Best Customs Contest prizes revealed!

 Good news, readers! Those sneak peeks were indeed the Best Customs Contest prize models! First up, here's Szurkol, the grand prize model! 

She's so pretty! Almost makes me sad to have decided to sell off my Yasmin conga.

And here's the runners-up prize, Skal! 

Ooh, I want this guy! He looks nice in chestnut. And he even has a blue eye! He has the same pattern as the bay splash pinto Fylkir. 

That's it for now, but hopefully we get to see some more prize models soon. We're still waiting on the live show grand and reserve prizes, as well as the sectional glossies and the raffle models. Bring on the prize reveals! 

Mini Salem is here!

 Good news, readers! The trade has been completed and my Salem is here! Behold!

I was too lazy to go upstairs and take a pic with my full-size Salem, so you'll have to take my word for it, but this guy is a pretty good mini version. 

I didn't notice any quality issues, despite all his little details. Me-yow! I can't wait to line him up with the rest of my Icelandics. 

That's it for today, but my Antonia is supposed to arrive tomorrow! Woohoo! Horatio shipped today as well and is supposed to arrive on Saturday. Sheesh, CCG has really stepped up their game! I hope this means Breyer gave them a good verbal spanking after all the issues with the Breyerfest shipping. 

Finally, some news! And the Collector Club newsletter!

 Greetings, readers! Well, I finally have something new to post about - the reveal of Breyer's Halloween releases for this year! It starts with Beowulf, but we've already seen him, so I'm going to move on to the Classic! 

Meet Draftula! I actually like this design, but I don't collect the mold, so I won't be buying him. I need to save my money, anyway. 

We also get more Stablemate blind bags, as is tradition. I only collect the Icelandic, so I'll buy one and leave it at that. I could have sworn we already got a mini version of Goblin, but I guess not. Breyer, give that poor mini Magnolia mold a rest already! 

And lastly, we get this cute little plush! I love her little heart eyes, even if the rest of her is kinda sinister-looking. 

All of this will be available to purchase on Sept. 5, so prepare your wallets! 

We also got this month's Collector Club newsletter! Members, check your email for more information. There’s an Apparition giveaway and an informative article about sun-bleaching yellowed models, and this sneak peek!

The speculation I’ve seen is that this is the next Wild Animal release and could be an orca, or a poison dart frog, but I’m going with poison dart frog myself - unless it’s sitting under something REALLY blue, it looks more blue than white to me. Let’s hope this isn’t another black and blue/yellow and gold dress situation. 

And a note on the article about sunbleaching models - it correctly notes that this method shouldn’t be used on Stablemates because the plastic they’re made from (ABS) actually yellows more in the sun, but also, not every modern Stablemate is made from ABS. Stablemates Club releases are molded from cellulose acetate and thus can be put in the sun, as well as some other releases, like my Willamette. On the other hand, the article also states that the sunbleaching method can be used on Traditionals and Classics, which is generally true - but be careful, because there’s at least one Trad molded from ABS (the WEG autograph model Cleveland Bay), and one or two Classics as well (the 90s Throwback). 

That’s all I have to say about this month’s newsletter. If you’re entering for Apparition, good luck! 

Featured Model - 9/22/2018, Indigo

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. This week's model is...Indigo!



This guy was one of the four brand-new Stablemate molds introduced at Breyerfest 2013. All four were in high demand, but the only two I wanted were Indigo and Chrome. I was able to acquire Chrome fairly quickly after Breyerfest, but Indigo eluded me until last year's Breyerfest! He's item #711158 on the G4 Icelandic mold sculpted by Jane Lunger, and 1,250 were produced.

I really like this little guy, probably because he's blue - and such a nice shade of blue! I love his black points too, and he's glossy to boot.  Someone at Breyer must have really liked his design, because a very similar one later showed up on Sherman Morgan at 2014's Big Easy Bash collector event. I don't own Crescent City, but wish I did! I remember seeing a photo of Indigo and Crescent City and almost drooling with envy.

As for the Icelandic mold, he's seen quite a bit of use lately - he's in the regular line in at least three different ways, and he's also the chase piece for the Series 2 Blind Bags people have been finding at Walmart. Last year he was the gambler's choice model for the Stablemate Club, so that's a lot of new colors on him in just the last couple of years! Due to that, I don't see him being used for anything else (except maybe showing up in a Suncatcher Stablemates set somewhere down the road), but who knows - maybe we'll see him at this year's Scottsdale Stampede. I can't wait to see where he pops up next!

2018 Stablemates are here!

Greetings, readers! In lieu of more exciting things to talk about this week, I'm going to talk about some of the new for 2018 Stablemate models. I've been trying to cut back on purchases lately, so the only 2018 releases I've gotten have been Stablemates. Behold!

I'm a bit short on time today, so I don't have very many photos of these. But they include a couple of the new Stablemates Single Assortment models, the stallion and foal from one of the new Mystery Foal sets, and the TWH, Cantering Warmblood, Django and Andalusian from the new blind bag assortment.



I think they're all really nice, but the standout here is, of course, the Django. His color is very metallic and attractive, and it makes everything else look dull by comparison (except maybe the buckskin Andalusian).

As usual, I wish Django's sculpt had been adapted to plastic a little better - he looks so stunning from either side that it's sad to see how narrow he is. Plus, he's just a tad out of scale compared to other Stablemates. Friesians are big, but not that big.

That said, I do like the color on the buckskin Andalusian as well - it's more of a buttermilk shade. And the perlino foal is so cute! The Icelandic is a little plain - I'd like to see some white on him, but that's a small nitpick. And the black pinto rearing Arabian is like a budget version of Oscar.

Sadly, I wasn't lucky enough to get a copper Django from the 8 blind bags I ordered, so I'm still on the hunt for him. Hopefully his price comes down eventually.

As for the quality on these, I didn't see anything majorly wrong with them, which was nice. I hope the Spirit Series 2 blind bags are as nice!

My Fylkirs are here!

...and I got the two colors I'd ranked the lowest, naturally. Oh well! At least I got two different colors. Here they are!

 

The colors really aren't that bad - the other two are just flashier, I guess. Though, like I said before, the splash would have been fine if he were glossy, or had blue eyes (or both). There's a nice metallic/sparkly tint to the dunalino's color, too.

Quality-wise, the splash is mostly okay other than having sloppy eyes.

 

Unfortunately, the dunalino has a few booboos.

 

Nice splotch of paint on that hoof.



And two of his legs are warped inward.



 

And he's got a fingerprint on his shoulder, along with a few pinpoint black marks on his body. Kinda disappointing, all things considered. Maybe I'll ask for a replacement; I haven't decided yet.

That's all I've got for today, although I feel like I should mention today's latest controversy: apparently the image of Sugarmaple hadn't been authorized for release by Breyer yet, so they've been sending cease-and-desist letters to people. So, I took the photo down from yesterday's blog post - hopefully they get that figured out soon.

Featured Model - 8/5/2017, Mini Falhofnir

Hello, readers, 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. This week's model is...Mini Falhofnir!

 

This handsome little guy was issued in 2014 for the first year a free Stablemate was given to members of the Premier Club. He's on the G4 Icelandic Horse/Indigo mold sculpted by Jane Lunger, so around 750 of these were produced. This was the first time the mold was used after it made its debut at Breyerfest 2013. It seemed fitting to use something on this mold this week since we just found out about Fylkir, the latest Stablemate Club release!

This model makes a nice contrast to the Traditional Icelandic by Kathleen Moody - his hair is a lot more understated compared to Kathleen's wild and crazy, '80s hair metal look. He's attractive, but he's more reserved about it. I like him a lot and I was really excited to see he's being used for the Stablemate Club's gambler's choice!

The only other thing he's been used for since his debut is in one of the current Mystery Foal Surprise sets. I think we're due to get more new single-assortment Stablemates and Stablemate sets next year, so hopefully he shows up somewhere. I wouldn't say no to a new shadowbox set with him in it, either! One can only hope.

Fylkir is now available!

The fourth Stablemate Club release is now available for purchase, and it's the Gambler's Choice! Surprising! Here they are!

 

I love them! And I'm relieved that they're on a mold I collect. Breyer's firing on all cylinders here - I haven't seen a release I didn't like other than Coco! I love that they used the Burbank color, although I guess Icelandics don't come in appaloosa. Oh well - it's still my favorite one of the bunch and I hope I get it! We have two accounts, so I'll be crossing my fingers that I at least get two different colors. I like the other colors too, especially the smoky black. If I had to rank them, it would probably go like this:

Burbank appaloosa
Silver black
Dunalino
Splash white

Nothing against splash, but I think they should have made him glossy here so we'd have two matte and two glossies. But I'll still be happy if I get one!

It's interesting that the gambler's choice is the fourth release this year. Last year the decorator was the fourth release. Maybe they're trying to give themselves some more time between this release and the end of the year? I wonder if the end-of-year raffle (if they're doing one again) will be of a full set of these again. If it is, I hope I win!