Featured Breyerfest - 1999

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! This week we're traveling back to 1999! Notable things that happened in 1999: 

• The Sopranos premieres on TV (I've never watched it)
• Futurama premieres on TV (Now that I have watched!)
• Napster, the infamous filesharing service, is created
• Woodstock '99 takes place, introducing a whole new generation to endless mud, drugs and rock'n'roll

And, in the midst of all this, we had Breyerfest 1999! 
Dates: July 30-Aug. 1
Celebration Horse: Molokai
Number of Celebration Models Produced: 4,200
Attendance: "The largest crowd since [Breyerfest] debuted 10 years ago" 
Here's the first 1999 page from the commemorative program:

The real Molokai was an eventing champion owned by Dorothy Trapp-Crowell. He was a Thoroughbred purchased off the track at 4 years old, and then went on to win the first 4* version of the Kentucky Three-Day Event and a silver medal at the 1994 World Equestrian Games. Molokai died in 2013 at 30 years old and was inducted into the USEA Eventing Hall of Fame in 2015. 

The special run lineup was greatly expanded this year with the introduction of Tiki, Dylan, Oreo and Flint, as well as more keychains. The timed special run tickets were introduced this year as a response to the Shannon debacle of the previous year (see my last Featured Breyerfest post). Still only one raffle model (Ransom) and the volunteer model (Zeppelin). The model horse show was still being held on the floor of the Covered Arena. Glad those days are over! 

Here's the recap from Sept/Oct 1999:

The show went on, despite record-breaking heat, so...let's hope the same happens this year? Without anyone being injured, hopefully. Take care of yourselves in the heat and humidity, folks! 

And here are some of the auction models:

That Mystical Rainbow Huck was legendary! The first time any Breyer model had been seen in that color, to my knowledge. Nowadays his paint job seems kinda simplistic (they couldn't paint the eyes?) but at the time it was amazing. I wonder where he is now? 

Here are some others:

This Big Ben is pretty cool though, though I don't think the pattern is very realistic. I'm surprised he didn't sell for more ($1,100). 

Another brindle! I wish the photo was better.

A Boxer! We never get animals in the auction lots anymore. They don't sell as well, which is probably why, but still. Rainbow dog, anyone? 

We don't ever get Classic auction models anymore either, which is kinda sad. I'd love to see a test on the Show Arabian or Shire A/B. And this one sold for $1,000; pretty respectable for a Classic. That's the equivalent of a little more than $2,000 now! 

I didn't know this one existed! They painted a chestnut Friesian Holiday Horse to match the stirrup ornament! The stirrup ornament series debuted in 1999, too. How cool! Ooh, I hope that costume didn't stain him. I wish we had better photos of this one, too. 

Well, that's it for this week. Featured Breyerfest will be on hiatus next week due to Breyerfest, so check back in a couple of weeks as I enter the new millennium and cover Breyerfest 2000!