Sometimes The Only Way Out Is Through

Hey guys, still alive – though not doing much kicking, understandably. Having good days and bad days; hopefully more good than bad moving forward, once the new meds finally kick in.

And if not, Mom’s been crushing it with the vanilla milkshakes.

The worst part of this whole situation is the fact is that I can’t get anything done. I finally have a perfectly legitimate excuse to quilt to my heart’s content, and I can’t, dammit!

And speaking of that, If I haven’t gotten back with anyone, I apologize; I really do appreciate all the cards and plants and letters. Especially the cards and letters – y’all know how much I love ephemera! And feel free to drop me a note anytime. I read everything. 

If you were wondering what my hypothetical BreyerFest selections are, they should be pretty obvious:

As far as Limited Editions go, it’s: Blue Zeus and the Best of BreyerFest Stablemates. Blue Zeus because he’s a Blue Roan Fireheart and the actual live horse I’m basing my Mesteno Custom on. 

The Stablemates are a no-brainer: Stablemates were the first  models I bought with my own money back in the Dark Ages. I am also pretty keen on the mold matches: they are uncannily on point this year, though one is also pretty darn obvious. (I can only imagine what kind of ruckus would have been kicked up if they didn’t pick the Fighting Stallion for Kick Up Your Heels.) 

I think Flowers, the 2021 Raffle Model Bonheur on the Loping Quarter Horse, is probably my favorite here. Such a pretty shade of Chestnut!

Special Runs: I Will Survive (Quagga), and either Fight Song (Pinto Lipizzan) or The Edge of Glory (Ashquar). In spite of my declaration to the contrary, it looks like at least one of my selections this will be chosen purely on sentiment alone. And partly because it’s unavoidable at this point: sometime the only way out of a difficult situation is through.

Sharing is Caring

Although I think I am through the worst of the cold, I have to say that I am very sick of being sick. The past two months have been plagued by insomnia, gastrointestinal issues, back pain and (this week) a nasty cold. 

I am trying to accept it as a slow-motion system crash and hoping that once the cold has run its course, the rest of the year will be both painless and productive. (The heating pad I bought for my office chair gets to stay, though. Why didn’t I buy one of these before?)  

As it is right now I barely have the energy to open up my mail when I get home. So many tempting packages sitting at the foot of my bed; I may just end up saving them all for Christmas anyway.

The Collector’s Club Appreciation Sale sold out a little faster than I anticipated; my guess is that there were fewer pieces available than I suspected. I wasn’t tempted – too much stuff here people, way too much stuff – but looking at the Traditionals they now have in production, I fear I might bite the bullet next year: Mojave, Zorah Belle and Mooney? I’d be delighted with any one of those in gloss!

I am a little bummed that they’re returning to the mini-display boxes with the Stablemates Club releases next year; I much prefer the eminently reusable two-piece cardboard ones myself. It’s not going to affect the status of my membership. Which I need to renew sometime soon…

Since mobility is still a little bit of an issue for me, here are a few brightening up my very cluttered desk. First, the BreyerFest Horse of a Different Color Dada:

There’s nothing particularly special about this one: I just think he’s a neat little guy and he makes me smile. (As does the art movement that inspired him!) Second up is a NIP Buckskin Quarter Horse Mare with the MEXICO mold mark:

I already had loose examples, but I had been wanting a New in Package example for ages, and she just happened showed up on eBay at an extremely reasonable Buy It Now price earlier this year. Contrary to popular opinion, MEXICO-stamped Quarter Horse Mares are not all that rare, but Vintage NIP Stablemates are definitely a thing right now, especially in this fine of a condition. She was included in my Stablemates Collector’s Class Entry at BreyerFest that took Fifth Place.

And finally, one of the customs I had been working on, before I decided to go all-in on quilting for the rest of the year:

Yup, good ol’ Mesteno: The Messenger! I took him up as both a companion piece to the Mesteno’s Mother custom that is also still languishing on my work table, and as an even more extreme artistic challenge. 

He was the experimental piece that ended up in my BreyerFest Free Box, but I either came to my senses or lost them again, and fished him back out. He still has lots of problems that I probably won’t get around to fixing until Spring, but I am rather pleased at my progress, and wanted to share with the group. 

(His tail is just loosely taped on; it won’t be reattached until I’m finally happy with the resculpting.)

Things I Cannot Worry About

My Tuxedo arrived, and he’s the Bald-faced version:

I was slightly bummed to find out that the split on the variations was not (more or less) equal: according to the recently arrived Just About Horses, there’s only 100 Solid Blacks, compared to 450 each of the Star-faced and Bald-faced.

I was all for the multiple variations; I was not expecting the uneven splits. And I am always amazed how preferences change when rarity is involved! 

I’m actually more annoyed to discover that there were even more of the Volunteer SR Chevaliere made than advertised, especially with me still be completely Chevaliere-free. 

I mean, I ended up coming out ahead at BreyerFest anyway, and the rest of the year – aside from the Appaloosa Performance Horse fiasco – has been unusually abundant, so I think I’ll live. 

Kind of surprised about the Black Friday Sale being today. I’m a second shift person (NOT by choice, BTW, but that’s another story) so whatever was there that I could have wanted (maybe Slyder?) wasn’t going to happen regardless. 

For all those people who are ticked off they didn’t get a Zugspitze, just how many did they think they actually had left over to sell? Couldn’t have been more than a few dozen. The only effect of pre-announcing the sale would have been people flooding the web site and having it crash, which would have ticked off even more people. 

I have more mixed feelings about Vail. I haven’t had the best luck getting the rarer blue variations in general, outside of the Studebaker, and I’ve gotten a lot of good stuff lately (and I was bad again, last weekend) and I really do not need more stuff. And he is a bit tippy....

Sure, there’s a 1000 of them, but I didn’t get picked for Tahoe from the first list – or any of the subsequent, mythical – waitlists, either. I will have to abide by the the Universe’s decision on this, too. 

I don’t know exactly what’s up with the delay with the Christmas Blind Bag Stablemates, but they are also not high on my list of concerns. I told myself that the only things I may need to get for the remainder of the year are (a) the Christmas Day Special, if it’s something I collect (Emma?) and/or (b) the Winter Web Animal, depending on what the mold is. (Dog, Elk or Deer Family? Hella yeah!)

I do think they are very neat, and reminiscent of the glitter-encrusted ornaments that adorned Grandma Jankowiak’s ginormous Christmas Tree every year. Along with 30 year old actual metal tinsel she saved and reused every year, and German Stars made out of waxed paper.

No One Could Have Predicted...

Alas the consequences to my Wyoming trip have finally revealed themselves: I have now been roped into a trip to Las Vegas with my cousin Renee sometime in the near future. And also maybe Iceland? 

It’s a long story: visiting her in Montana was going to be a part of the itinerary during the early planning stages, but the closest I would have gotten to her was still a seven-hour drive away, and my plans literally had to change the moment I got to the airport, anyway.

I was planning on going to both locations a bit further down the road; now I guess it will be sooner rather than later, and I’ll have company. 

(Yes, the Iceland trip will be horseback, at least partly.) 

My latest Grail has arrived, but I’ll save him for next time; I’d rather spend this weekend catching up on old business. I just finished two more BreyerFest memory boxes (only seven more to go!), made some decent progress on an old diorama project, and finally opened up that batch of Stablemates I bought a few months back:

The Andalusian is my favorite (you know I love undappled grays!), but the Darley Arabian looks good in black, too; it highlights his pleasing, stylized silhouette. The only one I’m mildly disappointed in is the Standing Stock Horse: he’s both pink, and polka-dotted? Normally I like that sort of thing, but it just doesn’t work for me here. 

I always like to keep one Stablemate from every new version or variation of the packaging intact; since the Clydesdale is in another version of Bay – and will likely come in many, many more, if his career mimics his Traditional counterpart in any way – he seemed like the logical choice here.

But otherwise, these little guys are unremarkable, historically. That will change, eventually, but never in ways anyone can predict. 

Technically I could predict what’s coming in next year’s Vintage Club, but you know I can’t due to legal and ethical stuff. I definitely have my favorites, though… as you’ll find out soon enough. 

Little Things

How did I not know of this t-shirt before? I need it:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/collections/apparel/products/stablemates-vintage-logo-t-shirt-adult

Knowing about this yesterday would have made my day just a wee bit less stressful. (Too long, not in any mood to explain. Dragging my sun lamp out of storage today to partially solve the problem.)

I was just thinking the other day that we were probably due another rearing/jumping/leaping Stablemate, but that’s because I forgot that we were getting one – the last release in the Stablemates Club this year, Brio:

I like him better than the other rearing Stablemates (except the Lipizzaner), but I think I need to see him in person and in other colors before I fall in love.

I have no such qualifications about next year’s new sculpture: Zug’s little cousin Augustus is my new favorite Stablemate!

In fact, I was just looking at pictures of Sarah’s Stormwatch earlier in the week, since it only just occurred to me that the Mesteno custom I’m doing is basically turning into a vague, plastic-and-epoxy imitation of him. 

(But done with considerably less skill, and still looking very much like a Mesteno.)

Anyway. There’s the chonky Draft I was hoping for/whingeing about just last post. He just happens to be Stablemates scale, rather than Traditional. I am okay with this: he will require less space, and is theoretically more affordable.

Until they offer one as a Custom Contest Prize: you don’t have to be me to know that is eventually coming. And a Gambler’s Choice, too...

We also got “a” matching Traditional family set too, but it turned out to be for Fireheart, not Georg: Firestorm and Tigerlily!

I do love Fireheart, and this set is very, very tempting, but I have managed to avoid signing up for the Premier Club until now. What is staying my hand for now is that although the money is available, the space is not. (You do not want to see what my office looks like right now. Nope!)

But it is nice to see another Traditional Foal in a more active or playful pose; I was wondering if we’d ever see one that required a base, and now we do.  

The Legions

Here I thought the reason I was in kind of a sour mood this week was because I just missed getting a really sweet deal on a Presentation Collection Bison on eBay. Nope, it was something else entirely:

https://ew.com/comic-books/keith-giffen-dies-superhero-comic-creator/

Most comic book dilletantes know Keith Giffen as the co-creator of both Rocket Raccoon and Lobo, but I first encountered him due to his work on The Legion of Super-Heroes. After I came back to comics after a brief hiatus, I was fortunate enough to do it literally at the very start of The Great Darkness Saga. (Why it has not been made into a DCAU movie yet is beyond me!)

Even though I was involved in Legion fandom during his tenure on the title, I never got to make his acquaintance. Other in my orbit certain did, and I heard stories, so I can perhaps still claim him as part of my “Six Degrees of Separation” circle.

And now, back to our program…

I’m sure the season is partly to blame, but I can’t generate the same enthusiasm everyone else is expressing over the 2024 Deluxe Collector’s Club membership exclusive Stablemate Horatio, who is a mini-me of Othello:

I was just wondering what the next “mini-me” Stablemate was going to be, and I definitely did not have Othello on my Bingo card. (I am still holding out for Ethereal!) 

I don’t dislike him, but much like the Silver, he’s already come in a lot of colors, and it’s hard to do anything original with him. (My first reaction to Horatio: another fuzzy gray one?) And with his legions of fans – no pun intended there, I swear – he’ll be very hard to acquire when they do. 

I like his larger counterpart better: the first 2024 Collectors Club Special Heath. You all know I am a sucker for roany paintjobs. But like most Othellos before him, I’ll probably be bowing out of buying him. I am quite happy with the assortment I already have. 

And one final note, because I know the right people will be reading and I don’t have a Facebook account to correct it at the source, and it’s bugging the heck out of me: the realistic Deer Family debuted in 1964, not 1974. That sell sheet/insert itself is from 1964!

There were the usual variations in color, finish and mold marks throughout the years, but the Deer Family was relatively unchanged from 1964 through 1997. The only thing “new” about the 1974 release – aside from the box and the model number for the gift set – was that the individual members of the family were no longer available separately.

(I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it’s a hint. Now that, I will buy.)

Fandango and Stuff

The weather’s getting cold and the Seasonal Affective Disorder is starting to kick in, so it’s another random, hodge-podge kind of day.

With the end of the year approaching, we’re going to get hit with a ton of news about next year’s everything; I’m not overly concerned about BreyerFest, but I am kind of curious if there’s an Exclusive Event in the works, since that might affect my travel plans for next year. (Especially since BreyerWest is a no-go.)

Incidentally, it’s unlikely I’ll be traveling for pleasure from now until the end of the year, model horse related or otherwise. I mean, I essentially drove the circumference of Wyoming, I think I can relax. 

Speaking of that, I am contemplating dedicating the month of November to writing the very first draft of the travel memoir, NaNoWriMo style. If I can get some of the craft projects I’m working on to a better place, which is not entirely certain.

I saw the price that Sorceror’s Apprentice went for on eBay – yikes! Especially since they were going for about $400 not all that long ago. I wonder if the fact that this mold hasn’t been translated into plastic like Avalon (Paddock Pal) and Prince Charming (Stablemate) is having any bearing on the prices, or is it just another example of the secondary market being straight-up insane?

The two customs I gave a quick coat of primer to the other day are now looking less terrible, though I think I am at a point with both of them where may stop fiddling with them and just wrap them up and move onto the next ones. My inability to “let go” has probably been the biggest impediment to finishing, aside from my anxiety about painting.

I have no preference on the Virkie; I haven’t gotten a Splash on any of these Gambler’s Choice models, so maybe that one?  

I am a little annoyed with myself for not holding out that extra day on ordering my Thunderbird, though. I already “ordered” the Fandango, since the shipping was free:

Like the Paddock Pals thing, I am having a little bit of a hard time mentally reconciling the existence of a previous Fandango – a 2004 BreyerFest Live Show Prize Moody Andalusian in Matte Dun – with the new one. Then again, the likelihood of me ever acquiring the first Fandango is laughably small. 

Hoping For Better Days

I’ve occasionally made the joke about how any time I’ve done “well” at BreyerFest, I always end up paying for it in the end, regardless. 

I was hoping to avoid that fate this year – or at least, mitigate the damage – but the shoe might be dropping this week, and to be frank I am kinda scared. I can only hope that I am believed and that I come out of the experience relatively unscathed. 

But there is no guarantee, and I did not sleep a wink Saturday night. 

Needless to say, any positive energy you can send my way would be very appreciated. 

I had some shopping to do on Sunday – mostly craft and storage supplies – and while I was out I finally managed to see some of the Tractor Supply Specials. The Stablemates were quite tempting, and the FFA Decorators were much nicer than I expected, but I managed to walk away without pulling out my wallet. 

If any of the Gibsons had been the Chalky variation, I would have bought one, but they were not. 

Since I’m not feeling particularly chatty again today, here’s another BreyerFest purchase:

This Seabiscuit – and another one painted a semi-leopard Appaloosa, in hobby enamels – were the only purchases I made from the Linda Walter estate. By the time I had made it into the room, most of the better Breyer items were already gone, and I didn’t trust myself to bring home any clinkies unbroken. 

But for some reason this little guy (and his partner) really caught my eye. I already have several variations of the original G1 Seabiscuit, but this one was – as you can see – exceptionally well-shaded. So well-shaded, in fact, that for a brief moment I mistook him for the Hagen-Renaker original.

The melancholy part of all this is that the context is missing. Was he just a lucky find on Linda’s part? Did Marney find a particularly nice one at the factory and send it Linda’s way, because of her love and advocacy of Hagen-Renakers in general? Or nothing at all?

I’ll probably never know.

I had another Stablemate in my showstring that I was having some second thoughts about, and I swapped him out for this guy. 

And I believe he was the first model that even placed for me in the show. For a while I was worried that that would be my only placing (and a tenth, at that), but things got better for me.

I can only hope this week ends the same way. 

Opinions on the Matter

The Spooky Stablemates are here:

Two different, yay! And the closest I’ll ever get to owning a real Cornelius. The box looked like an accordion, but as you can see, no harm, no foul…

I am not sure if I’m going to pursue the third member of the set, since I am not actively looking to buy anything right now, other than bodies and sales stock. 

And back to the topic of BreyerFest shopping, I prefer shopping for my common items and collection fillers at BreyerFest, because – I had assumed up until this year – that I’d have a large selection of models to choose from and have the luxury of handpicking. 

Silly me – lesson learned! 

I only vaguely understand the economic dynamics that creates that strange, strange market; it always fascinates me how different it is every time. Last year I sold a ton of Vintage items, but this year it was all higher-end stuff and Web Specials, with a fair smattering of Classics and Stablemates. And the only bodies that remained unsold at the end were the exact same half-dozen bodies that didn’t sell the year before.

(And are therefore probably mine forever, by default.)

In other news, my hunch about the book sale was correct: on my way to work on Monday I stopped at a Salvation Army Store and scored a nice bundle vintage horse and dog books from the 1960s and 1970s. 

I can’t really think of anything else to say today; I’m physically hurting all over (another story) and my mind is a little obsessed on my current custom project that I can’t believe I almost threw in my free bin. I wanted to wait until he was a little further along before I showed you what he looked like, but now is as good a time as ever, I suppose:

I wanted to do an Extreme Custom that still kept the essence of the original sculpture intact, but discard as little of the original as possible. Other than the grinding and carving down, all I’ve tossed so far are the front of the neck, part of the chest, and a bit of the tail; the tail will be reattached once I’ve finished recarving it. The neck’s been shortened slightly and his head’s been narrowed, too.    

The leg was cut off fairly early in the process and I just haven’t gotten around to reattaching it, partly because it was getting in the way of the tail resculpt but also because he stands up just find without it anyway. It can wait. 

I’m pretty pleased with him so far. Another goal of this project – other than the crash course in anatomy and conformation that only a Mesteno Series model can provide – is to put my money where my mouth is. Just because I am primarily an Original Finish collector and advocate doesn’t mean I don’t know what I am talking about when it comes to customizing.

Brighton

Had another rough week at work (long story, don’t ask) so I’m focusing on a few things that are making me happy:

That three-legged Merrylegs in the latest batch of bodies to arrive. (Exactly the kind of body I was looking for!)

The ridiculously tasty gourmet ramen I had for lunch yesterday: spending a little extra for the good stuff is really is worth it. No more 35 cent ramen for me!

On the cheaper side, I discovered that those 25 cent packets of wildflower seeds from Dollar Tree are also worth it. Thumbs up, would recommend. 

My Spoooky Stablemates haven’t arrived yet – which I’m totally cool with, I am in no rush there – but the Brighton did:

She might not have the same flash or panache of the other releases in the Stablemates Club this year, but she’s much nicer in person than I expected her to be. She does kind of remind me of my shopping experience at BreyerFest this year, though. 

I thought I’d target a few less-pricey/more common items to fill out some holes in my collection, but I had the hardest time finding anything that wasn’t either (a) extremely recent, or (b) super-popular and/or trendy.

I mean, I get it, I understand that it’s hard packing everything you have for sale in your vehicle, and choices have to be made.  But it does inadvertently invert the market: “common” items become rare, and “rare” items become common. 

You want a previous BreyerFest Raffle Model or an Exclusive Event piece? There’s probably at least six or seven of them in any one of the hotel hallways you’re standing in. But trying to upgrade your Regular Run Running Foals from the 1990s? Good luck with that. 

I get the sense that Brighton – who is pretty but not flashy or groundbreaking, not a Regular Run, but also not really difficult to acquire – will become another one of those pieces that will eventually…vanish.

Which is a shame, really. And gives those of us in the middle or bottom of the market our own unique challenge: what do you do when you collect things other collectors don’t think anyone else wants?

Familiar Faces

Just letting you guys know that we’re now entering my full-panic-mode-before-BreyerFest season, and things are going to get a little weird from here on out. I just cranked out about 3000 words for the Sampler over the weekend and I’m feeling no pain.

My left foot is another matter. (Long story, hopefully nothing.)

The new Mid-Year releases are both beautiful and oddly familiar. First there’s the portrait model Full Moon Rising, on the Strapless mold:

Her paint job looks quite similar to the uber-popular Bay Roan Sabino G1 Draft Horse, from the 2004 Parade of Breeds Set. 

Apparently that little guy shows really well; I’m just annoyed by the high price the entire set it comes in goes for. It came out back when I wasn’t being diligent about buying all the Christmas Stablemates sets, and now I will have to pay the price. 

The first realistic, Regular Run release of Fireheart, a Flaxen Chestnut Overo named Mojave, also looks very familiar:

His warm undertones, poofy hair and rugged chonkiness reminds me a great deal of the #3065 Classic Love Mustang Family Stallion, who was originally in production from 1976 through 1990. My example is quite the looker, and always shows really well for me. I think he has NANed at least twice so far, in very competitive Mustang classes:

Oddly, the Classic Mustang Stallion has only come in Pinto once and Appaloosa once in the past 47(!) years; Fireheart’s very brief production history has been much more colorful!

Into the Unicorniverse

Had a lovely time at Motor City Comic Con this Saturday, wish you were there. I’d post the only picture I had taken, but I suspect a lot of you may have no idea who Run-DMC is.

(It was a moment and I had to do it. Three Stripe Life!)

It was definitely better attended than last year; there were times on the convention floor when I couldn’t move. I did buy a few things, including this lovely, and very BreyerFest-adjacent piece of art on an authentic piece of papyrus!

I bought a couple similar ones to take to BreyerFest for people who might want a little something extra to go with their Speos; I’m not getting a Speos myself, unless something changes and an extra ticket magically happens. 

I almost bought a lightsaber, too, but I didn’t have enough walking around cash at that point, and that booth was absolutely mobbed anyway. Maybe for Christmas…

I’m also getting the notion that I should cosplay there next year. (More on that another time, if it ever becomes more than a notion.)

Like Worldcon, I was struck by the notion that Reeves would have done well with a booth here (at any comic con, really) selling their Unicorns and other fantasy-affiliated creatures. There’s always been a lot of fandom overlap between general “nerd” culture and “model horse” culture, you might as well make it official!

Speaking of unicorns, when I bought my Blue Roan Brabant the other day, I also bought the “Sparkling Splendor” Deluxe Unicorn Collection, because I guess I needed more Metallic Stablemates Unicorns in my life:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/collections/unicorns-and-more/products/sparkling-splendor-deluxe-unicorn-collection

What I love about this set is that they went through the effort of not just naming every Unicorn in the “herd”, but they gave them a little backstory, too: 

Assuming that genetics in Breyer’s Unicorniverse follow the color wheel, I’m guessing that the leader of this particular “herd” is the purple Fireheart “Trifle” and not the silvery Mini Carrick “Esteem”. 

The After Party

I still haven’t quite finished unpacking from the show; when I got home Saturday night I fell asleep trying to watch a movie, then I went to bed and slept another twelve hours. And then I spent a good chunk of my Sunday working on gardening things. 

(I have way more ornamental peppers than I was expecting, LOL. I expect at least half of them are going to get rehomed at work.)

I did both better and worse than I thought I would. While I didn’t get as many placings in Mini as I had hoped – only 12 out of the forty or so I brought – three of them either Champed or Reserved their Sectionals, and my lovely Dark Dapple Gray G1 Saddlebred ended up being Reserve Overall in Minis:

Good job, Mignonette! 

And while I still haven’t quite figured out the mystery that is Stablemates Foals, I did get three of my placings there, including a third with this cute, wee one as a Quarter Pony Foal:

On the other hand, I had 32 placings in Collectibility, most of them first through third. Several Champs here: Stablemate Sectional Champ (Black Pancho), Vintage Sectional Champ (the Airbrushed Misty), and both Animal Champ and Reserve (Ghost Moose and the French Perfume Poodle). 

Some of the models I expected to do better did not, but I worried about it less because, well, it was a conscious choice I made to focus on it less. I feel like I know what I’m doing there, and I’m confident enough with my models to just have fun with it and show off some of my pretties this time.

It also looks like my decision to avoid Traditional Breed paid off: those classes were huge, and the placings sometimes… odd. Not as odd as placing second to an Old Timer, but some of ones I did get a chance to review were a little confusing. 

(And I repeat myself: judges, man…)

When I woke up Sunday morning-ish I compiled a short list of must-takes for BreyerFest Live: I ended up with about twenty? If I have the ambition and the time, I might even add a couple of customs to the list, but I’m not going to sweat it if I don’t. (There’s a “crazy custom hairdo” Fun Class, and I have this FAM I use to deposit my excess epoxy on. She’s looking… pretty shaggy!)

Anyhoo, I have to go finish my taxes and call some places to get some work done on the car this week. (Relax: it wasn’t my fault and the issue is mostly cosmetic. More of a nuisance than anything else.)

The Little Things

It’s been a rough week and Saturday, alas, is not going to be any better. 

On a slightly more positive note, most of my seeds have germinated. Well, except for the ones now stratifying under a two-foot-tall snowbank in front of the house. 

In other good news, I am apparently still enrolled in BreyerFest Live. I had heard about the brouhaha with the full tables and collector’s classes, but since I avoided putting in for either, all that nonsense floated right by me. Thank goodness.

I haven’t had much of a chance to work on the show coming up in (ulp!) three weeks, other than a little more Stablemates sorting. I’m seriously considering this guy, an NPOD find from several years back:

It’s the first, original release of the G2 Thoroughbred in Shaded Gray, sorta. 

What happened was that several pieces in the 1998 Just About Horses Stablemates Gift Set had production issues – paint problems, masking problems, molding problems, you name it. So some new and improved versions were made as replacement pieces.

And the leftovers from that effort ended up as the Stablemates “starter pack” in early versions of the wooden 5905 Stablemates Display Shelf, because one does not simply make a handful of Stablemates as replacements. 

I can’t remember exactly which BreyerFest I found them in the Breyer Store; I’m not in a mood to go digging through my records right now. I do remember a pile of the boxes on one of the tables; I opened them up, noticed that they were the replacement Stablemates, so I tossed a set in my buy pile because Stablemates, and went on my merry way. 

This was back in the days when Store Specials weren’t a thing yet and there was utterly random stuff put out at utterly random prices. Leftover QVC Specials, stray NIB Regular Runs, leftover bits of Gift Sets (dolls, tack, bags of accessories), sample packaging, whatever. 

Most of the time I had no idea what I was buying, I was just buying things that I wanted without any consideration for what it could be worth. I like it: I want it. 

And when it turned out to be even more than I hoped for? That made it all the better.

A Wee Trio (No, Not That One)

Experiencing some scheduling issues again; as a consequence of that, I only got 4.5 hours of sleep last night, and I’m feeling a little loopier than normal.

(Long story short: I’ll be fine tomorrow. No worries!)

I didn’t get quite as much done on my live show documentation as I thought I would over the weekend; I’m still debating over the last handful of cuts. (I’m aiming for half Collectibility and half Stablemates…)

Oddly enough, my main problem wasn’t obsessing over the minutiae of Breyer History, but falling down the rabbit hole of rare or obscure horse breeds and freaking loving it. It’s taken me back to my elementary school days, when little horse nerd me would check out the big encyclopedias of horse breeds over and over and stare at pictures of Frieburgers, Lokais and Vladimir Heavy Drafts.

Anyway, I’m a little short on time (needs sleep, I do), so here’s a small assortment of my favorites that are in the running:

The Flaxen Chestnut G2 Saddlebred is from the 2018 (Series 2) Walmart Horse Crazy Surprise Assortment. Nothing especially remarkable about the release itself, other than the fact that most of them in that particular series had remarkably attractive and well-executed paint jobs: the Saddlebred was the prettiest one of the bunch I eventually found.

(It was the beginning of the Stablemates Chase Era, before we got bored and/or irritated by it, and all my nearest Walmarts were plundered early, and often.)

The Black G1 Arabian Stallion is a rather fetching release of this mold, from the 1991 Sears Wishbook Special Run Stablemates Assortment. My Bay one always does well, and I wanted to add another G1 Arabian to my live show mix: he was the best of the rest, aside from my NIP Dapple Gray (who I only show in Collectibility). 

And finally, that’s the Florida Cracker Horse from the underrated 2007 BreyerFest SR “All-American Trio” Stablemates Set, the one that included a Black Pinto Tennessee Walker and a Chestnut Appaloosa Colorado Rangerbred. All three were super nice, but I just adore the detail they put into the paint job on the Paso Fino mold.

Well, that’s it for today. Off to water some plants and get some serious sleep.  

Riding It Out

I find myself in the midst of a midwinter funk that no amount of seed starting can fix. All I can do is ride it out until it passes, or at least until the end of the week, with BreyerWest and the news it brings. 

I am most curious to see what the Volunteer Special looks like; this year they are implementing a new program that essentially turns it into a Gambler’s Choice model, in three different colorways, that applies to all volunteers at designated Breyer-sponsored events. 

This was something I think they were going to implement earlier – in 2020, the Celtic Fling Volunteer Special Ben Nevis came in two different shades of Chestnut Pinto – but the Pandemic got in the way. 

I’ll be interesting to see how that affects Volunteer applications. While some of us do for the love of the hobby, there are a significant number of hobbyists who do it for the financial boon. 

(I like the heat and I don’t usually mind the humidity, so the whole “compensation for my pain and suffering” isn’t part of the equation for me.)  

While it could be argued that three small (125 piece) runs are going to be “more desirable” than a single 375-piece run, I’d counter that if a model is awesome enough, the quantity is almost irrelevant. But if it brings in more applications and more enthusiasm, so be it.

I don’t have much more to say today; I really need to finish planting the petunias and alpine strawberries. (The strawberry plants were much easier to grow from seed last year than I imagined they would be, but the berries themselves are teeny, and I need at least 50 plants to be able to make anything out of them!) 

I suppose I should leave you with a picture of something: the lovely, lighter variation of the Prince Charming release of Linzer, the mini Brigadeiros from last year’s Best of BreyerFest Set!

The majority of Linzers were much closer to the Traditional Brigadeiros’s Seal Bay color, but a handful of them were this sooty buckskin. While I have largely curbed my Stablemate variation habit (with the recent exception of the Dollar General pieces) this one I simply couldn’t resist, especially since he seemed to be a bit on the scarce side. 

Decision Time

Feeling a little distracted the past few days; I just began planning the OTHER vacation this week in earnest, and the choices are a little overwhelming.

(Anyone know the best way to contact the Pryor Mountain Mustang Center? The tour is a definite “bucket list” to-do!)

And if anyone might be interested in tagging along, now’s definitely the time to speak up. Otherwise, I’ll be hoofing it alone, like I usually do. (Things to consider, if you’re considering: I’m a nonsmoker, a sound sleeper, and I’ll eat almost anything. The only nonnegotiable: I get to choose the music!)

That box of bodies arrived in… a jumble. They were bodies, and I was expecting nothing less, but the one I was going to keep for my personal customizing stash is the only one that’s broken. Only slightly, but enough.

This happens so often to me that I think it must be an immutable law of physics. I’ll still keep it, just because I’m an adventurous and experimental sort and the idea seems worth pursuing. After I finish a few dozen more old projects.

Which is not looking so great, with the current work situation and all. Last weekend’s quilt project is still not done! I have to work today, so this weekend is also not promising...

This year’s Best of BreyerFest Stablemate Set is awesome and the tiny glossy palomino Georg is my favorite, because the only model in that set that I have in its original size is the Opry: 

She is/was one of the best Volunteer Models ever, and there will be no discussion on this matter. I remember so many people being initially disappointed by her – a Vintage mold, in a Vintage color? – but once more people got to see her in person, they fell in love.

In my personal opinion, I think everything should (eventually) come in Gloss Honey Palomino. The matching Clydesdale Stallion and Foal would be a good beginning! (I suppose the original Vintage Club Dandy might do, but I also want something solid. With blue and yellow bobs and ribbons, naturally.)

I am also glad they managed to incorporate the Stablemate Driving Horse into the lineup here, because hello obvious! I love that chunky little mold for some reason; the 2018 One-Day Silver Charm release is probably one of my favorite BreyerFest Stablemates. 

Although I do have a small and cherished collection of Plushies of various sorts and manufactures, I don’t specifically collect BreyerFest Plushies. But with my love of harness racing and Standardbreds, this year’s version Sulky might be something I need:

I have a few days to decide before tickets go on sale. At this point I’m just going to get the one VIP ticket, because that’s all I really need; I’ll worry about what to do with other possible tickets only if/when they happen.  

Old School

Oops, I bought something! That’s okay, it’s only a Stablemate:

When I went to drop off the sewing machine for service, there happened to be a Dollar General in the same shopping center, and as luck would have it, the one variation I needed to complete my set (for now) was there. So there’s one silver lining to the sewing machine drama!

After epically trying – and failing – to quilt a project on my backup sewing machine, I gave up and decided to focus on repairing that vintage Black Stallion custom that’s been sitting on my craft table for a year and a half. Here’s what I have so far:

I still need to finish the touchups – especially on his left side – and redo the ear I repaired: it’s too big and the style just doesn’t match the rest of the model. The base needs more work, too: I have to build up one side a little to stabilize the model better, fill in a few of the divots, and find a suitable piece of wood to mount it on.

And after all that, I’ll spray him with a matte varnish, regloss his eyes and hooves, and hair him up. I think I’ll give him a slightly fuller tail than he had before, to balance him out visually. The varnishing will have to wait until the weather warms up, though, so he might be on hold after the next round of touchups.

Restoring him has been an interesting challenge. It was tempting to modernize him, but I decided to keep him as original as possible. I stuck to the basic acrylic color palette we were all working with back in the 1980s, as well as the same painting techniques, which were a combination of wet and dry brushwork and “fingerpainting” for blending. 

I did add a little extra shading to his muzzle, though: it was a flat Raw Umber and looked a little odd compared to the rest of him. 

I know some people have attempted to go “old school” with their customs, in an offshoot of the NaMoPaiMo thing, but a lot of those efforts still look too modern for me. Not that the actual vintage product is better or worse, it just looks and feels different.

I think a lot of it is due to the fact that I was doing customs way back then, when all we had to work with was stuff like “Plastic Wood”, that funky green plumber’s epoxy, and whatever selection of acrylic paints and brushes the local department store happened to have in their “art” department. So I know how much struggle went into even the simplest of customs back then.

Even though it might look somewhat primitive in comparison to the work being done today, some of the artwork that was achieved under these circumstances was still pretty remarkable. I think modern customizers could learn a lot by going truly “old school”, with nothing much more than some basic acrylic paints, brushes, mohair and a pre-1985 mold (preferably a Hess!)

I’ll give you all a pass on the modern epoxies. As someone who actually had to work with Plastic Wood back in the day, that’s a step too far back even for me!

I still have no idea who created this fellow. I thought I was just going to fix him up to sell him, but I think he’ll be sticking around a while, especially since I seem to be acquiring quite the vintage custom showstring now.

New Year, New Problems

Well, I got my new year off to a smashing start – I broke my sewing machine! I swear that whole bobbin mechanism just hates me on a deeply personal level.

(Literally the first time I tried to thread it, the bobbin case catapulted and wedged itself into the innards of the machine. This time I think a broken chunk of needle jammed itself into the bobbin case, which is now immovable and unremovable. Ugh.)

So I decided to repair a couple of vintage customs instead. With any luck, they’ll be done by the time the sewing machine gets back from the service center. The only thing slowing me down there is the fact that the epoxy takes forever to cure in the cold; it’s great if you’re doing something large or complex, but a real pain in the rear when you’re doing simple repair work!

In actual Original Finish Breyer news, they released the photos of the BreyerFest Stablemates, and gosh they’re all so cute!

It’s difficult to pick a favorite, but I’d probably go with the little Brishen – it’s hard to go wrong with a Bay Sabino Roan Pinto. But I wouldn’t argue against solid Glossy Dark Bay on anything, and it certainly suits the new Haflinger mold Kit.

That being said, I am trying very hard this year to stick to a strict budget: I have certain savings goals I want to meet by the end of the year, and that means not a lot of extra anything. No NPOD dives, no leftover or warehouse sales, and no swapping around for extra tickets at BreyerFest. And only entering for the Web Specials I absolutely have to have.

I’m not going to pass up any fortuitous finds or extra-cheap box lots, but “new” horses are definitely not a priority for the next 12 months: the only things that will be are trip expenses (BreyerFest, live shows, Wyoming) and obligatory Club purchases. And some health stuff I have to take care of. 

With the sewing machine – and all the new paints I had to buy to repair the customs, because my existing paint was old and kinda gross – I’m probably already a bit over my budget this month, as it is.

I just got a quick scan of some of the new releases for the year earlier today, and (fortunately!) I don’t see anything that jumps out as a “must have”, so that will help. Other than the Christmas Horse Highlander who – for once! – doesn’t look like something that fell into the Christmas Clearance bin at Michael’s. He’s downright classy.

I still have more than enough stuff to sell online or a BreyerFest: a lot of it was stuff I couldn’t fit in the car last year! I’d love to get my hands on more bodies and dollar table items, but I’m not going to worry about it if I don’t.

Well, back to inventorying stuff. My Buy List just keeps getting longer and longer…

Little Miracles

After a few minutes of consideration, I decided to buy a Gabriel anyway. Mostly predicated on the assumption that Tahoe is very clearly not happening for me. 

I have no preference on the color, though I am intrigued by the braided mane change on the purple and gold ones. I haven’t been a big fan of the alternate braided manes on molds like Roxy, Idocus or Newsworthy, but it looks nice on Nikolas – in fact, I think I like it better than the loose mane version!

They upped the quantity of “Coals” to 24 this year, and I am going to presume that they are equally divided between loose and braided mane variations. I’d love to be able to find out in person, but I am not counting on that at all, especially since I already had my Christmas “miracle”:

FWIW, I did actually gasp when I opened it!

This is the first time I’ve ever pulled a Chase piece from a non-Walmart Blind Bag assortment in the wild. Judging from the state of the box when I found it, it had been gone through at least once before, obviously by someone in search of the metallic “Ultra Chase”, because all 24 pieces in the box were present and accounted for. 

There was no method to my madness: after I had groped for all the missing pieces from the standard Mystery Horse Surprise Series 3 and threw in a couple extras just for funsies, I literally grabbed the first Croi-corn I felt in the Mystery Unicorn Surprise box and headed to the checkout. 

(I bought a big bag of taffy, too, but I do that every time I go to that store because it’s the only place in a 20-mile radius that sells the good stuff, and I’m too cheap to buy it on the Internet.)

Other than that, I spent most of the 4-day weekend binge-watching my shows (yes, Strange New Worlds is as good as they say it is!) and working on a couple of long-term sewing projects. 

I was mildly surprised that they announced a second BreyerFest Diorama Contest – an online one, to complement the in-person one – though I am just as hesitant to enter it as the original. I think I’ll stick to my current plan of live showing and customizing, depending on how the beginning of the year shakes out.