Mirado is here!

Greetings, readers! My first (of two) Mirado models has arrived! Behold:

I've seen a few photos of other people's Mirado models, and it looked like some of them had front legs with a weird bend at the knee that I wasn't a big fan of - but mine seems to be okay in that department, although his hind legs seem to be warped inward slightly. No big deal, though.

I like him in general, though! I'm a little iffy about the crest on his neck; it looks a little odd from the right side, but the left side looks fine. But I like his color, and his long mane, and his pinto pattern.

His eyes are incredible! I can't get over them. I have no idea how they painted eyes so tiny, but both of mine look pretty nice. Some of the blue eyes I've seen looked really weird (and I've heard rumors of some Mirado models with two brown eyes), but I don't see any issues with mine.

Quality-wise, he's mostly okay - he's got some debris in his paint on the right flank area and a couple of pinpoint black spots, but otherwise I don't see anything wrong with him.



I still have one more Mirado coming in the mail, so we'll see what that one looks like - maybe he'll be better than this one or have two brown eyes or something. I guess we'll find out when he gets here! Overall, though, I'm happy to add him to my collection.

Breyerwest 2018 and Stablemate Club raffle!

First things first - Breyerwest 2018 is officially happening!

Breyerwest is like a mini version of Breyerfest, but without any special runs (since it was restarted last year). There's a model horse show, workshops and Stablemate painting (of course!). And since it takes place at the Northwest Horse Fair and Expo, there'll be plenty of live horses on hand! Sign up here. I'd like to attend Breyerwest someday, but I don't show, and the lack of special runs and the distance (Albany, OR is about a 25-hour drive away from us) means we'll probably never get there. Maybe someday!

In other news, we've been informed of exactly what the Stablemate Club raffle is this year - and it's a doozy! It's a full set of the Fylkir gambler's choice models - but all of them are glossy!



Be still, my heart. Now that's a raffle worth winning! But shouldn't the smoky black one be matte? Oh well. They all look really snappy in gloss - I hope we win! Although honestly, with the number of people in the club, they could really give away 5 of these sets and they'd still be worth a ton of money. Not that I'd sell them if I won - they'd go with my other Icelandics! I'll be crossing my fingers. The drawing takes place the last week of December, so don't forget to order your Mirado! I believe the order deadline is the 18th. Good luck to everyone!

Mirado is now available for purchase!

Right on time - (more or less) - the final Stablemate Club release of the year, Mirado, is now available on the website! 

After a long year of waiting, I can finally add Mirado to my collection. Yay! 

Part of me thought about holding off on buying him so I can combine shipping if something else pops up on the website, but...meh, what's another $5? I want my Mirado ASAP! 

Even if you don't want your Mirado for whatever reason, be sure to buy him anyway - everyone who completes the purchase (thus fulfilling their Stablemate Club obligations for the year) will be entered into a special raffle! If it's anything like the raffle for last year's club, it'll be a set of all four Fylkir colors - which would be excellent if I won, because I still need the smoky black one! So we'll buy Mirado on both our memberships and sell the extra one later. Kind of a smart move on Breyer's part to do that, to try and ensure a bunch of people don't drop out of the club at the end of the year. 

Hopefully Mirado ships fast - I can't wait to see mine! 

Allegiance is now available for purchase!

This year's fifth Stablemate Club release, Allegiance, has been revealed and is ready to order!



Yay, patriotism! According to the email blurb, this guy is a mini-me of Patriot, one of the special runs from last year. Not sure why they thought releasing this guy now instead of like, June or August was the way to go - last year's decorator, Ricochet, came out in August, and it probably would have been better to release this guy closer to July 4, but oh well.

I liked Patriot, and I like the paint job on this guy, but I'm just not a fan of the mold, sadly. So, both of ours will have to be rehomed. But that's a good thing when you're trying to cut back on purchases - I just hope we can at least get our money back. I don't think that'll be terribly difficult, though. If you're in the club, happy ordering!

My Fylkir replacement is here!

So I did decide to ask for a replacement for my flawed dunalino Fylkir last week. Well, that replacement has arrived and I couldn't be happier! Behold!

 

I got the roan appaloosa! My favorite of the four colors! I love the Burbank colorway - if only I could get my hands on a Burbank! But this guy will do in the meantime.

 

And aside from a teensy-tiny white speck next to his left eye, I don't see a thing wrong with him!

 

Now, I do want to stress that this isn't something that should be abused. I feel I was justified in asking for a replacement for the dunalino due to his flaws (only the second time I've ever asked for a replacement for anything), and if Breyer had asked I would have shipped it back. Since it's probably not cost-effective to ship something so small back to them, that's probably why they don't ask for them back - but if we abuse this privilege, they might just stop offering replacements and only give refunds instead. So let's keep that in mind before we all start deciding we can use this to get additional gambler's choice models for free.

I'm also factoring this into my records of how many of these models were made - we know there are around 1500 members in the Stablemate Club, which works out to 375 of each color. However, since flawed models aren't being exchanged, I'm guessing there are at least 400 of each color, maybe more. So keep that in mind for your own records.

So, that just leaves the black silver Fylkir for me to find - though I'll wait for the secondary prices to go down a bit before I start trying to find one. They're kind of insane right now, especially on eBay! Hopefully I can find one for a good price later and keep the Icelandic collection complete!

My Fylkirs are here!

...and I got the two colors I'd ranked the lowest, naturally. Oh well! At least I got two different colors. Here they are!

 

The colors really aren't that bad - the other two are just flashier, I guess. Though, like I said before, the splash would have been fine if he were glossy, or had blue eyes (or both). There's a nice metallic/sparkly tint to the dunalino's color, too.

Quality-wise, the splash is mostly okay other than having sloppy eyes.

 

Unfortunately, the dunalino has a few booboos.

 

Nice splotch of paint on that hoof.



And two of his legs are warped inward.



 

And he's got a fingerprint on his shoulder, along with a few pinpoint black marks on his body. Kinda disappointing, all things considered. Maybe I'll ask for a replacement; I haven't decided yet.

That's all I've got for today, although I feel like I should mention today's latest controversy: apparently the image of Sugarmaple hadn't been authorized for release by Breyer yet, so they've been sending cease-and-desist letters to people. So, I took the photo down from yesterday's blog post - hopefully they get that figured out soon.

Breyerfest Closeups: Mirado (And Bollywood Surprise Numbers)

One of the other items on display at the Collector Club tent was Mirado, the upcoming sixth release in the 2017 Stablemate Club. I definitely wanted to see him up close!

 

Mirado was sculpted and painted by Maggie Bennett. He'll be the final release in this year's Stablemate Club and I'm really looking forward to getting him!

 

I'm still a little hesitant about his face - I think it's his markings that are making his muzzle look really narrow. I can see a little chin in that picture, though, so clearly it's just an optical illusion.

 

Here's a different angle. Is he supposed to be grulla? Somebody at Breyer must really like grulla; it's everywhere these days. I wish I'd been brave enough to flip the model around and get a photo of his other side, but I tend to err on the side of "look, but don't touch" with this type of stuff (and I think that sign right in front of him said Do Not Touch). Oh well.

So that's Mirado. Unfortunately, he won't be available until December, so we'll all just have to wait.

In other news, Breyer released the Bollywood Surprise numbers yesterday:

A - Dark Bay Tobiano (1225 Matte, 175 Glossy)
B - Buttermilk Buckskin (800 Matte, 175 Glossy)
C - Chestnut Overo (650 Matte, 175 Glossy)
D - Grulla Pintaloosa (425 Matte, 175 Glossy)

I'm a little surprised that they made quite so many of the matte bay tobianos, though it seemed like they were everywhere. I thought their numbers and the buckskin's would be more in line with each other. Here are our personal statistics - from 7 surprise models, we pulled:

2 matte bay tobianos (one of which was immediately traded for an accidentally glossy pintaloosa)
2 matte buckskins
1 matte chestnut overo
1 glossy bay tobiano
1 glossy buckskin

So, we got incredibly lucky this year. That figures, since these aren't even on a mold I collect. The last time I got two glossies in one year was 2014 with the Pop the Corks - I've never gotten three before. But I'm not complaining! I traded the glossy pintaloosa for the volunteer model, and selling the other two glossies helped immensely with paying for my other expenditures.

On a closing note, I think this year's surprise models were excellent, other than being on a mold I don't collect. I liked the pintaloosa the best, followed by the buckskin, bay tobiano and chestnut overo. If only I collected Latigo! I'd love to see that buttermilk buckskin on Othello, Forever Saige and a host of others. Same with all the other colors! I hope next year's surprise models are just as exciting!

Fylkir is now available!

The fourth Stablemate Club release is now available for purchase, and it's the Gambler's Choice! Surprising! Here they are!

 

I love them! And I'm relieved that they're on a mold I collect. Breyer's firing on all cylinders here - I haven't seen a release I didn't like other than Coco! I love that they used the Burbank color, although I guess Icelandics don't come in appaloosa. Oh well - it's still my favorite one of the bunch and I hope I get it! We have two accounts, so I'll be crossing my fingers that I at least get two different colors. I like the other colors too, especially the smoky black. If I had to rank them, it would probably go like this:

Burbank appaloosa
Silver black
Dunalino
Splash white

Nothing against splash, but I think they should have made him glossy here so we'd have two matte and two glossies. But I'll still be happy if I get one!

It's interesting that the gambler's choice is the fourth release this year. Last year the decorator was the fourth release. Maybe they're trying to give themselves some more time between this release and the end of the year? I wonder if the end-of-year raffle (if they're doing one again) will be of a full set of these again. If it is, I hope I win!

Wolfgang and True North are here!

My Wolfgang and True North models arrived last week/the week before, but got lost in the shuffle of Breyerfest news and the auction model countdown. Since there isn't an auction model reveal today (gotta do whatever they can to keep us from guessing the surprise), it seemed like a good time to share some photos of these guys. First, Wolfgang!

 

I don't have much to complain about with this guy. I like his color, he stands reasonably well, I didn't see anything particularly bad about his paint job...he's just nice all-around.

 

His gloss is nice and smooth, too. I guess if I did have any nitpicks, it would be that some of the peacock spots don't quite line up with their mapping. Not a big deal.

In short, I'm pretty happy with this release - he has a lot of detail for such a tiny model, and (this one, at least) was pulled off quite well. I hope the quality of the rest of the year's releases is up to the same standard!

Next, we have True North!

 

I was hoping to get this guy sold directly from Breyer so I wouldn't have to deal with him further, but fickle eBay buyers being fickle led me to having him shipped here. He'll be for sale at Breyerfest. The sculpt just doesn't appeal to me - I'm not sure why.



 

Quality-wise, he's okay - he doesn't have anything too majorly wrong with him, but he does have some booboos. Like silver horseshoe paint on his leg...

 

...whatever's going on with the inside of his left ear...

 

...questionable mapping on the edge of his mane....

 

...and this last thing, which I'm not sure is a flaw. Why does his body color go onto the bottom of his tail? I've never seen that before.

 

But, none of these would really be enough to make me want to exchange him, especially this close to Breyerfest. And they're all pretty minor, in the grand scheme of things.

Tune in tomorrow for another auction model reveal! I mean, presumably there will be one. They wouldn't skip two days in a row....or would they?

Wolfgang, Third 2017 Stablemate Club release!

Wow, they didn't waste any time with this one! The third Stablemate Club release for 2017 went up on the Breyer website this morning - meet Wolfgang!

 

I'm thrilled with this model, mostly because it's yet again on a mold I like! He'll make a welcome, if probably tippy, addition to the rest of my G3 Friesians. I think he looks like a mini-me of Triton, but at least his spots look less Sharpie'd than Triton's did. And he even has some peacock spots! It'll be interesting to see how they pull off that kind of detail on a model this small.

It's also interesting that all of the releases thus far have been glossy - not that I don't like gloss, but at this time last year, at least Primrose was matte. And I doubt the decorator and at least some of the gambler's choice won't be glossy, so it looks like we're in for a lot of gloss this year. I hope Breyer is up to the task!  

Namaste and Second Stablemate Club Release!

The model in Friday's blog hint has been revealed, and it's the National Show Horse!

 

From the blog:

Namaste is a lovely palomino with traditional henna designs, a pearly mane and tail, and high gloss finish. We can't forget the radiant flecks of gold in his coat. Namaste is on the National Show Horse mold (mold #479) whose majestic mane and tale accentuate the beautiful henna designs.

Darn it, Breyer! Quit putting pearly on things I don't want! It makes it harder to resist buying them!

Roughly translated, "Namaste" means "the spirit within me recognizes the spirit within you." We thought this was the perfect name for our decorator model whose bold, asymmetrical decorations, lustrous finish, and flowing mane and tail perfectly capture the romantic spirit of the horse that is such a part of our lives here at Breyer. The spirit of the horse here at Breyer recognizes the spirit of the horse within you.

That's deep, brah.

In all seriousness, Namaste is quite pretty. His (her?) color reminds me a lot of the 2008 Holiday Horse, Noelle. Unfortunately, I sold off all of my National Show Horses last year, still more victims of the dreaded shelf space shortage. So I won't be buying this pretty girl, sadly. Here's hoping the next two special runs are more to my liking.

In other exciting news, the second release in the 2017 Stablemate Club is now available! Meet Zahrat!



 
He's a delectable glossy bay on the G2 Arabian mold! I'm over the moon with this release, because it's one I can keep! Yay! I had a lot of disappointment in last year's SMC releases because most of them were on molds I didn't collect! Yay, Zahrat can stay with me! I love his chocolate/caramel goodness! Let's hope they're nice, quality-wise. The sample's gloss looks a little iffy, but it could just be the promo picture. I can't wait to get mine!

Coco is here!

Another recent arrival to our house was Coco, the first release in the 2017 Stablemate Club! Here are some quick cell phone photos I took of her.

 

Isn't she cute? If I had more space, she might be able to stay...



Quality-wise, she's fairly nice - I only saw a couple of tiny specks in the gloss, and her eyes (and the area around them) could have been painted better. Otherwise, she looks pretty good.



Some tiny eyewhites might not have been a bad idea, just to keep her eye from disappearing into a gaping black maw on her face. And I know they can do eyewhites that tiny, because my mini Connoisseur set (and probably others) has them.



All in all, a fairly nice model. Let's hope my second one is just as good or better. I don't anticipate having a lot of trouble selling these; Primrose was a fairly hot commodity at this time last year. I definitely hope the next one is something I want to keep, though!

Coco is now available!

Coco, the first release of the 2017 Stablemate Club, is now ready to order!


I'm a little irked that they released her today, when they could have done it yesterday so I could combine shipping with Rainier. Either that or I should have waited a day to order my Rainier, but it's not like I'm psychic, right? At least we didn't have to wait until the last week of February to order her - I'll have to content myself with that. Let's hope they're good, quality-wise. Last year's Primrose left a lot to be desired with the nose issues and problems with the paint job.

Our Coco models will be for sale, sadly - she's pretty, but I don't collect the G1 Stablemates. Bring on the rest of the releases! Only two short months until we find out what the next one is - I'm looking forward to it!

Yasmin and Django are here!

A box arrived at our house today - and inside were my Django and Yasmin models! Firstly, Django:

 I like him a lot, but I wish he wasn't so narrow in the front. His right front leg has an indentation on the forearm and the leg itself is twisted slightly - but it's not as bad as others I've seen on the Internet. The rest of him is perfectly fine - at this point I'm going to wait until my husband's Django gets here so I can compare them.

Interestingly, this insert came with Django:

Mirado's head looks better on the actual insert; the scanner lost some detail there. I really like that sculpt, though; too bad we have to wait a year to see it in person. And it's a really nice color, too, although I'm wondering why they put grulla on seemingly every new release lately.


Now for the other model in the box - Yasmin!

She's mostly okay and stands pretty well - the only issues she has is blurred markings in a few places (the worst area being right behind her right elbow). I don't think it would be worth sending her back, so to my shelf she goes. Yay!

And here's the insert that came with Yasmin:




So our other two sculptors for next year are Mindy Berg and Brigitte Eberl, with Eberl doing a "dynamic set." I wonder if this will be a long-awaited new draft mare and FOAL? We can only hope.

The 2017 Stablemate Club is now available!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Looks like Breyer decided to make its own Halloween surprise for us - the 2017 Stablemate Club is now open for business!



Next year's first release is a "bay sabino G1 Thoroughbred Mare" in glossy, called Coco. We saw a preview of her at the Chasing the Chesapeake event two weeks ago. Sweet!

"The Club will have six releases, one every other month, and will include a Gambler's Choice (you'll receive one of four colors, randomly selected), a clearware decorator and a brand new sculpture by Maggie Bennett! These detailed new pieces are exclusively available to Stablemates Collector's Club members only, so don't miss out!"
Dang it all, that means I'm going to have to have my husband join the club again for another chance at whatever the gambler's choice is (I hope it's something I want this time). I'll be crossing my fingers that next year's releases include a few more things I want than this year's did, although it wasn't terribly difficult to sell the ones I didn't want.

I wonder if we'll get to see the Maggie Bennett sculpt ahead of time like we did with Django last year? I hope so. The clearware decorator should be exciting, too!

I'd been waiting for this club to open so I could renew my Collector Club membership and join the Premier and Stablemate clubs all at the same time - that's all taken care of now! I'm looking forward to next year's clubs!

Chasing the Chesapeake Day 2 Part Deux: Chestnut Boogaloo

Day 2 of Chasing the Chesapeake is over, with amazing results! First off, the centerpiece raffle model was a mealy chestnut Halla, whose name I forgot to ask them (all photos by me):

She's one of 20. She more or less fits the theme! And I may have won one...

We also got a few sneak peeks at some 2017 releases. Here's the first model in the 2017 Premier Club, sculpted by Morgen Kilbourne:

Nice, but not my cup of tea. It actually kind of looks like the Copperfox Fabio in a different stride. 

The other reveal was the first model in the 2017 Stablemate Club!

Again, it's nice, but I don't collect the G1 molds, so she'll get thrown on the sale pile.

The last peek was the Clydesdale Mare and Foal from the 2017 Vintage Club:

I had not realized they were glossy. Fun! I'm not going to join the 2017 Vintage Club, though, so I'm not too excited. (Edit: I guess I did know they were glossy and forgot. My bad!) Maybe next year will be a year I can finally cut back on model horse spending. 

...

HAHAHA! Oh, I really do make myself laugh sometimes. Oh well, I try.

Costume contest prizes ended up being leftover VC Lucky models - congrats to the winners, none of whom I got photos of! Oh well. There were a ton of amazing costumes, though!

Lastly, the silent auction lots consisted of:

Design Your Own Breyer

Caipirinha (2016 Breyerfest Volunteer)

Pack of 6 autographed Trad portrait models

Breyerfest 2016 vendor pack

Glossy Imperador das Aguas JM

I did not catch how much any of these ended for, but the last I heard, the Design Your Own Breyer was at $3000, the glossy Imperador was at $450 and Caipirinha was at $250 (presumably he went up). 

So, all that's left of the event is tomorrow's shopping extravaganza at the Breyer Boutique! Here's hoping one of us gets a good spot in the line!