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! 

Flapjack and Waffles, and Kiana is here!

 Good news for Premier Club members! The next release, Flapjack and Waffles, is now available for purchase! 

I don't need either of them, so let me know if you'd like to purchase my set! 

And in other news, one of my Kiana models is here! I entered my NZ address when I joined the club, expecting to confirm a different address later, and was surprised to see it had been shipped to NZ with no further shipping charge. Huzzah! Anyway, here she is: 

She's glossy! I was hoping for a matte, honestly, because my other Kiana already made it to KY and is also a glossy, so I'm going to have to see if I can trade for a matte one. 

Her gloss looks messed up in the photos, but it's okay in person. Must be the reflections. 

I forgot to mention she came double-boxed, so at least the international ones shouldn't be lost or destroyed in shipping. That's the hope, anyway. 

Her right hind leg appears to be splayed out pretty far, but I compared her to my Madonna, and it's actually the left hind leg that's splayed. I guess she'll be extra stable? (Hah...) 

It was hard to photograph, but she does have cute little brown eyes! Between the eyes and her dapples she's a really detailed girl. Almost enough to make me want to show her at Breyerfest next year, or maybe my other one if it has straighter legs. Guess we'll see! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Cryptid and Halloween Blind Bags

 Greetings, readers! I'm back with another Breyerfest Closeups post. Today we're going to be looking at the Halloween Classic, Cryptid, and the two Spooky Stablemates blind bags that were revealed at Breyerfest. And I guess the plush since that's in the photo and I knew that was there the whole time. 

Apparently there's a third Spooky Stablemates mold that will be revealed later. Anyway, here's Cryptid! 

The Classic Lipizzaner isn't a mold I collect, but it's good to see him have something of a renewal lately (although I guess Johann was four years ago already). 

I like his little hang tag. 

Couldn't get a good view of his other side, unfortunately. 

Sorry the Croi is partially out of focus here. I guess you can see the scales better? 

Likewise with the Twist...but at least you can see the ghosts? 

There, at least the Twist is in focus in this one. I'm going to need him, but not the Croi. Hopefully the third one isn't something I want? Guess we'll find out probably soonish! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Flapjack and Waffles

 Greetings, readers! It's time for another Breyerfest Closeups post, and the next Premier Club release is up for their closeup. That's right - time for Flapjack and Waffles! 

They look great together! Like they're off to do some mischief.

The pony is cute, but his neck is too short for my liking (and before you come at me for not knowing horse conformation, it could be correct for all I know - I just don't like it!). 

The donkey is also cute, and I like his dapples.

Too bad I didn't get any closeups of those dapples! Well, anyway. You can kinda see the pony's dapples in this one. 

Here's Waffles from the front. I guess you can kinda see the dapples here. I hope they're spaced out a little better and not so uniformly distributed like they were on Tigerlily. 

Flapjack has a blue eye! So cute. 

Here's Waffles from a slightly different front angle. No blue eyes on this guy (not that I expected them). 

That's it for photos - this might have been when the thunderstorm hit and we all had to rush to the covered arena. Anyways, neither of these guys are anything I need, so my set will be for sale whenever they come available. Hit me up if you're interested in buying! 

Featured Breyerfest - 2003

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! We've reached 2003 (groovy, man), so let's get started! 

Notable events from 2003:

• The US, UK and Australia invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein's government
• Space shuttle Columbia is destroyed on reentry after being damaged during launch
• The original Volkswagen Beetle ends production
• The supersonic airliner Concorde makes its final flight

Meanwhile, in model horse land, Breyerfest 2003, "Blast from the Past" takes place. Far out! 

Dates: July 25-27, 2003
Celebration Horse: Gladwin's Lucky Grey Lady (daughter of previous Celebration Horse Grayingham Lucky Lad)
Number of Celebration Models produced: 4500
Attendance: "more than 4,000" (from the JAH recap)

Here's the first 2003 page from the commemorative program:

The real Gladwin Lucky Grey Lady, or "Gracie," was, as mentioned before, a daughter of Grayingham Lucky Lad. She was a national champion Shire, but I haven't been able to find much other information about her (aside from what we already know). She was apparently still alive in 2011 according to a Facebook post I found. The volunteer model for 2003 was a very handsome glossy charcoal Lonesome Glory, and the number of prize models and special runs continued to expand, with six live show prize models (including not one, but two incredibly limited Silver models), seven special runs (including a triumphant return of the keychains), and three raffle models, including the droolworthy Born to Run and Saturday Night Fever along with the droolworthy Gunsmoke! 

The glow-in-the-dark Andalusian keychains were handed out at a screening of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron held at the KHP, interestingly enough (I got one in a bag of random stuff at a collector event years later). I'd love to get my hands on a Gunsmoke someday. The Dosland auction house sold one a while back, but it got too expensive for me. Interesting that there were three raffles that year, but that does happen every once in a while. 

Here's the first page of the JAH wrapup: 

And page 2:

And page 3:

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

I'm sure this model dashed the hopes of many silver filigree collectors. I don't technically collect the mold anymore, but I wanted him for a long time. 

This baby blue Mosaic with silver mapping is absolutely beautiful! What a legend. No wonder he was the second highest-selling lot in the auction. I'd love an update on where this guy is now! 

This psychedelic Wixom was on the cover of the program, and used in some of the advertising (I think), so I've never forgotten her. She's an icon too! Must not have been terribly popular, as she only sold for $1,000 - must be all the pink. 

Sorry for the tiny photo of this Rejoice. Her listing on IDYB doesn't have a photo, but fortunately she's on the commemorative program page above! Her paint job is really interesting - I wonder how they pulled that off? It doesn't look like something you could do with an airbrush, but I could be wrong. 

That's all I've got for this week! Check back next week for 2004! 

Breyerfest second chance sale!

 Well, readers, the Breyerfest second chance sale is here (well, has been here for quite a while as of this writing)!



At this point, much of it is sold out, but you can still get the special runs Thingvellier, Birka and Ribe, Aqavit and Hirtir, as well as both online limited editions Uff Da and Hygge. All three of the Limited Edition traditionals are also still available, although there are apparently only five Pyxis models left. There's a smattering of merch left as well as some other stuff, if you're looking for any of that. 

I wasn't after much this round, but I was after an Oseberg - and I managed to snag one! Let's hope my order doesn't get canceled. Hope I get a matte one to go with the glossy. Anyway, Oseberg was the first item to sell out, quickly followed by The Wanderer and then the Scandi Surprises, and after that I stopped paying attention for the most part. Interestingly, they had entire VIP box sets for $1,000 each, which I thought was completely overpriced now that Breyerfest is over and you're not getting any of the in-person benefits anymore - but they sold out, so I guess someone thought it was worth it. I guess it was worth trying to sell the boxed up stuff rather than open all the boxes and piece everything out. 

I did think about getting a couple of the tank tops. I'll have to keep thinking about that, though I'm not crazy about the pink one. I do want more tank tops, though. You can never have too many! 

Breyerfest second chance sale is tomorrow!

 Attention, everyone! Alert the internet! Release the hounds! RELEASE THE KRAKEN! The Breyerfest second chance sale is happening tomorrow at 10am EST! That's like...2am tonight, for me. Guess I'm staying up! Hope I can stay awake, but these are model horses we're talking about. I can do anything for model horses. 

Good luck, everyone! I'm hoping there'll be some unclaimed Osebergs in there; that's the only thing I'm missing from this year. Unlikely, but you never know!