September Collector Club newsletter and Antonia!

 Wow, I can’t believe it’s already time for another Collector Club newsletter. If you’re a Club member, check your email to see it - there’s an article about airbrushing, a giveaway of the new brick and mortar release (!), and this sneak peek!

The newsletter says to “cozy up for another new release coming to Breyerhorses.com next month,” so my guess is it’s another holiday pony release, possibly with a doll and earmuffs or something. Maybe it’s cocoa-with-marshmallow-themed? Guess we’ll find out soon! 

In other news, my Antonia model has arrived! Behold!

What a beauty! I love her. 

She’s a really nice color and doesn’t have major flaws, at least none that I noticed.

She does have a few small issues here and there, but I’m still considering taking her to the show tomorrow and seeing how she does…if I can figure out what breed to assign to her. Wish me luck! As I mentioned before, I’ll be at Hard Knox Live in Elizabethtown, KY tomorrow, so stop by and say hi to Geralt and me if you’re there!

Breyerfest Closeups: Antonia

 Greetings, readers! It's time for another Breyerfest Closeups post - we're drawing closer to the end! Today's model is Antonia, the second Collector Club release. Behold! 

What a beauty!

I like how her tail changes to gray/black halfway down. 

From a distance she looks dark bay, but up close she's definitely lighter than that. 

I wonder when she'll be available to buy? Based on the last couple of years, it should be sometime in October. Hopefully early October. 

A little bird told me that this model was designed by Sommer Prosser and named for a friend of a Breyer staffer. A pretty name for a pretty model! I can't wait to purchase her. 

That's it for today - check back tomorrow for another Breyerfest Closeups post! 

Volunteer model revealed!

 Greetings, readers! Well, as you may have guessed, we made it back home from Breyerfest and are now settling back into our boring post-Breyerfest lives. As always, it was a great trip, though one of the things I was most happy about this year was getting to visit not one, but two Big Boy steam locomotives on the way to and from Kentucky. Anyway, Breyer revealed a photo of this year's volunteer model on the blog yesterday! Check out Zeitgeist: 

I have not seen the manager's model version of the volunteer model, but I've heard that it has four white socks that go higher on the legs than the ones on the model above. I would have expected them to be matte instead, as has been done in the past, but I guess Breyer decided not to do that this year. In any case, she's beautiful! And she makes a nice girlfriend for Lafayette. I'm happy to announce that I did find a Zeitgeist to add to my collection despite not being a volunteer this year. Huzzah! 

I'll admit the Breyerfest blues have set in a bit, so I'm still working on gaining enough ambition to download photos to my computer...but once that happens, I'll have plenty of things to post about! In the meantime, I've been busy working (bleh) and trying some dill pickle-flavored fudge I bought during Breyerfest (double bleh). But I'll get those photos processed eventually, never fear! 

Talk about a glow-up!

 Wow, speaking of unexpected reveals...I guess tomorrow is National Unicorn Day, and Breyer is sparing no expense to celebrate it this year! 

If you're a Collector Club member, check your email! 

Saturday, April 9th is National Unicorn Day! To celebrate, we’re offering three Breyer Collector Club members a special opportunity to win one of three spectacular sets of test run unicorns. One test run glossy set, each produced from three previous unicorn mare and foal sets - 2018’s Rosalind and Rigel, 2019’s Mira and Antares, and 2020’s Bellatrix and Spica - will be given away to three separate lucky winners!

Three winners will be randomly selected. And with a fun twist in our process, the first name drawn gets first choice of three sets, the second name drawn gets second choice, and third name drawn will be awarded the final remaining set. Each of these special sets of test run glossy unicorns will include a certificate of authenticity.

I almost skipped right over the email, thinking the photo was of the matte Mira and Antares and I already have that set, before I doubled back and actually read the email. Holy crap, Bellatrix and Spica are to die for! Be sure to get your entries in quick, because we only have until midnight 4/10 to enter. Good luck, everyone! I'm crossing all my appendages that I'm one of the three lucky winners, though it'd be hard to pick just one set if I did get drawn. They're all on molds I collect! 

As an aside: I wish Breyer would do test run giveaways more often - the last one I remember is Caramel Macchiato from 2012. Maybe slightly more than once a decade? Haha. 

Featured Model - 2/5/2022, Rose Gold Filigree Avoriaz

 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 about it. This week's model is...the rose gold filigree version of Avoriaz! 

This pretty lady was item #712297 and was a run of 175 on the Carina/Performance Lipizzaner Mare sculpted by Brigitte Eberl. She was a split run with 175 each produced of the two colors, rose gold charm and rose gold filigree.

I wasn't lucky enough to be drawn for either of these beauties when they were first released in 2019, though I've since managed to add the rose gold charm to my collection. They seem to be strangely unpopular despite their low run numbers - there are only a few currently listed on eBay, but none of their prices are for more than $365, while last year's 200-piece decorator versions of the Breyerfest special runs are still selling for twice that or more, and I wouldn't call Carina an unpopular mold. She's certainly still new enough that the shine shouldn't have worn off yet, or so you'd think, but...there it is. I guess rose gold isn't as exciting a color as Breyerfest decorators. Despite my general dislike of pink, I do like her, and wouldn't mind finding the filigree for my collection someday. 

As for Carina, she's had a healthy number of releases since her 2017 debut. She kind of looks like a fluttery little bird, so I wonder if they'd use her for another Birds of a Feather release? Croi and the Moody ASB both had back-to-back (or very close to that) web special releases in the past, so it's definitely a possibility. I believe I heard something about another Breyer special event happening this year as well, so it's definitely possible she could show up there as well. Either way, I hope it's something I can get my hands on! 

Featured Model - 5/23/20, Celestine

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...Celestine!



This beautiful girl was the 2018 Holiday Horse, Celestine. She was a regular run (as far as I know) and was item #700121 on the Carina mold sculpted by Brigitte Eberl.

I picked Celestine because I love her color so much! I know it's not realistic, but I hope we see this again someday on another mold. She's somewhat similar to Snow Princess, so we might be waiting a while to see the color again, I guess. I really like her blue eyes, though! Maybe someday we'll see a repeat on another mold.

Carina herself is also a pretty mold - she's been rather lightly used since her 2017 debut, but she and Selene did finally get a regular run release this year with the Airiella/Favory Airiella set, so that's something. She was also used as the rose gold charm/rose gold filigree winter web special Avoriaz at the end of last year (curse my terrible luck!), so she definitely hasn't been idle lately. She just has a lot of quiet elegance about her, and she's so cool and collected. I especially like her just-slightly-swishy tail.

Where will we see Carina next? Probably not as a web special or Breyerfest special run anytime soon, and she's in the RR line now, but maybe we'll get a collector club special run or something. Time will tell!

Barrington, Avoriaz and the Black Friday sale!

Wow, lots more new reveals today! First, check out Barrington, the optional model in next year's Vintage Club:

I figured it would be a Bristol, but I thought they'd use a more interesting color on him, honestly. It looks like I'm not the only one who's underwhelmed by him, judging by the reaction I've seen online. Maybe they'll gloss 30 of them? I should probably hope they don't do that, for completion's sake.

Next, the Winter Web Special has finally been revealed! Say hello to Avoriaz!

But it seems like Breyer just can't get enough of randomly shipped special runs, so say hello to Avoriaz again!



Insert obligatory grumbling about blind bags here...Anyway, she's definitely beautiful! I don't know which color I like more - I'd be happy to be drawn for either (or both) of them, spendy as they are. But at the rate they've been pumping out the releases lately, I really hope the Christmas special run is something I don't want, because I don't know how I'm going to pay for it if it's along the same vein as last year's Christmas unicorns.

Lastly, Collector Club members now have early access to Breyer's Black Friday sale! There is (or was) an array of fun goodies, including Darwin and last year's VC Stablemate, Rosemary. I was surprised to see last year's web special Goffert, Gettysburg, in the list as well - but not at all surprised to see Hawthorn, last year's woodgrain pig. Didn't I say they'd be trying to get rid of those for years to come?

Anyway, that's all I've got for today. If you're entering for Aviana Avoriaz, the entry period is only three days long, so don't dilly-dally. I can't wait to see if I'm drawn! 

New Arrivals: Winner's Circle, Julep and Pim

Breyerfest has been over for a week already! Where does the time go? Well, in lieu of anything more exciting to post about, I took some quick cellphone photos of a few of my new Breyerfest arrivals. First up are Winner's Circle and Julep and Pim! I'll start with Winner's Circle!

I'm pleased to report that he isn't cast from ABS plastic, like I thought he'd be. Nope, it appears he's made from good old cellulose acetate! Breyer must have decided to sell him for ABS price for the fun of it, I guess. I'm not really into having models signed, so I didn't test out the marker that came with him. Hopefully those were up to snuff! Otherwise, I think his color is really nice!

Next, my beautiful dark Julep:

Most of the Breyerfest models I've seen from this year were quite nice, quality-wise, and my Julep is no exception. I didn't see a flaw on her! She's dark and pretty and I can't wait to get her on my shelf with her sisters! Her color is stunning and I'm glad I added her to my collection.

And lastly, Pim:



New to Breyerfest packing jobs this year was the foam between the Pim foals' legs. I didn't save a sample of it, but just imagine small foam inserts between both pairs of legs. I don't know if it helped support the legs or not, but at least they tried, right? Not much else to say about this one, except Pim's name is still dumb and I'm probably not going to get over it. She is nice, though, and I love her blue eye.

That's all I have for right now - tune in soon for more Breyerfest models!

Breyerfest Blues and Loot

It's hitting me again - the Breyerfest Blues. I always feel sad after Breyerfest is over; it's my favorite event of the year, and it always seems like I spend the whole year waiting for it to be here, only for it to be over in what seems like 3 seconds. This year's Breyerfest went especially fast, what with volunteering and the costume contest and 9 special run line tickets and...yeah. But here are the fruits of my labors!



Because of how busy I was, I didn't have much time to shop the Clarion, nor were there really a lot of things I wanted to buy (I'd been hoping to find a Zebra, or a chestnut pinto Pop the Cork, or Crepe Suzette, but I guess it wasn't meant to be). My sales weren't the greatest either, which didn't help the situation.

But anyway. Here are some random photos of other purchases I made. I'll start with Celestine, this year's Holiday Horse:

Normally my husband buys the Holiday Horses for me as my Christmas present, but I took my only trip through the Breyer Store on Sunday morning and there were only three Celestines left and well...one of them accidentally ended up in my hands and went through the checkout with my other stuff and now I have a Celestine. Don't worry, hubby will find another horse to buy me for Christmas. Isn't she pretty? I can't get over how beautiful she is.

Here's a CHIN purchase; a glossy Harper!

I found this model in someone's hotel room at the CHIN, but I'm guessing it originated in the NPOD. According to people who did this year's NPOD, Breyer finally got wise about the more limited releases and had them all listed in a binder for people to go through and decide what they wanted to buy, rather than the knock-down-drag-out free-for-all of previous years. Glossy Harper was one of the entries in the binder, so that's why I think this one started out in the NPOD. Her price wasn't too much of a markup from the NPOD price, so I'm happy with it (and her).

Finally, check out these two Juleps I got from the special run line. One of them is much darker than the other!



It's a little less obvious in the photo, but the dark one is on the right. Normally I don't really go for variations, but that dark one is definitely going to stay with me. The other (and her foal) will be for sale later on. But the dark Julep is especially pretty, I think. She almost looks more metallic than the light one, so I'm sure she'll look nice on the shelf next to Celestine.

That's all I've got for now, but eventually I'll be posting all of my purchases (from Breyer directly) with commentary, as well as up-close photos of various previews that haven't been released yet. Stay tuned!

Featured Model - 6/2/2018, Carina

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...Carina!



This lovely lady made her debut along with her foal Selene as the last release in the 2017 Premier Club. Sculpted by Brigitte Eberl, around 750 of these models were produced. She's item #90186.
This girl is fairly new for showing up on the blog - I prefer to use slightly older models. But she's going to get a lot of use this year, so I figured she was fair game.

I'm going to be honest here and say I'm not the biggest fan of Selene - I don't think she matches Carina very well. Why is she just standing there? All of Brigitte's other mare and foal sculpts are more-or-less matching in their movements. It's a minor nitpick, but still. Carina herself is just lovely - she looks like she could be prancing in excitement, or doing actual dressage, or getting impatient and wanting to go somewhere (the only situation where it might make sense for Selene to be standing still?).

I do like the colors they chose for this release - the paintjob is reasonably complicated, but I don't remember hearing a lot of complaints about it like the Duende train wreck earlier in the year. Not sure how it was harder to paint a dapple gray than a semi-leopard Appaloosa, but I guess them's the breaks.

Anyway, as has become tradition, Carina (and Selene) will appear at Breyerfest later this year as Julep and Pim. I'm still not a fan of Pim's name! But I guess I'll have to get over it. Carina should also be available at this year's Breyerfest as the 2018 Holiday Horse, Celestine. I am ridiculously excited for Celestine, people. So much so that I'm considering picking one up at Breyerfest so I don't have to wait for my husband to buy it for me for Christmas. She's gorgeous! And I bet she's pearly to boot.

As for other uses of this pair, I'd bet dollars to donuts they'll show up in the live auction as well. Probably in a color that breaks my heart and makes me consider getting out my credit card...but the live auction model prices have been so astronomically high lately that it's impossible to justify spending that much money on one or two models, especially since there's no guarantee you'd get that money (or more) back if you had to sell it later. I just can't do it! I'll just have to do what I usually do - sit on the sidelines and wish I was rich. Well, that and be thankful I can afford the things I do have. That always works!

And Carina? Who knows where else she'll pop up. I doubt we'll see her anywhere else this year, but maybe she and Selene will be regular runs next year? That would be fun. Or perhaps web specials - we don't get mare and foal web specials very often. What I'd really like to see is a regular run Trad foal set of two or more foals - we never get that, either. Hope springs eternal, I guess.

Yes, Collectors, There Is A Santa Claus

Breyer finally got their rears in gear and released the information for the 2018 new releases - it's a Christmas miracle! Since there are too many photos to post here, I'm going to direct readers here. But, here's the release I'm most excited about!

 
Yes - a regular run Ashquar, and I love his color! Just what I wanted to see next year! Exciting. He's a portrait model, so I wonder if we'll see the real horse at Breyerfest next year.

 Here's another one that makes me happy:



UNICORN YASMIN! Whoo! She's never, ever going to fit in my photo tent, though - it was hard enough to fit Yasmin and Kaalee in there for their photos! I guess I'll worry about that later.

I'm also super excited about this one:



CARINA AS THE HOLIDAY HORSE AND IT'S PEARLY AND BEAUTIFUL AHHHH!

Too bad I have to wait a year to get her. I'll have to console myself with the knowledge that this year's holiday horse, the palomino Totilas, is hidden somewhere in our apartment and I get to open him in less than a week. Yay!

Moving on to the Classics, check out this one!



It's the 2018 Classics Horse of the Year, and I really like him! At first dumb me thought he was a TWH, but he's a Saddlebred. Oh well, I still like him! No word as to who the sculptor was - I thought he looked like a Prosser piece, but evidently it wasn't her. It's a mystery!

In the slightly-less-excited-about-but-will-still-buy group is, uh, this one:



Kind of a weird idea, but it looks like something that would appeal to kids. The design reminds me of wallpaper border or something. Think about it - you could put up a single shelf all the way around a room and line it with these models instead of border for your wallpaper. It could totally work! Waste of money, though. But she's cute and I like clearware, so I'll pick her up at some point.

Well, that's the Trads and Classics I'm most excited about. Let's look at some Stablemates!



Wha? Officially-sanctioned Suncatcher Stablemates? Sommer's been doing the workshop at Breyerfest for years, but I never expected clearware Stablemates to show up in a painting kit for some reason. Genius! I'll probably get a kit just to leave unpainted, but I'm tempted to paint some of them just for the fun of it.

We also got a new blind bag assortment (groan):




Whoever came up with the idea for blind bag stuff (in general) needs to get punched in the face. Sure, they're addictive and fun, but it's impossible to stop at just one and you know it's just a gimmick for companies to sell more stock. Why have everything neatly labeled as to what it is (and only sell some of it) when you can do the blind packaging, throw in a rare piece and sell all of it? It's genius and diabolical at the same time. And this time only one in four boxes has the rare "copper florentine" chase piece.

Clearly they learned from the Spirit blind bags, where most people (I assume) just bought the whole box at once to get the models they wanted. I'd do that this time, but each box has three of each model, which makes an entire box cost almost $100. Sheesh. I preordered eight of the single bags; if I'm really lucky, I'll get the ones I want in one swoop - I only collect four of the molds, so those are...somewhat decent odds, I guess.

Oh well. On to the next exciting thing!



That's right - the shrunken Brishen is making yet another appearance, and this time he's a Brishencorn! I gotta have him.

There are a lot of other new releases for 2018 to drool over, but this post is getting long, so I'm going to wrap things up. Let's hope we get lots of other exciting new reveals this week!

Carina and Selene and Rosalind and Rigel are here!

Whew, that was a bit of a mouthful. Nonetheless, they're here! They actually arrived last week, but this is the earliest I've had time to take some quick photos of them. I'll start with Carina!

I really like this mare's pose! She looks like she's doing the piaffe/passage, but could also just be prancing. It could go either way! She has a nice face, too.

I'm still not crazy about the pink eyewhites trend Breyer seems to be stuck on, but that's a relatively minor issue. Quality-wise, my Carina and Selene models are both pretty nice - some seams got missed, and there's some blurred masking here and there, but nothing major. Now for Selene!

I'm not quite as enamored with the foal as I am with the mare - there's something odd about her front legs, and it seems strange that she's not also trotting to keep up with the mare. But I like her slightly turned head and the impression that she's giving us the side-eye.

Like I said, some blurred edges, but nothing major.

Next: Rosalind!

I really like the color on this mare! She's so shiny and pearly - I love it! And like I said before, I like that the horn looks natural rather than a vaguely-horn-shaped bit of plastic slapped on the horse's forehead. Now let's take a look at Rigel!

He matches his mother pretty well, and has a cute little baby horn! I like their blue eyes, too. Sometimes blue eyes can look weird on a model, but I think it works here.




Quality-wise, they have a few small issues (some small scuffs on the foal, pinpoint black marks on the mare), but again nothing major. I'm happy to have them join my herd!

In other news, I was drawn for a St. Moritz! Huzzah! Hopefully he gets here fast so I can take some photos of him for the blog. He needs to join my Esprit herd!

Carina and Selene are now available for purchase!

Wow, that was quick! Carina and Selene, the final Premier Club releases for 2017, are in stock!



I can't wait to see these beauties in person! Hopefully they don't have a lot of quality issues...I'm a little nervous about that paint job, though. I'm glad these don't seem to have been delayed like the Duende models were - hopefully this means the mini True Norths will ship on time as well. I'm looking forward to seeing mine!

The 2017 Just About Horses is out in the wild!

Greetings, readers! I bring exciting news (that you've probably already heard!) - the 2017 JAH issue is in collectors' hands, and there are so many exciting things to talk about! However, today I'm going to talk about the Premier Club reveals!

I'll start with the cover of the magazine - behold, the final Premier Club release of 2017 - Carina and Selene!

Okay, Breyer has to be trolling us at this point. They got up everyone's hopes that we would get a new draft mare and FOAL set - because the grand total of one draft foal in Breyer's lineup could really, really use an update - and we get Lipizzaners instead? Bleh.

I like the sculpts, and they'll probably stay with me, but...argh. I wonder if this duo will be released on time, or if they got caught up in the other delays we've had this year? I guess we'll find out.

On a slightly different note, I could be wrong, but it almost looks like the models in the photo could be the actual finished production pieces instead of the resin prototypes? That bodes well for the future, although there's still plenty of room for quality issues.

Next, I'll move on to the first release from the 2018 Premier Club, Bristol!

Wow, a jumper! We haven't had a new one of those for a while. I like his color, too!



There's a full-body photo of the completed resin, though I suppose we'll have to wait until signups open to see what the painted sculpt looks like. Looking at those sketches on the upper right, I like the "taking off" one the best, honestly. I don't know why, but none of Morgen's sculpts have appealed to me so far (nothing against her personally), and I'm similarly lukewarm about Bristol. Maybe I'll like him better once I see a full photo, but no promises there.

There are a couple of other things from the JAH issue I'd like to cover, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

In the interest of full disclosure, I recently had a baby and as such, may not be able to update the blog in as timely a manner as I'd like. Please be patient as we figure out this new parenthood adventure!