Mini True North is here!

Greetings, readers! Exciting news - my Premier Club freebie, Mini True North, came in the mail today! Observe:

As most people were probably aware, this year's Premier Club Stablemate freebie is a Stablemate-sized version of the Traditional Brishen mold. I'm surprised (and impressed) that Breyer went to the expense of shrinking down and then creating an all-new Stablemate mold from a Trad mold just for a Premier Club freebie, but I suppose all the funds they get from a year's set of subscriptions (almost $400,000 a year if the subscription numbers are the same as in the past) can probably pay for a new Stablemate mold as well as the other three new molds.

Here's his other side!

I was surprised to discover that this model is molded from ABS/styrene, not cellulose acetate. I would have thought they'd have used good old CA for a new mold, but evidently not. This year's Stablemate Club release on this mold should be molded from it, though.

And here's a view of his head!



Quality-wise, this model is excellent - I didn't see any major flaws aside from the paint looking weird around the bottom tendril of his mane on the right side - like the masking for the mane was too big and covered part of his withers as well. Otherwise, he's painted very well!

Interestingly, the parts of his mane that stick out on the Trad release appear to have been flattened down onto the rest of him to make sure they don't stick out - maybe they'd hang up in the mold if not fixed. It's interesting to see how things change in the shrinking process. I wonder if that will preclude certain other Trads from ever being converted to Stablemate size? Which one will get shrunk next. if any? I'm still not sure how excited I am at the prospect, but I wouldn't say no to a Stablemate Othello...

Hopefully we don't have to wait too long for the Stablemate Club release of this mold - I want to compare them!