Rhiannon and Rhemi are now available!

 Good new for Premier Club members! The final release, Rhiannon and Rhemi, are now available for purchase! 

The bonus Stablemate (matte or glossy mini Zafirah) is shipping with these as well, so make sure to thoroughly check the box when your set arrives! Wouldn't want to accidentally toss it or something. There was some speculation that the last Stablemates Club release might come available so people could combine shipping, but historically the last SMC release hasn't come out until December (at least), so it should be safe to just order this set. Hopefully mine get here fast - I'm excited to see them! 

Rhiannon and Rhemi, plus the holiday collection!

 Great news, readers! This year's final Premier Club release has been revealed - say hello to Rhiannon and Rhemi! At last, we have a new draft foal! 

Wow! I really like them. Here's another angle! 

From the blog:

Known worldwide for their colorful coats and abundant hair, Vanner horses first arrived in the United States only a few decades ago, but are now one of the most beloved breeds in the country. Across the Atlantic Ocean, however, these small but hardy draft horses have been carefully maintained by Irish and Romani Travelers for many generations. They had need of a horse strong enough to pull a wagon but be gentle enough for a life spent around people, and thus the Vanner horse was born.

Kylee’s own experience with draft horses and motherhood come through in this pair with their warm expressions and tiny details that make them spring to life on a shelf. Kylee shares, “As a mother, a horse breeder and lover of heavy drafts, this whole process touched on all of my favorite things and I love every moment of it.” She also designed their coat colors – mother Rhiannon sports a beautifully-dappled sooty buckskin tobiano (AKA “skewbald”) coat with mapping, kissy spots, and cat tracking. Her filly Rhemi is a bright palomino tobiano that pairs beautifully with her dam. Rhiannon and Rhemi are currently scheduled to arrive for 2023 Premier Club members in November.

The mare is beautiful, and the foal is so cute! I can't wait to order them next month. But this post wouldn't be complete without mention of this year's Premier Club Stablemate, Akilah! 

 

I'll admit I like mini Zafirah better than the big version - I think it's because her front feet aren't so perfectly in line with each other like the big version - but the shoulders still look weird and I'm not terribly interested in starting another conga (and with the 50/50 split I'd have to buy two of them). More sales fodder! 

In other news, some of this year's holiday collection are now available to order - pretty much everything except the two things I want (naturally). Oh, and the Highlander hat, but I can live without that. Nimbus is supposed to come in stock next week, and Wintergreen the week after that. I have no idea if Nimbus will sell out before Wintergreen has a chance to come in stock so I can combine orders, so I'll probably order Nimbus separately (sigh). I wonder if we'll get another CCA sale again this year? The mid-year releases haven't come in stock yet either, and there's a flood of other holiday purchasing coming my way - I guess the holiday season is coming up fast! I hope everyone is ready. 

Adonis is now available for purchase!

 Attention, Premier Club members: this year's second release, Adonis, is in stock and ready to purchase! 

That's a bit earlier than most people were expecting - I think at Breyerfest they said he'd be available in the fall. Guess they were just trying to be realistic? Maybe the shipping problems are a thing of the past? Let's hope so. I paid for faster shipping on this one to make sure he would arrive before we move, so I'm excited to potentially see him in two to three business days! 

Of course, this means the next Stablemates Club release will probably come out tomorrow and I'll be kicking myself for not waiting a day. I'll just have to pay for faster shipping on that one too...

Breyerfest Closeups: Mini Zafirah

 Greetings, readers! Well, it's pretty late in the day, but I decided to write a quick Breyerfest Closeups post before I hit the hay. Today's model is: the mini Zafirah! 

This is the free Stablemate for this year's Premier Club and will be sent out at the end of the year, presumably included with the final release. She's a teeny version of Zafirah! I gotta admit, those front legs don't look nearly as bad at this scale. 

I'm tempted to keep her...but I'd rather try to trade her for the Vintage Club mini Lipizzaner. 

Sorry for having so few photos, but it was hard to get any decent angles. The front legs do look better here - they aren't as evenly lined up with each other as the Traditional version and don't seem to be so abnormally straight, so she looks a little better. But I don't think I'm going to keep her. 

That's it for the Breyerfest Closeup, but I do have something else to add - another TSC model appeared on the website today! 

Say hello to Gibson the Bubble-Butt Belgian! Very nice. He looks a lot like Dusty on the Halla mold from a few years back. I wondered if there was going to be another Traditional or not. The TSC stuff must be selling pretty well if they're coming out with all this new stuff. 

Also, the fine print on the Cow ornament is that there's a Traditional Blue Cow coming as well! But she apparently hasn't been added to the website set. Maybe on Monday? In other, other news, the Merle and Classics Pony Family set I ordered have apparently already shipped - which is good, because I was a dumbdumb and had them shipped to our old address, which we're leaving in three weeks. I hope they arrive before then! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Adonis

Greetings, readers! Since we still don't have the numbers breakdown for this year's Breyerfest...you're getting another Breyerfest Closeups post today! Say hello to Adonis! 

 

As I may have mentioned before, this guy is intended as a mate/dad for the Carina and Selene set from 2017, hence his wild leopard color. He's certainly a beauty! 

He's in the midst of performing a courbette, but also looks like he could just be rearing (which will probably be the assumption for his many non-Lipizzan uses in the future). 

We definitely need more Roman-nosed beauties in our collections! I'm excited to see this guy in person. 

He seems to be an actual production sample, so I'd say he looks pretty good. Okay, I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of mottling around the eyes (even if it is realistic), but other than that I really like him! 

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like he'll be released until the fall, so we're going to be waiting a while to see him in person. Sheesh, we'll be settled into our new house by then! I'll have to make sure I have a space cleared for him - my husband is already in Kentucky and I've instructed him to build some more shelves in his spare time, but I don't know if that's actually going to happen. Guess I'll find out later! In the meantime, tune in next time for another Breyerfest Closeup...or commentary about the numbers breakdowns, if we ever get those...

Matte Cancion is here!

 Well, I'm not ready to start on the Breyerfest Closeups yet, though I did upload the photos from my camera today. Progress is being made! But never fear - I do have something else to post about. My matte Cancion arrived last Thursday while we were in Kentucky, and I unboxed him yesterday, so I'm going to post about him today! Behold:

The dapples on his show side are nice and subtle. 

The dapples aren't quite as subtle on the off side. But that's his off side, so it shouldn't show too much. 

I like his stubby little ears, and his slightly windblown mane. Kinda wish the edge of the mane was painted a little better.

He has such a nice face! Not sure if he just looks super friendly or what it is. His Fabio-esque locks are really cool too. 

Quality-wise, he's pretty good, other than the sloppy mane painting. Unfortunately, he has an extremely visible seam on his face that I don't think is a seam split? I'm not sure if it didn't quite get sanded or bonded correctly or what happened. I couldn't get a thin piece of paper to go into the crack, so I don't think it's an actual split...yet, anyway. Kind of disconcerting if a brand-new model on a brand-new mold from Breyer could arrive with that bad of a split, though (if it is one). Not sure if I want to go through the hoopla of trying to get another one or not, since the person I bought him from would have to get involved and I kinda have enough on my plate already. Let's just hope it doesn't get any bigger! 

Glossy Cancion is here!

 Greetings, readers! I hope everyone had a good 4th of July! Things have been a little slow around here, news-wise, so I was super happy to see a box outside our front door when I got home from work today! Behold - it's my glossy Cancion! 

What a beauty! 

Let's take a look at his face! 

I love him! Definitely better in person than the promo pics, but that's nothing new. 

Quality-wise, he's...okay. I've been seeing other people's Cancions all week and they all seemed to have nice subtle dapples, but the ones on mine are....really unsubtle. I was hoping they'd be a little bit more blended in with his darker areas, but they're kind of just...slapped on there. 

He also has a very visible seam or beginning of a seam split on his forehead, though it's hard to see in this picture. He actually doesn't have all that many gloss issues, except for some debris on his tail and a few other places. 

I like the details on his hooves! Maybe I just haven't been paying attention, but I feel like the hooves aren't usually this detailed, with the little stripes? I like it! 

I'm supposed to be getting a matte Cancion at some point, but it hasn't arrived yet. Hopefully he shows up soon, since we're leaving for Breyerfest in FIVE days!! Can you believe it? I spend all year waiting for Breyerfest to arrive and it seems like it's taking forever, but now it's almost upon us and the days are almost going too fast! I haven't technically started packing yet, other than my sales models, but I have been gathering things together so they don't get forgotten. Just five short days until we leave - I can't wait! Also, I hope Breyer reveals the next Premier Club release next week before Breyerfest, like they did last year. Crossing my fingers! 

End-of-year news roundup!

 Sheesh, there's been a ton of sneak peeks today! I'll start with the outline for the fourth single-day Breyerfest Stablemate:

Ooh, a special run for Kit! I can't wait to see what this one looks like. Unfortunately, it does look like we'll have to wait until Monday to see these, because the blog post says it's the last teaser of 2022. Bleh! But we got a whole bunch of other sneak peeks today, so let's take a look at the next one:

It's a Premier Club sneak peek, and...could it be? Could we finally be getting a new draft foal? It's a Christmas miracle! And if we're getting a new draft mare, I hope they got the rights to Truly Jolie - I wouldn't mind seeing her in plastic, especially with a matching foal. I suppose I'll have to break down and join the club tonight. If you're still waffling, the deadline is tomorrow night, so you still have a little time to think about it. 

Next, this month's Collector Club newsletter has been released - if you're a Collector Club member, check your email to read it. There's an interesting article about the creation of the reining horse holiday ornament on Bobby Jo, a Bristol giveaway (!) and this tantalizing sneak peek:

...Unfortunately, it's way too zoomed-in to tell anything from it. Maybe the sleuths out there on the Internets can figure it out? It's probably the first web special of the year (more Birds of a Feather? I'm kinda hoping for a new theme, myself). It kind of looks like a neck/jaw area?  But that's all I can figure out. 

As for the sneak peeks, here's the last one for today - it's the new sculpt for the Stablemates Club! 

Looks promising. I still need to think about it some more - but I really don't think I need to even join next year. I don't want the gambler, and I don't think it'll be hard to find the other two (possibly three, if I like the new sculpt) releases for issue price later on. 

And lastly, there's a new round of grab bags out! Looks like this round already sold out, but the email says another round is coming in January. Apparently each bag contains more than a dozen items, including a, "special surprise." I decided to get in on this, because I'm curious about the surprise and I'm still sorta kicking myself for not getting a grab bag at Breyerfest this year and missing out on the holographic Uffingtons. I'm sure I'll probably regret buying it, but I was a good girl for Christmas and didn't buy any of the Gabriels, so...I need something fun to open! I hope it gets here soon! 

Premier Club 2023 preview and more!

 Excellent news, everyone! We have a preview of one of the Premier Club sculpts for next year - check it out! 

Something rearing, I presume? Well, I like what I see so far. This is probably the Heather Puleo sculpt. I like what I can see of the color, too! There's been some speculation that maybe the horse is doing something else and the photo was flipped, but I think it does portray a rearing model - considering we won't get the full reveal for at least another six months, I don't think Breyer would try to trick people for that long. If someone joins the club purely because they're excited about a rearing model, only for Breyer to say, "Gotcha! It's a rolling/striking horse instead!" six months later, I imagine they'd be pretty upset. 

In other news, we also got a reveal of the G3 Cantering Warmblood in next year's Stablemates Club! Say hello to Brighton! 

No mention was made of this being the gambler's choice for next year, and we still haven't seen the G2 Shetland Pony, so I'm going to assume the Shetland Pony is the gambler's choice. Which means...I probably won't bother to join the club, as the two, possibly three releases I want shouldn't be too hard to find secondhand. 

And lastly, if you're into Christmas morning horse releases, keep your eye on the Breyer website tomorrow at 11AM EST! Well, "around 11am," anyway!

That's right - another year of Christmas morning ponies! I can't wait - though I'm hoping whatever it ends up being is something I don't want - it's just easier that way. This release tends to sell out fast, so be ready to buy! I certainly will. Good luck, everybody! 

Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons, and other stories

 More good news, everyone! Amongst other things, I had a pretty good mail day today - behold! First off, my Neva showed up: 

What a beauty! 

Quality-wise, though...he's really kind of a mess. It's almost laughable - weird textures in the finish by his elbow, globs of plastic and/or paint in random places, bubbles in the gloss, poorly-applied masking, really bad overspray on the mane...the list goes on and on. And these guys are sold out, so I can't even ask for a replacement. However, the funny thing is...the snowmen:

I'm getting major Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goon vibes from these snowmen. 

Now, I love derpy stuff like this (I'm not a Barbie collector, but I do have two Barbie Christmas tree ornaments because one of them has a doofy face and the other one looks like she wants to eat your face), so I'm happy to add them to the collection. So yeah, if I was ever to decide to start showing (not likely), and if I could find a class to put this guy in (also not likely) his show name would definitely be Snow Goon. 

Now then, on to the next new arrivals. I was expecting Snow Goon up there to come today, but what I wasn't expecting...was two of my Poppy & Ollie sets! Huzzah! Behold the first one I opened! 

Fortunately, their quality was much better than Snow Goon. Though I have to say...normally I like alabaster, especially glossy alabaster, but I'm just not feeling it with this set. It's not so bad in the photo, but that yellowish cast Breyer added to make them look "perlino" mostly just makes them look like they sat in a smoker's house for way too long. So this is probably my least favorite color of the three.

At least the quality was good! And I got two different colors - behold my next set! 

Woohoo, the palominos! This color is easily my favorite of the three, despite there not being anything vintage about it at all. They're just gorgeous. 

The quality on this pair is mostly okay, but I really wasn't impressed with the mane masking job on the mare:

They pretty much missed half her forelock when masking it off, and look at the giant white area behind the left ear. What a doozy. 

Oh well. Could have been worse, I suppose. So with any luck, my third set will be the bay, whenever it gets here. Here's hoping! 

There were a couple of other exciting developments today - the other two sculptors for next year's Premier Club have been announced! 

Jennifer Scott sculpted the first release (Cancion), so it's anyone's guess as to what Kylee and Heather will be sculpting. I'm excited to find out, though! 

And lastly, Breyer is running a holiday sweepstakes:

10 lucky winners will receive two Clydesdale Christmas blind bags from last year's event! Enter here - the deadline is 12/13. I won't be entering, as I don't want any of them - just more stuff to sell, and I have enough of that already. Good luck, everyone! 

2023 Premier Club is now open!

 Good news, everyone - the 2023 Premier Club is now open for signups! 

As was announced earlier, club members will be able to choose a matte or glossy finish for Cancion, the first release in next year's club. I'll probably opt for a glossy one and then buy a matte later like I did with Astrid. I haven't rejoined any of the clubs yet, though - I like to wait until the last minute so Breyer has to provide more "incentive" to join. I hope it works! 

Ooh, shiny! (again!)

 Greetings, readers! Well, there are more exciting reveals from Breyer today- for starters, the 2023 Stablemates Club is open for membership! Check out this adorable mare and foal set! 

Their names are Nadira and Zaahir, and they're the first releases for next year's club! Looks like they'll make a good family for Zahrat. Nothing I need - hopefully we get some more reveals soon. 

While the 2023 Premier Club isn't open for membership yet, its first release can be previewed on the website - hover your mouse over the Clubs and you'll be able to mouse down to the preview page on the dropdown. Same deal for the 2023 Vintage Club! But here's the preview for the Premier Club:

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Say hello to Cancion, sculpted by Jennifer Scott! I thought the sculptor was Kitty Cantrell - oops. Anyways, he'll be available in glossy or matte finish. I do like him from this angle, though I'm not crazy about his front legs being perfectly even with each other like that - makes him look like he only has one front leg. He also looks like that right front leg is longer than his right rear leg, but that may be an optical illusion. He looks spectacular in gloss, though! 

A couple of notes about this year's Club: the price on the last release is $200 rather than $175, but that's understandable. Dare I hope this means we're finally, FINALLY getting a draft mare and foal? I hope so. 

Lastly, let's take a look at our Vintage Club preview! 

Say hello to Rustler, a brand-new Fury Prancer! Uh, seeing this release made me realize I never wrote a Looking to the Future post about next year's Vintage Club...oops. I suppose it's not too late. Anyway, check out all that detailed mapping on him! Nothing I need, but I wouldn't mind seeing that paint job show up on, say, Hamilton, for instance. This guy is also a music box! Gotta have that gimmick to make people join the club, I guess.

Memberships have also been increased to 1,000 (from last year's increase to 750), so they must still have a lot of demand to join the club. I suppose it only makes sense that the size of the club should grow as the hobby grows. Prices for the VC will be increasing as well, but they've been the same since the club's inception in 2012, so it had to happen sometime.

Come to think of it, we still haven't seen anything special happening with the PC or VC this year, since it's the 10th year of both clubs and I'm pretty sure Breyer said they were doing something special. I suppose the shipping delays are affecting that too - oh well. 

Now that we have our club information, let's hope we get more reveals for these clubs soon! I need more incentive to join. 

THEY'VE REALLY DONE IT THIS TIME

 Alert, readers! Summon the hounds! Stop the presses! Release the kraken! Signups for the 2023 Collector Club have been announced, led by this incredible beauty! AHHHH! 

Fireheart, you say? In bay? GLOSSY BAY? Sign me up! Here's the full view:

His name is Bolero, and he's to die for! He's the first Collector Club special run of the year. Let's hope they make enough of him, because he's going to sell out fast.

And here's the Stablemate for the Deluxe Collector Club! 

His name is Fandango! What a handsome guy. And in addition to this guy, Deluxe Collector Club members get a pin! 

I guess they're going all-in on roping in all the pin collectors out there. 

And that's not all - we also have a reveal of the first release in next year's Premier Club! 

His name is Cancion and he's a Paso Fino, according to the filename on the photo. What a handsome boy! I like him. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more angles before I decide if I want him, though. I'm sure we'll get that when PC memberships open. I wonder who the sculptor is? Looks like a Kitty Cantrell piece to me - that hind end looks very similar to Geronimo's and the tail reminds me of Dundee. 

Unfortunately, the price of joining the club has gone up to $30, but considering the inflation and price hikes that have already happened this year, I'm not really surprised. I wonder if the cost of the Premier Club and Vintage Club models will go up too? Guess we'll find out, probably fairly soon!