Featured Model - 3/30/2019, Blue Velvet

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...Blue Velvet!



This pretty girl was a Connoisseur release in 2008. She's item #90144 and was a run of 350 on the Bluegrass Bandit mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody and Sommer Prosser.

This is one of the best colors Breyer has released on this mold, in my opinion. It works really well on her! She's very similar to Polaris - just with spots, obviously. They make a nice pair! My only nitpick is that she's basecoated white, and well...I'm just not the biggest fan of white basecoats. I think it makes the horse look less realistic and more like a cartoon, especially on a mold like BGB - she's cartoonish enough! Plus, it makes the horses' white areas look too white - no horse is that stark white in real life (except for the five minutes after they've been scrubbed within an inch of their lives for a horse show!).

I know it might seem weird to complain about the white basecoat not looking realistic when Breyer loves to use metallic and pearly paints in other paintjobs - indeed, Blue Velvet has a touch of pearliness to her, which I like. The white basecoat really isn't that big of a deal either way - I'd just prefer my models not to be basecoated. Maybe that's why I was somewhat ambivalent about Emerson last year? Hopefully Breyer comes out with a new release on him soon so I can see what he looks like in other colors.

Anyway, Bluegrass Bandit is a fairly popular mold for Breyer, but she hasn't had a lot of releases - probably because it's hard to release her in anything other than TWH colors due to her pose. Not counting auction models, she's had 15 releases since her 2008 debut, and three of those were highly limited! Mold utility is definitely a thing for Breyer - it's the most likely reason it took so long for us to get a Marwari model, and why we still don't have an Akhal-Teke (maybe we'll get one in the Premier Club this year?). BGB has been a web special twice already, so I'm not optimistic about her chances there this year - but she was last used at Breyerfest in 2017, so she's not likely to show up there either. Maybe she'll be one of this year's limited edition models? I hope so!

The next entry in the America the Beautiful series - Bandelier!

Exciting news today (since Breyer didn't see fit to reveal yesterday's teaser...)! We have a new entry in the America the Beautiful series - Bandelier!



El Pastor makes a comeback! From the website:

In a palette of colors inspired by this national monument’s landscape, Bandelier is a shaded dapple buckskin tobiano pinto. A Paso Fino, his breed’s roots trace back to the mounts of the Spanish conquistadors who once explored this area. He has detailed eyes and a high gloss finish, and features “Bandelier” printed in black on his belly.

I've noticed a lot of typos and incorrect grammar in Breyer's posts lately, so it's nice to see them using "palette" correctly. Anyway...he's definitely handsome! Nothing I need to enter for, but that gloss really makes him pop! I like his mane stripe, too. Unfortunately, I noticed something when I looked at the photo of him in the email from Breyer:



The dreaded pink eyewhites make a return! I thought Breyer had abandoned those. Hopefully that's not a deal-breaker for people who want to buy him.

In other news, it looks like this year's releases are going to be really light on my wallet, between the lack of Breyerfest or Vintage Club things I want, and now this web special. But I'm not going to complain - spending less money on the hobby right now is probably for the best! Good luck to everyone who enters for Bandelier. 

Bwuh?

So there's another (!) new sneak peek on the blog, and...it appears to be multiple models?

I have no idea what these are referring to. Internet opinions range from a foal set, to maybe the Stablemate Valegro, or an Ant-Man and the Wasp reference (one big model, one or possibly two small ones?), and I haven't seen any guesses as to what the glossy black one is. At least we only have to wait until tomorrow?

Diorama contest prize has been revealed!

Sheesh, I'm behind on posting...well, anyway, Breyer put a new sneak peek on the blog on Monday, and the reveal was today - the diorama contest prize is on the Haflinger! Say hello to Cavalcade!



His color looks really similar to Muir Woods! I wonder if there's a connection there.

This isn't the first time the Haflinger has been a prize at Breyerfest - he was the Scepter Contest prize model in 2005 and one of the glossy prizes at the Children/Youth show in 2012. I'm guessing he gets used so Breyer doesn't get flooded with entries - can you imagine how many people would enter the diorama contest if the prize model was a Wintersong? Even I'd have to come up with something! They'd be judging the entries until the park opened on Saturday morning!

He is nice, though, so good luck to everyone who enters the diorama contest!

Leopold is now available!

Attention Vintage Club members! The second release of 2019, Leopold, is now available for purchase!



Make sure you're logged into your account so you can see the buy box.

Like I said before, the Appaloosa Performance Horse colorway looks great on the Fighting Stallion, but he's nothing I need to buy. Now, if they'd find some modern molds to put it on...Bristol, anyone? Or Dundee? Mmm.

Featured Model - 3/23/2019, Mini Appropos

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...Mini Appropos!



This model was part of the Miniature Connoisseur Collection, offered through JAH in 2006. He's item #701706 and was a run of 3,000 on the (Stablemate) G2 Warmblood mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

The amount of detail on the models in this set was pretty incredible - the tiny eyewhites! The white areas on his legs! The tiny halo spots! Well, they may be vaguely haloed - it's hard to tell. And the models in this set were all like that!

For whatever reason, though, the set wasn't a big seller - it was first released in 2006, but I remember buying my set through Breyer's Shopatron website (before the 2011 website revamp) in 2010 after my return to the hobby. Why did they sell so poorly? Stablemate sets tend to be popular, and Stablemate versions of Traditional models get requested all the time, so it's a bit of a mystery. I suppose they probably just made too many sets, similar to what happened with the Double Exposure set - made too many and they were available for quite some time afterward.

Oh well! I like my set well enough - if only all the Stablemates had as much detail as these guys do. As for the G2 Warmblood, he's been fairly popular over the years - he's had innumerable releases, but he most recently appeared at Breyerfest 2017 as Vivaan, one of the single-day Stablemate models. Where will we see him next? He's being used in several places in the regular run line currently, so I don't know if we'll see him get any kind of special run release soon - but maybe he'll show up at the next Breyer event - who knows. At any rate, I'll be looking out for new releases on him - he's one of my favorite Stablemate molds!

Natasha it is!

Wednesday's sneak peek has been revealed - it's Natasha after all!



Ooh, she's pretty! The first (and so far, only) item I need from the special run line! Part of me hopes she won't be the matte/glossy split - for simplicity's sake - and the other part of me hopes she is, because she'd be beautiful in gloss. I guess we'll have to wait and see! Hopefully the vendor sheet leaks again this year so we can find out in advance!