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!
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