WEG Salinero

I had been wanting to add a one or two more of the more limited WEG models to my collection; the roached mane/short tail variation of the Matte Toby would have been perfect, but I wouldn’t turn down almost anything else if it presented itself. 

And this one did! 

I’ve been wanting a Salinero for a while. My platonic ideal Salinero is the 2007 BreyerFest Raffle Model Tacoma in Bay Overo Pinto, because I think his overo paint job perfectly complements and enhances his lovely silhouette.

But you and I both know that wasn’t ever going to happen. I’m not that lucky, and also I am a cheapskate. So the next best Salinero for me would have been the 2010 WEG rerelease… and now I have him!

Okay, sure, I get it: he’s not as exciting as… just about any other WEG release. In fact, he’s pretty boring: the only thing that distinguishes a WEG Salinero from a Regular Run #704 Salinero is that the WEG release has a VIN mark, and the Regular Runs – manufactured in 2007 and 2008 – predate that, and thus do not. 

Unlike other WEG reissues, only about a year and a half of time had passed since the release was formally discontinued. There were no significant changes or improvements to the painting process in that short time frame, other than the addition of VIN numbers to models being produced in China. 

And it’s lucky that he got even that. Most of the other extra-limited WEG models were painted stateside, but the Salineros made for the 2010 WEG were not. I presume that was because they still had all the painting specs (and of course, the mold) so it was probably easier just to have the factory in China pull 96 bodies off the Cloud Nine production line and paint them up in addition to the 500 piece WEG SRs (like Cedric and Jamaica) while they were busy in New Jersey painting up all of the other super-limited Specials.

It would also explain why they made more of him than any other of those Specials: New Jersey production was probably limited to what was on hand.

Finding the Reasons Why

Another box of horses at the flea market, yay!

There are a couple of salvageable pieces in there (one of the Chestnut Merrylegs is drop-dead gorgeous) and one is being pulled for a possible project idea I have, but the rest are headed for the Body Box section of my sales list.

One reason I love finding boxes full of horses isn’t just because of the group discounts or the sheer thrill of discovery, but the story in the lot itself.

Every model may be a memory, but a collection tells a story.

Two identical Merrylegs (the one from the Slumber Party Gift Set) and two complete 2010 WEG Three-Horse Sets? This was the collection of two young siblings, not one. But did they actually go to the World Equestrian Games, or did a relative bring them back from a trip?

That they ended up at the flea market, selling for not much more than a song, could mean so many different things. Perhaps like most horse-crazy girls, they grew out of it, or thought they did. Maybe they finally got “real” horses of their own, and had no time (or money!) for imitations? Or… boys?

Those are the most common explanations. I was too excited to find a Box of Cheap Horses to stick around and find out the real reason why. It was a blustery day and I hadn’t slept well the night before, so once struck the proverbial pay dirt, I took the horses and ran.

The WEG Classics are a bit on the scarce side, so I feel bad about tossing the majority of them into the Body Box; while they’re not terrible, the demand for most of the more modern Classics molds – even scarce releases – is not high enough to merit an effort to restore on my part. One of the Gray Best-in-Show Thoroughbreds looks like he might clean up, though:

He’s very appealing in this color, and I do not have an example of this mold in the herd just yet; I missed out on the American Pharoahs on the short-tailed version when they were clearance out at Tuesday Morning last year.

This fellow might do. I’ll have to think about it. (It’s the pink hooves. They slay me.)

Here’s one thing I don’t have to think much about: some of these bodies are going up on MHSP by the end of the week. Since it’s still a couple of months until Kentucky, and the flea market season has just gotten underway, it’s probably best that I thin the box out a bit before it gets any further out of hand.

The 500 Club

I had no trouble filling up my shopping cart to get a Glossy Cosette offered on that “Collector Appreciation Day” earlier this week, but I didn’t go through with it. Partly it was because I managed to score something wonderful in my Grab Bag Box:

Any of the four Classics issued for the 2014 WEG would have been fine – the Chestnut Johar, the Bay Frolicking Quarter Horse Stallion, the Black Warmblood Mare, and the Alabaster Classics Ruffian – and all four have shown up in the #1 Grab Bag Assortments.

As my favorite among the four, however, the Ruffian one was something I was actively pursuing at BreyerFest this year. Having her show up on my doorstep helped make up for some of the bad fortune/timing I’ve been having with eBay auctions over the past week.

(I wasn’t quite as lucky with the Sherman Morgan in the lot: just another “normal” Silver Filigree there.)

Both the Glossy Cosette and the 2014 WEG Classics were issued in runs of 500 pieces. Nowadays collectors consider 500-piece Special Runs to be relatively common – heck, anything over 100 pieces, really – but quantity alone is rarely the sole determinant of rarity or value.

I’ve had a number of Classic Arabians on my sales list the past couple of years, but outside of body-box quality pieces, they’ve been a tough sell. The collectors who grew up with them (like yours truly) already have them, and newer collectors aren’t all that into them.

That’s the reason why I took a pass on the original Cosette: there is no sense of urgency. The Matte version has been available to the general public on the Breyer web site for a while now, manufactured in a quantity sufficiently large enough that they were able to gloss 500 of them for the offer. She seems almost as common and familiar as any other Regular Run item.

The way the Gloss Cosette offer was structured – you had to buy a hundred dollars of qualifying items – meant that there will be leftovers. They will turn up elsewhere, maybe even in future Grab Bags that will also come with a bunch of discounted stuff I already wanted!

Like the 2014 WEG Classics. But even though those items were also issued in runs of 500, on molds that are also modestly but not wildly popular, there’s definitely a sense that those models are more desirable – or at least harder to come by – than the Classic Arabian releases, Matte or Gloss, will ever be.

The 2014 WEG Classics were distributed at the event in France, and then disappeared (warehoused, apparently!) You could get them from some sellers overseas, but the shipping was prohibitive for many of us. Some of the WEG Stablemates did make it over here, but the Classics largely did not.

Now that they’re finally letting some of them go in the Grab Bags, and presumably in other places or in other offers or situations, the perceived rarity of the WEG Classics may change. Hobbyists will get blasé about them, too, and then move on to the next newest or hottest thing.

I’ll just keep buying and keeping what I like, rare or not.  

Chocolates

I was relieved that they didn’t do a Gloss Prize model of the new Fjord GVF Sjokolade at some point last year. I’ve grown quite fond of my cartoonish little Henries lately, and I had visions of completing my collection, sans the impossible-to-get 18-piece Special Run World Equestrian Games Reissue from 2010.

But now I have to deal with Truffles, this year’s Diorama Contest Prize:

He’s another "thematic" rather than realistic Special Run; according to designer Sommer Prosser (via Blab), he is/was supposed to be Silver Dapple Pinto - in other words, a "Chocolate" Truffle!

I had some reasons to believe that we’d be getting another Fjord Special Run sooner rather than later, especially after the mold’s return last year on Sjokolade.

Prior to the WEG Reissue, we hadn’t seen much of him since the original #482 Henry was discontinued in 2004. All of the other Special Runs of the mold - including the Silver Dun "Silver Wolfe" (in 2000) and the Just About Horses Gambler’s Choice Specials Naughty and Nice (in 2001) - were done during Henry’s generously long run (1996-2004).

Although mostly ignored by the hobby during his initial release, his popularity has grown in recent years. The appearance of Fjords in the insanely popular Disney film Frozen certainly hasn’t hurt the breed’s popularity either, especially among the youngest of us (chronologically, or otherwise).

And maybe influenced Reeves’s decision to promote the mold again? Especially now that they just announced a sequel to Frozen?

Breyer did have a brief dalliance with Disney, circa 1979-1981: they made a Special Run Black Percheron on the Belgian mold for the Disney theme parks. He can be distinguished from the other mail-order Black Belgians SRs by the color of his tail ribbon: Blue and White - as opposed to Red and White, or Red and Yellow. He's not super-duper rare, but he's definitely a harder-to-come-by Special, since a significant portion of them were sold to the general public first.

Just something to keep in mind. And an eye on, I suppose.

I was imagining a more conservative color for the now-not-imaginary Truffles, since the breed itself has a rather limited range of colors to choose from, about a half dozen variations of Dun: http://www.nfhr.com/catalog/index.php?colors=1

There used to be more: because of a genetic bottleneck in the late 19th/early 20th century and breed standardization, those colors have largely disappeared. At best, Truffles could be considered either an "historical" color or a crossbred.

I am more than fine with Sooty Palomino/Pale Silver Dapple Tobiano Pinto. (Or Silver Filigree!) My only complaint is that I wish they had made him a little easier to obtain. Time to go rooting around my body box for more and better ideas...

All About the Timing

First, another Test Color from the picture files. I only wish I had this one!

Black Traditional Man o’ War with star, gray hooves and a black halter. There are actually quite a few of them floating around - at least four that I know about, according to my reference materials. This does not include other Black Tests in different marking configurations, or the unpainted Solid Black Plastic ones that came later (I think). I have no idea how many of those were made.

Those selfsame reference materials indicate he was a later Test from the 1980s. The better known Dapple Grays were from the 1970s.

I don’t know who owned this one when the picture was taken, or where he ended up; there was nothing on the back of the photo to help out.

The fact that there is more than one out there gives me a tiny bit of hope that I might acquire one someday. I've come real close on the Black Plastic ones, but my timing was a bit off both times. (Yes, I know, I already have a Test Color Man o’ War. I’ll stop whining now.)

I’ve been distracted with some inventory-type business this week, so the rest of this is just general light housekeeping.

I didn’t get drawn for the Gloss Mr. Chips, which is something I was expecting to happen. The coin flips on almost everything from traffic lights to eBay auctions haven’t gone my way for weeks. Not that big a deal, really, just mildly annoying.

There’s another drawing this week, too, for the Mischief Night Hobo. I was fortunate enough to get one while he was still to be gotten, so I’m not worrying about it. I am curious why the drawing is on Halloween, and not on Mischief/Devil’s/Angel’s Night itself; I guess the reference is just obscure enough that they didn’t want cause any more annoyance or confusion.

Modell Pferde Versand apparently have/had the leftover 2014 WEG models:

http://shop.modellpferdeversand.de/Breyer-Modellpferde/Breyer-Modelle/Breyer-WEG-2014-Sondermodelle:::194_323_786.html

So if you start seeing them turn up in quantity and in the usual places, that’s why. No, I didn’t order any - yet. I’m still trying to focus more on selling than buying until the end of the year, though the Universe seems to be conspiring against me on that point.

How so? After dropping off a couple of packages at the post office yesterday, for instance, I had a hunch and swung by the local antique mall across the street. And just look who was waiting for me:

A Hagen-Renaker Harry with his original name sticker. Leave him behind? I don’t think so! He has a broken leg and the mold detail is a little soft, but I don’t care - he’s my first DW H-R in I can’t remember when. A nice way to end to the shopping season!

Some of Our Stablemates are Missing!

Like everyone else, I am perplexed by the lack of new new Stablemates. You know, those cute little guys who debuted as the One-Day Stablemates at BreyerFest last year. I was able to secure three of the four this year. No Icelandic "Indigo", alas!

The Andalusian "Chrome" turned up as a raffle item at the Big Easy Bash back in February, as a miniature version of one of the earliest Exclusive Event items, the Legionario Bourbon Street. The Appaloosa/Stock Horse "Dungaree" showed up at the same event as the 200-piece run Moon Pie, in a pretty Gloss Red Bay Overo. And the Icelandic is schedule to appear as a "Mini Me" freebie for Premier Club members, for the new Traditional Icelandic Falhófnir.

There has been no sign yet of my personal favorite - the Bucking Horse "Rivet". (I love the look Chrome is givingt Rivet in this photo: "Dude, seriously, what’s your problem?")

It’s only been about a year since they’ve been released, but we’ve grown so accustomed to such a fast pace to new releases that a year feels like an eternity. Even the original BreyerFest pieces are somewhat hard to come by; Reeves miscalculated the demand for them, and they were sold out by mid-day Saturday. (Some were held back for Will-Calls.)

There have been other Stablemates who have vanished for much longer periods of time. The original H-R/Love Quarter Horse Mare mold disappeared in 1988 due to a molding issue. The rest of the Hagen-Renaker molds eventually followed suit when the lease with H-R was not renewed.

The infamous Palomino "Playmat" Horse came and went in an eyeblink in 2007. Technical/molding issues were also the reasons, allegedly, why he was quickly replaced by the G2 Warmblood for the remainder of that item’s production run.

(One of our local stores had three or four of these Playmat Sets - with the original horse - for the longest time. Silly me didn’t want to spend the $20 on the set just for a single Stablemate. Not one of my brighter moments, to be sure.)

Most recently I have been troubled by the lack of Reining Horse releases. While all of the other WEG 2010/G4 releases have been issued in multiple colors and multiple sets since then, the Reining Horse has seen only one additional release, a Black Splash Spot Leopard Appaloosa in the 2011 J.C. Penney Parade of Breeds set.  I had a fun little project in mind earlier this year that was quashed because there were no affordable, body-quality Stablemates Reining Horse to be had.

Other than possibly some concerns about breakage with the Andalusian's slender ears, I have no idea what the hold up might be. Guess we’ll just have to cross our fingers and hope the problems are more conceptual in nature, rather than technical or legal.

Dapple Grays, Real and Imaginary

First up, I’d be remiss to not mention that Frosty, brother of Flurry is now available - the Classics Shire in his Head Down mold variation, aka Shire Mold B. In other words, pretty much exactly what I was asking for last year when they released Flurry!

Alas, he’ll have to wait until I sell a few more horses and pay off a few more bills. With the sheer number of Special Offers and Special Runs we’ve been dealt over the past month, I suspect a lot of my fellow hobbyists are in the same boat.

There’s another set of recent Special Runs that, to my surprise, haven’t turned up yet in any great quantity online are the 2014 WEG Specials. Seen here:

http://www.normandy2014.com/news/630/the-breyer-company-becomes-an-official-licensee

There are 500 pieces each of the four Classics:

• Alabaster Ruffian
• Red Chestnut Johar
• Black Warmblood Mare
• Bay QH/Frolic Stallion

And (allegedly) 750 pieces each of the four Stablemates:

• Flaxen Chestnut G2 Morgan
• Black G3 Warmblood
• Bay G4 Driving Horse
• Alabaster G2 Warmblood

And an unspecified number of Commemorative Blankets.

Aside from the Special Run overload, the overseas location (France), the selection of molds (Classics and Stablemates) and the palette of colors (conservative, non-spotted colors) may be tempering enthusiasm in the U.S. as well.

Supposedly they are only going to be available at WEG 2014, but the WEG 2010 leftovers were eventually made available to nonattendees primarily via Grab Bags. I'm not counting on a repeat of that scenario, though: there are still several days to go before the event ends, and Grab Bags have evolved into something else entirely since then.

If leftovers do become available to us at some point, I’d like to get one Classics piece and one Stablemates, primarily for the (very attractive!) packaging. I have no particular preferences on the molds, though if I had a choice I’d definitely pick the Classics Ruffian - the closest I’ll probably ever get to the near-mythical Dapple Gray Ruffian.

I say near-mythical because there was at least one sold via Marney in the early 1980s, on that legendary sales list that also featured the Appaloosa Proud Arabian Stallion:

The other 199 that supposedly exist probably don’t; there may be a handful more, only because Tests then (and now) were rarely unique. What I suspect was going on there was a miscommunication between Marney and Peter Stone, or Marney and someone else at the factory she might have talked to about it.

If 200 pieces had been created, some would have shown up by now. There were a lot of 200-piece or fewer Specials released back then: it was almost the standard piece run for SRs in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While many of them are difficult to come by now, they are not impossible as long as you have either the time or money to spare.

I've been looking for that Dapple Gray Ruffian for a very, very long time.

I think it’d be awesome, by the way, if Reeves offered a Dapple Gray Traditional Ruffian at some point in the Vintage Club program, a la Mr. Chips. It would be a nice nod to the Dapple Gray Ruffian rumors, plus I think the Traditional Ruffian mold would look fabulous in it. Either Gloss or Matte would be fine, I don’t care, as long as it's in the same style as the Dapple Grays of the late 1970s and early 1980s: wild and crazy!

Just not for the next few months, though. Everyone's bank accounts would appreciate it!

Cosette

On my way home from work yesterday (Early! On a Friday! Yes!) I was thinking to myself "Isn’t it about time for Reeves to spring another surprise on us?"

I get home, log on, and there she is:

Bonjour, Cosette. (Photo taken from Breyer website and slightly cropped and formatted to fit here.)

(Collector Club homepage.)
(Direct order link for CC members.)

I don’t know what this release "means". A return of the Hagen-Renaker Love molds? A random Classic Special Run Thing, like the Flurry? Using up old bodies in the warehouse? Some sort of special stay-at-home promotion for the WEG 2014 (in Normandy this year)?

The last one seems most likely to me, though honestly I don’t know any more than the rest of you. The "Collectors Club members get early access" and "Limit two per order" in the web site banner suggest that she’ll be a fairly substantial run.

I do know is that there has been some discussion - initiated on Reeves part, I believe - about how to make the Classics molds more appealing to collectors in general.

The Classics Arabian Mare? In an elaborate Pinto paint job? Designed by Tom Bainbridge? If Cosette is in any way related to that effort, then Reeves certainly started it off with a bang.

All those years of packaging and marketing them to a slightly younger market, as toys, has taken its toll on the Classics scale’s reputation. They’re seen as unsophisticated stuff, suitable for little kids. Ironic, considering the noble origins of the originals.

When the Classics Racehorses first came out in the 1970s, I was a little indignant that these portraits of Awesome and Famous Racehorses even my Dad knew were smaller than some of the wholly imaginary ones in the Traditional line.

But I got over it and bought them all, eventually. The smaller scales also meant I could buy more. More horses = good!

Yet there still remains a strong bias in the hobby against anything non-Traditional scale, independent of the quality of the molds themselves. For me, a good model is a good model, regardless of its size or scale.

One thing I think did hamper the appeal of Classics was the lack of product development. There was a flurry of new molds in the first few years after the Classics were introduced - the Andalusian Family, the USET Set, the Black Beauty Family, the Black Stallion Returns …

Then for the next nine years? No new Classics molds. When they did return, with the Mesteno Series in 1992, they were not greeted warmly by hobbyists. The Western Performance Series then followed shortly afterwards, also to a somewhat lukewarm response.

It wasn’t until very recently that Reeves put more effort into expanding and revamping the Classics line, also with mixed success.

And now we have…Cosette? Interesting. 

Moody Molds in Basic Black

Vita is basically back to being her usual pain in the butt self. We finally figured out the secret of getting her to stop making her "yucky" face at dinner time: chicken broth. She hasn’t been begging so much at the table, either, which we think is because she now thinks she’s already getting table food. (To be honest, it almost is.)

Looks like it’s my turn to be sick today: my back hurts, I’m nauseous, and I have a migraine. I have tomorrow off, so I can (I hope) sleep most of my aches and pains away. (I’m blaming any typos today, most justifiably, on the migraines.)

Reeves finally got around to mentioning some of the Reissues on their Facebook page - four days after they appeared on the web site, and three days after I mentioned them here. Who needs Facebook when you got me, right?

(A big portion of the hobby, still, and a couple of friends who have completely abandoned me. Didn’t they all get the memo that Facebook is like totally uncool now? I heard it on the radio, so it must be true.)

There are also a couple of (apparently) unauthorized photos of some 2014 releases floating about the Internet, including one of a Black Big Ben as an Royal Canadian Mounted Police Horse. He looks great in "basic black", but then again, most Moody molds do: whatever their anatomical or stylistic issues, you can’t deny they all have beautiful silhouettes - and black paint jobs do a good job of accentuating them.

I don’t have a lot of Big Bens in my collection - not for a lack of trying, but most of the ones I really love I can’t afford. Like the 2005 FEI Gift Model in Dark Bay, the 2006 Volunteer model in Gloss Dark Bay/Brown Sabino, Nautical, 1998 BreyerFest Copenhagen Serengeti…

I didn’t have an original Big Ben until recently, and I’m not so sure he’s an "original" either:

He’s another one of those things I found in the Sample boxes at BreyerFest. At first I thought he was a Sample for the WEG Reissue of the Big Ben, but now I’m not so sure. He could have been an ordinary, later run Big Ben that someone bought or brought into the offices, for whatever reason. Other vintage (sometimes, pre-Reeves!) models have made their way into the Sample boxes before, so it's not as far-fetched an idea as it seems.

I don’t have either the WEG Reissue or an off-the-shelf original, so I can’t verify his status one way or another.

Regardless of what he is, I like him and he’s staying.

Head's Up

My schedule for the next two weeks is totally crazy - I think I’ll end up with more hours next week than in the past two weeks combined. This is more of a head’s up than a complaint, though: it’s just that posts over the next two weeks might be somewhat irregular either in timing, or quality.

(In case you find yourself wondering "What on Earth is she posting about at 3 a.m. - on a Wednesday?")

We’re now starting to see more upcoming goodies from BreyerFest, via the Breyer booth at Equine Affaire. Newly revealed items include the One-Day Stablemates, and another of the Line Ticket SRs, a Bay Roan Sabino Cleveland Bay named Tunbridge Wells:

http://www.modelhorseblab.com/forums/showthread.php?131882-Equine-Affaire/page8

(The good stuff starts on Page 8, with more pictures on following pages.)

Technically, the Cleveland Bay isn’t really "new": he’s another one of those SRs that was leaked early. He’s nice, though awfully reminiscent of last year’s Raffle Horse King Arthur. Theoretically he should be pushing all my buttons - a Cleveland Bay, in a Roan Sabino! - but I’m just not feeling the love for him that everyone else does. (Though it is nice to see that some of the Negative Nellies are showing some interest in him, for a change.)

The One-Day Stablemates are all Gloss Drafts, named after different beers ("drafts" - get it?) The G2 Draft, the G3 Belgian and Friesian, and the G4 Vaulting Horse, all in various shades of gloss pintos. (The G4 "Carling" is my favorite!) They seem to be going over pretty well, too - hard to go wrong with glossy pinto draft horses.

(It’s the same reasoning I’m using to justify my opinion of the SR Pinto Shire "Cheerio".)

There’s also going to be another Gambler’s Choice model, but Reeves is being coy about it, as usual. We’ll get a better idea of the potential candidates once we learn the "name" of this special, but I’m hoping for something ponyish, like a Shetland, a Bouncer or a Newsworthy (especially if it’s the loose-maned version.)

There were also previews of two items that will be exclusive to the "British-themed Souvenir Shop" they’ve been hinting at in the promotional literature: a "Black Beauty" on the small resin Lexington mold, and "Union Jack", a Translucent Classic Ruffian painted with …a Union Jack. Weird, but kinda cool - and very reminiscent of the WEG Commemorative Horse.

When I first heard mention of this Souvenir Shop, I was a little concerned that they’d be pulling that kind of stunt on us - more super-limited items being sold at a second location, simultaneous (?) to the NPOD? Scary!

I’m not all that worried about the Black Beauty - I got issues with both resins, and Black Beauty - but I’m thinking I might need that Ruffian. (How limited is "limited"? 50? 100? 500?) There’s also the possibility that they might pull a "WEG" on us and dump some super-limited SRs in that location as well.

There’s absolutely no indication of that yet, but I got a funny feeling we shouldn’t rule anything out this year.

One Bright Spot

Wow, I had no idea this joint’s been jumpin’ while I was indisposed.

Work continues to not be as profitable as it could be. I’m stuck in the same situation I was last year: I’m getting put into smaller assignments with fewer hours, while less experienced and less accurate people are getting put into larger assignments with more hours.

It’s meant to be a compliment to me that I can be trusted on these smaller assignments (less supervision, more customer interaction), and not just lumped into the pool of available bodies. The downside is that working these "premium" assignments doesn’t come with any "premium" pay. It’s the same hourly rate, regardless, and (usually) no compensation for mileage.

So found myself in a situation last week where I would have had to drive 80 miles for 2 hours of work, while others were driving 50 miles for 10 hours of work. (That situation was resolved, more or less, but not without a lot of unnecessary kvetching by all parties.)

I did almost end up with 40 hours last week - a fine accomplishment, if it wasn’t for the fact that there was a not-insignificant number of people who ended up with more overtime last week than I had for all of last year.

And they wonder why I’ve been in a less than pleasant mood when I’ve been calling the office lately? I can do without the "honor" of making less money.

On to more pleasant subjects. Like the arrival of my latest grail, who I had the great pleasure of opening up last night:


(Yes, I know, the desk is mess.)

Yep, the WEG Traditional Man o’ War re-issue, one of only 48. Isn’t he beautiful? I feel extremely lucky to have gotten him at all: I just happened to hop on the Internet at just the right time. Another minute or two more, and I doubt I would have even seen him at all.

It’s a little hard to tell from my photograph, but he’s definitely a darker and richer shade of red chestnut than I’ve seen on most Traditional Man o’ Wars. A lot of them tend toward the orange or even pink, but this shade is much closer to the one they’ve been using on more recent releases like the Foundation Stallion Toreo, but without the metallic undertones.

Another difference: most of the original releases also have a mane and tail that are either slightly darker, or slightly grayer, than the body color, but the WEG MOW’s mane and tail are almost exactly the same shade as the body. It wasn’t a problem unique to him; a lot of earlier Breyer Chestnuts tended to have significantly darker mane and tails, a consequence of the company’s early inability to distinguish between Bay and Chestnut (and later between Chestnut and Red Dun, with Yellow Mount.)

The most obvious difference is the head, with the extra shading and the masked facial marking. And there’s the tag, too.

I was amazed that I got the Man o’ War for the price that I did, especially since the mold’s fortunes seem to be on the upswing lately. He’ll probably be the only WEG re-issue I’ll be owning in the near future (and possibly) distant future, however; the prices people are asking for many of the other super-limited WEG re-issues are somewhere in the ridiculous level. ($500 for the Haflinger, that’s barely distinguishable from the SR Strikey? Girlfriend, please.)

Coping Strategies

Yesterday, my brother heard me yelling in my office, and promptly told me to walk away from the computer. The WEG Specials? Yeah, it was the WEG Specials.

I couldn’t, of course. Last week’s work schedule really messed me up (gone from home for two days, slept through most of a third) and while the limited Internet access was probably as good a coping strategy as any for dealing with the WEG specials, it’s not something I could avoid forever.

And boy howdy, did it hurt like heck. The exclusive SRs are nice - I wouldn’t mind the Gold Raven, or that Palomino Roxy - but it’s the premium reissues that are really killing me, especially the matte POA Toby and the (cry-sob-whimper) Traditional Man o’ War.

Stab me in the heart, why don’t you Reeves?

Yeah, and real smart move, not limiting the low quantity SRs to one per person, or so many per day. Were they really expecting all those SRs to last for the bulk of 16 days, without any purchase limits? If most of the advertised - and unadvertised - exclusives are gone by now, there’s gonna be a lot of unhappy campers over the next two weeks. (Unless they pull more "surprises" out later in the week.)

My current coping strategy for the rest of the duration of WEG? I’m treating it like every other recent acronymic event (LSE, VRE): ignore, then mope. It’s too far away for a day trip, and I don’t have the money anyway. Might as well be another LSE or VRE, without the formality of a ticket raffle.

At this point I really can’t say any more about the event that wouldn’t involve the heavy, repeated use of expletives. So I won’t.

The flea market was adequate today. The weather was clear, if a tad cold. There seemed to be fewer crazy/creepy people milling about, but more outright tourists - you know, the kind that buy ornamental corn, painted pumpkins, and trivets made out of bottlecaps.

Lots models, but not much worth buying - everything was either body quality, or slightly overpriced. I found that odd, since prices usually start going down near the end of the season. I did find an okay Horned Hereford Bull that’s now sunning in the window, and a few neat old books (nothing horsey.) I also found the Swinging Girl part of a Mastercrafters Swinger Clock - not the clock, just the girl on the swing. It's just my luck, though, that I’m still missing a part to install it in the one clock incomplete clock that I have.

I do have a couple of research-intensive posts in the pipeline, including a little something about the Davy Crockett that I’m hoping to have ready by tomorrow. My schedule is a little less strenuous this week, or at least it appears to be so from first glance.