Featured Model - 1/5/2019, LV Integrity

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. It's a new year, so I decided to feature a new (for me) model - LV Integrity!



LV Integrity is still in the regular run line as item #1797, issued on the Yasmin mold sculpted by Brigitte Eberl. He (more on that shortly) was one of the new for 2018 releases, though I just bought him a few weeks ago as part of my Collector Club Appreciation order.

And yes, this model is male - the real LV Integrity is a gelding, so a sheath was added to this run to make them anatomically correct. I see a lot of posts on Facebook about Breyer not bothering to add/remove parts to portrait models as necessary, which usually happens with Breyerfest releases and smaller runs. I work in manufacturing, and it makes sense to me that Breyer doesn't add gelding parts to smaller runs - like 2017's Repeat the Beat special run. I'll admit I don't know the exact process for adding a sheath to a normally female model, but it wouldn't be economical to do it for a run of 1,000 - factories run on deadlines and need to be able to finish orders in a timely fashion so they can move on to the next order. Interestingly, the regular run Bear and later reissue also don't have gelding parts, though a quick Internet search was inconclusive as to the real Bear's gender.

However, there are several other regular run models over the years that have had male parts added - Kong would be one,  as well as BHR Bryants Jake, Puuku, American Pharoah, Scallywag (the bodies for this run were probably manufactured at the same time as Puuku), All Glory and probably others I'm forgetting. With the exception of Scallywag, these were all larger runs that would have made it worth the extra expense. So I don't generally get too upset if Breyer doesn't add the proper set of parts to a model - it all comes down to manufacturing.

As for LV Integrity himself, Yasmin looks great in bay! I wonder if this guy will be a glossy prize at this year's Breyerfest? I'm not sure how popular this mold is, and last year Breyer went with less popular molds as the prizes, probably to try to deter cheating - so it's entirely possible we could see a glossy LV Integrity at Breyerfest. I hope so! And since this model is already in the regular run line, it seems likely we could see her (or him) pop up somewhere else - maybe as a web special, since it would be easy to divert 350 bodies from the regular run production line for a web special. I think Yasmin would make a great web special, so I'm crossing my fingers!