Riah and Martina!

 Greetings, readers! Well, a small update on the Short and Sweet blind bags: they sold out not long after yesterday's blog post. Some people missed out on buying them, sadly, but there'll probably be a lot of them for sale later, after people open them and don't get a black one. So fear not! They'll be easy to find later on. 

In other news, my replacement Riah finally came! Behold:

I wasn't lucky enough to get a black-point one, sadly. 

This one does still have the weird white stuff on both sides of his tail, but at least it's not as noticeable this time. The white stuff on his off side wasn't visible until I took him out of the box, and at that point I was just done with the whole thing. 

I do like him, even though I don't think the color really does much for him. 

Anyway, here's my other TSC model for this year, Martina! 

I must not have been paying enough attention to the promo photos, because I wasn't expecting her color to be more of a wild bay than a true bay. 

Wild bay is my least favorite horse color, but maybe I can pretend she's some kind of dark red dun or something. Also, that giraffe neck really stands out from the off side, doesn't it? I still kinda wish Breyer had leaned into it and used this mold for the Nadifa release.

She sure is pretty, though! She looks great on the shelf with my other Forever Saiges. 

Black-point Riah...

 Greetings, readers! The black-point variation of Riah was added to the buy page today and, well...

I'm really not that impressed by it. You can barely tell any difference between the two? From the buy page: 

Even more exciting, 75 lucky Vintage Club members will receive Riah variations with black points, echoing the hard-to-find dapple grey Proud Arabian variations available only in the mid-1980s. Which one will you receive?

Here's another view:

 

It looks like a darker variation of the regular one. Most of the black-point Proud Arabians didn't have socks, so if they were really going for a black-point Proud Arabian look, you'd think they would have replicated it correctly. Maybe there'll be more of a difference in person? I hope so, because I'm wondering how many of these will be sold on the cheap because they were mistaken for the common version. 

Riah and glossy Beau!

 Good news, Vintage Club members! This year's optional model has been announced! Behold: 

His name is Riah! I definitely didn't have "Proud Arabian dapple gray Anamar" on my bingo card, that's for sure. I'm not crazy about the color on him, but maybe I'll get lucky - 75 of these guys will be the coveted "black-point" dapple gray that showed up on some of the Proud Arabians in the '80s. The model in the promo photo appears to be glossy, but Breyer clarified in a Facebook comment that they're supposed to be matte...so I guess we'll see what shows up. I have one on order from a Blabber, so I'm excited to see which one I get! 

In other news, the BreyerMidwest event model was revealed today! They teased it on Friday, but I was too busy to post about it over the weekend. Anyway, it's Beau N' Arrow (from this year's Breyerfest) in gloss! 

He looks nice in gloss, but he's nothing I need. Which is good, because Kansas in January sounds terrible. If you want to reserve your glossy Beau, they go on sale tomorrow along with registrations for BreyerMidwest and such. 

Pioneer!

 Attention, Vintage Club members! The final (required) release, Pioneer, is now available to purchase! 

I'm somewhat tempted to buy one even though I'm not in the club, because the clock is nifty and that color is beautiful...but $160 is kind of a hefty price tag. He does come with this year's Vintage Club Stablemate, though! It's a mini Man o' War! 

Nothing I want, fortunately. We should still have an optional purchase for this year's club, right? The welcome letter mentioned a stallion and foal (I think) that we haven't seen yet. Hopefully I don't want that either, but I guess we'll see! 

Whoa, lots of stuff today!

 Lots of exciting new things to announce today, people! Firstly, if you're a Vintage Club member, the next release has been announced! It's the Classic Mustang Family in three exciting colors! 

The three colors are old-style gray Appaloosa, old-style red roan and charcoal. I like the charcoal set the best, though I'm not planning on buying this set. They'd better be careful - that Appaloosa mare and foal both have a little bit of Sharpieloosa going on with their spots. Maybe the actual production versions will look better. Naturally, these sets will be randomly shipped, so you won't know which one you get until you open them up. Isn't blind-bag everything fun? 

Secondly, the third release of the 2025 Stablemates Club is now available! Say hello to Spencer! 

The color is nice, but once again this isn't anything I need to buy, so if you'd like to purchase him from me, let me know. 

Lastly for today, there's another sneak peek on the blog! Behold:

I've seen speculation of it being Fireheart, Hamilton, Llywellyn and a few other molds, but nothing definitive - and I don't have a good guess myself either. It's probably the live show grand prize model, and since they used the Clydesdale Stallion for the reserve grand, I'd guess it's another less-popular mold, but who knows for sure. We'll find out tomorrow! I hope we get to see more auction models tomorrow too! 

Lastly, Breyer answered someone's question on Facebook about this year's first Premier Club release with "next week," so if you're in the Premier Club, you'd better start getting your wallet ready! I know I'm eager for those Cosimo models to be released already! 

The new reveals are coming fast and furious!

 Sheesh, it's like Breyer noticed they hadn't released anything new lately and needed to catch up! The next Vintage Club release was announced today! 

Their names are Admiral and Wings. Cute! Nothing I need, but I do like blue. They're a similar color to Josiah from a few years ago. From the Facebook post: 

Sculpted by Chris Hess and Marvin Morin respectively, the models represent two phases of a show horse’s life - that of a mature horse in the prime of its career, and that of a youngster just starting out in the show ring. Wedgewood blue is always a fan-favorite, and we hope you'll adore them!

And that's it for today. Will something else exciting be announced tomorrow? I hope so!  

The last Breyerfest Limited Edition, first Vintage Club release of the year and more!

 Wow, lots of things to post about today! Firstly: the last Breyerfest Limited Edition has been revealed. Say hello to Standing Ovation! 

Maybe it's an optical illusion from being turned into a crystal, but his eyes look super-big! Does the original Moody ASB have frog eyes? Dunno, but this guy definitely does! Nothing I need to buy, but he'll make a good addition to collectors' crystal collections (if you can get one that isn't broken). 

Secondly, the first Vintage Club release of the year has been revealed! I suspected we'd get a VC release this month since we usually get the first one in January. Anyway, say hello to Inferno! 

According to Breyer, this model is inspired by the horses in the Black Stallion series of books (right, because there were so many pinto horses in those books) and each Inferno model will be packaged with a copy of The Black Stallion's Blood Bay Colt. The blood bay colt's name was Bonfire, so Inferno is clearly an homage to that. It's just a bit weird that they would try to tie in a pinto horse to a series of books that doesn't feature a single pinto horse (that I remember), but I suppose a solid bay Black Stallion would have gotten complaints that it was too boring. Imagine if they'd put Bolero's paint job on him and called him Bonfire, though! I wouldn't buy it either way (sorry to the Black), but it would at least make more sense. Oh well. 

Lastly, volunteer information for Breyerfest 2025 is now available! Check it out here. Applications will be accepted between 2/1 and 3/10, so if you'd like to volunteer, get your application in! I'm not sure I'm going to apply this year as I'd like to try the Breyerfest show and you're less likely to be picked as a volunteer if you're showing. So we'll see! Good luck to everyone applying, though! 

Autumn Leaf show report and 2025 Vintage Club

 Greetings, readers! I have another show report for you - I was able to get into Autumn Leaf Live at the last minute, so that's how I spent my Saturday. And I had a great time! There were many pretty ponies to drool over, including a number of auction and test models. And there was a certified Good Doggo at the table next to mine! He was a service dog, so I didn't get to pet him, but he was very good at begging for treats (alas, without success). Anyways, here's how I did at the show! 

That's right, I managed to get a rosette this time! Huzzah! And I didn't do too badly in the breed department either, which is mildly humorous considering my show string didn't really change between Coalfield Classic and this show. Sadly, my Via Lattea didn't get a ribbon this time, but I'm not giving up yet - maybe next time she'll finally do better than third. 

It was a little close, but I did manage to get one of every placing in breed and collectibility! Behold: 

Other notes: I decided to give up on showing my matte Namid and my two 7 Arts Surprise pintos, because it was their fifth show and they hadn't really done much. But that gave me room for other stuff! We'll see how they do next time out. Which will be on Saturday at Buckeye's Bluegrass Bonanza! As usual, feel free to say hello if you spot Geralt and Roach. This will be my last show for the year, so I'm not looking forward to waiting until at least March for the next one. Although it'll be nice to have a break after prepping for shows for the last 3 weeks. So feelings are mixed, I guess. But anyway, I'm looking forward to a grand finale on Saturday! 

In other news, the Vintage Club will open to new members tomorrow at 1pm EST! If you’re wanting to join, don’t wait - this club tends to sell out fast. Of course, they did up the membership limit to 1200, and there’s the economy to think of…so maybe it won’t sell out too fast after all. Who knows? I won’t be joining, so at least you won’t have competition from me. 

Y’ALL READY FOR THIS??

 Well, clearly I used the above title too early when I ordered my Tigerlily and Firestorm. Today we have reveals for next year’s Premier and Stablemates Clubs! Apparently these were pages in one of the holiday catalogs that’s being sent out. Are you guys excited yet? I’ll start with the Premier Club:

That’s right, we’re getting a mule! It’s about time we had a new one, though I’m going to reserve judgement on this one until we see some better photos. 

Zomg! It’s a shrunken PAM with a turned head! Or at least that’s what I thought at first, until a particularly astute Blabber pointed out how similar she is to the original Hagen-Renaker Zara that the PAM is based on, using this photo from an eBay listing…

They’re pretty much identical! But how did Breyer get the rights to use Zara? Will they be coming out with more officially-licensed Hagen-Renaker stuff in the future? I believe the company (or what’s left of it) is owned by sometime Breyer sculptor Kristina Lucas Francis, so I’m thinking we may see more in the future. Exciting!

There was also a blurb about the 2025 Vintage Club, but Breyer seems to have an aversion to previews of that club, so no photos. The only pertinent information is that membership numbers are being increased to 1200, which seems like a mistake - most of the releases sell well below cost on the secondary market, and increasing the numbers won’t help that situation.