Featured Breyerfest - 2005

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! This year we're covering 2005, so let's get started! 

Notable events from 2005:

• YouTube is created
• Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast, killing 1,500 people and causing more than $100 billion in property damage
• Afleet Alex wins the Preakness Stakes after stumbling and nearly falling
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the top-grossing film of the year 

Meanwhile, Breyerfest 2005 happened in Kentucky! 

Dates: July 29-31, 2005
Theme: Medieval Merriment
Celebration Horse: Fire Magic
Number of Celebration Models produced: 5,524
Attendance: "another record-setting event, both in terms of attendance and in money raised through our benefits and raffles" - from JAH

Here's the first 2005 page from the commemorative program:

The real Fire Magic was a beautiful red Friesian owned by Dianne Olds Rossi. How beautiful, you ask? Well, I have a photo here from someone who was there! Behold:

Romantico was also there! 

Thanks to Lea R. for the photos! 

I did some research and it appears that Fire Magic died at the age of 24, possibly in 2021? Couldn't find anything definitive about the year he died.

Here's the second 2005 page from the commemorative program:

There was only one keychain release, and it was the sole Store Special. There were a ton of prize models for the various shows (including the elusive and beautiful silver bay Peruvian Paso), and there was even a prize model for the sceptre contest! Of the seven special runs, two were porcelain - the gray Great Horse in Armor as Romantico and the Stablemate unicorn Isabel and Chloe set. Raffle models were the leopard appaloosa Goffert "Labyrinth" and the legendary resin Merlin dragon horses, which now command a pretty penny on the secondary market. 

Here's the first page of the JAH recap:

And the second page:

And the last page:

Now, let's take a look at some auction models! 

This brindle dapple gray Belgian is interesting. I wonder how they did the paint job? Those squiggles look too small to be masked, but too uniform to be hand-squiggled.

This wedgewood blue Clydesdale Mare is in one of the photos in the commemorative program and she jumped out at me immediately. She's gorgeous! I love her. If her markings had silver mapping she'd be perfect! 

I also love this metallic golden buckskin Huck. Gorgeous! I'd love to have him in my herd, or something in this color. 

I wonder if this is the first time Breyer did a reverse dapple paint job? I'm not going to go back and look, but it's possible. 

Breyerfest Closeups: Georgina

 Greetings, readers! Welcome back to the penultimate Breyerfest Closeups post for this year. We're almost done...almost done...almost done...almost done...but anyways! You guys may have been waiting for this one - we get to see Georgina, the last Premier Club release for the year! Behold: 

Apologies in advance for the reflections - she was in a plastic box and the reflections are hard to avoid. 

I definitely like what I see so far! I wonder if Breyer will make a foal to match her someday? I mean, it would have to be a draft foal, and clearly that's beyond their capabilities...but we can always hope. 

I like her dapples. 

This particular model is probably a sample, so let's hope the actual production run has nice dappling. 

She's so pretty! 

I even got a top view! Couldn't get her right side, though. I wonder if she has a blue eye? That would be super cool. 

That's it for today. Check back soon for the last Breyerfest Closeups for this year! Huzzah! 

I was going to wrap things up there, but I'm just adding a quick note: August 4 marked 10 years since I started this blog, and I missed it! Can't believe I've been doing this for so long. Here's to another 10 years! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Phoebe and Vintage Club Stablemate

 Good news, everyone! It's time for another Breyerfest Closeups post, and today you're getting a two-fer: Phoebe, the (presumably) last Vintage Club release for the year, and this year's Vintage Club Stablemate! I don't know his name, but he's a cute little flocky. Yay! Let's start with Phoebe: 

I didn't get a photo of the lampshade, but we're all just here for the horses anyway, right? 

Cute, but I sold off my Rhiannon/Rhemi sets last year. I wonder if she comes off the base? 

She looks good in palomino! This one will be released in October, I'm assuming? Not sure.

I didn't catch the flocky fighter's name. 

His little harness is adorable, though! He'll look great next to the original one, if you have one.

That's it for today! We still aren't done with Breyerfest Closeups, so come back soon for more!  

There's a new test model to enter for!

 Exciting news, everyone! There's a new test model for Collector Club members to enter for. Behold! 

From the webpage:

This test run model was produced in the early 2000s as a test for the design of “Jade,” who would go on to be released in 2002 as a special run model for QVC, celebrating the Year of the Horse in the Zodiac. The design on the Classics Arabian Stallion (mold #3055ST) is largely the same as his Traditional scale counterpart, featuring an elaborate design with filigree, flowers, and the Chinese character for “horse” in calligraphic style. His body color is a shaded green reminiscent of his namesake jade.

Here's his other side:

He's nothing I need (especially for $1500), but rare Classics are pretty rare, so he'd make a good addition to someone's rarities collection. Good luck to everyone entering! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Dryandra

 Hello, readers! Well, I didn't manifest Guillermo's release yesterday, but maybe I can do it with the next web special instead? Say hello to Dryandra! 

A little Googling tells me that Dryandra comes from the Dryandra Woodland National Park over in Australia, and Dryandra himself looks suspiciously like a numbat, an endangered marsupial found in said park. 

Looks pretty cute with a flower crown on! 

Nothing I need, but the paint job looks pretty good on Brighty. 

And now I'm going to close this post by letting Dryandra stare into your very soul. 

Breyerfest Closeups: Guillermo

 Greetings, readers! It's time for another Breyerfest Closeups post. Can I manifest another Breyer release? I posted about Touche and then Flapjack and Waffles just before their releases were announced. Will this be a hat trick? Guess we'll see. Anyway, here's Guillermo, the next Collector Club release! 

Nothing I need, but the loose mane is fun. 

He's a pretty color! 

Guess I only took three pictures for some reason. In my defense, there were a lot of models there to photograph and I didn't want to block other people from seeing them. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this closeup of Guillermo! Check back again soon for more Breyerfest Closeups. 

Featured Breyerfest - 2004

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! This year we're covering Breyerfest 2004, so let's get started! 

Notable events from 2004:

• I graduated from high school! 
• The 2004 Summer Olympics take place in Athens, Greece; the USA wins the most gold medals 
• The world population increases to 6.545 billion people
• Shrek 2 is the highest-grossing film of the year

And in Kentucky, Breyerfest 2004 happened! 

Dates: July 30-Aug. 1, 2004
Theme: Fiesta Equina
Celebration Horse: Nobel II 
Number of Celebration Models produced: 4,500
Attendance: 6,000 tickets sold according to JAH

Here's the first 2004 page from the commemorative program:

The theme for 2004 was Fiesta Equina, a celebration of all things Spanish. The Celebration Horse was Nobel II, a beautiful Andalusian stallion who apparently is a founding sire in the Spanish-Norman breed registry. I couldn't find much else about him, but I did find an obituary for one of his owners, Tracy, who died in 2023 (RIP).  Raffle models for 2004 were El Corazon on the Spirit mold and Fiero on the Fighting Stallion. It appears that early bird models made their debut this year! The early bird models were (as you can probably guess) models that were raffled off amongst people who purchased their Breyerfest tickets before a certain date. For the first few years the early bird models were OOAK pieces, but eventually they became a run of 3. The volunteer model for 2004 was a chestnut Legionario. And the single-day Stablemates made their debut in 2004 as well! The number of single-day Stablemates has slowly increased since then, and there were five colors in 2009, but they've settled at four for the past many years. Maybe they'll go to five at some point? 

The keychains went away again, but the porcelain special run stayed, as did the porcelain Stablemate. Other special runs included Paloma, the palomino pinto Marabella; El Viajero, the dun Foundation Stallion; Descaro, the bay roan Semi-Rearing Mustang; Cobrizo, the bay Peruvian Paso; and Magnifico, the beautiful spotted Spanish Fighting Bull. There was also a porcelain Hidalgo Stablemate model who appears to have been the first Store Special, aka the first Breyerfest model that was sold in the store that you didn't need a ticket to buy (since the advent of the numbered special run tickets, anyway). 

Ooh! Shock of shocks, there's a third page for 2004 in the commemorative program! There was a third page for 2003 as well, but I missed that last week. Oh well. 

Guest horses for 2004 included TJ, one of the horses who played Hidalgo in the movie (he would later return for Breyerfest 2014) and Rowdy Yates, as well as previous guests Cupid and Arrow, though the real Nobel II and Savannah Dial were unable to attend due to an outbreak of western equine encephalitis. 

Here's the first page of the JAH recap for 2004:

Here's page 2:

And here's page 3:

Now, let's take a look at some auction models:

This unicorn Friesian is so cute! I love his purple/blue tones (and there might be a little pink in there too?). Where does he live now? I want more photos of him. 

I picked this one because we never see test cows! Fun color, too. Maybe we'll get another one someday? 

This one is fun because he's Inconspicuous's color! Who doesn't love seeing models in other models' colorways? He's super cool. I wish we had more photos of this one so we could get better views of the saddle. The lighting must not have been very good when the photo was taken. 

And lastly, I picked this one because she's like a pastel dream! I want other models in this color. She looks like she was painted with chalk or something. 

That's it for this week, but check back next week for Breyerfest 2005!