W.H. Annie

Here’s one of the models I’m considering “deaccessioning”, which is just a fancy word for selling: the #710112 W.H. Annie, a 2002 BreyerFest Special Run Wixom in a pretty Dappled Rose Gray. 

She was released just a year after the mold was introduced in 2001, and was one of several Special Runs we were pummeled with at the beginning of the mold’s run, with one of the first being the gorgeous Gloss Dappled “Candy Apple” Bay Raffle Model Siren. 

She was also the QVC Special Run Equinox and the Connoisseur model Molly McGuire the following year, and in 2003 she was used as the Jamboree model Belle Fleur, the BreyerFest Live Show Prize Largo, and that Pink and Yellow Tie-Dyed BreyerFest Auction Model that I still think about on a regular basis. 

And then she was used as the BreyerFest Volunteer Model in 2005. Whew!

The only other Wixom out of all these that I managed to score was the QVC Equinox, but in spite of her very pretty color, I ended up having to return mine because she had too many goobers in her gloss. 

I’d eventually like to get a Belle Fleur, because the Chalky Fleabitten Gray really suits her, I think. But like a lot of earlier Special Runs on molds that aren’t super-popular anymore, she’s a little hard to come by now, though (thankfully) not too expensive when they do show up. 

But yeah, after having all those scarce or downright rare models thrown at us so quickly, it’s probably not a surprise that my potential enthusiasm got tamped down right quick. 

(See also: Esprit.)

Which is fine, really. Because I’m not really willing to give up too many of my Hess Belgians to make room for more of her. 

Wixom’s early history is also a good reminder that this particular release strategy is not something new.  

When Worlds Collide

I was definitely in the mood to forget my troubles and watch a giant gorilla and a giant lizard duke it out on the big screen TV over the weekend, but right in the middle of Svengoolie’s presentation of the 1962 Toho production of King Kong vs. Godzilla – during the “viewer mail” section of the show – up pops a MIB Breyer Apparition.

While this didn’t completely surprise me, because I’ve long believed that the model horse hobby is just another subset of the SF/Fantasy fandom anyway, there’s nothing quite like suddenly being confronted by a three-foot-tall Breyer horse in the middle of a Godzilla movie. 

(The segment was then followed by a Covenant House commercial, which also made me go hmm…)

Incidentally, my Brunhilde is here, and good golly, she’s a beauty:

Other than a little sloppy paint on her orange(!) tail ribbon – a super-easy fix – I have no complaints, at all. She almost makes up for not getting a Midas. 

Okay, not really, but she’s still a very pretty distraction. I’ll just have to rearrange a few models here so I can enjoy her on a daily basis.

What continues to be remarkable to me is the fact that there will still be several hobbyists who will still insist that there’s somehow been a decline in Breyer’s production quality since the 1970s. 

As someone who bought her first models in the 1970s, an era riddled with foggy gray stockings, heavy overspray and seams so rough that the flashing could actually cut your hand, I can only roll my eyes and wonder what they see that I did not.

As much as I love my #124 Bay Running Mare – my near-perfect semi-gloss one with the eyewhites – Brunhilde’s prep and paint work are still technically superior, and no amount of nostalgia can change that.  

My box of Vintage Club goodies has also arrived, but I’ll save opening that for Black Friday, because I think I may need it by then. I have no preferences regarding Nugget: whatever color I get, I get. Though it’s been a while since I’ve gotten a Copenhagen in the Decorator Gambler’s Choices, I guess?

Information about the 2022 BreyerWest just popped up on the Breyer web site, and I’m in a good enough spot in my life to do a little research about possibly attending. I doubt it’ll happen because that’s just an incredibly awkward time of the year for me to get away (who would take care of my seedlings?) but it’s nice that the possibility exists.

Accessibility Issues

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brunhilde

I went out of my way to be online today to buy the Brunhilde – the Fall Collector’s Club Web Special Wixom, in Dappled Bay – only to find that it was delayed a day due to Internet Issues. 

So now I have to rearrange my schedule again tomorrow. I suppose it’s better than the alternative – missing out entirely – but this entire month for me has been nothing else but a series of scheduling rearrangements, and I’d really rather not anymore.

When I first heard about Brunhilde, via scans of Just About Horses from hobbyists lucky enough to receive theirs early (FYI: mine arrived yesterday; I still haven’t opened it yet), I was initially unimpressed, but the notion of a relatively plain Bay Wixom has grown on me, and I found the portrait shot of her in the PR e-mails rather captivating:

So yeah, I think need one. All of the other Wixom releases I actually like are well into my unaffordable range anyway, and I’m still a little cheesed off that they didn’t make the 2003 Pink and Yellow Tie-Dyed BreyerFest auction piece a real-life Special Run, because I would have bought that one so hard. 

I am not normally a huge fan of the color pink, but I love the combination of hot pink and yellow so much I’ve actually designed a couple of quilts around that very color scheme.

I did think it was a little weird that they named this Wixom Brunhilde: I thought this was a name that they’d specifically save for a Special Run for next year’s BreyerFest, since it’s closely tied to Germanic folklore, specifically the Nibelungenlied. 

Though considering how the Nibelungenlied was appropriated in the mid-twentieth century, I could understand Reeves being a little nervous about tying it to a German-themed BreyerFest. Context is everything!

The Waiting Game

A shorter one today: the weather turned frigid cold and all I want to do is hibernate until Spring arrives. 

(FYI: this is typically late April or early May in Michigan, and lasts all of two weeks until Summer arrives. Not even kidding.)

Just as I suspected, I got picked for Puffin, and she’s already been rehomed. As I mentioned before, I’m all in on the series concept, but it’s just a bad time for me and I am not in the best mood right now anyway. (See above.)

One of the many delights of our garden last year was the arrival of a family of Orioles that made little piggies of themselves at our feeding station (Turns out that they really do love grape jelly. Like, a lot!) so if an Oriole turns up in this series somewhere down the line, I call dibs.

A Hummingbird would be nice, too. (On either Newsworthy or Bristol, maybe?) Even if they can be little jerks sometimes. 

I’m assuming there is going to be at least one actual winged model (Silver?) and that’ll go for crazy bucks no matter what bird/color scheme it ends up being. The 2016 BreyerFest SR Estrela do Carnaval was widely derided initially, but good luck finding one at a decent price now! 

I finally decided to forego the Breyer Bootcamp thing entirely: the photo show was enticing, but then I realized that (a) I had no time for that nonsense in the first place, (b) the photography studio is out in the unheated garage and it’s insanely cold out there right now, and (c) while the class list was to my liking, the unlimited entries per class thing is not. 

Among other things.

I am undecided on the BreyerFest Photo Show, partly because I’d like to know how they’re going to handle previous winners. At the live version of the show, Overall Champs are disqualified from entering again, but they suspended that rule last year on the assumption that there’d be an actual Live show this year. And there isn’t. 

While it’s true that a different set of judges will judge things differently, I am still not entirely comfortable going up against the last year’s winners.

I have the opportunity to take new photos, and I have several new additions to the herd who I think could do well, so my showstring would be improved over last year’s. But still. I guess I will have to wait and see when the details are posted.

Same goes for the online Swap Meet. The fact that I wouldn’t have to pack, move, unpack, repack and move all my “stock” is definitely a plus, but it appears that I’d also have to build an online store from scratch, unless they are going to offer a basic platform/template for everyone and just have not told us yet.

Building a basic online store isn’t necessarily hard and it is something I have been meaning to do anyway but again, it does involve time to set up, something I haven’t had a lot of these days.

Letting It Go

The bodies I wanted to strip are proving to be more… intractable than I imagined, so I’ve decided to set them aside for now and occupy myself with other projects, like planning my garden – continuing with last year’s Victorian theme, but adding more scented flowers – and sorting out the craft supplies and paperwork hidden in my Jethro Closet.

(It’s a weird little storage closet tucked under the stairs in the basement where all my wayward things seem to end up, instead. The name is an old family joke, and I’ll just leave it at that.)

While I normally would be head over heels for anything coming in Glossy Dappled Black, the latest Web Special Puffin, the first in the new “Birds of a Feather” Series, is leaving me a little cold (no pun intended). 

I like the concept of the series in general, and I have nothing against the Wixom mold in particular. I’m just not in a buying mood right now, and if I’m buying anything this year that’s Glossy Dappled Black, it’s going to be the Collector’s Club Exclusive Lafayette, on the Hamilton mold. 

It also doesn’t help that my Glossy Cheesecake from last year’s BreyerFest is still not here yet and I am not looking forward to calling Reeves for the fourth time on Monday to figure out what his status is. The last time I called (two weeks ago) it was still at the fulfillment center, but at this point I think I’d rather have my money back and just forget I even ordered it in the first place. 

I don’t think I’ve ever had to call more than once to resolve a shipping issue before they switched to this new fulfillment house, so to say that I am displeased at the moment is... an understatement. Especially since I hate making phone calls in the first place.

I already have the Matte Cheesecake anyway, so I’m perfectly fine with letting the Glossy one go. 

I did enter for Puffin, so if by some stroke of luck I do get drawn, I’ll offer her up for sale at cost plus transaction fees.

Glossy Jake

It’s a Glossy Jake for me, yay!

Actually, I would have been completely happy with the Bandera, and was fully expecting it. So getting something different is just extra sprinkles in my bowl of ice cream.

I have only one other Wixom – the pretty 2002 BreyerFest Special Run WH Annie, in Dappled Rose Gray – and after my recent collection reorganization, I won’t have any problem making room for another.

Some time in the near future I will be buying one of those Glossy Banderas. But not now, as there is room in my budget for just one more purchase and that’s either going to be whatever Reeves drops on us on Christmas, or an obscure grail I spied on eBay today.

That’s also what eventually stayed my hand on filling a second order – it certainly was not for a lack of stuff to buy!

Just a few more observations on the whole deal…

For the record, I don’t know any more than anyone else about the true quantities/ratios on the four freebies; Bandera and the Donkey are obviously the higher quantities, and the Jake and Liberty are the lower ones. Beyond that…?

Reeves hasn’t been forthcoming in the past about the piece counts on previous Gloss Promotion models, so we might have to be content with rough estimates. It’s probably still too soon to really do that, since I suspect a large quantity of packages haven’t been received or opened yet.

There’s also the issue of whether the promotion truly sold out, or was simply allowed to expire due to the holiday break. (If they did not, it was close.)

If it failed to completely sellout, it wasn’t for a lack of interest, but out of exhaustion – and a lack of money! We saw a lot of products and promotions this year, and most of us are just spent out, waiting in both anticipation and dread for that one last thing we know they’re going to foist upon us.

Incidentally, the other things in my box included another Warehouse Find Bluegrass Bandit (to upgrade my previous) the Cortes C Carrick I’ve been eyeing all year (on sale!), and a bunch of Stablemates. Because I want to focus on Stablemates for the time being.

(Yes, I am very excited about all the new Stablemates releases for next year!)

French Impressions

I took five years of French lessons, dreamt about getting lost in the Louvre, wrote a paper in high school about Georges Melies (in French!), and often fantasize about shopping in the Flea Markets of Paris. I can’t visit the real Lascaux caves, but I hope to see the reproduction caves someday. I want to visit a fromagerie and sample weird stinky cheeses, and hang out with the ex-pats (and make fun of the hipsters) at Shakespeare and Company.

This year’s "Vive La France" theme? I can get into it.

So it makes me a little sad to see other hobbyists complain about a lack of enthusiasm for this year’s BreyerFest. For a hobby that offers us so many creative and expressive possibilities, too many of us fall into the "princess/cowgirl" paradigm, too easily.

It’s good to venture out of your comfort zone once and a while! I promise I won't make you eat the cheese, if you don't want to.

The Parkour demonstration they just announced on the blog is a little bit out of mine. (I did not know it originated in France!) As possibly one of the world’s clumsiest humans, I find Parkour both fascinating and a little terrifying. Note: If you see me doing anything resembling Parkour in Kentucky, please call 911, because it’s likely an accident in progress.

I guess I should get to a little bit of actual Breyer/BreyerFest model horse talk now.

This year they’ve decided to not give us any hints or clues at all about the Surprise Special, named Quelle Surprise! ("What a Surprise!")

The name says it all. Another Surprise Special Run! We're not telling you anymore. It's a complete mystery! But you never know what you might get!

Most of the Surprise Specials have been somewhat tied to the theme, so I’ll go out on a limb and guess it’ll be something that can pass for a Selle Français. That brings to mind molds like Lonesome Glory, Giselle, the Show Jumping Warmblood, Newsworthy and possibly the Cleveland Bay. The SJW, Newsworthy, and Cleveland Bay have interchangeable manes and tails, something that they used to great effect with the Surprise Roxies a couple years back. That might be a point in their favor, I think.

The next actual reveal of another Special Run will be later this week, and it’s strongly hinted at that this one may be a Decorator:

This horse pays homage to a little village nestled in the northwest of France. It leaves quite the impression on everyone who visits. Some visitors go back time after time to see how the landscapes change throughout the seasons.

This one is a little easier to work with. The town in northwest France could be Giverny, home of both the Impressionist Museum, and of the artist Claude Monet’s famous gardens. So my guess is that we’re getting an Impressionist-themed Decorator - possibly a translucent like the Connoisseur Andalusian Swirling Sky?

My personal preference for this one would be the Cleveland Bay mold, who could make a passable Norman Cob - or Anglo-Norman, if they want to go historical with it. (If they passed him over as the Surprise Special. He can't be both, obviously.) This is Normandy, after all. That area of France is known for its Percherons also, so the Wixom mold is another strong candidate. Except for the Guest of Honor, there aren’t any other Drafts in the lineup yet. No Percherons at a French-themed BreyerFest? Inconceivable!

I was a bit annoyed in 2003 when they teased us with the Tie-Dyed Wixom on the Program cover: I was hoping she was a Special Run, but alas, she was an (unattainable) auction piece. Via Identify Your Breyer: http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/bf2003lot22.jpg

Now imagine the same mold and concept, except in lavenders and greens? That could work!