Featured Model - 8/29/2021, Spanish Barb

 Hello and welcome to Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model I don't own but would like to, give some stats on it and provide commentary on it. This week's model is...the original porcelain Spanish Barb! 

This model was produced in 1994, run number unknown. He was one of the first sculptures Kathleen Moody did for Breyer, and one of her best if you want my opinion. He's item #79194. 

This model is a porcelain, and since the unfortunate Broken Adriano Incident of 2017, I'd decided I no longer want any porcelain models in my collection. This position hasn't changed - I picked this model so I could ask, "WHERE ARE MY PLASTIC SPANISH BARBS, BREYER?" 

If you'll remember, this model was finally (finally!) issued in something other than porcelain or resin in 2019, with the debut of the Majesty tree ornament (although that one may be some type of resin? Unsure on that). But! He was also used in three different releases as a Mini Whinny in 2020! So Breyer has clearly figured out whatever issues were blocking them from releasing this mold in a medium other than porcelain. Which brings me back to the question at hand - where are my plastic Spanish Barbs? This mold is one of my favorites of all time (though you wouldn't really know it, as I only have my poor broken Adriano and Majesty in my collection), and he needs more representatives! Give me some Stablemate Spanish Barbs! Majesty needs some company. 

Note: I am not intending this to be a complaint post...just a commentary, if you will. I certainly hope we get a Spanish Barb in next year's Stablemates Club lineup! Or perhaps a regular run, or something else obtainable? Maybe the Premier Club Stablemate? We need more, Breyer! 

Featured Model - 3/7/2020, Majesty

Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's model is...Majesty!



This model is last year's holiday ornament unicorn, a new series that seems to be fairly popular. He's item #700651 and was a regular-run release.

Look familiar? That's because this guy is Kathleen Moody's beloved old Spanish Barb mold, first issued in porcelain in 1994. I've speculated about him being converted to plastic in the past, and it looks like my wishes have finally come true...in miniature form.

At least, I hope this means he'll be released in plastic. The ornament seems to be made of some type of resin, so it remains to be seen if our old Spanish Barb will be released as a Stablemate. I certainly hope so? I guess I forgot about him when I was making my Breyerfest predictions - I didn't predict him showing up anywhere - but I certainly wouldn't complain if he did.

His color is nice, if a little basic - pink body, rainbow glitter mane and tail. Yawn...I hope Breyer starts putting more thought into their unicorn releases soon. All this simplicity (and sloppily painted hooves) is starting to get old. Not that I don't like rainbows or anything. And one of the things I liked about Xavier and his ilk was that they don't shed glitter, unlike the Stablemate unicorns. And Majesty is no exception - glitter galore. Let's hope they put something a little more involved on him next time, eh?

More 2019 releases!

Greetings, readers! We got more 2019 goodness today - I'll start with the Holiday Horse!



Say hello to Minstrel! His costume is definitely different...but interesting at the same time. He looks like some kind of silver bay underneath? Pretty, but nothing I need to buy. Looks like they used the mold's original mane and tail - I think the loose mane and tail would have looked better, though.

And here's the unicorn ornament!



Holy crap, it's the Spanish Barb! But that means...are we finally going to see the Spanish Barb converted to plastic? Is he going to show up as a Stablemate now? Ahhhhh!!! I've been waiting for this moment for 8 years! I mean, I would have preferred to see him as a Trad or Classic, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. Also, I think he's mirrored from the original sculpt? I wonder why.  Edit: He isn't mirrored. I'm not sure why I thought he was. Carry on!

The rest of the 2019 holiday stuff is listed here.

Edit: The 2019 Flagship model was just posted on Triple Mountain's website! It's a Clydesdale Stallion!



His name is Seamus! I don't need him, fortunately. I'm guessing Breyer doesn't think he'll be as popular as previous flagship models, because they're only making 2500 of him. He's very striking, though!

In Stablemate-related news, apparently there's going to be another set of blind bag unicorns, found at Walmart...



Would it have killed them to use some different molds? And is the chase piece a new mold? The one in the picture looks like a hodgepodge of a few already-existing molds. I suppose that would still be a better alternative than another chase piece Alborozo. Speaking of chase piece Alborozos, though...



The chase piece for the new blind bag set is another Alborozo. Why?! When I haven't managed to get my hands on any of the already-released Alborozos. I'm getting very close to just being done with blind bags altogether. Sorry if I sound like a whiny baby. Blind bags are fun once a year at Breyerfest, but having to do it multiple times across multiple years takes all the fun out of it and makes it look like the naked cash grab it is. "Let's keep doing blind bags, those cash cows collectors will buy it all!" I'm sick of it. Hopefully the blind bag fad dies soon, because it's getting very frustrating.

I don't want to end on a bad note, though, so I'll talk about Serendipity! There's a new Classic unicorn out in the wild, presumably the followup to Skyler and Sarafina. She's a pretty blue color on the Harper mold! I don't yet have a photo I can use, but I'll post one as soon as I can! I can't wait to pick one up, along with some of the other new for 2019 stuff! It looks like next year is going to be another great year in Breyer land.

Porcelain to Plastic: Addendum

A few months ago, I wrote a post about Breyer's fondness for introducing new porcelain molds that are later released in plastic, and the likelihood (or lack thereof) that any of the old porcelains from the '90s would ever be released in plastic.

Well, the other day I was reading through some of my old issues of JAH, and stumbled across this little gem.

So, if this little blurb is accurate, it explains (kind of) why we haven't seen any of those old porcelains released in plastic: "Something something too hard to do, something something." Or, the porcelain molds have more detail than a plastic mold would, therefore never going to happen? But they make new molds from resin sculptures all the time, and we all know how detailed resins are. But I do remember reading an article by Sarah Mink about sculpting for Breyer, and the sculpt in question had to be able to cleanly pull the finished plastic out of the mold without catching on anything - maybe that would be an issue with the old porcelain molds.

Or, a simpler explanation would be that Breyer doesn't think there would be enough of a market for these old molds to justify the expense of converting them to plastic. Surely the technology has advanced in the last 23 years to make it possible, right? But if Breyer doesn't think the demand is there, they aren't going to spend the money on it.

Which is unfortunate, because I'd really like to see the Spanish Barb and the Sarah Rose Hambletonian in plastic, but it doesn't look like that will ever happen (though the Hambletonian is a bit newer, so might actually happen). But I can always hope!

Porcelain to Plastic

One of the things Breyer seems to like doing from time to time is debuting a mold in porcelain, resin or other material before eventually releasing it in plastic. Othello, Giselle and Gilen, and Tenacious/Sir Buckingham (among others) are all examples of this trend. In more recent examples, last year's Beautiful Breeds cob ornament is being released in plastic as one of the Breyerfest single-day Stablemates for this year.


However, there are some older porcelain sculptures that were released in the 1990s that never made it to being released in plastic, including the Shire Mare, Icelandic, Arabian Mare, Spanish Barb, Great Horse in Armor, the Circus Ponies, and others. One thing I've always wanted to ask Breyer is why these molds haven't ever been released in plastic. Not that I'm complaining about it - I'm just curious as to why.

I only have one Breyer porcelain, though I'd like to have more. I like my Adriano but I get nervous every time I have to touch or move him; I'm just too paranoid that he's going to end up broken!

There are a number of possible reasons for the porcelains never getting a plastic release; perhaps it's an issue of getting the rights to the sculptures, or Breyer doesn't think there would be much of a demand or market for releasing said sculptures in plastic, or there might be some technical issue preventing it. Rights-wise, though, I would think either Breyer already owns all rights to the sculptures, or would be able to buy said rights from Kathleen Moody if they somehow don't already own them. Which would bring us back to the demand argument - I doubt they'd put much effort into getting the plastic rights if they don't think there's a market for the sculptures (especially since most of them were released 20+ years ago, making them "old news," as it were). As for technical issues, most of those sculpts have been used multiple times, so I doubt that's the problem.

I would totally be in favor of seeing many of these molds finally released in plastic, though, even if they ended up being Classic-sized. The Classic line could definitely use more molds! The Spanish Barb is one of my favorite molds Breyer has ever released, and I'd love to see him in plastic. I'd really like to see the circus ponies in plastic, too (sans tack). I doubt they'd do anything with the Icelandic now that they have Falhofnir, although he'd probably make a nice Classic-sized Icelandic companion to Falhofnir and the Stablemate. I'd also like to see the resin Hambletonian released in plastic. And it would be interesting to see what the Arabian Mare and Great Horse in Armor look like without tack/armor.

So, I hope Breyer does focus groups at Breyerfest again soon - I participated in one at Breyerfest 2013 but stupidly didn't ask about the porcelains then. I'd love to have another opportunity to ask!