Wildlife Adventures

The past few days could have gone better.

First, it took me two days to renew my driver’s license because the system was apparently down. Nationwide. Of course.

Second, I scheduled an early appointment next week on a day I was originally scheduled off, then they sent me a revised work schedule with a double shift on that very day. Awesome. 

And third, work ran late yesterday, so I wasn’t able to do all the errands and other things I needed to get done. (What time I did have had to be spent waiting in line at the Secretary of State office.) There’s an “event” going on in town today that makes completing any task that doesn’t involve staying at home almost impossible.

And I’d really rather not deal with impossible on my birthday, y’know? So I have to spend my special day taking care of things around the house.

At least I’ll have carrot cake.

The nicest gift I received today was a bundle of letters Dad wrote home to Grandma when he was in the Coast Guard; Mom found them cleaning out her walk-in closet and wondered if I wanted them.

Well, yeah!

His handwriting and spelling were terrible, and even then he had a bad habit of randomly omitting words. (It used to drive us all nuts. Finish your darn sentences, Dad!) But it’s nice to hear his kind and silly voice again, now ten years gone.

So much better than dealing with the bluster going on outside.

Anyway, let’s talk horses: I have actually bought a few others worth talking about. This one especially so:

Yes, I have finally acquired the infamous Pink Camo Duchess and Gorilla, aka the Pony Gals Wildlife Adventure Gift Set! The stars aligned: the timing was right, the price was good, and I had money in the Paypal account.

This is not the first instance of a Breyer primate; that honor goes to the “Corky and Bimbo” Circus Boy set, who was portrayed on the television show by a pre-Monkees Mickey Dolenz, billed back then as Mickey Braddock. Here’s an article from the November 1956 issue of Toys and Novelties:

Zoom in on the article and you’ll see Breyer near the bottom of the list of attending licencees (at their original Lake Street address).

The original 1950s Circus Boy set is not particularly rare or expensive, but he’s definitely one of those things I want to find in the wild. Just because.

Spring Break

Had to take a few days off from the Internet - the weather’s been so nice it seemed a crime not to go out and enjoy some of it. Though I’m sure some people definitions of enjoyment would not include so much yard work, heavy lifting, and the trapping of groundhogs. (Evil beasties, grr!)

I have to admit I haven’t been paying too much attention to the horses this week, either: I think it’s the collection purge and repack that did it. I’ve been doing my daily lurking and a little field research, but the horses were definitely not my first priority.

Once the flea market opens (two weeks!) I’ll be just fine. Nothing like cheap, plentiful horses to get the heart going again. (I know, I know, I shouldn’t be rubbing it in. I’m perfectly willing to share the wealth, provided you’re willing to meet me at my house at 5:45 a.m. on Sunday mornings to caravan it. No joke - neither the time, nor the offer!)

I did spot new Pony Gals merchandise at Target this week: new molds, even. Smaller, unjointed, My-Little-Ponified versions of Jasmine, Chloe and Dixie, in Play Sets with hair manes and tails and various accessories:

7088 Jasmine Travel Boutique Play Set
7089 Dixie Travel Barn Play Set
7090 Chloe Travel Arena Play Set

They’re cute, but not my thing. The whole MLP thing was a little after my time.

I’m a little more excited about the small-scale resin "Big Lex:" a SR being done in conjunction with Lexington’s visual identity program, which will include a big giant blue horse:

The dramatic sculptural likeness of "Big Lex" will become a beacon for visitors and a popular tourist attraction during the World Equestrian Games. A banner based on traditional horse racing graphics can be draped across the Big Lex sculpture to announce special occasions and upcoming events.

http://pentagram.com/en/new/2009/03/new-work-lexington-kentucky.php

I’m not normally a big fan of resins, but as this will be a small-scale reproduction of a big giant blue horse, I’m all in. Because y’all know about my obsession with giant fiberglass livestock - and if you don’t, you will in the near future, now that the weather’s all nice and stuff…

Like everyone else, I’m also excited to see that Giselle and Gilen will debut in plastic at BreyerFest, presumably as a Tent Ticket Special. They’ll be sold as a set, with Giselle in light gray, and Gilen in baby black. I guess that solves the riddle of what the hot, must-have item will be this year. I hope that means a 2011 regular run release - or dare to hope, a Fall 2010 release - follows. (If only to save those coveted SRs from the customizer’s knife.)

There’s also some talk that Reeves is in talks with the owner of one of the horses that played Gandalf’s horse Shadowfax in The Lord of the Rings films, as a possible 2011 Celebration Horse. That’s led to speculation on next year’s theme, with the bulk of commentators seeming to think that it’s "Horses in Literature." Yeah, maybe, but there are other possibilities: "Legends," "Fantasy" or even the dreaded "Pretty, Pretty Princess" theme that was hinted at in the beginning of the Theme Suggestion thread on Blab a few months back would all work with Shadowfax.

I’m not a big fan of the Literature theme, mostly because (gasp!) I’m not big into horse-themed literature, beyond Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley. Too much sentimentality and wish-fulfillment for my tastes. The rights issues could be a bit of a problem, too; the Tolkien estate can be difficult to work with.

Tour de Horse

The worst part of the back attack was not being able to go to the flea market. It wasn’t the potential goodies I probably lost, but the window shopping I really missed. Even if I don’t buy something - there’s actually quite a lot I pass up, for a variety of reasons - I still like to see it "in the wild."

It’s also interesting to observe other people in the market respond to them - what’s the market like when I take myself out of the picture? What I like and what other collectors like are two different things: stepping back helps me judge the general market a little bit better.

Yep, even when I’m shopping, I’m doing research.

Since I’ve regained some of my mobility over the past two days, I’ve gone on a window shopping bender, sort of a "Tour de Horse," to make up for that lost opportunity. Yesterday I had a work assignment that was a little bit out of my usual way, and gave me the chance to stop at a number of toy stores, Targets, and other places with Breyers in them.

The only horselike purchase I was going to allow myself was the one Target Pony Gal SM that I’m still missing: I didn’t find him. All I walked away with yesterday was some deeply discounted school supplies (hey, I WAS almost out of graph paper!) but boy, I was tempted.

I wasn’t so lucky today, but we’ll get there in a minute.

One of the stops was a Big Lots: yep, as reported elsewhere they did have some Wal-Mart leftovers: a couple of the Classic Mustang sets, and the SM Flicka set. The discount on them was surprisingly minimal, at least compared to the Breyer merchandise they clearanced out late last year. That’s where and when I finally managed to pick up those oddball, noncatalog Stablemates Accessory Kits that Target briefly carried. They had some of the SR and RR MiniWhinnies Sets last year, too, but I had already picked those up at regular retail.

I wonder if this means that Big Lots will be a regular clearance venue for Reeves in the future, just like T.J. Maxx and Marshall’s? Interesting that most of the merchandise has been Big Box SRs, too. Hmm.

Some of our local Meijer stores have changed their toy departments around slightly, as I suspected: a slightly bigger selection of Breyers, but no store exclusive or store-first stuff (yet.) But they do carry Schleich now! Good to know.

Today I went to the local TSC, nominally to pick up some spray primer and sandpaper, but mostly to look at the toy selection. They finally had the Breyer stuff up: the Banner, the Bonanza Set, the Waiting For Santa Play Set, Nutcracker Prince, and some odd quasi-SR Stablemates Play Sets. (The horses are mostly re-issued RRs; it’s the combination of accessories with horses that make them SRs, sort of. That and their stock numbers. Another one of those documentation thingies.)

The Bonanza Set came home with me, though it’s still hanging out in the car until I can manage to sneak it into the house without anyone noticing. I almost bought the Waiting for Santa set. The price was decent - $29.99, only a couple bucks more than its premiere price on QVC, but I thought I was pushing it with the Bonanza set, so I left it behind for now.

The Duchess is very nice - she’s that beautiful Dark Bay/Mahogany color that I’ve been really loving lately (most recently seen as one of the Color Crazy Huck Bey releases.) It was the Cochise that sold me though. The Cochise in the JAH promo picture was on the Ginger, and she was the one piece in the set I was ambivalent about. I love black pintos, but for some reason I wasn’t loving her.

On the other hand, I came very close yesterday to buying a really sharp, semi-gloss Warmblood Stallion in the RR Bay-going-Gray, so the mold’s surprise appearance in the Bonanza set was a winner for me.

(I wouldn’t read anything into the Ginger mold’s replacement - maybe they just liked the Warmblood Stallion better.)

Pony Gals

Something short and sweet today – still busying myself with BreyerFest preparations.

Still no sign of the Pony Gals Stablemates at any of the Targets near me, but I'm not surprised. This is Michigan – nonessential items like model horses aren't exactly flying off the shelves here right now. It's going to be a few weeks, or even months, before they restock.

I'm guessing the situation isn't going to be too different anywhere else, either – it's probably going to be one of those gradual rollouts that'll be dependent on how quickly a store turns over its merchandise. Some will get them sooner than others, but most stores will eventually get some. And, as some folks have pointed out, they might even have a few of them in the Ninja Pit this year for those of us who don't live so close to a well-stocked Target. So there's no need to panic yet.

I did my part to help the process along, and bought some of the previous semi-exclusive Stablemates. I had a dentist appointment that wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be – and I deserved some ponies anyway, dammit! That G3 TB is just the cutest little snot, and I love Peruvians...


I'm hoping y'all have noticed the numbering system on the Pony Gal SMs: they're six digit, 700 series numbers, which means they are special run items (i.e. this being the “acknowledgment” I often speak of.) I don't know if they're going to be exclusive to Target, or be like those quasi-specials that only turns up in certain chains, like the previous Stablemates.

Right now I'm leaning towards them being Target exclusives, only because Target has had some other exclusive Pony Gal merchandise for a little while now – namely, the three Special Run Classic Scale Pony Gals:

720051 Lily, My First Dapple Grey
720053 Daisy, My First Pinto
720054 Abbey, My First Appaloosa

There's also a “Two Stall Travel Barn,” but I'm unsure of that particular item's status (SR, RR, quasi-SR, etc.) since its release number, according to my notes, is 7085 – in line with the regular run numbers. It's basically just the Classics Two Stall Barn Travel Case, molded in different colors with special Pony Gals packaging. (I have to confess that I've been a little lax on my research of barns and accessories. The horses are hard enough to keep track of!)

I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk of these previous specials, but these are products geared towards juvenile nonhobbyists. I prefer to have my horses move only in my imagination, thanks.