Whatnots

Nothing makes you feel old like shopping for store brand Ben-gay at the grocery store.

On the other hand, with it I’ve been able to get a decent night’s sleep with it for the past two days, though the dreams are beyond weird. Like playing hide-and-seek in a multidimensional furniture store weird. 

I’ll take it, I guess. 

What I won’t be taking? A trip to Denver in March. Tickets for BreyerWest go on sale today (I double checked this time, LOL). Flights are expensive, the exclusive special – a Gloss Harkness – is nice but nothing I can’t live without, and my presence is not required, so I am giving it a pass. 

(It’s a little more complicated than that, but nothing else you need to know.)

I think too many hobbyists are overthinking the fact that the Swirls & Snowflakes Stablemates are still available. They probably made more due to historical demand – remember that some previous iterations of them sold out in hours – and I also think the hobby in general is experiencing blind bag fatigue. 

The general public likes blind bags just fine, but the Christmas ones are targeted toward active collectors, and I think most of us would like the option – if possible – of buying a complete set and being done with it. Designate a certain amount of them as sets, sell the rest as individuals, the end. 

For me, personally, it’s also because (in case you haven’t noticed!) I’ve been acquiring a crazy amount of rarities, Test Colors and Grails: things I have wanted for years, sometime decades. Things like that trump items that I found out about a week or two ago. My money is also not infinite: I have to draw the line somewhere.

And now there’s a Test Color/Oddity Lady Roxana on eBay that’s caught my eye. Like I need another Test Color, yikes… She’s not even a BreyerFest Auction piece or anything. I already have a Sample Roxana, on the Sahara release. And a Preproduction Test of Roxana on the Sham…

Yes, I have a lot of Tests, Samples, Oddities and Whatnots. Probably not quite as many as Reeves does, but I’m hesitant to get them out for a group shot and put that theory to the test. (No pun intended!)

Finally, I found this link on another (non-horsey) blog I frequent, and I thought I would be something of interest to at least a few of you; consider it an early Christmas present:

https://go.nasa.gov/MessageInABottle

Pretty Chestnuts

As you know, I’ve had a hard time warming up to the Dundee mold, but I think next year’s BreyerFest Celebration Horse is one I will keep: that is a very pretty shade of chestnut, and I do like minimal pintos:

I’ve been watching a lot archaeological documentaries lately (hello insomnia, my old friend), so when I hear the phrase “Athenian lady”, all I can think of is how the actual ladies of Ancient Athens were the opposite of empowered.

I know it’s just a play on one of the goddess’s many names and I am reading way too much into it; ‘tis the curse of being a history nerd. 

Her story is (fortunately) not as sentimental as a lot of horse stories tend to be. I am not immune to sentimentality, but The Hallmark Channel doesn’t get a lot of airtime in my house, either. 

(As far as the rescue angle is concerned – I am not touching that with a 50-foot pole and a Hazmat suit. All I will say on the matter publicly is that the enemy of your enemy is not your friend.)

I also really like the latest Test Run offering, who is also a lovely shade of chestnut with just a little bit of extra white:

I was just thinking that if I ever got the notion of entering another Collector’s Class at BreyerFest (definitely NOT next year!) I’d want to do a “Hooked on Classics” Test theme, especially since I have… a lot of Classic Test Colors. A documented “Archival” Test would made a very nice addition to that potential entry, since the rest of mine are technically undocumented. 

I’d also like something in Appaloosa and something in Gloss, too, for variety’s sake, but I also know those are even longer shots than this fellow.

The Gray Areas

Still busy, but making progress, enough to take a moment and finish one controversy before I start another. So here’s that other thing I bought recently that you may or may not recognize, from that same seller I bought a couple of other “questionable” models from, and who very well may block me from bidding on items in the future after talking about this:

This Merrylegs was sold as a “Custom” and I suppose technically she is, but in the same way that a lot of Marney Test Colors from the 1980s were: being something painted (or touched up) at the factory using factory paint by someone who wasn’t directly employed by the factory. 

She was advertised on eBay as such because she has the dated signature of her painter, D’arry Frank:

D’arry was a good friend of Marney’s and sometimes accompanied her to the factory in Chicago to also paint things. Even though these models now exist in a kind of “gray area”, the powers-that-were at Breyer at the time gave them the same consideration – and sometimes, moreso – as the Tests and Variations created by the hourly or contracted employees.

The rationale for that being that hobbyists are going to try and paint things that they – and other hobbyists – wanted to buy.

Yes, this is a rather long-winded way of saying that she’s a Vintage Test Color, however we choose to define them. And even if I accepted the original explanation, it would still be a win for me, because I have wanted a custom by D’arry since the mid-1980s anyway!

The real question now is whose collection is this, really? This was clearly someone who knew what they were doing. And a seller (or assistant) who doesn’t quite.

(Still doesn’t make up for the Performance Horse, but water over the bridge, yadda-yadda…)

Identifying Marney Tests

How do you identify a so-called “Marney Test”, a Test Color either created or rescued by famous hobbyist and Breyer Consultant Marney Walerius? It’s both more, and less complicated than you might think!

Marney worked for Breyer in some capacity from the late 1960s through the 1980s, so they are limited to molds produced in that period. Many also have a little provenance: some of Marney’s Test Color photo albums and sales/auction lists still exist. There is definitely little chance of two or more of this gal existing anywhere, for instance:

She also tended to favor certain colors and models. The Hess Stock Horses (see above) were a favorite, as were Adios and Sham. Paint jobs were often (but not always!) pretty basic – lots of solid colors, with minimal markings – and limited to the paint palette they had on hand. 

A lot of them were simple (or not so simple) variations of colors and color schemes that eventually went into production; whether they were preproduction pieces or things that were cobbled from flawed production models is usually unanswerable.

I have a feeling this girl was an early preproduction of the eventual Black Appaloosa Regular Run release, possibly to more closely match the Bay Appaloosa Stallion, but that is just a guess on my part based on her raised hoof.

Marney frequently did the retouching herself, so some of them could probably be classified as “Factory Customs” today, but the question is moot, since most of them are not going to set the showing world on fire. 

(But I love her, regardless. If you know where she is, drop me a line!)

Context is also important. Unless they’re found within the collections of former hobbyists, most random Test Colors found “in the wild” are probably Employee Take-Homes, especially if they’re found within a certain radius of Chicago. Things were pretty casual back then, in every sense of the word; almost anyone could take a little something home from the factory, and they often did. 

Model Horse Melodrama

Generally I’m not a big fan of Victorian Melodramas: it’s not so much the style that bothers me (though it sometimes does: it can be so emotionally exhausting!), but the fact that all too often it feels like I’m living in one.

 

(I picked up a small stack of these at the local flea market years ago, because seriously, why wouldn’t you?) 

I had a couple of really rough days last week and was feeling pretty low, so you guys don’t know how much it means to me that y’all are (mostly!) sticking up for me on this incredibly bizarre BreyerFest Test Color Adventure. I don’t know where this is going, but I am definitely not taking my hands of the wheel until the car comes to a complete stop.

As a minor reward to all of you, I’d like to point out that there’s a seller on eBay who has a couple of Unpainted Sherman Morgan bodies up for sale – the older lumpy ones with the turd-shaped tail! (They are listed as Mustangs, so might not come up in you saved searches.)

I know there’s lots of Shermie fans out there who might go for that sort of thing, history buffs who’d want a cull of an obsolete version of the mold because history, and Unpainted collectors looking for something rare and cool.

Anyway, moving on…. 

I’m going to be extremely busy for the next month or so, because absolutely nothing is finished for BreyerFest and beyond. This week I’m hoping to get the Sampler and its associated paperwork done, or mostly done, and then I can spend the rest of my time working on the live show stuff.

I am trying not to get too worked up about the show, either, but I want to at least not embarrass myself. And I am setting my sights pretty low for success: one NAN card, and 5 to 10 placings total seems reasonable, considering the size of the show. (Unlike a lot of shows nowadays, they place to tenth. Tenth counts!)

Any prize model would be a delight forever, but I am not betting on it. Two factors that do seem to have some effect on the quality and quantity of one’s placing are (a) spending big [I don’t] and (b) being lucky [for the most part, no]. Fortunately, the Overall and Reserve aren’t on molds that are must-haves for me, either. 

The color on the Roxy Tilbury is gorgeous – one I was considering for the custom of the Classic Quarter Horse Mare I’ve been playing with – but I prefer the loose mane to the braided on her. Most of Breyer’s newer braided manes just don’t do it for me. (Except for the ones on the Gabriel version of the Nikolas mold. Those are pretty adorable.)

 

The problem with the Big Ben mold is that he has a lot of unattainables in his back catalog, and they’re all the ones I want the most (Silver Twilight, Sonnet, Serengeti, the FEI Dark Bay). It is hard to get my hopes up when all I see when I look at Stanhope is the newest member of that exclusive club. 

Stripping for Fun and Profit

Just some random ranting to start my day.

I knew it was going to be a dry year, but the ground is literally cracking, leaves are already falling off the trees, and I legitimately cannot remember when we had measurable rain (my birthday, maybe?) Ugh.

In other annoying news, I attempted to strip a Proud Arabian Stallion body I found loitering on my workbench. But whatever paint the original customizer slapped on him, it’s resistant to everything short of a blowtorch. 

At this point it’s about 50/50 of whether I’m going to toss him in my free box, or keep him on the workbench because dammit I don’t want him to beat me. But I have no idea what I would turn him into, and far too many projects already cluttering up my life. 

Anyway, I was sorting through a pile of ephemera I found while finishing up my saleslist, and and thought this box might be worth at least a quick discussion:

Many hobbyists make the blanket assumption that any obvious paint removal via acetone is an aftermarket alteration, but that’s not always the case. It was one of the many techniques used, especially in the Chicago Era (pre-1985) for Test Color experimentation. 

This was the era prior to use of adhesive die-cut stickers, and creating a painting mask was a very labor-intensive process. Before going through the effort, they’d sometimes paint up models and then apply acetone – they used it to fuse model parts together, so they had gallons of it – to remove paint and alter markings and patterns until they finalized the design.

And as you can see on the box for the Action Stock Horse Foal, these Test Colors sometimes made it onto the box, often to the annoyance of many collectors And very occasionally out in the wild; the irregular star on my Test Color Phar Lap, on the Traditional Man o’ War mold, is very obviously acetone-retouched. 

In case you were wondering, the opposite was also true, but somewhat less common: every once and a great while I’ll find a model that was touched-up at the factory with a hand brushed application of paint. 

The few instances I’ve seen have all been with solid black paint, which makes sense: no need to worry about subtle gradations of color or blending, especially when the acetone-based paint itself dries in a matter of seconds!

It’s pretty remarkable they manage to get the effects they do, working with a finicky medium like that. 

Someone Drops A Shoe

To work off the drama of the past several days, I spent a good chunk of my weekend either customizing or gardening. 

I didn’t get quite as far with the garden as I hoped: it was hotter than the bottom of a skillet outside, and it hasn’t rained in a while so the ground was the consistency of concrete. It’s definitely looking better, though.

I thought I was doing pretty well with a few of the customs I was playing around with, and maybe even close to done. Then I hit them with a little primer to check my progress, and discovered I seriously overestimated my customizing skills. 

Oof. 

But here’s a bit of good news: the vintage Black Stallion custom is finally finished! Just look at this beautiful boy:

I decided to go with a retro, poofy ‘80s-style hairdo. I am also inordinately proud of the base I made for him: most custom bases in the 1980s were rather crude (compared to the horse, anyway) and he deserved something classy to stand on. 

I am heartened by the support I received in the comments over the Performance Horse Affair. I was initially hesitant to come forward with the story, expecting that it might generate some negative feedback. 

But I thought it was important to put it out there, because (a) it was already a topic of discussion (b) it was something I was personally involved in, and (c) it did not have the happy ending people were imagining it did.

I have a feeling the model itself is now radioactive; I rather doubt we’ll be seeing it again anytime soon. If it does turn up again, it’s going to be awkward for everyone. 

Regardless, the best case scenario is that maybe this will lead to the hobby having a more open and thorough discussion about the etiquette and ethics of selling and reselling, instead of it disintegrating into insinuations that we’re price-shaming people by even mentioning money.

At this point there are between 500 to 750 BreyerFest Benefit Auction models floating around out there. One of them will be mine someday, I know it. There were a lot of weird, homely and unshowable things in those early auctions: Rugged Larks and Khemosabis and all manner of Classics, to name a few. 

This one would have been the best, most perfect ending of my quest. It was one of my favorite molds (Performance Horse), in one of my favorite colors (Red Roan), from one of the few BreyerFest Auctions I personally attended (1993), at an insanely good price.

Alas, no. But there’s an interesting postscript to the story. 

Here’s the other misidentified model I bought from the same seller the same day for the same price, and (fortunately) the sale wasn’t canceled several hours after the fact:

A nice consolation prize, I suppose, even though I already have another Classic Black Stallion Test Color in the stable. (I know, who gets to say stuff like that? Someone who’s not particularly particular about the Test Colors she buys!)

He feels a bit like a Marney Test to me, but his origins are unknown. The less flashy parts of Marney’s collection were being dispersed by sellers at BreyerFest in 1993 – including boring, solid-colored Test Color Classics, Hess Stock Horses and the like – so it’s entirely possible he was purchased around the same time as the APH. 

Not the happy ending I was hoping for, but I’ll take it. 

Eight and a Half Hours

A little bird has told me that a recent purchase I made is the source of a great deal of speculation.

Yes, I was the “lucky” soul who managed to score the 1993 BreyerFest Benefit Auction Red Roan Appaloosa Performance Horse on Thursday.

It took me a few seconds to see what I was seeing: that’s no ordinary Appaloosa Performance Horse. Buy It Now? Hella yeah. 

After a couple of tense seconds that felt like hours, the sale went through.

I started hyperventilating. Then I drank a massive amount of Mountain Dew (alcohol was off the table: I had to go to work in a couple of hours) and immediately texted a friend IN ALL CAPS, punctuated by swear words. As one does when someone scores a major grail. 

I’ve achieved a number of Grails in recent years, and the next “big one” I had been aiming for was an early BreyerFest Auction piece. That’s because most of those earlier models were probably actual Test Colors, and on the Vintage molds I prefer. They were what they were, and were not designed specifically to maximize bidding. 

I have also occasionally seen early Auction Tests turn up on eBay (and elsewhere), often misidentified. There was a not implausible hope that I could get lucky someday.

I was at the 1993 Auction; it was one of the few I actually attended, and probably the last where I could have afforded anything. I was in Art School and money was a little scarce, so I did not bid. (Though my BreyerFest roommate that year did.)

Do I remember this specific model from that year? Nope. I don’t remember many Auction Tests, recent and not so: these models slip from my mind, because I know they are not achievable in any way. 

And ultimately, so was this model. 

My ownership ended eight and a half hours later: the sale was canceled around 9 p.m., because “the item was out of stock.” I contacted the seller for more information, and the only explanation I was given was that it was “listed in error”. 

We’ve all had the experience of scoring something fabulous for a song on eBay, only to have the sale canceled a short time later, often when someone tattles after the fact. We’re not the only hobby where that happens, but we’re a small enough community to usually know who the suspects are.

Their story may be true. It may not. All I know is that when this model inevitably reappears, all I’ll be able to do is look away, and think: I owned you, once, for eight and a half hours. 

Metallic Bay Adios

That was an unwelcome surprise: I found a giant black spider on the envelope of my BreyerFest tickets as I pulled them out of the mailbox yesterday! I freaked out and immediately dropped all my mail on the ground, because spiders. 

The last time I had that close of an encounter with a spider, I got bit and thought I’d have to go to the ER. So my reaction was not entirely unjustified.

I am happy to report that both me and the spider survived the incident unscathed, as did the tickets. (No footprints!) The rest of the mail was also fine, including a lot of vintage Wyoming travel brochures I bought off eBay.

In less traumatic news, I was not draw for a Sparrow, but that’s neither a surprise nor a heartbreak. If I want to speak of heartbreak, there’s another Test Color Drawing, for a Metallic Bay Adios:

I wasn’t expecting this, because he’s not particularly flashy or groundbreaking (another Bay Adios, of all things?) but gosh, he is so pretty. I think I need him. 

Adios was a pretty popular guy in the 1970s and 1980s with both the general public and hobbyists: not only was he a portrait model twice over (Adios and Yellow Mount), he was also one of the more anatomically correct models of the era, and tended to show pretty well. Everyone had at least one Adios mold in their showstring!

Consequently, bodies were plentiful at the factory, which resulted a number of Test Colors and Oddities. You experiment with what’s available to you, after all…. 

The most desirable of these Oddball Adioses at the time, of course, were the Black ones. 

Contrary to hobby belief, the Black Adios was never formally considered a Special Run of any sort: they existed in a fuzzy gray area somewhere in between Test Color, Factory Custom and Gift/Prize Model. 

Some of them were painted by Marney as gifts to hobbyists who were lucky enough to get a factory tour: Black was the easiest color of all to paint, and since it covered a multitude of decorative sins, it was also a good way to use up some of the Culls in the regrind bin.

But she also painted up (or rescued?) some for resale. I remember seeing at least a couple in the Test Color boxes she casually placed on some empty show tables at Model Horse Congress in 1985, the ones that made everyone in attendance go into full meltdown mode.   

I was never lucky enough to get a Black Adios, though I came pretty close: our local hobbyist group was planning a trip to visit the Chicago factory in mid to late 1984, but the tour got canceled at the last minute, probably due to the pending sale to Reeves International. 

Considering how much of a legend the Black Adios has become nowadays, I think I have a better shot at getting the Metallic Bay one. 

Technically, I do have a Test Color Adios, or at least I think he is (yeah, it is one of those things) but I’ll cover him another time, when I actually have a little more to spare.

More, or Less?

Enjoying a momentary respite here: the taxes are done, the seeds have been started, and (most) of the financial paperwork I wanted to wrap up has been… wrapped up. Nothing I need to get done can get done until tomorrow, other than some stray e-mails that I am procrastinating about.

I was going to write up a more full-bodied explanation of my reasoning surrounding the likelihood of the early Family Arabian Special Runs, but the initial dive into my research materials left my head spinning. So instead, let’s focus on something that is both less – and more – of a mystery:

As I mentioned many, many years ago, I picked up this Western Horse at Model Horse Congress back in 1985 or 1986, which was both significantly before the Just About Horses Special Run Palomino Pinto from 1990, and well after the Regular Run release #56, which was discontinued in 1966. 

The fact that he is essentially unfinished (the black paint is very obviously not factory original, in person) and without his original reins tells me he was a Cull, and the fact that that particular shade of Matte Neon Palomino was typical of models from the early 1980s suggests he “escaped” from the factory not long before I had purchased him. 

Even curiouser: the pinto mask/stencil used to create him was also last used in production over ten years earlier!

(I cannot remember if the saddle was a replacement, or came with. Probably a replacement.)

I didn’t think too much about how truly odd he is until recently, though: in fact, he really is one of the weirdest things in my collection. Had he been a very early Test for the JAH release that was shelved? A frivolity that the one of the painters played around with? Were they training, or giving a painting demonstration of how those metal masks worked, with the Western Horse simply being the most convenient test subject? 

Most of the random Test Color Western Horses I see tend to be of the solid variety, and also usually complete. I am presuming he was either an Employee Take-Home, or a model Marney salvaged from the factory as a body. 

Bodies that also happened to be Test Colors, or other such rarities were not that uncommon back then, by the way. The bodies that always freaked me out were the Special Run Culls: I remember seeing a few of the Chestnut Midnight Sun that absolutely messed with my head. 

It’s a body, but it’s also a Rare Special Run! Argh, my brain!

It was not that big a deal for most other hobbyists (who were just happy for the cheap bodies) but now I wonder just how much something like that would go for today, in its original state. Crazy bucks, more than likely; I even remember some of us speculating about that possibility back then. And laughing about it....

Another question I have been asking myself about him lately is: should I restore him? I am not as weirded out as I used to be about naked, or partially naked models sitting on the shelf, and I am not one of those hobbyists who insists that even obviously unrealistic paint jobs require realistically painted eyes.

If I do, I’ll probably strip the black paint off and replace his reins, because I still remain a minimalist when it comes to Original Finish restorations. But not much beyond that: if he was simple discard, a cull of little import, then those scuffs and marks are also an indicator of his history. Fully restoring him would erase all that. 

Just something to think about. 

Silver, Gold and Gloss

Another scattershot post; the past few days have been pretty rough personally, and I have that show to get ready for next week that I’m still not ready for. (I do finally have all the supplies, though!) 

First off, one of these days I’ll get one of those Gambler’s Choice Micro Run surprises in the mail, but yesterday was not that day:

Not that big of a surprise, really. The bigger annoyance was that my shipping box was not only not fully sealed – just a single piece of cellophane tape between it and total shipping annihilation – there was no ephemera. Yeah, I know, I actually wrote the darn thing, but the fancy-fancy actual printed and distributed copy that my archives demand was not there. Bummer.

Second, I wasn’t quite as enamored over the Test Color Rose Gray Sabino Big Ben as everyone else was this week, though if I had “won” him, I certainly wouldn’t have hesitated to take him. In spite of the fact that I have several varieties of Test Colors, I think it would be neat to own one of the publicly “raffled” ones, and it is impossible to dictate which one the Universe chooses for me. 

But again, this week was not that week. At this point I think I’ll have odds of finding a random old BreyerFest Test Color on eBay. And speaking of that, that vintage Froelich I was pining over was relisted at a much more reasonable starting price. Hmm, something to reconsider…

Third, RIP Joe Giella, one of my favorite comic book artists; he inked many pivotal Silver Age stories, including “Flash of Two Worlds” (The Flash #123, September 1961) which introduced the comic book fandom to Earth-2 and the concept of the Multiverse. I was also faithful reader of the comic strip Mary Worth for many years (yes, really!) because of his work on it. 

And finally, there was the explosion in the chocolate factory in Pennsylvania that has me a little on edge, considering where I work. 

Back to paperwork. 

Unpopular Opinions

I suspected the speckly blue thing was the Classic Decorator, and I was not wrong!

He’s neat. I really like the Classic Morgan mold, but I haven’t found one in a color I like yet. All the original Silver Bays I found had significant masking issues, the Red Bay was a little bland, the Decorator Tie Dye model is too goofy for me, and I am reluctant to buy the whole Spanish Mustang(!) Family just to get the Solid Black guy. But Delft… is a maybe. I just wish he were a tiny bit fancier?

Then there’s the Traditional Decorator Nemea:

Nemea is an obvious adaptation of the very well-received Decorator Marwari from the 2018 BreyerFest auction. And proof that some Test Colors from the BreyerFest Benefit Auction are actually Test Colors!

As the Akhal-Teke mold is longer than a football field, he’s also not a priority for me. If I do get another example of the mold in the near future, I’m still hoping that it’s a nicely-shaded Adamek; I still haven’t found “the one” just yet.

I suppose I should address the brouhaha in the comments that broke out while I was busy binge watching art restoration videos and hand quilting. Since my fingertips are now a bit sore from that effort, I’ll try to keep things short and simple here.

Last year’s BreyerFest was Reeves’s first attempt at a true “hybrid” event, and… it showed. As I’ve said many times before, Reeves is not a large company, and the people who work their often have to fill multiple roles. 

Did they stretch themselves out a little too thin last year? Perhaps; on the other hand, since it was their first attempt at a true hybrid event, and they didn’t know what was going to work, and what wouldn’t. Like the online-only events, they will undoubtedly take the lessons that they learned from the first, and apply them to the second.

It’s a pretty safe assumption that there will be some changes, but the scope of the changes – and whether or not they actually “work” – well, we’re not going to know until we’re back in the thick of it again in July, right? 

(All I know for sure is that more volunteers will be needed, in-person and [probably] online. So if you’re interested, please apply!)

2020 and 2021 were events held under unique and extraordinary circumstances, and it is very, very unlikely that any future BreyerFests will be able to offer the full gamut of Special Runs and other items available at an in-person BreyerFest to online attendees.  

And as others have pointed out, what’s the point of having an in-person event if there is no stuff exclusive to the in-person event?

BreyerFest was originally designed and intended as a live, in-person event: an in-person experience cannot be fully or adequately reproduced online. Reeves’s attempts to duplicate the in-person experience in 2020 – for example, the whole timed ticket fiasco – often ended up causing more heartache than happiness. 

Personally, I think the way forward for them is simply have them be complementary events that happen to share some of the same models (the Celebration Horse, most of the Store Specials) and activities. And have models and activities unique to each experience. 

They’re apparently trying that with some of the Ticket Specials, restricting some of them to in-person participants only. My guess is that they’re also doing this with models that they foresee as being especially popular: they would rather make sure that they have enough of those models for people who made the physical and financial effort to go to Kentucky. 

I would hope that they do offer a little bit more in the way of compensation for online-only guests. As I suggested before, giving them a gloss option on the Store Specials would definitely help. 

But whatever they do, please remember that there are limits to what they can do as a relatively small company. Just a few years ago, the Online Option didn’t even exist: it’s going to be a while before they find the right balance of offerings. 

And remember that there are some people in the hobby – and life, in general – who will literally never be happy with anything, no matter what you do for them or what you offer them. There is usually something else going on under the surface there that no amount of pretty horses can fill. 

Dog Shaped, Dog Themed, or Just a Dog?

Ah, my head’s all messed up today! I had to do a double shift on Saturday, go to a wedding shower on Sunday, and deal with Daylight Savings Time on top of all that. And then the devastating news about Duran Duran… 

Today is still Monday, right?

At least I know I am not alone. This week promises to mess with the heads of all of us. I am kind of nervous about a potential Breyer Hall of Fame announcement, and might actually be mad if they don’t get in this time…

I didn’t bother entering for Kalahari; aside from trying to avoid any extraneous hobby purchases until the end of the year, I prefer dog-shaped Breyers to dog-themed ones. 

Speaking of Breyer Dogs, I’ve seen both the White Boxer and the Test Color Benji on eBay, yes. I’d love either (or both!) but their listing prices are a little out of my comfort zone. 

It’s become rather obvious that the White Boxer is not quite as rare as we thought it was, so I harbor a faint bit of hope I’ll randomly find one somewhere. 

Oh, and I’ve also seen that BreyerFest Test Color Donkey on eBay too. While it meets all my necessary criteria – it is a verifiable, documented BreyerFest Auction piece from before 2000 – the price is way too high, and I already have a Test Color Donkey anyway. 

For the record, I’m willing to go as high as $1200 to $1500 for an early BreyerFest Auction Test, but cheaper is always better, and I am not concerned about it being live show quality or not. I’d also prefer a mold I don’t already have a Test Color in, but I’m not going to turn down a Traditional Man o’ War or Trakehner if the price was right. 

I might be picky, but I am not stupid. 

I have a pretty busy week ahead of me, so that’s all for today, folks. 

The Two Dollar Test

I still feel very much like a coagulated puddle of sweat and Gatorade, so you’ll have to forgive me for continuing to be a little antisocial until the end of the week or so. 

It’s nothing personal guys, I just think I underestimated how emotionally overwhelmed I’d be at being at the first in-person BreyerFest in three years. I thought I’d be prepared because I’d been to two live shows and Motor City Comic Con in the months previous, but I guess not!

Everything is out of the car, but I probably won’t be finished unpacking and sorting until the weekend. In the meantime, I also have to deal with some work-related stuff and getting the garden back in shape, too. (Wax beans are imminent!)

I wasn’t able to bring home the Dapple Gray Belgian or any of the Five-Gaiters I was looking for (there was a dearth of vintage stuff at the hotel this year), but I did find a few neat things I’ll be sharing over the next couple of weeks. 

But there is one little thing I do want to share with the group right now. I was actually getting a little obnoxious about it by the end of the weekend, but I think you’ll understand why when you see it.

I didn’t get a chance to go to the NPOD Friday morning, because I had actual stuff to do both at the hotel and at the KHP. I did hear about – and see! – some of the goodies pulled out of the “Body Bins” later in the day, though, including a Matte Dappled Black Five-Gaiter. 

(Yes, I whimpered a bit. But it went to someone who is almost as obsessed with vintage stuff as I am, so I know he will be well-loved.)

Since I didn’t have anything to do first thing Saturday morning, I decided to be brave and go for it.

The only complication I ran into was the fact that Reeves didn’t handle the numbered tickets very well: they had two sets of tickets for the two stores, and instead of handing them out more or less in order, (i.e. either one-one, two-two or in alternating groups of five or ten) they handed out the first 200 sequentially, and then the second set of 200 sequentially. 

That meant that many people would be getting into – and out of! – one of the stores before people who had gotten there several hours earlier. Not cool, guys! They also claimed that both stores had the same merchandise, but I knew that was not the case, which is why I fought to get into the main store in the Covered Arena. 

(This had apparently happened the day before, so that was something I was prepared for. And it was also remedied the next day. And forever, hopefully. This is not rocket science, guys!)

Anyway, after all that nonsense, I found this fabled body bin. It was almost all Classics that day, with some Traditional Foals also in the mix. I’m not as familiar with Classic oddities – in spite of owning an awful lot of them! – but I dug through the bin and pulled a few things out that I thought were worth my time. 

(Technically they were all “worth the time”: everything in the bin was Two Dollars!)

Then I grabbed this Ginger and said to myself: well, she’s peculiar:

She’s Chalky, with natural-colored hooves, tons of pinking, and handpainted eyes. Yes, dear readers, I found myself a two-dollar Test Color! 

A friend of mine pointed out that she might be a Test for the First Christmas Horse Snowball, on the Haflinger mold, and I think she might be right, or at least in the neighborhood.

She’s not in the best condition, and I doubt she’d show well anywhere, but I love her all the same. Especially since I found her at a BreyerFest with a $65,000 Auction Test Color in it! 

I know that the prices at the Auction this year discouraged a lot of people from imagining that they could ever afford a Test Color, but as my little “Snow Baby” shows, it’s not always about the money. Do your research, do the legwork, and treasures will eventually find you.

(I’ll take her out of her bag, eventually.)

A Brief Interlude with Classic Ruffians

This weekend is full of anxiety. It’s not just the holiday weekend and all the drama that usually brings with it: a couple of big decisions are being made about me, and I’m not going to know my fate until Monday afternoon at the earliest. 

My normal recourse in situations like this would be to go out and pull weeds, but the weather took a brutal turn and is not going to get any better for the next several days, so I’m now going through and cleaning up some old tax paperwork I’ve been avoiding. And being reminded of why I was avoiding it in the first place, oh joy! 

The 2021 papers are almost done. The 2020 papers are… a work in progress. (To be clear, the taxes are done and filed, it’s just the e-mails, receipts and other paperwork that need to be organized to my satisfaction. Even with my taxes, I’m a paperwork nerd!)

Since I am not in a super chatty mood today, I’ll share a photo of something I bought a while back, but haven’t shared until now because other items and other topics got in the way:

She’s a Test or Sample of the Misty II from the #3350 Misty Family Set, the one that included a Black Pinto Swaps and a Palomino Mesteno Foal. One of the reasons I was hesitant to share was because she’s a little on the rough side, and I haven’t had time to clean her up. Most of the marks are in her white areas, thank goodness, so it really is just a matter of time and patience.

She’s not “showable” in the live show sense, though – if you want to compete with Classic Racehorses, it’s best to stick closely to the Loves, and the Swaps and Man o’ War in particular – but the mold is a sentimental favorite, and I already have another Test Color Ruffian, and she could use the company. 

Looking purely at the numbers, I paid more for the Misty II than I did the Solid Black, but I bought the Solid Black back in the mid-1980s. So factoring in inflation, the Solid Black probably cost me more. But she would also sell for more because, aside from an excellent provenance, that photograph is actually a pretty good representation of just how pretty she is in person. 

The whole point is moot, though, since neither one is going anywhere anytime soon.  

More Spring Cleaning

I had a few minutes to spare today so I made a rough list of items I had that were eligible to enter the Breakables show and… I had a lot more than I realized! There is easily over three dozen show-worthy pieces here. Interesting. 

Most of them I would classify as fairly common, or at least not exceptionally exceptional or rare, but there’s also nothing I’d be embarrassed to enter either. It never hurts to enter it anyway: sometimes you’ve owned a model so long you become inured to its beauty or quality, and it takes the fresh eyes of a judge to remind you of it.

I am reminded of everybody squeeing over my Test Color Chestnut Stretched Morgan at the show Saturday before last, for instance. I knew he was great, but seeing so many people over the moon about him was an unexpected highlight, especially since he was virtually ignored at the last show I took him to. 

I have a couple of long weekends coming up here so I could probably get all the photos done and ready to go for Breakables when the time comes. But my priorities right now are finishing my garden prep and spring cleaning. (Dusting, specifically. Ugh.) 

FYI: I am very aware of Shatner’s failings as a human being, and all the potential problems inherent in this scheme. Fortunately, it appears that you do not need to preregister for signatures, so my only commitment here will be to take a model and keep it in the car just in case. 

If it’s possible, I’ll do it; if not, there are plenty of other things to do and to see at the convention, so I’ll go do them instead. (Hello, Freddie Stroma!)

No cosplay this time around, though. Gotta lose about 25 pounds before that’s a possibility again!

Anyway, no e-mail has been forthcoming, so I’m going to write off the drawing for those Glossy Unicorn Tests as another Not-A-Win. I know so folks are upset that sales tax has to be paid on it, but seriously, in my case it would come out to about sixty dollars. Even though sixty dollars is considerably more than what I’ve paid for the majority of my Test Colors, I’d gladly pay it, and so would most of you. 

(If you’ve seen the majority of Test Colors, you’d realize that this in most definitely not a humblebrag!)

But yeah, not likely happening. 

As I was saying to a friend of mine at the show, if you don’t have luck and you don’t have money, all you can do is hustle. So back to hustling, it is…

Live Show Stuff

My showstring is apparently half Morgan, half Warmblood, with a smattering of Mustangs and Arabians. At least this show has separate classes for Morgans – the last one I attended in person did not, which made things complicated. 

But Tests are also being handled completely differently this time around, which means I had to reconsider some of my choices there. I had to cut a few anyway…

If there was a class for damaged or homely Tests, on the other hand, I’d totally clean up! I love you, my Fragment, the Splatter Dapple Gray Family Arabian Mare with a missing leg and ear that I found in a body box lot on eBay:

And let’s not forget my delightful trio of “gently used” Classic Quarter Horses – two Mares, and a Foal – that cost me less than ten dollars, combined:

The Mares I found in the Bentley Sales “clearance” boxes of miscellaneous models they were selling at the 1985 Model Horse Congress. The boxes consisted largely of loose (or casually bagged) things they found as they were cleaning out the Chicago factory, post-Reeves purchase. 

I found the Foal in those same boxes at MHC a year later; I was hoping to find the father of the family eventually, but that never happened. And likely never will: if he were to turn up now, he’d probably be unaffordable anyway. 

It looks like I partially got my wish with the BreyerFest shows: Breakables is online, as well as a Boot Camp-style show for Adult Novices. 

The Boot Camp is obviously out for me – I’m definitely not a Novice! – but I am seriously considering Breakables. I only have a few dozen show-worthy models to curate, compared to the few thousand (!) of the plastic kind. And I’ve always wanted to show this little fellow somehow, somewhere, without the anxiety of actually taking him out on the road: 

(Any clues what he is? What’s left of the sticker is not helpful!)

With less than 50 pieces worth showing, the indecision and waffling that goes with winnowing 2000+ down to a manageable 50 is… simply nonexistent. Conceivably, I could get everything done for that show in the space of a weekend. 

It’s something to consider, if the BreyerFest Open Show ceases to be a possibility (I am still thinking about it.)

Anyhoo, I’m heading offline again. Only about half of my show documentation is done, which is – believe it or not – better than I was anticipating at this point. And I am still undecided about bringing sales items; it will all depend on what the situation looks like on Thursday. (I took Friday off of work for last minute prep and stuff.) Toodles!

Risk Tolerance

Now we know why there was a delay in getting the BreyerFest Contest information posted: they did… stuff to the rules. The Costume Contest is still online and the Diorama Contest requires you to “pre-enter” it online before bringing it to BreyerFest. And some people are still barred from entering because of the legalities involved in that.  

The Customs Contest seems to still be mostly the same, even though I think (personally) that it’s the one contest that needs the most revision. (The “Most Drastic” category is really just an Original Sculpture competition, and you can’t convince me otherwise.)

To be honest, I really don’t have a lot of free time I can exclusively devote to being creative for its own sake, so I feel like I’m the only person in the hobby right now who is not terribly phased by all this.  

I do have a couple of Diorama ideas I might pursue if some free time does open up – one easy and silly, one elaborate and time consuming. I am assuming that 95 percent of the entries for this contest are going to be either Oktoberfest or Christmas Market-related, as will be winners, which might also affect what entry I end up choosing. (If I even do it.)

While I do have Costume Contest ideas, most of them involve a lot of sewing, and what little sewing time I do have for myself (lunchtime, basically) has been spent working on my backlog of quilt projects. So that is likely a complete no-go.

I like that this year’s random category in the Customs Contest involves a relatively unpopular/not often customized mold. I kind of wish it had been something vintage instead of more modern, but going with something that’s currently in production makes sense, since not everyone has easy access to cheap old bodies like I do. The Geronimo mold doesn’t do much for me, though. 

(The three-legged Grazing Foal in my body box, on the other hand, has me full of ideas!)

But anyway, here’s a little of the actual model horse content you come here for: another mystery model!

When I saw the auction lot, I initially dismissed it as either a heavily yellowed Fleabitten Gray Sham, or a discolored Shrinky Bay Sham. But the price was not… terrible, and there was enough evidence there that I decided to take a modest bet on it. 

And it seems to be authentic?

Alas, the model came with no documentation, and the group of models it came with offers no clues to its origins, either. The qualities of the paint job suggest an origin in the 1990s, but it’s clearly not the same Buckskin Sham that was auctioned off in 1998. 

I’m torn between getting him restored and leaving him the way he is; I’ll probably keep him the way he is, because I’m cheap and I’m also unlikely to show him.

Incidentally, this means my tally of “oddball” Shams is now up to four. I swear I don’t have a problem. 

Accessibility Issues

I am surprised that people are surprised that Brunhilde sold out in less than an hour. The collectibles market (in general) has not significantly abated, and even if it has, it always takes… quite a while for the rest of the hobby to catch on. 

The only limited-edition items that haven’t been immediately selling out are either the Classics or the Mare and Foal sets. The Classics are the least popular scale among active hobbyists, sometimes verging on the point of active antagonism: you have to jazz them up with gloss finishes, crazy color schemes, or multiple variations to sell them.

The problem with Mare and Foal sets is that there’s a misalignment of markets: these sets tend to appeal to kids and the parents who buy for them, and hence there’s some hesitancy to buy a premium or limited edition set that may well get played with.  

But yes, I got a Brunhilde; I managed to log in just before the e-mails landed in everyone’s in box, and I didn’t experience any of the technical difficulties that a lot of other hobbyists did a few minutes later. And I am so pleased about her color: this is the precise shade of Bay (sans dapples, because I suck at dappling) that I hope to achieve on that Mesteno custom I’ve been tinkering with, whenever I finally finish her:

She’ll also make me feel a little less guilty about selling off one of my other Wixoms: she’s a big girl, but according to my ongoing inventory, my heart already belongs to the original Big Butt Belgian. 

In other news, I missed the start of the Early Access Black Friday sale, and hence missed anything I would have considered purchasing: everything that was left I either already had or did not want. Considering all the sales items they’re currently throwing at us, I don’t have much else to complain about it, other than missing the thrill of logging on to see what was theoretically available to me.  

And finally, while I am not a huge fan of the Traditional Black Stallion mold, I really love the coloring on the Black Beauty release AA Omner, who the latest Test Run Purchase Raffle was obviously a Test for. I haven’t acquired one yet – it’s something I’ve been saving for in-person BreyerFest, and we haven’t had one of those in a couple years. I haven’t decided which variation I want, and I’m guessing I won’t know until I meet him. 

The Test Subject

While I’ve had my share of fabulous Internet finds, the thrill of actually acquiring one still hasn’t faded after all these years. But it doesn’t feel entirely real until it arrives at your front door:

Initially I thought he was one of that class of models where a production color has been altered in some way, usually with the addition (or more rarely, the absence of) an additional layer of factory paint. You see them every once and a while – Chestnuts turned into Bays, Palominos turned into Buckskins.

One of the more recent Special Runs of this type was Koh-I-Noor, a 2018 Web Special on the Totilas mold that was created from leftover pieces from the 2017 Christmas Horse Winter Wonderland.

There are lots of Test Colors of this type that were created in the 1970s and early 1980s, presumably by employees. I also suspect that the small number of Production Run models that were issued in both Palomino and Bay probably had some flawed Palominos turned into Bays, though I’d classify those more as oddities or variations than actual Test Colors. 

So when I bought this Five-Gaiter, I assumed he was one of that subcategory of models, presumably a Sorrel with added black points (among other things). Even his braids are white and red, just like a typical #52 Sorrel Five-Gaiter.

No, this dude is way weirder than that, and I’m not just referring to the arbitrarily added chain reins. He has a masked blaze – like several Five-Gaiter releases in the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as Wing Commander – and his color definitely has yellow undertones you don’t see in your average vintage Breyer Sorrel. He also has tri-colored eyes similar to the lizard-like “bi-eyes” that were experimented with in 1995, though more neatly rendered. 

You know who he most reminds me of, though? Releases like the Half-Year Shams in the early 1990s, including the infamous “Green Bay” Sham from the #3163 Arabian Stallion and Foal Gift Set. He has the same gray overspray that’s meant to add depth and shading to the base color, but just turns the entire model a weird muddled shade of greenish-gray, instead.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this guy was simply a model that wasn’t so much designed, but experimented upon. In other words, he’s not a Test Color, but a Test Subject. 

And as such, so much more fascinating to me than fancier, more modern Test Colors.