The Grinch strikes again, and other stuff

 Good news, everyone! My Wassail models all arrived today - I was able to use UPS to delay their arrival until today. So without any further ado...here we go with the unboxing! 

What a tantalizing stack of boxes. While I am getting pretty tired of the gambler's choice everything, it is fun to open up a stack of random things every once in a while. 

I carefully opened each box, pulled out the model inside without looking at it, made a pile on the table, and took a photo (also without really looking at it, which is why it isn't centered). 

And after a lot of unwrapping...behold! 

Rats, I was hoping for a better color distribution than that (doesn't everyone?) - but hey, at least I didn't get four solid greens. 

There's actually a lot of variation between the three solid greens. The one on the left is pretty dark, the one in the middle is about average, and the one on the right practically GLOWS green in comparison. I was a little torn about which one to keep, but ultimately settled on the greenest one, because...he's just so green! And these paint jobs do look better in person than they did in the photos. 

Here's a closeup where you can hopefully see more detail on the glitter. How cool would it have been if they'd had some holographic effects on these guys, too? But they still look pretty cool. 

So I'm keeping the green filigree and the brightest of the solid greens, and I'll be looking to trade the other two for the solid red and filigree red. I may have a trade for the solid red lined up already, which is good. Hopefully I can get the other one traded as well and have the full (obtainable) set! 

In other news, there are so many things I need to write about today! I'll start with the stuff from yesterday, since I just didn't have a chance to write a post yesterday. We were busy flying back home to KY after a Christmas visit to our home state. So where do I start? We got another Breyerfest Stablemate silhouette:

Cool, it's the Prince Charming mold again. Hmm, I thought to myself. Could they be on a streak here? Dare I hope they pick four molds I don't collect, and I don't need to bother with getting any of the single-day Stablemates for once? It's too much to hope for! 

Yesterday's other big reveal (unless I'm forgetting something) was the optional purchase for the 2024 Stablemates Club! Behold: 

It's Cassidy! And two foals! The foals are randomly shipped, so you won't know which foal you're getting until it arrives! I am not happy about this! 

I had reservations about this year's Breyerfest mare and foal set for the same reason - anyone that collects both the Standing Stock Horse Foal and the Action Stock Horse Foal would inevitably end up with an extra of the Lady Phase from this set (if they didn't end up buying multiple sets trying to get both versions of the foal). I don't have quite the same problem, since I only want the standing foal from this set, but it still irritates me. 

Also, I'm confused by the Cassidy's color (clearly Breyer really is trying to get their money's worth from the mold). The clue about the Breyerfest Cassidy seemed to imply a primitive color, but Hadley's color is primitive too. Would they do two? I'm confused. Maybe the clue was referring to something else. But I suppose we'll find out more next week. 

So that's our full Stablemates Club lineup for 2024! It looks like I'm only going to need three of the releases (or I guess four if you count the standing foal version of Holden). Oh well - I think that's better than this year. So I broke down and joined the club today (along with the 2024 Premier Club because I didn't want to forget about it). 

Back to Breyerfest 2024: today's teaser was...this! 

Holy crap, they did it! They actually did it! I won't need any of the single-day Stablemates next year! Hooray! It probably sounds weird that I'm celebrating not needing to buy anything, but every little bit helps, right? Maybe I won't need to bother with a VIP ticket, either. Well, maybe I won't hope for that yet...much. 

Let's see. What else was revealed today? The final Collector Club newsletter of 2023 is in email inboxes, so check your email if you haven't. There's a whole bunch of archive footage from the 1990s, a giveaway of a Mustang throw blanket (really? That's all you could find?), and this sneak peek:

There's been some speculation online that this is a new bull. That works for me - I won't need to buy it! The new for 2024 line is slated to be released next week, apparently (so much for releasing it before 2024 actually gets here). So we won't have to wait too long to see it. 

Other random things that were released sometime in the last few days: updated packaging for the Premier Club (Nobody cares about the packaging! Give us the first release in the club!); the PC Stablemate will be a new mold (Trying to figure out the odds on whether this is an actually new mold, or something shrunk down to Stablemate size again); Grab bags are being offered again on Breyer's website (not worth it! Avoid! Avoid!) and 2024 Stablemates Club releases will be released in window boxes rather than the hat boxes (Boo! Go back to the satin bags!). There may be more I'm forgetting.  

At any rate, I can't believe we're already at the end of 2023! I don't know if I'll have anything else to post about before the end of the year, aside from one more Featured JAH post. Let's hope there's something...but in the meantime, I hope everyone has a happy New Year! Here's to a great 2024, everybody!