Breyerfest Day 3: Back to Confusingly Pleasant

 Well, Breyerfest is officially over for another year. I knew this moment had to come, but it always happens too fast - I wish Breyerfest could last for a week. Of course, it's easy to say that now, but if Breyerfest actually was a week long I'm sure I'd be tired of it by day 5, if not sooner. The insanity can be overwhelming! I do really like room sales, though - maybe if we'd been able to get to Lexington and start selling earlier, I'd be more prepared for the whole thing to be over.

Anyways, Breyerfest is over. We had a leisurely day strolling through the Horse Park in the reasonably pleasant weather - it was cloudy and threatening to rain all day, though the rain didn't really start until shortly before the Sunday raffle. No luck there, either - I was really hoping that this would be my year, but it wasn't to be. Maybe next year.

I did make a few more sales from our room after we got back from the Horse Park, but as always, I was wishing we had sold more, if only because I didn't want to take any of it back home. I suppose I should be happy we sold as much as we did, considering the inflation and gas price woes that have been plaguing us lately. 

Excitingly, the theme for next year's Breyerfest was announced - Driving Forward! Presumably this means a carriage/driving horse theme, which I am all for. I'm wondering what the Celebration Horse will be - will they go all in on the driving theme and have the Celebration Horse be a Standardbred on the new Standardbred mold? Or will they pick a draft horse and save the Standardbred for a special run? Hmm, maybe the Celebration Horse will be on Vermeer and we'll finally get a black Friesian release on him. Depends on whether 9 years is enough separation from the last (purebred) Friesian Celebration Horse, I guess. 

At any rate, the theme is promising - hopefully we won't have too many people complaining when the releases inevitably don't really fit the theme. I hope they announce more about it soon! 

That's all I have for today - it's about time to head to bed so we can finish packing and head for home tomorrow. Happy Breyerfest, everyone! It was great to be back in Lexington in person, and I hope to return again next year.

It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal!

 Good news, everyone! The last Limited Edition release for Breyerfest has been revealed - the long-awaited crystal model! And it's the PAM! 

Huh, the combination "Crystal PAM" is making me think of Crystal Pepsi for some reason. If I bought one, that's probably what I'd call her, but I'm not a crystal collector, so feel free to borrow away. From the blog:

Lorelei is a 433-foot tall rock on the banks of the Rhine River that was named after the distinct murmuring sound the water flowing through it makes. Inspired by this sound, in 1801, Clemens Brentano crafted the tale of a woman who fell to her death while atop the rock looking for her lost love, and thus a folktale was born. 

This story changed hands and details over the years, including turning the woman Lorelei into a siren who lures sailors to crash into rocks on the banks of the river. Like a good game of “Telephone,” this simple story of lost love evolved into a story of mythological proportions over time, inspiring music, poetry, opera, and art.

Pretty enough, but nothing I need to buy. I just don't collect breakables after the Adriano heartbreak. 

Now that all the Limited Editions and special runs have been revealed, I expect Breyerfest tickets to go on sale soon - maybe tomorrow? I'm not as keen to buy a VIP ticket as I was last year (I just don't think anything from this year will match Pollock's popularity), so I'm not terribly worried about it. Of course, since we've seen all the regular releases so early in the year, I'm sure Breyer will make us wait until the last effing minute to see any of the prizes or raffles, but I can always hope, right? Right? 

Breyerfest 2022 Surprise Hints and Speculation

 All right, folks, it looks like we have a reveal...of the name of this year's Breyerfest surprise model! It's...the Rotating Draft Surprise! Okay then...

There are a lot of possibilities for what this could be, but first, here's a list of previous Breyerfest surprise molds:

2009: Quarter Horse Gelding
2010: none
2011: Ethereal
2012: Flash
2013: Roxy
2014: Nokota
2015: Lonesome Glory
2016: Esprit
2017: Latigo
2018: Smarty Jones
2019: Moody Andalusian
2020: Giselle
2021: Dundee

So for sculptors, we have Kathleen Moody with four, Sue Sifton with three, Kitty Cantrell with two, and Brigitte Eberl, Sommer Prosser and Chris Hess tied at one. 

Now, up until 2019, the surprise mold had more-or-less followed a pattern of having appeared as an auction model the previous year, but the Moody Andalusian that year had not been a prior year's auction model. The pattern returned in 2020 (Giselle was an auction model in 2019) but broke again last year as Dundee wasn't an auction model in 2020. So it's anyone's guess as to whether they'll revisit this "tradition" again in 2022. That said, I have been thinking it would be Brishen for quite some time now, so that's the guess I'm going to stick with for now, until I see something that indicates otherwise. Using the word Draft in the name is naturally going to make people think of draft horses, and they have used draft models in reference to beers before (the 2012 single-day Stablemates), so I'm sticking with Brishen for now. Goffert, Othello and Georg were all used as auction models last year though, so any of them could show up as well (but probably not Georg as he's this year's first Collector Club release and has had several other releases lately - he'll probably be a raffle model instead). 

We also have a sneak peek to be revealed tomorrow:

The conclusion on the Internets is that this a rotated photo of Misty's tail/butt area, and that she's a German flag decorator. Interesting...and not something I'd need to buy, if that ends up being the case. I guess we'll find out tomorrow! 

2022 Celebration Horse has been revealed!

 Excellent news, everyone! We have a reveal of the 2022 Breyerfest Celebration Horse - say hello to Nikolas! 

And, say hello to his model, on a BRAND NEW MOLD! 

Nikolas is a German Riding Pony, and his mold is, yes, a brand-new mold sculpted by Brigitte Eberl! 

I wish we had some other angles of the new mold, personally - I hate the three-quarter angle they keep using to show off new molds. My first impressions are...not really that favorable...as he looks a lot like Idocus and has the same hairstyle, which I'm not a fan of. But I'll wait until we see more photos (and/or I get him in hand) to decide if he stays. Maybe if they give him a different hairstyle later? 

Anyway, can't wait to see more information about Breyerfest 2022!