Okay Then

Okay, well, at least we didn't get our time wasted with a teaser photo. Here's today's Breyerfest 2022 reveal, Torlinie:

I honestly don't hate it - his white areas look pearly, and we all know I love me some pearly paint - but sheesh, do we really need another G2 Clydesdale? Give the poor mold a rest already! 

Maybe I'm just being crotchety, but this mold has had a ridiculous number of releases in the past few years (or at least it seems that way). Is he really that popular? Okay, I may have a large number of them on my shelves myself, but I recently decided to include all of mine in my upcoming collection purge, so the fact that they're using him again for this release makes me want to change my mind about that. Bleh! So many models, so little space...

But anyway. It's not a bad design - it kind of reminds me of a harlequin Great Dane or something. It's another Limited Edition like yesterday's decorator Sharif, but like the Georg from earlier this week, this one will only be available online. Yay! 

Well, time to go back to hoping we get to see the Best of Breyerfest set this week. Maybe tomorrow? Cone on Breyer...

Peace, Love and Breyers!

 We've had a couple of new reveals for 2022 - check them out! Breyer seems to be embracing a '60s theme - check out the Classics decorator: 

He's definitely...colorful. Personally, I think he'd have looked better without the gold (and possibly the horn), but it's good to see another new release on the Morgan. Maybe this means he'll get another unicorn release later in the year? Who knows.

And check out these Stablemates:

They're reminiscent of the swirly plastic Stablemates given out as trivia prizes, etc., way back when. I'm a bit curious as to why they're unicorns, though - seems a bit superfluous. Maybe I'm getting tired of all the unicorns lately? Who knows. And they could really stand dto give the G2 Clydesdale a rest, honestly. But the colors are pretty, anyway! Just, you know...maybe dig out some different molds? Anyway, it's good that we get to see a couple of the releases for next year. Let's hope get get more soon! 

A wild Halloween shipment appears!

 Good news, everyone! My Halloween order arrived today. Behold - it's EEK! 

I've seen a lot of reports of these models with broken or damaged legs, but fortunately this guy survived his trip to my doorstep. 

I like his subtle green sheen, and the intricate little spiders in his pattern. I've seen a lot of complaints about the spiders too, but fortunately they're all pretty nice on this one. 

He does have an oddly warped left hind leg, but I can deal with that. 

Next, the single Spooky Stablemate I ordered arrive as well...so check it out! 

That's right, the drafter...just the one I thought I'd get. Fortunately, it's the only one I wanted, so I'm happy with it. He does look like a pumpkin patch under the night sky, though it looks like someone went a little overboard with the glitter.

I thought about ordering that Thriller hoodie, but if I had, I suspect I'd still be waiting for my order to ship, so it's probably best I didn't order it. 

Lastly, here's Thriller himself! In the interest of full disclosure, he did arrive a few days ago, but I thought it was fitting that all my Halloween models arrived around the same time despite massive disparities between when they were ordered.

His green tint is much more apparent than EEK's, which I like. I'm also a fan of his Bride of Frankenstein hair! 

I like the details in his bones underneath the skin, too. Appropriately ghoulish for this time of year! 

That's all I have for now - let's hope we have more exciting news and reveals soon! 

The Halloween Collection is revealed!

 Good news, everyone! Breyer's Halloween Collection for this year is now on the website! There doesn't seem to be a page for everything (unless I'm missing something) but if you search for Halloween, they'll show up a little ways down the page. Nothing can be ordered yet - it's all Coming Soon - but at least we can look at the items ahead of time!  Firstly, let's take a look at the Classic! 

Edit: Breyer posted on Facebook that the Halloween collection will be available to purchase at 10am EST this Friday, so set your alarms! There'll be a restock of Thriller as well. 

His name is Eek! Rather fitting for that spidery design, eh? I suppose I'll have to add this one to the herd, since I have all the others. 

Next, here's an official photo of the blind bag Stablemates! 

I'll probably just order one, since I only want the Clydesdale, thus I'd only order one of them if they weren't blind bags. Boo, hiss, etc.

Lastly, here's the plush! 

He's definitely a cutie, but I don't do plushies, so he won't be coming to my house. 

Let's hope we don't have to wait too long to order these spooky offerings! Though the way things are going, they may not show up until Halloween anyway...

Nayati...or "Neigh"-ati! I know, I crack myself up...

Just when I think I'm safe from buying any more stuff from Breyer...



...they come out with something irresistible! From the website:

With his head tossed to the sky and a name that means “wrestler,” this proud stallion is ready to defend his herd.

So this is the next release on the super-popular new American Dream mold! These colors are all really nice - the dunalino and the appaloosa are glossy, but I kinda wish all three of them were - that pinto is spectacular. And the appaloosa is pretty much a mini version of Jackpot, but way more attainable! Wins all around. I ordered one on all three of our accounts, because I naturally need to get all three. I guess now I get to hope I don't get three of the same color...

In other news, the next single-day Stablemate has been revealed! Say hello to Orkney!

 

Okay, so he's a pinto version of this. He looks pretty nice, and I'll pick him up, but I still think they could have picked a different mold. Oh well...hopefully I can get my hands on a 4-pack before they sell out!

Breyerfest Single-Day Ticket Update!

There's another update on the Breyerfest blog, addressing the Single-Day Tickets! Important takeaways: the tickets will be available in singles or packs of 4. If you order less than 4 tickets, the Stablemate you receive will be randomly-shipped. You have to order 4 to get all 4 Stablemates. So, par for the course. Most importantly, they gave us the silhouettes!



Ooh, it's Greyson, a mini Croi (!!), Charleston and...the G2 Clydesdale. Yawn...seems kind of random to have a 22-year-old mold in there with all the new ones, but whatevs. I hope he's a yummy color! More importantly, does this rule out Croi as the surprise? Unfortunately, I think it does...which sends us back to the drawing board. For a backup guess, I'm going to go with Idocus in a variety of hairstyles and colors. As for the Stablemates, I'll only need the Greyson and the G2 Clyde, so it'll be worth it for me to try to get the 4-pack - I don't anticipate having any trouble selling the Mini Croi and the Charleston afterward. Can't wait to see what colors they are!

Featured Model - 1/25/2020, Blue Roan Sabino G2 Clydesdale

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. Long ago, long before he was banished to unicorn hell, there was...the G2 Clydesdale!



This handsome guy was the inaugural release of the G2 Clydesdale sculpted by Kathleen Moody. He's so old I don't know what his item number was, but he was an edition of 5,000 (along with the rest of the G2 Stablemates making up the 1998 JAH Stablemate Set).

This was a momentous event because it was the first time Breyer had issued new Stablemate molds since the 1970s. Exciting stuff! And these models were even more exciting, because they were issued in cellulose acetate - Breyer had started making Stablemates from styrene a few years before. This particular guy is a beautiful blue roan sabino - he was one of my favorites from the set. He's a worthy first edition in the G2 Clydesdale's lifetime!

As for the G2 Clydesdale itself, let's hope he gets some non-unicorn releases soon, because even I'm starting to get tired of seeing him as unicorn after unicorn. Maybe at Breyerfest? It's been a few years, so it's certainly possible he could show up there again. We'll have to wait and see!

Mira and Antares, and a Christmas miracle!

Exciting news, everyone! The unicorn mare and foal set I posted about last week is now available to order! Say hello to Mira and Antares!



My holiday catalog from Breyer did come yesterday, but I didn't have time to post the picture of this set. Speaking of which, the catalog also featured this bay Haflinger I also posted about last week - A Pony For Christmas:

I didn't buy him, but I did snag the mare and foal set as soon as I could. This time I remembered to try to use the collector club discount code (no luck there), but they do qualify for the free shipping, so at least there's that (at least, the mare and foal did - I don't know if the pony does).

In other news, my constellation unicorns arrived today, and....it's a genuine Christmas miracle! Behold:



I got all four! Woohoo! I was expecting I'd probably get four of the Clydesdale, but fortunately that didn't happen! Yay!

I'm still not forgiving Breyer for the sea of blind bags (and the sea of trash it produces), but this at least helps.

That's all I have for today - I'm hoping we find out the 2020 releases and the optional model for the 2020 Vintage Club soon, though.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

It's another day in Breyerland, and we all know what that means - more blind bags!

Oh, joy. What do we get to try our luck on this time?

Well, they didn't get me with the Halloween blind bags, but they done got me with these unicorns on the mini Alborozo (again), the G2 Clydesdale (again), Magnolia (again) and the new Warmblood Mare (again). And all for $25 a pop? What a bargain! Or not...

Unfortunately, I was a dumb idiot and ordered four of them, because I'm a glutton for punishment. At least the shipping was free? I hate to complain here, since I hate all the complaining in this hobby in general, but there are at least three things to be angry about here.

First - USE SOME NEW MOLDS, for Pete's sake. This is the tenth new release for the mini Alborozo in the less than two years he's been available as a Stablemate, and I feel sorry for anyone collecting mini Magnolia - it's the twelfth release for her in the same time period! And we're tired of seeing the G2 Clydesdale as a unicorn - give them a rest already. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say there are dozens of Stablemate molds that haven't been given the unicorn treatment - use them! Or just stop making unicorns altogether if you'd rather do that (but don't do that, I still love unicorns in general)!

Second, are these really worth $25 each? The Fairytale Friends club releases might be worth that much, if you include the cost of the new Mini Whinny molds, but I'm not sure the paint job on these is worth the money. And then we're supposed to be happy that they at least qualify for free shipping?

Third, can we please stop with the blind-bag-everything Breyer is so high on lately? I'm seriously considering calling them tomorrow and canceling my order, because honestly? The only way they're going to stop is if we vote with our wallets and refuse to keep enabling these business practices. I've already decided I'm not going to bother with the regular run blind bag Stablemates next year, if there are any new ones, because I want to be able to just buy what I want without ending up with extras of everything or not getting the ones I do want. It's exploitative, a waste of money, and in the end it's just greedy of Breyer, and I'm tired of it. The randomly shipped/gambler's choice/blind bag conundrum has infiltrated pretty much everything Breyer does (the Christmas Day releases, the Breyerfest surprises, the Vintage Club, so many Collector Club releases of the last few years, the glossy/matte or braided/unbraided Premier Club releases), I wouldn't be surprised if they try to convert everything to that model just to further their business. No thanks.

That rant ended up being a lot longer than I intended it to be, but I think it needed to be said. I don't know if I'll actually cancel my order or not, but the whole thing is just making me angry. If (when) there are more blind bag releases in the future, let's hope I can't get fooled again...

Khalid, Lightning Ridge and the Seafoams are here!

Good news, everyone! My Khalid, Lightning Ridge and Seafoam set have all arrived! Behold their awesome beauty! I'll start with the Seafoams.

I like Seafoam's shade of blue, but I think I would have liked him better if he'd been painted more like Dazzle, with the mostly silver/white butt fading into the blue color on the rest of his body. I mean, he's kind of painted like that now, but I'd have preferred the silver to be confined to his hindquarters.

Also, I think we can all agree that the paint jobs on the Stablemates are definitely not worth $25, but I think the bulk of the cost of these sets is most likely going toward the creation of the new Mini Whinny molds. Maybe next year they'll use old molds and do some slightly more complicated paint jobs? I hope so. How long can/will they keep introducing new Mini Whinnies? Maybe this will be the only year of the club.

Next, here's Lightning Ridge!

He's definitely one of the more interesting models I've seen in the last few years, though he's not a terribly good representation of an opal. Unfortunately, giving a model the same inner "fire" an opal has would probably make the model prohibitively expensive to produce, but this guy is a nice facsimile.

It's good to see Breyer getting into the precious stones inspiration for paint jobs, though. It seemed like that theme had pretty much been left for Stone to work on, for obvious reasons, but why concede that market to your competitor? I'd love to see pretty much all of them get used again, so far.

Lastly, here's Khalid!



Sorry for the terrible photo. I love his shade of...dun? I'm not actually sure what color that's supposed to be. He has primitive marks, so I'm going with dun.

I do like the alternate tail for this model, but I'm not as much of a fan of the mane and forelock. I guess the ears (or lack of Marwari ears) doesn't bother me too much, though. And I love this guy's belly spots!

Quality-wise, the Seafoams and Lightning Ridge were fine, but check out this gnarly seam split on Khalid:



I didn't even notice it until I was taking photos for the blog, but now it's all I can look at. Not sure it would be worth the hassle of replacing him, though. I guess I'll just have to try not to look at his face/

That's all I've got for today - stay tuned for more exciting Breyer news!

Seafoam crashes in!

Whoa, that was fast. Seafoam, the second release in the Fairytale Friends Club (also known as the Glitter Unicorn Club) is now available for purchase!



I wonder how well that rearing Mini Whinny will stand with the bendy rubber legs. I guess we'll find out? I also hope Seafoam's color is a little more vibrant than it looks in the photos. It might be hard to tell him apart from the new Walmart unicorn blind bags...

Walmart Mystery Unicorns Series 2 are here!

Good news, everyone! My husband found a box of the new Series 2 mystery unicorns at Walmart yesterday! Check them out!



I even got the chase piece! I've noticed I don't seem to have much trouble getting the chase pieces I don't want. Now, the ones I do want? Never in a million years. But I digress. Here's a closer photo of the chase!




I really do like the color on her - she looks like rainbow sherbet. Mmm! Unfortunately, something went wrong during the QC process (or perhaps the long boat ride from China):



Boo, a bent leg! Hopefully it's an easy fix for whoever I end up selling her to. The quality on the other models was about what I expected - they seem to be able to do a good job on the body color on these, but then they get lazy with the hoof colors and it ends up slopped onto the fetlocks (or higher in some cases). Bleh.

Here's a quick look at the Warmblood Mare next to her:



I LOVE this color! That pink/purple/blue color scheme is definitely hot right now in certain circles - probably due to the Frozen movie's popularity, or it's just big with the kids in general. Remember St. Moritz from a couple years back? More of that, please.

I'm definitely really pleased with the colors they picked for this go-round. One of my central complaints in the past is that Breyer keeps on painting all the unicorns white, or something mostly-white in general, so I'm glad they really got away from that with this run. More colors, please! And more molds, for that matter...aside from the Walking Thoroughbred and the Warmblood Mare in this assortment, I think the other molds have been pretty well played out for blind bags in general and unicorns in particular. Let's see some more variety!

Also, I had hoped some of these colors would be inspired by the Classic Zodiac series from a while back, like a couple of the colors in the first Walmart unicorn set, but it doesn't appear that they were, other than possibly the Arabian (Aries?) and maybe the Alborozo (Scorpio? Maybe? It's probably a reach). I only have one of the Zodiacs in my collection, so it would be nice to see more of those colors get reused.

That's all I have for today - tune in tomorrow (hopefully) for discussion of the 2019 Retired List!

Unicorn Surprises are showing up at Walmart!

Hello, readers! As you may have heard, Walmart is getting the latest round of unicorn blind bags, and hey're starting to show up in the wild now! Excuse me while I go cry a little bit about having to deal with even more blind bags...

Ahem. Now that that's out of the way, here are some photos, courtesy of IDYB:

The Alborozo:



His color is certainly...interesting.

The purple Magnolia:

I really like the color on this one - too bad I don't like Magnolia. It looks like this one has a lot of color variations too - so variation collectors can go wild!

The pink G4 Arabian:



The color on this one is really interesting - he looks like he's made out of lipstick. And I love his little silver hooves and horn! Unfortunately, I don't like the G4 Arabian either, sadly.

The other G4 Arabian:

Gah! This color is really cool too! Why do they keep putting the best colors on the molds I don't like? I suppose that's good for my pocketbook, at least.

The G2 Clydesdale:

Yay, a more-different shade of pink. Or would you call that salmon? I guess I should be happy he isn't white.

And lastly, the mythical chase piece:



That's right - Magnolia this time! In some type of Halloween-esque filigree color - now that's different from the norm! Fortunately, I don't have to be too frustrated about this one, because I'm not a Magnolia fan. And it's a good thing, because they're really pumping out the releases on her for some reason...

Well, anyway. Word on the street is that while some of these have been escaping into the wild early, they weren't officially supposed to be stocked on shelves until today. So with any luck, the Walmart I've been having my husband check (because our local one isn't getting them for some reason...) will finally have them on shelves tomorrow! Let's hope so - I need that Alborozo!

Speaking of Alborozo, the other new blind bags have apparently also been escaping into the wild, and the chase piece is a silver charm Alborozo! No photos yet, but they can be found on Facebook and Blab. Another Alborozo chaser? Boo, I say...but he is pretty! I did preorder an entire box this time, so maybe I'll get lucky and get one!

You're killing me, Breyer!

This year's mid-year releases escaped into the wild today, and all I can say is...you guys are killing me over here! Look at this model! LOOK AT IT!



Excuse me while I hyperventilate for a second. This design made its debut years ago as an auction model, and now we're getting it as a special run? Holy crap!

Clearly I'm not the only one having that reaction, because I'm pretty sure Prism (the model) is sold out pretty much everywhere. Needless to say, I ordered one as fast as my fingers could hit the keys on my phone, so I'm definitely excited for his arrival (not until August, sadly).

In other mid-year releases, here's another fun one! Meet Nevermore!

She's limited to 3000, so I ordered one. I can't remember if previous Halloween releases have been this limited? Oh well. I'm definitely an Edgar Allan Poe fan, so this girl definitely needs to come to my house.

Here are some other releases!

I love Harley's pattern and color, but not the mold. He's nice, though!

I'm not a fan of the Stock Horse Stallion at all, and what's with the weird brand? Have they put that on the horse in real life? Next.

Ooh, I definitely need this one! More Yasmin goodness! Although it's been difficult to get her to fit on my shelves...

...Is that a Stablemate Alborozo? What happened to the whole show of good faith to Brigitte in destroying the mold? Is nothing sacred anymore? Bleh, I'll probably have to buy one anyway. But why are there so many mold repeats? That's the old resin Magnolia shrunk down to Stablemate size, too, but I've never been a fan of hers. And I'm irritated that the chase piece (probably another Stablemate Alborozo for some reason) is only in 1/4 boxes again.

Edit: It's good that they're doing some colors other than white, though.



I'm not surprised to see this one, because there have been grainy photos floating around on the Interwebs depicting this mold appearing as a unicorn named Sarafina at someone's Walmart. I haven't seen one in person yet, but I'm sure I will eventually. Regardless, I'm not a fan of this mold, so I don't need to buy it, luckily.

There's also a Sgt. Reckless reissue, but I don't think it's any different from the previous one.

All in all, definitely a lot of exciting (and frustrating) releases! I can't wait to see Prism and Nevermore! I'll probably wait on buying LV Integrity until I can get some nice discounts at the end of the year, but he's definitely on my list. I'm still grumbly about the Stablemate Alborozo, though, but that might just be me being crotchety. Bring on the new releases!

Featured Model - 4/1/2017, Moonraker

Hello and welcome to Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a random model from my collection, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's model is... Moonraker!

Whew, this post is late today! I was busy doing real-life things and didn't have time to get it done earlier. Oh well.

Moonraker was issued in 2012, one of four Breyerfest single-day Stablemates issued on draft molds cleverly named after beers. As item #711141, he was a run of 1,000 issued on the G2 Clydesdale mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

Breyerfest single-day Stablemates are usually pulled off pretty well, and this guy is no exception. He's a very handsome glossy blue roan (if somewhat similar to the original blue roan sabino release from 1998), but he's different enough that you wouldn't mistake them for each other. While I don't remember if the Stablemates from that year had flaws, this guy didn't have anything seriously wrong with him.

Unfortunately, I don't think that year's Stablemates were particularly popular - I had no trouble finding the three I wanted leftover in the Breyer store in 2013 (although that was the last year I found leftover Stablemates from the previous year, to my chagrin - still looking for an Indigo).

As for this guy's mold, I used to like him better, but on closer inspection now, his feet look a little weird. Not sure why, but they do. Otherwise he has a lot of personality (although the likelihood of seeing a real Clydesdale doing a canter seems low). He's been used a lot over the years - most recently in the four-piece Best of British series, and he's been a part of the 12-piece Shadowbox Set for the last seven years (I wish they'd change up the horses in that set). But I wouldn't protest at seeing him in this year's Stablemate Club! I'll keep my fingers crossed.