Kohana is here!

My Kohana arrived last week, but I just haven't had the time to talk about him yet. Observe!

I guess it's true what they say: anything is adorable in miniature! Look at the cute little box! And I really like that color on the G3 Mustang. He's already been sold, though, so I'll just have to bide my time until the mini Brishen comes out.

The lack of detail on the feathers is a little weird, considering the lengths they went to to give him mapping and a blue eye, plus the roaning in his coat. They're basically just feather-shaped blobs.

Other than the feathers, I didn't see anything majorly bad quality-wise, although I didn't take the model out of his little box due to it being a sales piece. I'll leave that to the new owner.

And check out the back of the box!

An actual photo of this year's new mold! We'd only seen a silhouette before, I think. I'm not sure I like it...it just looks weird. Maybe once we see it with paint? I wonder if it'll look like that gray horse on the box? I wonder how long we'll have to wait before we see it. I guess that's the tradeoff for being able to see all of the molds in advance. Definitely a tradeoff I'll happily take, since it meant I only needed one club membership this year. 

Yet another sneak peek!

Another week, another sneak peek on the blog...take a look!



The general consensus on the Internets is that this is a Shannondell...gee, I wonder how it'll tie into the theme? Another racing name? I bet it's Flash!

I'm guessing this is a raffle model due to the dapples and mapping, but maybe they're bringing back the Breyer Store Connoisseur special? That would be cool, although I wouldn't be buying it. Hopefully they learn from 2014 and 2015 and lower the price if so. I think it's a raffle model, though.

We'll find out what it is later in the week, along with their justification for using a (pinto!) draft mold in a racing-themed event. Honestly, it's too tiring to get upset about them not following the theme anymore - I'm just indifferent to it, other than to wonder why they bother with the theme at all if they're not going to adhere to it.

Featured Model - 2/24/2018, Black-Eyed Susan

Hello 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...Black-Eyed Susan!



This little lady was produced in 2016 for the Chasing the Chesapeake collector event. She's item #712198 and is one of 76 produced on the Fell Pony mold, sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

I love this little model - she's so small she hardly takes up any space! That's a good thing when shelf space is at a premium. She and her only other release, the original Carltonlima Emma, can be moved pretty much wherever to make room for other things.

I was fortunate enough to be able to buy this model at the actual Chasing the Chesapeake event, which was a lot of fun. Her color is really nice, although I'd personally like to see at least a little bit of white markings to make the model a little more visually interesting. 

I like the Fell Pony mold (last year's auction model was to die for), but I think it may have gotten a bit lost among all the other new molds we've had lately. I wish Breyer would use her for something - maybe she'll make a Breyerfest appearance as some type of companion/stable pony, like Exterminator's Peanuts. I could definitely get behind that!

Speaking of Breyer special events, at Chasing the Chesapeake we were told the next event would happen in the spring of this year. I wonder if that's still the case, with all we've been seeing about various Breyer staffers moving on to other positions? They would need to be notifying us pretty much right now to be able to plan effectively for any type of spring event. Maybe it's been pushed back to the fall? I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

More Bad Breyerfest Predictions

As a follow-up to Tuesday's post, I present the rest of my Breyerfest special run predictions! This post will cover the rest of the special runs typically seen at Breyerfest, including raffle models, prize models, pop-up-tent stuff, etc. Disclaimer: I'm bad at predicting things, so most of these are probably wrong. I'm not going to try to predict colors, either, because I'm probably wrong anyway. So, on with the show!

Raffle models - Bristol (steeplechaser anyone?), Forever Saige

Diorama contest prize: Phar Lap

Live show glossy prizes: Empres, Latigo Dun It

Live show reserve grand: Adios
Live show grand: Roxy

Custom contest grand prize: Bristol in bay
Custom contest runners-up Stablemates: Whatever the 2018 PC Stablemate is (mini bay Bristol)

Costume contest prize: glossy Brass Hat (as usual)

1-Day Stablemates: Mirado, G4 Driving Horse, G2 Appaloosa, G4 Endurance Arabian

Volunteer Model: Geronimo

Crystal horse: Make a Wish/Justadream

Pop-up Tent Classic: Bella

Pop-up Tent Stablemate: Mini Brishen (why not?)

One-week Volunteer Warning!

Attention, readers: The last day to get your Breyerfest 2018 volunteer applications in is Thursday, March 1. Entries must be postmarked by that date, though they can also be emailed. I did apply to be a volunteer this year - hopefully I get picked! I always have a lot of fun doing it, despite the heat and humidity - and volunteer models are an excellent form of compensation. If only I could get paid in plastic ponies more often! Good luck to everyone! The volunteer application can be found here.

Julep and...Pim?

There was a vague, cryptic post on the blog yesterday, and it appears to have led to this sudden special run reveal today! Meet Julep and Pim!



From the blog:

Julep is obviously named after the iconic Kentucky Derby staple the Mint Julep and Pim is named after the Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore where the Preakness Stakes is held each year.

Pim's name is just dumb. They thought about it long enough to name Julep after the mint julep, but couldn't Google the official Preakness Stakes drink like I just did? Here you go, Breyer.

The official drink of the Preakness Stakes is the Black-Eyed Susan cocktail. I admit that's a bit of a mouthful compared to "Julep," but "Susan" (or even Susie) would have been easy enough, and the foal is female, so it still works. And it doesn't scream, "We wanted to use Pimlico but that's copyrighted!" No, instead we get Pim. Come on, really?

Other than Pim's dumb name, I really like them. Both of them look good in those colors, but I think Carina looks good in any color, honestly (can't wait for this year's holiday horse!). They're definitely on my list for this year!

Of course, if you read the "hint" on the blog yesterday, it also mentions the Belmont. Could something else be in store for later?

Breyerfest 2018 Special Run Predictions

It's that time of year again - time for me to (badly) predict some special runs at Breyerfest! My apologies for being a bit late with this post this year - last year's was published almost three weeks earlier! Oh well.

My track record on these matters is fairly poor; I did manage to successfully predict two of the single-day Stablemates last year, but that was about it. Well, to be fair I did predict the rest of the Premier club molds to be used, but anyone could have done that. Like last year, I'll keep this post's predictions to the special run line items so the post isn't super-long.

We already know two of this year's special runs - Straight Bet and Dead Heat. That leaves six other models for the special run line. We can discount any molds used in last year's lineup, so that disqualifies Shannondell, the Semi-Rearing Mustang, Valegro, Geronimo, Yasmin, Latigo and the Cow. It's probably safe to discount molds from 2016 as well, so that eliminates Silver, Esprit, Make a Wish, Wyatt, Bobby Jo, Hermosa and Corazon and the Brahma Bull.

The trend for the last few years has been for Breyer to use at least one, and probably more (or all) of the previous year's Premier Club molds in the special run line. This year we've already seen Duende as Straight Bet. However, True North is appearing as Icabad Crane in the Breyer Store, so he won't be in the special run line. We'll probably still see Carina and Selene, though (they aren't racing molds, but as we've already seen with Duende, they'll probably just give them a racing-themed name). Here's a quick rundown of previous years' mare and foal special runs:

2010 - Stage Mom and Child Star
2011 - Hansel and Gretel (classics)
2012 - none
2013 - Naomi and Wynonna
2014 - Kodiak and Denali (bears)
2015 - none
2016 - Mamacita and Chico
2017 - none

So I'd say it's likely we'll see them in the special run lines, and those are the easy predictions to get out of the way. What else might we see? Last year we had an old mold (the Semi-Rearing Mustang). Might we see another of those? I almost wonder if they'll use Adios for something, since he was based on a Standardbred racehorse. I could get behind that, except he was used in the special run line as recently as 2014. Would they use him again so soon? I'd suspect he'd be a raffle or prize model before being in the special run line. Looking at some of the other mold possibilities...maybe we'll see a Big Ben? He was last used in 2011 and his mold is 21 years old this year. I don't think we're likely to see many other Moody molds this year, so I think maybe we'll see him in the special run line.

There will also probably be a decorator of some sort, but I have no idea what sort of racing-themed decorator. Who knows, maybe Breyer will mix things up and not have a decorator this year. My guess would be Smarty, but we're already getting Ruffian in the lineup, and she's on a base. Would Breyer put two models on bases in the special run line in the same year? I guess we have precedent with Rushmore and Heartland in 2007. I guess I'll go with Smarty for the decorator, but I'm not very confident about it.

And then you have the animal. Dogs and goats are popular with racetrack people, but the Mountain Goat mold was used in 2011, so I'm not sure it would get used again anytime soon. Maybe the Bighorn Ram? They did use it for a micro-run in 2016; maybe they have some extra bodies lying around that need to be used. None of the dog molds are anything I'd expect to see hanging around a racetrack. Too bad they don't have a Greyhound mold, eh? I think the conclusion here is that Breyer needs some new animal molds. I just don't see how Breyer could tie in any of the bovine molds or any of the other wildlife molds.

I guess there is an Alpine Goat and a Miniature Sicilian Donkey among the Companion Animal molds, but I don't think either of them is a large enough scale to appear in the special run line unless they're part of a set, which might be plausible. Maybe in a three-piece set with the Jack Russell Terrier? Except the JRT was used at Breyerfest last year. That was a Store Store special, though, so maybe they'd use it in the special run line? I guess one of the Trad goats seems more likely.

As for the surprise, I'm stumped about that as well. Here's a list of previous years' surprise models:

2009 - Quarter Horse Gelding
2010 - none
2011 - Ethereal
2012 - Flash
2013 - Roxy
2014 - Nokota
2015 - Lonesome Glory
2016 - Esprit
2017 - Latigo

I'm pretty sure absolutely no one thought last year's surprise model would be on Latigo. I thought it would be the Moody Andalusian, myself. But the surprise model tends to be on a mold that doesn't appear anywhere else in the Breyerfest lineup, not even in the live auction. And the surprise mold for each year frequently appears in the live auction the previous year. This holds true for the Latigo surprise - there was a Latigo in the 2016 live auction. There was an Esprit in the 2015 live auction, Lonesome Glory in 2014, and so on.

So, taking a quick look at 2017's auction models, likely candidates would be (in my opinion) the Show Jumping Warmblood, Idocus, Yasmin and maybe Desatado. I doubt Breyer would use an older mold (the QHG was older, but that "surprise" was known ahead of time), and many of the others from last year had already been surprise models or would be way too out of left field - Shannondell, the Fell Pony, etc.  I'm hopeful that the name of the surprise will provide something of a clue, but I'm not confident about that either. I feel like Yasmin would be a good candidate, so I'm going to go with her for the surprise until/unless something disproves it somewhere down the line.

We're still short one model, so for the sake of randomness I'm going to throw in Giselle, because she hasn't been in the special run line since 2010 and she'd make a nice addition to the lineup.

That's all I can manage to come up with so far. Here's a recap:

Duende (Straight Bet)
Ruffian (Dead Heat)
Carina and Selene
Big Ben
Smarty Jones
Giselle
Bighorn Ram?
Yasmin

I'm not even going to try to predict colors on these, except for the usual solid/pinto/Appaloosa/more different pinto pattern they've been using for the surprise models. I'm probably wrong on most of these guesses anyway, but hopefully we get more information soon. I feel like we know a lot more about this year's Breyerfest releases than we did at this time last year, so that's something. Still crossing my fingers for a Rose Hambletonian in plastic, though!

Featured Model - 2/17/18, Yasmin

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



This pretty lady was the final release of the 2016 Premier Club, with approximately 750 produced. She's item #90181 and was sculpted by Brigitte Eberl.

Yasmin first appeared as a cryptic hint on Breyer's website back in October 2016 - some of the speculation back then jokingly suggested that the hint looked like some kind of bovine breed. Fortunately, the model did turn out to be a horse - otherwise I'm sure we'd have had riots among Premier Club members.

I haven't measured her to be exact, but I'm pretty sure Yasmin is among the longest models I've ever encountered - she's huge! It's very difficult to get her to fit into my photo tent and still take a photo of her. I'm dreading when Zena eventually joins my herd - that horn looks like it'll add at least an inch to her length, and it's hard enough to photograph her as it is!

Oh well. That's a problem for the future - Zena hasn't even been in stock anywhere yet. The dreaded shipping delay from China strikes again. Despite being such a new mold and appearing in the Breyerfest lineup last year, I think Yasmin may be a strong candidate for this year's Breyerfest surprise model.

Or maybe she'll show up as a web special? I'm so excited about the continuation of America the Beautiful - so many more possibilities! And there are a lot of molds out there that have never appeared as web specials before. Yasmin-as-web-special would be a welcome addition to my herd! Just, you know, maybe in a couple of months or after Breyerfest, to facilitate my attempts to cut back on spending.

...Oh.

Woo, the sneak peek has been revealed. It's a store special portrait of Scamper with special barrels.



...Really? All my whys on this one. No offense to the real Scamper or his connections, but he's already had his run on this mold. From the blog:

To celebrate Scamper and the sport of Barrel Racing, Charmayne James will be joining us at BreyerFest this year with current rides, Grasshopper and Cruisin on Six! In 2002, James and Cruiser took home her 11th WPRA World Title and seventh NFR average title. She will be performing daily in the arena as well as offering clinics throughout the weekend.

So...why do a Scamper reissue, when her two other horses are right there? Especially since Cruiser is the other horse she won a world championship with!

 

That was the only picture I could find of Cruiser (unless I'm looking in the wrong places), but he looks sufficiently different from Scamper in my book. And the Scamper mold has never been issued in that particular color - it could have worked really well! Bleh. Not that I would have bought it anyway, as I don't collect this mold, but that's not important.

But, maybe Charmayne wanted the model to be another Scamper. Not sure why she would turn down a chance to have two of her horses made into Breyer portrait models, though.

So, unless those models are all painted amazingly well, this release is a miss for me. It does look like the new release has a light right hind hoof (compared to the original's gray) so at least there's that. Probably won't help with telling them apart on the shelf, though.

New sneak peek!

There's another (tiny) sneak peek on the blog! Behold: 

It almost looks like a blanket, but the description hints that the model is a decorator:

Our next model may not be candy hearts and roses.
He is, however, a bit different than what you've seen so far.

Well, nobody's going to guess what it is from that vague of a photo hint. Maybe it's a decal on a stand? It does look curved. Models with stands would be Show Jumping Warmblood, Smarty Jones or already-used Ruffian...maybe Smarty Jones is finally getting his long-overdue second Breyerfest special run? I guess we'll find out tomorrow! 

Kohana is now available!

Good news, everyone! The first Stablemate Club release of the year, Kohana, is finally available!



I'm surprised they didn't make us wait until the payment deadline for Kaibab was over to pay for this one (congrats to everyone who was drawn for him, by the way).

Kohana's color is nice, and I like that they mapped his markings, but the mold just doesn't appeal to me (I think he looks like he just had a stroke and is about to fall over dead). So, mine will be up for sale. Can't wait for that dapple gray mini-Brishen, though!

Featured Model - 2/10/2018, I'm Yours

Hello 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...I'm Yours!



I thought it would be fitting to feature her this week, as my other Valentine's Day-themed model. She was produced in 2012, in a run of 222. Despite her low (and slightly odd) run number, she wasn't terribly popular at the time, probably because people were tired of seeing decorator Web Specials. She was produced on the popular Bluegrass Bandit mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody and Sommer Prosser.

In last week's post, I mentioned I liked the style of red roan that looks like candy - almost good enough to eat - and this model looks even more candy-like than Be Mine! I love her. Her color is a little redder than Be Mine's, and she's got some nice gold highlights on her mane to set her apart even more. Sure, the lip prints are kinda tacky, but it's still a clever idea. Too bad Breyer never produced a foal or two to match them.

We also haven't had many decorator Web Specials since 2012, other than the Big Cats and the obligatory silver filigree special runs. I doubt we'll get anything zany this year with the continuation of the America the Beautiful theme, but maybe we'll get another kooky Big Cat! And who knows what next year will bring.

I really hope we get a new Bluegrass Bandit soon. We did get Repeat the Beat at Breyerfest last year, which might mean there's something new forthcoming. Hopefully it's something nice (and attainable!).

That's all I have for right now. I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!

The special run is revealed!

The mystery is solved - the latest Breyerfest 2018 special run is on Ruffian! Meet Dead Heat!



When this was first posted on Facebook, I misread the name as "Dead Hat" and was really confused for a second.

But anyway. Woohoo, a Ruffian! And this means she isn't the surprise! I always thought Ruffian had been criminally underused at Breyerfest. Only one of her four appearances there has been actually attainable for the masses - surely she could have been a tent SR again before now? Oh well. This also means she won't be the volunteer model - one more mold we can strike from the list of possibilities!

Her color is pretty, although I feel compelled to point out she's basically the same color as the three models in the "Who Wore it Best?" contest last year, as well as Fletcher. Was there a discount on orange paint this year? I kid, of course - I definitely want her to join the collection.

There's one other interesting thing about this reveal - the Breyer reveal photo on Instagram showed Dead Heat with the original, longer Ruffian tail rather than the current American Pharoah tail. What gives? Are we going to see both tail variations amongst these models at Breyerfest? I don't know if two different tails is enough to make me buy two of them.

Another sneak peek on the blog!

I know I'm late to the party on this (busy day yesterday), but there's a new Breyerfest sneak peek on the blog!



Opinions on what it is have ranged all over the board, but this is a hard shot to figure out. The colored area looks vaguely like a flank with the start of a hindquarter on the bottom right, but it's hard to tell what mold it is. I personally hope it's Cigar, since I don't collect that mold and the fewer things I have to buy this year, the better.

Whatever it is, it looks like a fun design! I'm guessing we'll find out what it is tomorrow.

The America the Beautiful series continues!

Woohoo, I got my wish! I (and a lot of others, it looks like) wanted the America the Beautiful web special series to continue this year, and it's happening! Check out the first entry in this year's series!



Whoa - the Stretch Morgan? I didn't see that coming. His name is Kaibab! From the website:

The Kaibab National Forest is located in northern Arizona. Stretching 1.6 million acres, it borders both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon. It features dramatic scenery such as evergreen forests, jagged and sparse plateaus, and places like the Sycamore Canyon Falls, where the cliffs plunge towards the river - changing color from an earthy brown-red to a silver grey.
Kaibab's silver dapple tobiano coat evokes the colors of the richly-hued rocks, and the rugged natural texture of the wind- and river-carved plateaus. He features detailed eyes, and has a high gloss finish that really highlights his gorgeous shading! His belly is marked with "Kaibab 2018."

He's pretty! And it's the first time the Stretch Morgan has been used for a while, unless I'm forgetting something. Unfortunately, I won't be entering for this one, as I don't collect the mold. And I'm already seeing rumblings online that he'll be difficult to show, due to the fact that he's tobiano, the one pinto pattern that doesn't appear in the Morgan breed.

Of course, the continuation of the series does beg the question of what will appear next? Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they updated the clue list from last year. The deep, dry canyons, snowcapped mountains, etc were all references to web specials from last year. Somebody must have overlooked that...oops! Hopefully we get a new list soon. 

I did a thing

So I know I said I wasn't going to do this, but I was at Walmart the other day and decided to check the toy section to see if they'd gotten anything Breyer-related in stock since the last time I was there. They didn't have any Stablemates, but there was a box of the blind bag Mini Whinnies. One thing led to another, and before I knew it...

So now I have a silver filigree Mini Whinny of my very own! Here's the other side.



The legs are kinda bendy, like I thought they'd be. But at least the eyes are painted.

Now, don't be getting any ideas from this. I still don't have any plans to buy more Mini Whinnies. This one was just lying on top of the pile, and as soon as I felt the stand I knew what it was, and then it was in my cart...

Ahem. Anyway. He's on our entertainment center with the rest of my silver filigree models. I do actually kinda like this sculpt, as it's less blobby than other Mini Whinny molds. You know, come to think of it, they used this one for a zipper pull at Breyerfest a few years ago...NO! I will not be sucked in!

Featured Model - 2/3/2018, Be Mine

Hello and welcome to another edition 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. In honor of the fast-approaching Valentine's Day holiday, this week's model is...Be Mine!




This model was produced in 2011. He's item #712043 and was part of a run of 150. He was produced on the ever-popular Huckleberry Bey mold.

Interestingly, this was the first web special model I was able to purchase after my return to the hobby in mid-2010. In those days, Breyer used Shopatron (now known as Kibo, apparently) for product sales. As such, the current lottery system hadn't yet been implemented, and the company had been experimenting with different distribution methods with each web special. Be Mine was offered in a first-come, first-serve method, which was and still is controversial because, well, not everyone has high-speed Internet. Fortunately, my Internet speed was fast enough to purchase one of these babies, and he's been part of my collection ever since (for the record, I'm a fan of the lottery system, as it seems to be the most fair way to distribute limited models).

2011 was a year of web special decorators; 4 out of 5 releases were decorators of some sort. As the first web special of the year, this one was a Valentine's Day-inspired design; he's red roan, but with heart-shaped dapples and star. As an aside, I really like this version of red roan (as Breyer alway seems to be switching up the roan paint job); he might not be the most realistic, but he looks like delicious candy. I love candy, so this guy is right up my alley!

Huck, of course, is usually a very popular mold with collectors, and I wouldn't be completely surprised to see him get used at this year's Breyerfest. He last appeared as a special run in 2015 and has been a tent SR at least twice prior to that, so I doubt he'd be in the special run line. But maybe he'll be a prize or raffle model? Or perhaps a store special? Doubtful, since there are already two of them, but they've done three before. Or maybe he'll get another web special release this year? I'd be okay with that.

That's all I have for today, but tune in next week for another Valentine-themed Featured Model!

Another Breyerfest store special!

Wow, it looks like this year's Breyerfest is going to be one for the ages! Check out today's blog post!

According to the blog, one of this year's seminars is going to be a panel discussion about women in horse racing, featuring Donna Brothers and Rosie Napravnik, among others (presumably). Not only that, but Donna Brothers will be doing her horseback interviews (eyeroll) in the Covered Arena on Friday and Saturday, and Rosie will ride her racehorse-turned eventer Old Ironsides during breed demonstrations on Saturday. Speaking of Old Ironsides...he's getting his own store special model! Behold:



Wow, that color looks nice on Strapless! It's very similar to last year's Jacy, actually. Nothing I need to buy, fortunately, but I bet this one will be hard to get your hands on in the store! She's pretty!

That's about all I have for today, except I'm really hoping we get a web special this weekend, since it's now February and that's when last year's first web special showed up. The anticipation is killing me! And we'll probably get the first Stablemate Club horse of the year next week, too. Exciting!