showcased".  Neither one seems very helpful.

"Showcased" may be referring to the Showcase Collection from the early 1970s, a packaging scheme that included pretty much every equine Breyer being manufactured at the time. And while the first thing that comes to mind with the word "family" is "Family Arabians", it could also refer to the Clydesdale Family (for Dandy?) or the Running Family (for Salt and Pepper?)

See. Unhelpful. Since the Running Stallion was one of the voting choices for next year, and the last release was a two-piece,  I’m leaning towards the Family Arabians, possibly in a straight up Decorator color like Copenhagen or Wedgewood Blue.

The Family Arabians also happened to come in their own unique packaging in the late 1960s. Collectors call it the touchability box, but I wouldn’t put it past Reeves to conflate it with the clear plastic Showcase boxes.

I almost completely missed the mark last time, so make of my guess what you will.

Not much at the flea market again this weekend, but I did rescue this poor old guy, who cost me little more than some couch cushion money:

Chipped ears, nail polished hooves, and lots of rubs in the gray. (But oddly, still snowy white!) He had also apparently been around more than a few flea markets before he hit mine, since the sticker had been on him so long it had left a stain.

Roughed up, used up and left behind? I know the feeling, buddy.

I was going to toss him on my saleslist, but then I decided he’s seen enough of the road. I don’t already have a Gloss Alabaster Fighter, either. I did, once, but stupid me sold it for some reason I can’t remember.

Hobbyists get all bent out of shape hunting down the Sorrels and the Glossy Bays, but forget that the #31 Gloss Alabaster Fighting Stallion is almost as rare: it was only in production (roughly) from 1960/61 through 1962, and replaced in 1963 with the #30 Matte White. For years it was assumed that the Gloss Alabaster was just the early variation of the Matte White, until enough early ephemera (including the 1961 Catalog Insert pages) surfaced to establish that they were, in fact, two separate releases.