This dramatic model was produced in 2010 as a limited run of 2,500. He was the first Traditional-sized Halloween model since 2007, and was the last until 2014, when the Halloween Horse series returned. He was produced on the popular Nokota mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody.
There was a long gap of years prior to and post-release of this model - the reason given by Breyer was that they had "run out of ideas." I can accept that, since ol' Bats here is pretty much just Breyer taking another stab at Nosferatu's pattern. Since then, though, the Halloween Horses have been pretty unique. As for Bats himself, I really like the combination of colors used here, especially his head color. And the improvements in masking technology from 2002-2010 mean none of his bats are fuzzy! At least I think so - I'm not going to go climb up a stepstool to the top shelf to check.
The Nokota is another one of those controversial molds that seems to have been sculpted with more hair than sense. Don't get me wrong - I like him, or I wouldn't have 13 of them on my shelves - but the big strands of hair on his neck do seem like overkill. All the same, he's very animated and dramatic - this photo gets pretty close to my favorite angle of his.
Since his introduction in 2007, the Nokota has been a special run twice (three times if you count the half-year Collector's Choice model Cheveyo), and has been a Breyerfest special run twice (three times if you count Honky Tonk). He's been a web special, he's been used at multiple Breyer collector events, he's been a raffle model twice, and most recently he was last year's flagship store special. Where will he pop up next? I bet he'll be an auction model - which reminds me: if my calculations are correct, we should start seeing auction models on the 16th - holy crap, that's next Friday! Hopefully they have some good ones this year! I can't wait to see them.
No comments:
Post a Comment