New Arrivals: Belesema Sapphire, Glossy Rose Grey Hero's Welcome and Glossy Legend

 Hello, readers! New Arrivals keeps chugging along with more new models, so let's keep going! First up is Belesema Sapphire:

She has been freed from the box since this photo was taken, luckily. What a pretty girl! I'm still waiting for Breyer to use her and her seemingly infinite mane/tail/head possibilities for the surprise model. Maybe someday...

Here we have the glossy rose gray Hero's Welcome Surprise model from 2019! This guy was the last Hero's Welcome I needed, so I'm happy to finally complete that little collection after 6 years. This is the only Breyer purchase I made this year that wasn't connected to Breyerfest 2025 in some way - I didn't really do much shopping at the hotel this year, sadly. Oh well. 

Lastly for today, the last bit of retail therapy I did on Sunday night - a glossy Legend. Okay, I did shop the hotel enough to find this guy for sale in one of the rooms on Saturday. After everything that went down on Sunday, this guy was still kicking around in the back of my head, so I headed to the room to see if he was still there. And he was! So I took him home. The Georg conga remains (almost) complete! 

That's it for the Traditional New Arrivals. Now we just have Stablemates left! Check back later for more. 

New Arrivals - Good Times, Great Friends and Halcyonia Night Life

 Greetings, readers! Did anyone snag anything in the Christmas in July sale? There were a few Magpies and Cardinals in the mix, but other than that, the “special items” seemed to be all the old Collector Club stuff they can’t seem to get rid of. I’m saving my money for the second chance sale and didn’t want any of it anyway, so I didn’t buy anything. I’m excited to see if YOLO or the Silver will show up in the second chance sale.

But on the New Arrivals side of things, I have more models to feature! Let’s start with Good Times:

This mare is a beautiful color, but she and the foal kind of got sadly overlooked during the event because of the lack of variations. However, they weren’t completely forgotten, because I got seven sets (I thin) and haven’t had much trouble selling the extras. Let me know if you want to buy my extra! And here’s the foal, Great Friends:

The foal is a nice color too! And both the mare and foal have a nice smooth gloss job that makes them pleasing to pick up - not sure why. But they make a great family for Fireheart!

Last for today is Halcyonia Night Life, who I hadn’t yet removed from his backing when I took the photos. I have since freed him and I’m happy to report he didn’t have any box rubs, or really anything but the most minor of factory flaws. Lywellyn looks great in black!

Also, for what it’s worth, I did email Breyer and offer to pay for my extra Shindig - I wasn’t thinking and already recycled his packing material, and it probably wouldn’t be cost-effective to send him back anyway. So we’ll see what they say!

That’s it for today - check back again soon for more New Arrivals!

New Arrivals: Roan Salud, YOLO and Sabino YOLO

 Greetings, readers! It's another New Arrivals post today, since we still haven't gotten those run numbers. Let's start with the roan Salud! 

Lesli Kathman did confirm this is supposed to be a roan in a public post on her Facebook page, which includes an explanation of all three Salud colors. Hopefully you can read it! All three colors are beautiful -I'm still not sure which one I like best, though I'm still leaning toward the solid black. Well, mostly solid black. 

Next we have the original dapple gray YOLO! This guy kind of got left in the dust when the sabino and holographic variants were revealed, but he's still so pretty! I was expecting this release to have a matte/glossy split, because he would have looked amazing as a glossy. Oh well! 

And here we have the sabino YOLO! All of the YOLOs I got were sadly riddled with flaws, unfortunately - not sure what happened in the production process that some of the Breyerfest models were perfect, while others weren't - but these are another example of the QC falling down somewhere. Oh well - he looks good from a distance! Too bad I couldn't get a holographic YOLO, but there's always the second chance sale...if there were any not picked up from the VIP and All-Access lines, that is. 

That's it for today - tune in again soon for more New Arrivals! 

New Arrivals: Glossy Palomino Pinto, Blue Roan and Decorator Seize the Day Surprises

 Welcome back to another New Arrivals post! I'm fervently waiting for the numbers to be posted re: the Breyerfest special runs - tick tock, Breyer! Any day now...but anyways, let's get into another group of new arrivals! First, the glossy palomino pinto Seize the Day: 

It's funny how the quality varies from model to model. Some of the models I got, like the YOLOs and the matte Seize the Days, were riddled with small flaws, but both of the glossy palomino pinto Seize the Days were pretty much flawless. I'll have to think of a breed for this one and take him to a show! 

Aside from the decorator, the blue roan Seize the Day seems to be the most sought-after color, and it's easy to see why - that color looks great on Totilas! He's definitely among my favorite colors. It's hard to go wrong with a good blue roan. I kinda wish they'd done a glossy version of him, though - imagine how great he'd have been in gloss!  

Lastly for today, here's our glossy decorator! When these were first revealed, I thought they were color-shift blue and purple, but that's not quite the case - they're mostly blue, with purple on the back. But still a really nice color! I like it a lot. I like his silver hooves, too. Definitely the prettiest of the three! But blue is my favorite color, so I may be biased...but anyways. 

That's it for today - tune in again soon for more New Arrivals! 

New Arrivals: Glossy Seize the Day Surprise Glossy Flaxen Liver Chestnut, Dapple Gray and Silver Bay

 Well, I'm back with a rare Sunday post! We have more New Arrivals to go over - I was on a roll with those Seize the Day Surprises, so let's keep going with the glossy versions! 

This guy is pretty enough in matte, but the gloss really makes his color pop! I guess that's true for just about any glossy model, though. They're all beautiful! 

The glossy dapple gray was the very last Seize the Day Surprise I unwrapped, so I actually got pretty lucky on #13. I also got married on September 13, so I guess that's a good number for me! The glossy dapple gray was also the last glossy I needed and the last surprise I needed for a complete collection, so I was pretty happy to get him. Just wish his dapples were a little more subtle...

That brings us to our last model of the day, the glossy silver bay! Silver bay is always a great color, and like the flaxen liver chestnut, gloss makes it pop so well. 

That's it for today - check back again soon for more New Arrivals! 

New Arrivals: Seize the Day Surprise Matte Flaxen Liver Chestnut, Dapple Gray and Silver Bay

 Greetings, readers! New Arrivals continues today with more Seize the Day Surprise models. But before I start with that, I want to post the breakdown of surprise models I received. From 13 surprise draws:
2 matte flaxen liver chestnut (traded one for a glossy silver bay)
2 glossy palomino pinto
2 matte blue roan
2 decorator
1 matte silver bay
1 glossy dapple gray
1 glossy flaxen liver chestnut
1 matte palomino pinto
1 matte dapple gray

Can't believe I only had to trade one model to get all the colors, and I managed to assemble them all before Breyerfest was over. That never happens! Well, at least something went right this Breyerfest. Anyways, here's the matte flaxen liver chestnut.

At first I (and most of the rest of the hobby) thought this was a smutty palomino, but he was referred to as a flaxen liver chestnut on the live broadcast, so that's what I'm going to call him. It's a very pretty color! I wonder if Sommer designed these? 

Quality seems to be all over the place with these special runs - some are okay, some are terrible, some are nearly flawless. I guess that's probably the case every year, but it seems like the lesser-quality ones are just riddled with tiny flaws. I haven't seen many major flaws, for what it's worth. As for the dapple gray, he seems to be the least popular color of the bunch, which is unfortunate. He's a bit plain compared to the other colors. 

The silver bay is very pretty as well, especially in gloss. This guy was one of the first colors I unwrapped, so he kind of got overlooked amongst the rest of them. But I love his color! What a beauty. 

That's it for today! Check back soon for another New Arrivals post! 

New Arrivals: Ties that Bind Blue, Ties that Bind Gold and Palomino Pinto Seize the Day Surprise

 Sheesh, that title is suuuuuuuper long. Oh well. It's that time of year again, friends - now that Breyerfest is over, it's time for New Arrivals! I'll start with the blue To The Ties That Bind Us (why couldn't they just name him Ties that Bind? That's what everyone calls him anyway...): 

This guy was one of the last special run models I unwrapped, oddly enough. I had gotten the gold one on Saturday and only had one other ticket for Ties that Bind, so I was hoping I'd get a silver one. No luck on that front, but at least I didn't get another gold one, huh? I only had two tickets for this guy, so I wasn't going to have any chances to buy more. So it was nice not to have to trade to get the two normal colors.

Next, here's the gold Ties that Bind! 

This gold guy makes a nice complement to the blue one - Breyer colors! Yay! I was surprised to unwrap this one, because I figured I'd get two boring blue ones and then have to trade. So it was really nice to unwrap a gold one instead! 

Next, here's the palomino pinto Seize the Day Surprise! 

The quality on the Breyerfest models seems like it's been kind of a crapshoot, with certain models being more flawed than others. For example, every YOLO I saw had some kind of small flaw (usually more than one), where on the other hand, the palomino Seize the Day Surprises were overall pretty nice. 

That's it for today, but check back tomorrow (hopefully) for more New Arrivals! 

Alana is here!

 Good news, readers! My Stablemates Club model, Alana, arrived today! Behold:

Isn't she pretty? 

I love her soft white basecoat and the contrast with her black markings. And the shading in her tail! Wish her braids were less-slightly-sloppy, though. 

I have no idea how they pulled off that itty-bitty blue eye, but I love it! 

Quality-wise, her planted front leg is slightly warped and she's got some minor booboos, but nothing major. Slightly fuzzy edges of markings and things of that nature. I'm tempted to show her, but I'm sure there'll be 50 others at my next show, so maybe sometime in the future. 

Maddox, Mercutio and 2025 releases!

 Greetings, readers! After a long dry spell (probably for the best), I finally have some new arrivals! Behold, Maddox! 

What a beauty! 

Gray is my favorite horse color, so I'm probably biased. But I love him! 

Quality-wise, he's pretty nice - I didn't notice any major flaws other than his annoyingly-uniformly-arranged dapples. I'm thinking about putting him in a show to see how he does - although everyone else will probably do the same thing, so it may not be worth it. 

I think I would have liked him even more if they'd added a bit of silver/metallic to his coat, but he's still pretty. 

Next, here's Mercutio, who arrived at the same time as Maddox! 

He's a cutie, although I'm still not crazy about the flipped tail. 

I'll have to think about a breed to assign him, because I didn't see any major flaws with him either. 

And I'm super glad that the first SMC release of the year is something I want to keep! Usually it's a G1, so I end up having to sell it. 

And lastly, the KHP finally got some of the 2025 new releases in! Behold: 

I would have posted these sooner, but I ordered the horse trailer set from Amazon and the first one that arrived contained a white unicorn with a broken horn, so I had to get it replaced. So if you want that set, buy one in person or you may end up with broken models. 

It took some doing, but I looked through several of the Spanish Horses and managed to find one with mostly-good decals. I like the design, though I wonder what he'd look like in gloss. They glossed some (all?) of the 70th Anniversary models, so maybe this guy will get the same treatment? I hope so. I also looked through a bunch of the Surfer's Riptide models to try to find one with a decently masked mane, and thought I got one - until I got him out of the box and saw the awful masking on his off side. Oh well. I'm thinking about taking the mini Fjord to BreyerMidwest with me next month, since I'm going to mostly bring Stablemates to that. Decisions, decisions...

That's all I have for today! Let's hope Breyer reveals more fun stuff soon. In the meantime, I have model horse shows to prepare for! 

New Arrivals: Light Chestnut Worth It, I Will Survive and Glossy Black Tobiano Stagecoach

 Greetings, readers! It's time for another New Arrivals post! I'll be showing three more models today, so let's get started with the light chestnut Worth It, one of this year's volunteer models! 

This was my lovely reward for volunteering across all three days of Breyerfest 2024. Volunteering was a great time as always, and it was interesting to see how much had changed since 2018, the last time I volunteered. I've probably said all this before. I initially got the liver chestnut in the model handout, but was able to trade for the light one since I already have the dark one. She's so pretty, and has that textured paint job like the other two colors. Definitely glad I was able to volunteer and get her! Hopefully I can volunteer next year as well. 

Next, here's I Will Survive:

We don't often get new releases on the Zebra mold, so it's always great to see a new one, and it's especially fun to get a quagga. Hopefully this means we'll get a new Zebra release soon? We could use a new regular run zebra, since Breyer's painting techniques have changed a bit in the last 20 years. 

Lastly, here's the glossy black tobiano Stagecoach Surprise! 

I didn't do much shopping at the Clarion until Sunday night, and this ended up being my only purchase other than the stuff I got directly from Breyer. It was a selling year, I guess. This was also the only Stagecoach Surprise I still needed for my Hamilton conga, so it was great to find one on Sunday night and complete that collection. What can I say? Most models look pretty great in black pinto, and Hamilton is no exception. 

That's almost it for this year's New Arrivals - check back tomorrow for the grand finale! 

New Arrivals: Survivor, Edge of Glory and Salvino

 Good news, readers! You get another New Arrivals post today. Huzzah! We're getting closer to being done with these, and then I can start working on Breyerfest Closeups posts. Let's start with Survivor! 

What a cutie! She looks really nice in this color. Maybe she's like a young version of the light gray pinto Rhiannon that was in this year's auction? Her little pink nose is so cute. 

Next: Edge of Glory! 

I'm really happy with this one - I love the contrast of his light mane and tail against the darker coat. He's a nice mix of old painting techniques vs new ones all at the same time. I hope we see this color again sometime in the future. 

Lastly, here's Salvino! 

Totilas looks handsome in dark bay. Still a little irked that they couldn't find another dressage horse to make a model of (since Salvino already had his own model), but I guess it's not like Totilas has already been done in this color. The only other time he's been a bay was as Zydeco back in 2014, and that was a micro run. I wonder if he'll be a glossy CCA release next year? Probably, or a glossy prize model. I'd better not think about it too much. 

That's it for today! Check back tomorrow (hopefully) for another New Arrivals post! 

New Arrivals: Fight Song, Fight Song and Fighter

 Good news, readers! You get a bonus post today with more new Breyerfest arrivals! I'll start with the base version of Fight Song (I refuse to type out that whole name):

Adonis is certainly handsome in pinto, though I'm still not crazy about that spot by his mouth. Not sure what breed to assign him, though. I wonder if I could get away with showing him as a Mustang?

Next: the no-base version of Fight Song: 

I like his tail, but his hind feet are kinda weird-looking without the base. Plus I feel like he's not balanced as well and could be prone to toppling forward.  Quality-wise, these guys were both pretty nice - I hope we get this dark chestnut color again in the future. 

Lastly, here's Fighter! 

I really like the color on this mare, and it's amazing how big/heavy she is! I could definitely tell which paper bag had this set in it because the mare is so huge. I really like her, but that lower lip sticking out is still bothering me. It makes me want to take a Dremel to her mouth to even them out. Hopefully I can learn to overlook it, because I like her otherwise. 

That's it for today - check back soon for more new arrivals! 

New Arrivals: Picante, Just Like Fire and Gascon the Great

 Greetings, readers! I've got three more new arrivals to show you - let's start with Picante! 

I'd expected to get a Picante somewhat earlier than July, but better late than never, I suppose. She's pretty! And the quality is good too, other than a couple of shiny marks. 

Next: Just Like Fire! 

The ketchup-and-mustard comparisons aren't quite as apt in person, but I think that's still going to be his unofficial nickname. I do like the darker color on his lower legs, and the yellow does have more of a golden hue in person. 

Lastly, here's Gascon! 

What a nice-looking model! Cancion looks really great in this light gray color. I did notice a white spot on the horse's right shoulder that didn't make it onto the model - interesting, considering the lengths Breyer usually goes to to make sure the models are accurate to the real horses' markings. 

That's it for today! Check back soon for more New Arrivals. 

New Arrivals: Cyrus, Solana and Athenian Lady

 Greetings, readers! I hope everyone is sufficiently recovered from Breyerfest. Welcome to the first Breyerfest New Arrivals post since 2022! I didn't end up doing any of these last year due to the craziness of moving to Kentucky, so I hope you enjoy this one! I'll start with Cyrus. 

Technically these were a slightly-pre-Breyerfest purchase, as I picked them up at the KHP gift shop on Thursday. They had a ton of them! I also got a Picante, but she'll show up in a later post. Cyrus is very pretty! Though I didn't get a photo of it, he has a nicely stripey mane. Quality is pretty good too, but I can't say the same for Solana, unfortunately. 

She's pretty good on the show side, but has some kind of box (?) rubs on her right shoulder despite not being anywhere near the side of the box and having one of those plastic guard things to support her. These things happen, I guess. She makes a nice match for Cyrus! 

Lastly, we have Athenian Lady:

It occurs to me that this is the first Celebration Horse I've kept since 2020. Nice! Quality is good other than a couple of shiny spots. But Dundee looks good in chestnut pinto! 

That's it for today. Check back tomorrow (hopefully) for more New Arrivals! 

Newport is here!

 Good news, everyone - my Newport has arrived! Incidentally, I finally figured out what her name reminds me of: that episode of Family Guy where Lois inherits the fancy house in Newport. Anyway, here's Newport! 

She's a beauty! I love her color. Her "Breyer blue and yellow" tail ribbon colors are a nice touch. 

The G2 Thoroughbred certainly makes a nice polo pony! I'm guessing we'll probably see this iteration of the mold again in the future.

Quality-wise she's pretty nice. I've seen a few posted on Facebook that had pretty bad box rubs, so I was happy when I got mine out of the box and she didn't have any. I'd still prefer going back to the satin bags, though. 

All in all, a fine addition to my collection! Now I just have to get up the willpower to go stand up all of my G2 Thoroughbreds without knocking them all over, again...and maybe my G3 Friesians while I'm at it...