Featured Breyerfest - 1996

 Hello and welcome to yet another edition of Featured Breyerfest! We're covering Breyerfest 1996 today. Wow, it's been (almost) 30 years! Let's get started. 

Breyerfest 1996
July 26-28, 1996
Celebration Horse: Tseminole Wind
Number of Celebration Models produced: 3800
Attendees: Unknown

The real Tseminole Wind was a Half-Arabian owned by Maddy Winer. He, his dam Karma Gypsy, and sister SS Morning Star all had their own portrait models. Maddy Winer is a singer and would perform while riding Karma Gypsy. She still owns and shows Arabians so presumably they all had show careers, but I wasn't able to find much more information about them. 

Other guest horses included Dover the dressage horse; Clue II the trick horse (I had his Breyer model!); Misty II, Black Mist and Twister, all Misty descendants; and Bonnie Shields, sculptor of the then-new Brown Sunshine model. 

There was still only one raffle model (Malibu), plus the volunteer model (black dapple Semi-Rearing Mustang), and the keychain special runs returned! This time we got clearware G1 Standing and Lying Foals and blue Standing and Lying Foals. 

Here's the wrap-up from JAH that year: 

Looking at these pictures is making me miss Kentucky. Here's the rest of the wrap-up:

There's one auction model in the wrap-up there, but here are some other interesting ones - I'll start with this dapple gray Khemosabi: 

I wonder where this model is now? I'd like to see some more photos of it. It's a pretty paint job, even for a subpar sculpt like Khemo. 

I also like this brindle Bolya. It's interesting to look at Breyer's early attempts at paint jobs like this. 

I love this black version of Yellow Mount! Which reminds me - is the Vintage Club ever going to get an alternate color of Yellow Mount? Seems like something that should have happened by now. 

And before I forget, here's a photo of Stephanie Macejko with Misty II: 

That's it for this week, but check back next week for Breyerfest 1997! There's a surprise raffle, the first non-keychain special run and more! 

Say hello to Svalbard!

 Well, the reveal is here - yesterday's teaser was indeed the live show grand prize! Meet Svalbard: 

I wasn't expecting Wyatt, but I'm happy with it - I won't be sad at all when I don't win any prize models now. Or, if I'm astoundingly lucky and do win something, I'll have trade fodder to try to get something else! Wins all around. Good luck to everyone entering the show! 

Another sneak peek and official mid-year announcement!

 Greetings, readers! Well, I'll get the mundane out of the way first - we have our official announcement of this year's mid-year releases! Looks like all we're getting is the two Traditionals and some new CollectAs. Oh well. More excitingly, there's a new sneak peek on the Breyerfest blog! 

I feel like I should know what it is, but I'm not recognizing it. Is that a flank/hip on the right? It didn't match up with any of the molds I Could think of. It could also be a shoulder/belly, I guess. It's probably the live show grand prize. Guess we'll find out tomorrow! 

Najwa and (presumably) mid-year releases!

 Greetings, readers! Well, if you're a Stablemates Club member, the next release is available to purchase! 

The majority of the models in this run were produced in black, but 217 were produced in the alternate chestnut color shown above. Good luck to everyone hoping to get a chestnut one! Or both. May the odds be ever in your favor! I'm not a fan of this mold, so my three will be for sale once I've seen if I got a chestnut or not. 

In other news, what appears to be a couple of mid-year releases appeared on Amazon today! Here's one of them:

According to the Amazon listing, his name is Caprechio del Richuelo. Nothing I need, fortunately. But here's the other one: 

Ooh, now this one I've gotta have! I hope the KHP has him in stock in time for Breyerfest. I couldn't find the Amazon listing for him, though. Presumably it'll come back at some point. 

Those are the only two models that have shown up so far, but there may be more to come that we just haven't seen yet. Last year's mid-year releases were announced on June 9, so presumably we'll find out soon! 

We've got auction models!

 Good news, everyone! We got to see some of this year's Breyerfest auction models today! Interestingly, the blog post says the live auction will take place in the beer garden this year rather than at the Hall of Champions. Yay! The Hall of Champions has been full to overflowing for the past couple of years - it's way past time to move it somewhere else. Let's hope the beer garden has enough seating as well, eh? Anyway, here's the first auction model:

Interesting - they changed the backdrop. The model reminds me of Ivy League for some reason. I'm not crazy about the jagged edges on his whites; I've never been an SCO fan, so that may be why. 

Another one I don't need, but she looks pretty in gloss! She'd make a nice pair with this auction PAS. 

Ooh, now this one I like. Bay roan always looks nice, though I can't help but wonder what he'd look like in gloss. 

Nice color on this one, and I especially like the tail, but I wish they'd fix Lady Phase's face. The mold badly needs to be retooled. 

So that eliminates these four molds as the surprise. I'm still hoping/dreading Vermeer as the surprise, but I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Featured Breyerfest - 1995

 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:

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. 

Breyerfest preference lists are now live!

 Attention, Breyerfest ticket holders! If you bought an All-Access or Online Access ticket, you can now submit your preferences for special runs! If you're logged into your account, the link for the form will be visible in the Breyerfest tab on the website. We have until 6/9 to submit preferences, so don't miss out! You'll be assigned models at random if Breyer doesn't receive a preference form from you. Good luck, everyone!