Featured Model - 5/7/2022, Medalist Mangalarga Marchadors

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model I don't own but may have an interesting story behind it, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's models are...the 2016 Medalist Mangalarga Marchadors! (Try saying that three times fast!)

These three test models were produced for the 2016 Breyerfest Silent Auction in celebration of Rio Carnaval and the Olympics. They were produced on the Marchador mold sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig.

This photo does a good job of showing off those (IMO) toothpick front legs, and the reason I decided not to collect Marchadors. Well, that and his tiny size - he's about the same size as a Classics model, but is presented as a Traditional. That said, these colors do look nice on him, despite the fact that he's just kind of awkward-looking. Having a lower headset would probably help with that, and the scuttlebutt in the hobby is that he indeed did have a lower headset during the sculpting process, but Breyer asked Sarah to raise his head up for some reason. I haven't seen the photos of the original headset, but it sounds like another one of those head-scratcher Breyer requests (along with lengthening the neck on Forever Saige). 

The Marchador hasn't had the greatest reception in the hobby - his only RR appearance, Enzo, was discontinued fairly quickly and the glossy Enzo didn't really set the world on fire either. It probably didn't help (or maybe it did? Who knows) that his mold sat in the "Breyer vault" until 2019, for no apparent reason, other than to maybe drive up Breyerfest ticket sales. So it remains to be seen where we'll see him next - his gait makes it hard to present him as anything other than a Marchador, but these molds do represent a significant investment on Breyer's part, so I'm sure he'll have another release eventually. Maybe a web special? I can't see him as a Holiday Horse or TSC special run. Maybe a Breyerfest prize model or something? Or they might try another regular run. I guess we'll see eventually!