Featured Breyerfest - 2017

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! We're covering 2017 this week, so let's get going! 

Notable events of 2017:

• Nintendo releases its Switch game console, which becomes its best-selling console
• Aoteroa, of New Zealand, wins the America's Cup yacht race
• Houston, TX is hit by Hurricane Harvey, causing $125 billion of damage and killing 108 people
• My son is born! 

And in Kentucky, Breyerfest 2017 happened! 

Dates: July 14-16, 2017
Theme: Gateway to India
Celebration Horse: Nazruddin
Number of Celebration Models produced: 8,000

Here's the first 2017 page from the new commemorative program:

The real Nazruddin is a Marwari stallion owned by Francesca Kelly, but I was unable to find any additional information on him or whether he's still alive. Other guest horses/horsepeople were Dally and Spanky (The real-life dog and pony show), Repeat the Beat, Hwin with Elisa Wallace, Fantasia del C and Gozosa and Guy McLean. This was the first time in quite some time that the same mold was used for rare/limited releases (True North as Rangoli the raffle model and Masala the BCC prize). The last time I remember this happening was the year Silver was used for both of the live show prize models. Inexplicably, they picked the Icelandic Horse for the early bird model, rather than something India-related. This was also the first year the runner-up Stablemate was introduced for the Best Customs Contest. The volunteer model was the beautiful Assam, with the glossy Assam as the even-more-beautiful volunteer manager's model. I was not a volunteer in 2017 but traded a glossy Bollywood Surprise for a volunteer model. 

Store specials were Repeat the Beat, Dally and Spanky, the crystal Madhuri, Navya, the plushes Lotus and Jaipur, Holi the elephant, and Marigold the clearware Show Arabian, who started my Show Arabian conga. Huzzah! Prize models included the previously-mentioned Tikka and Masala, and also Desi and Cassia the live show prize models, glossy Nazruddin and Sona the diorama contest prize. 

Special runs that year were Darjeeling, Diwali the cow, matte and glossy Indu, Kaalee, Namaste, matte and glossy Saffron, Vahana and the Bollywood Surprise, which turned out to be on the Latigo mold (I was sure it would be the Moody Andalusian). I was happy that it turned out to be a mold I don't collect, because sales are always better when that's the case. This was the first year we had our own official room in the Clarion, which we've had every year since then. Unfortunately, the room also came with a mild case of bedbugs, which was very frustrating/terrifying, but things have been fine since then (and they didn't come home with us). Hopefully that continues to be the case next year! 

Now that the commemorative program section of 2017 is out of the way, here are the pages from the 2017 annual JAH! 

Page 2:

Page 3:

And page 4:

And with that, let's take a look at some on-the-scene photos! 

Glossy Rainier in the silent auction

Nazruddin in the covered arena

Fantasia del C in the covered arena

Diorama entry

Auction model that looks strikingly similar to Caesar

Now, let's take a look at some auction models! 

This auction Idocus has the braided mane, which is my favorite! He looks handsome in brindle. I wish Breyer would use brindle colors a little more often - the only one I can think of that had any sort of wide release was the brindle Diesel from 10 years ago. We need more brindle! 

This is an alternate version of Namaste that apparently was one of the potential choices for her, and I'm still a bit astounded that this one didn't make it to production. She looks just like a scratch art project! I love her, though I do have a weakness for rainbows. So pretty! 

I love this blue tiger Padma too! I have a weakness for blue, if you couldn't tell. She's so cool! 

This one is cool because 1: he's a polo pony and polo as we know it was developed in India, and 2: he looks like he's wearing his own Sleazy Sleepwear! I think this pattern is based on a real horse, too. 

That's it for today - check back next week for Breyerfest 2018!