Featured Breyerfest - 1992

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! This week we're covering Breyerfest 1992, so get ready for another trip to the distant past (ha, ha...). 

Breyerfest 1992
After the four Breyerfests of 1991, just one event was held in 1992 and every year since. I can't imagine how much work and planning it took to put on four Breyerfests - no wonder they went back to just one. 
Date: July 31-Aug 1, 1992
Celebration Horse: Turbo the Wonder Horse
Number of Celebration Models produced: 1,000
Attendees: I haven't been able to find any information about attendance in 1992. But obviously it was enough to keep holding the event! Here's the 1992 page in the commemorative program: 

According to the Riders in the Sky wiki (who would have thought there would be one), Turbo the Wonder Horse was the mount of Ranger Doug on the Riders in the Sky TV show (and radio show). He was produced on the popular Semi-Rearing Mustang mold. 

Since Breyerfest was back to being just one event, there was only one raffle model - the buckskin Quarter Horse Yearling, which was suggested by Marney Walerius, one of the "founding mothers" of the model horse hobby. 

I also found it interesting that the trade show was held in the Big Barn in the KHP. It looks like some seminars/signings were held in the Covered Arena lounge, but was anything else in the Covered Arena? 

That's about it for this week - information about Breyerfest 1992 seems to be pretty sparse. Check back next week for Breyerfest 1993! 

Be still, my heart

 Greetings, readers! Well, it happened - the Best Customs Contest prizes were officially revealed today! Behold the grand prize, Lingonberry: 

Troubadour looks amazing in chestnut! Ugh, I want him so bad! 

And here's the runner-up prize, Gravlax:

He's also amazing in chestnut appaloosa! I don't even want to think about how high the silent auction lot for these is going to go. Anyways, that knocks Troubadour out of contention for the surprise model. I'm still thinking Vermeer, though I'm hoping for something I don't want so I don't have to figure out how to fit 10 surprise models into my luggage afterward! 

Another sneak peek!

 Well, no resolution to the previous sneak peek yet...but instead, we get another one! Behold: 

Eagle-eyed collectors have already pointed out this is probably a chestnut version of the appaloosa Valerio. Darn it! I was hoping it would be something I don't want. On the other hand, at least it isn't a mini Othello? I've been dreading that since they shrank him down. I wonder if the silent auction will set a record this year? 

Featured Breyerfest - 1991

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! We're covering 1991 this week, so buckle up and get ready! 

Breyerfest 1991
This Breyerfest holds the distinction of having been held in four locations over the summer of 1991. 
Dates: June 8-9 (Oregon)
July 13 (Pennsylvania)
Aug. 10-11 (Kentucky)
Aug. 17-18 (California)
Celebration Horse: Mustang Lady
Number of Celebration Models produced: 2,500
Attendees: I'm not sure how many attended the four events in total. However, further research about Breyerfest 1990 (last week's post has been updated to reflect this) revealed that there actually were 10,000 attendees in 1990. So it's probably safe to assume there were 10,000 or more attendees in 1991 as well. Here's the page for 1991 in the commemorative program: 

The real Mustang Lady was a mustang mare who excelled in endurance events. I'll let you read the information about her in the commemorative program page above rather than try to restate all of it. Mustang Lady (the horse) was present at the Oregon and California Breyerfests. The model was issued on the popular Indian Pony mold sculpted by Chris Hess. Mustang Lady was (again) the only special run produced for Breyerfest that year, other than the raffle models...but what a group of raffle models! Four different raffles were held in 1991, one for each of the locations; these raffles included the copenhagen San Domingo, florentine Legionario, gold charm Man o' War and wedgewood blue Sham. 

The above image is from this Breyer History Diva post about Breyerfest. I'm surprised that they managed to squeeze everything into one day (and also wondering why, considering all the other events were two days long). Maybe the KHP was booked that Sunday for something else? Who knows. But 1991 was the first year the diorama contest was held! 

There wasn't much else I could find about the 1991 Breyerfests, but here's an auction model from IDYB: 

Looks pretty similar to the Coal release from 2002, though Coal's socks are a bit smaller. This auction model was sold at the California Breyerfest. 

And this auction model was also sold at the CA Breyerfest. It looks like he's a test for Dream Weaver, though the face marking looks a little different. 

That's all I have for this week! Check back next week for Breyerfest 1992! 

Noooooooo!

 Well, there's a new sneak peek on the blog...

...and it looks suspiciously like a chestnut Troubadour. In the same shade of chestnut they've been doing for the Best Customs Contest prizes for the last few years. NOOOOOOOO! Another one I won't be able to get...sigh. At least he'll be pretty! Only 64 days until Breyerfest - woohoo! 

Yeah, nah

 Exciting news, readers! There's another test run model for Collector Club members to enter for! Let's check him out: 

He's pretty plain for something with a $1200 price tag. But every regular run release starts somewhere, I guess. From the email:

The Pacer (mold #46) was Breyer’s first representation of a racing Standardbred. As his name implies, he depicts the breed’s distinctive lateral “pace” gait that some, but not all, Standardbreds race at. He is decorated as a simple but elegant liver chestnut with three socks and a complimentary forest green halter. This test run piece likely dates to the 1990s or very early 2000s.

I don't need this one, but good luck to everyone entering! 

Featured Breyerfest - 1990

 Hello and welcome to the inaugural edition of the (again) revamped Featured series! Having concluded my look back at old issues of JAH (for now, anyway), I decided to take a look back at the old Breyerfests of yore! Starting with 1990, of course, because that was the first Breyerfest. Read on for more 1990 highlights! 

Breyerfest 1990
July 28-29, 1990 (a bit later than modern Breyerfests)
Celebration Horse: Dr. Peaches
Number of Celebration Models produced: 1,026 (according to IDYB)
Attendees: I thought only about 1,000 people attended (the 1990 page in the commemorative program states 1,026, the same as the number of Celebration Models produced - which seems suspect), but a later Breyerfest blog post states the number as 10,000 (seems like way too many). I'm going to assume the number of attendees was closer to 1,000 than 10,000. Edit: This may be incorrect. See down below for the addendum! Anyway, here's the aforementioned page from the 2014 commemorative program:

The real Dr. Peaches was an eventing champion owned and ridden by Bruce Davidson, who now has his own statue outside of Rolex Stadium at the KHP. Bruce and Dr. Peaches won the Kentucky Three-Day Event (sponsored by Rolex at the time and Defender now) three times. Dr. Peaches was not present at the first Breyerfest, according to Breyerhorseref and the commemorative program. Instead, Misty II was the first Breyerfest guest horse. 

Being the first Breyerfest, there were a lot of differences between it and the Breyerfests we know of today. Dr. Peaches was the only special run model produced for the event, aside from one raffle model which I'll cover later. The Celebration Models were handed out at Saturday's dinner (which was held in the old tobacco barn), which is why earlier Celebration Models are sometimes referred to as "dinner models." The above photo comes from a Breyer blog post about that early Breyerfest and features the reservation form that had to be submitted in advance to attend the dinner and get your model. 

The above image is a scan of a 2019 Vintage Club booklet from Breyerhorseref. The only raffle held in 1990 was for the legendary gold florentine Misty model pictured above. 20 models were raffled off (I believe this raffle was held in a parking lot at the KHP?), while one more was sold at the live auction and four were presented to members of Misty's human family, according to Breyerhorseref (the commemorative program says only that four models were mounted on presentation bases). 

Despite the differences between old Breyerfests and new, some things clearly haven't changed, based on the following illustrations by Sue Sudekum that appeared in the now-defunct Hobby Horse News magazine and were later posted by Andrea Gurdon (RIP) on her Breyer History Diva blog:

Page 1
Page 2 
Page 3

And here's a flier for Breyerfest 1990, from another Breyer History Diva blog post:

That's it for this week. Check back next week (hopefully) for Breyerfest 1991! 

Edited to add: Sheesh, clearly I should have read a bit more of that Breyer blog post I got the Dr. Peaches/Old Kentucky Nights reservation form. Check this out: 

On the left is a scan of a page from the Feb/March issue of JAH. On the right is a scan of the Breyerfest recap from the Sept/Oct 1990 issue. It clearly says there were 10,000 attendees! I guess my assumptions were way, way off. I stand corrected!