Not to be confused with the other Champagne Toast, this Champagne Toast was a special run for Breyerfest 2014. He was item #711186, and 1,500 models were produced on the Adios mold sculpted by Chris Hess. An additional 25 models were produced in silver charm for Breyerfest's 25th anniversary and randomly scattered amongst the rest of the run. This was done for all of the Breyerfest special runs that year.
Those silver charms were practically the death of me - I wanted almost all of them, so when the Breyerfest leftovers went up for sale on the website after Breyerfest that year, I bought a ton of them. I think I ended up with seven or eight extra Champagne Toasts at one point? I never managed to get a silver charm, sadly, but it was fun to keep trying for a while.
As for the model itself, his color and pattern are both really nice, and it does a good job of illustrating how far Breyer's painting techniques have come in the last 50-odd years. Take a look at the original Yellow Mount release, and then look at Champagne Toast. The complexity of Champagne Toast's paint job is mindblowing compared to some of his early releases, but we take it totally for granted. He's beautiful (not that the previous releases weren't), and I thought he made a worthy addition to that year's lineup.
Adios himself was last used as the regular run Cherry Creek Fonzie Merit, and will be released in a few days (!) as the Breyerfest 2018 autograph model. Hopefully I can get my hands on one! I wonder where else the mold will show up in the future; he was a web special way back in 2009, so I wouldn't complain if he was a web special again. Either way, we'll see him again eventually.
This is probably as good a time as any to announce that Featured Model will be on hiatus next week due to Breyerfest. I can't wait to go to Kentucky!
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