Another new test color!

It's been a while since we had a new test color to drool over, but fear not - there's a new one on the website!



Zippo isn't a mold I collect, but this one is very pretty! Wow!

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the link to enter for him is working yet - hopefully Breyer fixes that soon. Presumably he'll cost $850 to the lucky winner again, but we won't know until the website gets fixed. Either way, he'll make a beautiful addition to someone's collection!

All 2019 Stablemate Club silhouettes are revealed!

Another reveal on the SMC blog - the last two silhouettes! Here they all are together.



So we're getting TWO new molds next year? That's a new one! I'm not terribly excited by the other new mold, though; he'll probably get sold on. And the G3 Belgian?! I've been hoping she'd show up in the club for years! Huzzah!

Now all I have to do is hope they tell us which of the molds is the gambler's choice, so I know if I need more than one membership or not. If the G3 Belgian or Mirado are the gambler's choice (or the Carrick-esque new mold, for that matter), I'll definitely have to renew all three of our memberships. Hopefully it's one of the other three molds so I can get away with only having one membership again next year.

2019 Stablemate Club teasers!

Exciting news, everyone! Four out of six of next year's Stablemate Club releases have been previewed on the Breyer website (and the misuse of "peak" strikes again!)! First, an enterprising Blabber found these two silhouettes posted on the Stablemate Club forum:

It's Mirado and the G1 Morgan Mare! I'm glad to see they dug poor Mirado out of obscurity, since the mold has been languishing unused since its debut at the end of last year. As for the G1 Morgan Mare, well, they had to use at least one G1, I guess.

Then, another industrious Blabber found these silhouettes posted on the Stablemate Club blog! (Don't worry, I didn't know that existed either.)






It's a new mold and the G3 Highland Pony! The new mold looks...interesting...the front end looks like Carrick, and the back end looks like they chopped it off of a Morgan or something. I'm sure it'll look better in actual photos. I'm not into the Highland Pony at all, but I'm sure they'll put a cute color on it.

So that's 2/4 for me - hopefully the fifth or sixth are things I want, or we'll be looking at another 2018 situation next year. Come on, G2 Morgan!

As for colors, I wonder what color the Mirado will be? A nice dappled black or bay would be pretty. I'm guessing the new mold is supposed to be a Thoroughbred, but since Breyer has been on a pinto kick lately, I wouldn't be surprised if it's spotted in some way or another.

I'm glad we're getting more new reveals, though! Hopefully we don't have to wait much longer to find out what else is in store for next year. I hope poor Mirado gets more love than just a release in the SMC; maybe he'll show up at Breyerfest or in a new RR set or something. Heck, for all I know he's going to be used at next month's Scottsdale Stampede (I hope not!)

Featured Model - 10/27/2018, Mini Merry Widow

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. Since Halloween is fast-approaching, this week's model is...Mini Merry Widow!




This cute little guy was released in 2005 on the G2 Morgan mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. He's item #5917 and was part of the first Spooky Stablemates collection. These sets featured Stablemates painted like mini versions of previous Traditional Halloween releases. As his name suggest, Mini Merry Widow (or Merry Widower, as I call him) is a mini-me of the original Merry Widow.

The model is definitely one of my favorite Halloween Stablemates; just look at him! His masking is so intricate for such a small model, and I love the tinge of green in his color. I've always liked the G2 Morgan anyway - I love his sweeping tail and his prancy pose. I hope he shows up in next year's Stablemate Club.

As for the mini-me models, I love it when Breyer does things like this. I wish they'd do Stablemate versions of Traditional releases more often. How cool would it be if we got a whole line of mini Premier models, instead of one a year? Or miniature Holiday Horses, for that matter.

While he probably won't be a mini-me of anything, I think this mold has a fairly good chance of appearing in next year's Stablemate Club. He hasn't been used for much lately other than random regular runs, and he last appeared at Breyerfest in 2014. So, I'm hoping he shows up in next year's SMC - maybe even as the gambler's choice! Fortunately, we won't have to wait too much longer to find out. Let's hope the reveal is soon!

So there IS a second collector club horse this year!

I'd pretty much given up on getting a second collector club release this year, since we didn't get a preview at Breyerfest. Oh, ye of little faith:

It's Celeste! Huzzah! And are those a pearly mane and tail I see?



Looks mildly pearly to me. Yay! She'll make a nice companion for Silverado. It's interesting that they didn't paint up a foal to match her, but I find that kind of refreshing - a lot of the mare and foal pair releases end up only being used as mare and foal sets until the end of time, when either or both could just as easily be stand-alone releases (I'd be partial to a 2-foal set sometime, myself).

Anyway, this girl is definitely a beauty! Hope mine comes fast. I might have to put her on the shelf next to Celestine with that name, though...

Finn and Grace are here!

Good news, everyone! My Finn and Grace models are finally here, and I have photos to share! I'll start with Finn - behold!



No, I didn't get the rainbow, sadly. So this guy will be for sale. As a reminder, he's a mini-me of Lucy, and I think he matches her fairly well. His spots are smaller than hers and he doesn't have the molded-on halter, but otherwise he's a good match.

Although all of the Finns I've seen photos of look pretty nice, I wish the teeth had been executed a little better. They look like someone just slapped some white paint on there, and what equid has such perfectly white teeth, anyway? They'd look a little less weird if they were more of an ivory/slightly yellowed shade, but then I guess people would probably complain about it.

Other than the weird teeth, my Finn looks to be in pretty good shape, and since I don't collect the G2 Mule, he'll be for sale soon. On to Grace!

I got the dapple gray - my favorite of the three! Yay!

She's pretty flawless, too - I didn't see anything wrong with her, except for a slightly bent left eartip (which is common with these girls).

Dapple gray is my favorite real-life horse color, so it's not surprising that I liked this color best of the three. I'll be on the lookout for the other two, though. Hopefully the prices go down eventually...

As for her sticker, I'm not much for leaving those on (and it was already starting to come off), so I stuck it on her COA. I doubt she'll ever be for sale, and even if I did eventually sell her, I doubt any potential buyer would be terribly concerned about it either. As long as I still have it, right?

All in all, I'm very happy with my Grace - I just wish I hadn't lost so much money selling the previous two releases in the club. I'm really hoping next year's club either has more releases I want (not likely), or it doesn't have any modern molds at all (somewhat likely). Here's hoping!

As for next year's club, I did get a sneak peek of one of the releases with my Grace. Check it out!



Drat! I think I predicted the Pacer for the 2017 club, but I didn't stick with him for later years for some reason. Oh well! That's a beautiful color on him, but the mold isn't for me, sadly. Well, that's one Vintage Club 2019 release I don't need to worry about buying - hopefully we get to see the rest of them soon. Now, you'll have to excuse me while I go listen to the Rockford Files theme song.

The 2018 Retired List

Greetings, everyone! I finally had a little time to type, so here is this year's Retired List and my commentary.

ITEM # DESCRIPTION
Craft & Activity
4089 Chalkboard Horse
4115 Customizing - Arabians
4145 My Dream Horse Watercolor Painting
4200 Horse Crazy Color & Decorate Treasure Box
4209 Paint Your Own Farm
100180 Horse Crazy Real Horse Activity Set
Classics
688 3-Horse Stable
923 Grey Arabian
925 Bay Appaloosa Mustang
927 Dun Quarter Horse
935 Black Thoroughbred
940 Buckskin Paint
941 Grey Selle Francais
61060 Mobile Vet Clinic
61061 Sport Horse Family
61089 Barrel Racing
61091 Cutting Horse & Calf
62050 Starry Night
62058 Mason, 2018 Horse of the Year
66005 Classics Singles 12 pc Asst.

Ooh, lots of Classics getting retired! I'm excited to see what we get for new releases next year. I hope there's a new Mason!

Pocket Box
1583 Pocket Box Dogs
Pony Gals
7105 Jasmine Color Change Surprise
Spirit
9201 Chica Linda Traditional 1:9 Scale
9202 Boomerang  Traditional 1:9 Scale
9231 Spirit Floor Display

Seems odd that Chica Linda and Boomerang are being retired so soon, especially Boomerang, being a new mold and all. Sales must not be doing that well (although with the glut of stuff they produced, that shouldn't be a surprise).

Stablemates
5349 Truck & Gooseneck Trailer
5359 CollectiBull® Rodeo
5932 Frolicking Foals Pocket Barn
5970 CollectiBull® 6 pc Asst
6039 Mystery Horse Surprise 24 pc Asst
59202 Riding Academy

The Mystery Horse Surprise box is already being retired? Maybe we'll get a new one next year, complete with another chase model I can't get. Sigh.

Traditional
1357 Big Chex to Cash
1728 Cloud's Encore - 4 pc Set
1742 Picasso
1752 Rhapsody in Black
1753 Banks Vanilla
1757 American Pharoah
1760 Babyflo
1784 Cobra
1785 Slick By Design
1786 PVF Peace of Mind
1787 Let's Go Riding English
1788 Let's Go Riding Western
1790 Zena
9149 Man O War
9180 American Pharoah Resin
9197 Espresso - Springtime Filly

It's about time they retired Big Chex to Cash. He's been in the RR line for...10 years?! He must have been a big seller to stay in production that long - that's an eternity in Breyer years!

I'm surprised Zena is being retired after a bare year of production. Maybe she wasn't as popular as they thought she'd be? She may be too realistic of a sculpt for a fantasy-type model. Emma or Falhofnir might have been better choices. Cobra, Slick by Design, and PVF Peace of Mind got a year and a half - maybe they weren't big sellers either. The molds in question aren't terribly popular (except for SCO), so maybe the sales just couldn't justify keeping them in production longer.

I'm also surprised it took them this long to retire the American Pharoah resin - they couldn't even give those away at the end of last year.

There are a few things in this Traditional list that should be in the Classics category, like Man o' War and the Cloud's Encore set. Plus, there's no way Espresso is a Traditional - maybe they were trying to save space in the list or something.

Traditional Accessories
546 Nadia Schooling Rider
1383 English Accessory Set
2064 Turn Out Set
2072 Barrel Racing Tack Set
Wind Dancers
100111 Kona
100112 Sirocco
100113 Brisa
100114 Sumatra
100125 Singles 12pc Asst
100117 Kohilo
100118 Aura
100135 Wind Dancers Surprise - 24 pc Assorted
100141 Wind Dancers Mini Gift Collection

Interesting to see so many (all?) Wind Dancers going away - I wonder if there'll be new ones?

Breyer by CollectA
88376 Mountain Goat Billy
Enchantmints
B2702 Royal Garden Princess
B2703 Rose Petal Princess

That's all the commentary I have - hopefully we get some awesome new releases for next year! I can't wait to see what's coming up!

The final Stablemate Club entry for 2018 is revealed!

...And he's less of a train wreck than I thought! Behold, Darley:

He still looks like he's in the middle of crashing to the ground, but I like him a lot better with clothes on. I like his color, too; I love the bays with lots of red in them, and his pinto markings are nice and subtle. I'll most likely be hanging on to this one; I wasn't terribly happy about only keeping one of this year's SMC releases anyway. I'm looking forward to seeing what they'll do with this mold next!



Between the new reveals and an extremely busy work schedule, I haven't had time to get to the 2018 Retired List yet, but I'll post about it soon, I promise! Until next time.

Featured Model - 10/20/2018, Tempest

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...Tempest!



Tempest was a Connoisseur release in 2005. He's item #90131, and 350 models were produced. He was issued on the Smarty Jones mold sculpted by Sue Sifton.

This guy's color is definitely different! He's a snowflake Appaloosa, which is one of those Appaloosa variants I haven't seen a lot of in real life. I love his bay base color, and the little spots of color all over his body make the Tempest name very fitting for him. And I think the clear base is a nice touch - until this year's Dark Horse Surprise, this was the only time he'd been issued with a clear base.

Although Smarty isn't my favorite mold, he's definitely handsome, and I like his pose. He's pretty close to my favorite phase of the gallop (the middle horse in this photo). Unfortunately, that phase would require the model to float in midair if someone tried to reproduce it, so I'll probably have to be satisfied with Smarty the way he is.

Since this mold got five (well, 10 if you count the glossy finishes) releases this year at Breyerfest, I wouldn't expect him to pop up anywhere else, but you never know. Maybe he'll get a new regular run release as Winx or something.

Either way, I hope we see him in a fun color soon - who knows, maybe next year he'll be a web special. We'll have to wait and see!

Out of the blue (literally!)

Suddenly, another new reveal on the website! I guess our long news drought is over. Say hello to Out of the Blue, the (presumably) first Collector Club special run of 2018!



Well, she's a nice color, but nothing I need to buy, fortunately.

My grump is with that entire blog post - did anyone bother to proofread or edit it before it was published? Are those clueless interns still in charge of Breyer's blogging? It's bad enough that the photo is obviously Photoshopped onto that background, but that second sentence of the post is incredibly awkward.

"Breyer does not think so."

Did a robot write this stuff? They should have just written:

"Breyer doesn't think so." 

They also forgot to capitalize Working Cow Horse later in the post, but that's not as big of a deal. Get it together, Breyer writers!

The full Emerson reveal!

Well, I was going to talk about the 2018 Retired List today, but Emerson's full paint job was revealed on the Premier Club blog! Color me surprised - I thought they'd drag that out a lot longer. So, I'll save the retired list commentary for tomorrow.

If you read the blog yesterday, you probably remember that Emerson is the last Premier Club model for 2018. Here's a head shot!

Okay, I have to say I really like his head.



I'm...less enthusiastic about the full-body shot, but I'm hoping it's just a bad photo. His hind legs look weird, and there's something odd about his front end compared to his back end.

That said, I still like his head, and his color, and his pattern. Hopefully I like him better when I get him in hand? If so, this will be the first year since 2012 that I kept all three PC releases. It'll definitely be interesting to see what he looks like in hand.

The third Premier Club model for 2018 has been revealed!

...Well, most of him has, and his name is Emerson! Check him out! He was sculpted by Sue Sifton.



I...don't know how excited I am about this model, honestly. I like his head, but he looks like Geronimo II or something.

The scuttlebutt on Blab and Facebook is that this is a portrait of American Pharoah Sue did a while ago.



He looks even more like Geronimo from this angle. Like, I agree Breyer could use a few more Thoroughbred molds, but...they couldn't have pull a mini-Alborozo and flipped him or something? If you stood him next to Geronimo, you'd barely know the difference. They'll probably end up using Geronimo as a Thoroughbred portrait model sometime in the future! Bleh.

Maybe I'll like him more when I see the finished product, but I don't know how enthusiastic I am. I suppose I should be glad we're getting another Thoroughbred instead of an Arabian or stock horse.

I bless the rains down in Africa...

Good news, everyone! The Great News Vacuum of 2018 continues, but my Kehinde arrived today - behold!



His brown areas are a bit lighter than I thought they'd be, but that's not a bad thing. I think he's beautiful, if a bit odd (but you can't avoid that when you paint horses like other animals).



I think his paintjob is pretty well-executed, though. Here's a real okapi for comparison:

Looks pretty close to me, although Kehinde's leg stripes could be thinner. They look hand-painted, though, so they'd have to be masked to make them any thinner. One wonders why they didn't just mask the stripes to start with, but I guess I don't make the rules.

His eyes aren't as detailed as I would have hoped, but I suppose the goal was to look like an okapi's eyes, not a real horse's. I love the white shading on his flanks and cheeks, though!




Quality-wise, he's very good. There are a few smears in the edges of his stripes, which I expected. The model itself could have had a better cleaning job (a few spots of excess plastic here and there), but nothing major.

All in all, this guy is very handsome and I'm so glad I was able to add him to my collection! Major props to Karen Williams for designing him.

That's all I have for today, but stay tuned! The next arrivals here should be my Vintage Club Grace and Stablemate Club Finn. I haven't gotten a shipping notice for them yet despite ordering them last Thursday, but I'm hoping they just neglected to send one out and the models are already on their way here. I can't wait to see what colors I get - and the latest news from the grapevine is that there's a preview of a 2019 Vintage Club model with Grace! I'm looking forward to seeing it!

Featured Model - 10/13/2018, Gato

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...Gato!



This cute little guy was part of a two-piece set honoring Tschiffely's Ride from Breyerfest 2016. His counterpart in that set was a bay pinto Duchess. They were item #711246 and 1,000 were made.

When this set was first announced, I somehow overlooked the fact that Gato was on this mold, because the promo photo showed Duchess in front of Gato and I didn't look at it very closely until after that Breyerfest was over. Which is a shame, because although the set was only supposed to be available in the pop-up tent, there were so many leftovers on Sunday that they were all moved into the Breyer Store. So I had plenty of opportunities to buy a set, but didn't realize I needed Gato until the event was over.

Oh well. I found a Gato on eBay for a good price immediately after Breyerfest, so all's well that ends well!

While Breyer has used this mold quite a bit since his debut, he hasn't seen a lot of new releases lately. He's still in the regular line as Black Beauty and in the Palomino Morgan and Foal set,  as well as the Chestnut Quarter Horse, so he's definitely getting a lot of use right now. I can't remember if 2019 is a year for new Classic releases, but maybe a couple of those releases will be retired and we'll get something new! I can only hope.

We're about due for some kind of surprise end-of-year Classic release, though, so maybe he'll show up there? I hope so - new releases on this mold are always welcome! I hope we see something new soon.

And now Grace is available!

Sheesh, I knew it was probably a good idea to wait on purchasing Finn, but I didn't think they'd release Grace the very next day. But I'm not going to complain - I've been waiting for this girl all year!



I want all three colors, but I'm most partial to the dapple gray, followed by the mahogany bay. With any luck I can get the two colors I don't need for a not-terrible price. I did finally sell my Roman earlier this week...for less of a loss than I sold Clara and Mae for. I suppose that's the best I could have hoped for. I hope Breyer doesn't put any modern molds in next year's Vintage Club, because, well...I'm not interested in doing this again next year. Hah!

I hope everyone gets the Grace color they wanted!

Finn is now available!

At long last, this year's Stablemate Club Gambler's Choice model is finally available! Take a look at the Finns!

I'm a little sad that they picked this mold - I was never that into the G2 Mule and sold off the few examples I had last year. I do like those colors, though - the appaloosa is a Lucy mini-me, the sorrel is Brown Sunshine (or very similar to him), the rainbow is Prism, and the pinto is similar to Oliver.

I'm hoping I get the rainbow one - if I did I might just keep it, despite not having any other G2 mules. I just have a huge weakness for rainbow anything! My chances are pretty slim, though - I only have one account in the club this year, so I only have a 1/4 chance of getting him. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Unfortunately, it might be a while before I get mine - I'm going to hold off on ordering for a while and see if the Vintage Club Weather Girl pops up soon since she's way overdue. Hopefully she gets released soon and then I can bundle up on shipping.

Good luck to Stablemate Club members! I hope you get the colors you want!

Kehinde selections are out!

Check your email, everybody - Kehinde selections are out and I was drawn! Woohoo! I can't wait to see what he looks like in hand. Uh oh...I just realized that means I have to figure out how to fit another Moody ASB on my shelves. First world problems, I guess.

Congratulations to everyone else who was drawn!

Featured Model - 10/6/2018, Spun Gold Buckskin Appaloosa

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...the Spun Gold Ethereal in Buckskin Appaloosa!



This handsome fellow was another of the possible Spun Gold Surprise models available at Breyerfest 2011. He's item #711134 on the Ethereal mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

I always thought this was a successful surprise - it more or less fit the theme (Spun Gold? Fairytales? Sure!), and all four of the colors were quite nice. Ethereal is a reasonably popular mold, and unlike some later surprise models, none of the colors look like anything you'd expect to find as a regular run. Of the four colors, I'm most partial to the buckskin, but the palomino is quite nice as well (and he has the same pattern as Fire, if you never noticed).

There's an interesting anecdote about this mold - years ago I was reading JAH and someone wrote a letter to the editor asking about this mysterious mold that had had a partial photo printed in the magazine three years prior to that issue. Breyer said it would be revealed soon - and then Conquistador was unveiled shortly afterwards. I went back to the three-years-older issue and sure enough, there was a photo of Ethereal's tail with a "Coming soon!" caption on it (it looked like Fire's paint job, for the record). I've always wondered what the story behind that was. Why did it take three years for the mold to be released?

Ethereal is another one of my favorite molds. I really like his tail - he looks like he's swishing it while he canters along. He hasn't been used much lately, aside from last year's Calavera. I wouldn't mind seeing a new regular run release on him - the last time he was a regular run was the Grullo Pinto release from 2013-2015. Or maybe he'll be a web special? The only previous time he's been a web special was as Dionysus in 2013 (one of my favorite colors on him). Hopefully we get something new soon - he's too pretty to sit unused!

The Big Cat series is no more!

...Because it's been replaced by the Wild Animal series! (But shouldn't it be Wild Animals?)



First in the new series is Kehinde, an okapi on the American Saddlebred Stallion mold. Okay then!

From the website:

The first release in Wild Animal Series is Kehinde, and he’s inspired by the enchanting and elusive okapi. Artist Karen Williams designed this piece, and gave him an incredibly realistic coat. Just like the okapi, Kehinde has zebra-like striping on his legs and hindquarters. His richly-shaded coat has a velvety appearance, fading into his dusky face.

I remember working on a project in elementary school art class where we had to "carve" an animal shape into a large rubber square, which we could then use as a stamp. I think the theme was African animals? Since I couldn't do a horse for whatever reason, I did an okapi instead. I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Somewhere I still have that stamp, but I don't know where it is, or I'd post a picture. Anyway, that's my "okapi = horse" story.

Edit: Crud. Now I can't remember if my art project was an okapi or an onager. This is going to bother me! I think it was an onager, actually. Oh well. That's my "okapi onager = horse" story.

Needless to say, I'm definitely entering for this guy. Hope I get drawn! He's beautiful.  Good luck to everyone who enters!