Featured Breyerfest - 2002

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Breyerfest! This year we're covering 2002, so let's get going! 

Notable events from 2002: 

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is 2002's highest-grossing movie (I did my part by seeing it four times)
• The 2002 Winter Olympics take place in Salt Lake City
• Seattle Slew, 1977 Triple Crown winner, dies at the age of 28
• War Emblem wins two legs of the Triple Crown, only to stumble at the start of the Belmont and ultimately finish fourth
  

And Breyerfest debuts its first theme, "Spirit of the West." 
Dates: July 26-28, 2002
Celebration Horse: RSV Inolvidable
Number of Celebration Models produced: 4,000
Attendance: approximately 4,000

Here's the first 2002 page from the commemorative program:

The real RSV Inolvidable was a very handsome Peruvian Paso, who unfortunately wasn't able to attend at Breyerfest at the last minute (these things happen from time to time). His owners sent Escorpio de Oro in his place. Inolvidable passed away in 2018, according to the Jorge Valenzuela Training Center. 2002's raffle models were St. Louis Blues on the MFT and Gold Rush on Huckleberry Bey (a model I would love to get my hands on someday). The volunteer model was a florentine Clydesdale Stallion, and the prize models were the black version of Bold Impression and Jake the hat contest model (among others). Breyer also introduced porcelain special runs for the first time with the release of the G2 Warmblood and G2 Saddlebred as special runs. 

Other special runs included High Sierra, Ahote, Bandit and Kohana, Choc the buffalo and WH Annie. There was also a run of around 100 bronze Shire A models sold in the Artisan's Gallery that didn't sell well. Those are also often seen in the collector club tent at Breyerfest. 

Here's the first page of the Breyerfest wrap-up for 2002:

And more:

And the last pages:

Amongst the guest horses were Cupid and Arrow, the cute mother-son duo consisting of a bay mare with a heart-shaped mark on her forehead, and Arrow, her black pinto son with an arrow-shaped mark on his back/hindquarters. Cupid has since passed on, but as far as I know, Arrow is still alive. 

Now, let's take a look at some auction models! 

First up is this interesting dapple gray PAS. He's described as a "glossy smoky pearl gray." He sure is pretty. I like the little stripe on his hoof, too. 

Next up is this alternate-color version of Nosferatu, complete with non-fuzzy bats. The original version is way more orange, but this one is more purple with a green hue. Kinda like this one is taking place after the sun has mostly gone down rather than at sunset. 

I thought this Peruvian Paso had the same paint job as Mauvelous, but on closer inspection, it's merely similar. Pretty, though. 

And lastly for today is this rainbow version of Masquerade! This guy was my grail, once upon a time. Not really anymore, since I got rid of all my MFT models, but he's still pretty cool. 

That's it for this week! Check back next week for Breyerfest 2003! 

Featured Model - 2/20/2021, Red Roan Auction Saddlebred

 Hello and welcome to another edition of 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 about it. This week's model is...the 2002 Breyerfest Live Auction American Saddlebred Stallion! 

As you might have guessed, this model was a OOAK issued on the American Saddlebred Stallion mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. 

It doesn't seem like it, but the Moody ASB turns 21 years old this year. When did that happen? So, this model itself is 19 years old. I wish some of these older tests and auction models would surface sometime so the rest of us could gawk at them a little - so many of them seem to disappear into the ether, never to be seen again. I'm sure a lot of them turn up at shows, though. Maybe one of these days I'll go to one, when the pandemic is over...

Anyway, the ASB is quite handsome as a red roan.. We haven't gotten a more attainable roan, or any roan other than the realistic/decorator Spring Has Sprung a few years ago, so I wouldn't say no to a new roan paint job on this mold. We're getting him in a very handsome dark bay pinto for this year's Flagship model, though, so I suppose a roan isn't likely to happen anytime soon. Maybe in the meantime I can get my hands on Spring has Sprung? I doubt it, but then again, hope springs eternal. 

Featured Model - 8/3/2019, Ahote

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...Ahote!



This guy was a special run for Breyerfest 2002. He's item #710202 and was a run of 1200 on the Silver mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

The theme for Breyerfest 2002 was Spirit of the West, so this Silver made a good addition to the lineup. Black tobiano with a medicine hat is always a striking color, and it's even more so on Silver! The mold was pretty popular back then, so I'm sure he sold out quickly - even though 1200 is still a fairly large run size. Of course, the mold still is pretty popular - see the $10,000 auction model at Breyerfest for proof! He'd have been the talk of the event if he hadn't been overshadowed by the $22,000 Alborozo...but I digress. I do think Silver's popularity has faded a little bit of late, but clearly not that much.

Where will we see Silver next? He's had quite the resurgence since going on hiatus back in 2010 - he's been a web special twice, was used at Breyerfest twice this year (Rico and the auction model), and was the 2017 Limited Edition model, as Liberty. He's already been the Halloween Horse, too. Maybe he'll eventually be the Holiday Horse? I'm kind of surprised he hasn't been used for that already, honestly. Breyer's next Collector Event should be coming up next year - maybe he'll show up there? He's probably more likely to get a web special, if Breyer is okay with him appearing in the Big Cat series and the Wildlife series. Or maybe Breyer will surprise us all and he'll get a regular run release? I'd be okay with that.