Dealing With The Dealt Hand

For what it’s worth, I am fine: this is just the Universe reminding me I am not that special after all. There is no need to get angry on my behalf. 

The main thing that threw me off guard about it is the fact that I’ve been rejected, denied, ignored and overlooked for a lot of nonhobby things lately (I’m still trying to find a collision shop that will even call me back about my car!) and having the one thing that’s been a safe call for a while now not be took a little wind out of my sails.

I decided to make something of that frustration on Sunday and pulled some weeds, worked on a quilt top, and researched horse butts for a couple of customs languishing on craft table. 

I also bought another rehab project off of eBay, this time a vintage OF thing; if I can fix it up, it might lead to a pretty keen Collector’s Class entry, since that’s possibly my best shot at scoring something sweet at BreyerFest this year. 

I wasn’t going to enter any of those particular classes, but since they’re reopening them for entries and there’s now space in the car, it might be worth a shot, especially since there’s (ulp!) 181 other entrants to compete against in the actual show-show. No pressure there, yikes…

One of my more reliable showhorses, one I am considering taking to BreyerFest Live, is an exquisite example of the 2011 BreyerFest Special Run Jasmine:

They only made 1100 pieces of her, which seems rather small now, but she was one of the higher piece runs. She was outnumbered by the 1200 piece Spun Gold Surprise that year: even though it was just the second year for the Surprise (after 2009’s Quarter Horse Gelding) it was already one of the most popular items on the BreyerFest Special Run menu.

I didn’t participate in the Treasure Hunt in 2011, but I did go out of my way to get “Thunderstorm” because Black Arabians are definitely a thing for me, and I was lucky enough to get drawn for a Mont Tremblant, too.

My Mont Tremblant doesn’t get out as much as my Jasmine; lately I’ve been taking my Zugspitze when I want to bring a Silver Filigree to live show (everybody loves Zugspitze!) She keeps me company in my office with Jasmine and Thunderstorm, and that’s good enough.

The only Weather Girl I’m in serious need of – but it won’t happen, so I try not to think about it too much – is the Liver Chestnut variation of the BreyerFest Natasha from 2019. The Red Bay version didn’t do anything for me, but gosh the Liver Chestnut was a dream.

(I was never much interested in the Sunshine Celebration Exclusive Event Gloss Silver Red Bay Winter Haven – just not a fan of that color.)

Four Mares

I bought another box lot of bodies, mostly because I was feeling some weird anxiety over the slim pickings now residing in my body box. They were super-duper cheap too, so even with the very modest (mostly single digit) prices I tend to assign to them, I’ll still make a nice little profit at BreyerFest.

As long as I don’t take too many of them for my own personal use. (One, maybe two, tops! I swear!) 

I still have a ton of stuff (nearly a whole ‘nother bin) I couldn’t bring last year, so now all I’ll “need” to restock for BreyerFest are a few more goodies for my totally decimated Dollar Table. 

I do plan on trying to sell as much as I can before Kentucky (still not sure if the Wyoming excursion is going to be right before, or right after!) but I like having a little bit of something for everyone. 

I put in for the Weather Girl Flamingo but, as I expected, nothing came of it. I have lots of pretty Weather Girls already (my exceptionally nice BreyerFest Jasmine places at every show!), and it would have been nice to add her to the herd, but I’m not going to fret about it. 

Another beautiful girl who’s probably not coming home with me:

But this one is by choice: like a lot of BreyerFest models this year, Othello is another shelf hog. “Tilly” certainly won’t lack for suitors, and at least that clears the mold from Surprise contention. On the other hand, that also means that the Hamilton speculation will get even more out of hand...

Speaking of Saddlebreds, the Crystal is based on the Calliope:

I don’t collect the Crystals – I may have mentioned this before, but I was (literally!) born clumsy, so I try to avoid buying breakable things unless they’re cheap, or already broken. I don’t think I even own a single glass or crystal animal of any kind or brand. I do have a couple of very inexpensive bits of slag glass I have picked up in my travels, though I would hesitate to say that I actually collect it. 

And finally, there’s the latest Test Color, a Bay Pinto Misty:

Oh, you precious creature: the one I want the most, and have the least hope of acquiring. Collectively, vintage Test Color Misties aren’t exceedingly rare, though most of the ones I’ve seen have been solid-colored: Bay, Black, Alabaster, and (my personal favorite!) Dapple Gray. I think there are some Appaloosa-flavored ones out there, too. 

I’ll be working quite a bit of overtime over the next month or so, so if the Universe happens to be listening, I can totally afford it.

Unsurprisingly

The Hero’s Surprise numbers are out, and of course, OF COURSE, my favorite is again the rare one – not the Rare-Rare 30-piece Anniversary one, but the one that would be rare in any other given year:

Dark Dapple Grey: 1000 Matte, 200 Glossy
Chestnut Pinto: 850 Matte, 200 Glossy
Dappled Pearl: 650 Matte, 200 Glossy
Rose Grey: 520 Matte, 200 Glossy
Decorator: 400 Glossy
Pearly Black Leopard Appaloosa: 30 Matte

How do they manage to do that? How do I manage to do that?

I really do want to get that Lime Green one eventually. But since I’m still having a few, uh, inventory issues here, I’ll just wait it out and then maybe do some strategic trades and sales or something in the meantime to build up the war chest.

I don’t care which subvariation – the mostly silver or the mostly green – just whoever happens to be available at the right time and the right price.

I am also considering the same with the Saint Bernard Blue Bucky variation, who just had to appear when I thought maybe my Traditional Dog collection was within spitting distance of being complete!

Since my options were rather limited in my second go-round in the Special Run Line – I took a gamble on the number draw, and naturally lost – I went with a second Bucky (in addition to a Pepper), who was pretty much the same as the first.

Knew I should have gone for a Natasha instead! She was much nicer in person compared to her pictures (not unexpectedly), and to be honest I think of all the variations they came out with this year, she was straight-up the prettiest. I am such a sucker for a nicely executed liver chestnut…

I’d like to think that maybe I’d still have a shot at her with the Leftovers Sale, but I don’t know what the situation is going to be there – what’s going to be available, and when – so I am just taking the extremely reasonable assumption that it’s going to happen when I am not online to partake, anyway.

And if I am, just be happy when I inevitably open up the Bay Pinto.

Good Enough

It just occurred to me that the two items I ordered late last week – the Vintage Club Weather Girl Grace, and the Stablemates Club Finn – are both Gambler’s Choice items. I just paid out a decent chunk of money and I have no idea what I’ll be getting.

Out of the 12 different possible combinations (three of the Grace, four of the Finn) that is.

And you know what? I’m fine with that. I grew up during the “picture box” era of Breyer collecting – pre-1985 – and most of the time you had no idea what you’d actually be getting inside that box. It wasn’t just a solid, opaque cardboard box either: they were shrinkwrapped too!

(Handpicking? Hah!)

Breyer was in something of an experimental phase with retail packaging in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Prior to then, toy stores generally kept out display pieces, and you had to ask the clerk to bring you your selection from their backstock.

By the end of the 1970s, most stores – toys or otherwise – had switched to a self-service mode as a cost-saving measure, which necessitated a move to more decorative and informative packaging.

The history of Breyer packaging is, of course, much more complicated than that, but I don’t have the time or the mind to deal with the intricacies today. Another day, perhaps.

Aside from the packaging issues, a lot of the time you couldn’t trust the catalogs or manuals, either. Case in point: the Stock Horse Stallions from the 1981 Dealer’s Catalog:

Well, okay, I am still a little mad about that one: I want that minimally-marked Black Pinto San Domingo, dangnabit! I probably have a slightly better chance of acquiring one of the numerous Stock Horse Stallions Tests, like this one:

Seriously, there’s like a bajillion different Black Pinto Stock Horse Stallions out there, and I like them all better than the pinto we actually got, but that just might be a “wanting what you can’t have” thing. Or that I’m always up for another Test Color or Oddity, no matter the mold or color. I already have two Stock Horse Stallion Tests, and don’t really need another.

But back to the original point: everyone has gotten very spoiled since the advent of display boxes. We can be picky now, instead of later!

However, the ability to be pickier isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially if we find ourselves becoming so picky that nothing less than perfection is good enough. And since perfection is an arbitrary and abstract concept, what happens is that eventually, no model is ever good enough.

The perfect is the enemy of the good. 

I’m not saying y’all should accept a substandard model, but sometimes, life is easier and a lot less stressful if we just accept that everything comes occasional ding or flaw, whether we like it or not.

Chasing Rainbows

First we heard about the upcoming Classics release Day Dreamer, who is a Translucent Classics Harper with a rainbow on it.

Then we get an e-mail about the 2018 Stablemates Club Gambler’s Choice Finn the Mule, and one of the four potential selections is a Rainbow Overo Pinto:

And then news broke of an apparent Walmart Special Run Classics Unicorn named Skylar, who is a Pearly/Iridescent White Forthwind with a sparkly Rainbow-striped mane and tail.

This is an interesting development. So everything is coming up rainbows for 2018?

We have had a number of pastel and multicolored releases in the recent past – such as the Peace, Love and Horses Classics Warmblood Mare, some of the Unicorn releases like the Alaric, and a number of Test Colors – but it wasn’t until 2011 that we had a true “Rainbow-themed” release, with the Translucent Weather Girl Treasure Hunt redemption horse.

I’m all for Decorator finishes, but I’ve found the rainbow-themed ones aren’t really my cup of tea. (If I do happen to end up with the Rainbow Mule, I won’t be looking to trade. Generally I just go with whatever I get on Gambler’s Choice models.)

Actually, this is cool – if 2018 is going to be the Year of the Rainbow, that’ll help me out tremendously. One of the resolutions I was considering for next year was cutting back the horse buying to an absolute minimum: that means no retail “fun money” binges, no late night eBay pity purchases, and no Web Specials unless they happen to be one of the handful of molds or concepts that push my buttons (like the Traditional Man o’ War, or a holiday-themed Elk).

So it’ll just be obligate Club purchases, BreyerFest, and the incidental flea market/thrift store finds that mostly end up on my sales list anyway. Oh, and the Customer Appreciation Promotion, if they happen to do the “FREE GLOSSIES FOR EVERYBODY” thing again next year.

I’ll still be open to trades and genuine upgrades, and if something insanely rare and cheap turns up in my radar I certainly won’t turn it down, either.

But I’ve been liking the space my recent collection reorganization has given me, and goodness, I certainly could do without the paperwork all that buying and reselling entails. The extra money’s been helpful, but I’d rather have that time to focus on more creative endeavors next year. (Most of them not model-horse-related, unless you count Sparky and Jules.)

The Exclusive Event that’s coming up in the Spring also seems unlikely, though I’d rather wait to cross that bridge when I get to it.

Rest and Recovery

Still physically and mentally unpacking; both will take the rest of the week – possibly longer on the mental part. But I’ll get to that part in a minute.

Here’s the diorama, in case you missed it:

Yes, the cookies were edible. But they didn’t help: you’re looking at another in a long line of nonwinning entries. Judging from the reaction of everyone that saw it, I really thought I had a shot this year.

Then again, I think that almost every year.

I am now seriously considering putting my effort into either the Live Show or the Customs Contest. I am hoping my obsessive detailing will serve me better there, because it’s obviously not doing the job in this contest.

And I’ve been meaning to do more of both – customizing, and live showing – in the near future anyway. Perhaps my latest diorama failure will be my motivation.

Although I did manage to snag a few grails and oddities – including a couple of very interesting doggies you’ll be seeing very soon – there were no other special prizes, Raffle wins, Glosses, Samples or extreme Rarities for me, either. Just the Volunteer Special, who I think is lovely, though many seem to think otherwise:

I got all the Ticket Special Runs that I wanted, but of the two Bollywood Surprises I snagged, both are Matte Buckskin (I wanted Buckskin – but I didn’t need two!) and I didn’t realize until last night that my Kaalee – one of the Special Runs I was most looking forward to! – was missing.  

I’ve lost only one other model at BreyerFest before, but that was a flea market find 25th Anniversary Secretariat with a partial box: in other words, no great financial or emotional loss.

But losing the Kaalee? Man, I didn’t even get to open up the bag and get a good look at her! I am majorly bummed.

If this patch of rough luck continues, I’ll probably miss the leftovers sale in a few weeks, too. Sigh.

On the positive side, everything else executed according to plan. There were no major travel hassles (other than the Cincinnati traffic), sales were pretty good (though I didn’t sell many Traditionals, oddly), the weather mostly cooperated, and I got to meet most of the people I wanted to meet.

So, in short: while the trip was fine financially and logistically (more or less), it took a little bit bigger bite out of me emotionally than I expected.

But I got lots of love, attention from you all, and a few tokens of affection that were most appreciated (and still mostly unpacked). You guys have no idea how much that all means to me.

I’ll try to post with a little more frequency this week, but I’ll be spending most of the rest of my time recovering, offline. Bonus pic of Vita, looking like how I feel right now:

(BTW: she sleeps like that all the time. Stinker.)

Looking Forward

Successful weekend: partially snowed in, in possession of a nicely-funded Paypal account, on a payday weekend, with multiple “special offer” e-mails streaming in from Reeves – and I didn’t buy anything!

That level of resolve probably won’t last the week, since I just spotted an inexpensive upgrade on eBay earlier today. It’s one of THOSE kind of things: if I don’t bid on it, I know I’ll be thinking about it – and regretting it – for months.

Another model I’m considering, but shouldn’t: the Premier Club Forever Saige. The previous two releases for 2015 were also beautiful – we’re all eager to see an Hermosa and Corazon Special Run at next year’s BreyerFest, right? – but there’s just something about Saige’s face that I find very endearing.

I guess because it reminds me a bit of Vita’s face in her rebellious-but-playful moments. Her hair is a bit weird and there are some angles that make her look ungraceful, but these are problems both Vita and I can totally relate to.

She is also very reminiscent of the original Traditional Mustang: the elevated head and neck, the relative position of her legs, a wild mane and thick, somewhat short tail. I can’t recall if I’ve covered the topic here before, but I have some interesting theories about the sculptural antecedents of the original Mustang. Another topic, for another time.

Judging from the number of them for sale online, I think I can hold out until BreyerFest to pick up a Forever Saige from the inevitable stash of leftovers that will be found in the NPOD.

Because I’ve been good about my budget, I haven’t gotten a copy of the new 2016 Breyer Calendar yet either, but it apparently contains some sneak peeks of other new horses coming our way next year – including a lovely Black Weather Girl, a portrait of Rhapsody in Black:

http://arabiansltd.com/egyptian-arabian-mares/black-arabians-mare-rhapsody-in-black

I had completely forgotten that next year would mark the end of the Weather Girl mold’s five-year exile to the “vault”. I was expecting her to return in a more conventional Bay, Chestnut or Gray, but another Black is good, too!

If you’re not a fan of Black, no worries: I would not be surprised to see Weather Girl multiple times in multiple releases next year: as a Web Special, a Flagship/Store Special, or maybe even a little something at BreyerFest.

Though I still want to see her in the original Breyer Old Mold/Family Arabian Colors: Gloss Alabaster, Gloss Honey Bay, Gray Appaloosa and Woodgrain.

I should stop pushing so hard for that idea; when I do get my wish for a favorite mold or mold/color combo, it often results in releases that remain out of my reach. Not always, but enough.

In Other News

Is there more to the story of the Copenhagen Belgian?

Yes, but it’ll have to wait until next week. Partly to see what happens with the auction, partly because I’m way behind on everything else, but also because there’s plenty of other model horse news that needs to be attended to.

First, most of you know by now - or should know - that Reeves released/dumped a bunch of warehouse overstock at Tuesday Morning stores and the TJ Maxx/Marshalls chain in the past two weeks. The assortment there included Weather Girls, more Elvis items, Prince Jesters, Satos, Kongs, Stablemates sets, some of the creepy doll sets, the Breast Cancer Bluegrass Bandits, Kripton Senis, Cedrics …

You get the picture. Lots of good stuff.

When I did finally manage to escape my house earlier this week (I think it was Monday night? I can’t remember. NaNoWriMo is melting my brain, again.) I somehow ended up at a couple of Tuesday Mornings. Fortunately I managed to walk away with only a pretty nice Gathering Storm (the 2011 Online Collector’s Choice Big Ben) and a gorgeously shaded Sato, both of whom are currently chilling in the car until the coast is clear.

(Yes, dear readers, I also plead guilty to the "sneaking new horses in the house and pretending they were here all along" ruse.  I did sell a couple things this week, so that sort of makes it okay, right? Right?)

I tried finding a Priefert’s Kong that pleased me enough to take home, but they all either had minor flaws I couldn’t stop staring at, or had paint jobs that were a little too flat black for my tastes.

There were also no Weather Girls in my neck of the woods - all snapped up early, I presume. I was sort of hoping to get another Palomino Weather Girl as an accompaniment to the sample one I picked up at BreyerFest this year, but it looks like that will have to wait.

The second bit of news: yes, I was aware of the Heavy/Resin-filled/Home Decorating Show Breyers that turned up on eBay over the course of the past month. I was even an underbidder on a couple of them, but as you know by now, I was not one of the winners.

That’s what happens when your bank accounts are significantly closer to zero than your competition. Being distracted by the whole Blue Belgian business didn’t help, either. (A most pleasing distraction, at least.)

Make no mistake, it definitely stung - quite a bit, to be honest. I happened to be volunteering at BreyerFest the year that the Home Decorating Show leftovers were sold in the Pit. And with my first shift being first thing Friday morning. At the Help/Information Desk.

Yeah, I had to watch everybody else walk past me into the Ninja Pit.

Torture? You bet. It was the only possible way volunteering could have been made unpleasant for me, outside of being made to dance around in the Pal O’Mine suit. (That year was not good for me for a variety of reasons. The absence of the NPOD shopping experience was a relatively low on the list of grievances, believe it or not.)

With the prices that a couple of those pieces brought - and the added attention - it seems even more unlikely that I’ll be able to smooth that particularly rough-edged memory from my mind.

Not that all of them can, or should be. How else would the world know of pearls?

Another Kind of Sampler

I found myself facing another strange hobby disconnect the other day whilst lurking about another Blab BreyerFest thread, the one where they were all complaining that "prices were too high" at the hotel and that they "couldn’t find anything worth buying there, anyway."

To which I can only say "T’wasn’t my reality."

My sales were a little bit down from last year, but that’s only because I had less to sell - I forgot a box of clinkies at home, and I didn’t have time to thin the personal herd like I wanted to. My roommates had the same experience, pretty much: we were never lacking for customers with cash. I did notice that more customers this year were unfamiliar with the concept of haggling, though, something I attributed (to a degree) on the relative newness of the attendees.

For the record, folks, there's absolutely no offense taken when dickering over price; tagged prices are intended to be optimistic. In fact, some of us take a more offense if you don't make the effort.

I also happened to find quite a bit I wanted to buy, but I was somewhat hampered by the fact that I had, ahem, overindulged a bit on Friday morning. I had the money: what I didn’t have was the room. And I’m too cheap to mail stuff home to "make" the room.

In fact, I am so bereft of sellable merchandise that in my rare spare moments, I’ve found myself trolling eBay for box lots. (Which usually stops right quick when I remind myself "Don’t you have some storage boxes to go through, lady?")

As I've mentioned above and before, I did pretty darn well in the NPOD this year. Aside from the WEG and Equine Affaire Esprits - which would have made the wait in line worthwhile, alone - I managed to score more than a half dozen Samples. On my way to check out something else that had caught my eye, I was lucky enough to stumble upon (and then get pushed against!) one of the three or four Sample boxes that littered the sales floor.

After the person in front of me (darn!) had taken her share, I rummaged through what was left that - as you may have guessed by now - was definitely not nothing.

One of the things left on the bottom of the box did look like nothing - or more precisely, like a crumpled wad of tissue paper, until I picked it up and realized "Hey, there are Stablemates in here." Those Stablemates being a complete set of the 2009 Funfetti Stablemates, still in their original mini tote bags:

Sweet! Couldn’t beat the price, either, which was considerably less than the $20 apiece they originally were. And them probably being Samples? Even better! (BTW, since they were marked as a set, I’m counting them as "one" Sample, not "five".)

Since they slightly predate the introduction of the VIN numbers, there’s no definitive proof that they were Samples, but all the evidence seems to point in that direction. They were on the bottom of a box full of Samples, many of whom were marked as such. This, for instance and honest to goodness, is the actual tag that came with my Sample Palomino Weather Girl:

Hard to believe something with a tag like that was actually getting tossed around the NPOD at one point, no? Because, OMG, she had a couple of scratches. (The horror!)

Most of my other Samples are live show quality, so a couple of scratches on another wasn't going to crush my world or anything.

Because It's My Job

I’ve given up fast food, carbonated drinks, candy bars, and quilting for Lent. I decided to forego giving up caffeine, because that would simply not be pleasant for anybody. I haven’t entirely given up sweets either, but if I want any, I have to make it or bake it.

Since I have little time for that kind of thing, it most likely ain’t gonna happen.

I finally opened my Dandy today - very nice! The paint job is beautiful, and the sticker is a spot-on reproduction of the original. Though I must point out that most Gloss finishes were discontinued before the "Big" Blue Ribbon sticker debuted ca. 1969.

I know, I know, they picked that style of sticker so they could print the name on it legibly. It’s sort of my job to be nitpicky, you know.

My other nitpick with it is the certificate - as far as I know, the Clydesdale mold debuted in 1958, not 1957. It’s true that the Poodle was technically "debuted" at the 1958 Toy Fair, but it was available from multiple retailers in 1957; I haven’t seen any evidence of the same situation for the Clydesdale.

If it wasn’t available for retail sale in 1957, it wasn’t "released" in 1957, period.

A picture of the Fall Dealer Special Esprit is finally making the rounds - and he’s Dunalino, not Palomino. He still appears to be Glossy, and an Appaloosa, and somewhat limited, so the alternating fits of hysteria and swooning continue unabated.

He is pretty spiffy, though I was secretly yearning for an airbrushed blanket with splash spots, instead of the masked one. Totally okay with it, either way.

(BTW, thanks for the tip, KD ~)

So let me get this straight: a Dunalino Appaloosa paint job on the Esprit is acceptable. The Fun Foals Chestnut Pintaloosa Standing Stock Horse Foal is acceptable. But a Silver Pintaloosa on the Weather Girl is a crime against nature?

(Does that mean desirability of an exotic paint job is inversely proportional to the anatomical correctness?)

I’ve never understood the hatred in some parts of the real (and model) horse world over the very existence of pintaloosas. I’m not a big fan of breeding for color, but if you just happen to get a lot of color on an pretty nice piece of horseflesh, all the better.

I never did get around to sending away for my Rainbow Weather Girl, even though I did manage to luck into the Black one fairly early on. If I happen to find one in the NPOD this year - matte or gloss - I won’t hesitate to pick it up. Because I’m certainly not going to pay the prices some sellers seem to think their "ugly, undesirable" Weather Girls are worth.

If its very presence pains you that much, slap a body price on it and let it go where it goes. That’s what I do with the stuff that annoys me. Just keep lowering the price until someone bites. Or sell it as a body. The end.

More Condition Issues

I sometimes joke that if I were any more clumsy than I already am, I’d qualify for a handicapped parking permit.

Well, just to let you know, I’ve fallen down the steps twice now, in three days. Nothing damaged, as far as I can tell, but I already have a rather high threshold for pain (on account of the clumsiness) so I might not be the best judge.

My Silver Filigree Weather Girl also survived a slight tumble, fortunately while still boxed. (It wasn’t me, I swear.) I have to say that I’m liking these new shipping boxes Reeves is using now. They’re a lot strong than they look, and a lot sturdier than the ones they were using previously, which looked and felt like they were made out of recycled paper towels. They are a bit snug in the size department, though. I know they’ve got size requirements to meet, but an extra half-inch here or there would definitely inspire a little more confidence.

While we’re on the topic, look what just happened to show up on eBay this week - a 1979 Lady Phase, with some interesting condition issues:

1979 Lady Phase

Before y’all get super-upset with the hobbyist in question, let me remind you that things were a little different back then. Making alterations - adding or removing markings, or tweaking the mold - wasn’t that big a deal back then. Even I did it: I will not go into detail, but I did some unspeakable things to an SR Red Roan Running Mare.

We were all young and kinda dumb. Plus, you know, there were a bunch of different buckskin Lady Phases floating around, and we didn’t bother trying to distinguish between them until much later, when we realized, duh, that some of them really were sorta rare. (And I didn’t realize that the Running Mare was an SR one until the damage was done.)

It looks like the latest NAMHSA controversy has flamed out. As expected, it was much ado about nothing. Not nothing nothing, but blown out of proportion to the actual incident. More proof that an e-mail list is good for nonlinear information (announcements, requests, questions that do not require lengthy answers) and not for anything that requires follow through, or follow up (debates, discussions, socializing.)

Just to clarify, the kind of web site or hub I’m envisioning probably wouldn’t include a discussion forum. Discussion forums are good for the things that e-mail lists generally are not (debating-discussing-socializing), but not so great with handling nonlinear information, especially when topics start to drift.

It’s the nonlinear information that I’m most concerned about: news and general information that should be available to most people - hobbyists and nonhobbyists alike - with just a click or two, without any further involvement or commitment. The bulk of it would include announcements about special runs, contests, live shows, volunteer opportunities, real horse stuff of specific interest to hobbyists, model horses in the media, etc.

(I'm not sure articles on more narrowly defined topics would be necessary, or helpful, at least in the beginning.)

The rest of it would be devoted to promoting the hobby online, especially to the hobby-curious, with general information of what the hobby is about, what it entails, and where to go for more information. The sort of thing I imagined that NAMHSA should have been doing from the onset, rather than going all in on a national show, instead.

If we want to get serious about making the hobby to grow and prosper, we need to make the online hobby presence less intimidating to newbies, and easier to navigate.

More Information Wonkery

Did a little Snoopy Dance yesterday upon receiving notification of "winning" a Mont Tremblant. I’m thinking of calling her Le Quatrieme, which roughly translates from the French as "the fourth one", since she will be my fourth Silver Filigree.

I suspect that she’ll probably be the last horse I get this year, though, since it’s very likely that I’ve used up the last bit of good karma I had to get her. I’m not writing off The War Horse drawing or any of the eBay auctions on my watch list, yet, but I’d totally understand if I come up zero for everything else for the remainder of the month.

Which is fine, actually. Bills to pay, and all that.

I see that they shipped out the Stablemates Hermes models this week - and no surprise, someone turned around and sold one already, for a nice little profit. It’s nobody’s business but the buyer’s and the seller’s, I suppose, but I does make me wonder if the buyer was fully aware of the circumstances surrounding the distribution of the model.

It’s become quite clear to me that the information about Hermes hasn’t been as widely distributed as it should have been.

Sadly, this is rather typical of the online hobby, as a whole. One of the things that drives me absolutely crazy is that, in spite of its relatively small and self-contained nature of the online hobby, reliable information does not travel well within it. Information that is - or should be - widely known or generally accepted just isn’t.

It’s not too bad in places like Fallen-Leaves or Blab where, because of the format, anything and everything becomes grist for the mill. The problem there is more of the "operator error" type: there are individual members of those boards who seem phenomenally clueless, but the information is still theoretically available to them. And sometimes, a question from a genuinely uninformed hobbyist will sparks a worthwhile debate or discussion.

Whenever I take one of my semi-regular trips to places like Haynet, or Breyer’s Facebook page, however, I always find myself taking a deep breath before I click. Questions of fact you thought were answered months ago, and in excruciating detail, are still up for debate.

It’s partly the audience: these are the kind of places where low-information, low-involvement, or very narrowly focused hobbyists tend to congregate, and where high-information, high-involvement, more general interest hobbyists have largely fled for greener pastures. These places have become largely self-contained, and where new or revitalizing information rarely seems to venture.

Part of me wants to help out in some of the lower-information forums, but the very format of these places simply isn’t really designed to handle either extended discussions, or to aggregate information, as the current brouhaha going on in the NAMHSA-Discussion Yahoo Group illustrates all too well.

Transitioning these low-information hobbyists to more high-information formats would seem to be the solution to the problem, but it’s not as simple as that. Some people are very wedded to their information sources of choice - and very much against others.

I agree, in theory, that the Blab forum format would go a long way in tempering some of the periodic dust-ups that occur on the NAMHSA-Discussion list, but there is a not-insignificant group of hobbyists who’d rather eat live goldfish than even venture there. Either because of the reputation it has among certain classes of hobbyists, or because the format itself seems too overwhelming.

If I had time to create a non-partisan, model horse news hub, I’d do it, but I don’t. I barely have time to answer my e-mails or edit my link list, much less start a hub.

Mont Tremblant, Etc.

In retaliation for the kind of crummy day I had today, I ate most of a large bag of M & Ms. Probably not the best move on my part, but it really was the best choice of solutions I had available to me.

I also opened my Fall in Love today; he’s very nice. A couple of odd little flaws, but nothing to freak out about. His masking is very clean, and he has just the right amount of shimmer in his coat. I’m not quite sure where to put him yet; the odd shape of the Nokota Horse mold makes it a little difficult to accommodate on a shelf.

The name of the SR Mont Tremblant Weather Girl suggested to me the kind of vacation "the right kind of people" take during their winter break. So I was fully expecting the announcement of the lottery/drawing to happen over the Christmas weekend, with the winners being notified on the first day after the holiday (as just the thing to blow your gifted moolah on!)

This weekend? Okey-dokey.

The piece count on her is interesting - 350, instead of the 150-200 piece runs we were assuming were (going to be) the norm with the revamped Web Special program. It may still be the case, with Mont Tremblant’s upped piece count due to the overwhelming demand the Silver Filigree special runs have had in the past. I don’t think it’ll affect the resale value too much, either: the run is still (technically) quite small, and the demand for Silver Filigrees (and Weather Girls) is still quite high.

The announcement of a "gift horse" drawing - in the form of a 100 piece gloss SR for The War Horse, on the Foundation Stallion mold - is a very pleasant surprise. I may be indifferent to the charms of the movie itself, but not to a super-limited glossy Foundation Stallion.

I wonder if they’ll be making gifting a semi-regular thing? (Hmm. Limited Edition pastel-colored Stablemates in Easter Egg packaging, for Easter? I could go for that!)

Lost in the hubbub surrounding the special runs was announcement of the resolution of the international ordering problems on the Breyer web site. Remember when everyone was getting all righteously indignant about this last month?

It gets fixed, and nobody seems to notice or care, presumably because they’ve all moved on to the next outrage. Which I’m guessing is Thrillseeker, based on the length of that thread about it on Blab. (I didn’t get drawn for one, so my interest in that discussion has been fairly minimal.)

Speaking of, it seems that Reeves has finally decided on making its presence known there as "NewBreyerHelper." They haven’t formally said as much, but it does appear to be someone using the editorial we in postings about matters pertaining to the web site today. An interesting development, to say the least (I wonder how many "friend" requests they’ve gotten by now?) I’m guessing it’s part of a run up to the "forum" Reeves has mentioned in passing on the new web site.

I’ve got holiday projects to finish, so toodles…

Fall in Love

Got all my shopping done on Friday in the space of an hour; fortunately, all I had to do was pick up a couple of things at Walgreens and a few supplies from the craft store. Clipped my coupons, got up at a leisurely hour, did my business, and went home. No "competitive shopping" for me.

(Ironically, I was kinda-sorta pepper sprayed once, in the relative safety of my own home, because someone was too cheap to go buy a can of ground pepper at the store. Peppercorns + Food Processor = Bad Idea. 'Nuff said.)

I spent the rest of the day cussing at (a) dumb people on the Internet, (b) a quilt project that’s way more complicated than it looked on paper, and (c) the Nano novel.

It’s been a good experience for me, but I will be glad to be done with it and move on to other things for a while. I just finished a really emotionally draining scene today, and I am wiped out. (Main character kisses her ex-boyfriend for the first - and only - time. In front of his wife and newborn baby. Didn’t think the scene was going to go there, but dang, that’s where it went.)

Since the new Breyer site didn’t get its hard/official launch until Wednesday, and with most folks having minimal ‘net time on Thursday, it makes sense that the Fall in Love Web Special is being handled as a general, open to the public release.

Running a lottery for the first Web Special a few days after they start offering Collector’s Club memberships - with one of the perks of the membership being the ability to enter drawings for Web Specials? Might strike some folks as a little questionable, both legally and ethically.

I am glad that they abandoned the "don’t call us, we’ll call you" notification method, though truthfully, the lottery method is probably going to make it even less likely for those of us without compliant friends and relatives to "win."

I’m just gonna do my one e-mail entry a day, and hope for the best. I just bought another (small) collection this week, so I won’t be completely heartbroken if it doesn’t happen. (IOW: don’t offer. Seriously. Short on the moolah here.)

I suspect that the Silver Filigree Weather Girl "Mont Tremblant," will be offered strictly to Collector’s Club members, since I’m assuming that that will be at least another week or two in the future - or long enough as Reeves deems the notification timeframe as sufficient.

I’m also assuming is going to be by lottery first to Club members, with the leftovers (if any) being offered to the general public.

(Yeah, I know, leftover Silver Filigree Weather Girls: such a silly thought.)

Well, anyway, like I said, the novel left me a bit wiped. Time to veg out in front of the telly.

Feeling the Rainbow

Lots of ground to cover today.

First, I "won" a Nympheas! Yay me! (Is it weird that I still get a bit of a thrill whenever I see my name on the Winners List?) I don’t have many Marabellas in the collection; not for a lack of trying, I just never seem to be in the right place at the right time for the right model. So that’s a happy way to start my weekend.

Second, yes, I’ve been brainstorming ideas for the Costume Ball ever since it was announced on the BreyerFest blog a few days ago. The first idea that popped into my head was hilarious, but probably inappropriate, and possibly illegal in the State of Kentucky. (No, the whip is not involved.) I still might do it if I can’t come up with anything else equally awesome. I thought my costume last year bordered on the inappropriate, and everything turned out fine.

Third, well … the Rainbow Weather Girls are out. I’m surprised at how much I like the Translucent Rainbow variation; I wasn’t a huge fan of their previous Rainbow paint jobs, but it really works on the Translucent plastic. Kudos for them for being able to pull it off so successfully.

I like the Pintaloosa ones too. It seems like an odd choice, but I get it - it’s a paint job with a lot of "color." I would not be displeased to get either the Matte or the Glossy version, if only because my Standing Stock Horse Fun Foal needs a Mommy:


Most of the "Herd" seems to think otherwise. Quelle surprise, non? Whatever. Some hobbyists just gotta complain no matter what. A few more realistic colors would be nice, but I’m not going to snipe, carp and moan about it. Or withhold my UPCs and hope for something "better." I’ll send them in when I finally get around to getting the rest of them, and be happy with whatever shows up on the doorstep.

We got spoiled on the multiple variants on the Hucks and Fun Foals: hobbyists seem to have forgotten that the first couple of Treasure Hunts didn’t have a lot of variations within them, and there wasn’t a huge amount of complaining at the time that there should have been more.

(Well, some: no subject in the hobby ever goes uncomplained about.)

It’s nice that Reeves seems to be going with a simultaneous and random release of multiple variations, something I wish they had done last year with the Othello Treasure Hunt. Allegedly there are going to be four variations total; whether the Gloss and Matte Pintaloosas count as one or two, I don’t know. If they’re going to go with variations on the "color" theme, I’m supposing there’s going to be a "Color Change" painted piece in the mix somewhere.

A Color Change Pintaloosa, maybe? Oh yeah, I’d totally dig that!

Peace Out.

Herd Mentality

Can I say it? Wait a minute, of course I can say it, it’s my blog: I’m tired of these customized Weather Girls already.

I get it, y’all just loves her to death, and most of the pieces I’ve seen so far are at least competently done. But too many customs on the same mold in such a short period of time - no matter how pretty or correct it may be - still makes my eyes glaze over. They all start looking the same to me, just like those blandly beautiful supermodels on the cover of Cosmo or Vanity Fair.

If you really want to impress me with your mad customizing skilz, do something special with more run-of-the-mill body box fodder, like what Maggie Bennett’s been doing lately with Family Arabian Stallions(!) and Smokies(!!) That’s the kind of thing I was aiming for, back when I was still brave enough to customize: the audible gasps of "I had no idea you could do that with that mold."

(Alas, my ideas were a little bit beyond my sculpting talents. I still dream of turning a FAM into a rocking Dales Pony, though.)

For as many pixels that are devoted in the hobby to expressions of one’s creative and intellectual independence, there’s actually darn little of it, at least online. It’s especially true in semi-autonomous communities like Blab, Fallen Leaves, and even Haynet, where some ideas Are Not Discussed, some authorities Must Always Be Deferred To, and Some Opinions Have the Weight of Truth.

In other words, the exact opposite of creative and intellectual independence is being fostered: it’s herd mentality. Herd mentality is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when it’s harnessed to achieve a greater good, but it’s definitely disconcerting to see it in a hobby full of self-professed "independent spirits."

I never set out to be a contrarian voice, but one of the numerous reasons I started this blog was to give voice to opinions otherwise unspoken, and by my act let other hobbyists out there know that it’s okay to not "follow the herd."

Yeah, it’s a little lonely out here sometimes. (S’alright, I’m used to it.) I’ll confess up front that I’d rather be an insider than an outsider, but sometimes you just gotta say what needs to be said, and do what needs to be done.

Do it well, and do it honestly, and the rest will follow. Eventually. I hope.

I’m not the kind of person who enjoys watching other people have a great time (yes, jealous - your point?) but I’ve been following the SCE coverage on Blab because, unfortunately, that’s where the news is. I haven’t gotten my JAH yet, either, and I was jonesing for some new Breyer news.

I am quite pleased to see we are getting more Eberls sculpts in the near future - a pair of Classic-scale ponies, for BreyerFest! Yay, more ponies! I’ve always wanted a Classic-scale Pony Family; let’s hope that "Papa" isn’t too far behind. I’m not too crazy about the color they’re coming in, but it might just be the photos messing with my eyes again.

It’s going to be darn hard for me to narrow down my BreyerFest SR choices this year. I need the Goat, the Ponies, the newly announced dappled bay Weather Girl … fooey! Wish I could afford more than one ticket. At least there are enough good choices - I think - to make my position in line irrelevant.

Who's That Girl?

I wasn’t planning on purchasing a Weather Girl any time soon; I was willing to wait for the frenzy to die down a bit before I attempted a shopping excursion. But I just so happened to be in the right part of town for work on Thursday, and figured that since that store was just around the corner, it wouldn’t hurt to look:


Yay! A happy way to spend the last little bit of my tax refund. (The rest went to bills, bleh.)

They had all three colors available, but both the Palominos and Pintos had some condition issues just bothersome enough to leave them behind. The Thunderstorm has a couple, too - a slightly rough seam on the mane, and a small paint blooper on her left hind leg - but nothing that screamed "body quality" to me.

I was a bit tempted by the Palominos, in spite of their masking problems. That has to be the most gorgeous, spot on original finish Palomino paint job I’ve seen in a long, long time: rich, bright, shimmery, and golden. Now that’s Palomino!

My first thought, actually, was how neat it would be if Reeves ever decided to re-issue the Palomino Family Arabians - that’s the shade of Palomino they’d need to be. (The Western Prancing Horse? Yeah, I’d go for that, too.)

I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole concept of the Weather Girl Treasure Hunt might have sprung out of the notion of justifying that Palomino paint job. I’m sure someone at Reeves must have thought that it would be fitting that their newest Arabian should be released in that most iconic (and notorious) color.

Wouldn’t it be neat if the "Rainbow" Reeves is referring to in regards to the Redemption Horse "Rainbow" would be the range of colors the original "Old Molds" came it - Shaded Alabaster, Honey Bay, Gray Appaloosa, and Woodgrain? I think she’d be particularly fetching in Gloss Alabaster, with lipliner and detailed muscle shading. Mmm.

We’ll find out soon enough, I suppose. I’m in no rush to send in for a Rainbow, myself. I managed to get the one Weather Girl I wanted with a minimum of stress and effort, and that’s good enough for me, for now.

Regarding the Palomino Proud Arabian Mare on eBay: oh yes, I’ve seen her. I don’t believe that the Gloss Palomino paint job was ever truly considered a viable color option for the mold’s rerelease in the 1970s. What I think happened in this case is that Marney felt the need to reproduce the original colors of the Old Mold Mare on the Proud Arabian Mare. In the photo album of hers that I own, there are pictures of other PAMs that look like reproduction attempts of other Old Mold paint jobs, too.

If anyone were to run across these other repro/tests today, most would be dismissed either as oddities (at best) or fakes (at worst.) What makes the Palomino different is that the Old Molds never came in Palomino. The color didn’t appear on the successors of the Old Molds, the Family Arabians, until at least 1961 - a year or more after the Old Molds were taken off the market.

Marney was operating under the mistaken assumption, back then, that they did. Instead of recreating something old, she accidentally created something new.

We all know where the gal in the auction will end up, eventually. The rest of us will just have to be content with a much more accessible Sunny.