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.

Point of View

For the record, and to clarify: I don’t dislike the new Stablemate version of Othello. I am just bemused and confused by the excitement over him, in much the same way I see some of my friends gushing over guacamole. 

I appreciate a good guacamole as much as the next person, but I don’t quite get why people get so animated about it. It’s just avocado dip, people, not the Fountain of Youth…

Nothing new here, model-horse wise; I spent the weekend crafting and customizing. I briefly considered participating in the Breyer Fun Day on Saturday, but I decided to stick to my original plan and work on old stuff instead. 

I didn’t make much progress, but I did make some: I even had an old FAM custom project surprise me by being nicer than I expected after the first coat of primer. She’s still not good, but I despair about her prospects less, so that’s something. 

The only other thing worth reporting here is that my Thunderbird arrived: I got Gloss Palomino, which amuses me partly because… well, it’s a long story, and today doesn’t quite feel like the day to go into it. (I had a rough bout of insomnia last night, and I am exhausted.)

My only quibble with him is a minor one: I would have preferred gray hooves, rather than the pinkish/natural ones. I know that both variations existed in the pre-Reeves era: the natural/pink hooves were generally reserved for “fancier” molds like the Fighting Stallion and Five-Gaiter, and the gray hooves used on pieces more tailored to kids, like the Family Arabians. 

But by the mid-1980s that distinction was largely tossed out the window: the Special Run Palomino Pacer and Shire were definitely not items designed for little kids! 

Since the Silver is basically a modernized version of the Fighting Stallion, going with the more natural hooves made sense. Still, it would have been fun to see that variation, even if it did not exist historically; it did with the Rearing Stallion, but that is because he remained in production into the 1980s, and the Palomino Fighter was gone by the end of 1973. (And in Gloss, even earlier than that.)

But personally, I find the gray hooves feel more “iconic” than the pink/natural, in the same way I see the black hooves on old (unpointed) Breyer Gloss Bays. While Gloss Bays with gray hooves do exist (hello, Clydesdale Stallion), I just like the way the black hooves pair with it. 

Lost in Translation

This has been another not-great week, and I will be grateful when it ends. (Without injury, I hope. No guarantee there, unfortunately.) 

I am currently self-medicating with an extremely elaborate quilt piecing project, art restoration videos, and homemade pound cake.

Let’s focus on some positives. First, the pound cake was a new recipe, and freaking delicious. And second, the latest Vintage Club release has been revealed – a Gambler’s Choice Silver, named Thunderbird!

Boy, that guy was a hard secret to keep under wraps. He looks awesome in all four colors; it appears that the Appaloosa is the online crowd’s clear favorite, but I will be happy with whatever one I comes my way. 

(And he’ll definitely cheaper than trying to buy something like a Goldfinch on the secondary!)

I also managed to secure a spare couple of hours of free time earlier this week, and used that opportunity to sort through some e-mails and ephemera, which wasn’t quite as big a mess as I thought it would be. (But yikes, I’ve got some gaps to fill.)  

It also reminded me that I needed to show you guys my other big Ephemera find at BreyerFest this year: 

Breyer got a lot of mail from its fans in the 1970s and early 1980s, to the point where they had to generate in-house materials to deal with it. There was a preprinted postcard that acknowledged your suggestions for future models, that infamous (and somewhat inaccurate) historical list of Breyer releases, and – news to me! – a short history of Breyer (above), and an explainer on how models were made (below):

There’s nothing new or revelatory here, but the wording on the history page is both more clear, and more nuanced than the initial history I heard bandied about it my early days in the hobby. The game of telephone did it no favors! 

The ways information get conveyed, interpreted and distorted haven’t improved much in the decades since, but that’s more of a statement about human nature than of the hobby itself. 

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. 

Behaving Myself

Looks more of the seasonal merchandise is finally in at Breyer, including the Neva that I’ve been eyeing: https://www.breyerhorses.com/products/neva-freedom-series-winter-decorator

There’s also another sequined blanket this year, but unlike the one that came in a gift set with Le Mer, you can buy it separately! (And it’s pink and yellow, one of my favorite quilting color combos!)

Breyer is definitely making it a challenge to behave myself.

But what’s really throwing me off is the Vintage Club announcement, and the picture of the first release in next year’s set, the Fury Prancer Rustler. Who also happens to be a Musicbox Prancer:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/products/2023-vintage-collector-club-membership-deposit

The surprise isn’t in the item itself – y’all know I’ve known about it for months, my homies – but that they just kinda-sorta snuck the reveal on the web site with all of the other stuff. For a couple of seconds there I was worried I had accidentally leaked something! 

(The line between me knowing things and predicting things is one I have to monitor constantly, as you may know.)

But anyways, I am glad the first release has been revealed. I’ve been wanting them to do a Musicbox Prancer for years now, and I am very pleased at the way he turned out.

I haven’t had the good fortune of owning a vintage Musicbox Prancer yet: like most things, it’s been a matter of either timing or money. While they are still hard to find, they’re not as rare as many collectors imagine them to be. 

Like Ranchcraft Lamps and various iterations of the Groomers, a higher percentage of them have survived because they had a purpose beyond being toys. Consequently, they were treated a little less roughly, and were less likely to incur the kind of serious damage that would get them thrown into the trash.

As for who and what’s in store for the rest of the 2023 Vintage Club lineup, you know the rules, guys: just wait and see. 

(I think it’s great, but I am also a little biased, LOL.)

Flood Damage

This is what happens when your family decides – against your wishes and better judgment, and by the way you have no choice in this decision anyway – that some of your horses must be stored in the laundry room: 

(Some plumbing work needed to be done, and there were complications. FYI: they were NOT anywhere near the floor.)

It’s super frustrating to see the one thing you feared most about this storage situation – one that was completely avoidable if they had only actually listened to you and valued your opinion – happened anyway.

The only saving graces here are that (a) these are not the Vintage Club releases in the highest demand, and (b) the horses and their respective stickers and other ephemera are all perfectly fine. And aside from another item that I had intended to unbox soon anyway, this is the extent of the damage.

(This time.)

Nevertheless, as someone who values ephemera like I do, this is definitely a punch in the gut. In spite of hobbyists’ complaints to the contrary, replacing them will be neither cheap nor easy, unless there’s someone out there is willing to sell me just the boxes.

Ugh, seriously. My life is complicated enough right now. (I am currently trying to figure out my Worldcon schedule. Unless I am able to master the skill of bilocation between now and then, I cannot attend both the Masquerade and John Scalzi’s Dance Party simultaneously. Grr.)

Anyway, to make up for my complaining, here is a picture of a couple of Shetland Ponies in sweaters, to brighten your weekend, if not mine:

I am now possessed by the urge to customize a Shetland Pony. I did just buy some new Dremel bits yesterday, coincidentally....

Enter Sandman

Darn it, lost another post to a power outage! I was only a couple of paragraphs in, but I totally lost my mojo on that one. 

I spent most of the weekend going through all my assorted ephemera, looking for my old live show paperwork. I found most of it, but a lot of the names and identities of the unplaced horses are still missing. Since they technically don’t “exist” in the live show system (such as it is) it’s not that big of a deal. Other than the fact that it’s going to take some time to re-create, and time is one thing I do not have in abundance.

While I am generally of the opinion that no good comes from keeping things in the closet, some of the other paperwork I discovered along the way should probably stay there. At least until the rest of the participants are no longer with us.

Reading through some of it was reassuring, in the sense that it showed me that my memory is better than I thought it was. Some of the things I remember seemed a little too wild or bizarre to be true, but apparently not!

No, you’re not going to get anything more out of me than that. Like I said, some of these folks are still in the hobby, and may not even remember the incidents involved, themselves. 

It is also worth noting that the hobby has always been kind of… dramatic? Social media is simply amplifying what has always existed. The bigger issue is that people are marinating in that media environment all day, and mistaking it for reality.

But back to the matter at hand. You really can’t really rely solely on your memory: the brain tends to edit and reinterpret things to fit our biases, often without us even realizing it. That’s why documentation is so important in the first place: people can change their minds, but a piece of paper cannot. How you interpret that documentation is another matter, but I’m probably going a little too far into the semantic weeds here.

But let’s go back to reality: I am super excited about the next Vintage Club release, Sandman!

I know a lot of people were wondering when he’d finally show up in the Vintage Club, and I was quite pleased that he finally came to fruition. The documentation I did for him was probably my favorite among the batch I did for the Vintage Club this year. 

(Sorry, no clues on the others. I’m suffering just as much as the rest of you. Just in a different way!)

We haven’t seen the mold much in recent years, aside from the Warehouse Find that was a re-release of the original Smoky, and the 2012 Passage to the Pacific Centerpiece “Surf’s Up” in Florentine that I want dearly but I’m not willing to sell my car for it. 

(The shading in his mane and tail slay me every time I see one. Argh!)

So anyway, I’m going to be scarce for the rest of the month, as I attempt to get my act together for the show on April 2. Today is Stablemates Excavation Day!

Purple, Blue, Yellow

Back to work – and a “normal” sleep schedule – tomorrow. I certainly don’t lack for more things to do, but I found myself watching carpet cleaning videos last night, so it’s probably about time to go back to the real world. 

I did find a Blind Bag Unicorn Croi yesterday – on sale, even! – but it’s just the purple one. That’s fine, because I was sincerely doubting I’d find any of the Crois at all, because these people are vultures around here, I swear:

The rest of the series – except for the Chase pieces, because that’s not happening – I’ll pick up later from the enterprising souls who purchased entire boxes. Groping blind bags in farm stores has lost its appeal, especially since success in these parts is so slim. 

I have way too little time in my life to be running around half of Michigan looking for “rare” Stablemates. In fact, it sounds more like work than anything else. No thanks!

I was moderately amused by the “Best Holiday Shopping Spots for Breyer Fans” e-mail that Reeves sent out a few days ago; just going by this e-mail alone, you’d conclude that I lived in a vast wasteland with no Breyers within our borders. I can assure you that is most definitely not the case. I can handpick almost anything I want within an hour’s drive except (of course) the accursed blind bag Stablemates. 

In other news, I did get the Copenhagen Brighty, fancy that:

And the Yellow Mount Mini Me is the no-spot variation:

I had no preference on either of these: they were all equally “rare” anyway, and I have no illusions about completing my sets, regardless. (Flipping the negative on theYellow Mount box was a nice touch, by the way!)

I am glad, though, that aside from the Chalky variation, I’m pretty much “full up” on my Traditional Yellow Mounts. Vintage Club releases tend to boost the aftermarket prices of their respective molds and inspirations (good gravy, have you seen the prices for absolutely ordinary Brighties nowadays?) 

What’s funny is that up until a few years ago, I didn’t have any Yellow Mounts, at all. I had had several over the years, but they were all either subpar or just not what I was looking for. 

Aside from the Chalky variation, I think all I really need now is a better no-spot variation and one with a dorsal stripe. A Presentation piece would be nice, too, but it’s rare enough to not be a must have.   

Longear Love

When we were working on this year’s Vintage Club lineup last year, I knew that the Brighty release was going to be mega-popular, but I had no idea he’d be “four-figures in pre-sale” popular. 

I mean, yeah, I’ve seen the prices for the Micro Run Cornelius, but the prices for most Breyer Longears in general are just crazy. Even the Hickory Hills Wall Street Brighties that were dumped and heavily discounted at Ollie’s a few years back are now going for big bucks.

Though to be honest I did kinda-sorta see the price increase on the Wall Street Brighties. Seeing them at Ollie’s reminded me a little too much of my experience with the S Justadream: a local farm store literally had an entire wall of them – at least two dozen – and I had a good laugh about the misfortunes of their purchasing department when I saw them.

Two years later, they were selling for $250 apiece on eBay, NIB. I could have made a killing, if I had only known. But I didn’t, and I didn’t.

I did a favor for a friend and bought her a carload of those Brighties, and I’d do it again if the opportunity presented itself. I am just not that lucky when it comes to capitalizing on things like that. That’s why I don’t go out of my way to even try, and why I am more-than-sometimes annoyed by hobbyists who somehow manage to make it work. 

The only exception to the recent longears trend is the Balking Mule, especially the original releases in Seal Brown and Bay. This kind of blows my mind, because they were notoriously difficult to find at my local flea markets for years, to the point that they became one of my grails. 

I could have just taken the easy way out and buy one from another hobbyist, but I was determined to wait until I found one locally. Then I found three in the space of one weekend, and I’ve managed to find them on a semi-regular basis since then. I still have two of the three, incidentally, including this very chestnutty-looking Bay: 

I tell myself that that’s what’s going to happen once I find my first vintage Decorator in the wild, but I’m still waiting.

Anyway, I felt especially proud of myself yesterday because I finally managed to find a body quality Standing Donkey at a price that did not make me uncomfortable. I have a couple of Donkey customizing ideas and I wanted to have at least one body on hand when the time and the mood finally align. And you know me, I wasn’t going to take a Dremel and hacksaw to the mint or near-mint examples that inhabit my saleslist on a near-perpetual basis. 

I tried scoring one through a local auction website recently, but (of course!) the price went well above what I expected it to be. 

Early Stablemates Packaging

Just something short today; while setting up the new computer went more smoothly than I anticipated and things – in general – are going pretty swimmingly overall, I still have a ton of stuff to do by the end of the week. 

Plus, you know, I’ll be busy all Thursday night: I’ve already bought my snacks and I am ready to go.

(DCEU Nerd and I make no apologies!)

My Vintage Club mini Gold Secretariat is here but – like a lot of recent purchases that aren’t related to work – he’ll probably remain unopened for the next several weeks. 

In the meantime, I’ll post a picture of a vintage example of the packaging they were trying to emulate:

This is Umar and he actually did pretty well at the BreyerFest Photo Show last year: fourth, I think? Not too surprising: the packaging was near-perfect and it’s the Dapple Gray version of the actual Arabian Stallion mold, not the cosplaying Morgan Stallion that came out the year previous. 

He’s scarcer than his Morgan predecessor, because releases tend to sell best in their first year and then taper off, even if there’s been a significant change in the release itself – whether it’s a change of markings, finish or (in this case) the mold itself. 

The resist dapple paint job was discontinued on the original G1 Stablemates by the end of 1976 because they were kind of a pain in the butt: you could get away with a variety of dapple sizes on a Traditional scale model, but a few out of scale dapples on a Stablemate would have been a no-go.   

One interesting difference between the Vintage Club release and the original is the blow-molded insert: the original has a molded-in texture that the Vintage Club release does not. 

I am assuming there was a logical reason for adding texture to the original inserts. It may have been a way of masking or camouflaging any minor imperfections or irregularities in the plastic. Or perhaps because the stark white insert visually dominates the packaging, a texture was added to jazz it up a bit?

I don’t know, I’m just speculating here. 

The Story of Julius

Dear Reeves-type people: I am completely exhausted and you can stop with all the reveals, new stuff and special offers now. I’m sure everybody at the warehouse would also be relieved. 

Aside from the Vintage Club and Premier Club reveals and another web exclusive Unicorn, take a gander at the New Products page for the latest Good Grief What Now. Not shown on this page: the fact that the 70th Anniversary Traditionals are now also selectable by mold, so if you still need a Palomino Hamilton, now’s your chance.

(I’ll wait for that shiny black one.) 

The Vintage Club is currently taking renewals from current subscribers and will start taking new subbers on November 4th. I have no idea if they will release pictures of any of the other releases in the club, and I am not at liberty to give you any hints anyway. 

Except (a) I expect it to sell out quickly, and (b) I don’t think you will be disappointed. 

As for Julius, the first reveal in the VC, I have a little story to tell about him:

It has been one of my greatest joys – and favorite hobby accomplishments – to name actual Breyer releases. When it came time to find a suitable name for a Vintage Club release on the Georg, one name became very obvious for me.

I named him after my Uncle George (my grandfather’s youngest brother), whose given name was actually Julius.

All of the male siblings in the family were... hell raisers, to put it mildly. The inside joke was that if anything went awry on the family farm, they’d blame it on “George”: that was the name the brothers called each other, much to the consternation of their father. (The brothers actual names were Joseph, Charles and Julius.)

Truth be told it, was Julius who was the biggest troublemaker of the bunch, so he eventually he became “George”. Our grandfather Charles passed away when we were fairly young, so George became our surrogate grandfather, even though he had a son who was two years younger than my brother, which caused all sorts of confusion in school. (We lived in the same town, for a while.)

My brother and I didn’t even know that George’s actual name was Julius until years later, when we wondered why everyone else at holiday get-togethers called him “Julius”, instead.

(There was a lot of that in my family, actually. Both sides. I learned very early on that identity can be a very slippery thing.)

All the men on my Grandfather’s side of the family were stout and big-boned: if they had been horses, they would have been Drafts. The name Julius also has an old-fashioned, old-world feel to it that suited the Georg mold very well. 

There have also been a number of Breyer releases that have unintentionally named after other relatives of mine, so it seemed appropriate that one be intentionally so.

Zahra

When I found out about the return of the In-Between Mare, my first reaction was “I can’t believe they’re actually doing this.” 

My second reaction was “Keeping this secret is going to be next-level hard.”

My third reaction, when they finally decided what colors she’d come in as the Gambler’s Choice model, was “I guess that means I’ll be getting the Matte Dappled Palomino one, then.”

Yep:

And that’s fine. I haven’t even attempted to acquire other Vintage Club Gambler’s Choice pieces beyond the one my subscription gives me, so I certainly wasn’t going to start that nonsense now with a mold so rare that most hobbyists haven’t even seen a vintage example in person. 

Having an actual piece in hand that I can now examine at length and at my leisure, you know what she reminds me of? A Hong Kong Breyer Knockoff! 

But I don’t mean that in a negative way: my Zahra is just as well-constructed and painted as any other of my Vintage Club pieces. It’s in her awkward similarities to both the Old Mold/Proud Arabian Mare and the Family Arabian Mare, without be an exact copy of either. 

In other words, like many Knockoffs, she feels both a little familiar and also a little off. Her legs also seem a bit “knobby” in the same way a lot of Hong Kong Knockoffs are, but I think I my mind might be accentuating the knobbiness because of the other Knockoff vibes she gives off. 

As mentioned on their blog, this is the real deal, not a digital rescan: the mold was built up and around the original metal insert from 1959/1960. This also means that unlike the Traditional Alborozo, it’s now a permanent addition to Breyer’s stable of molds, which means we will be seeing her again. 

When, and in what context, I do not know. I’d like to think that they would use her sparingly to preserve her mystique, possibly only for Special Run items. 

I would forego attempts to camouflage her anatomical issues with more “normal” horse colors, though, and lean into her oddness. Personally, I’d go with either Decorator paint jobs (Christmas or otherwise) or improbable but theoretically possible realistic color combinations, like Dunalino Pintaloosa or Reverse Dappled Flaxen Liver Chestnut Roan Splash Pinto.

What’s nice about this approach is that it would roll very neatly into next year’s BreyerFest theme of “Horse of Another Color”, however they choose to execute it. (A topic I promise to get to, eventually.) 

And in case you were wondering, I’d take that Chalky Buckskin Stud Spider Appaloosa Test Piece one in a heartbeat:

Crushed

Well, I thought I was holding it together pretty well this week, but then my Vintage Club Starlight arrived yesterday and well, I’ll let the picture speak for itself:

(The first thing that came to mind was: Dog Food, Linebacker, or Refrigerator?)

It’s being dealt with, but yeah, along with a few other unmentionable matters, things are not going well at La Maison des Gurdons. All I want to do this weekend is eat fried chicken and watch bad movies in the solitude of my basement.

The other “half” of my order came in a separate and surprisingly large box, completely and utterly intact and perfect:

The Starry Skies Pink Warmblood “Cassiopeia”. My first choice – like almost everyone else – was the Alborozo, but Cassiopeia was my second because I think this mold works surprisingly well as a Unicorn. And while I am also not a “pink” person, the color has a bit of iridescence to it and is actually very pretty in person.

I’ll get the others in this series eventually. Just not now because, you know, the world’s on fire.

There are also apparently some new Stablemates at Walmart – including a mini Liver Chestnut Brishen, a Pinto on the G4 Driving Horse, and the Fiero mold in Palomino. I did my shopping for the week yesterday, so I’ll have to wait until next week to see if they’re even in.

When Reeves first posted the Mini Rugged Lark on April Fool’s Day earlier this week, I assumed that it was a joke on the same level as the Decorator Khemosabi set from 2014: although probably fake, there had to be a nugget of truth in there somewhere.

That nugget being that there were likely more Mini Traditionals coming soon, and it was so. Actually, an SCO (Smart Chic Olena):

https://www.breyerhorses.com/blogs/news/sneak-peek-at-a-new-model

As an SCO collector, I approve of this choice.

I have no idea who is next on the shrink list, though.

Some of the early Hess molds – like the Clydesdale Mare and Foal, the Running Mare and Foal, and the Stretched Morgan – are likely, since their thicker legs and slightly less refined proportions would translate well into a smaller scale.

As for newer molds? Any of the Moody molds will do. Othello and Silver are obvious, and if they don't shrinkify the Ethereal mold, it'll be a dang crime!

Since Big Ben’s silhouette is featured prominently in their 70th Anniversary branding, I am assuming they are going to shrink him as well, perhaps as a bonus to be included in a Big Ben release later in the year.

(And if they don’t, they should have.)

Pardon me, but these chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs aren’t going to eat themselves.

The Clean Up

Woo-hoo, yeah!

My only real problem now is trying to find a place for the Avoriaz in the chaos I’m dealing with currently. Instead of cleaning up and sorting out the mess in my office Saturday night as I planned, I found myself cleaning up and sorting out my clothes closet instead.

I mean, it needed it too, but I could still close the closet door and not feel terribly guilty about what was behind it.

Whether or not I will still participate in the Collector’s Club Appreciation Sale or whatever the Christmas Bonus model now will depend on what’s being offered. Some models – and some Glossies – are more of a temptation than others.

I’m even considering selling one of my previous CC Appreciation Glosses because (a) I haven’t opened either one yet, and (b) doing so would finally put the last nail in the coffin of some debts I’ve worked very hard this year to finally pay off, anyway.

(And once I do, I plan to celebrate with sliders and onion rings from The Telway in Madison Heights. Anyone in the neighborhood who wants to come with, feel free!)

Let’s clean up a few other small bits of recent business before I get back to doing the history-type stuff.

First, most of the Vintage Club models have been revealed (sans the Stablemate, and I think everyone has a good idea who/what that’s supposed to be). The biggest surprise – and the model dropping jaws everywhere – is the not-so-long-lost In-Between Mare, in all her awkward glory:

I know there’s been some concern that new releases of what was previously Breyer’s rarest mold might cause the market for the originals to plummet, but I don’t think that’s the case. If anything, I think the renewed interest and focus on this legendary yet little-known piece of Breyer History might have the opposite effect.

I’ve seen it happen before: not long after a new Vintage Club release, demand for the originals tends to goes up, regardless of the mold used. 

I will be happy with any color I receive, though you all know my fondness for Gloss Bay.

As far as the Cantering Welsh Pony-inspired Bristol Barrington, I think my favorite part about him is his name. Most of the older fogeys among us should appreciate the reference to a certain someone who still remains a dear memory and/or inspiration to all of us obsessed with Breyer History.

And finally, the banner for the Stablemates Collector Club page on the Breyer web site has given us a clue about the other releases (save for the new mold):

A non-unicornized Alborozo, the G2 Warmblood, the Tushar-Cob, and the G1 Arabian Stallion. Nice!

I am hoping for a realistic color on the Alborozo (please!), a Gloss on the Arabian, and either the Warmblood or the Tushar-Cob as the Gambler’s Choice.

I’d also like to give props to whoever wrote the copy for the Stablemates Club home page: it’s a little over the top, but I love it and it works! (Though you know they had me at “Stablemates Club”.)

Pinto Decorators

Looks like they’re going to go ahead and do the full reveal on the Vintage Club after all. Say hello to ol’ Bubble Butt Belgian himself, Josiah, in Wedgewood Blue Pinto:

(I see that some clever hobbyists have figured out the origins of his name.)

Pinto and Appaloosa Decorators are not an unusual sight nowadays as Regular Runs, Special Runs and Test Colors. But prior to the Reeves Era (1985-present) the four “classic” Decorator colors – Golden Charm, Gold Florentine, Wedgewood Blue and Copenhagen Blue – were strictly solids.

Although there have been rumors of Chicago Era (pre-1985) Pinto Decorators for years, I have not seen one personally.

That doesn’t mean they don’t exist – as always, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence – but guys, you know I’ve seen things. If I haven’t seen it – or heard from credible and unrelated sources – by now, it makes me skeptical.

Especially since most of the Chicago Era Test Colors I’ve seen tended towards the more realistic, rather than the less so.

And rightly so: hobbyists have no idea just how much of a “flop” the original Decorators were, and how risk-averse Breyer management was to experiment with unrealistic colors in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Even Smokes, Charcoals and Woodgrains were pretty much persona non grata for years, though with the Woodgrains, it was also a matter of the painters not wanting to go back there, thank you very much…

Things are different now: in fact, I sometimes think the pendulum has swung completely in the opposite direction. Especially when it comes to Glossy finishes: it doesn’t take more than five minutes after a new release is posted that someone somewhere online has to make the comment “Oh, but I would look so much better in Gloss!” 

Not always, guys, not always.

(FYI: in case you (understandably) missed it, the toys that got into the Toy Hall of Fame this year were Coloring Books, Matchbox Cars, and Magic: The Gathering.

The first two I am okay with, the third I am a little meh about, and that’s all I am going to say on the matter until comes up again next year…)

Expectations

And the winner is…

Gloss, as I expected. And this is fine.

For a multitude of reasons the past month has been very stressful, the weather has been very cold, and with the days getting darker sooner I’ve been feeling more than a little down. Something like a Matte rarity would have brightened my mood considerably, even if only temporarily.

Considering Claude’s popularity, it should be enough that I have one at all, and that he’s just as beautiful as when I first saw him.

I should also be happy that he even exists in the first place. I am trying very hard to remind myself of the moment when I saw him for the first time, and living with the thought that he was going to blow everyone’s minds. And being a tiny part of that. 

I am glad to see that next year’s Vintage Club offerings also seem to be going over almost as well. The Powers-That-Be finally seem to be getting it, at least when it comes to Vintage-type stuff.

(More or less: you’ve already seen my opinion on some of the initial 70th Anniversary merchandise. Yoo-hoo guys, I’m right here…)

So there’s that.

I also know that the luck that I do possess is in living in an area where Breyers (in general) are plentiful, and that I have the ability to handpick almost anything. (Except, ironically, Walmart Specials.) Most hobbyists don’t have that.

Yet, and yet.

Starlight

It’s been one of those weeks, folks (possibly ending with snow, ugh), so my Vintage Club Claude will remain unopened until Saturday afternoon. I want – no, need – to live with the possibility that he might be the Matte for a couple days more.

(And in case you didn’t already get the news, they clarified on the web site that the correct piece count on the Matte Claudes is 30, not 25.)

Since we’re on the topic, it looks like they’re keeping their word this year on the Vintage Club reveals, more or less:

It’s a nice mix of molds, and the colors… well, you’ll have to wait and see. (You should know the drill by now. All I can say at this point is: You will like. I promise.)

Unless they decide to pull the rest of the color reveals if the club sells out early, as it did last year. This appears to be a distinct possibility, based on everyone’s reaction to Starlight.

And I totally get it: Starlight is probably my favorite VC release for next year (aside from the Stablemate Bonus). You know that the Shagya Arabian is already one of my favorite newer molds, and it appears that Reeves is finally figuring out the more subtle nuances of the vintage Gloss Gray Appaloosa – namely the different shades of gray, and true “splash spot” randomness – and what I found missing in their first interpretation of the color in the 2012 VC release Harlequin.

Aside from the vintage Dapple Grays – both the Glosses of the 1960s and the Mattes of the 1970s and beyond – Gloss Gray Appaloosa is perhaps one of the most variable of all vintage paint jobs.

Big spots, little spots, streaky spots, belly stripes, pale gray to nearly charcoal body color: it’ll be interesting to see if this variability is incorporated Starlight’s production run, intentionally or otherwise.

The 2020 Info Dump

Remember last year, when Reeves was oh-so-coy about giving us any detailed info about anything for 2019 until it was absolutely necessary, and even then – not so much?

As you might have noticed over the past three days, they’ve apparently decided to go in the opposite direction this year! 

First it was the 2020 Celebration Horse, a portrait of Irish Sport Horse Ballynoe Castle RM, aka “Reggie”, on the Show Jumping Warmblood mold:

I was thinking a few days ago that the Show Jumping Warmblood mold might have been a good choice for the Surprise model – aside from having multiple mane and tail options, it’s also had two Translucent releases (2007 Halloween Horse Twilight Terror, and last year’s Sugarmaple).

It’s an interesting, and uncontroversial mold choice (as either the Croi or Vanner would have been), though I do expect the inevitable mutterings from the “solid Matte Bay is so boring” crowd. We all thought the same thing with 2018’s Brass Hat, and he turned out gorgeous, right? And this guy’s photo looks way more promising than Brass Hat’s ever did…

Then there’s Klaus, the first release in the 2020 Stablemates Club:

I figured that Darwin would be a part of next year’s club lineup, but first up, and in Leopard Appaloosa, too? Sweet. I am a little annoyed that the first three releases of this mold were/are all Special Runs or limited in some way, though. I know they are trying to recoup their initial investment and get everyone all het up about him (mission accomplished!), but just get to the inevitable Aged Gray already, as the masses demand…

Then there’s the gorgeous Premier Club release Georg, Eberl’s highly anticipated Rhenish German Coldblood:

Like Weather Girl, Georg (pronounced “Gay-Org”, incidentally) is a reworking of one of Brigitte’s earlier resin sculpts – in this case, Valentin.

I am in love with this big beautiful chonk of a horse, but I’ll probably have to wait until next year to find a more affordable release. (I would love him as a BreyerFest Special Run, but I fear he’s got Raffle Horse written all over him.)

And finally, instead of stringing us along like they did last Fall, this time they’re hinting at doing a full reveal on the Vintage Club 2020 lineup. I am not going to read anything into this marketing strategy one way or another, other than to comment that it would definitely be better for my mental and physical well-being. I’ll just let the picture of the next reveal do all the talking for me now:

Okay, now to take a moment to drink something relaxing, before diving into the existential terror that is Star Wars Ticket Presales….

Trailblazer

So this is why I’ve been a little cagey about my “Holiday Horse” customizing plans for the Western Horse:

In addition to all of the other decorative motifs I was going to incorporate, I was also going to stitch up a fabric facsimile of the original vinyl saddlebags (in something wintry/Christmassy) and pack it with an assortment of either old-fashioned (Chuckles, Tootsie Rolls) or thematically-appropriate (Candy Canes, Chocolate Santa) candies. You know, make it sort of a cross between the original Grooming Kits and the nearly-forgotten Candy Packers. You remember the “Candy Packers”, right?

But I didn’t want to mention any of that because I didn’t want to telegraph anything, even unintentionally; Lord knows I do it enough of that with stuff I genuinely have no foreknowledge of…

(Which I guess means this was a good thing that the 2019 VC Stablemates dropped when they did, because this was the post I was writing when that happened. So awkward!)

Incidentally, the prevalence and popularity of the Groomers is one of the reasons why the Palomino and White Western Ponies are so commonly found without saddles: it’s not that they were lost, but that they never came with saddles in the first place.

But it should go without saying that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Whenever I find one sans saddle, I just assume it’s been lost, unless I have some other evidence to the contrary. 

The Western Horse, however, was issued as a Groomer – aka the “Giant Groomer” – only briefly, so the possibility/likelihood of a saddle-free Western Horse being a Groomer is pretty small.

I wouldn’t say a vintage Giant Groomer is a grail of mine, but I certainly would be very pleased with myself if I happened to acquire one at a reasonable cost.

I know that the Western Horse has been one of the most asked for/about potential Vintage Club releases – frankly, pretty much since the introduction of the Vintage Club program – so it doesn’t come as too much of a surprise that they were basically holding him back for the next significant Breyer anniversary: the brand’s 70th!

Among other things, I’m sure. (Crossing fingers for something crazy, like a Translucent Running Mare, a Woodgrain Lamp, or the triumphant return of the #36 Racehorse.)

I have some issues with some of the initial merchandise they are already hawking, but I will discuss this next time, once my eyes have rolled forward again.

Vintage Club Mini Misty and Stormy

Here I thought I was being so clever and prepared today, writing up a post late last night; I log on this afternoon to do some edits and assemble my links and images, and the Vintage Club Stablemates Bonus bombshell drops on us:

Well okay, mostly for you guys. It’s more the timing of it that caught me off guard.

Anyway, what I especially like about this set is how it rather slyly references the second Misty release, the Hagen-Renaker Performing Misty. I’d show you mine, but I don’t have one, because… well, you don’t need to know that story.

The Vintage Club Stablemates release also comes with a super-neat tiny shipper box very similar to the original individual G1 Sears Wishbook releases of the mid 1970s – packaging that was tough to come by and ultra-expensive well before the Stablemates market became so crazy. 

Judging from the reaction I’ve skimmed (however briefly) on the Internet, it’s a bit of an understatement to say that the Mini Misty and Stormy set is going over fairly well.

I am pleased.

In other news… I’ll probably be skipping the Collector’s Club Lucien: I took into consideration that there was a good chance he’d drop today – but I bought my Stablemates Club Priscilla yesterday, regardless.

While I certainly could use a few more Valegros in my life, and I find the pinto pattern on him quite appealing, I am a bit tapped out after my recent spending sprees. Heck, there are still horses that have not escaped the back seat of my car yet.

I am not all that into Buckskin Pintos, either. Everyone has their color/pattern preferences and biases, and when it comes to Buckskins, I prefer mine minimally marked.

I may regret it later, but I could say that about almost any release, really.

I will now go back to the rest of my regularly scheduled evening, which involved me trying to solve a particularly vexing quilt design problem. (Almost got it, I think!)