More auction models, another Zafirah delay and Breyerfest merch!

 Well, I'll get the bad news out of the way first: we got another shipping update from Breyer, and Zafirah has been delayed again. Breyer now anticipates her to be in stock in late July/early August. I guess that might give us a little time to recover from Breyerfest? Let's hope so. 

Now that that's over with, let's take a look at today's auction model reveals! Here's a weird-looking dapple gray Sherman Morgan: 

Maybe they left out the part where he's also a pinto? A...really weird pinto? Just odd. 

Next, here's a stunning Brishen! 

Mmm, yes please. Looks similar to the auction Alborozo from 10 years ago, albeit with less dappling. 

Lastly, here's...this.

Not sure what to say about this one, except...Nokota does not look good with a haircut. He's described as a, "Black Sabino Criollo with a factory custom roached mane." Cool, I guess, but why does he still have his forelock and the bit of mane at his withers? I mean, other than the fact that the withers mane is molded on. Why would they pick a model so completely defined by his wild hair and then Dremel half of it off? He looks like a plucked goose. Well, partially plucked. Maybe he'd seem less unbalanced if they'd done something about his tail as well? Either way, I'm not a huge fan of this one. 

Lastly, new merch for this year's Breyerfest is in stock! Check it out here.

Well, I hope we get some more exciting auction reveals tomorrow! If not, I hope everyone has a good 4th of July weekend. We're all quarantining with covid, so it looks like it's going to be a low-key weekend for us. Oh well - I'd rather it happen now than two weeks from now when we're about to leave for Kentucky! 

Featured Model - 6/25/2022, Running with Scissors Farm Tour pt. 1

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I...uh, usually pick a model that has an interesting history behind it, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. A few weeks ago I received a request to do a collection tour, so I thought it might be fun to do a few Featured Model posts featuring my collection for the next few weeks. I was going to do it in one post, until I realized how many photos would have to go into that one post and well, I just don't like posts to be that long. So anyway! Let's get started with Running with Scissors Farm Tour, Part 1! 

I did recently purge about 200 models from my collection, including my congas of Desatado, Smarty Jones, Lonesome Glory, Sherman Morgan, Adios, Amber, Ashley, the Classic Stock Horse Stallion and more, so that's why there are some open spots on the shelves. Room for more ponies, am I right? I was sad to consign all those models to the sell pile, but it had to be done. 

My favorite mold (so far) is Othello, so I keep them in a spot where I don't have to make my way around the bed to get to them (we like to live dangerously, so the horse room is also the guest room. We don't get many visitors). The only OF Othello models I don't have in my collection are the glossy Fox Valley Oliver and glossy Churchill (plus all of the porcelain ones, but I don't do clinkies. I'm kinda tempted by Galway Warrior though). Those G2 Friesians are the bane of my existence and I finally decided to lay them all down rather than try to stand them all up for the nth time and accidentally knock them down over and over. Looks like there are some Stablemate foals that need to be stood back up too, but...nah. They fall over easily too. 

That's all of the first shelf. I have three more just like it, plus the closet is full of shelves, plus there are built-in shelves on one wall. Lots of shelves! And still not enough room. I also keep binders with photos of every model I own, descriptions, any important notes, price paid, and estimated value. I kinda hope Brishen isn't the surprise model, because I don't know where I'd put them. 

This is the shelf next to the previously-seen Othello shelf. Those Hucks are kinda the bane of my existence too. The permanent lean some of them have makes me die a little inside, but that's a problem inherent to the mold, unfortunately. 

Some rearranging clearly needs to be done here, but I just haven't had the time. That poor Sundown is my only remaining PAS; he gets to stay because he's one of the few remaining models from my carpet herd and he was one of my favorites. Plus his tail looks like a French fry! 

That's it for now - tune in next week for Part 2! 

Ticket books are here!

 Well, my All-Access ticket books came in the mail today! My VIP book came in the mail a few days ago, but I wanted to wait until they were all here to post about it. Here they are! 

Here's some of the tickets in the VIP book! 

And here's some more! 

I'm excited to see the VIP swag packs this year! I hope there are more pins. I'm slowly developing a pin obsession - don't mind me. I'm also contemplating keeping one of my Celebration Models - I didn't like the mold when he was first revealed, but he's trying to grow on me. Unfortunately, the photo angle in that redemption ticket for him is...not doing him any favors in that department. I'll have to make my final decision when I have mine in hand. 

And here's a page from one of my All-Access ticket books! 

It's not nearly as hard to get ahold of Surprise models as it used to be, so the fact that I got a Rotating Draft on all 9 of my All-Access tickets wasn't too surprising...but this page was definitely a surprise.

I idly put Stein as my second choice, despite getting one with my VIP ticket, because I figured I wouldn't get any of them anyway because of how popular he is, and if I did get one or two extra I could handpick the best one and sell the others. I definitely wasn't expecting to get four of them in this book and one more in my other book. 

You always have to have a strategy when it comes to Breyerfest models, though, so my tentative plan for now is to wait and see what the matte/glossy split is (hopefully it's revealed promptly on Friday) and then trade some of these Stein vouchers for whatever ends up being the split (if it's on a mold I collect, and hopefully not on TWO releases because...just no). And if the split is on a mold I don't collect, and if the Rotating Draft is on a mold I DO collect, it shouldn't be too hard to trade Stein vouchers for more surprise vouchers. I think there's only been two or three years (out of the last 10) that I didn't want the surprise model, so the chances are good that it's something I collect. 

So that's my strategy! Let's hope it's a winning one. In three weeks I guess I'll find out! 

Breyerfest Program, Auction Lots and Raffle Models, Oh My!

 I've used that joke for a headline before, but I don't care. It was definitely an "Oh, my!" type of day, Breyer-wise. I'll start with the biggest news: the program is finally available! Sadly, we didn't get an epic every-auction-lot-ever accidental reveal like we did that one year (2014, I think), but it did have all that important information about Breyerfest we've been waiting for, plus...the reveal of this year's raffle models! Check them out: 

Lederhosen, on Troubadour, and Dirndl on the new Zafirah mold! I'll hold back any gripes about them using Premier Club models as raffle models the same year they debut (grumble) since it doesn't seem to change much. Though it was refreshing to have that not happen for at least the last two years. They're both beautiful! It does look like they've raised prices on the raffle tickets for some reason - maybe they're hoping slightly fewer will sell, since those raffle drums get pretty full. But it's exciting to finally see the raffle models! Good that they've been revealed earlier than last year's - that wait felt like it took wayyyyy too long. But anyway. We got three more auction models today as well! 

Be still, my heart. This is a "sun-faded bay pinto with somatic mutation" Icelandic. What a stunner! I bet he'll go pretty high. 

Ooh, a Missouri Fox Trotter as a "chalky shaded dun with two-tone green ribbons." You know, if you squint a little, he kinda-sorta looks like a big version of the Stablemate MFT that was in the 70th Anniversary blind bags (yes, I know that one was gray). 

And lastly, a "sunbleached bay frame overo mare and baby buckskin foal." Sheesh, these models must be spending a lot of time in the sun! Har har har, I'm so funny. Interestingly, while I'm still not a fan of the mare...if they came out with a release of that foal just by himself, or with another foal? I might actually buy it. I didn't want the Firefly and Hawkeye set purely because the mare just doesn't do anything for me, but the foal is another story. Kinda the opposite of Rhian and Cadell for me, really. Well, maybe at Breyerfest I'll find someone selling a Hawkeye I can inspect up close, eh? 

That's all I have for today - but maybe my Breyerfest tickets will come tomorrow! I hope so! Hurry up, mail! 

Collector Club Appreciation, Auction Models and more!

 Exciting news, everyone! My Collector Club Appreciation orders are here! Behold! 

Though I didn't get a photo of it, in my first order I bought four styling heads for gifts, the pin board and the new Unicorn Crazy (or whatever it's called) stable. And when I opened the (huge) box, the second thing I saw was a really skinny Breyer box, upside down. I could see the label read "KB Omega Fahim" and got really excited and pulled him out glossy! 

I love this shade of blue-black and wish Breyer would use it more often. He's stunning! I'll have to compare him to my matte Omega Fahim and see if there's any difference between them. 

I guess there is a risk of them looking more like decorators if there's too much blue...but then, blue is my favorite color, so I'm not going to nitpick that too much. Haha! 

For my second order, I went ahead and just bought the glossy model outright, as I don't have any more space for extra stuff I don't want or need. And look who I got! 

I had been hoping to get the glossy Theo, though, so it looks like I'll be looking for a trade. Ideally with someone at the Clarion when we're there in 3 weeks. Speaking of the Clarion, we got some more Breyerfest auction models today! Check them out: 

As someone on Blab noted, this Fighter would make a perfect dad for Robin and Nestling. Aww, a family! 

An amazing star-dappled gray on my least-favorite Latigo mane/tail combination. He's pretty, though!

And lastly:

A really, really nice Valegro, but I can't help but think he would have been completely amazing in gloss! 

And lastly, Breyer introduced Sparkler, a 4th of July plush, today! 

He's already sold out, so if you wanted one, I hope you were able to get one. I'm not a plush collector, so I didn't partake, but he's a cute design! 

That's all I have for today - I hope we get more auction models tomorrow! And, uh, a Breyerfest program, since it's now the 20th? Is that too much to ask for? You know, because people want to plan out their activities and it's kind of hard to do that without the program. 

The Breyerfest Live Auction has been announced!

 Good news, everyone - the Breyerfest Live Auction is coming back for 2022 (not that we thought it was gone) and check out the two amazing auction models we got in the announcement! 

What a wild color on Shannondell! He'll go pretty high, and this knocks him out of the list of surprise horse contenders (trying not to think about some of the remaining possibilities). 

This Moody Andalusian has a stunning amount of shading. Look at him! What a beauty. I want to take him home! 

They're going to allow online bidders in the auction this year, but my feelings about that basically amount to, "first world problems," so I'm not going to say too much about it. Grumble grumble. Anyway, I'm excited to see what we get to see next! 

Featured Model - 6/18/2022, Gooitzen fan Teakesyl

 Hark! Featured Model returns, after a 3-week hiatus! Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model I don't own (but this one I do own) that has an interesting story behind it, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's model is...Gooitzen fan Teakesyl! 

This shiny black pony is item #711177 and was a run of 7,000 (approximately) produced on the Goffert mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. 

While this model is rather common in the model horse world, due to the sheer number of him produced, I picked him because when he was first introduced to the world as the Breyerfest 2014 Celebration Model, he wasn't originally glossy - the promo photo showed a matte black Friesian. This, of course, led to an outcry from collectors, because the mold had already been issued in solid black as its original release, Goffert (never mind the fact that as a portrait of a Friesian, one might expect it to be issued in black more than once). Anyway, this outcry led to all of the Celebration Horses being glossed to make them stand out more (although the original Goffert models were semigloss anyway, plus Goffert was used as a glossy prize model in 2006...so there are a lot of glossy Gofferts out there, from one release or another). I guess this story is only mildly interesting, so I'll have to come up with something better for next week. I am not sure what happened to the original matte Gooitzen, though it was probably glossed. It was also humorous to see the alternate names people came up with for Gooitzen - I was a volunteer that year and the Breyer people just called him Gootz. I remember seeing such names as Gluten von Tinkerbell, or Teakettle. Haha! 

As for Goffert, he was an auction model for last year's Breyerfest...could he be this year's surprise model? I'm leaning more in his direction now that several other molds have more-or-less been ruled out. It's definitely a possibility! Not sure where else I'd expect him to pop up in the near future, except maybe as the next web special (probably not the animal or holiday web specials, though). I guess we'll find out in...less than a month now! Gulp! 

More Breyerfest stuff and the next Stablemates Club model!

 We have another Breyerfest silent auction reveal! Take a look: 

The original Halla was given a modern update for this release. This is noteworthy because the original Halla mold was destroyed when it was altered to become Bolya back in the early '90s. So, they do still have some remaining whiteware from that mold! 

It was announced today that virtual Breyerfest attendees will be able to purchase special run models after all - they must really not have sold as many tickets as they thought. Virtual attendees will only be able to purchase one model rather than two (and I'm not sure if that's one model per virtual ticket or one model per account). I guess we'll find out more about that later...

And in other news, the third Stablemates Club release of the year, Shelburne, is now available for purchase! 

So far I'm 0/3 for SMC releases I actually want to keep this year. At least I managed to sell mine already, unlike poor Phineas. Hopefully I can unload that one at Breyerfest, which is (gulp) only a month away! When did that happen? I'm getting more excited by the day! Hey, they should start releasing auction models soon, right? Well, let's hope so, anyway. 

Oops, missed a few things

 Well, I didn't get a chance to blog about the end of the Collector Club Appreciation event, among other things - we were traveling back from New Zealand over the weekend, so I didn't have much spare time for blogging. But never fear! I'm here now. 

So anyway, these were the four Collector Club Appreciation glossies! 

I was immensely relieved to see Marc of Charm was not among them. Of course, that probably means he'll be a Breyerfest Live prize instead. Well, let's try to stay positive here. I'm hoping to get the Theo and Omega Fahim from my two orders, and will be looking to trade for them if I don't. Here's hoping! 

Next, there was a new hint on the Breyerfest Blog on Friday, and we got the reveal today! Behold:

It's the Breyerfest Live Reserve Champion prize! Her name is Hildegard. What a beauty, huh? Nothing I need, but she sure is pretty. I like the contrast of her white tail against the rest of her. 

And lastly, we have a silent auction lot reveal as well! 

This cute set is a reference to the Bremen Town Musicians story. They're adorable! I wonder if they're permanently attached to each other? This is the first time the Breyer donkey has seen the light of day in ages, and the color fits him pretty well. 

There was one other silent auction reveal last week, but it wasn't anything we haven't seen before - just a full set of the alternate-color models from Breyerfest 2021. Hmm, maybe those things weren't as randomly-shipped as we thought? Heh. 

That's all I have for today - hopefully we get some more fun reveals this week! 

Uh…okay then…

 The reveals are coming fast and furious, aren’t they? Totally unexpectedly, this year’s Collector Club Appreciation event is already happening…tomorrow!

Not sure what Breyer is thinking with this move, with the multitude of other releases coming this month and Breyerfest in a little more than a month. My husband’s idle speculation was that Breyer is finally dumping the CCG warehouse in favor of a new one and doing the CCA now to clear out inventory in anticipation of that. Let’s hope that’s the case! 

Anyway, the glossy Omega Fahim looks good. I wonder what the other three possibilities are? Marc of Charm has been mentioned as a possible contender, and my natural reaction to that is, “NOOOOOOO!” But then again, the palomino Hamilton was one of last year’s CCA models, so maybe they wouldn’t gloss Marc. I hope so. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow!

Mid-Year Releases and Ponies & Palm Trees!

 

Well, it’s official - the Ponies & Palm Trees collector event is taking place this November - it’s been officially announced by Breyer! If you’re a Collector Club member, check your email for more information! I don’t know when tickets will go on sale, but they’ll be allocated by random draw, so I’d be thrilled to be able to attend. I hope we get to see some of the special runs beforehand, though.

In other news, looks like I was right on time with my Mid-Years question yesterday. We have our newest reveal from Breyer! These are the new Trad releases, but the rest of the new releases can be found here.  I’ll start with the new El Pastor!

There’s also a new Vermeer (!):

A black and white pinto - ooh, pretty. I gotta have this one!

And lastly, a new Bristol! I’ll have to get my hands on him as well, although I prefer the loose mane/tail. 

The newest reveal!

 Well, the reveal is here - say hello to Hildebrand!

As most people thought, he’s the Overall Grand prize for this year’s Breyerfest Open Model Horse Show. So, if you’re showing this year…good luck! 

Apparently there’s going to be another sneak peek later this week - presumably the Reserve Grand prize, so I’m excited for that! Let’s hope we get some other fun reveals this week as well, like the Mid-Year releases!

Hark! A new sneak peek approaches!

 Greetings, readers! It’s been a little while since the last one, but we have a new sneak peek on the Breyerfest blog! Check it out!

Fortunately, we don’t have to do much sleuthing to figure out what it is - it’s clearly a Silver, in what looks like silver bay to boot (one of the few colors he hasn’t been released in yet). What could it be? Probably a live show prize, though I suppose it could be a raffle model as well. At least we don’t have to wait too long to find out what it is - it’ll be revealed on Monday! 

The next Vintage Club release!

 Exciting news, everyone - the next release in the 2022 Vintage Club has been revealed! Say hello to Gawain!

He’s the flocky model that was teased in the welcome letter from earlier this year. I’m not gonna lie…I’ve always found flocky models pretty tacky, and this one is no exception. But at the same time…I kinda like him! What a conundrum. Fortunately I’m not in the VC this year, so it’s not that big of a deal. I can’t say I expected Shannondell to make another appearance in the VC, either, so now I’m figuring the Breyerfest surprise isn’t on him. Maybe it’s still Brishen after all? Or failing that, the Cleveland Bay? Or something else entirely? Good thing we only have to wait a few more weeks to find out.

Zafirah has been delayed

 I know I’m really late with this post, but we did get a shipping update about Zafirah last week saying she should be in stock in late June. I guess the shipping delays are still happening, despite the fact that it seems like Breyer is back to their regular schedule with most of their other releases. Maybe the Zafirah models are stuck on the same boat with the mystery April release we still haven’t seen? Who knows. Anyway, at least we got an update. Now we get to wait and see if the June Stablemates Club release will come out on schedule!