TSC special runs and the Killingtons!

 Good news, everyone! All four Tractor Supply special run models can now be ordered on the TSC website, including previously-available Colby and Brooks and now including Emery and Martina! Here's Martina:

Another pretty Forever Saige to take the sting out of not (so far) getting a Pitter Patter? Don't mind if I do! 

In other news, this year's winter decorator was also released today! 

It's Killington and Little Killington, previously seen in this year's JAH! The only thing better than a holiday silver filigree is TWO silver filigrees, right? Too bad I don't collect the Fighting Stallion or I would be all over this. Collector Club members have early access, so if you're a member, go forth and purchase before they go out of stock. Early access ends 11/6 at 10am EST, so if you haven't purchased by then, you'll be competing with the ravening hordes. Good luck! 

More auction models!

 Woohoo, Breyer posted more auction models today! Here they are: 

I love this rainbow Misty and Stormy! The mare has gold mapping, which I didn't notice at first, but I don't think the foal does. 

Next up is a beautiful buckskin sabino Gem Twist! He doesn't get out much these days, so it's nice to see a new one even if it is an auction model. 

Another auction longboi! How dare they. Ugh, I want him so much! 

This one is cute! The blog says this one was designed by Kathleen Moody. Not surprising given the other intricate designs she's done for Breyer. Hey Kathleen, can you sculpt something new for us? The ravening hordes hunger for a new Moody sculpt! 

Next up is a handsome red bay blanket Sherman Morgan. This mold also doesn't get out much anymore, so it's good to see a new one! I love his rich red color. 

Last for today is something sorta unexpected: an auction Cosimo! Some people thought maybe he'd be a raffle model this year, but it looks like that probably won't be the case. He's pretty! Will he be this year's top seller? I think there's a pretty good chance of that happening, but we'll need to see some more auction models to be sure. Bring them on, Breyer! 

Pride giveaway!

 Good news, everyone! Well, it’s not quite as good as last year’s Pollock giveaway, but Breyer is giving away three Jewels models (plus matching pins/notebooks) in celebration of Pride month! Enter here. Good luck, everyone!

Breyerfest crystal and Reyjkavik!

 Well, we got another Breyerfest reveal again today, readers - I'm really surprised it wasn't another sneak peek! I suppose we'll get two of them tomorrow or Friday and then have to wait all weekend to see what they are. Anyway, here's this year's crystal model! 

It's the Fighting Stallion! I wasn't expecting him to become a crystal, but he fits. Nothing I need, but there are a lot of fighter enthusiasts out there who'll be happy to add a crystal one to their collections! 

In other news, the Reyjkavic drawing happened today! Is it okay if I call him Rey instead? That name is really hard to type quickly. Anyway, none of my accounts were drawn for him...but my husband's was! Woohoo! The Falhofnir conga remains mostly complete - some small comfort after not being drawn for Spokes and Spurs. I can't wait for him to get here! Congrats to all the other winners out there! 

Fall Releases are announced!

 Exciting news, everyone - Breyer's fall releases have been announced! Say hello to the Fall Decorator, Jewels:

Dealers are only being allowed to purchase 18 of these initially, but there's no word on whether they'll join the regular line next year like Equidae did. So I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

Next, here's this year's brick-and-mortar special run! 

Certainly an interesting color on Bobby Jo, and she's glossy! She's limited to 3,000 pieces, but not all of them will be delivered this year due to shipping delays (as usual). So get your orders in early! 

There's also a new puzzle, featuring many popular unicorn releases over the years - including a flipped Alaric! Check it out: 

Seems weird to see Huck flipped like that. Oh well. Uh, he also needs to look where he's going before he trots right off that cliff and ends up in the water! Haha. 

None of this is anything I need - it's been a great year for cutting back on my model horse purchases! That gloss on Kendall is pretty nice, though.

Collector Club Appreciation, Auction Models and more!

 Exciting news, everyone! My Collector Club Appreciation orders are here! Behold! 

Though I didn't get a photo of it, in my first order I bought four styling heads for gifts, the pin board and the new Unicorn Crazy (or whatever it's called) stable. And when I opened the (huge) box, the second thing I saw was a really skinny Breyer box, upside down. I could see the label read "KB Omega Fahim" and got really excited and pulled him out glossy! 

I love this shade of blue-black and wish Breyer would use it more often. He's stunning! I'll have to compare him to my matte Omega Fahim and see if there's any difference between them. 

I guess there is a risk of them looking more like decorators if there's too much blue...but then, blue is my favorite color, so I'm not going to nitpick that too much. Haha! 

For my second order, I went ahead and just bought the glossy model outright, as I don't have any more space for extra stuff I don't want or need. And look who I got! 

I had been hoping to get the glossy Theo, though, so it looks like I'll be looking for a trade. Ideally with someone at the Clarion when we're there in 3 weeks. Speaking of the Clarion, we got some more Breyerfest auction models today! Check them out: 

As someone on Blab noted, this Fighter would make a perfect dad for Robin and Nestling. Aww, a family! 

An amazing star-dappled gray on my least-favorite Latigo mane/tail combination. He's pretty, though!

And lastly:

A really, really nice Valegro, but I can't help but think he would have been completely amazing in gloss! 

And lastly, Breyer introduced Sparkler, a 4th of July plush, today! 

He's already sold out, so if you wanted one, I hope you were able to get one. I'm not a plush collector, so I didn't partake, but he's a cute design! 

That's all I have for today - I hope we get more auction models tomorrow! And, uh, a Breyerfest program, since it's now the 20th? Is that too much to ask for? You know, because people want to plan out their activities and it's kind of hard to do that without the program. 

Featured Model - 2/26/2022, 2006 Auction Fighting Stallion

 Hello and welcome to another edition of Featured Model! I've decided to do another (pretty overdue) revamp of Featured Model and start talking about models I don't necessarily want to own, but may have an interesting history behind them. This week's model is...the 2006 Breyerfest Auction Fighting Stallion! 

This fiery guy was, as the title suggests, one of the auction models sold at Breyerfest 2006. He was produced on the Fighting Stallion mold sculpted by Chris Hess.

The theme for Breyerfest 2006 was Summer Carnival. It's just not a carnival theme without carnival glass (or so one might think), so one of the special runs that year was Carnivale, a green-carnival-glass-themed Fighting Stallion. 1,000 of these models were produced (seems small in this day and age), but in true Breyer fashion, an alternate Carnivale in orange was sold at the live auction that year. It's fairly common to see alternate versions of special runs pop up in live and silent auctions afterward - so probably fair to assume most of Breyer's special runs go through multiple iterations before the final model is approved. Too bad we don't get to see more of this in action! Although up until recently, we somewhat got to see that process a little bit with the "Who Wore It Best" contests collector club members could vote on. 

Of course, it's hard to really judge these models from a single photo on IDYB, but in comparing the two I think the green one does win out - that color is more attractive to me, though I imagine it's a matter of personal taste. I'd be interested to see if there are more Carnivale tests out there, perhaps on other molds? Maybe someone can dig through Breyer's archive room again this year at Breyerfest and find them, if they exist. Interestingly, that orange (or "marigold") color was apparently the most popular color of real carnival glass - at least, according to the Wikipedia article. The more you know! 

Hmm, I just got an interesting idea - they should do a "Throwback" Breyerfest theme, in which old special runs are re-imagined on new molds and with more updated/modern painting techniques. I'd definitely be down for that - so many of these fun special run colors are only used once or twice and then never again. Maybe it's just that it's late and I'm tired, but it seems like a good idea to me! 

2019 JAH is here!

Good news, everyone! My JAH arrived today, with a wealth of new reveals! There's a lot of exciting things to go over, so let's just get started!

I decided to leave out the cover this year, in case those of you who haven't seen it yet don't want to be spoiled. I will be covering the reveals inside, though, so beware!

I'll start with next year's first Premier Club release, Altynai:



The prototype is beautiful, and I definitely like the color (sculpted by Heather Puleo, sculptor of Greyson) and painted by Amanda Brock), but I'm not sure if I like this one enough to keep him yet. I'll need to see more photos of him before I decide...hopefully they show us more when club signups open up. Also, why all the buckskins lately? Were those paint colors on sale?

Anyway, next year's other two sculptors are Lynn Fraley and Kylee Parks. I took a look at Lynn Fraley's other work and didn't see anything that I had to have, so the jury is out on her sculpt too; Kylee Parks has done some impressive work for the custom contest at Breyerfest for the last few years, so I'm sure hers will be pretty nice.

Next, let's take a look at this little item on the Table of Contents page:



Ooh, a giveaway! I took a look at the entry website, and it looks like we have until November 30 to enter. I haven't submitted my official count yet, but it looks like they got clever with a lot of the images, so make sure you pay close attention to every page of the magazine!

Next, here's a sneak peek of a new sculpt by Mindy Berg on the editorial page:



While the magazine doesn't say what this new sculpt is for, it looks like a Classic to me - probably next year's Classics Horse of the Year. Honestly, he looks like Duende with his head turned up and to the right, so I can't see him being a Traditional. I wonder what color he's supposed to be - silver bay maybe? I hope we find out soon.

Next, a look at next year's Live Show Benefit horse and the 4th release in the Fairytale Friends Club:



Another buckskin, on San Domingo! He looks like he'd match Lillian and Molly pretty well. The ad copy says next year's glossy Classics model will be the glossy Malik - a return to glossing the previous year's Classics Horse of the Year model, which makes me wonder even more why they didn't gloss some Masons for this year (not that I'm complaining!). In the bottom photo, we see the fourth release in the Fairytale Friends club, with a glittery purple G3 Arabian and what looks like a shrunken-down resin Rising Sun. Makes me wonder if we'll see Rising Sun in other scales eventually? With all those new Walmart Mini Whinnies, it seems like Breyer is going nuts with shrinking stuff lately, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Next, here's the Fighting Stallion sneak peek:



In Stephanie Macejko's editorial, she mentioned that the "70th Anniversary Collection" will consist of a number of Traditional-size releases, and this Fighting Stallion will evidently be one of them. Maybe they'll pick one mold from each decade for this collection? That would be fun. The Fighter here is pretty, but nothing I need to buy. Can't wait to see the other releases!

Next we have the Vintage Club sneak peek that has everyone excited:



Yes, that's the In-Between Mare! What color is she? Looks like some kind of glossy dapple black to me, but it could be a dark bay. More importantly, will this lower the value of the handful of IBMs in collector hands? Probably not, since they're so old. I wonder if they'll all be this color, or if they'll be the gambler's choice for next year? Another important question is...will they be popular? The IBM is definitely valuable, but, well...there's a reason the mold was rejected in favor of the FAM, if you know what I mean. Food for thought, I guess.

Next, here's a look at the Fairytale Friends Club's third release!



That's Mini Magnolia and a Mini Whinny I don't recognize. Maybe it's a flipped Show Arabian? Not sure why they'd bother to flip it, but that's the closest guess I have. I won't be keeping either of them, fortunately (or unfortunately). There's an article in this issue about unicorns in other parts of the world, featuring a number of unicorn illustrations by Rayvin Maddock. I hope we see some of those colors in the Fairytale Friends Club next year!

Lastly, here's a look at Corbin, who also appeared on the cover of this issue:

He's pretty, but I don't think I'll be keeping either of mine. More for the sales pile!

Edit: Gah! I forgot about the Premier Club Stablemate, Charleston! Here he is!



He looks a lot like the G2 Paso Fino...which is a bad thing, for me. I've tentatively arranged to trade him for the mini Misty and Stormy set from this year's Vintage Club, though, so at least I've got that going for me. His paintjob looks like a pretty faithful representation of Hamilton, though, even down to the slightly-pearly whites, so there's that.

All in all, it was a great issue - I think there were more reveals in this issue than the one from last year, so that was nice. And it's great that they're doing a giveaway for the test Beau! Now if we could just see the rest of next year's Vintage and Stablemate Club releases, that would be great!

Leopold is now available!

Attention Vintage Club members! The second release of 2019, Leopold, is now available for purchase!



Make sure you're logged into your account so you can see the buy box.

Like I said before, the Appaloosa Performance Horse colorway looks great on the Fighting Stallion, but he's nothing I need to buy. Now, if they'd find some modern molds to put it on...Bristol, anyone? Or Dundee? Mmm.

Second Vintage Club release of 2019 - Leopold!

All right, I know this is old news by now, but I had to post about it. Breyer revealed the second Vintage Club release of the year last week - Leopold, on the Fighting Stallion!



He definitely looks good in the Appaloosa Performance Horse colorway! This is the third time we've seen this color in the Vintage Club, after Eagle and Halo. It's a nice color, so I'm not really bothered by that, but this is the second time we've seen the Fighting Stallion - he first appeared as King in the first year of the club. While I admit his first appearance was kind of a waste (plain buckskin? Yawn!), it seems odd that we're seeing molds get repeated when there are still plenty of vintage molds that haven't been used yet - like the Western Horse, or the Race Horse, or many others.

Fortunately, we haven't seen the rest of the club releases yet, so the Western Horse could still appear. And I'll admit my opinion doesn't really mean much, since I don't collect vintage molds and didn't join the club this year. Hopefully the Western Horse gets some love later this year!

Scottsdale Stampede special runs are out, plus 2019 Premier Club!

Greetings all! Although I'm sad I didn't get to go to the Scottsdale Stampede, it's still exciting to see the new reveals! Here are the special runs for the event! Thanks to Jennifer for the photo!




Group A:

Bolo, (buckskin?) Show Jumping Warmblood, 124 pieces
Oakley, (bay splash pinto) Lady Phase, 76 pieces

Group B:

Sonorah, (perlino Bobby Jo), 60 pieces
Pima, (silver/gray appaloosa) Fighting Stallion, 56 pieces
Prescott, (blue/black Huck), 44 pieces
Chica Bonita, (chestnut sabino Wixom), 40 pieces

Well...I hate to admit it, but now I'm kind of glad I'm not there. The only special runs I'd be interested in are Bolo and Prescott - hopefully I can get my hands on those without too much trouble. Sonorah is pretty, though! I'm not sure how the Show Jumping Warmblood or the Wixom fit the western/Arabian theme, but trying to make sense of Breyer's choices for themes will only drive me insane, so I'm not going to complain about it too much...except I would have expected to see more than just one Arabian in this lineup.  I'm really hoping the Prescott is some type of blue-black decorator, though, because a solid black Huck is...not very visually exciting, and certainly doesn't make me want to spend the amount of money it would cost to get one of a run of 44.

No word on the Stablemate yet, which is disappointing. I guess those aren't being handed out until Sunday.

And I'm glad the special runs are being divided into two groups - otherwise I'm sure people at the end of the line would end up with multiple Bolos, and nobody wants that.

So that just leaves the Stablemate and the Saturday centerpiece model as the remaining reveals. I'm hoping for Mirado for the Stablemate, since he doesn't seem to be terribly popular, which would theoretically make it easy to get my hands on one. As for the centerpiece model, the trend for the last few events has been to use older, less-popular molds - so my money is on Buckshot. He hasn't been used for much for the past several years other than prize models, so he seems as likely a choice as any.

In other exciting news, the 2019 Premier Club is now open for membership! For the low, low, non-refundable deposit of $100, you too can join the club and hope you like whatever's being released next year. Not that I joined again or anything...Now if only they'd show us the rest of the 2019 Vintage Club releases!

Live Auction Lot 27 - Ripped Blue Jeans

Clearly I got confused about the auction lot numbers somewhere along the way...oh well. Live auction lot 27 is up on Breyer News, and he's another pretty one!

 

He's described as a blue roan sabino, and he makes me think of ripped blue jeans when I look at him. Pretty! And it's a Fighting Stallion, another popular mold. I bet this is another one that will go high! He's a beauty.  He actually reminds me a lot of this auction model from 2014, but without the prominent dapples.

In other news, we're now settled into our room at the Clarion. We're in room 409, and we still have plenty of things to sell! Feel free to stop by and see us. I'm also giving out one free (regular run) Stablemate to anyone who mentions the blog to me, so make sure to get one! I only have 40 or so, so I don't know how long they'll last. Don't miss out!