The Rules of BreyerFest

I didn't like what I wrote for today, so instead of working up something from scratch, I'm re-presenting a list I've published before in both Sampler form and online: the Rules of BreyerFest.

Some folks have found it very useful.

1. Don’t take advantage of newbies. We were all newbies, once, and nobody likes being taken advantage of. Period.
2. Respect the concept of “dibs”: if your roommate/friend/shopping buddy has expressed an interest in a particular model or item, don’t turn around and buy it for yourself.
3. If a friend wins a raffle or prize model, be happy for them, even if you think you wanted it (or deserved it) more.
4. Treat everyone equally. Please do not assume that because you’ve never seen or heard of the person before that that makes them a clueless idiot. Most of them didn’t show up to BreyerFest by accident!
5. If you’re thinking of bringing HSOs to sell, and you have the room, just bring them! Not all of us intend on blowing our wad on the shiniest new baubles at the Tent. Some of us prefer the old junk!
6. Be helpful: Offer information that may not be obvious, especially when dealing with newer hobbyists. We should consider ourselves ambassadors to the hobby, and act accordingly!
7. Be polite. It’s hard when it’s hotter than the bottom of a skillet outside, but you’d be amazed at how far even a little gesture (opening a door, saying hello, a bowl full of tootsie rolls) will go.
8. Don’t take cuts in line. It’s not nice, it’s not fair, and it’s not safe: some of us know how to use a sword. (Yes, I do!)
9. When all else fails, just smile, and try to keep your sense of humor. And never forget: you’re in one of the few places on Earth where you’re considered normal! That thought alone should make being here worthwhile.

Have a safe trip, y'all. See you there!

The Charger Award

The house is a wreck, my brain is melting, and I can't think of a single thing to talk about that doesn't involve more work than I'm willing to invest in right now. Gah!

Maybe I'll prattle on a bit about the Little Bits line. Specifically, about a Little Bit I'm sure a lot of you may not have heard about – or seen. It's the 1989 Charger Award:


It's basically a leftover Charger – a Special Run Dapple Gray Shire made in 1989 for Hobby Center Toys, in Toledo, Ohio – mounted on a wooden plaque with a brass plate engraved with the Breyer logo. Originally it also came with a small plaque on the front that would have said “Charger Award 1989,” but mine lost it somewhere along the way, which would partly explain why I got it for a song on eBay a while back.

These awards were made slightly before the time they started issuing test colors to Sales Reps instead, who in turn discovered they could get quite a substantial little bonus if they sold those (discreetly, through a third party) to the collectors' market. (Thus quickly ending that little experiment.)

The Charger Award isn't as well-known – or notorious – as those Sales Rep Tests; the fact that it's basically a repurposed Special Run of a model from a little-collected line also doesn't help his reputation. Kind of a shame, really. Relatively speaking, he's quite rare – far more rare than even the few other Little Bits that do command some collector attention, such as the Carousel Horses or the Flaxen Chestnut Saddlebred Toy Fair Promo.

As in any hobby, though, value and rarity don't necessarily go hand in hand: there are relatively common models that command crazy amounts of money, and then there are pieces of exceeding rarity that attract little or no attention at all.

Most of the disparity between price and rarity, however, is due to flawed knowledge, or a lack of knowledge: if you don't know something is rare or even exists, you're not likely to go out of your way to purchase it, unless you happen to be a particularly obsessive collector of a particular mold or series in the first place.

My friends are always amazed at the kind of stuff I pull out of the BreyerFest Sales Tent or in the HIN. Sometimes, though, I feel a little embarrassed when I do find something kinda awesome right under everyone else's noses, and often far cheaper than it oughta be. That's another reason why I do this blog: by adding to – and sometimes correcting – the Breyer History knowledge base out there, it makes the playing field a little more level and more fun for everyone.

Really, I don't mind having a little competition. Makes it sweeter, actually: instead of giving me a puzzled look when I show off my next awesome find, you'll actually know what I'm excited about. And then you can show me yours.

It's Glossy Season!

It's that time of year again … when Reeves glosses up some regular run horses as live show prizes, and hobbyists collectively lose their minds. I'm always amazed and dumbfounded how a little gloss can turn a boring $40 regular run horse into an scintillating $500 one.

Don't get me wrong: I love me a shiny horse as much as the next girl. I just can't imagine paying that kind of moolah for one. And since I'm not motivated enough to enter the shows where they hand out those kind of goodies, it's not likely I'll ever win one either. I've never been really strongly live-show oriented anyway – and from some of the shenanigans I've heard some hobbyists go through in the pursuit of the almighty SR Prize Glossies – no thanks. The Ninja Pit seems like a saner, safer bet to me.

There used to be a long standing notion in the collecting community that Glossy = More Valuable. It's true in some sense: the Glossy Finish was largely, but not entirely, discontinued around 1966/7. And some, like the Bay Fighting Stallion, were discontinued in Gloss much earlier than that. But a lot of Glossies were made well into the Matte Finish era, such as the Glossy Charcoal Mustang, Fighting Stallion and Running Stallion. While they are certainly quite lovely, they are not necessarily rare – or at least the kind of rare that attracts a high price tag, like a Dapple Black Belgian or a Gloss Bay Fighting Stallion.

What I find especially amusing is that there are actually MATTE finished models that are significantly more rare than their Glossy counterparts. These were usually models that were originally made in Gloss Finish, and only happened to switch to Matte near the very end of their runs. Since they were likely not selling well by then, these pieces are numerically quite rare, especially when compared to the models entire production run.

One notable example may be surprising: it's the Palomino Western Pony. In gloss finish, the Palomino Western Pony is one of the most ubiquitous of vintage Breyer models: it was made from ca. 1953 through 1973, and was the horsey component of the vast majority of the Grooming Kits sold in holiday catalogs during that time period.

Like its bigger brother the Western Horse, most assume that the Palomino Western Pony also made the switch to Matte Finish. And he did. Good luck finding one though: he's so rare that even in the 1997 edition Breyer Molds & Models, Nancy Young thought he was nonexistent.

I have one in my collection, of course:


I hadn't thought him especially rare before then, either: I had found him several years earlier at a local flea market, and being the mildly obsessive variation enthusiast that I am, he was incorporated into my collection without much fanfare. If I had had to go looking for one to fill that hole in my chorus line, I might have noticed his apparent rarity. But I had one already, and not much motivation to upgrade.

I have made it a bit of a game at BreyerFest every year to spot at least one Matte Palomino Western Pony: I don't always succeed. When I do run across one, I often tell the seller about his rarity: it usually results in rolled eyeballs and skeptical eyebrows. A matte finished model that's rare? And it's a Palomino Western Pony? Yeah, right.

There are others, too, but some of them are still on my BreyerFest want list. I will have to demure; I'm on a tighter-than-average budget this year, but I haven't scaled my collecting ambitions back entirely.

BreyerFest Number Crunching

I'm in full BreyerFest Freak Out Mode right now. Just finished the Samplers, printed up all the wallpaper, packed the horses, taking care of last minute appointments and phone calls, started digging out all the assorted decorations and supplies – you'd swear I was getting ready to invade another country. Here's a quick shot of the basement to give you an idea of the state of my preparations:


(The quilt in the frame isn't going with me, though – the basement's the only place in the house big enough to handle the frame.)

I haven't done my cake topper or hat entries yet, and I'm still working on the whole “Ninja Pit of Death” situation (the degree of my involvement, I mean!) but I do appear to be on schedule, if not a little bit ahead of myself. The fact that I'm not working (much) is probably helping here.

The price and piece quantities of the Tent Line SRs was made public yesterday. Forgive me if this is a recap for any of you:

QH Gelding “Surprise” - 1350 (96) $55
Lady Phase “Sprinkles” - 1150 (82) $50
Small Poodle “Cotton Candy” - 600 (42) $40
Porcelain “Party Time” - 700 (50) $150
Idocus “Buttercream” - 1250 (89) $65
Newsworthy “Cupcake” - 1050 (75) $45
Five-Gaiter “Gala” - 1050 (75) $60
Arabian Mare “Make a Wish” - 1350(96) $65

The total estimated piece count: 8500 items. If there are 300 ticket holders for 14 ticket times, that's 8400 “reserved” pieces. (I'm just guessing based on previous years' counts.) Not everyone redeems their tickets, and not everyone redeems the full amount, so theoretically there should be enough for everyone. Not for every model, but for any models.

The number in parenthesis after the piece count is the approximate number of pieces available per ticket time (there are 14 ticket times, total.) Some of the numbers don't divide evenly – some get held back to cover a limited number of returns or other problems, and others get thrown into other ticket times. We're talking a dozen or less models of any release, so the overage in any one time slot would not be noticeable (unless you happen to be behind the person who gets the last piece of the model you wanted!)

And let me emphasize the word approximate: just because they say there's going to be 1050 pieces available doesn't mean there's going to be 1050 in the market. In addition to pieces made to cover damaged models, additional pieces may be made for dealer packs and gifts. There may be more, there may be less. We're not talking amounts that would affect the perceived rarity or value, since the piece counts are already of a decent size.

For the mathematically challenged, that'll be approximately 450 QH Geldings of each of the three color – one of the lowest piece counts for a Tent SR in years, if you're going strictly by color, but one of the highest piece counts if you count it as a single release (ah, the beauty of the Gambler's Choice!)

Nothing else in the available data really stands out, though I am a bit surprised that Sprinkles is among the cheaper offerings, while Buttercream is among the more expensive – more expensive than the much-buzzed-about Blue Tortuga Five-Gaiter Gala, who also has a lower piece count, to boot. Odd. Makes me wonder if they're going to be doing something special with the Buttercream, like throw in random glossies or make him a Chalky. (Wishful thinking on my part, mostly.)

The Make a Wish Arabian Mare also has a high piece count – and relatively high price. She's the real wild card here: BreyerFest is literally going to be the first time we're going to see her “in the flesh.” All we've seen of her, both at tour stops and online, is a heavily Photoshopped picture with a mane and tail that's pretty obviously a drawing. We should all know better than to judge a model from its official photographs.

That's why though I have already made my preliminary choices, they may change once I get to see them in person. Let's all remember the lesson of the 2005 Galahad: he seemed pleasant enough in photographs, but nothing outstanding. Then we saw him in person – and wow, what a looker! He's still one of my all-time BreyerFest favorites.

Pony Gals, Dapples, Luno and the Cartoon Network

Apparently more Pony Gals merchandise has shown up at Target, mostly Classics scale sets not unlike the previous Target SR Play Sets we've seen for a while now. The packaging suggests that there's going to be a full Pony Gals line including Classics, Stablemates, Little Bits and Mini Whinnies scale models (all helpfully color-coded!) It's also interesting to note that the Pony Gals stable I mentioned previously is also shown on the packaging, now with a 700-series SR number.

(First of all, yay on the potential return of the Little Bits/Paddock Pals molds, who had recently been demoted to kit horse status. Poor little guys get no love or respect!)

The question still remains: why? Is this an early launch of a new line, or a Big Box store exclusive? Is it just for Target, or will Kmart, Meijer and TSC also get in on the Pony Gals action?

I'm wondering if Reeves is trying to create a “brand” to market and license, a la The Saddle Club, but with licensing fees flowing coming in, and not going out. Could a TV show or cartoon be far behind?

I say this because several years ago I was one of the few people who actually saw the TV commercial for the Dapples line … on the Cartoon Network. I caught the tail end of one commercial while channel surfing; I ended up watching a couple more hours of cartoons to catch it again. (Yes, I am that obsessive.) I still remember the jingle. And I swear I am not making this up. For one thing, I think I could have come up with something better than this:

Dapples, Dapples, so much to do!
Dapples, Dapples, I love you!

Since it's been suggested that the Pony Gals line was created, in part, to replace the Dapples/Ponies line, and there was an attempt to market Dapples on Cartoon Network, a logical (but admittedly tenuous) assumption would be that the Pony Gals might be heading in the same general direction.

Believe it or not, someone did actually make a cartoon series that featured a model horse as the lead character. The series was called Luno, the Flying Horse, and it was produced by Terrytoons in the early 1960s. A boy named Timmy would command his model horse to take him places, with the magic incantation:

Oh winged horse of marble white,
take me on a magic flight!

Here's a link to prove to you I am not crazy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6NJpc9BMuY

Yeah, I know, it's not exactly Academy Award material. These cartoons were made at the tail end of the theatrical market for cartoons by a company known industry-wide for its cheapness; some of them went directly to TV. I got lucky and found a couple of collections of Luno cartoons on VHS sometime in the 1980s. I have no idea where to find them now, except on YouTube.

(BTW Reeves, just to let you know: if you do plan on making a pitch to the Cartoon Network in the near future, please note that they're moving away from actual cartoons. No, I don't get it either.)

Pony Gals

Something short and sweet today – still busying myself with BreyerFest preparations.

Still no sign of the Pony Gals Stablemates at any of the Targets near me, but I'm not surprised. This is Michigan – nonessential items like model horses aren't exactly flying off the shelves here right now. It's going to be a few weeks, or even months, before they restock.

I'm guessing the situation isn't going to be too different anywhere else, either – it's probably going to be one of those gradual rollouts that'll be dependent on how quickly a store turns over its merchandise. Some will get them sooner than others, but most stores will eventually get some. And, as some folks have pointed out, they might even have a few of them in the Ninja Pit this year for those of us who don't live so close to a well-stocked Target. So there's no need to panic yet.

I did my part to help the process along, and bought some of the previous semi-exclusive Stablemates. I had a dentist appointment that wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be – and I deserved some ponies anyway, dammit! That G3 TB is just the cutest little snot, and I love Peruvians...


I'm hoping y'all have noticed the numbering system on the Pony Gal SMs: they're six digit, 700 series numbers, which means they are special run items (i.e. this being the “acknowledgment” I often speak of.) I don't know if they're going to be exclusive to Target, or be like those quasi-specials that only turns up in certain chains, like the previous Stablemates.

Right now I'm leaning towards them being Target exclusives, only because Target has had some other exclusive Pony Gal merchandise for a little while now – namely, the three Special Run Classic Scale Pony Gals:

720051 Lily, My First Dapple Grey
720053 Daisy, My First Pinto
720054 Abbey, My First Appaloosa

There's also a “Two Stall Travel Barn,” but I'm unsure of that particular item's status (SR, RR, quasi-SR, etc.) since its release number, according to my notes, is 7085 – in line with the regular run numbers. It's basically just the Classics Two Stall Barn Travel Case, molded in different colors with special Pony Gals packaging. (I have to confess that I've been a little lax on my research of barns and accessories. The horses are hard enough to keep track of!)

I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk of these previous specials, but these are products geared towards juvenile nonhobbyists. I prefer to have my horses move only in my imagination, thanks.

Where's There's Smoke, There's Charcoal

I don't know what's up with the Cream & Cocoa Grazing Mare and Foal Set seen in the the JAH banner ad on Blab, either: my suspicion is that it's an end of the year JAH Special, probably (hopefully?) a Gambler's Choice, like so many of them have been lately.

This is purely speculation on my part: the twist here, I'm thinking, is that you could get any one of four different combos: Charcoal Mare with Smoke Foal, Smoke Mare with Charcoal Foal, Charcoal Mare with Charcoal Foal, or Smoke Mare with Smoke Foal. Four different possible combos, yet only 4 different models total: if you're lucky, you'd only have to buy two sets to get them all.

Breyer did offer these mixed combos before: back at the dawn of Breyer Time (1962-1964, to be precise) you could get mixed Running Mare and Foal sets: you get either get a Smoke Mare with an Alabaster Foal (352), or an Alabaster Mare with a Smoke Foal (351.) The Smoke Mare/Alabaster Foal combo were even used to illustrate the Running Mare and Foal in the Dealer Catalogs back then.


Other combos were available, too, but aside from the Decorators, none of them had unique numbers assigned to them. (If you wanted a “Chestnut” Running Mare and Foal combo, you'd have to write the number 124-134 on your order form, instead!)

Grazing Mare and Foal Sets were briefly available in 1965, and also came with their own unique numbers – 1411 for the Bay, 1422 for the Black, and 1433 for the Palomino – but I have no evidence to suggest they were orderable in mixed combos.


Again, this is purely speculation: with the Cream & Cocoa, they could simply be offering the single set, or maybe just the two different Smoke and Charcoal combos, or whatever. All we've got is a brief, tiny glimpse in a banner ad to go on. I don't know any more than the rest of you on this matter. Heck, the picture is so small, the Smoke might actually be a Honey Palomino! And if that's the case, the “Cream” part of the “Cream & Cocoa” name would make a little more sense.

By the way, there are no true vintage Glossy Smoke models: actually, it's probably better to say that I haven't seen any Gloss Smoke models I could conclusively call authentic. I've seen a handful of Gloss Charcoal models that could possibly pass for a somewhat-dark Smoke, but those are pretty uncommon. It is exceedingly common for a Smoke to be dark enough to pass for Charcoal – common enough that there's often little additional value attached to that variation.

It's probably a little too much to hope that they make the rather nuanced distinction in the advertising between a reproduction of a vintage Decorator color, and a Decorator color done in a vintage style. (And for the record, yes, the VRE Silver Screen Andalusian in Gloss Smoke bugged me a little, too – I don't want hobbyists going off on wild horse chases for models that don't exist. There are enough impossible-to-find rarities out there as it is.)

Ah, well, we'll find out soon enough.