Fiona and Rory are here!

Greetings, readers! My Fiona and Rory set arrived today, so I unboxed them and took some quick cell phone pics. Behold!

This is a really cute set!



The blue shimmer is more subtle than I'd hoped it would be, though it seemed a little more visible on the foal.

Quality-wise, they're excellent - I didn't see any flaws anywhere on them. I suppose it's hard to screw up two almost-solid-black paint jobs.

All in all, I'm glad I got this set - they'll go well with my other Hansels and Gretels (once I get them unpacked and put back on the shelf).

Here's a last pic of Rory and the almost-identical foal from this year's Heroes of the West set:



They're really, really similar to each other - you can see the blue shimmer on Rory here (and his socks are masked, he has two more socks than the other foal does, and his blaze/star is a little smaller), so I wish Breyer had done a little more to differentiate the two. I suspect from the Heroes of the West foal's gray tail tip that he's intended to actually be gray and would lighten with time, but in the meantime, I wish Rory had a bald face or a high stocking or something to set him off a little more - except then he'd look a lot like Tuari, from the 2015 America's Wild Mustangs set. I think Breyer may have painted themselves into a corner here?

Another solution to set them apart would have been to make Fiona and Rory glossy - that would have been awesome! Either way, I think it's probably safe to say Hansel won't be issued in black again anytime soon.

Fiona and Rory!

There's a new special run on the website - Fiona and Rory! Check them out!




From the site:

Fiona and her foal Rory are two lovely black ponies, each with four white socks.  Their inky coats shimmer with just a touch of midnight blue iridescence.  Fiona and Rory also have matching blankets in sparkling blue and silver for extra fun!

 I ordered a set, because I have no self-control. It helps that I didn't buy a Scotty, though - this is Breyer basically double-dipping on shipping. They didn't get me this time, but they probably will in the future. Let's maybe scale back on that type of behavior, eh? It tends to make people angry to pay exorbitant shipping prices, especially when the things show up with a $5 USPS label slapped on the box.

It also would have been nice if these two had qualified for the Mother's Day sale, you know, since it's a mare and foal set and there's a sale on mare and foal sets going on right now. It would have helped at least a little bit  with the shipping issue.

Anyway, I think Gretel looks really good in black, though I hope the "blue iridescence" is noticeable - otherwise Rory is going to look almost exactly like the black Hansel that's in the Heroes of the West set right now. I'll have to take some comparison photos when Fiona and Rory get here. I almost wish this set was glossy, just to differentiate them a bit more. Oh well - can't wait to see them!