2018 Stablemates are here!

Greetings, readers! In lieu of more exciting things to talk about this week, I'm going to talk about some of the new for 2018 Stablemate models. I've been trying to cut back on purchases lately, so the only 2018 releases I've gotten have been Stablemates. Behold!

I'm a bit short on time today, so I don't have very many photos of these. But they include a couple of the new Stablemates Single Assortment models, the stallion and foal from one of the new Mystery Foal sets, and the TWH, Cantering Warmblood, Django and Andalusian from the new blind bag assortment.



I think they're all really nice, but the standout here is, of course, the Django. His color is very metallic and attractive, and it makes everything else look dull by comparison (except maybe the buckskin Andalusian).

As usual, I wish Django's sculpt had been adapted to plastic a little better - he looks so stunning from either side that it's sad to see how narrow he is. Plus, he's just a tad out of scale compared to other Stablemates. Friesians are big, but not that big.

That said, I do like the color on the buckskin Andalusian as well - it's more of a buttermilk shade. And the perlino foal is so cute! The Icelandic is a little plain - I'd like to see some white on him, but that's a small nitpick. And the black pinto rearing Arabian is like a budget version of Oscar.

Sadly, I wasn't lucky enough to get a copper Django from the 8 blind bags I ordered, so I'm still on the hunt for him. Hopefully his price comes down eventually.

As for the quality on these, I didn't see anything majorly wrong with them, which was nice. I hope the Spirit Series 2 blind bags are as nice!

Mystery Stablemates at Walmart?

The latest model-horse-related developments involve Walmart, of all places. Last week someone posted on Facebook (Modelholics Anonymous) that they'd found a small Breyer display at a Walmart in Virginia, mostly featuring Stablemates. Most interesting was that there were blind bag Stablemates...and amongst those was a gold buckskin G3 Friesian. Of course, that's a must-have for me, so I promptly traipsed through five local Walmarts and had my husband check a sixth, to no avail.

After seeing a myriad of new spring toy displays in various degrees of completion, I was getting frustrated to say the least. But on Friday morning, someone (maybe the same person) posted a photo of one of the setup sheets from those Walmart displays. According to the sheet, only "28-ft modular" stores will receive these Breyer displays, because they're an experimental display. Which, of course, leads to the question of figuring out which stores are "28-ft modular." So far I haven't been able to find much. Though when I checked Facebook again this morning, I was unable to find that post with the setup sheet, so take that how you will.

I did see a post from someone in Oklahoma stating they had found this display at their Walmart, including the blind bags and golden Friesian, so we can add that to the list. I've also seen people saying they've found the display (minus the blind bag Stablemates, naturally) at Toys 'R' Us. I haven't gotten into our "local" TRU to check for myself; maybe later this week.

The blind bag Stablemates, other than the golden Friesian, aren't anything special; just regular run SMs from other sets/single assortments. So I'm not terribly excited about those, but I'd really like to find a gold Friesian! I even posted on a Walmart subreddit asking about it, but haven't gotten any replies yet. Now I wish I knew someone who works at a Walmart so I could ask them! For the record, I worked at a Walmart approximately 10 years ago, but not in any capacity to know what a "28-ft modular" store is. Rats!