Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! This week we're taking a step into the "eyes of a ranger" (or possibly the "unsuspecting stranger") to take a look back at Breyerfest 1995!
Breyerfest 1995
July 28-30, 1995
Celebration Horse: Mego (equine star of Walker, Texas Ranger)
Number of Celebration Models produced: 3,000
Attendees: 3,000 according to the commemorative program, but this seems low.
Here's the first 1995 page from the commemorative program:
And here's the other page for 1995:
.png)
The real Mego was a Paint Horse who was trained as a trick horse and ended up appearing on Walker, Texas Ranger several times as the horse ridden by Chuck Norris. Unfortunately, Mego did make it to Breyerfest but had to leave shortly after arriving due to a veterinary embargo placed on Texas (and several other states) because of an outbreak of vesicular stomatitis. For more on Mego's story, I'll refer you to this
article by the Unicorn Woman, which features the high drama surrounding Mego's appearance (or lack thereof; were the police involved in this incident actually Texas Rangers? Kidding...)
The raffle model for 1995 was Mystique, the gray appaloosa Jumping Horse, while the volunteer model was a palomino Lady Phase. Unfortunately, there weren't any other special runs this year, not even keychains. They'll be back for 1996 though; don't worry. Did you notice that test Family Arabian set on the second 1995 page for $1200? That's the equivalent of about $3200 now. The Family Arabians aren't terribly popular, so I wonder if they'd sell for that amount now? Interesting to think about. I'm wondering if the dapple gray Shire Mare in the photo is glossy - only six of those are known to exist, so she'd be worth a pretty penny even now.
Here's the first page of the JAH recap that appeared in JAH:
And here's the rest of the recap:
And lastly, let's take a look at some of the auction models (more can be found
here). First off, there was a PAS/PAF that matched the Steel Dust special run from 1994.
The foal and stallion were separate lots, so I wonder if the same person got them both? Is the family all together somewhere? Inquiring minds want to know.
There was also a gold charm Hound Dog, with all his droopy charm.
I also liked this buckskin pinto Yellow Mount. We still haven't gotten an alternate-color Yellow Mount in the Vintage Club, have we?
This one is described as a leopard appaloosa, but with that marking on his face they could have described him as a medicine hat pintaloosa, am I right? Heh. It's worth noting that Breyer was still using the old metal masks that clamped onto the models in 1995 - it would be a few more years before the laser-cut stick-on masks became commonplace. Though it's certainly possible that the solid black markings were just airbrushed onto this guy, rather than using a stencil.
And with that, we've reached the end of this year's recap! Check back next week for Breyerfest 1996. And if you're in Texas, don't forget to look behind you, 'cause that's where the
ranger's gonna be.
.png)
