New Appaloosa Bella for 2019!

There's a new Bella coming out in the new year - as part of Breyer's Kid's Club Deluxe set! Check her out!

It's a little bit confusing, because the email about her specifically mentions "a beautiful Appaloosa" as the special edition Classics model included with the membership, but the actual website for the Kid's Club says the special edition model is the buckskin Morgan. I'm guessing the wording hasn't been updated yet and the Appaloosa is the model you get if you join the 2019 club, as opposed to 2018.

Anyway, she's an interesting color - at first I thought chestnut leopard, but her mane and tail are white, so...palomino? Definitely interesting. Nothing I need to buy, fortunately. She does come with a cute little blanket, though:



And the blanket complements her color nicely. Good work, Breyer!

That's all I have for this post - hopefully we get more exciting reveals soon!

FINALLY!

After what seems like an eternity with no news (seriously, I think the last few weeks have been worse than the January/February Breyerfest doldrums...), I have something new to announce - this year's Halloween Classic! Say hello to...Bogeyman?

I'm...not sure about this one, honestly. Let's take a look at her other side.



From the website:

Breyer’s 2018 Classics Halloween Horse features electric-colored “slime” dripping along her back and running down her sides, as well as on her socks. To make the colors really pop she was given a pearly base, which gives the colors a great sheen!

It probably doesn't help that I'm already not a fan of this mold, but that design is just...ugh. Nothing I need to buy - which is good! A penny saved is a penny spent on other models earned, as I always say.

So I'll have to pass on this one. There's some commentary on Blab along the lines of how the model should have been named Ectoplasm, and I could get behind that. Still wouldn't buy the model, but I think Ectoplasm would have fit the slime theme better.

Must resist...MUST RESIST!

The latest pop-up-tent model, Born to Run, has been revealed, and...oh no. No, NOOOOOOO!

I want to buy her. NO! I have to stay strong. I can't collect everything Breyer puts out! I'll go broke!

But...I want to buy her...

No. I can do this! They got me with Marigold last year, but they're not going to do it again this year! I can resist!

I really do wonder if Lauren Hoeffer designed this one. I love the colors, and the gold swirls! But I have to resist! I don't even like this mold! Argh!



It's the legs! I don't like the legs! Come on, I can do this!

Okay, this one DOES look like Bella. (Also, Scottsdale Stampede update!)

There's a new, tiny hint on the blog! Check it out!



So I'm pretty sure that's a picture of a horse's flank/hindquarter area, and if I'm not mistaken, it looks a lot like Bella's.

Are we looking at another jockey-silks-inspired decorator? Or just a racehorse-themed one? Those colors certainly look interesting, although I already know it won't be enough to make me want to buy it. Poor Bella just looks too lumpy and awkward (and like a redo of the G2 Thoroughbred) for me.

The swirls on this one make me wonder if it's another one designed by Lauren Hoeffer? She's certainly turning out to have a nice talent for designing models.

In other news, the entry period for the Scottsdale Stampede opened today. It looks like collectors can only enter once, which immediately makes me think our chances of being drawn just cratered. But at least we don't have to remember to enter every day. The entry period ends 6/3, so there's plenty of time to put in your name. Good luck to everyone! 

2018 Live Show Benefit Model - Vulcan!

Hmm...is someone at Breyer a Star Trek fan? One can only wonder. Meet this year's Live Show Benefit model, Vulcan!




Although the Running Stallion isn't my favorite mold - I had a few of them, but sold them off long ago (this has happened with a lot of molds...) - that color is really nice. It's very similar to 2016's Chesapeake or glossy Spring. Definitely a color Breyer needs to be using more often!

As a reminder, only around 30 of these models are produced and then raffled off at qualifying live shows. If participating shows have a children's division, they also receive a glossy version of the previous year's Classics Horse of the Year model (this year, Bella) to raffle off or sell as they see fit, to benefit the show. Live Show Benefit Program rules can be found here.

Featured Model - 8/19/2017, Bella

Hello, readers, 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...Bella!

 

This pretty model was produced in 2013 as one half of the Bella and Mozart set, available only through the Breyer website. If I remember correctly, this set was released around Christmastime that year, back when Breyer had a promotion where you could get 20% off any order for the whole month of December, plus another free shipping promotion. So that was how I got these guys! Mozart is cute too; maybe I'll cover him next week.

So anyway, Bella was issued on the Haflinger Mare mold sculpted by Brigitte Eberl, and was item #711911. They came with matching sparkly pink blankets, which I incidentally just sold at Breyerfest about a month ago after scouring our place looking for random accessories I could bring along to sell.

I like this model because she's vaguely rainbowy and I have a major weakness for anything with rainbows on it. She's also a unicorn, and I love unicorns! It's a win-win. My only nitpit, not even necessarily with this model, is that most of the unicorns Breyer issues tend to be some variation of white; give us some other colors! They did the Lying Down Foal as a black unicorn once; let's see some more of that!

As for the Haflinger Mare, she's another one of those molds that I initially wasn't all that interested in, but it slowly grew on me - I think Bella may even have been the first model I owned on this mold. Most of the colors they've done on her have been pretty good, too; her initial Breyerfest release is beautiful. The Haflinger Mare (and foal) showed up on the Breyer website again as Fiona and Rory earlier this year, and as far as I know the set is still available. She's also in the regular Classics line in another iteration of bay pinto, so I doubt we'll see anything new on her for a while. But I'll be ready when they do use her again (hopefully)! 

New 2017 Classics posted!

Finally, something new and exciting to report! Two new Classics releases for next year were revealed today! Firstly, the 2017 Classics Horse of the Year, Bella:

And secondly, a Unicorn release named Forthwind:



I am...ambivalent about both of these releases. Bella, sculpted by Kathleen Moody, looks like an upscaled G2 Thoroughbred, and her right foreleg looks weird to boot. Forthwind is a nice color (despite his name, which makes me feel like someone meant to type Forthwith and hit the wrong keys), but I've never been into the Mandrake mold. Swing and a miss, I guess.