Lanin is here!

 Good news, everyone! My Lanin model has arrived - behold! 

He's way more purple than I thought he'd be! 

In-hand, he doesn't look as weird with no mane as he did in the promo photos (typical). 

Quality-wise he's pretty good, other than a purplish smear on his butt, and a warped left hind leg (visible in the above photo). While I didn't take any photos, I did compare him to my other models on this mold, and the ones molded from cellulose acetate (prior SMC releases like Mirado and Fiero) are definitely skinnier through the shoulders than the ABS ones (all other colors). The speculation is that the factory workers aren't giving the models enough time to cool before removing them from the molds, leading to some "collapsing" in the shoulder area. All Stablemate models have a void or air bubble inside (just take a look at the clearware ones), which could lead to some collapsing of the plastic around the shoulder area, so the theory seems solid. Is Breyer ever going to address this? Has it even been brought up to them? Who knows. 

Interestingly enough, it looks like the process to eliminate Mirado's mane (presumably by Dremeling it off) also eliminated most of the detail on his neck. Let's hope this doesn't happen on any future roached releases of this mold, I guess. 

On a small side note, the First Timer's Guides to Breyerfest (in-person and virtual) have been released on the Breyer website, and they do mention a plush as one of the store items (but no photos of said plush). So the plush is presumably still coming? Who knows.