And now Fletcher is available! Plus, new Breyerfest SR reveal!

I thought about adding a PS to last night's post, about waiting to purchase Aiden in case Fletcher popped up (for those of you that also ordered a Fletcher) but just didn't have the time. Lo and behold, today Fletcher is available on the website!

I didn't order a Fletcher, but if you did, this is an excellent chance to save on shipping and also get your Aiden shipped in a larger box! Huzzah!

As an aside, is it just me or does that matte Fletcher in the banner look matte enough to suck you in? He's got nice shading, but looks so...dry. Oh well.

In other exciting news, our swirled Lonesome Glory preview has been officially unveiled! Say hello to By a Nose!



I feel like they could have come up with a better name for this guy, but I like him nonetheless! His color reminds me of someone - but I can't think of who it is. Constellation but with spots? He's described as a Dominant White - interesting.

He also kind of looks like some kind of tasty candy - must be the roaning. Grape Sweet Tart, maybe? Mm. He definitely needs to join my herd! And imagine how stunning he'd look in gloss! Maybe he'll be the matte/glossy split this year! That would be excellent!

As for his name...after taking a quick look at a horse racing terminology website, things that pop out include Across the Board (maybe too similar to Straight Bet), Fast Track, In the Money or Shake Up? Fast Track would be nice. Maybe I'll just call mine by that name. Either way, he's definitely pretty!

I suppose I should have expected that we'd see Lonesome Glory, but with Breyer's track record of not adhering to themes, I thought he'd be too obvious. Clearly I was wrong! But at least he more-or-less fits the theme, right?

So the only special run yet to be revealed is the decorator, if it is a decorator this year. The early bird deadline is a bare five days away, so maybe we'll see it this week! I hope so. Bring on the reveals!

Aiden is now available!

Aiden, the second release in the 2018 Stablemate Club, is now available for purchase!



He's certainly fancy! I'll have to get mine on order. Unfortunately, I'm not into the Valegro mold, so mine will be for sale. I wanted to like him, and bought the Breyerfest one a couple of years ago, but his feet are just too tiny (and it didn't help that I dropped my Valegro onto a carpeted floor from about 3 feet up and his tail cracked). So, no Stablemate Valegros in my house. But he's definitely pretty! Guess I'll go back to waiting for the mini Brishen!

Lots of exciting things to post about today!

We've got quite the news roundup today, folks! First off...there's a new model hint on the Breyerfest Blog!

When it's all swirled like that, it looks like an ostrich - but word on the street is that it's a Lonesome Glory! Some type of blue roan sabino, perhaps? There's no word on whether this is a special run or a raffle model, so I'm wondering if this is the Sunday raffle model? Oddly enough, if IDYB is correct, Lonesome Glory has somehow never been a raffle model! Perhaps this is the year! But I'd be cool with a Lonesome Glory special run line item - at least he would mostly fit the theme. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully we won't have to wait until Friday!

Next up - there's a new test model for collector club members to enter for on the website!



According to the writeup, he's from 2000 or so. From the website:

This lovely test is vintage 2000, and features blue and silver bobs in his mane and a bow in his tail. He has four freehand socks on his feathered legs, and a freehand blaze face. He does have some black marks and signs of age, but overall he's a wonderful test run! 

 I'm debating whether to enter for this guy or not. I'd be reselling him if I won, but he looks like he'd resell for a pretty good price. Decisions, decisions. Good luck to those who do enter!

And lastly, there's a new limited edition clearware model coming out - Illumination!



A new Nokota? And he's clearware? I gotta have him! They're definitely making the most of that patriotic paintjob, huh? He does have some differences from Patriot and Allegiance, though - I like the fireworks! I wonder if this paintjob will become a yearly thing? Time will tell. Hope I can get mine soon!

That's all I have for today - hopefully we get more exciting Breyerfest reveals soon!

Featured Model - 4/7/2018, Giselle

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 a porcelain - the original Giselle!




This is the first time I've ever featured a porcelain on the blog! Released in 2008, Giselle was sculpted by Brigitte Eberl, and was a run of 350. She was one of the few porcelain Connoisseur releases and is item #90147.

I don't have many porcelain models. I can be clumsy, and porcelains make me nervous. The only other porcelain I own is Adriano, the bay Spanish Barb from Breyerfest 2004, and I managed to break him (twice!) last year after years of paranoia. I managed to find Giselle for a bargain price at Breyerfest last year, but truth be told, I'm thinking about taking her back to Breyerfest this year and selling her. The constant paranoia just isn't worth it!

All that aside, I do like the model. Her chestnut color is rich and deeply shaded, and she even has four white socks to boot. She's pretty! But rather unfortunately fragile.

One of the last times we saw Giselle get used was in 2016 as Chesapeake, the ticket model for the Chasing the Chesapeake collector event. That model is also a richly shaded chestnut, but with an added layer of gloss! I have her and she's beautiful.

Giselle was most recently used at the end of last year as Rosalind the unicorn. I'm hoping we see her used at Breyerfest in some fashion or another, but I'm not sure how likely that is. Maybe she'll be the volunteer model? I could get behind that.

Spirit Series 2 Blind Bags are here!

Greetings, readers! My Spirit Series 2 blind bag assortment finally arrived, and I'm excited to share photos of them!

Collectors had been assured that these boxes would contain one of each model, like last year's assortment, but it seems that assumption was incorrect, as some of the boxes going out have contained 0 chase models and have had varying degrees of duplicate models inside them instead. Somehow I was lucky enough to get a complete box, however. Behold!

I had been dreading the box's arrival, because I only needed four of these guys for my own collection, and I was pretty sure I was going to end up only getting multiples of the models I didn't want. So I was pleasantly surprised!

The standout models in this box were (in my opinion) the chase piece (duh), the pearly perlino Andalusian and the dapple gray G4 Driving Horse. Here's a closeup of the chase piece:

I've never watched the Spirit Riding Free show, but apparently those warpaint markings are from an episode of the show. Obviously all or most of them had to be done using decals, but some of them didn't get put on quite right and the edges of them are visible. The model also had some significant rubs on his nose and nostrils, which was disappointing.

Next: the Andalusian!

I may have mentioned my love for pearly finishes a time or two before, but this guy is really nice. Almost nice enough to forgive those Groucho Marx eyebrows! I know these models are based on characters from a TV show, so I try not to complain about the eyebrows too much, but they make this one look pretty ridiculous. I know, I know; they added eyebrows to the horses to make the eyes more expressive, but part of me just wishes they could have toned it down a bit for this model. Maybe if they'd used light-brown eyebrow paint instead of black? That might have helped.

Next: the G4 Driving Horse!

I'm not much of a fan of this mold, but this color looks really nice on him. I love how soft his dapples are! I'd personally like to see a dark mane and tail to go with his legs; I don't think I've ever seen a dapple gray horse that didn't have the dark mane and tail to go along with the legs. Oh well.

And I want to write about the G3 Cantering Warmblood as well:



I wish they'd quit using these weird, unrealistic pinto patterns, but I suppose that's probably the TV show's failing rather than Breyer's. Clearly whoever designed the horses' colors should have done some more research.

That's all I've got for right now. On a side note, it's now April (you probably noticed that already), which means the next Stablemate Club release should be out anytime! I'm hoping for the gray Brishen, but it shouldn't be too long until we find out!

Dark Horses

The yearly "clue" (if you can call it that) for the Breyerfest 2018 Surprise special run is up on the blog! It's...Dark Horse Surprise!



What could the mystery model possibly be? "Dark Horse" suggests something no one would expect. In some previous years they gave us an actual hint for this special run, but evidently that made it too easy to guess...? Not that anyone guessed Latigo for last year, but I'm pretty sure no one was surprised about Esprit, Lonesome Glory or the Nokota's debuts as surprise models.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the surprise mold tends to be drawn from the previous year's pool of auction models. Based on last year's auction models, I projected that the surprise could be the Show Jumping Warmblood, Idocus, Yasmin or Desatado. But throwing a "dark horse" into the mix could mean the Cleveland Bay, Giselle, Bobby Jo, Totilas or even (gasp!) Adios, or perhaps even (double gasp!) Laredo (probably not; he's too controversial). They could also forgo using an auction mold and use the Weather Girl; Roxy appeared as Keighley, the 2012 volunteer model, before she was the surprise in 2013. Although I guess there was a Keighley in the live auction that year if you want to get technical (the volunteer model last appeared in the live auction in 2013).

Personally, I'd like to see Yasmin or the Weather Girl be the surprise, although I suppose Weather Girl may be unlikely since she's appearing as a Vintage Club gambler's choice later in the year. But if they used Yasmin, it would be the first time such a new mold appeared as the surprise, and it'd be a nice way to get a bunch of colors on her out into the wild. Plus she's in the regular line as Zena, which would make it easy to divert some whiteware to another department for a surprise run.

Edit: Dumb me keeps forgetting Yasmin was used in the SR lineup last year. Argh! For now I'm going with the Show Jumping Warmblood for my guess.

We'll have a better idea of what the surprise model could be once we've seen the last of the special run reveals, and we'll slowly get an even better idea as the auction models are released. That countdown should start on June 15, if I'm not mistaken. Only a little more than two more months to wait!

Haha! Joke's on you! Oh wait...it is on us.

Breyer uploaded a funny "joke" on the blog over the weekend - a photo they'd seemingly already used to tease Dead Heat, except a slightly lighter shade. "Ha ha, joke's on them," I thought. "Somebody screwed up and used the wrong picture." Except it wasn't the wrong picture! It was Dead Heat in an entirely different color! We've got ourselves another gambler's choice in the lineup!

Palomino? Pearly palomino? I'm sold! But it turns out the joke really is on us, because now all the Ruffian fans like me have to buy two (and probably more) of these in the special run line in order to get both colors. I suppose it was only a matter of time before Breyer figured out the whole "blind bag packaging = everything sells out" could be applied to...well, everything.

Does this mean eventually everything at Breyerfest will go the blind bag route? Probably not, since it would just frustrate everyone more (see the recent Spirit Series 2 blind bag fiasco for more on that; I'll write about that later). But what if they also decide to do a matte/glossy split on these? That would mean I'd have to track down four of these danged things! And I'd do it, too...although I'd be grumpy about it, especially if the surprise is something I have to have. We don't all have money trees growing in our backyards, Breyer...