Featured Breyerfest - 2010

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured JAH! We're moving right along and covering Breyerfest 2010 this week, so let's get going! 

Notable events of 2010:

• The first iPad is released, spawning many feminine hygiene-related jokes
• The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes and sinks, leading to the largest oil spill in US history
• Christchurch, NZ is hit by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake, a precursor to the 2011 quake that would kill 185 people
• The Hale-Bopp comet is discovered and becomes the most-observed comet of all time

And in Kentucky, Breyerfest 2010 rolled out the red carpet! 

Dates: July 23-25, 2010
Theme: Lights, Camera, Breyerfest!
Celebration Horse: All Glory
Number of Celebration Models produced: 4,800

Here's the first 2010 page from the commemorative program:

The real All Glory is a Standardbred owned by William Shatner (or at least formerly owned by William Shatner - I couldn't find any information about whether All Glory is still alive or if Shatner still owns him). All Glory appeared at Breyerfest with Shatner's then-wife Elizabeth Shatner, but Bill himself did make an appearance on day 3 that year! Other guests included Priscilla Presley, the Priefert Hitch, Radar, O'Leary's Irish Diamond, Fleetstreet Max, Isadora-Cruce and more. The KHP was finishing up major construction to facilitate hosting the 2010 World Equestrian Games, leading to many changes around the park and to various Breyerfest activities. 

Special runs this year were Beethoven the Saint Bernard, Dances with Wolves the porcelain, Stage Mom and Child Star, Star-Studded (Silver's last appearance for a few years), Technicolor, Tinseltown, Red Carpet Royalty and Stunt Double (a particularly clever design/name - the pattern and color are the same as the earlier Hidalgo model). Prize models were Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, along with Cameo, glossy All Glories awarded to the costume contest winners, the beautiful Hollywood Glamour and You Oughta Be in Pictures raffle models, Opening Night the early bird raffle, and Quiet on the Set, the volunteer model. 

William Shatner himself appears on page 3 above! I wish I'd been there to see it. 

Here's the first page of the JAH recap (more of a photo album):

And page 2:

Notice the costume contest participant in white in the bottom right corner - that's Andrea Gurdon, the Breyer History Diva! Gone but not forgotten.

Here's page 3:

And page 4:

Here's a bonus photo of All Glory from Lea R.: 

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

This Hanoverian is so handsome! He reminds me of Art Deco, one of my favorite childhood models. I wouldn't mind getting that one back, honestly. 

This Gem Twist has a customized mane and tail, and I feel like I should recognize them, but I don't. Is the tail from a Huck? And the mane from the Cleveland Bay? 

This is the first Esprit auction model, following his 2010 debut as the official WEG model. So pretty! 

I love this Western Horse! Usually I'm not crazy about the molded on/plastic tack, but it's great when Breyer paints the tack fun colors. The Western Horse looks great in wedgewood blue and white! I love the silver accents, too. 

That's all I've got for today - check back next week for Breyerfest 2011! 

Featured Model - 10/15/2022, Silver Dilute Dun Test Lady Phase

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model I don't own but may have an interesting story behind it, give some stats on it and provide commentary about it. This week's model is...the Silver Dilute Dun Auction Lady Phase! 

This model was produced on the Lady Phase mold sculpted by Chris Hess. She has the alternate "swish tail" which debuted in 2006, and the model itself was auctioned off at Breyerfest 2010. 

This isn't the greatest photo (as tends to happen when taking photos in the terrible lighting at the KHP), but I'm positive this model is a test for the Adios web special Frappe, which was released in 2009. Frappe was probably the Adios I liked the best amongst my own collection and I was sad to see him go a couple of months ago. But, I needed the space and he was one of few Adios models I had that was worth any decent money.  But I thought the silver dilute dun paint job was very attractive on him, and wouldn't mind seeing it again on another model sometime. So I was surprised to see this auction Lady Phase existed! 

As for Lady Phase herself, she's a pretty popular mold and has had many releases, including this year's TSC special run Jolene. Because she's been just about everywhere, it's hard to say where we'll see her next. But we may see some other releases on her mold in the nearish future now that they've put the mold into production for the TSC special run - perhaps a web special? I don't have any guesses for next year's theme, but she hasn't had a web special release since 2008, so I'd say she's long overdue for another one. I guess we'll have to wait and see! 

Featured Model - 1/20/2018, Red Carpet Royalty

Hello, readers! 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...Red Carpet Royalty!



This handsome fellow was one of the special runs for Breyerfest 2010. He's item #711115 and was produced on the Goffert mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody in a run of 1,100.

I LOVE this color on Goffert. It's so pretty! How often do we see that rich, glossy red bay on models? Not often enough, in my opinion (and bay isn't even one of my favorite colors). I remain mystified as to why this model isn't more popular. I found mine in the NPOD in 2012, and I'm fairly sure I saw others there for at least a couple of years after that. He's a Moody mold, and 1,100 should have been sufficiently limited. So what gives? Taking a quick look at sold eBay listings, the average price he's been selling for lately is around $75.

The only thing I can think of is that the Goffert mold is considered to be especially cartoonish even for a Moody sculpt, and perhaps he got overshadowed by other things. Among the other special runs were Stage Mom and Child Star, the first time Giselle and Gilen were offered in plastic, and Star Studded, issued on the ever-super-popular Silver mold (and in bay appaloosa, which I swear showed up as a SR line item for like 7 Breyerfests in a row). Other special runs included Technicolor, with his nifty color-shift paint, and Tinseltown on the popular Lonesome Glory mold.

With that kind of competition, I still shouldn't be surprised that Red Carpet Royalty apparently fell by the wayside...and yet he did. It'll have to remain a mystery, I guess. But hobbyists can be fickle, so it may be nothing more than that. In the meantime, he's a welcome addition to my collection, and I look forward to seeing Goffert again (hopefully) soon!

Featured Model - 7/8/2017, Stage Mom

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. We're two days from departure for Breyerfest, so I picked another Breyerfest special run model for this week: Stage Mom!

 

This pretty girl was produced for Breyerfest 2010, along with her foal Child Star on the Gilen mold. Both were sculpted by Brigitte Eberl, and a total of 1200 sets were produced. This was the first time either mold appeared in plastic after making their porcelain debuts as Connoisseur models. 

Giselle is one of those more understated models, like many of the Eberl sculpts. She doesn't have a crazy pose or wild hair like a Moody mold, nor is she galloping or doing anything else high-energy - rather, she trots along sedately, like a show horse. But I like her - she has a nice face, and sometimes it's good to have something understated to contrast all the wild and crazy molds.

Giselle hasn't been used terribly often since her 2010 debut - most recently she appeared as Chesapeake, the ticket model from the Chasing the Chesapeake collector event. Prior to that she was the Greek goddess Hera in 2014 and the live show prize Minnie Pearl in 2013 - all small runs. I should mention that she's been a part of the regular run line (GG Valentine and Heartbreaker) since 2011 - every time I think about that I'm surprised they haven't been retired yet, but they must be popular. Still, it wouldn't hurt to use her a few more times - I certainly wouldn't complain! Like if they made this auction model (or something similar) a collector club special run or something. Do it, Breyer!