Chasing the Chesapeake models!

Now that my Chasing the Chesapeake goodies have finally arrived - and I got some time to unpack and photograph them - here they are! First, Chesapeake herself:

This model is gorgeous. Chestnut fits the Giselle mold well, and the gloss is just the icing on the cake. Her gloss is nice and thick, and I really like the chestnuts the company has been doing lately. Sadly, she leaves a little to be desired quality-wise; she has quite a few small bits of debris in her gloss. We needed to get back to the airport as soon as possible after the boutique ended, however, so we couldn't take the time to wait in line and get her exchanged. Fortunately, I don't show, so it's more an annoyance than anything else.

Next on our list is Raven!

This model is also gorgeous. He has lots of subtle dapples and I really like the contrast of the white of his tail. And I couldn't find a thing wrong with him, quality-wise. Just really well-done...although I am left wondering what a Missouri Fox Trotter has to do with a Chesapeake (Bay?) theme - although I'm guessing his name, Raven, is a reference to the Baltimore Ravens.

The next model is...Mason!

I really like this model's paint job. The last palomino Goffert we got was Noelle, and she was on the light side. This guy is typical of the palomino paint jobs we've seen from Breyer lately, with the darker points. I really like the metallic sheen in his paint and his creamy white mane and tail. The two we got were mostly okay, quality-wise, but the one I'm selling has some grayish debris around the edge of one of his pinto markings, and the one I kept has some dark smudges on his mane/tail that look like you could take them off with a white eraser. All of the pinto markings' edges were crisp on both models, though; I would have been disappointed to see smeared edges on a run this small. Both of my Masons are stallions; evidently 24 gelding versions were scattered into the mix. Again, though, I'm questioning the mold and color choice for a Chesapeake theme. "Mason" probably refers to...Freemasonry? Maybe? Or perhaps to Dixon - more on that below.

Third on the list is... Black-Eyed Susan!

I felt really lucky to get this one - she sold out faster than anything else other than Sagamore Rye (who I will get someday! *shakes fist*). Her color could have been boring, what with her lack of white markings, but she has so much depth and shading to her paint job that it's hard to fault her. And I couldn't find any flaws on this one either. The black-eyed Susan is the state flower of Maryland, so I can see where they got that from (although I'd probably have given it to a buckskin horse). I think the name works with her color, though. And they finally used the Fell Pony for something! I thought it was really odd that she was a brand-new mold and they hadn't yet used her for anything other than her first release. Fingers crossed for a silver filigree in December!

And lastly...Dixon!

This model is really, really nice. Her paint job has tons of dapples, but none of them have that unfortunate chicken-wire effect. Her eyes are nicely painted and her color is basically a more-shaded, mealy version of Chesapeake's. She's gorgeous, and if I still had room to collect Halla, I'd keep her. As it is, I sold my three Halla/Bolya models ages ago because I just didn't have room for them. Her name, Dixon, brings me back to my confusion regarding Mason's name - I'm wondering if the two are simply a reference to the Mason-Dixon line.

As for the other two models I didn't acquire, some Googling reveals that Testudo is the (turtle) mascot of the University of Maryland, and Sagamore Rye is a type of whiskey made in Maryland.

So, I think we mostly have a case of Breyer only loosely adhering to the theme of the event, with regard to the mold choices - which is typical. We should probably be happy that they at least used Maryland-themed names. At this point I'm mostly just relieved that there wasn't an Othello mold in the mix, or I would have been losing my mind trying to get my hands on it.

As for the next one of this type of event? Apparently it was announced that the next event will take place in spring 2018 - that works for me. The less last-minute shift trading with coworkers I have to do, the better.