June Collector Club newsletter!

Attention, Collector Club members! The June Collector Club newsletter is finally out, so check your email! Sheesh, talk about skin of your teeth...

Anyway, there's a fun article about the creation of Kathleen Moody's Big Ben and Gem Twist sculpts, among other things, but I'm more interested in this sneak peek:



To be revealed after Breyerfest, apparently. What could it be? The newsletter describes it as "something sweet." The second collector club special run of the year is usually a realistic color, so it's probably not that. We're still due another Berries Pony, which would fit the sweet treat clue, but those have all been realistic colors as well, so...I'm not sure? I guess it could be whatever the upcoming Wild Animal web special is, but those are decorators based on actual animals, not leaf-and-flower designs, so...I'm stumped. I guess I'm going with the Berries Pony guess for now?

Featured Model - 6/27/20, Palomino Callahan

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 palomino Callahan!



This handsome fellow is item #712261, issued in 2018 on the Shire B mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. Official production numbers were never released for this model, or for the other two colors he was issued in. Seems to be happening more and more lately...

Anyway, I picked this guy because he's a sunny, summer-ish color and he's glossy to boot! He's a smaller version of the Pamplemousse release from back in 2011. Palomino isn't always my favorite horse color,  but our buttery Callahan here is definitely a looker! The only thing that gives me pause is his purple and yellow braids. Turquoise and silver, or even purple and silver, would have looked a lot better, IMO. But it's a small nitpick.

As for the Shire B, I'm a little sad we didn't see him used for this year's Breyerfest, considering how draft-heavy it's been. Maybe he'll get a new RR release for next year? Maybe some kind of new set with the Shire A? I hope so - he's really only been used a handful of times since his debut in 2003 (although he's been an auction model and a contest prize model in that time - if only I knew where to find those, if they were for sale!). In any case, I hope he gets a new release soon!

Blind bag chase models are revealed!

Well, here's a couple of new tidbits amid this inexplicable dearth of news: The chase pieces for the 70th Anniversary blind bags have been revealed! While nothing has been confirmed so far, it appears that the regular chase model is a chrome/platinum Mini Brishen, and the super-chase is a blue/yellow filigree on the mini Indian Pony. So at least I don't need the super-chase - whew! Prices are already ridiculous on the platinum Mini Brishen, but hopefully that calms down in the coming months so I can add one to my collection! I don't have photos of either of them yet, but they'll be posted as soon as I can find some!

Odds and Ends

Sheesh, there really hasn't been a lot of news lately, has there? Normally Breyer would be showing us this year's Breyerfest live auction models right about now, but we haven't seen hide nor hair of those, despite the fact that the live auction apparently still is going to continue. Speaking of Breyerfest, this is now up on the Breyerfest tickets page:



It's a preview of what the website will look like when Breyerfest activities are live. Note the "Auction" box with the photo of Stephanie holding an auction model from last year. So evidently we are getting an auction this year. In that case...where are the models? Normally we'd have seen, like, half of them by now, so what's the holdup?

I suppose we'll find out soon enough. In other news, I finally got a photo of the new Sugar unicorn showing up at many Walmarts around the country:



I really like his color, possibly because it reminds me of Starlite (I may or may not have had a stuffed Starlite as a child...)! Too bad I'm not really into the Classic AQH mold. But that's more for the rest of you, I guess!

Lastly, remember the new Stablemates on cards we got last year, like this bay Andalusian? There are more new ones out, including a liver chestnut Mini Brishen, a palomino Mirado and black pinto G4 Driving Horse. I can't remember if I've mentioned the previous three before or not. Anyways, there are even more new ones showing up at Walmarts now, including a buttermilk buckskin G3 Mustang, a chestnut blanket Appaloosa G5 Running Mare/Esperanza and a bay G3 Standing Stock Horse, none of which I have photos I can use yet. We hit four Walmarts today hoping to find any of the new ones, only to strike out every time (I'm personally only looking to add the Brishen and Mirado to my herd). The new ones also tease a new set of Horse Crazy blind bags (not to be confused with the Unicorn Crazy blind bags), so clearly we aren't done with blind bags yet, either. Bleh.

Anyways, hopefully we get some exciting news soon! It's driving me crazy not having any auction models to post about!

Featured Model - 6/20/20, Zenith

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...Zenith!



He's item #712306 on the Show Arabian mold, presumably sculpted by Kathleen Moody (?). A run number was never published for this release.

I love the combination of colors on this guy! Purple and pink aren't normally my favorite colors, but they go together really well on him. It would be interesting to see what he'd look like as a glossy, although it looks like his paint job is pretty close to semigloss already, so probably not that different -  but his colors would be even more intense! I'd be okay with that.

 I'm a relatively recent fan of the Show Arabian - I didn't become an admirer of his until Marigold made his debut back in 2017. Fortunately, he must not have too many other admirers, as it was easy to put together all of his previous releases. Gemini is also a nice color of his - which brings me to notice that of his sparse five releases, three of them have been decorators. Time for a realistic color in the lineup? Maybe he'll get a new Freedom Series release for next year. I hope so - I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more of these guys on my shelves!

Chroma is now available!

Attention, Stablemate Club members! The next release is Chroma, and he's now available for purchase!



I really like the color on this one and wish they'd used a mold I collect...but Tushar is just too odd-looking for me. Hopefully I can get all three of mine rehomed without too much hassle!

Josiah is now available!

Good news for Vintage Club members! The latest release, Josiah, is now available for purchase!



Okay, I admit this one is more appealing to me than most vintage molds. But I'm not a bubble-butt Belgian fan, so he won't be coming to my house. He sure is pretty, though!

This does make me wonder what's taking so long with the next Stablemate Club release. I don't think I'll be keeping either one (it's probably either the G1 Arabian or the decorator, neither of which I collect), so I'm not in a huge hurry to spend more money, but they don't usually wait this long, do they? Well, I suppose they'll get to it eventually.

Just when you thought Breyer had run out of ways to drain our wallets...

...they came out with THIS!

That's right - it's another test run on the website! GASP!


And with a little bit of luck and a lot of money, she can be yours!

Okay, actually it takes a lot of luck - she's a test, so you have to have your name drawn from the thousands of entries. I'm a bit surprised that they picked this particular mold to sell a test run on, since Ruffian is fairly popular - and Reeves knows it, since her price is $1,000. She'll be worth more than that on the secondary market - a LOT more. But I'm entering anyway - if I'm lucky enough to win, she'll make an excellent addition to my Ruffian conga, and she'll be a lot cheaper than most Breyerfest auction models these days.

Speaking of auction models, where are they? I thought the live auction was still going ahead this year, but the countdown should have started today if so. It's not like it would be hard to do the auction online...let's hope they still show up eventually.

Anyways, don't forget to enter for the Ruffian - her entry period ends at midnight on the 18th, so we don't have to remember for very long. Good luck, everyone!

Featured Model - 6/13/20, Indu

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...glossy Indu!



This handsome guy is item #711259. He was a special run for Breyerfest 2017, and 1600 total models were produced (800 matte and 800 glossy). He was produced on the popular Valegro mold sculpted by Brigitte Eberl.

I picked this model because when I was looking through photos of my models, I noticed this particular individual didn't get much shading on his face compared to my matte one (who, incidentally, is quite a bit darker than the one pictured on IDYB). My glossy one's dapples are also quite a bit more defined than my matte one's. Okay fine, here's a photo of my matte one for comparison:

So, you can see my glossy one's face is quite a bit lighter than the matte one. Not that it makes him particularly special or anything (at least to my knowledge); he's just an interesting variation. Although now that I look at him a little closer, especially his hind feet, he almost looks like they missed painting the last layer of shading on his whole body! Interesting. But variations like this are pretty common, especially with gray models. Just part of the allure, I guess.

Anyway, since Indu was a special run in 2017, I wouldn't have expected to see him at Breyerfest this year, but you never know (I still stand by my Cleveland Bay guess). I suppose it's possible he could have been the volunteer model, but I'm not sure Breyer would use a model on a stand right after last year's volunteer model (Man of the Hour) was also on a stand. I don't expect him to show up as a web special anytime soon either, and he was a collector club special run last fall, so it's hard to say where we'll see him next. Maybe he'll get a regular run release? Or something for Breyerfest next year? He's pretty popular, though, so I'm sure we'll see him again soon enough! 

Sage is here!

Good news, everyone - the first year of the Fairytale Friends Club (or, as I like to call it, the Glitter Unicorn Club) is finally complete - my Sage and Mini-Sage came! Observe!

She's pretty nice, as far as $3 Walmart unicorns go.

Green and silver do look good together, though. Wait, is she a member of Slytherin House? ...We'll just have to let that slide. I guess the glitter would probably disqualify her from membership - I imagine glitter is more a Ravenclaw thing, or maybe Gryffindor.

Here's the mini-Sage:




He does stand on his own, surprisingly enough, but his horn is warped. Oh well.

Word on the street is that there's going to be another year of the Glitter Unicorn Club, but....I really hope they put some better paint jobs on these things. I know it must be costly to introduce all these new molds at once, but the paint jobs should really be more complicated for the price point. If they keep on with the $3 paint jobs, I'll probably just skip joining and get the ones I want secondhand so I don't have to bother with selling the ones I don't want.

Featured Model - 6/6/20, Bristol

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...Bristol!




Okay, I know I just talked about Voyeur a few weeks ago, but I couldn't help it. Anyways...

Bristol was the first Premier Club model of 2018. He's item #90188 and was sculpted by Morgen Kilbourn. While Breyer hasn't released Premier Club numbers in quite some time, it's safe to assume between 750-1000 were produced - possibly more than that, but there's no way to know for sure.

I wanted to talk about Bristol because I think he's one of the nicest OFs Breyer has done in the last few years! His pose is attractive and dynamic, his paint job is detailed and well-executed, the pinto pattern suits him quite well and he's a beautiful shade of buckskin. I hope we see a color similar to this again soon!

As for the mold himself, Bristol has seen a lot of releases in his short two years of existence. He should be appearing next as this year's optional Vintage Club model, Barrington, and I'm excited to see that one in the flesh! Hopefully he looks better than the promo photos. A lot of people think Bristol will be the Breyerfest surprise, but...since he was just used as Redmond, and has the aforementioned Barrington release coming up, plus having been used at both of the last two Breyerfests, I think it might be a bit of overkill using him as the surprise so soon. I think Breyer will probably give him a rest for a while after this year and then maybe bring him back as a web special sometime next year. Whatever they use him for next, I hope the wait isn't too long!

Special run preference emails!

Good news, everyone! If you still have tickets for this year's virtual Breyerfest, the emails for selecting your ticket preferences went out today!

We have until June 15 to make our selections, so there's plenty of time to think about it. I personally need to figure out what strategy I'm going to use for my tickets before I make my selections, so it'll probably be a while before I actually submit my selections. Good thing we have plenty of time!

Also, there's a cheat sheet with prices and quantities of the special runs to help with our selections - and Thorn of all models is the split run this year. So...yay, I don't need to worry about that at all this year!

Lots of new reveals today!

Hello, readers! First off, as you may have noticed, Featured Model was on hiatus last week. I guess I was just enjoying having the weekend off from work so much that I completely forgot to write a new post. Oh well!

Anyway, I'll start with the reveal of the last Breyerfest special run for the Fling! Souvenir Shop: a Mini-Raffle Stablemate set! Huzzah!

All I can say is: YES PLEASE!

Okay, I can say more than that. These are amazing, especially the mini North Star! I love it. And this is series 1...so there are going to be more! These models are mini versions of the raffle models Carlisle, Viajero, Windswept, North Star and Que Sera Sera. Great idea, Breyer!

Next, the mid-year releases have been announced:

Peptoboonsmal on Dundee!



Checkers on Latigo! Nothing I need, but look at that rich chestnut color!



Apparition - the 2020 Halloween Horse! Interesting concept, but also nothing I need.



Adiah HP, the previously-announced pinto Totilas!



And, last (and least, honestly...for me anyway)....more blind bags.



You'll have to excuse me if I'm not terribly excited about these, because I'm tired of blind bags as a concept. Fortunately, I only want two of them (the mini-Brishen and mini-Emma). I'm also not excited about the chase piece and "super-chase." Just what I want; yet another, even more-impossible-to-find chase! And it's probably a mini Othello to boot. Yawn. I'll get the Brishen and Emma secondhand rather than give Breyer the satisfaction of ordering any of these. Bleh.

That's all I have for today! Hopefully we get more Breyerfest news soon! I'm anxiously awaiting the email where we make our Breyerfest model selections!