New Arrivals: Break out the Bubbles and Best of Breyerfest Series 6

 Greetings, readers! I bring you the last of this year's New Arrivals posts, with various Stablemates from this year's Breyerfest! Let's start with Prosecco! 

Sorry for the not-so-great photo. I'm sure this little guy was the most popular of the four Break out the Bubbles single-day Stablemates - and it's not hard to see why! Augustus has been a pretty popular new mold, he's a fun color, and glossy to boot! Win-win. Now to try to figure out a breed assignment for him...

Next, here's Cava:

 

I love the color on this one! Such a rich shade of bay, and the gloss really makes it pop! What a pretty guy. 

Next, here's Bellini! 

I wondered if the polo pony version of this mold would ever be used again, and voila - here it is! Now I'm wondering if the old version of the mold still exists (probably). The only solution is to use both of them in the same release, clearly. Wait, that probably means more gambler's choice stuff! Never mind. 

I sold the fourth Break out the Bubbles model, so let's move on to the Best of Breyerfest Series 6! Here's Red Letter Day:

She's a mini version of Tout Suite, the 2015 Breyerfest Live prize model on the Hackney mold. She's a nice color, and her green ribbons are cute. Not much else to say about her, I guess. 

Lastly for today, we have Jubilation, a mini version of Truffles, the 2015 diorama contest prize model. He's very pearly - I approve! Not sure what breed to assign to him, though - I suspect the Truffles owners had/have the same problem. 

I didn't keep the three other models in this set, so that brings us to the end of New Arrivals for this year! Soon I'll start working on Breyerfest Closeups, a series documenting the new models we got to see in the Collector Club tent this year. One last note - the Breyerfest online content access has been extended, and there's going to be a Breyerfest second chance sale after all! I'm excited to hear more about it! 

I Should Have Known

 Well, in the most exciting news development of the day, it seems poor Winnifred had a surprise for us after all: 

According to the website, randomly-distributed amongst the Winnifred production run will be 75 gray Winnifreds! What a shocker. But I should have suspected they would do something with Winnifred, since they're going all out with the other two releases in the club. I signed up for two memberships last night, too. So I'm going to have to decide if I want to try to presell my two Winnifreds or wait until they get here and then sell them once I see if I got a gray one or not. Decisions, decisions. If this is what they're doing with the Premier Club for the 75th anniversary, I'm really regretting not joining the Vintage Club...but anyway. 

Today's other news is another hint on the Breyerfest Blog! 

It's a Mirado! I'm still pretty sure these are the single-day Stablemates. We're sitting at 3/4 so far. Presumably they'll hint another one tomorrow and then do the reveal on Wednesday? Think they'll pick a fourth mold I collect? Guess I should expect it after not wanting any of them at the last one. Well, we'll find out soon enough! 

More dumb names

 Well, I was right - those sneak peeks were of the Best Customs Contest prizes. Not that it was really that hard to guess. Anyway, here's Look What You Made Me Do (trying not to cringe while typing all that out). 

Well, Kalahkaari in chestnut certainly is pretty! At least I don't have to be too disappointed about this one, since I decided to sell off my Marwari models. 

And here's I Forgot That You Existed (ugh)! 

Now this one does hurt. I still haven't managed to get my hands on a Roo, and now they come out with this guy! He's a similar color to Fiero from a few years ago, which is interesting because last year's Willamette also had a far more common doppelganger in the mini Nazruddin.  Well, good luck to everyone entering the BCC! 

Lanin is here!

 Good news, everyone! My Lanin model has arrived - behold! 

He's way more purple than I thought he'd be! 

In-hand, he doesn't look as weird with no mane as he did in the promo photos (typical). 

Quality-wise he's pretty good, other than a purplish smear on his butt, and a warped left hind leg (visible in the above photo). While I didn't take any photos, I did compare him to my other models on this mold, and the ones molded from cellulose acetate (prior SMC releases like Mirado and Fiero) are definitely skinnier through the shoulders than the ABS ones (all other colors). The speculation is that the factory workers aren't giving the models enough time to cool before removing them from the molds, leading to some "collapsing" in the shoulder area. All Stablemate models have a void or air bubble inside (just take a look at the clearware ones), which could lead to some collapsing of the plastic around the shoulder area, so the theory seems solid. Is Breyer ever going to address this? Has it even been brought up to them? Who knows. 

Interestingly enough, it looks like the process to eliminate Mirado's mane (presumably by Dremeling it off) also eliminated most of the detail on his neck. Let's hope this doesn't happen on any future roached releases of this mold, I guess. 

On a small side note, the First Timer's Guides to Breyerfest (in-person and virtual) have been released on the Breyer website, and they do mention a plush as one of the store items (but no photos of said plush). So the plush is presumably still coming? Who knows. 

What is happening?!

 Well, the Christmas Day surprise model has been released (Wassail!), and then sold out (Wahhh-sail!) - what a long, strange trip it's been! 

The initial release went okay - no website glitches that I'm aware of. At first I was incensed, because there were no actual photos of the model, and I thought they weren't going to reveal the mold at all - but then I saw Huckleberry Bey was in the description, and was somewhat mollified - with photos to be revealed on Christmas Day. The description also revealed the four colorways - glossy metallic sparkling red, glossy metallic sparkling red with filigree, glossy metallic sparkling green, and glossy metallic sparkling green with filigree, with 24 glossy black Hucks thrown in there too (edit: it's my assumption that the Coal models will also be on Huck). I'm using past tense to refer to these items, because not long after the surprise went live, the page was scrubbed of any reference to Huckleberry Bey or the four colors. Uhh...is somebody asleep at the wheel in NJ? Why are they doing this in the sloppiest way possible? Did the higher-ups already check out for Christmas and leave the interns in charge? Why is this being done so haphazardly? 

I guess I'm glad about the Huck reveal mistake, because like I said earlier, I would have been pissed if they actually intended to make us wait until Christmas to reveal the model, while still expecting us to buy it a week beforehand. I was fully prepared to close the page and not buy anything at all until I saw Huck in the description. But now it seems the Huck reveal was a mistake, and they weren't intending to tell us the mold at all? This is a lot of money to be spending on a gamble - if I'd purchased these not knowing what they were, and then had it end up being Big Ben or Gem Twist or some other Moody mold I don't collect, I'd be super upset! It was bad enough buying the 2020 and 2021 Breyerfest surprise models sight-unseen - I really don't need that to become a regular occurrence! Not to mention the fact that the model price has gone up to $145 and the piece count breakdown (2624) evens out to 650 models per color - so if it turned out to be an unpopular mold, I'd likely end up having a hard time getting my money back. 

My best guess as to why they're doing this is because they don't want to have people in the office on Christmas Day trying to figure out the inevitable technical glitches (many people outside the US were charged for shipping when they weren't supposed to be). Add that to many customers' repeatedly voiced desire not to have to be haunting the website on Christmas and a heavy dollop of the usual Breyer ineptitude, and here we are. 

Okay, anyway, with all of that out of the way, let's talk about the colors themselves. Here they are again:
Glossy metallic sparkling red
Glossy metallic sparkling red with filigree
Glossy metallic sparkling green
Glossy metallic sparkling green with filigree

Before being scrubbed of information, the website said the models would have bald faces and stockings shaded by hand, and black muzzles and inner ears. Let's take another look at the sneak peek from last month's Collector Club newsletter:

I dismissed this being a sneak peek of the Christmas release at the time, but now that all of this *waves hands wildly* has happened, I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying this is probably the "glossy metallic sparkling red" color. Well, it looks promising, at least! As for the "with filigree" ones, I think the common assumption was that the mention of filigree meant they'd be a red or green filigree, but there's some speculation that the use of "with filigree" means they could end up looking more like the Swirls'n'Snowflakes Stablemates. Sounds good to me! So if that's the case, they're probably basically like big versions of the red and green Swirls'n'Snowflakes models. 

Some people were confused by how the models could have bald faces in combination with black muzzles. Since that verbiage has now been removed from the website, I guess it's anyone's guess how they're going to pull that off, though I did see speculation that they may end up looking like some kind of Mari Lwyd reference. So we may have some exciting reveals to look forward to! 

I did order four of these guys, since I have a large Huck conga (and like I said yesterday, a glossy black Huck would be great!), and only realized as I was checking out that...since we're flying back to our hometown tomorrow, if these models get shipped this week they're likely going to arrive here and end up sitting on our doorstep until we get home. Curses! Now I'm wishing they'd kept the release on Christmas Day after all! I did send an email to Breyer requesting that they not be shipped until after Christmas, but I haven't gotten a response yet - I may have to call them in between flights tomorrow, I guess. 

That's all I have to say about the Christmas models, but we did get one other tidbit today: the full-body reveal of Lanin in the Stablemates Club! 

So it looks like most or all of his mane is gone, but the tail is more-or-less the same? It looks like the tips are different on the tail, but it could also be a horrendous cutout job in Photoshop, so I'm going with that. Mirado looks a little weird without his mane, but not nearly as weird as the maneless Nokota, so I'm okay with it. Let's hope we get some more SMC reveals this week! 

Finally, a Stablemates Club preview!

 Well, I have good news - we finally have a preview of a 2024 Stablemates Club release! Not before time...but I digress. Here he is! 

He's a Mirado with roached mane and possibly a modified tail! He's kind of like a small version of this not-well-received Nokota auction model from 2022. I'm cautiously optimistic about this guy, but it's not enough to join the club just yet. I'm guessing this is the polo pony they hinted about earlier, but I demand more! At least give us the outlines like usual. 

Anamar and new arrivals!

 Greetings, readers! Well, first off - just as yesterday brought the 2022 Stablemates Club to a close, today ushered in the conclusion to this year's Premier Club, as the final release (Anamar) is now available to purchase.

Fortunately, I haven't ordered my Stablemates Club horses yet, so I'll be able to bundle these together and hopefully save a bit on shipping. Don't forget that the free Stablemate, Giorgio, will be bundled with these guys as well. Can't wait to see mine! 

In other exciting news, my Merry & Bright orders arrived today, and luck was more-or-less on my side! I guess I couldn't hope to strike gold twice in a row after getting exactly what I wanted from the Halloween Stablemates, but this was good enough for me. Behold! 

Two out of three ain't bad! I was really dreading getting four Corbins here, so I'm really happy to get two of the three I wanted. And I've already secured a trade for the Twist, so that turned out really great! And my kids had great fun opening the bags.

These are both really nice in person - their paint jobs don't photograph very well due to the dark color and glossy finish, but in person they're really great. I especially like the Django, but I'm biased toward blue, so take that how you will. 

I had to include this photo because the reflection on his eye makes him look a bit surprised. "You mean I'm going straight into a storage unit after this? But it's cold in there!" Or something like that. 



Quality-wise, these guys were pretty good - one Django had some lint in the gloss on his butt, and the others had minor imperfections here and there, but nothing major. Luck of the draw, I guess. 

Also, my Poppy & Ollie sets finally shipped yesterday (if the tracking is to be believed), and are on schedule to show up...on Tuesday next week. Ugh! Let's hope they get here a little sooner - these guys weren't supposed to be delivered until tomorrow and unexpectedly showed up today, so maybe the same will happen with my mare and foal sets. I guess we'll see! Can't wait to see what colors I get! 

Poppy & Ollie, and new releases this week!

 Lots of exciting news to share today! Firstly: the final release of the 2022 Vintage Club, Poppy and Ollie, is now available to order for Vintage Club members. Remember that the free Stablemate for this year, Dandy, is bundled with this set. Woohoo! 

Secondly, this year's second Collector Club release, Chadwick, is finally being released on Wednesday at 12PM EST. Here's a pic to jog your memory! 

He's nothing I need, but that's okay. More for everyone else! 

And lastly, this year's holiday Stablemate blind bags (groan) have been revealed:

They're definitely pretty, and I need three of them! They're limited to two per order, so I'm just going to order three and be done with it. That's the number I'd buy if we were allowed to pick the ones we want. So let's hope I'm lucky again! These will be available TOMORROW at 12PM EST. I expect they'll sell out fast, so if you want them, don't waste any time ordering. And good luck! 

Finally, some new arrivals!

 Greetings, readers! It seems like it's been forever since I got some new models in, and I had a long, not-so-great day at work today, so it was nice to come home and find some boxes waiting for me! I'll start with my Spooky Stablemates box - only half of my order came, though. I've seen a lot of reports of people not getting all the Stablemates they ordered and like...can we be done with the CCG shipping company now? Just give them the boot already. Anyway, here's the Spooky Stablemate I received! 

Sorry for the not-so-great photo. It's mini Mischief Night! Huzzah! One of the two I wanted. Such a cutie! I missed out on the last time this mold was used (Roo, for last year's True Blue event) so I'm happy I was able to get this one. 

My other new arrival was...Constantia! Check her out! 

Her photos were great (well...not these photos. My apologies), but in person she's just stunning. She really looks like she could spring to life and trot away! 

Her box was minorly crushed, though, which did some damage to her personalized box, and then I managed to rip one of the tabs off while trying to get it out of the shipper box, which peeved me a bit, and then I started inspecting her and well...her quality really isn't the greatest. Bits of paint stuck in her finish, fingerprints, scrapes, the works. Bleh. Not sure if I'll bother trying to get a replacement - maybe a customizer with a nicer one would be willing to trade. 

She has such a great face. There's also something about her paint job that looks a bit weird - I don't think it's a flaw, but some areas of her bay color almost look like they have a greenish tinge. You can kind of see it around her eye in the above photo, but she has it in a couple other places as well. Just kind weird-looking - I haven't seen anyone else post about it, but maybe it's just gone unnoticed? Who knows.

Anyways, I hope my other Spooky Stablemate ships soon. I can't believe Breyer hasn't given CCG the boot yet - it seems like ages since they started screwing things up and you'd think their contract would have expired by now. 

Ooh, Spooky!

 Good news, everyone - this year's Halloween items have been announced! Breyer's Halloween store will open on the website at 1PM EST tomorrow. Look at the goodies they'll have for us! Other than Maelstrom, this year's Halloween horse we already knew about, check out the Classics/Freedom Series release for this year! 

I love this one! Her name is Tabitha and I think it fits her really well. Too bad I'm not a Mariah collector, but I bet she'd go really well with the purple/blue Gran Cavallo from last year! And she glows in the dark, natch. Breyer really likes those interference paints lately, huh? 

And here are the blind bag (sigh) Stablemates for this year! 

I'm not thrilled about blind bags rearing their ugly heads again, but the Samhain and Mischief Night patterns do look pretty good in miniature. Apparently Samhain's green areas glow in the dark, which could be an interesting sight. It's good to see new releases on these molds, too - it seems like a lot of the Stablemates molds get left out in the cold for some reason. I suppose I'll order two of these (the number I would buy if I was allowed to pick the ones I want) and hope I actually get the ones I want. 

And check out this year's plush! 

His name is Skelly! Cute as usual! Not sure what the orange stripes on his lower legs are supposed to be, though. Oh well. 

There's also a Maelstrom pin and hoodie - I'm sorely tempted by both, but I tend to favor zippered hoodies lately, so I don't know if I'll bite. I guess we'll see how fast they sell out! Good luck, everyone! 

True Blue Breyer entries are open!

 Attention, Collector Club members! Entries for the True Blue Breyer collector event are now open! Say hello to our event models, Bondi and Roo! 

I love Bondi, even though we've already had Valegro in gray. He looks quite similar to last year's Breyerfest special run, Ash. Not sure if he's basecoated, though. 

Darn it, I was hoping they'd pick a Stablemate mold I don't collect. This guy looks like a mini version of last year's Storm from the Seattle Soiree. 

We only have to remember to enter once for this thing, so that at least makes things easier. Today is my birthday, too, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get drawn! Good luck to everyone! 

Walmart Stablemates finally found!

 Greetings, readers! I can't remember if I ever uploaded photos of these Walmart Stablemates from a few months back, but I finally found them at one of our local Walmarts, so here they are! To start with, the liver chestnut mini Brishen: 

He certainly is handsome! Next, here's the palomino Mirado: 

Mirado definitely looks good in palomino. 

There's also a pinto G4 Driving Horse, but I didn't buy one. Not sure why I didn't just take a photo of an actual one in its package while I was still at the store, but whatever.

I think there are still more carded Stablemates showing up in Walmarts now, but I can't remember what they are at the moment...so I guess I'll have to keep haunting the local stores in case I can find them, along with the new series of blind bags. Stay tuned! 

New Arrivals: Toe Tapper, Arya, Mini Pecos and Andante

Getting back to the New Arrivals, let's take a look at Toe Tapper!



This cute little guy is a good match for his Trad-size counterpart! I still think his color was a little too on-the-nose, but I'm not going to complain too much - it's not like the color patterns on raffle models get reused very often.

Next, here's Arya!



 Sorry for the poor photo (again). Was I the only one that was annoyed they used a Game of Thrones name for this model, or is it just me? Maybe I'm still bitter about season 8. That's probably it. Anyway, mini Areia is also a nice representation of the Trad counterpart, though he was male and I don't think he had a pearly mane and tail. I do like this new mold more than I thought I would, though! And I bought the Paint-Your-Own Unicorn version with my Dazzle and Razzle, so now I have the blank version in my collection as well. I'm looking forward to seeing what else they do with her in the future!

Next, here's Mini Pecos:



It's good to see the poor Mirado mold getting some more love this year. He'd languished unused since his initial 2017 release, but now he's gotten two new releases in the same year! Three, if you count both the matte and glossy versions of Fiero. I really like him as Pecos, too! It's hard to go wrong with a pearly mostly-white horse, though. I just wish his eyes had been done better - they're just black splotches. Oh well.

Lastly, let's take a look at Andante!



This guy was a hot commodity - I feel like I should probably feel lucky I even got my hands on it. Reports conflicted on how quickly these guys sold out, but I made sure to pick up my set as early as I could on Friday (it's easier to get the ones you want if you go for all four). I was able to resell Chiffon almost immediately, so it was a win-win situation! And I'm not terribly likely to ever own the prize model this guy is based on, so I'm glad I was able to get him. He's very pretty! He'll look good on the shelf next to my Darwin - though I'll admit I'll be glad when they release this mold in an actual Lipizzaner color. Maybe we'll get some new RR Stablemates next year? I hope so - as long as this one isn't the chase piece. I'm totally over the blind bags!

That's all I have for today. I'm almost done with New Arrivals post - only one more left to go! Hopefully I can get that out on Sunday!

THE PROGRAM IS OUT! AHHHHH!

Holy crap, I am SO excited right now! The Breyerfest program is available to view, and I just got the most incredible surprise when I looked through it! They're making a 10-piece Stablemate set of all the Celebration Horses since 2010, to continue on from the 2009 set! I can't believe they're actually doing it! They'll be in the Hero's Salute Shop!

So, I'm pretty sure Breyer's intention was to have this song going through my head while I stared at these models in the program (language warning).



So, let's take a closer look at the photo. Here they are:

1. Pecos (2011) on the Mirado mold
2. Brass Hat (2018) on the new Walking Thoroughbred/Greyson mold
3. Oliver on the G4 Driving Horse mold
4. Simba (2015) on...I can't tell what mold that is
5. Gooitzen fan Teakesyl (2014) on...I think Django? I wonder if he's glossy.
6. Imperador das Aguas (2016) on the G2 Paso Fino mold
7. Smart and Shiney (2013) on the G4 Reiner mold
8. Nazruddin (2017) on the Darley (!) mold
9. All Glory (2010) on the G2 Morgan, I think?
10. Mariah's Boon (2012) on the Tushar mold

I am completely blown away - I don't think I've ever been this excited about a Breyerfest release in my life! Kill me now...or at least let me be first in line to buy one on Friday! Fortunately, it looks like they're making 2000 sets, so I don't have to be desperately clawing my way to the front of the line to get one. Not that I would, or anything...

Ack! Now I'm more excited for Breyerfest than I was before! Friday the 12th can't come soon enough!

There are also several never-before-seen auction models in the program! Behold - there's a rainbow Croi with gold mapping!

And a red bay PAM!



And a star dapple rose gray braided Bristol!

And a silver dapple bay pinto Lonesome Glory!

And a glossy dapple liver chestnut Show Jumping Warmblood with Croi tail!

And lastly, a pearly cremello Totilas!



Wow, that Bristol is to die for! And the Croi - that knocks her out as the surprise or the volunteer model. I'm not sure I like the Croi tail on the SJW, but his color is really nice. Wait, another liver chestnut? That makes three now. Is liver chestnut going to be the color of choice for Breyer's regular run line next year? Sheesh! Well, anyway, I can't wait to see these models in person IN THREE WEEKS! AAHHH!

Fiero is here!

Greetings, readers! Exciting news - my Fiero is here! Okay, I got two of them because I have two accounts, but they were both glossy and the extra one has already been packed up to trade for a matte one. So I only have (poor) photos of one of them! Behold! (Today was long, and tiring, and frustrating, and I didn't have a chance to get better photos).



Starting with an in-box photo. Although I didn't get a photo of it, it looks like the Fiero models were packaged in leftover boxes from last year, because they have the same artwork on the back of the box (including the photo of the unpainted Darley, etc). Are they going to look like that all year? Why wouldn't they update the boxes for this year? Sigh. I still wish they'd go back to using the satin bags.

But anyway. Here he is out of the box!



He's definitely handsome despite the bad photos. He's got great shading and I love the contrast of his white feet against the solid body (if only all four feet were white!). He has a lot of dapples - almost too many, really. And they're out of scale with his body, which is something we've seen with Stablemate Club releases before.



Quality-wise, he's fine - other than the too-large dapples, the only issue I saw with him was some kind of paint flaw on one of his tail tips - no biggie.



Even his eyewhites were decently painted!

I did manage to find a Muir Woods for a not-terrible price, and he's due to arrive tomorrow - so I'm hoping to get both of these guys together and see how similar they are shade-wise. They probably won't match each other, but it'll be fun if they do!

All in all, this guy is a worthy addition to the Stablemate Club collection, even if it is the second time the mold has been used in the club. More to love!