Whoops, I forgot about Darwin.

So my Darwin arrived last week, and I unpacked him, took a look at him, put him on my entertainment center...and then forgot about him. Oops! So, here are some photos!

I'd been fervently checking my mailbox for ages waiting for him to get here, so I'm not sure why he slipped my mind so fast. Oh well - he's really nice!

I didn't see any quality issues with him, either - which is nice!



Isn't he nice? I'm excited to see what they do with him in the future, provided he doesn't just languish unused like Mirado did. I wonder if he'll get some kind of Breyerfest release this year? I hope so!

Darwin's arrival brings my participation in the 2018 Premier Club to a close. It was definitely a good year - the first year I've kept all of the releases since 2012! Unless something changes...looking at you, Emerson.

But anyway, here's hoping the 2019 Premier Club brings us models as amazing as last year's were!

Emerson is here!

Exciting news, everyone - as I mentioned yesterday, my Emerson has arrived! Check him out!



As previous photos of him have suggested, he's a difficult model to photograph for some reason. I'm still not 100% sold on him, but for now he gets to stay in the herd.

He has a nice color, and I know a lot of people were happy to see he's basecoated, but...I'm just not that into basecoats in general. He looks way too white and unnatural...to me, anyway. I have the same problem with my Blue Velvet (although she also has a pearly sheen that makes her look even more unrealistic).

He's not too bad, quality-wise - I would have liked his muzzle to have a little more pinking, and he has some blurred masking here and there.

His mane masking on the left side could have been done better, too.



So, to recap - not a big fan of basecoated white, wish his mane were masked better. But he's a pretty color and I generally like TB molds, so he can stay here. I'll be interested to see what they do with him in the future - I could see them doing (yet another) Black Beauty release on him for Breyerfest next year. Or perhaps he'll be a raffle model? Failing that, maybe he'll get a RR release, since we haven't seen the 2019 new releases yet. Looks like this year's new releases were announced mid-December last year, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see! And bring on the mini-Dundee!

Emerson is now available!

Good news, everyone! 2018's final Premier Club release, Emerson, is ready to order!



Naturally, I hit that buy button as fast as I could. I wasn't terribly excited by his promo photos, but the one in the above photo definitely helps the cause, and I'm sure I'll like him more once he gets here.

Also, yesterday's Zippo test model seems to have disappeared from the website. Somebody must have hit the release button too early, it seems. I'm sure he'll pop back up in a week or two.

This also means that our obligations have been fulfilled to get this year's Premier Club Stablemate, the mini Dundee! Hopefully he ships on time next month so we can get him into our hot little hands that much faster!

Also, Justify is available now as well. Hopefully my husband will get him for me for Christmas, since I already bought Celestine!

The full Emerson reveal!

Well, I was going to talk about the 2018 Retired List today, but Emerson's full paint job was revealed on the Premier Club blog! Color me surprised - I thought they'd drag that out a lot longer. So, I'll save the retired list commentary for tomorrow.

If you read the blog yesterday, you probably remember that Emerson is the last Premier Club model for 2018. Here's a head shot!

Okay, I have to say I really like his head.



I'm...less enthusiastic about the full-body shot, but I'm hoping it's just a bad photo. His hind legs look weird, and there's something odd about his front end compared to his back end.

That said, I still like his head, and his color, and his pattern. Hopefully I like him better when I get him in hand? If so, this will be the first year since 2012 that I kept all three PC releases. It'll definitely be interesting to see what he looks like in hand.

The third Premier Club model for 2018 has been revealed!

...Well, most of him has, and his name is Emerson! Check him out! He was sculpted by Sue Sifton.



I...don't know how excited I am about this model, honestly. I like his head, but he looks like Geronimo II or something.

The scuttlebutt on Blab and Facebook is that this is a portrait of American Pharoah Sue did a while ago.



He looks even more like Geronimo from this angle. Like, I agree Breyer could use a few more Thoroughbred molds, but...they couldn't have pull a mini-Alborozo and flipped him or something? If you stood him next to Geronimo, you'd barely know the difference. They'll probably end up using Geronimo as a Thoroughbred portrait model sometime in the future! Bleh.

Maybe I'll like him more when I see the finished product, but I don't know how enthusiastic I am. I suppose I should be glad we're getting another Thoroughbred instead of an Arabian or stock horse.

Dundee and Raleigh are here!

Good news, everyone! My Dundee and Raleigh models arrived a day early! I was pretty bummed last week when I saw the delivery date was Wednesday, so when I got an email yesterday about the delivery date being moved up, I was ecstatic! Okay, I know one day doesn't make that much of a difference, but still.

I'll start with Raleigh since I didn't take as many photos of him. Behold!



I'm going to sell him, so I didn't take him out of his box. From what I could see, though, he didn't have a lot of flaws.



Some of the ones I've seen online had horribly overdone eyewhites covering half their eyes (or so it looked), but that didn't happen with this guy, fortunately. His ribbons appear to be neatly painted, too.

Like I said, I didn't see many other issues with this model - maybe a gloss flaw or lint in the gloss here and there, but nothing major. Plus, he's wired into the box much more securely than Aidan was! No box rubs here (hopefully!).

Next, here are some (not-the-best) photos of Dundee!



I have to say, this guy really grew on me. Normally I'm not into stock molds, but Breyer got me again! He'll have to go on the shelf next to Geronimo, I guess. Hey, Geronimo was sculpted by Kitty Cantrell too. Maybe there's a pattern there...

But anyway, it wasn't really much of a contest about where my Dundee was going to end up - he went onto my new arrivals shelf (rather than into the sales pile) almost immediately. I can't wait to see what colors they put on him next!



I've seen some really unsubtle leg bars on some of these, so I was happy to see mine's are blended in a bit more and less noticeable. Some of the ones I've seen online look like some kid got Sharpie-happy on the model's legs! Definitely a relief.

I also really liked how detailed the eyes are...

...although I wish Breyer would do away with the bloodshot pink eyewhites. Enough already!



He's okay quality-wise, but not perfect. He has tiny eartip rubs and that mane really could have been masked off better. He did have a lump on the edge of one of his pinto markings, but that turned out to be a little piece of masking that didn't get removed. It came off easily with a little fingernail scraping (and made me wish there was more! What can I say? I love scratch art).

The thing I was least impressed with, though, was this:

Seriously? That dorsal stripe looks like a barbed wire fence. I'm guessing he's supposed to have extreme primitive marks there to go along with his many leg bars, but I've never seen extra stripes on a dorsal stripe. Usually they form a cross on the withers and that's it. So it looks a little goofy to me.

But I guess if I ever show him, I already have a name for him - Barbwire. Ha!

Dundee is now available!

I guess I spoke just a little too soon yesterday! Dundee is now available for purchase on the website.



Today is also the purchase deadline for Raleigh, so if you haven't gotten around to buying him yet, you've got until midnight (EST) tonight. Fortunately, I hadn't bought mine yet, so I happily combined shipping on them both so I could save a cool $3. Money's money, right?

Anyway, I can't wait until my Dundee gets here! I hope he's as nice as the one they had on display at Breyerfest.

Breyerfest Closeups: Mini Dundee

Hello, all! It's time for another Breyerfest Closeups post. Today I'm going to talk about the bonus Stablemate for the 2018 Premier Club. He's a mini Dundee in practice, but apparently he's supposed to be a Lipizzaner in theory. Check him out!



He's definitely a chunky guy! I really like him so far.



So I wonder if new Stablemate molds for the Premier Club will be a thing from now on? This is the third year in a row that we've gotten a new Stablemate mold for our freebie, so it's definitely a trend. I'd say we've come a long way from the nothing we got for the first two years of the club. I hope it continues in the future!



This guy is definitely a cute little copy of Dundee! I didn't want to incur Breyer's wrath by touching him, so I don't have a photo of his off side, but I think he had a short mane.



I definitely like this guy! I'm getting more and more excited for Dundee's release. I can't believe he isn't out by now, honestly. Hopefully he comes out soon! And I'll be excited to see this little Stablemate in a Lipizzaner color!

Breyerfest Closeups: Duende

Hello, readers! Today I have a new Breyerfest Closeups post for you - Duende! I decided to feature him first since he's presumably going to come up for purchase soon. We were able to get photos of him in the Collector Club tent on Sunday morning at Breyerfest, and I have to say this model is starting to grow on me despite his clunky head. I got as many angles of him as I could, but I didn't want to incur Breyer's wrath by touching him, so I didn't get a photo of his right side. Without any further ado, let's see some photos!



If I'm not mistaken, this is an actual plastic production piece, not the resin master. At least it looks like plastic to me.



I think his color is really nice. He looks like a dunalino? I like his pattern too; it's nicely understated and doesn't break up his outline.

I just wish his head were less clunky! I'm hoping I like it better when I actually get him in hand.



Considering my original plan was to pre-sell him and have him shipped to his new owner, seeing him in person at Breyerfest has definitely helped the situation. Will this be the year I keep all of the Premier Club releases since 2012? Time will tell.

Dundee is revealed!

It's official - this year's second release in the Premier Club has been revealed! Meet Dundee!



Although Breyer hasn't confirmed it, I'm guessing this is the Kitty Cantrell sculpt. He's pretty and all...but I'm 99% sure I'm not going to keep mine. He just kinda looks like a cross between Flash and Roxy to me, neither of which are molds I collect.

The bad thing is, some of the chatter on the Internets was wondering if this model could eventually be used for the Justify portrait...and I could see that happening. It doesn't seem likely, since Breyer is likely to want to get on the Justify train ASAP, and according to their own rules they can't use this mold again until next year. But...what if they do? Gah.

He's definitely pretty, though! I'm just not really into stock horses. Hopefully the Sifton sculpture is more up my alley! 

Premier Club #2 Sneak Peek!

More good news, everyone! Breyer has posted a sneak peek (ugh...why can't they just show us the model?) of this year's second Premier Club release on the Club News. Say hello to Dundee!



This is apparently a "flashy Australian Stock Horse gelding," although he looks more like a drafter to me. I guess we'll find out when we see the full photo! Hopefully Breyer doesn't make us wait until Breyerfest for the full reveal.

The thought on the Interwebs is that this is the Kitty Cantrell sculpt. I generally like her stuff, but based on that photo, this guy's chances of staying in my herd aren't looking good. I'm not big on stock horses, and, well...he's just not that appealing to me right now. Maybe once we see the full photo? I'll reserve my final judgement until I see the resin at Breyerfest, but the rest of him will have to be pretty spectacular, honestly.

Bristol is here!

Good news, everyone! My Bristol model arrived on Saturday! I was so excited for this model, I decided to get out my fancy camera for pictures. Behold!

It probably would have gone better if the lighting had been coming from the other direction, but what's done is done. He's gorgeous!

Most of the comments online I've seen have been along the same lines - he's definitely one of the better releases the Premier Club has ever seen. I love him!

I haven't been this excited about a new release in a really long time. I guess Breyer really was overdue for a new jumper! And the Morgen curse is broken - finally, a sculpt I like enough to keep in the collection!

I love the "height" of his jump, and the curve of his tail, and everything else that suggests his powerful forward motion. And I love his color! I can't wait to see what other colors they put on this guy - I want him in everything! Except maybe old-style red roan. I hate that color. I'm also not a fan of "honey" or wild bay. You know, just in case someone at Breyer is keeping track.

But otherwise...so many possibilities!

Quality-wise, I didn't see anything majorly wrong with him, and maybe one or two minor dings. A couple of little black marks, maybe? I don't even really remember, except my one nitpick: I wish his dapples were a little more subtle. But that's a pretty big nitpick.

Interestingly, he has a new style of VIN, but I couldn't get a great photo of it.

It's bigger than the old VIN - it barely fits on the sole of his foot. I guess we'll have to see if it pops up again on other new models this year.

All in all, this is one model that's definitely going to stay in my herd, along with any others I can get my grubby hands on. I'm definitely going to be buying a lot of raffle tickets at Breyerfest this year, even if it does look like his stand melted in the Kentucky heat! What an amazing mold!

Bristol is now available!

I have good news for 2018 Premier Club members - the first release in this year's club, Bristol, is now available for purchase!



I can't remember the last time I was this excited about a Premier Club model. I can't wait to get mine! I think I'm going to hold off on ordering him, though - his payment deadline is the 22nd and I have a feeling another web special is going to come up soon. Might as well try to save on shipping, right? Let's hope my luck is good (or the next web special isn't something I need, either way).

And now that Bristol's been released, maybe we'll find out what the next sculpt is? I don't remember when we first heard about Duende last year, but it would be nice to find out what it is before Breyerfest...

Premier Club sketches are arriving!

Exciting news! This year's Premier Club sketches are starting to show up in members' mailboxes! Excuse me a moment while I throw mine into my scanner.



There we go. I'm not sure where those rainbowy overtones are coming from - the actual paper print doesn't look like that. I guess it makes the digital version more fun!

So that's our sketch of Bristol. If the production Bristol looks as good as the drawing, it's looking more and more like my Bristol will stay with me. Maybe this will be the first year I keep all three sculptures since 2012, the inaugural year? I guess we'll find out!

Not much information to go on in the welcome letter, sadly. The Cantrell sculpture is described as "versatile and wonderful," while the Sifton sculpture isn't really described at all, except that its paint job was designed by Tammi Parlmarchuk. I guess we'll have to be patient on those.

As a reminder, Bristol models are supposed to ship in May, so we've got quite a while to wait. Hopefully the production models look as good as the prototype!

So many new Club reveals!

Breyer has been revealing a lot of stuff lately, especially things from the Stablemate Club! Here's what got sent out yesterday - the Valegro release from the 2018 Stablemate Club! Meet Aiden!



He's pretty, but not really my thing. But now we've seen all of the releases except the new mold and the mule, and the prevailing thought is that the mule will be next year's gambler's choice, since there doesn't seem to be a decorator. But I'm wondering if Breyer will mix things up a bit and make the new mold the gambler's choice? That would be a quick way to get a new mold out in several different colors. I'm sure we'll see what it is before the end of the year, so we don't have too long to wait, at least.

In other fun news, Breyer has also revealed the other two sculptors for the 2018 Premier Club - Sue Sifton and Kitty Cantrell - and the artists designing the paint jobs for those two releases - Tammi Palmarchuk and Nikki Button. Exciting - these are both sculptors I like! I wonder what the horses will be. Sue Sifton has done a mix of horses - three TB/QH racehorses, a warmblood, a QH - maybe we'll get another Thoroughbred? Or a warmblood? Bristol is a warmblood-type though, so maybe another QH?

As for the Cantrell, she's done a mix of things as well, but I wouldn't mind seeing something like a draft horse or maybe a Morgan? We haven't had a new one of those for a while. Or I could get really pie-in-the-sky with my expectations and hope Breyer bought the rights to Kitty's Wahoo resin - I love him and we need another rearing horse!

In other news, there's only one release left for the 2017 Premier Club - the Brishen mini-True North! The free Stablemate usually ships in December, so hopefully we'll see those start shipping this week. Last year's did get delayed to January, but I haven't heard anything about other shipping delays this year, so hopefully that's not the case with this one. I can't wait to get mine! And hopefully we'll get to see what next year's free Stablemate is before the end of the year!

New picture of Bristol!

Wow, these last couple of weeks have been pretty slow, news-wise. Fortunately, I do have something new to post about today: We finally got a full-body photo of Bristol, next year's first Premier Club release!



Okay, that's mostly the full body.

The photo was sent out to Collector Club members who haven't already joined the Premier Club for next year. And I have to say, I like what I see! I wasn't a fan of Morgen's previous sculpts for Breyer, but...Bristol is really growing on me. I like his tail, and of course I love his color. I'll still need to see what he looks like in person, but things are looking good so far!

I do wonder what his final stand will look like. That acrylic rod looks kind of awkward, although it could just be the photo angle. I like the simplicity of it, though - hopefully that's the final product.

So that's all I have for today. It's a new month, so hopefully we get some exciting reveals next week! It's been weird not having much to post about.

The 2018 Premier Club is now open!

Signups are now open for the 2018 Premier Club! Check it out:



They gave us a slightly larger photo of the sculpt, at least. While I'd like to just see the full photo like the rest of the world, they're probably waiting on showing complete photos to try to drive more signups before the deadline.

Also interesting to note that the stand pictured with him won't necessarily be the actual production stand. Though I think I'd like something like this better than say, Newsworthy's stand (which way is it supposed to face? Does it matter? I like to think putting it on backward makes him look like he's cresting a wave). But I'd rather not have that dilemma with this one.

No, I'm not implying that I'm going to keep my Bristol, but the release of this photo definitely made things more promising. We'll see what the full body and the other side look like before I make my decision. I really do like his paintjob, though, for what it's worth.

The 2017 Just About Horses is out in the wild!

Greetings, readers! I bring exciting news (that you've probably already heard!) - the 2017 JAH issue is in collectors' hands, and there are so many exciting things to talk about! However, today I'm going to talk about the Premier Club reveals!

I'll start with the cover of the magazine - behold, the final Premier Club release of 2017 - Carina and Selene!

Okay, Breyer has to be trolling us at this point. They got up everyone's hopes that we would get a new draft mare and FOAL set - because the grand total of one draft foal in Breyer's lineup could really, really use an update - and we get Lipizzaners instead? Bleh.

I like the sculpts, and they'll probably stay with me, but...argh. I wonder if this duo will be released on time, or if they got caught up in the other delays we've had this year? I guess we'll find out.

On a slightly different note, I could be wrong, but it almost looks like the models in the photo could be the actual finished production pieces instead of the resin prototypes? That bodes well for the future, although there's still plenty of room for quality issues.

Next, I'll move on to the first release from the 2018 Premier Club, Bristol!

Wow, a jumper! We haven't had a new one of those for a while. I like his color, too!



There's a full-body photo of the completed resin, though I suppose we'll have to wait until signups open to see what the painted sculpt looks like. Looking at those sketches on the upper right, I like the "taking off" one the best, honestly. I don't know why, but none of Morgen's sculpts have appealed to me so far (nothing against her personally), and I'm similarly lukewarm about Bristol. Maybe I'll like him better once I see a full photo, but no promises there.

There are a couple of other things from the JAH issue I'd like to cover, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

In the interest of full disclosure, I recently had a baby and as such, may not be able to update the blog in as timely a manner as I'd like. Please be patient as we figure out this new parenthood adventure!