Tigerlily and Firestorm and Hot Cocoa and Freya and Annika!

That's a long title. Good news, everyone! I had three new models arrive today. I'll start with the second Premier Club release, Tigerlily and Firestorm - behold! 

Yay! I really like them. Tigerlily really is basically an updated Running Mare. Firestorm is his own feisty self, though. 

They're both pretty much flawless, except for...

...this groanworthy arrangement of reverse dapples. Do they all look like this? It's pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, but still irritating. They look like a grid, or a honeycomb or something. It's probably something to do with how they're painted, but like...try to make them a little more random or something, you know? 

Otherwise I have no complaints with the quality. I'll probably take them both to my next show. 

Next, here's Hot Cocoa! 

I love her pearly tail! 

I just love her tail in general. And the rest of her. It's a really attractive color! 

She has some minor flaws, but nothing major. If I can figure out a breed for her, I'll take her to my next show too! 

Also, the holiday mare and foal set was revealed today, along with a bunch of other stuff! Say hello to Freya and Annika! 

They're currently on backorder and expected to ship the week of 10/28. They're cute, and I like Freya's color, but neither one is anything I need. They even come with an ornament and a satin bag! 

Along with them, we have this year’s holiday Classic! Meet Nor’easter!

He’s also nothing I need - I wish they’d used a different mold. 

Lastly, the Kid’s Club has been updated with a new Classics model!

Also nothing I need, but that’s a handsome color. 

That’s it for today - whew, that was kind of a lot. I wonder if anything will be revealed tomorrow?

Things that were, things that are...and some things that have not yet come to pass.

 Exciting news, everyone! Lots of new things to post about today - but I'll start off with an alert for Vintage Club members: Nugget and the Dusk and Dawn set are ready to purchase! 

This is the gambler's choice release for this year's Vintage Club, so you won't know which color you're getting until you open it. In addition, the free Stablemate for this year must already be in stock, as they're shipping with the Nuggets. That's a refreshing change from the norm; usually we don't see those until January of the following year! 

The Stablemates, mini Yellow Mounts on the Stablemate SCO mold, are also randomly shipped - some with a forearm spot, and some without. This all makes me really glad I don't collect Brighty or SCO!


Dusk and Dawn are an optional purchase:

 

In recent years I would have wanted to get my hands on these, but my Marabellas went down the road quite a while ago, and my Ambers will probably be on the chopping block soon as well. They look really nice, though, so I'm a bit sad about that. 

Anyway, to move on...there are a couple of new additions to the website today! They were revealed in people's JAH magazine yesterday, but fortunately Breyer was on the ball about adding them to the website promptly. Firstly, here's Snickerdoodle:

A new release on Rhian? And without her foal?? Gasp! Must order this one as soon as it's available! I'm pretty ambivalent about Cadell, so I'm not too bothered that he isn't included with her. She looks so cute in palomino, I just wish there was a photo of her sans blanket! I love those little reindeer antlers, too. 

Lastly, here's Baltazar, this year's Winter Decorator (and Limited Edition):

Ohhh, he's pretty, but I just don't want to start a new conga. Too bad...I really like his design. But I have to save room on my shelves for other things! 

Let's hope they get Snickerdoodle and Baltazar on the website soon, because I have more ordering to do! 

More new reveals!

Good news, everyone! We now have photos of Dusk and Dawn, this year's optional Vintage Club set! Check them out! 

If you're a member of this year's Vintage Club, check your email for more information. VC members will (or should) be able to combine shipping with Nugget, the decorator Brighty release, so that's good! Marabella and Amber look pretty good in gloss, though I have to admit they look a little lost without Ashley there as well. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on that foal, but I may have to undertake a significant herd reduction in the coming year and unfortunately my Ambers (and Ashleys) would be on the liquidation list for said reduction, so I'll hold off on trying to get one for now. That charcoal color is really nice, though! I prefer the darker-black charcoal models to the more chocolate-brown ones. 

In other exciting news, we have another new release on poor Malik! It seems like he's been a little neglected since his debut 2 years ago, but with the new Black Stallion and book set and now this, things are starting to look up! 
 

Oh boy, I really like this one. He definitely resembles his name, while I'm over here thinking if his legs were a little darker, he'd definitely have a "Fire and Blood" theme going on. But anyway...I did order one, even though those toothpick front legs still bother me a little. The Marchador mold, also sculpted by Sarah Mink, had the same issue and I ended up getting rid of him, so hopefully it doesn't become too much of an issue with these models, or they'll end up on the liquidation list too. 

A couple of odd new Breyer models popped up on eBay today - they can be seen here and here. What are they? The black one is like a simplified Marabella, but I don't recognize the other one. Maybe Breyer is starting a lower-quality toy line with more durable models, like Schleich or CollectA? I guess we'll probably get more information eventually. 

Featured Model - 12/28/2019, Palomino Amber

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. While I was trying to decide which model to feature this week, I discovered I'd inadvertently featured Leah's Fancy Breyer twice over the years...how embarrassing...but anyway, this week's model is the palomino Amber!

This model was part of a set (naturally) with a matching Ashley. They were released in 2004 as a regular run. She's item #1256 and was released on the Amber mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

Amber may have been a simple palomino paint job, but I do like the darker shading on her knees - it gives her some depth and keeps her from being a flat palomino color. The shading gives her a hint of dunalino, somewhat similar to Cheveyo and others. I like her!

We haven't seen much from Amber and Ashley lately - I mention both of them because one is not usually seen without the other. Where will we see them next? I'm sure they'll get another RR release eventually, since Breyer seems to like to reissue them in a set by themselves every few years. Maybe once the current Best of British foals get retired? We'll have to wait and see. Wouldn't it be nice if they were used for a special run, though? Maybe we'll get one or both of them in a holiday mare and foal set next year. Here's hoping!

Featured Model - 12/1/2018, Leahs Fancy Breyer

Hello and welcome to yet 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...Leahs Fancy Breyer!



This model was a portrait of the real Leahs Fancy Breyer, a guest at Breyerfest 2000. The real Leahs Fancy Breyer was the latest foal of that year's Celebration Horse, Leahs Fancy Chick. She was item #710600 and was a run of 2,500 on the Amber mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

I really like the paint job on this release! She has a lot of depth to her color, and I tend to like buckskins anyway. And she has a decent amount of detail for the era she came from - her markings were probably masked the old way (with the metal clamp-on masks) versus the fancy laser-cut stickers they use these days. She has stripes on all of her hoofs, her chestnuts are painted, even her muzzle has shading, and she even has just a tad bit of white at the end of her tail! I like her a lot.

The Amber mold (usually with her twin sister Ashley) has been used quite a bit in the 21 years since their debut - usually in the regular run line. Wow, has that much time really gone by? I suppose it has. Geez, these molds are now old enough to drink (in the US)!

Anyway, Amber has seen plenty of use, most recently appearing in the regular run line as Sweet Pea. Where will she show up next? The foal molds don't tend to get a lot of special run releases, but you never know. She, Ashley and Marabella are all old enough to show up as holiday mare and foal set - maybe we'll see them used for that next year, since they'll be the ripe old age of 22. Sheesh, that makes me feel old.

One of these days I'd like to see some Trad foals show up as web specials, but I suppose Breyer would want to charge their usual sky-high prices for them, which is hard to justify spending on a foal mold. I guess I can always hope, though! In the meantime, I'm sure Amber and Ashley will show up again soon.

Featured Model - 3/31/2018, Shadow of Blue

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... Shadow of Blue!



This model was a special run at Breyerfest 2001. In those days, Breyerfests didn't have themes (although Spirit of the West would debut the next year), so Breyer could produce whatever special runs they wanted. Maybe they should go back to that? In any case, Shadow of Blue was a portrait of the latest (male) offspring of one of the guest horses that year, Silky Keno. As item #710301, 1500 of these models were produced on the Amber mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. And for all anyone knew, they sold out at that event...until Breyerfest 2013 came along.

That year, intrepid collectors in the NPOD found old leftovers of Shadow of Blue, priced at $15 each. Jackpot! I wasn't in the Breyer Store line quite early enough to find anything truly spectacular, but I remember seeing a lady and (presumably) her daughter looking at one. The daughter didn't seem especially interested in buying it, so I was planning on grabbing it as soon as she put it down. The mother saw me eagle-eyeing the model and told her to hold on to it (at least that's probably what she said, as I was too far away to hear what they were saying). Sadly, I meandered off, thinking the model was lost to me...until I found a whole box of more of them. Success!

So, Shadow of Blue joined my herd. I always liked the blue-black color of this model, probably because blue is my favorite color. So Shadow of Blue is a treasured part of my herd! I have most of the other Amber models, but someday I'd like to get my hands on the raffle set from 1999. I love decorators, and I always thought those two looked so nice in gold charm and wedgewood blue! Maybe someday. In the meantime, I'll have to be happy with my Shadow of Blue!

Amber was last seen in the regular run line as Sweet Pea, so she probably won't pop up there for a while. I wish Breyer would use the foal molds for special runs and/or web specials more often, but I suppose they have so many molds now that something has to fall by the wayside. I hope we see her (and her sister!) again soon!

Featured Model - 6/3/2017, Leah's Fancy Breyer

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. Last week's model was inadvertently a repeat mold, as I'd forgotten I already featured Esprit on the blog a few months ago. Oops! Oh well. Breyerfest is only 40 days away, people, so I picked a model from Breyerfest to feature this week. So without further ado...this week's model is...Leah's Fancy Breyer!

 

This cutie was produced as a special run for Breyerfest 2000 - wow, she's 17 years old this year! She was a portrait of the real Leah's Fancy Breyer, who was a Breyerfest guest along with her Celebration Horse dam, Leah's Fancy Chick. She's item #701600, produced on the Amber mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody, and a total of 2500 models were produced.

I really like this pretty filly's paint job. It would have been easy to paint it as a generic buckskin and call it a day, but her color is really nice. She has a lot of depth to her color - that's how it looks to me, anyway.

Amber is another one of those molds that tends to slip under the radar, probably because she isn't the new hotness anymore. The mold is 20 years old this year! Amazing. Kathleen Moody had a lot of molds debut in 1997 - Iron Metal Chief, Marabella and Amber/Ashley off the top of my head, and all those G2 Stablemates debuted in 1998. She was a busy lady!

I have about 9 Ambers in my collection - she doesn't get used much these days, or it would probably be more. Fortunately, most of her older releases are pretty easy to find cheaply. The only problem is sometimes she gets released without Ashley, and then I end up with uneven numbers of them! I think right now I have 9 Ambers and 8 Ashleys - I'll have to find another Ashley somewhere! I guess that's a pretty minor problem to have, though.

Some year, Breyer should do a year of foal web specials - seems like we hardly ever get any really special releases on the foal molds. They have enough Trad foals to do some kind of foal web special series, and it would be a pretty significant departure from the norm for them. Make it happen, Breyer!

Christmas Sale items are here!

Greetings, readers! The models I ordered from Breyer's end-of-year sale are here. I ordered Sweet Pea, Bryants Jake and Svali Fra Tjorn. So, without further ado, here they are!

First, Sweet Pea:



That looks like a rub on her right shoulder, but it's just glare from the overhead lights. I don't believe Amber has been done in this shade of gray before - I really like her. She's cute! I don't really go for accessories, though, so those stayed in the box. Maybe I'll try to unload them at Breyerfest or something.

Next, Bryants Jake:



This model was supposed to have been released earlier in 2016 (beginning of the year?) but was delayed due to unspecified quality issues. This is a mold that started out as a mare, so my guess would be they had issues with adding the proper "parts" to the mold. That or a paint issue, as that would be a fairly intricate stencil. (I'm somewhat amused that they added a sheath to the mold, but didn't go all the way and give it testicles as well. That worked for Kong the gelding; not so much for Jake the stallion.) My only nitpick with this one was the color of the tail ribbons - they couldn't pick a color that didn't clash with the tail color? Oh man, this just came to me - how awesome would it have been if they'd put Wintersong's tail on this release, since the real horse's tail is so long? That would have been the best! Oh, well.  I don't have very many Wixoms due to how big they are, but I do happen to have room for this one on my shelf. Looking forward to seeing him at Breyerfest this year!

And lastly, Svali fra Tjorn:



I was excited when we first heard about this guy - finally, a regular run Icelandic! He hasn't been used a whole lot since his debut in 2014 (although I'll admit I thought we'd see him as a Breyerfest store special first). His color is nice, although confusing - is he buckskin or bay? Either way, he's pretty. I'd prefer that he had some white on his feet, but since this is a portrait model, I'll just have to live with it.

Happily, none of these models had box issues! Huzzah! There's hope for Breyer's QC yet.