Featured Model - 3/17/2018, Best in Show Arabian

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 the Classic Best in Show Arabian!



This model was introduced in 2009 as part of Breyer's Best in Show line, which featured Classic-sized models that sported mohair manes and tails and glass eyes, along with painted horseshoes and a little base to stand on. It was a regular run model (#901), and although IDYB doesn't have info on the sculptor, I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

This was certainly an ambitious undertaking by Breyer (and not a particularly successful one, as we haven't seen any more models in this vein other than the do-it-yourself kits). Mohair has its fans, but hairing models mostly went out of fashion years ago. I can see why people wouldn't like the mohair: it looks like it'd be a pain to keep styled the way you want it, plus it'd be a huge dust magnet (and personally, I just think it's ugly. Same goes for flocky models: ugh). I've seen photos of people's haired models on shelves with plastic bags over them to keep the dust off, but that kind of setup makes me question why you'd even want a haired model. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

So why do I own this model if I don't like mohair manes and tails, you may wonder? Well, as I wrote about in a previous Featured Model, I only started collecting this mold last year after Marigold's debut, and yes, at first I had no plans on adding this particular one to my collection because of the mohair.  But then I started looking at prices on eBay, and well...the models in this series can be obtained pretty cheaply. So I bought one.

He really isn't that bad - his paint job is pretty nice, at least. He definitely has that '80s-style big hair - I named him Fluffy because of it! It'll be interesting to see how the mohair job ages, and his glass eyes are definitely, shall we say, "intense." But that just gives him more character, I guess.

I do like the mold, even if the regular plastic mane it would later be given makes me want to snap it off every time I see it (it just sticks out in a really enticing way). Hopefully we see a fun new release on the mold soon; the fact that it was used at Breyerfest last year gives me hope that we'll see it used for something else soon!