Featured Model - 4/17/2022, Black Pinto Test Adios

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model I don't own but  has an interesting history behind it, give some stats on it and provide commentary on it. This week's model is...the black pinto Mego Adios! 

This model was a OOAK produced on the Adios mold sculpted by Chris Hess. He was sold at the 1996 Breyerfest Live Auction. 

While he doesn't have that interesting of a history behind him, he's still an example of an alternate color scheme using an existing mask - the one that was used to produce Mego, the 1995 Breyerfest Celebration Horse. At that time Breyer was still using masks that clamped onto the models to paint their pinto patterns, and a lot of those masks got reused for other releases (see also Tseminole Wind and the bay pinto JCP Sham, amongst many others). I can see why they wanted to use the mask again - Mego looks especially striking in black! 

Adios has always been a popular mold, and he's one of the very few vintage molds that has a lot of representation in my herd (though I'm preparing to sell all of them this year, sadly). However, he's only had one appearance as a web special, back in 2009, so I'm wondering if he may get another web special release soon. I'd also expect to see him pop up in the Vintage Club again at some point, since molds have been used multiple times there and several vintage colors were never used on him - I'm still waiting for that glossy bay Yellow Mount to show up. Maybe someday? In the meantime, I'm prepping all 23 of my Adios models to go up for sale later this month, and contemplating keeping just one of them for nostalgia's sake - I don't really want to sell them, but shelf space and life changes demand a reduction in the collection - around 150 other models are slated to be culled as well. That's how it goes sometimes, I guess. Anyway, I hope Adios gets a new release soon - hmm, he's never been a TSC special run either, despite all of the "stock horse" releases he's gotten over the years, so we may see him there as well. Or perhaps as the Holiday Horse - the possibilites are endless!