Auction models!

 Exciting news today, everyone! We got to see some auction models in today’s post on the Breyerfest blog - behold! 

It’s a beautiful glossy bay Morgan! Scrumptious.

And a handsome red dun pinto Criollo with a badger face! 

And a Fell Pony that’s basically a mini version of Heath! I want her.

And a stunning peacock-themed Moody Andalusian! I’m trying to figure out if he’s the same one we’ve seen in the archive room live feed. I feel like that one had a more elaborate tail? Can’t remember for sure. 

Most importantly, here’s a quote from the blog:

ALL bidders, whether bidding in-person or online, will need to register through BidSpirit. When registering, bidders must fill out all required contact information and include a valid photo ID and credit card number. When you register your card, you will get a text or phone call from Stripe confirming you added your card. You must type in the two-step authentication code to continue. Once registered you will be able to preview the lots online before the auction; however, no pre-bids will be accepted. All bidding must be done live during the Live Auction. 

…

Onsite winners will be required to present payment to the Breyer staff onsite immediately after the lot has been announced “SOLD”. If the winner of a lot is online, the credit card associated with the bidder’s profile will be charged immediately after the lot is announced “SOLD” for the full amount of the lot, including sales tax. Split payments will not be allowed, so please plan accordingly when registering your card. If a card is declined and the bidder cannot be reached within the allotted amount of time to provide an alternate card, the transaction will be voided, and the lot will restart and be resold at the end of the auction - the lot will not automatically go to the next highest bidder. If a card declines that bidder will not be able to continue to bid on future lots.

I like these changes! They should make it harder for people to bid models up into the stratosphere and then back out of paying later. There’s some suspicion that this was being done on purpose so the non-paying bidders could ensure their friends got auction models for a much lower price than they could have gone for. Of course, my preference would be for no online bidding at all, but that ship seems to have sailed, so I’m happy with these changes. Now let’s see some more auction models and the raffle models! 

Scurry scurry

 Well, we have our ninth Breyerfest special run (clearly I forgot how to count yesterday)! Here she is - say hello to Scurry! 

From the blog:

For our final BreyerFest: Driving Forward Special Run model reveal, we wanted to make sure we included an adorable pony in the mix! Scurry driving is where a pair of ponies competes for the best time pulling a carriage through a course of cones. It was developed in the 1960s and stems from chuck wagon racing, another exciting equestrian sport!

It's good to see the Fell Pony get used again, even if she is similar to the mini Fell Pony that was just in the Tractor Supply blind bags last year. Oh well - I still want one! She's definitely going on my list. 

The blog says there'll be another reveal on Monday - my guess is the crystal or another Limited Edition. I'm sure we'll see the rest of the Limited Edition stuff next week, and if we're really lucky we'll get to see the raffle models! So I'm excited for Monday! Also thankful that they actually revealed this one today rather than giving us a sneak peek and leaving us hanging all weekend. 

In other news, the drawing for the six glossy Zafirah models from amongst the 2022 Premier Club members has evidently finally taken place, so be sure to check your email and/or your spam folder to see if you were drawn. I wasn't one of the lucky winners, but the odds of being drawn were pretty dang low, so I'm not that upset about it. Better luck next time, I guess!  

Featured Model - 2/24/2018, Black-Eyed Susan

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...Black-Eyed Susan!



This little lady was produced in 2016 for the Chasing the Chesapeake collector event. She's item #712198 and is one of 76 produced on the Fell Pony mold, sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

I love this little model - she's so small she hardly takes up any space! That's a good thing when shelf space is at a premium. She and her only other release, the original Carltonlima Emma, can be moved pretty much wherever to make room for other things.

I was fortunate enough to be able to buy this model at the actual Chasing the Chesapeake event, which was a lot of fun. Her color is really nice, although I'd personally like to see at least a little bit of white markings to make the model a little more visually interesting. 

I like the Fell Pony mold (last year's auction model was to die for), but I think it may have gotten a bit lost among all the other new molds we've had lately. I wish Breyer would use her for something - maybe she'll make a Breyerfest appearance as some type of companion/stable pony, like Exterminator's Peanuts. I could definitely get behind that!

Speaking of Breyer special events, at Chasing the Chesapeake we were told the next event would happen in the spring of this year. I wonder if that's still the case, with all we've been seeing about various Breyer staffers moving on to other positions? They would need to be notifying us pretty much right now to be able to plan effectively for any type of spring event. Maybe it's been pushed back to the fall? I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

Chasing the Chesapeake Day 3: Success! (Mostly)

Whew! We're home from Chasing the Chesapeake. It's been a long day - but totally worth it!

After we finished having breakfast in the restaurant, we packed up our stuff and then headed downstairs to wait for our time to go through the boutique line. I'd been fretting for the past two days that we would get another terrible draw and end up with four Masons like last year...but that didn't happen! I ended up being toward the middle of the line, and my husband was 10 people behind me. He did get stuck with two Masons, but one of them will stay here, so...yay! More importantly, I was able to grab a Black-Eyed Susan and Raven. Sagamore Rye was #1 on my list, so I was sad not to get him, but definitely happy I was able to get the other two.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take individual photos of my models before we packed them back up and gave them (happily) to the UPS people who were in residence. Very handy of Breyer to have them there, as it saved us the bother of finding an open UPS location to ship everything back before we went to the airport. So, anyways...here are some group photos I took of the special runs that were on display. Firstly, the two I didn't get:

I used to collect the Shire Mare mold, but sold my three examples of her last year needing more space.

Next, the three SRs I did get:

And lastly, a moderately-better photo of Dixon, my centerpiece raffle model:

While we were buying models today, a Breyer staffer confirmed that these models were made from the last of the old Halla whiteware they dug up in the warehouse. So, that makes her pretty special! I don't collect Halla/Bolya anymore either (again, needed more space), so she will probably be for sale at some point.

After we were done buying ponies and having them shipped home, we headed back to the airport and our two flights home. So, it was definitely worth the trip! I hope I can attend the next one of these events!

More detailed analysis of the event models will come when they arrive here and I can provide better photos. Stay tuned!

Chasing the Chesapeake Day 1 - Special Runs are Revealed!

Hello all! The first day of Chasing the Chesapeake has arrived, although I've been spending it on planes. Currently we're in traffic trying to get to the hotel, but never fear! The word is out about the special runs for this event! Photos courtesy of Julia on Blab:

Writing a blog post on a cell phone is maddeningly frustrating, so if the formatting on this post ends up weird, that's why. So our special runs are not at all what I thought they would be; I don't think a single one really relates to the theme other than Chesapeake and the Stablemate. Speaking of the Stablemate, here he is (his name is Cecil):

While he does somewhat fit the theme, I don't collect this mold, so both of ours will be for sale. 

So, of the available special run options, I will be after Mason, Sagamore Rye, Raven and Black-Eyed Susan. If I'm remembering correctly, the quantities of these models are the same as the ones at Sweet Home Chicago this year. I really, really hope Breyer limits people from buying all the rare ones first, because if we get bad line draws again and end up with four Masons like last year, I am NOT going to be pleased. Maybe I'm just grumpy because I haven't really slept in the last 24 hours? Who knows. 

So those are the only updates I currently have. I will try to update again when I hear what tonight's raffle models are, if I don't suffer a rage-induced coronary from Blogger's total failure to make its software work on the mobile site. Argh!