Lillian and Molly (Yay)! and Salem (Boo)!

More good news, everyone - my Lillian and Molly set arrived today, along with Salem! Let's look at Lillian and Molly first:



They're beautiful! I love that the foal is a slightly darker shade than the mare - it always irks me a little when a mare and foal match perfectly, since that doesn't always happen in real life. I didn't get a chance to photograph them with Bristol, but I'll bet they would make a great family!



Their quality is pretty good as well! Although I feel like I have to say...I really don't like the white basecoat on models, and I wish they'd leave it off. I prefer the softer white on unbasecoated models, even if they do yellow later - the basecoat makes the whites too stark, and no real horse looks like that unless you scrub them clean every day.

Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's take a look at the mare's face:

Her eyes are beautifully detailed, and like I said before, I love the contrast of her black mane against the buckskin and white. Beautiful!

Unfortunately, my Salem didn't fare so well in the quality department. Take a look - he had to be supported by Lillian to stand up facing that direction:



That front left leg is scary. Look, I can forgive a lot of things, but a leg so badly warped the model doesn't stand up without assistance isn't something I can overlook. I already sent Breyer an email - hopefully I can get him exchanged, because yeesh. Plus the pawprint on his left shoulder is blurred.

He's fine otherwise - the cat design is clever, and I like his two blue eyes - but that leg has to go.



This is the first time I'll have tried to exchange something since my flawed Fylkir in 2017, so I don't anticipate having trouble exchanging him. I hope they don't take too long to get back to me!

Derp! I forgot about the Friday reveal...

Bleh, I can't believe I forgot about the Vintage Club set that was supposed to be revealed on Friday! Say hello to...Lillian and Molly?



Well, those names are random. Cute name for the foal, though.

Anyway, this set is beautiful! They don't look like they'll be an exact match for Bristol, but they'll be close enough. I did find a set to purchase secondhand (not terribly difficult, if you're also wanting a set), so I'm excited to get them in hand and take a photo of them with Bristol. I especially like the contrast of the black part of the mare's neck against the white and then the buckskin. I hope we get to order these soon!

As for the Thoroughbred Mare and Nursing Foal themselves, I'm glad we finally got to see them in he Vintage Club, though I'll always be sad we didn't get them in glossy alabaster. Maybe in a few years, when Breyer has to start repeating molds? And no, buckskin pinto isn't a vintage color, but I can see where Breyer is coming from here. Vintage Club models aren't known for being in high demand, other than the gambler's choice. People can't even sell most of them for their issue price, as I found out last year. Something with a modern paint job on a vintage mold is theoretically more likely to sell well (especially at the $135 price point Breyer can't seem to let go of), so I can see why they'd use a modern color. But I was really hoping for that glossy alabaster...

Teaser for the next Vintage Club release!

Hello, readers! Today's (small) update concerns the upcoming next release for this year's Vintage Club. Behold!



We already know it's the Thoroughbred Mare and Foal set from the welcome letter, so I don't know why all the secrecy. I think they're supposed to be buckskin pinto? The photo looks like they may be basecoated, as well.

Supposedly we're supposed to get the full reveal on Friday, so hopefully that's the case. I do actually want to buy this release (I've bought a few TB Mare/Foal sets this year to fill out my conga), so I'll be excited to get them in hand!

Featured Model - 4/13/2019, Medicine Hat Nursing Foal

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...the Medicine Hat Nursing Foal!

It doesn't actually look like I've ever done a Featured Model on the Nursing Foal! I must have missed her. In any case, this model was a regular run from 1994-1997 and was part of a set with the identically-colored Thoroughbred Mare. She's item #3180 on the Nursing Foal sculpted by Chris Hess.

The Nursing Foal (and, by extension, the Thoroughbred Mare) are among the few vintage molds I collect. I'm not sure why; I guess the Nursing Foal looks less awkward than Hess's other foal sculpts (despite her outstretched neck), and she's pretty cute with the Thoroughbred Mare. They make a nice pair!

I don't have a complete conga of the two molds, although it wouldn't be hard to; the problem is finding them for a suitable (low) price, and the paint jobs on the older ones aren't exactly thrilling. I guess modern paintwork makes things more desirable to me. I did recently acquire the Pride and Joy set, which served to reignite my interest in the molds, so maybe I'll get my hands on the sets I still need over the course of the year.

On a related note, I can't wait to see the buckskin pinto set we're getting in the Vintage Club later this year! I bet they'd make an excellent family with Bristol.

Being a vintage mold, the Nursing Foal isn't terribly popular, but she at least has the distinction of having had a couple more releases than the Thoroughbred Mare. She appeared in a set with the Grazing Mare in 1989, and was used in a four-piece foal set in 1992.

Anyway, I won't speculate too much on where we see this set used next, since we already know they're part of this year's Vintage Club. I'm still a little sad that we aren't getting them in the glossy alabaster colorway, but maybe we'll still see that in the future. That, or some other modern paintjob! Perhaps they'll be a web special later? Alas, I can't see that being a big seller, but you never know!

Breyerfest 2017 Special Run Predictions

Now that we're starting to see Breyerfest 2017 special runs, it's time for me to make some (probably incorrect) predictions about what models we'll end up seeing as Breyerfest SRs. This post will cover special run line items; I'll save other stuff for a later date so this post isn't a mile long.

Firstly,  we can discount any mold that was used last year. So Make a Wish, Silver, Wyatt, Bobby Jo, Forever Saige, Esprit, Hermosa/Corazon and the Brahma Bull are all out. It's probably safe to discount any molds from the 2015 special run line as well, so Huck, Lonesome Glory, Wixom, Croi, Ashquar, the Spanish Fighting Bull, Totilas and the Marwari are out as well (not that anyone thought Marwari or the bulls would be in this year's special run line).

From yesterday's sneak peek, we know that one of the SRs will be on Geronimo. Breyer has established a pattern of using a previous year's Premier mold for at least one Breyerfest SR, and he fulfills that pattern. However, I and a lot of others assumed Yasmin would be used for Breyerfest. Last year's special run line had all three of the previous year's Premier molds in the lineup, so it's still safe to assume Yasmin will also show up in the special run line. As for the animal mold, prevailing opinion says they will use the Elephant, and I have no reason to doubt that.

Last year's Breyerfest had a total of four Premier Club molds in the lineup, including all three of 2015's, so I think it's completely possible we could see a third Premier mold show up. I think Shannondell would be the obvious choice, because he hasn't been used for anything else yet - it's been a while since we've had a mold debut in the Premier Club and then not go into the regular run lineup the following year or be used as a Breyerfest special run (I believe Ashquar would be the most recent example, and even he languished unused until the fall of 2014).

So that's four possibilities, out of a presumed total of eight. Another would be Smarty Jones, using the polo pony configuration; India has a strong connection with polo (apparently modern polo comes from India - thanks, Wikipedia!). The last time Smarty Jones appeared in the Breyerfest lineup was 2007's Rushmore (excluding the 2012 raffle and 2016 Early Bird, both as polo ponies, interestingly enough), so I think he'd be a safe choice.

I'm not sure if we'll get a mare and foal set or not - we don't see one every year. Here's a quick list of the past few years:

2010 - Stage Mom and Child Star
2011 - Hansel and Gretel
2012 - none
2013 - Naomi and Wynonna
2014 - Kodiak and Denali (bears)
2015 - none
2016 - Mamacita and Chico

So it might be safe to assume we won't get a mare and foal set. Which molds would they use, anyway? The most likely candidates would be Giselle and Gilen, unless they Frankenstein together a random mare and random foal. Marabella and Amber, perhaps? The number of foal molds likely to actually get used is fairly small. Bluegrass Bandit and Gilen, maybe? I mean, they might use the Thoroughbred Mare and Nursing Foal, which I wouldn't be opposed to, but it doesn't seem likely. There are Thoroughbred horses in India, though (legacy of its history as a British colony?), so it might be doable.

...Actually, I like that. I'm going to add the Thoroughbred Mare and Nursing Foal to my list as the mare and foal set.

So that just leaves the decorator and the surprise. I have no clue what a decorator relating to India would look like - perhaps something similar to last year's surprise Esprit decorator, except with mandalas? I would think it would be something brightly colored, maybe with henna-like designs. It might be on the Brishen mold, if we think Breyer will use four Premier molds again. Or maybe a Goffert, since he hasn't been used at Breyerfest since 2014, and not in the special run line since 2010? I wouldn't mind seeing a Ruffian either, though, and she was last in the special run line in 2007. So many possibilities! I think Brishen will go on my final list, though.

As for the surprise, the precedent for most, if not all, previous surprise models has been that it's something that doesn't get used anywhere else in the lineup, not even as an auction model (excluding Ethereal, from 2011). Here's a quick listing of the previous surprise models:

2009 - Quarter Horse Gelding
2010 - none
2011 - Ethereal (the one exception)
2012 - Flash
2013 - Roxy
2014 - Nokota
2015 - Lonesome Glory
2016 - Esprit

My gut feeling for this year's surprise model is the Moody Andalusian. Not real sure why, except the lineup usually includes at least two Moody molds and I only have one so far. We'll see if the Andy shows up in some other capacity this year - until then, he's on the list. So, here's my final list:

Geronimo (already more-or-less revealed)
Yasmin
Shannondell
Elephant
Smarty Jones
Thoroughbred Mare/Nursing Foal
Brishen
Andalusian Stallion

As for what colors any of these will come in...I have no idea. Uh...here's another list.

Geronimo - dun
Yasmin - gray (glossy)
Shannondell - bay with more sabino than Shannondell?
Elephant - more-different gray? Or white? (glossy)
Smarty - Chestnut pinto
TB Mare/Foal - Black/baby bay (matte/glossy split)
Brishen - already covered (glossy)
Andy - buckskin, red dun, dapple gray frame overo, red bay tobiano, in matte/glossy finishes

Probably terribly, horribly wrong on those, but time will tell. Hopefully some of these turn out to be correct, but if not - oh well. Breyerfest is hands-down my favorite event of the year, so as long as I get to attend I'll be happy. Hopefully we get to find out more soon!

Edited 2/5/2017 to add matte/glossy finishes and the matte/glossy split to the color predictions.