Enter to Win Breyerfest Banners!

So Breyer is running a rather odd promotion - you can enter to win one of six banners from this year's Breyerfest.



Seems kind of odd, but whatevs. I'm not sure what I'd do with a banner that big (they're 4' x 8' or 2' x 5') but it would be an interesting bit of memorabilia! Enter here.

Tractor Supply Ship to Store Option

Tractor Supply now has this year's holiday selection listed on the website! Here's a much better (and not-flipped) photo of Jacy:

 

Mmm, I really like him. Although that color would be really difficult to keep clean in real life. Ha!

Next, here's a photo of Lakota!


 

Like I said before, the color is nice, but I don't collect the mold, so  he won't be coming home with me.

Now, Tractor Supply appears to be doing pre-orders of these two guys (and everything else Breyer), so you can get them shipped directly to you if you want. Or, if you want to save on shipping, there's a ship-to-store option you can choose to have the model shipped to the store closest to you and then you pick it up. I decided to opt for the ship-to-store option this year because my husband works in the same town our nearest Tractor Supply is in, so I can have him pick it up. If you'd like to do the same, go to the main list of Breyer items and click "Add to Cart" under whichever item you want. On the next page you'll pick which store you want the item(s) to ship to, etc. Make sure you do this from the main list of Breyer items, because for whatever reason, the "Add to Cart" option disappears when you click on individual items. As for when these will be in stock, the last I heard was mid-September, so we don't have too much longer to wait. Good luck and happy ordering!

Featured Model - 8/26/2017, Let's Celebrate

Hello and welcome to Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's model is... Let's Celebrate!



This interesting model was produced in 2014 for Breyerfest's Silver Anniversary. Item #711189, he was a run of 350 produced on the Sir Buckingham/Stock Horse Gelding mold sculpted by Sommer Prosser. Though there was some speculation after the fact that there may have been more like 500 of these produced, because I remember Breyer finding a box of them in the warehouse and offering them in a purchase raffle through the website. All I really know is that it was worth getting up at 3am to get in line for this one!

I really like this model - he looks like a birthday cake, which I think was the intention here, and his Celebration Horse decals are colorful and fun. Though that would be a lot of edible paper printouts to apply, if it was a real cake. Humorously enough, there are some errors with his decals - I don't have mine on hand to look at right now, but if I remember right, Lady Phase appears twice despite having only been a Celebration Model once. One of the years might be incorrect, as well? I'll have to look at mine later and confirm that.

EDIT: I finally got a chance to look at this guy close up. Here are the errors: 1998's Celebration Model was Rejoice, but the 1998 on this model is a long-tail Lady Phase. The 2000 Celebration Model (Lady Phase, correctly used this time) appears with a Standing Stock Horse Foal (presumably this is supposed to be Leahs Fancy Breyer, but she wasn't technically the Celebration Model, and she was issued on Amber). That's all I could spot!

This was the first time the mold appeared in plastic, totally unexpected, after he debuted as the porcelain Sir Buckingham and then was used as the Connoisseur Tenacious. Interestingly, since his plastic debut, the mold has only appeared with a loose mane and tail, as opposed to the braided versions seen on Sir Buckingham and Tenacious. I wonder if that's a permanent change, or if we'll see the braided mane and tail in the future? Time will tell.

After his brief 2014 run, the mold was dormant until appearing as the 2015 Horse of the Year Liam, which seems to be Breyer's program for introducing new Classics molds. Since then he's been used for a plethora of things, though, including the current Chestnut Quarter Horse, Palomino "Morgan" and Foal set, and the website-only Black Beauty release. That's a pretty wide variety of breeds for something that started out as a Cob, but that's Breyer for you. I like this mold a lot and have been lucky enough to get all of his (plastic) releases other than the Live Show Benefit Glossy Liam - hopefully they use him again soon!

Looking to the Future: 2018 Vintage Club

Last year I wrote a blog post about upcoming Vintage Club releases. When I investigated further, to see if I'd gotten to that time of the year yet, I was surprised to see that post went up on August 7 of last year.  (Also, I've been blogging for a year already? Unreal...) Since it's already August 25 and this has been a pretty slow news week, I figured I'd write a post to speculate about next year's Vintage Club offerings (especially since I managed to predict two of this year's releases last year!).

So, I'll start by posting this old photo again:



To borrow a bit from last year's post...
So far, club members have seen:

Amigo, the charcoal Adios;
Halo, the Appaloosa-Performance-Horse-colorway on the Stretch Morgan;
Commander, the smoke Five Gaiter;
Denim (Diamonds?), the Copenhagen pinto Shetland Pony;
and Kiowa, the Indian Pony pinto on the Jumping Horse mold.

Molds that appear in the photo, but were used in the VC in other colors, include the Running Stallion, Man o' War, Quarter Horse Gelding, the Belgian, Semi-Rearing Mustang, Fighting Stallion, Running Foal (with Mare) and the Western Prancing Horse.

Now, we already know (more or less) what one of next year's releases will be, if we remember this poll Breyer held earlier this year:

 

So that's another mold that's being reused, as the Semi-Rearing Mustang previously appeared in the club as the red roan Diablo in 2014. I will point out that the palomino one appears in the test photo above, but the other two don't.

Also earlier this year, we got a statement from Sommer Prosser on Blab that this year's Vintage Club was a departure from previous years on purpose (using Sham and the CQH Family, and putting them in non-vintage colors), to try to keep the club from falling into a rut. Since it seems like there's been at least some controversy about that decision, it remains to be seen whether we'll see more of that next year.

Anyway, let's get to our list of vintage molds that haven't been used yet. Here we go! Last year I lined out all of the molds that were released in the '80s, because we weren't sure where Breyer was putting the "vintage" line, but since Sham was used this year, I think anything from the '80s is fair game.

Vintage molds: Appaloosa Performance Horse, Black Beauty, the Black Stallion, Bolya/Halla, Brighty, Buckshot, the Donkey, El Pastor, the FAM and FAF, the Foundation Stallion, the Fury Prancer, Galiceno, the Grazing Mare and Foal, Haflinger, the Hanoverian, Justin Morgan, Legionario, the Lying Down Foal, Midnight Sun, Morganglanz, the Pacer, Phantom Wings, Phar Lap, the POA, possibly the PAF, Quarter Horse Yearling, the Race Horse, Saddlebred Weanling, San Domingo, the Scratching Foal, Sea Star, the Shire Mare, Smoky, the Stock Horse Stallion, Mare and Foal, Stud Spider, the Trakehner, the Western Horse and the Western Pony.

I still don't think Midnight Sun, the Donkey, Sea Star or Phantom Wings will be used, for the same reasons I laid out in my previous post. That still leaves a long list of possible molds, though. I still think the Western Horse is a definite possibility, along with Brighty and the Pacer. Since the CQH Family was used this year, it begs the question of whether Breyer will use another Classics family next year. If so, I think the most likely candidates for that would be the Classic Mustang Family. I would also add the Justin Morgan, and of course the Thoroughbred Mare and Nursing Foal in glossy alabaster - hope springs eternal on those.

As for the contemporary mold with vintage paint job, I'll take a stab at that and say Forever Saige - but I have no idea what color they'd use. It'd be interesting to see her painted up as the Appaloosa Performance Horse, though, so I'll go with that. As for the free Stablemate, it seems like most of the time they go with a modern mold for those - but they seem to have free rein to use the G1 molds again, so it could just as easily be one of those. I'll pick the G1 Morgan Stallion just to be random.

What will it be next year, Breyer? Remember, I'm most hoping to see the Thoroughbred Mare and Nursing Foal in glossy alabaster! Throw me a bone here! Last year's models were revealed on October 4, so we don't have too terribly long to wait - I hope I'm not disappointed!

2017 Brick-and-Mortar special run and Fall Releases revealed!

Just when I thought we weren't going to get anything new today...

 

...it's a loose mane/tail Shannondell! Interesting color, too. Not something I need to buy, thankfully - the mold has never appealed to me and since our local model horse store closed, I don't even know where I'd get one. Better luck next year, Breyer! Good luck to everyone out there who'll be searching for one. 

Editing to add this year's fall releases! Behold!

 

Two new Classics horse and rider sets! Neither of which I need.

 

Sugarmaple, who we already saw a few weeks back! I hope my preorder with Back in the Saddle is still valid.

And finally...


 

New Spirit stuff! Nothing I need there either, fortunately.

Kinda slim pickings this year for fall releases...I guess the mid-years must have taken up all their production space. But the less I need to spend, the better! Bring on Sugarmaple!

My Fylkir replacement is here!

So I did decide to ask for a replacement for my flawed dunalino Fylkir last week. Well, that replacement has arrived and I couldn't be happier! Behold!

 

I got the roan appaloosa! My favorite of the four colors! I love the Burbank colorway - if only I could get my hands on a Burbank! But this guy will do in the meantime.

 

And aside from a teensy-tiny white speck next to his left eye, I don't see a thing wrong with him!

 

Now, I do want to stress that this isn't something that should be abused. I feel I was justified in asking for a replacement for the dunalino due to his flaws (only the second time I've ever asked for a replacement for anything), and if Breyer had asked I would have shipped it back. Since it's probably not cost-effective to ship something so small back to them, that's probably why they don't ask for them back - but if we abuse this privilege, they might just stop offering replacements and only give refunds instead. So let's keep that in mind before we all start deciding we can use this to get additional gambler's choice models for free.

I'm also factoring this into my records of how many of these models were made - we know there are around 1500 members in the Stablemate Club, which works out to 375 of each color. However, since flawed models aren't being exchanged, I'm guessing there are at least 400 of each color, maybe more. So keep that in mind for your own records.

So, that just leaves the black silver Fylkir for me to find - though I'll wait for the secondary prices to go down a bit before I start trying to find one. They're kind of insane right now, especially on eBay! Hopefully I can find one for a good price later and keep the Icelandic collection complete!

Breyerfest Closeups: Griffin

As I was pondering the mysteries of life, the universe and everything today, I realized I never did a closeup post about Griffin, the upcoming second Collector Club special run. So, here goes - Griffin!

 

I must say, he looks mighty orange in that photo, but it could just be something with my camera's settings that day. At first I thought he was a palomino, but he almost looks like a blond sorrel instead.

 

I do have to question why his hooves are all dark, though. Shouldn't they be white, since he has four white socks? Maybe we're supposed to think he's being shown with his hooves blacked, since this is the braided mane version. Or they're doing as much as they can to differentiate this horse from the palomino JCPenney special run from a few years ago.

 

He's definitely handsome, but nothing I need to buy.  As for when he'll be available to the masses, I'd guess sometime next month or in October - it looks like Gideon, last year's second collector club SR, didn't become available until almost Halloween, so we could be in for a long wait.

In other news, it appears that Duende's release has been delayed until September, according to a Breyer employee's post on the Premier Club forum on the website. It'd be nice if they could post that a few other places, but that's Breyer for you. But we're pretty close to September already - just a couple more weeks! Hopefully he comes out promptly! I'm waiting for him.

Featured Model - 8/19/2017, Bella

Hello, readers, and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's model is...Bella!

 

This pretty model was produced in 2013 as one half of the Bella and Mozart set, available only through the Breyer website. If I remember correctly, this set was released around Christmastime that year, back when Breyer had a promotion where you could get 20% off any order for the whole month of December, plus another free shipping promotion. So that was how I got these guys! Mozart is cute too; maybe I'll cover him next week.

So anyway, Bella was issued on the Haflinger Mare mold sculpted by Brigitte Eberl, and was item #711911. They came with matching sparkly pink blankets, which I incidentally just sold at Breyerfest about a month ago after scouring our place looking for random accessories I could bring along to sell.

I like this model because she's vaguely rainbowy and I have a major weakness for anything with rainbows on it. She's also a unicorn, and I love unicorns! It's a win-win. My only nitpit, not even necessarily with this model, is that most of the unicorns Breyer issues tend to be some variation of white; give us some other colors! They did the Lying Down Foal as a black unicorn once; let's see some more of that!

As for the Haflinger Mare, she's another one of those molds that I initially wasn't all that interested in, but it slowly grew on me - I think Bella may even have been the first model I owned on this mold. Most of the colors they've done on her have been pretty good, too; her initial Breyerfest release is beautiful. The Haflinger Mare (and foal) showed up on the Breyer website again as Fiona and Rory earlier this year, and as far as I know the set is still available. She's also in the regular Classics line in another iteration of bay pinto, so I doubt we'll see anything new on her for a while. But I'll be ready when they do use her again (hopefully)! 

Slow News Week...Again

I haven't had much new to post about lately, unfortunately. Although I should mention that some of the Breyerfest leftovers are now available to single-day ticket holders, including full sets of single-day Stablemates, but it sounds like those are sold out now. Plenty of merch left, though!

Breyer is also doing a "Celebrate Dog Days of Summer" promotion where you can get 25% off some dog-related products:





Not really my cup of tea, but if you're in the market for them, it might be a good deal.

Let's hope we get some exciting news next week!

My Fylkirs are here!

...and I got the two colors I'd ranked the lowest, naturally. Oh well! At least I got two different colors. Here they are!

 

The colors really aren't that bad - the other two are just flashier, I guess. Though, like I said before, the splash would have been fine if he were glossy, or had blue eyes (or both). There's a nice metallic/sparkly tint to the dunalino's color, too.

Quality-wise, the splash is mostly okay other than having sloppy eyes.

 

Unfortunately, the dunalino has a few booboos.

 

Nice splotch of paint on that hoof.



And two of his legs are warped inward.



 

And he's got a fingerprint on his shoulder, along with a few pinpoint black marks on his body. Kinda disappointing, all things considered. Maybe I'll ask for a replacement; I haven't decided yet.

That's all I've got for today, although I feel like I should mention today's latest controversy: apparently the image of Sugarmaple hadn't been authorized for release by Breyer yet, so they've been sending cease-and-desist letters to people. So, I took the photo down from yesterday's blog post - hopefully they get that figured out soon.

New special runs keep popping up!

So there are some new releases floating around on the Internet lately. I haven't seen an official announcement yet, but they're the TSC special runs for this year and another clearware special run for Back in the Saddle. I wonder if that's going to become a regular thing? Here's the clearware horse, Sugarmaple:


(image removed as apparently it wasn't authorized for release by Breyer)

This actually isn't the first time the Show Jumping Warmblood has been issued in clearware (apparently both Twilight Terror and Sunny are clearware). He's certainly interesting-looking. One of the alternate names for last year's Patriot was "Bomb Pop;" I wonder if this one should be called, "Camouflage," or something? Nevertheless, I ordered one, because it will be interesting to see what these look like in hand.

As for the Tractor Supply special runs, they're on Geronimo and the old Black Beauty mold:

 

They flipped the Geronimo's photo for the ad, which is kind of weird. But I'm going to have to pick one up - what I can see of that gray in the photo looks really nice! I won't need the Black Beauty, though, despite the fact that his color looks really nice. I'll definitely be haunting our local TSC stores until these beauties show up! 

Featured Model - 8/12/2017, Gemini

Hello, friends, and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. We're featuring a Classics model with this week's...Gemini!

 

This model was produced in 2015 as part of Breyer's "Zodiac Series" issued on various Classic molds. No word on how many were produced, but it was probably considered a regular run...which they may have regretted not making a limited run, since most of the models in the series are still available on the website. There's also no word on who sculpted this model, oddly enough. Anyone out there able to shed some light on that?

This really wasn't too bad of a series from a color standpoint - I really like most of the colors, but none of them were issued on molds I collected. Here's a quick promo photo of the whole series.



When Marigold was revealed earlier this year, though, I decided I liked the Show Arabian well enough to add it to my collection. I do like the combination of colors here - yellow, a bit of green and even some blue in the mane and tail. Combine that with the silver hooves and we have a winner. Frankly, I might have ended up buying all of them if they'd been on molds I collect, because I like all of the colors. The only one that doesn't do a whole lot for me is the second from left on the bottom row...otherwise I could see myself buying all of those colors.

The other big improvement with this series compared to the Blossoms series from a few years ago is that they actually used more molds. The Blossoms had twelve models spread over...three molds. Which makes no sense, considering the number of molds Breyer has. Much better to spread it out and give some other molds a chance to shine.

As for the Show Arabian itself, I do like the releases it's been done in - even the weird original one with the mohair mane and tail and glass eyes. I named mine "Fluffy" because I'm a tad unoriginal when it comes to these things, but it did seem to be nicely done. We'll see how that mohair looks in 20 years, though.

Unfortunately, we already got new Classics this year, so I don't see much being done with this mold in the future. But who knows - maybe they'll use it for a surprise website special run, like last year's Sharpieloosa - oops, I mean Triton. I'm crossing my fingers!

Another test model on the Breyer website!

It's a new month, and that means a new test model on Breyer's website, apparently. Here he is:




Oh, I am definitely entering for this guy. He's still kind of ho-hum, like most of the other tests have been, but at least he's on a mold I collect!

From the email:

This particular test run was painted circa early 2000's. He's a very well done splatter roan chestnut with three small socks with character, and a unique lightning blaze. His tri-eyes sport a U-shaped brown iris and eyewhites in the back corners of his eyes. He's really nicely shaded on both the body and the mane and tail, with slightly darker lower legs and grey shading on the bottoms of his hooves.

He didn't look very roany at first, until I got to a computer and could see the photos more clearly. His roaning is definitely pretty subtle! He's definitely attractive, though, and I prefer the loose mane/tail SJW, anyway. He's definitely worth the price. Good luck to everyone who enters! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Mini True North or: Honey I Shrunk the Breyer

...or as I like to call him, TINY RIIIIIICK BRISHEN!

The first time I saw this model was on a picture someone posted to Blab, and I was super confused by it at first. The sign said it was the Premier Club Stablemate, but it was clearly Brishen? Someone must have messed up somehow...? But why would a full-size model have the same pattern and color as True North? Until I read the caption again and realized it was a tiny Brishen.

 

So Breyer has figured out the technology to shrink a Traditional-size model down to Stablemate size, or presumably any size in between. I am conflicted about this. Trad-size Stablemate models? Classic-size Trad models? Stablemate-size Trad models? How will they do it without the resulting products looking all lumpy and weird like the crystals do? (Although they're getting better at those.) Granted, the mini Brishen here looks pretty good, but I'd have liked to be able to pick him up and take a close look at him.

Anyways, shelf space in my place is limited as it is. I don't have room for a million Stablemate versions of all my favorite Trad models, and vice versa. I'm not one of those people that would have to have every sculpt in every size. I like them to have variety, you know? Not just reproducing the same sculpt in a bunch of different sizes. Part of the allure of the Stablemates and Classics is that they aren't the same as the Traditionals. Call me boring if you want, but I'm just not excited about this development.

That said, I'm not planning on selling my mini True North or anything...but I'm not going to be begging for more shrunk-down Traditionals all the same. At this point I'm hoping it'll just turn out to be one of those Breyer oddities that never goes anywhere. Although I have to admit, if they used this technology on a free model that isn't costing any additional money to the customers, they're most likely going to use it again at some point to recoup their investment in it. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Breyerfest leftovers are now on the website!

A whole 10 days earlier than last year, Breyerfest 2017 leftovers can now be purchased on the website by 3-day ticket holders!

 

Available special run line items are Saffron, Kaalee, Diwali and Darjeeling, and pop-up tent items include both of the plushies and Holi. I'm a bit surprised about Darjeeling showing up here, as I thought I'd heard he sold out, but evidently not. I'm also not surprised about Kaalee, as they made a ton of her and she didn't have the bonus advantage of being half matte/half glossy. I was also surprised that neither of the plushies sold out - that elephant is cute! Not cute enough for me to buy him, but still.

Also available are things like the journal, Tervis cup, coordinates bracelet and some other stuff. I'm thinking about ordering the Tervis cup, but nothing else really interests me. I halfheartedly hoped they'd have leftover items from previous years like they did last year, but no such luck this time. Oh well! I'm just glad they put the leftovers on the website in the first place.

Zion and Moab are here!

Okay, I confess - they got here a few days ago, but I had other things to blog about. So, here they are!

 

I was a little worried about what they'd be like, quality-wise. I'd been hearing a lot of bad things about the mares - namely, that the seams were really bad on some of them, and others were poorly painted.

 

My two aren't too terrible in the paint department - Zion has a smudged spot on her neck, a tiny eartip rub and a couple of other minor issues, and Moab doesn't have any issues at all that I can see, not even with the seams. Which lines up with what I'd been hearing - the mares are messed up, but not the foals.

 

Sorry for the naughty bits in that picture. My Zion is pretty okay, seam-wise, but she does have that very visible seam where the tail joins the body and another right next to the vulva. The factory workers in charge of sanding the seams must have been asleep at the wheel or something, because they're kind of...really noticeable.

 

They do have nice color, though, and I like that the mare is even browner than the set I saw in the Collector Club tent at Breyerfest. Much better than the grayish color in the promo photos. I did notice one odd thing with their eyes, though...

 

...namely, that Moab's eyes are much more detailed than Zion's. The foal gets eyewhites and blue eyes, and all the mare gets are sloppily-painted black blobs with eyewhites? That's weird. You'd think the mare would have some type of eye color too, but evidently not. I almost wonder if the mares were painted in one factory, and the foals in another (I believe Breyer has two factories in China).

But like I said earlier, their paint jobs aren't bad at all - it's just that someone dropped the ball with the seams on the mare. Let's hope that doesn't become a trend!

All in all, I really liked the releases in this series and I hope Breyer continues with it, if only because I really want a glossy alabaster Weather Girl. I think Sommer has done a really good job designing these, and I can't wait to see what comes up next!

Featured Model - 8/5/2017, Mini Falhofnir

Hello, readers, and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's model is...Mini Falhofnir!

 

This handsome little guy was issued in 2014 for the first year a free Stablemate was given to members of the Premier Club. He's on the G4 Icelandic Horse/Indigo mold sculpted by Jane Lunger, so around 750 of these were produced. This was the first time the mold was used after it made its debut at Breyerfest 2013. It seemed fitting to use something on this mold this week since we just found out about Fylkir, the latest Stablemate Club release!

This model makes a nice contrast to the Traditional Icelandic by Kathleen Moody - his hair is a lot more understated compared to Kathleen's wild and crazy, '80s hair metal look. He's attractive, but he's more reserved about it. I like him a lot and I was really excited to see he's being used for the Stablemate Club's gambler's choice!

The only other thing he's been used for since his debut is in one of the current Mystery Foal Surprise sets. I think we're due to get more new single-assortment Stablemates and Stablemate sets next year, so hopefully he shows up somewhere. I wouldn't say no to a new shadowbox set with him in it, either! One can only hope.

Breyerfest Closeups: Mirado (And Bollywood Surprise Numbers)

One of the other items on display at the Collector Club tent was Mirado, the upcoming sixth release in the 2017 Stablemate Club. I definitely wanted to see him up close!

 

Mirado was sculpted and painted by Maggie Bennett. He'll be the final release in this year's Stablemate Club and I'm really looking forward to getting him!

 

I'm still a little hesitant about his face - I think it's his markings that are making his muzzle look really narrow. I can see a little chin in that picture, though, so clearly it's just an optical illusion.

 

Here's a different angle. Is he supposed to be grulla? Somebody at Breyer must really like grulla; it's everywhere these days. I wish I'd been brave enough to flip the model around and get a photo of his other side, but I tend to err on the side of "look, but don't touch" with this type of stuff (and I think that sign right in front of him said Do Not Touch). Oh well.

So that's Mirado. Unfortunately, he won't be available until December, so we'll all just have to wait.

In other news, Breyer released the Bollywood Surprise numbers yesterday:

A - Dark Bay Tobiano (1225 Matte, 175 Glossy)
B - Buttermilk Buckskin (800 Matte, 175 Glossy)
C - Chestnut Overo (650 Matte, 175 Glossy)
D - Grulla Pintaloosa (425 Matte, 175 Glossy)

I'm a little surprised that they made quite so many of the matte bay tobianos, though it seemed like they were everywhere. I thought their numbers and the buckskin's would be more in line with each other. Here are our personal statistics - from 7 surprise models, we pulled:

2 matte bay tobianos (one of which was immediately traded for an accidentally glossy pintaloosa)
2 matte buckskins
1 matte chestnut overo
1 glossy bay tobiano
1 glossy buckskin

So, we got incredibly lucky this year. That figures, since these aren't even on a mold I collect. The last time I got two glossies in one year was 2014 with the Pop the Corks - I've never gotten three before. But I'm not complaining! I traded the glossy pintaloosa for the volunteer model, and selling the other two glossies helped immensely with paying for my other expenditures.

On a closing note, I think this year's surprise models were excellent, other than being on a mold I don't collect. I liked the pintaloosa the best, followed by the buckskin, bay tobiano and chestnut overo. If only I collected Latigo! I'd love to see that buttermilk buckskin on Othello, Forever Saige and a host of others. Same with all the other colors! I hope next year's surprise models are just as exciting!

Fylkir is now available!

The fourth Stablemate Club release is now available for purchase, and it's the Gambler's Choice! Surprising! Here they are!

 

I love them! And I'm relieved that they're on a mold I collect. Breyer's firing on all cylinders here - I haven't seen a release I didn't like other than Coco! I love that they used the Burbank color, although I guess Icelandics don't come in appaloosa. Oh well - it's still my favorite one of the bunch and I hope I get it! We have two accounts, so I'll be crossing my fingers that I at least get two different colors. I like the other colors too, especially the smoky black. If I had to rank them, it would probably go like this:

Burbank appaloosa
Silver black
Dunalino
Splash white

Nothing against splash, but I think they should have made him glossy here so we'd have two matte and two glossies. But I'll still be happy if I get one!

It's interesting that the gambler's choice is the fourth release this year. Last year the decorator was the fourth release. Maybe they're trying to give themselves some more time between this release and the end of the year? I wonder if the end-of-year raffle (if they're doing one again) will be of a full set of these again. If it is, I hope I win!

Breyerfest Closeups: Duende

One of the things I wanted to make sure I got at Breyerfest was up-close photos of some of the upcoming Breyer releases. Now that I've finally gotten my photos onto my computer, I'll start with Duende, the second 2017 Premier Club model.

 

This model was sculpted and painted by Mindy Berg. Of course, this is the resin prototype, so the plastic ones won't look quite the same, but I like what I see so far.

 

He certainly is a handsome guy! I really like his regal face.

 

I wish I could have gotten some photos of his other side, but we've all seen that already, I guess.

 

If I have any nitpicks about this sculpt, it's that I wish he was set up a little better. But I guess he's not in a show ring.

 

I'm really looking forward to purchasing this guy! He should be available later this month - the sooner, the better!