A shipment of unicorns!

 Greetings, readers! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving - I know I did. And now I have some new unicorns to show you! I'll start with Altair: 

These photos don't quite do him justice, but he's definitely a stunning boy! 

I love the hint of pearl in his coat, and his blue eyes. 

Unfortunately, he does have some quality issues that I'm not terribly happy with. I'll start with his horn - clearly this model wasn't intended to have a horn added later, as his forelock covers the part of his forehead that the horn would come out of (not a knock on the sculptor, just an observation). So they clearly just stuck the horn onto his forelock. The base of the horn is somewhat skinnier than the rest of it (maybe other molds have a hole added in the forehead for the horn to slot into?), so this could make it easier to break off. I've seen a couple of these guys show up with broken horns on Facebook, so I'm sure there are probably more. The horn on mine is crooked, too, which is irksome. 

The bigger issue is this: 

It's somewhat hard to see in this photo, but the model has a seam line that forms an almost perfect square around his shoulders and across his withers/back (it's visible below the gloss drip on the horse's withers - another groanworthy issue). I've never seen this line on any of my other Shire B models, but it's probably a leftover seam from doing the switcheroo to the Shire B's lowered head. What's going on in the factory right now?  This is a fairly large prep oversight. Someone else posted about these lines on Facebook, so clearly mine isn't the only one with the issue. 

They also could have bothered to paint the model's ribbons, but that's a fairly minor issue compared to the things listed above. I'm not going to bother returning this guy, because I just can't be bothered right now (and would risk getting a worse one in exchange). I mean, it's kinda cool being able to see how they change out the heads on the models, but...I'd rather he have properly-cleaned seams. 

Oh well. On to Ceres and Minerva! 

I was happy to see that this pair is glossy! I don't think they were advertised as such. 

As described on the website, Ceres is a blush-pink color with gold mane and tail, whereas Minerva is more uniformly golden. They have a pleasing glittery sheen, too. 

I didn't see any quality issues with the foal, but the mare does have this unfortunate spot on her hip:

It's underneath the gloss, so somebody really screwed up there. 

Otherwise, though, they're both pretty nice.

The foal is for sale, so if you're interested in buying her, send me a message! 

That's all I have for today - I'm still waiting for my holiday Stablemates and the three Poppy & Ollie sets to arrive, so let's hope we get some exciting reveals in the meantime! 

More exciting reveals!

 Ooh, shiny! We've got some new reveals for the holiday season on Breyer's website - check them out! Let's start with this new Cantering Welsh Pony:

She's this year's A Pony For Christmas special run - I guess that's a yearly thing now. Her blanket is so cute - it looks like a candy cane! She even has her own gift box! 

Next, here's this year's holiday mare and foal set, Ceres and Minerva! 

What's this? A unicorn Bluegrass Bandit? Sign me up, even if it is pink! Must have her! The foal is cute too, but I'm still trying to sell off my Ambers and Ashleys, so I'll have to split up this set if/when I get my hands on them. Let's hope they don't sell out too fast! 

Next, take a look at this stunning new Rearing Mustang! 

Will we ever stop collecting plastic ponies? This one has the answer to that in his name - NEVA! Anyways, that's a pretty cute design - reminiscent of Black Forest from this year's Breyerfest. Interestingly, he doesn't look glossy in the above photo, but the description says he's glossy and he's glossy in the other two photos as well. Maybe they were playing around with finishes and used that photo by mistake or something.

Lastly, here's Altair, the galaxy unicorn that was previewed in the Collector Club tent at this year's Breyerfest! 

A rare appearance on the elusive Shire B mold - I gotta have him too! 

Let's hope they give us some notice before these come in stock - I have to have them for the collection! I hope we get even more reveals soon! 

Featured Model - 8/21/2021, Fun Foals Ashley

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model I don't own but would like to, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's model is...the Fun Foals Ashley! 

This little filly was a run of "a few hundred" produced as item #1398 on the Ashley mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. 

This model was one of the possible prizes one could receive when participating in the 2009 Treasure Hunt. Collectors had to find a mare and stallion and send in the UPCs from the boxes and received a free foal in return. I didn't return from my hobby hiatus until 2010, so I didn't participate in this treasure hunt. But I do remember seeing leftover Semi-Rearing Mustangs and Running Mares the following year or two (those weren't big sellers). Anyway, Ashley looks quite nice in black, but I've never been able to get one - you just don't see these for sale that often. 

Sheesh - if IDYB is correct, this mold hasn't been used since 2014. Poor Ashley doesn't even get to show up in this year's Vintage Club along with Marabella and Amber. I hope she gets another release eventually - we could always use some new foals. Maybe she'll get a new twins release with Amber? Let's hope so. We don't seem to get a lot of foal special runs anymore, and Amber/Ashley are almost 25 years old now (when did that happen?), so your guess is as good as mine. But we all know Breyer likes to throw a wrench in the works every once in a while, so maybe they'll get a fun web special release next year. Or even some kind of holiday release this year? Ooh, now I'm all excited! 

Featured Model - 6/3/2017, Leah's Fancy Breyer

Hello 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. Last week's model was inadvertently a repeat mold, as I'd forgotten I already featured Esprit on the blog a few months ago. Oops! Oh well. Breyerfest is only 40 days away, people, so I picked a model from Breyerfest to feature this week. So without further ado...this week's model is...Leah's Fancy Breyer!

 

This cutie was produced as a special run for Breyerfest 2000 - wow, she's 17 years old this year! She was a portrait of the real Leah's Fancy Breyer, who was a Breyerfest guest along with her Celebration Horse dam, Leah's Fancy Chick. She's item #701600, produced on the Amber mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody, and a total of 2500 models were produced.

I really like this pretty filly's paint job. It would have been easy to paint it as a generic buckskin and call it a day, but her color is really nice. She has a lot of depth to her color - that's how it looks to me, anyway.

Amber is another one of those molds that tends to slip under the radar, probably because she isn't the new hotness anymore. The mold is 20 years old this year! Amazing. Kathleen Moody had a lot of molds debut in 1997 - Iron Metal Chief, Marabella and Amber/Ashley off the top of my head, and all those G2 Stablemates debuted in 1998. She was a busy lady!

I have about 9 Ambers in my collection - she doesn't get used much these days, or it would probably be more. Fortunately, most of her older releases are pretty easy to find cheaply. The only problem is sometimes she gets released without Ashley, and then I end up with uneven numbers of them! I think right now I have 9 Ambers and 8 Ashleys - I'll have to find another Ashley somewhere! I guess that's a pretty minor problem to have, though.

Some year, Breyer should do a year of foal web specials - seems like we hardly ever get any really special releases on the foal molds. They have enough Trad foals to do some kind of foal web special series, and it would be a pretty significant departure from the norm for them. Make it happen, Breyer!

Featured Model - 8/16/2016, Frolic

Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, where I pick a random model from my collection, give some stats on it, and provide commentary. This week, our lucky model is...Frolic, the Springtime Foal!

This model was released in spring 2004, and presumably ran until the end of the year. She is item number 1230 on mold number 489, Ashley. Sculpted by Kathleen Moody, the mold made its debut in 1997 with accompanying mold Amber.

I remember when this model came out, because at the time it seemed like Breyer had run out of ideas and decided to go all-in on the "Think spring!" theme. Several spring-themed plush horses were released concurrently, and I remember seeing all of them featured in a spread in JAH and thinking, "They really need to hire someone else to do their product development."

On further inspection, however, she is rather cute. I like the combination of colors they used, though I'd personally like to see more blue (my favorite color, so I may be biased). I love the little winged eyelashes and the pearly effect on her tail. The masking on the butterflies seems to have been pulled off fairly well, unlike the bats on 2002's Nosferatu. I'm still not sure that this model really needed to exist (and neither was anyone else, based on her short production run), but she could have been a lot worse.

That brings me to the end of this week's edition! Tune in next week to see which model I'll feature next!