Unfortunately, all I've been hearing online (and seeing, amongst all of my Nazruddins) is that somebody at Breyer really screwed the pooch with these models. I'm not usually one to complain about poor quality models, but I got 8 Nazruddins and all of them have nasty flaws. These models are the model equivalent of Scrubs' HFFA.
Now, don't get me wrong - this color is really nice, and and it looks really good on the Marwari. They also looked good being carried around by all the little kids at the Horse Park all weekend - like they belonged there, unlike something like Simba or last year's squashed-looking Imperador. But then you look at it up close and see things like this:
What even is that? Did they paint the area underneath the mane the mane color before they actually attached the manes? Did they try to mask the mane off? The edges look too sharp to be overspray, but I'm not an airbrush expert. And all eight of my Nazruddins look like that to varying degree. I have all of the previous releases on this mold and none of them look remotely like that.
This particular guy's paint job isn't that horrible other than the mane thing, but another thing I noticed was that of a total of eight Nazruddin models, five of them have visible seam lines on their faces. It's not guaranteed that these will turn into seam splits, but it's not good all the same. I've never seen so many models in the same run with seam issues before, and now five at once? Sheesh. And the three that don't have the seam lines have other issues (warped legs, paint booboos, etc) that are making me lean toward keeping one of the others despite the seam issues. I still haven't even decided which one I'm going to keep yet because every time I start looking at them, I see more issues! Bleh. You'd think of all the recent celebration models to slack off on, they'd have done it with Gooitzen, since all they were doing with those was spraying them flat black and then glossing them afterward. These paint jobs at least took a little effort!
Well, enough of that. Let's move on to Repeat the Beat!
In contrast to the Nazruddin fiasco, I couldn't find a single flaw on my Repeat the Beat (after I spent a few minutes in the Breyer Store first looking for one that had decently-painted horseshoes and no other visible flaws). So, another Bluegrass Bandit joins my nearly-complete conga!
I really like the color on this model - this style of painting roans is very appealing to me for some reason (although if I was really going to nitpick I'd say the real Pete isn't quite as roany).
I really liked the brownish undertones on this model, though it was hard to get them to show up in the picture. He's a handsome guy!
Lastly, let's take a look at this year's volunteer model, who doesn't seem to have a name:
There was a fair bit of controversy around this model due to her weird blood mark. I'll admit it is a little oddly-placed, but it doesn't really bother me - I'm just glad I was able to get one, despite not volunteering.
I was very fortunate to be able to trade one of my glossy Bollywood Surprise models for her - I guess the surprise being on a model I don't collect is a good thing after all! Word on the street is that these models were painted in New Jersey, as has been the trend for volunteer models the last few years, and like Repeat the Beat, I couldn't find a single flaw on her (other than her bloodshot pink eyewhites, but that's just personal preference).
Look at her pretty face! I actually think the blood mark sets off her color very nicely - her other side is sorta boring without the blood mark. She's a worthy addition to the herd! Hopefully we find out her name and the quantity produced at some point.
That's all I have for tonight - I'll try to get to photographing the Breyerfest 2017 Stablemates I got, but once again, no promises!
