Featured Model - 12/10/2022, 2004 Auction Rain

 Hello and welcome to Featured Model, the (weekly?) blog event where I pick a model I don't own but may have an interesting story behind it, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's model is...the 2004 Breyerfest Auction Rain! 

What a pretty model! She was a OOAK done on the somewhat-underused Rain mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. She was sold at the 2004 Breyerfest Live Auction and sold for the princely sum of $1,400, if IDYB is to be believed (no reason to think it wouldn't be). 

IDYB lists her as a Silver Dun Overo, which is probably what it says on the info card there in front of her, but she looks more like an early attempt at dunalino to me. With some metallic and gloss thrown in there as well. I wonder where she is now? Many of these auction models from 20 years ago and before seem to have disappeared into the mists of time. It would be interesting to see where they are now! Hopefully not lost in a storage unit somewhere (which has happened at least once). 

As for Rain, the reason she hasn't been used much is probably because most collectors seem to have turned up their nose at her due to her cartoonishness. She did make a return as Chica Linda in the Spirit Riding Free collection in 2018, but doesn't seem to have been too popular as she was only in the lineup for a year. Poor Rain gets no respect! Uh...including from me, I guess, as I don't have any Rains in my collection. Her only other appearance as an auction model was quite nice, too.  So it's hard to say where we might see her again - perhaps as a Holiday Horse? I don't see her fitting in at Breyerfest anytime soon, but you never know. I guess we'll have to wait and see! 

Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons, and other stories

 More good news, everyone! Amongst other things, I had a pretty good mail day today - behold! First off, my Neva showed up: 

What a beauty! 

Quality-wise, though...he's really kind of a mess. It's almost laughable - weird textures in the finish by his elbow, globs of plastic and/or paint in random places, bubbles in the gloss, poorly-applied masking, really bad overspray on the mane...the list goes on and on. And these guys are sold out, so I can't even ask for a replacement. However, the funny thing is...the snowmen:

I'm getting major Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goon vibes from these snowmen. 

Now, I love derpy stuff like this (I'm not a Barbie collector, but I do have two Barbie Christmas tree ornaments because one of them has a doofy face and the other one looks like she wants to eat your face), so I'm happy to add them to the collection. So yeah, if I was ever to decide to start showing (not likely), and if I could find a class to put this guy in (also not likely) his show name would definitely be Snow Goon. 

Now then, on to the next new arrivals. I was expecting Snow Goon up there to come today, but what I wasn't expecting...was two of my Poppy & Ollie sets! Huzzah! Behold the first one I opened! 

Fortunately, their quality was much better than Snow Goon. Though I have to say...normally I like alabaster, especially glossy alabaster, but I'm just not feeling it with this set. It's not so bad in the photo, but that yellowish cast Breyer added to make them look "perlino" mostly just makes them look like they sat in a smoker's house for way too long. So this is probably my least favorite color of the three.

At least the quality was good! And I got two different colors - behold my next set! 

Woohoo, the palominos! This color is easily my favorite of the three, despite there not being anything vintage about it at all. They're just gorgeous. 

The quality on this pair is mostly okay, but I really wasn't impressed with the mane masking job on the mare:

They pretty much missed half her forelock when masking it off, and look at the giant white area behind the left ear. What a doozy. 

Oh well. Could have been worse, I suppose. So with any luck, my third set will be the bay, whenever it gets here. Here's hoping! 

There were a couple of other exciting developments today - the other two sculptors for next year's Premier Club have been announced! 

Jennifer Scott sculpted the first release (Cancion), so it's anyone's guess as to what Kylee and Heather will be sculpting. I'm excited to find out, though! 

And lastly, Breyer is running a holiday sweepstakes:

10 lucky winners will receive two Clydesdale Christmas blind bags from last year's event! Enter here - the deadline is 12/13. I won't be entering, as I don't want any of them - just more stuff to sell, and I have enough of that already. Good luck, everyone! 

2022 Retired List and the yearly Animal web special!

 Well, we all know it had to happen sometime - Breyer's yearly retired list has been published. See it here. My main takeaways: that's a lot of retired Classics/Freedom Series. Presumably we'll get a bunch of new ones for 2023 - yay! Can't wait to see what they are. Dare I hope for a new Mason? He seems underused. I'm also wondering if the Orren Mixer series will continue for another year, and if so, what color we'll get this time. The Stablemate singles have been retired as well, so I wonder if there will be more of those as well. More to track down, if so! 

In other news, this year's animal special run has been revealed, and it's on the Cow! 

The run number has been upped to 1,000, which seems a bit ambitious, considering the animal molds don't usually sell all that well. She's a nice color, but nothing I need. I feel like this one is going to take a few waitlists to work through...oh well. Good luck to everyone entering! 

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! 

2022 Stablemates Club conclusion and 2023 silhouettes!

 Good news, everyone! If you're a Stablemates Club member, the final release (Kit) is available for purchase! 

And the optional model, Helios, is now available as well! 

I can't wait to see what they look like in person. Let's hope they don't take as long to ship as my three Poppy and Ollie sets, which have not moved from the warehouse since 11/25 as far as I know. 

Anyways, we also got a reveal of the silhouettes for next year's Stablemates Club! 

We saw the SCO, Sidewinder, yesterday, so that leaves the MFT, G2 Shetland Pony and G3 Cantering Warmblood as our reveals for today. I uh...am not especially excited about this lineup. Provided the gambler's choice isn't the warmblood, I may be able to get away with not even joining the club at all next year, since he's the only one I would want. I'm seeing a lot of the same sentiments online, so let's hope we get more reveals by the end of the year. Because I'd really like to know which one of these is the gambler! 

2023 Vintage Club signups

 Heads up to anyone who wants to join the 2023 Vintage Club: signups open tomorrow at 3PM EST! So if you want to join, be ready to hit that button tomorrow. Note that memberships are being increased to 1,000 for next year, and I've seen a lot of people talking about not rejoining. Add that to the fact that it's already hard to resell most of the club models for what you paid (I have personal experience with this), and it may end up taking a while for the club to sell out this time. I hope it does, because they should really be showing people what they're getting ahead of time like they have in the past. Anyways, if you want to join, good luck! I'm not joining, so you at least won't be fighting with me for a membership! Haha! 

Sssssssmokin'!

 Ooh, exciting! Some incentive to join the Stablemates Club for next year! Behold: 

Say hello to Sidewinder, one of the releases in next year's club. Nothing I need, fortunately, though that paint job looks pretty detailed. Let's hope they can pull it off! Also, part of me has to giggle a little bit, because the other promo photo I saw for this guy (on Facebook) has his abnormally short left front leg cropped out, and they're trying to hide it in this image as well. Like, if it turned out that bad, why did they bother to keep going with the mold to start with? I suppose they had to try to recoup the money they put into the conversion somehow, but yeesh. I think I still have a Rococo kicking around that I haven't been able to sell - let's hope that doesn't happen with Sidewinder as well. I'm glad to see a release from the club - but I think I'm going to need a bit more incentive before I pull the trigger and join, hint hint.