Featured Breyerfest - 2007

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! Moving right along, we're covering 2007 this week, so let's get going! 

Notable events of 2007: 

• The original iPhone makes its debut
• Bob Barker retires from The Price Is Right after 35 years
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is the highest-grossing film of the year
  
• The Nintendo Wii is the most popular video game console of the year 

Meanwhile, Breyerfest 2007 took place in Kentucky! 

Dates: July 20-22, 2007
Theme: Stars & Stripes
Celebration Horse: Rugged Painted Lark
Number of Celebration Models produced: 5,000

Here's the first 2007 page from the commemorative program:

Rugged Painted Lark was a son of Breyer portrait mold/model Rugged Lark, and was ridden and trained by Lynn Palm, who also rode and trained Rugged Lark. Rugged Painted Lark died in 2022. Other guest horses at this Breyerfest included Hot Shot the barrel racer, Blackjack the Morgan, Doctor Zhivago, Like Thunder, Cupid and Arrow and more. Here are some on-the-ground photos courtesy of Lea R:

Rugged Painted Lark in his stall

Doctor Zhivago looking like his porcelain counterpart

Blackjack looking handsome

Here's 2007 page 2 from the commemorative program: 

Special runs this year included Heartland, Rushmore, the All-American Trio, Lady Liberty, Alamo, Times Square and Sundance, as well as Doctor Zhivago (the porcelain). Single-Day Stablemates were Stars and Stripes, and the Store Special was Cream Soda. Prize models were the coveted Niagara and Betsy Ross, as well as Yankee Doodle Dandy and a long list of glossy prizes. Additionally, this was the first year the early bird model (dapple gray Five Gaiter) was a run of 3 models, rather than three OOAK models. I still think Rushmore is a really great color for Smarty Jones. A little bit sad I sold mine. I also used to have Heartland but sold her as well. Still have Times Square and Sundance, though! 

Here's the third 2007 page from the commemorative program:

Here's the recap for 2007 from JAH:

And page 1 of the scrapbook from the same issue:

And the rest of it:

Now, let's look at some of the auction models! 

Firstly, here's this "dappled silver black" Bouncer. Looks like a dapple gray to me, but I'm no expert. He's pretty, though! 

I love this unicorn Huck! Wish we could have another one - Alaric was so long ago. As a bonus, here's another photo of this guy courtesy of Lea R.! 

So pretty! Anyone know where this guy is now? 

This one is odd - he looks like he's molded in that color. He has the unicorn beard, but no horn. Was Breyer experimenting with molding things in other colors, or is he an old test from the archive? We may never know. 

This one is interesting too - bay going gray?!  I want to see a series of these in a progression from bay to gray. So pretty! 

Bonus model! This one is from the silent auction. This one is titled "Blue Injection Molded Foal." She definitely would go well with the Running Stallion from earlier. They just need a mare to match! 

And that's it for this week. Check back next week for Breyerfest 2008! 

Featured Breyerfest - 2006

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! We're covering 2006 this week, so let's start with some notable events of 2006:

• Twitter, now known as X (ugh) launches
• Pluto loses its status as a planet and is reclassified as a dwarf planet
• Steve Irwin is killed by a stingray 
• Google buys YouTube for $1.6 billion

And in Kentucky, Breyerfest 2006 happened! 

Dates: July 28-30, 2006
Theme: Summer Carnival
Celebration Horse: Joker
Number of Celebration Models produced: 5,018

Here's the first 2006 page from the commemorative program:

Joker is still alive at the age of 28 (Pokerjoe died this past May, sadly). And I have more guest horse photos! 

I believe these are Magic Man's Grand Slam (top) and Sonador (bottom). Thanks to Lea R. for the photo! 

Here's the second 2006 page from the commemorative program! 

Keychains have departed the special run lineup again. Instead we get the cute little Trixie as the single-day Stablemate, complete with cute little costume! The porcelain for this year is the cute little palomino Circus Ponies set. I still want to see the Circus Ponies (perhaps sans costumes) as Stablemates. Please? Someday? Pretty please? Other special runs include Highwire, the metallic dun Huck; Pierrot, the buckskin splash pinto MFT; Maximus, the wild bay Clydesdale Stallion; Appydaze, the black extended blanket Hackney Pony; Ringmaster, the chestnut pinto Spirit; Nimbo, the copenhagen Elephant; Carnivale, the green "carnival glass" Fighting Stallion; and the Three Ring Circus Set featuring mini Jade, mini Mauvelous and mini Tortuga. 

And here's page 3 from the commemorative program:

Tregoyd Journeyman is so beautiful! And Goffert as well. Wish I'd been there to see them in person, but in 2006 I was still in college, working at Walmart and definitely didn't have the money to attend (or anyone to go with, for that matter).  

Here's the first page from the JAH Breyerfest recap:

And here's page 2 of the recap:

Now, let's take a look at some of the auction models. 

This one is described as "prism paint on clear plastic" on IDYB. Looks holographic to me! Breyer must have been on a color-shift paint kick, because there were several color-shift auction models this year. 

This one is an alternate version of Cai Lun done in a "blue pottery" variation. 

I feel like this one came up for sale on eBay a few years back with some damage? Or maybe it was an extremely-similar custom? Can't remember for sure. 

I thought this one was super cool! There's something about the old-style blue+pinto combination that really fascinates me. I wish they'd do something like this on a mold I collect! 

That's it for this week. Check back next week for Breyerfest 2007! 

August Collector Club Newsletter!

 Well, it's the end of the month and you know what that means...time for the Collector Club newsletter! If you're a club member, check your email for more. This month's newsletter features the Halloween store, a 10% off sale ("just because"), a feature story about filigree paint jobs, a Spectre giveaway, and this sneak peek:

Prevailing opinion is that this is the upcoming Brighty web special, Dryandra, but I'm mildly confused why they'd bother to sneak peek something they've already revealed? Seems odd. Guess we'll find out soon! 

2026 Halloween Store and the last Breyerfest Closeup!

 Greetings, readers! Exciting news - the 2026 Halloween Store is now open! Check it out here. The mysterious third Spooky Stablemate that wasn't revealed at Breyerfest turned out to be a cute little G3 Highland Pony! 

That pony is so cute! I only want the Arabian, but I'm sitting this round out. Hopefully a friend can get an Arabian for me. 

As has been noted online, the pony's design is based on Stitch, the plush from 2024. They'll probably have to start using the plush designs if they want to keep doing these Stablemates, because they're going to run out of designs otherwise! 

And in other news, it's time for the last Breyerfest Closeups post for this year! It's the Premier Club bonus Stablemate...behold! 

I'm guessing he'll be Carmen's color, or maybe Flapjack. Hope we find out soon! 

He (she?) looks better in these photos than in the teaser we got last year, but I'm still iffy about it. 

Seems too long and skinny for me, but we'll see what the finished product looks like. 

And that wraps it up! We're done with Breyerfest Closeups for another year. Here's to next year! 

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!