Slow News Week...Again

I haven't had much new to post about lately, unfortunately. Although I should mention that some of the Breyerfest leftovers are now available to single-day ticket holders, including full sets of single-day Stablemates, but it sounds like those are sold out now. Plenty of merch left, though!

Breyer is also doing a "Celebrate Dog Days of Summer" promotion where you can get 25% off some dog-related products:





Not really my cup of tea, but if you're in the market for them, it might be a good deal.

Let's hope we get some exciting news next week!

My Fylkirs are here!

...and I got the two colors I'd ranked the lowest, naturally. Oh well! At least I got two different colors. Here they are!

 

The colors really aren't that bad - the other two are just flashier, I guess. Though, like I said before, the splash would have been fine if he were glossy, or had blue eyes (or both). There's a nice metallic/sparkly tint to the dunalino's color, too.

Quality-wise, the splash is mostly okay other than having sloppy eyes.

 

Unfortunately, the dunalino has a few booboos.

 

Nice splotch of paint on that hoof.



And two of his legs are warped inward.



 

And he's got a fingerprint on his shoulder, along with a few pinpoint black marks on his body. Kinda disappointing, all things considered. Maybe I'll ask for a replacement; I haven't decided yet.

That's all I've got for today, although I feel like I should mention today's latest controversy: apparently the image of Sugarmaple hadn't been authorized for release by Breyer yet, so they've been sending cease-and-desist letters to people. So, I took the photo down from yesterday's blog post - hopefully they get that figured out soon.

New special runs keep popping up!

So there are some new releases floating around on the Internet lately. I haven't seen an official announcement yet, but they're the TSC special runs for this year and another clearware special run for Back in the Saddle. I wonder if that's going to become a regular thing? Here's the clearware horse, Sugarmaple:


(image removed as apparently it wasn't authorized for release by Breyer)

This actually isn't the first time the Show Jumping Warmblood has been issued in clearware (apparently both Twilight Terror and Sunny are clearware). He's certainly interesting-looking. One of the alternate names for last year's Patriot was "Bomb Pop;" I wonder if this one should be called, "Camouflage," or something? Nevertheless, I ordered one, because it will be interesting to see what these look like in hand.

As for the Tractor Supply special runs, they're on Geronimo and the old Black Beauty mold:

 

They flipped the Geronimo's photo for the ad, which is kind of weird. But I'm going to have to pick one up - what I can see of that gray in the photo looks really nice! I won't need the Black Beauty, though, despite the fact that his color looks really nice. I'll definitely be haunting our local TSC stores until these beauties show up! 

Featured Model - 8/12/2017, Gemini

Hello, friends, and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. We're featuring a Classics model with this week's...Gemini!

 

This model was produced in 2015 as part of Breyer's "Zodiac Series" issued on various Classic molds. No word on how many were produced, but it was probably considered a regular run...which they may have regretted not making a limited run, since most of the models in the series are still available on the website. There's also no word on who sculpted this model, oddly enough. Anyone out there able to shed some light on that?

This really wasn't too bad of a series from a color standpoint - I really like most of the colors, but none of them were issued on molds I collected. Here's a quick promo photo of the whole series.



When Marigold was revealed earlier this year, though, I decided I liked the Show Arabian well enough to add it to my collection. I do like the combination of colors here - yellow, a bit of green and even some blue in the mane and tail. Combine that with the silver hooves and we have a winner. Frankly, I might have ended up buying all of them if they'd been on molds I collect, because I like all of the colors. The only one that doesn't do a whole lot for me is the second from left on the bottom row...otherwise I could see myself buying all of those colors.

The other big improvement with this series compared to the Blossoms series from a few years ago is that they actually used more molds. The Blossoms had twelve models spread over...three molds. Which makes no sense, considering the number of molds Breyer has. Much better to spread it out and give some other molds a chance to shine.

As for the Show Arabian itself, I do like the releases it's been done in - even the weird original one with the mohair mane and tail and glass eyes. I named mine "Fluffy" because I'm a tad unoriginal when it comes to these things, but it did seem to be nicely done. We'll see how that mohair looks in 20 years, though.

Unfortunately, we already got new Classics this year, so I don't see much being done with this mold in the future. But who knows - maybe they'll use it for a surprise website special run, like last year's Sharpieloosa - oops, I mean Triton. I'm crossing my fingers!

Another test model on the Breyer website!

It's a new month, and that means a new test model on Breyer's website, apparently. Here he is:




Oh, I am definitely entering for this guy. He's still kind of ho-hum, like most of the other tests have been, but at least he's on a mold I collect!

From the email:

This particular test run was painted circa early 2000's. He's a very well done splatter roan chestnut with three small socks with character, and a unique lightning blaze. His tri-eyes sport a U-shaped brown iris and eyewhites in the back corners of his eyes. He's really nicely shaded on both the body and the mane and tail, with slightly darker lower legs and grey shading on the bottoms of his hooves.

He didn't look very roany at first, until I got to a computer and could see the photos more clearly. His roaning is definitely pretty subtle! He's definitely attractive, though, and I prefer the loose mane/tail SJW, anyway. He's definitely worth the price. Good luck to everyone who enters! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Mini True North or: Honey I Shrunk the Breyer

...or as I like to call him, TINY RIIIIIICK BRISHEN!

The first time I saw this model was on a picture someone posted to Blab, and I was super confused by it at first. The sign said it was the Premier Club Stablemate, but it was clearly Brishen? Someone must have messed up somehow...? But why would a full-size model have the same pattern and color as True North? Until I read the caption again and realized it was a tiny Brishen.

 

So Breyer has figured out the technology to shrink a Traditional-size model down to Stablemate size, or presumably any size in between. I am conflicted about this. Trad-size Stablemate models? Classic-size Trad models? Stablemate-size Trad models? How will they do it without the resulting products looking all lumpy and weird like the crystals do? (Although they're getting better at those.) Granted, the mini Brishen here looks pretty good, but I'd have liked to be able to pick him up and take a close look at him.

Anyways, shelf space in my place is limited as it is. I don't have room for a million Stablemate versions of all my favorite Trad models, and vice versa. I'm not one of those people that would have to have every sculpt in every size. I like them to have variety, you know? Not just reproducing the same sculpt in a bunch of different sizes. Part of the allure of the Stablemates and Classics is that they aren't the same as the Traditionals. Call me boring if you want, but I'm just not excited about this development.

That said, I'm not planning on selling my mini True North or anything...but I'm not going to be begging for more shrunk-down Traditionals all the same. At this point I'm hoping it'll just turn out to be one of those Breyer oddities that never goes anywhere. Although I have to admit, if they used this technology on a free model that isn't costing any additional money to the customers, they're most likely going to use it again at some point to recoup their investment in it. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Breyerfest leftovers are now on the website!

A whole 10 days earlier than last year, Breyerfest 2017 leftovers can now be purchased on the website by 3-day ticket holders!

 

Available special run line items are Saffron, Kaalee, Diwali and Darjeeling, and pop-up tent items include both of the plushies and Holi. I'm a bit surprised about Darjeeling showing up here, as I thought I'd heard he sold out, but evidently not. I'm also not surprised about Kaalee, as they made a ton of her and she didn't have the bonus advantage of being half matte/half glossy. I was also surprised that neither of the plushies sold out - that elephant is cute! Not cute enough for me to buy him, but still.

Also available are things like the journal, Tervis cup, coordinates bracelet and some other stuff. I'm thinking about ordering the Tervis cup, but nothing else really interests me. I halfheartedly hoped they'd have leftover items from previous years like they did last year, but no such luck this time. Oh well! I'm just glad they put the leftovers on the website in the first place.