Blue Zeus and Petra selections!

 Good news, readers! My Blue Zeus model finally arrived! Okay, he came last Friday, but I haven't had a chance to get photos of him until today. Behold! 

What a beauty! 

I'd gotten a shipping notice for him, but erroneously thought it was for my Llywellyn because the website said Blue Zeus was still unfulfilled. 

I'm definitely grateful I got this guy when I did, because it looks like the warehouse is doing a repeat of the Lafayette debacle, where the orders printed out more-or-less randomly and people who ordered after the original allotment was sold out ended up getting models right away, while people who ordered before ended up having to wait until December.

I'm grateful I managed to get one at all, really, what with all the warehouse issues I've been hearing about lately (crushed boxes, open boxes, crushed open boxes, boxes with no tape, empty boxes, orders arriving with everything but Blue Zeus, orders arriving with one model and the rest of the box full of bird seed/dog treats/cat food/underwear, damaged models, orders not being shipped at all despite it now being 2 weeks since Breyerfest ended, Breyer shotgunning out more releases without resolving the previous shipping issues first, honeycomb wrap not being honeycombed properly, Stablemates shipped in bubble mailers, orders containing Blue Zeus being delayed until December (including anything else in the order), probably more stuff I'm forgetting). Let's hope this is the event that makes Breyer finally dump CCG for a better warehouse. 

As for my Blue Zeus, he was pretty good in the quality department - I didn't see any major issues. He'll look great on my shelf with the rest of my Firehearts. I hope the warehouse gets people's orders sorted out soon, because it sounds like things are a disaster right now. 

In other news, the selections for Petra went out today! Check your email or your Collector Club account to see if you were drawn. With the new website came an update where you can click a button on your Collector Club Home page to see if you were drawn. Nothing here, unfortunately, so it looks like I'll have to grab one on the secondary market. Congrats to all the winners! 

My last Collector Club Appreciation order!

 More good news, everyone! My last Collector Club Appreciation order arrived just as I was about to leave for work. Naturally I had to rip into the box immediately, and here’s what I saw!

That’s right - a glossy Mojave! Woohoo! It’s not a great picture but he’s definitely glossy. That means I just have to find someone to trade their glossy Get Rowdy for my glossy Appaloosa and I’ll have all the ones I want. Huzzah!

Domingo!

 Greetings, readers! As promised, my replacement Domingo has finally arrived! Behold:

He's much, much better than the last one (although the masking around his medicine hat still isn't great)! 

I'll admit I haven't tried scratching him to see if his white paint scrapes off as easily as the last one's did - mainly because I don't want to turn this one into a body. I was extremely careful handling him because I don't know if the last one was a one-off or they're all like that - because it really shouldn't be that easy to scratch off the paint. 

Quality-wise he's pretty great, other than the so-so masking. His eyes are a little sloppy too, but nothing terrible. I might try live showing him later on. 

Which reminds me - I'm going to a live show on Saturday! I'll be at Bluegrass Live in Nicholasville, KY on Saturday. See if you can figure out which wild-eyed novice shower is me! I may even hand out free Stablemates to people mentioning the blog, if I can remember to bring the box they live in. This will be my first (real) show - I did a fun show last year that had about six participants - which was fun, but not nearly on the same level. I now have all my show models packed and documentation finished, so I'm just about ready for the show! Now I just have to contain my excitement until Saturday! 

Dastardly Domingo Discord

 Well, as some of you may have seen on Blab, my Domingo model came in, and I was super excited to open it! He was a super-handsome model...until I checked out the other side and saw this. 

It may be a little hard to see, but there's an oval area on his neck where the paint is rubbed off. Next to it is an area where (and I was dumbfounded to discover this) the paint was so fragile that I could scrape it off with my fingernails with very little effort. I have never, ever seen this happen before - not that I intentionally try to scrape off models' paint, but I was trying to figure out if the scrapes were actually scrapes or something stuck to his neck, and it scratched right off. I'm...reasonably sure the paint is supposed to bond with the plastic so that doesn't happen? Right? 

I've seen reports of other people having issues with yellow spots on the side of the models, but I haven't seen anything about the paint scratching off super-easily. So maybe it's just something with my model specifically? Some type of mold release agent not being fully washed off the model and keeping the paint from adhering properly? Who knows. 

At any rate, Domingo is now on his way back to New Jersey. Let's hope the replacement is better! Hopefully sans yellow spot, as well. 

Suddenly, some new releases!

 Well, I don't think anyone was expecting we'd get not one, but two new releases today - but we did! Behold, the second Stablemates Club release, Wallowa: 

This release is a matte/glossy split and is randomly shipped (naturally), so we won't know which finish we received until we open up the box. I'm hoping to sell mine - I don't collect the G1 molds and this one is particularly wonky-looking, so he'll be moving on. 

In more exciting news, we now have the answer to the Marguerite Henry clue in the Vintage Club welcome letter! Say hello to Domingo! 

He's a modern interpretation of the old San Domingo! And comes with a copy of Marguerite's San Domingo book, to boot. I'm not a member of the VC, but hoping I can snag one of these guys - San Domingo's color looks great on Fireheart! I'm kind of wondering why they didn't just call him San Domingo, since it's the same colorway...but I don't make the rules, I guess. Anyway, if you're also looking for one of these, there will be 1,000 of them out there, so don't pay inflated prices to get one - they'll likely settle closer to issue price later on. 

A sneak peek AND a reveal? How bizarre

 Greetings, readers! Well, lots of exciting things to report today, but I'll start with today's sneak peek! Behold, a poorly-painted eye:

No idea what this is, and the Internets yield nothing particularly definitive, though there's some speculation that it's a Stablemate due to the, uh, not-so-great paint job on that eye. Maybe it's something from the Best of Breyerfest set for this year? It looks like a mini Julep, although I don't think she had a blue eye, so probably not. Fortunately, we'll find out tomorrow! 

Today's next exciting reveal was: a revamp of the ticket process! The ticket books of yesteryear, a concept only a bare two years old, are no more! Breyerfest tickets are now digital, with QR codes to scan to get into the park, pick up models, etc. More information here. The reaction on the Interwebs seems to be mixed-to-positive, with a fair amount of anger regarding the fact that trading model tickets seems to be a thing of the past due to not having any way to validate whether a QR code has been used ahead of time. So beware of scammers, and make sure you really trust your pickup person this year if you're not able to attend the event yourself. I'm mostly ambivalent to this change, and a bit sad that the ticket books are already going away after only two years - they were pretty cool! I'm also irked that Breyer is passing on the processing fees to us even though Breyerfest parking is free this year and they're presumably saving a bunch of money not having to print tickets or provide wristbands. I guess we'll see if it works out - hopefully things go relatively smoothly, but then again this is Breyer we're talking about. So it'll probably be a disaster on Friday morning and then more-or-less functional by Saturday morning. 

Lastly, though we didn't get to see the result of the above sneak peek, we got a great reveal of something else instead! Behold, Blue Zeus! 

It's great to see Fireheart in this color! About a year and a half ago I suggested that Breyer do a portrait of Ares from Return to Freedom on the Fireheart mold (he's pretty much the same color as Blue Zeus, and has a similar story), so it's great to see pretty much the same color on him! He's the online Limited Edition (equivalent to Studebaker last year), and the mold is much more popular than the Shagya Arabian, so I suspect I'm going to have to be quick ordering him (and perhaps do it back at the Clarion, where the Internet may be more reliable...maybe). What a beauty! 

I like the white spot on his neck! He's so pretty. Looks like they're making 3,000 of this guy, so he shouldn't be TOO hard to get ahold of, but then again...Fireheart is very popular, so I don't think it'll take long to sell out. I'll have to make sure to be ready as soon as he becomes available to buy! 

That's it for today, but I'll definitely be haunting the Breyerfest blog tomorrow to see what that blue eye belongs to! 

Mid-Year Releases have been officially announced!

 Good news, everyone - we finally have an official announcement of the 2023 mid-year releases! 

See them all here. Two Trads and some CollectAs seems a bit...uh, meager, so let's hope they have some really exciting stuff coming up later on in the year! I'm kind of intrigued by that Fireheart beach towel, too. Maybe if they're in the Breyer Store at Breyerfest, I'll pick one up...

Speaking of Breyerfest, we only have 3 weeks to go until the grand event! Hooray! I'm getting really excited as the days count down until departure (24 days to go!). I was going to complain about the lack of auction model releases here, but I just looked back at last year's blog posts and it looks like we had to wait even longer for ANY auction model reveals last year, so...bleh. And the year before that we had to wait even longer! I really miss when they would do the auction model countdown - it seemed like it did a good job of building the Breyerfest anticipation! Maybe on Monday we'll get something. 

Whoops! (Again)

 Well, it appears we may have a solution to the pinto sneak peek from yesterday - a chestnut pinto Fireheart named Mojave! Here's a screenshot from someone on Facebook:

Apparently he briefly showed up under the New Releases on the Breyer webpage, though it was gone by the time I looked for it. He had a 4-digit item number and cost $49.99, which might indicate he's a regular run, though he could be a brick and mortar or something similar. The trend for the last few years has been for regular run models to be portrait models, while "fictional" models like this one are special runs or limited editions of some type or another. Guess we'll (probably) find out on Monday! 

Bolero is here!

 Good news, everyone! My Bolero model arrived today! He's only my second purchase since the start of the year, so I was excited to get his box open and see what I got. Behold! 

Look at his glossy goodness! 

So glad I was able to get my hands on one. 

Quality-wise, he's...well...I've seen some real doozies online, far worse than this guy. He's got the usual little bits of lint in the gloss, and whatever's going on with his cheek in this photo...and then I saw his left ear.

He had a piece of masking stuck on his ear, on top of the paint but under the gloss. So I pulled it off and this was the result. It doesn't look so bad until you get him into the light.

Not sure how masking got onto his ear, but there it was. Unfortunately, it's being reported online that there aren't any replacements left, so I'm stuck with him. But like I said above, I've seen some far, FAR worse ones online (really, really bad gloss flaws, broken manes, GIGANTIC areas of missing paint around one eye), so I'm not going to complain too much. Hopefully Breyer does something about this one, because I can't remember the last time I saw this many terrible flaws. 

That's all I have for today, but tomorrow is the first day of March - so hopefully we get some more exciting stuff happening this month! 

Bolero!

 Greetings, readers! We interrupt your regularly-scheduled...uhh...nothingness, with this late-breaking news bulletin! Bolero, this year's first Collector Club model, will go on sale on Thursday afternoon! 

He makes a pretty good interruption for the February doldrums, I must say. What a beauty! He looks especially good from this angle:

He'll go on the website on (or around) 1pm EST on Thursday, so if you want him, be there or be square! I can't imagine he'll sell out THAT fast, but he is glossy and on a popular mold, so...it's hard to say. Let's hope I can scrounge some time at work to order him! I've only bought one model so far this year, so I'm definitely ready for a new pony to get here.

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! 

New Arrivals: Black Forest, Stein and Rapunzel

 Good news - it's time for another New Arrivals post! I'll start with Black Forest:

I think Black Forest is one of my favorite of this year's models - I love his mane and tail, despite the unpainted ribbons. I also love the crispness of his white lower body against the darker upper body. Love him! I wonder if Breyer would let someone do a Design Your Own Breyer of this pattern on a Shire B for a matched pair. Ha! 

Next, here's Stein: 

After the variations on Marzipan and Landler started showing up on Friday, Stein was the subject of some intense strategizing - if a variation showed up on him, buy as many as possible (I had tickets for six), with the possibility of trading Rotating Draft tickets for more Stein tickets, if necessary. Fortunately, no Stein variations showed up, so I wound up with a lot of Rotating Draft models (most of which I sold during the event). Anyway, Stein is a handsome guy, but I can't help but wonder what a variation on him would have looked like - even if only a matte/gloss split. Ah, well. 

Lastly, here's Rapunzel! 

Speaking of variations, I'm still a bit bewildered that they didn't do an alternate mane on Rapunzel. It seemed like the obvious choice, so it's still a little confusing. Probably for the best, though, because I only had two Rapunzel tickets and probably wouldn't have had the luck to get them both. Anyway, I love the flowing tail on this girl, and was pleased to notice this girl even has a little braid in her mane. I like how there's a little bit of pearly in her hair too; it helps keep her from looking like a regular run. Apparently there is an unofficial lighter roan variation of her out there, which I wouldn't have minded getting, but it's not a deal-breaker. Maybe I'll find one down the road. 

That brings me to the end for today - check back soon for more New Arrivals!  

The last auction models!

Well, we have our last set of Breyerfest auction model reveals! Pay no attention to the fact that this post is very late - I'm not sure what happened.  Too busy playing gwent? I'll blame it on that. Anyway, here's a handsome Esprit! 

Looks familiar...because his pattern is very similar to Enchante from 2015. Uh, minus the yellow legs. I like the white stripe in his tail, too. Very handsome! 

Interesting concept - this one is painted in the colors of the German flag. His pattern is pretty much the same as the Jackpot raffle model from 2018 - unsurprising. I like him! It'll be interesting to see how much this one goes for. 

I'm pretty ambivalent about this one, honestly. Like, if it was only selling for $500, I'd bid, but I wouldn't go into the stratosphere for it either. Not sure why. Maybe because he looks chalky and I'm not generally a fan of that? Who knows. 

Anyway, those are the last reveals we'll get -as usual, there are a few models that weren't revealed, but we won't get to see those until the first day of Breyerfest! Can't wait to see what they are. Only a little more than a week until we leave! 

Disco Duck

 Happy April Fool's Day, everyone! I hope nobody was fooled too badly this year, but it's kinda hard not to when Breyer is putting stuff like this out there...

According to the Facebook post, his name is "Discoheart" and he'll be available at the end of the month...but, well, it's April Fool's Day and they've done stuff like this in the past, as I talked about in my last Featured Model, so...at best, this particular model will probably be in this year's Breyerfest silent auction. I would buy him if he were a real release, though - he's the same pattern as last year's much-maligned Montana. Although if I were going to name a model horse Discoheart, I'd probably give him a holographic color scheme - just saying. 

In slightly happier news, I'm pretty sure this next release isn't an April Fool's joke:

Enterprising collectors found him on the Breyer website today, but I don't know how long he's been there. What a cutie! It's good to see Bouncer get more use, and I like his color (check out the hidden images in his pattern). It says he's supposed to be released in June, so I hope I can get my hands on him. Must add him to the collection! 

In the "nonexistent photo" side of things, this year's patriotic decorator appears to be named Anthem, according to this Amazon listing. Here's a blurb from the listing:

With his mane and tail blowing like a flag in the wind, Anthem is a richly-hued decorator model that pays tribute to America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His pinto coat takes on the familiar hues of red, white, and blue, along with a splash of metallic silver.

The listing states the model's measurements are 13 inches long by 10 inches high, and enterprising collectors have noted that Hamilton (gulp) and Huck both fit these measurements, plus they both have hair that could be said to be blowing in the wind. After doing some quick measuring of my own, Goffert and the Show Jumper both fit that description, so it's anybody's guess which one it might be. There's no mention of whether this new one is clearware or not, if that makes any difference (The Show Jumper is the only one of those four molds that's been issued in clearware before). For those in favor of Hamilton, the American Saddlebred does seem like a good choice, since it's an American breed - and better yet, it'd rule out all the speculation that he's this year's Breyerfest surprise model, which is always good. I hope we find out soon!  

 

Yes Please

 Hark, readers - there's another reveal on the Breyerfest blog! Meet Stein! 

I'm not sure why this mold didn't appeal to me when I first saw it, because once I saw this picture I'm pretty sure I want it just as much as anything else I've ever wanted in my life. WAAAAANT! Even though they keep using that unflattering camera angle! MUST HAVE!! I love his stripey tail! 

From the blog:

“Stein” is the German word for stone, and in Germany, these earthenware mugs are commonplace! As a part of our tribute to Germany this summer, our Stein for BreyerFest: Prost! has been done on the Mustang Stallion, mold #801 sculpted by Rayvin Maddock, as an eye-catching grullo.  This mold, with his wildly flowing mane and tail, was most recently released as the handsome Fireheart model as a part of the Premier Club in 2021.

Another special run I'll be dying to get my hands on! That's two so far...what's coming up next? I'll definitely be tuning in tomorrow!  

Fireheart is here!

 It's a momentous day, everyone - my Fireheart is finally, at long last, holding court on my entertainment center, having finally evicted last year's Premier Club models! Behold! 

I do like him better in-person than in the promo photos, but for some reason I like his off side better than the near side. I think it has something to do with his huge head, or maybe his mouth. His mouth seems to be open, which I'm not really a fan of...but Ashquar's mouth is open too, and that doesn't bother me, so I don't know why this one would. I'll have to think about it some more.

He definitely has a glorious mane and tail, doesn't he? '80s rock star, indeed. 

His eyes are amazingly detailed - I have no idea how they painted his tiny eyewhites without messing it up. He's not too bad, quality-wise - some small dings here and there, but much better than my Meadowlark, for example. I'm excited to see his next release! 

In other news, Breyerfest 2021 is almost upon us! At 10:01AM (EST) on Friday, I'll be poised at my computer, waiting to hit that refresh button when the store opens! Who else is excited! I can't wait! Hopefully it's a less-frustrating experience than last year! A small note here - apparently there are going to be glossy Queen of Hearts and Apollo models (and probably Rheverence as well) somewhere in the mix, though we don't know where yet. Maybe they'll just be prize models? Rheverence would look amazing in gloss, though, so I hope I can get one, if there are any. Queen of Hearts and glossy Apollo both looked pretty amazing in gloss (the Apollo can be seen here). The auction with the glossy Queen of Hearts was taken down and replaced with another lot due to the model being damaged. I hope we can get our hot little hands on the other glossies, if we can! And good luck to anyone bidding on the live auction items! Also, don't forget to enter for the Friday and Saturday raffles, once the links go live on Friday. There are also some raffles for VIP ticket holders, which look to be pretty nice - one of them is for a glossy Ballynoe Castle from last year, so definitely worth entering. I can't wait! 

Fireheart, Breyerfest programs and the last auction models!

 Lots of announcements today - first off, today is the first day we can finally order our Fireheart models! 

As you may have guessed from some of my earlier posts...it looks like my Fireheart is going to stay with me after all. Based on the photos of the production piece, plus the newly released photo of his auction model....well,  yeah. The above photo didn't do him any favors for me, but the photos I've seen since then make it pretty clear he needs to stay here. 

And as a bonus, apparently they are actually in stock now and able to ship! That's definitely good news. 

Secondly, the print version of the Breyerfest program can now be ordered! 

They're $5 each (seems a bit steep..) and ship for free as long as you order them by themselves with no other merchandise. You can only order one per transaction for some reason, so if you want more than one...you'll have to do a new order for each one, I guess. But at least we're getting a print one this year! 

Lastly, the last six auction models have been unveiled! Behold: 

Oh boy, this might be our sale-topper right here. As an aside, did I make any '80s hair band jokes when Fireheart was first released? I feel like I did, but if not...he definitely looks like something an '80s hair band could appreciate, am I right? Haha! That's a really nice color, too! 

Wow, an Old Timer auction model! Too bad he looks...like an updated version of the Jake raffle model from 2002. At least the hat is a different color? 

With the way these auction models are looking, the raffle models may end up being this year's "chump change" items, since they're runs of 26. But I digress.

Interesting color on this one - looks like something you'd see on a bull. 

At first I thought this one was an extremely red chestnut, and didn't really like it. Then I realized it was supposed to be a decorator and warmed up to it a little...but only a little. Needs more paint for something that'll probably sell for $5,000 or more. 

And here it is...the long-awaited Hamilton auction model! This guy might be the sale-topper, too. That's a beautiful color...and glossy! I can't wait to see how much these models all sell for so I can hide somewhere and cry die of jealousy plot world domination for plastic ponies  rob a bank  hide somewhere and cry. 

That's all I've got for today! Can't believe we only have a little more than a week until Breyerfest! 

Fireheart Delayed Again

 Well, I suppose it was inevitable, but another email about Fireheart went out from Breyer today - he's been delayed again. He'll now be available for ordering from July 7-14, and again after Breyerfest is over. Astute readers will note that the email says he'll be available to order on those dates, but nothing about whether he'll actually be shipping at that point. Maybe they don't know themselves? Anyway, at least we got an update. This did have me wondering whether the Breyerfest models would also be delayed, if not for a post on Facebook today from someone saying they'd been shipped some of their VIP models - the Stablemate set, Gran Cavallo and Rheverence, but not Pollock (their second special run model). Later on they heard from Breyer that this was a mistake by the warehouse and no further models would be shipped until after Breyerfest. I wonder if this will be the final nail in the coffin, as it were, for the new shipping company? I hope so, especially if more models were shipped to VIP customers and the surprise horse identity gets let out of the bag (not that I'd protest at that since there's still time to change my special run selections). Let's hope we get a new, better shipping company out of this, yeah? 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

 ...there was absolutely nothing going on, and everyone was super bored.

Seriously, what's going on? June is usually a pretty busy month for hobby news - is the current dearth of information yet another thing to blame on Covid? Ugh. We're well into June and we still don't have any information about this year's Breyerfest raffles! Bleh. Speaking of  Breyerfest, today was the last day to buy All-Access tickets - I did decide to buy a couple more, to try to maximize my chances of getting an Uffington. I had exactly enough tickets to get everything I wanted last year, but that was a little too close for comfort, so this year I got a couple extra. Hopefully they're helpful! 

There is one tiny tidbit of news - there are some new pins on the website (view them here). One of them is Fireheart! Aww, nuts...I was going to speculate that we're getting a bay Fireheart raffle model, since the pin looks bay, but on closer inspection it just looks like a rather poor representation of the Fireheart paint job. Oh well...I tried. 

Also, apparently those new blind bag Stablemates we heard about last year (!) are finally starting to show up at local Walmarts - or may be showing up? Or are listed on the website? No one has them in hand yet, as far as I know, but I'm jonesing for a white Darley to add to my conga, so I'll be haunting the local Walmart to see if they get them in. Here's hoping! 

Fireheart Delayed

 Welp, it looks like the first Premier Club release of the year, Fireheart, has been delayed per an email I got from Breyer this afternoon. They don't expect to get Fireheart in stock until mid-June, so we can all put our pocketbooks away for a while (only to get them right back out for Crane, if drawn). Darn it, that gives the model more time to grow on me and possibly find a place in my collection. Nooooo....