Featured Model - 5/8/2021, Tortuga G3 Friesian

 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 Tortuga G3 Friesian! 

This model was produced as part of the Three Ring Circus Stablemate set from Breyerfest 2006. 1,200 sets were produced, with item #711066, and the Tortuga was issued on the G3 Friesian sculpted by Jane Lunger.

1200 of these sets were produced, but it might as well be more like 200 for the ones I've seen for sale since 2006. I suppose things disappear into collections pretty well over the course of 15 years - and the ones I have seen for sale were way too expensive...at least, for my tastes. Anyway, this mini Tortuga is a small version of the Connoisseur Tortuga issued on the Moody Andalusian. That model tends toward the more expensive end of the scale when it comes to Conns, so I suppose it makes sense that this smaller Tortuga would also be expensive to find. 

Where will we see the G3 Friesian next? He last appeared in 2020 as one of the Spooky Stablemates blind bags, so we may not see a new release for a while, but I wouldn't say no to something new for this year. Speaking of which, are we EVER going to see the Breyerfest Limited Edition Stablemate? Come on! Maybe it'll be the Friesian? Whatever it is, I hope we finally get to see it soon. 

Halloween Stablemates are here!

 Good news, everyone! Well, I'll get straight to the point - my Halloween Stablemates are here! 

As you can see, I got a nice assortment across the four bags I purchased. Which is good, because I wouldn't have been happy if I'd gotten four Poltergeists. But anyway...

I still think the blind bags need to be done away with, but I'll admit it's still fun to open them and see what you got.

It's hard to see, but mini Twilight Terror has a little Skullduggery on his butt, just like the original. I can't believe the amount of detail they squeezed onto these guys. Also, I'm glad Breyer is continuing to expand their Halloween line - it was only a few years ago when we weren't getting anything at all for a while, ostensibly because they'd "run out of ideas." 

Quality-wise, they're all pretty nice - one of the Night Mares is tippy due to a warped hind leg, but otherwise they're good. I've seen a lot of these arriving with broken legs, so I was a little worried - hopefully people can get those replaced without too much trouble. But these little guys are definitely a win - I hope we get more mini Halloween models in the future! 

The 2020 Halloween line is now available!

 More good news, readers! Breyer's 2020 Halloween offerings are now available to order...like this rat-tastic Classic! 

His name is Ratsputin...a bit of a mouthful, but plays on words are always fun, right? Fortunately (or not), I don't collect this mold, so I don't need to buy him. Which is good, because, well...I mean, I don't really have anything against rats per se, and wouldn't mind having one as a pet, really, but...rats? Bleh - it just makes me think of dirt and filth. But to each their own! 

There's also some fun new Stablemates, which is what I'm most excited about, despite the dreaded blind bags:

Those are some pretty ambitious paint jobs, so I won't complain about the $25 price...this time. Let's hope the factory can pull them off! Plus, they qualify for the 10% Collector Club discount (CLUBPLUS20), so order away! I'm hoping to get the Cantering Warmblood and the Friesian, so here's hoping! 

There's also a cute plush:

Aww, I love candy corn! I may be alone in that opinion, but whatevs. If you order $75 worth of merch (any merch, as far as I know), you can enter a code (SUGAR20) to get the plush for free! 

Humorously enough, there's also still leftovers of last year's Halloween Stablemates. You'd think they'd take the hint from the last few rounds of blind bags not selling out (these and the Starry Skies) and QUIT DOING BLIND BAGS AND JUST MAKE IT A SET WE CAN ALL BUY....but I'm trying not to be too negative here. Anyway...happy early Halloween! 

New Arrivals: RCMP Liam, Man of the Hour, Mini Gooitzen

Continuing with our series of new arrivals, let's take a look at the RCMP Liam!



I have to admit this guy is a cute mini-me of the Trad RCMP horse, even down to the glossy maple leaf on his butt! He even had the little maple leaf hang tag, and his box matches the Trad's box (at least, I think it does). Too bad Liam had already been done in black as Black Beauty, or I probably would have been more impressed with him. Quality was nice, though.

Next, the volunteer model Man of the Hour!



I was lucky enough to be able to trade for this guy. I'd been dreading finding out the identity of the volunteer model, fearing it was something I'd need to buy, but trading for him worked out perfectly! And he's a beautiful color; I think Breyer described him as a "Dark Bay Pearly Roan." He's definitely pretty! I'm a little iffy about that marking on his left front hoof, though - shouldn't the hoof color be a little more different from the body color? The way it is now looks like somebody accidentally airbrushed the body color onto the hoof.

And while we're on the subject of Totilas, I was finally able to break the Koh-i-Noor curse and found one for a good price! Huzzah!

Next, let's take a look at the Mini Gooitzen model from the 30th Anniversary Set!



Sorry for the subpar photo. True to his Trad counterpart, the mini Gooitzen fan Teakesyl (RIP) is glossy black. I was surprised to notice he has brown eyes, so I had to check my Trad Gooitzen and sure enough, he has brown eyes too - I'd forgotten. The Trad also has eyewhites, but those didn't make it onto the mini - I suppose there just isn't enough room for bi-eyes on a Stablemate. I half expected to find gloss flaws on this guy, but fortunately there aren't any! He's quite nice in that department.

That brings me to the end of New Arrivals for today - I still have several models left to go, so tune in next time for more!

Wolfgang and True North are here!

My Wolfgang and True North models arrived last week/the week before, but got lost in the shuffle of Breyerfest news and the auction model countdown. Since there isn't an auction model reveal today (gotta do whatever they can to keep us from guessing the surprise), it seemed like a good time to share some photos of these guys. First, Wolfgang!

 

I don't have much to complain about with this guy. I like his color, he stands reasonably well, I didn't see anything particularly bad about his paint job...he's just nice all-around.

 

His gloss is nice and smooth, too. I guess if I did have any nitpicks, it would be that some of the peacock spots don't quite line up with their mapping. Not a big deal.

In short, I'm pretty happy with this release - he has a lot of detail for such a tiny model, and (this one, at least) was pulled off quite well. I hope the quality of the rest of the year's releases is up to the same standard!

Next, we have True North!

 

I was hoping to get this guy sold directly from Breyer so I wouldn't have to deal with him further, but fickle eBay buyers being fickle led me to having him shipped here. He'll be for sale at Breyerfest. The sculpt just doesn't appeal to me - I'm not sure why.



 

Quality-wise, he's okay - he doesn't have anything too majorly wrong with him, but he does have some booboos. Like silver horseshoe paint on his leg...

 

...whatever's going on with the inside of his left ear...

 

...questionable mapping on the edge of his mane....

 

...and this last thing, which I'm not sure is a flaw. Why does his body color go onto the bottom of his tail? I've never seen that before.

 

But, none of these would really be enough to make me want to exchange him, especially this close to Breyerfest. And they're all pretty minor, in the grand scheme of things.

Tune in tomorrow for another auction model reveal! I mean, presumably there will be one. They wouldn't skip two days in a row....or would they?

Wolfgang, Third 2017 Stablemate Club release!

Wow, they didn't waste any time with this one! The third Stablemate Club release for 2017 went up on the Breyer website this morning - meet Wolfgang!

 

I'm thrilled with this model, mostly because it's yet again on a mold I like! He'll make a welcome, if probably tippy, addition to the rest of my G3 Friesians. I think he looks like a mini-me of Triton, but at least his spots look less Sharpie'd than Triton's did. And he even has some peacock spots! It'll be interesting to see how they pull off that kind of detail on a model this small.

It's also interesting that all of the releases thus far have been glossy - not that I don't like gloss, but at this time last year, at least Primrose was matte. And I doubt the decorator and at least some of the gambler's choice won't be glossy, so it looks like we're in for a lot of gloss this year. I hope Breyer is up to the task!  

Featured Model - 4/22/2017, Palomino Friesian

Greetings, readers, and welcome to the latest installment 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. This week's model is...the Palomino G3 Friesian!

 

This handsome guy appeared in the 2008 JC Penney Parade of Breeds set, as a "Cob," a label bestowed on him fairly frequently (probably because you can only issue him in black so many times before people start to complain). He's item #410436, on the G3 Friesian mold sculpted by Jane Lunger.

I like this mold; he's got a lot of flowing hair, but he's not ridiculously hairy like various Moody molds. His face has a lot of personality. He does have the thicker legs typical of newer Stablemate molds, but considering the Friesian is a bigger breed, thick legs aren't necessarily out of place. And he has a nice animated gait that conveys plenty of action.

The mold has been used at Breyerfest at least four times and is in the current lineup in several different iterations, so I wouldn't expect him to show up at this year's Breyerfest or in the Stablemate Club. Though I wouldn't turn him down if he did.

I do wish Breyer would bring back the Parade of Breeds sets; they're fun to collect! Even though JC Penney seems to have gotten out of the Breyer game, I'm sure it could be done. Instead of having the Shadowbox Collection run for years and years with the same models, switch them out every year instead (though I suppose you'd run out of colors pretty fast). Or at least give us a new Shadowbox Collection when you change up the packaging...It doesn't seem likely to happen, but I can dream, can't I?

Mystery Stablemates at Walmart?

The latest model-horse-related developments involve Walmart, of all places. Last week someone posted on Facebook (Modelholics Anonymous) that they'd found a small Breyer display at a Walmart in Virginia, mostly featuring Stablemates. Most interesting was that there were blind bag Stablemates...and amongst those was a gold buckskin G3 Friesian. Of course, that's a must-have for me, so I promptly traipsed through five local Walmarts and had my husband check a sixth, to no avail.

After seeing a myriad of new spring toy displays in various degrees of completion, I was getting frustrated to say the least. But on Friday morning, someone (maybe the same person) posted a photo of one of the setup sheets from those Walmart displays. According to the sheet, only "28-ft modular" stores will receive these Breyer displays, because they're an experimental display. Which, of course, leads to the question of figuring out which stores are "28-ft modular." So far I haven't been able to find much. Though when I checked Facebook again this morning, I was unable to find that post with the setup sheet, so take that how you will.

I did see a post from someone in Oklahoma stating they had found this display at their Walmart, including the blind bags and golden Friesian, so we can add that to the list. I've also seen people saying they've found the display (minus the blind bag Stablemates, naturally) at Toys 'R' Us. I haven't gotten into our "local" TRU to check for myself; maybe later this week.

The blind bag Stablemates, other than the golden Friesian, aren't anything special; just regular run SMs from other sets/single assortments. So I'm not terribly excited about those, but I'd really like to find a gold Friesian! I even posted on a Walmart subreddit asking about it, but haven't gotten any replies yet. Now I wish I knew someone who works at a Walmart so I could ask them! For the record, I worked at a Walmart approximately 10 years ago, but not in any capacity to know what a "28-ft modular" store is. Rats!