A sneak peek AND a reveal? How bizarre

 Greetings, readers! Well, lots of exciting things to report today, but I'll start with today's sneak peek! Behold, a poorly-painted eye:

No idea what this is, and the Internets yield nothing particularly definitive, though there's some speculation that it's a Stablemate due to the, uh, not-so-great paint job on that eye. Maybe it's something from the Best of Breyerfest set for this year? It looks like a mini Julep, although I don't think she had a blue eye, so probably not. Fortunately, we'll find out tomorrow! 

Today's next exciting reveal was: a revamp of the ticket process! The ticket books of yesteryear, a concept only a bare two years old, are no more! Breyerfest tickets are now digital, with QR codes to scan to get into the park, pick up models, etc. More information here. The reaction on the Interwebs seems to be mixed-to-positive, with a fair amount of anger regarding the fact that trading model tickets seems to be a thing of the past due to not having any way to validate whether a QR code has been used ahead of time. So beware of scammers, and make sure you really trust your pickup person this year if you're not able to attend the event yourself. I'm mostly ambivalent to this change, and a bit sad that the ticket books are already going away after only two years - they were pretty cool! I'm also irked that Breyer is passing on the processing fees to us even though Breyerfest parking is free this year and they're presumably saving a bunch of money not having to print tickets or provide wristbands. I guess we'll see if it works out - hopefully things go relatively smoothly, but then again this is Breyer we're talking about. So it'll probably be a disaster on Friday morning and then more-or-less functional by Saturday morning. 

Lastly, though we didn't get to see the result of the above sneak peek, we got a great reveal of something else instead! Behold, Blue Zeus! 

It's great to see Fireheart in this color! About a year and a half ago I suggested that Breyer do a portrait of Ares from Return to Freedom on the Fireheart mold (he's pretty much the same color as Blue Zeus, and has a similar story), so it's great to see pretty much the same color on him! He's the online Limited Edition (equivalent to Studebaker last year), and the mold is much more popular than the Shagya Arabian, so I suspect I'm going to have to be quick ordering him (and perhaps do it back at the Clarion, where the Internet may be more reliable...maybe). What a beauty! 

I like the white spot on his neck! He's so pretty. Looks like they're making 3,000 of this guy, so he shouldn't be TOO hard to get ahold of, but then again...Fireheart is very popular, so I don't think it'll take long to sell out. I'll have to make sure to be ready as soon as he becomes available to buy! 

That's it for today, but I'll definitely be haunting the Breyerfest blog tomorrow to see what that blue eye belongs to!