Saturday, February 2, 2019

Featured Model - 2/2/2019, Mu Wen Ma

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! In keeping with last week's Chinese New Year theme, this week's model is...Mu Wen Ma!



This guy was a regular run for 2014 only. He's item #1717 issued on the American Saddlebred Stallion mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

Breyer's other Chinese-themed release for 2014, he was inspired and named by the "wood horse" in the Chinese zodiac. The box card can explain it better than I can - thank goodness for IDYB!

This guy holds the distinction of being the first woodgrain model to appear in the Breyer lineup since the old 1970s production runs (as far as I know, unless I'm forgetting something). Collectors had been asking for a woodgrain return for years, but the bits of hobby knowledge I remember hearing were that it was a messy, time-consuming paint job, and some of the paints involved may have been environmentally hazardous. So Mu Wen Ma was a bit of a surprise when he was unveiled!

Since then, though, we've had at least two other woodgrain releases - Cypress and the recent Woodgrain Hog. Both of those were special runs with limited numbers, so my assumption is that the woodgrain colorway is still messy and time-consuming - though the environmental concerns, if any, probably haven't been a problem due to China's more lax environmental standards (sadly).

As for the Moody Andalusian, he's having a bit of a busy year! He was used for the Kehinde web special last year, will appear later this year as the Breyerfest 2019 early bird model Cap, and was just unveiled yesterday as the first web special of the year! Where will he appear next? I suspect Breyer will give him a bit of a rest, unless we're getting a new RR release soon. I definitely wouldn't say no to that!

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