New Arrivals: Black Forest, Stein and Rapunzel

 Good news - it's time for another New Arrivals post! I'll start with Black Forest:

I think Black Forest is one of my favorite of this year's models - I love his mane and tail, despite the unpainted ribbons. I also love the crispness of his white lower body against the darker upper body. Love him! I wonder if Breyer would let someone do a Design Your Own Breyer of this pattern on a Shire B for a matched pair. Ha! 

Next, here's Stein: 

After the variations on Marzipan and Landler started showing up on Friday, Stein was the subject of some intense strategizing - if a variation showed up on him, buy as many as possible (I had tickets for six), with the possibility of trading Rotating Draft tickets for more Stein tickets, if necessary. Fortunately, no Stein variations showed up, so I wound up with a lot of Rotating Draft models (most of which I sold during the event). Anyway, Stein is a handsome guy, but I can't help but wonder what a variation on him would have looked like - even if only a matte/gloss split. Ah, well. 

Lastly, here's Rapunzel! 

Speaking of variations, I'm still a bit bewildered that they didn't do an alternate mane on Rapunzel. It seemed like the obvious choice, so it's still a little confusing. Probably for the best, though, because I only had two Rapunzel tickets and probably wouldn't have had the luck to get them both. Anyway, I love the flowing tail on this girl, and was pleased to notice this girl even has a little braid in her mane. I like how there's a little bit of pearly in her hair too; it helps keep her from looking like a regular run. Apparently there is an unofficial lighter roan variation of her out there, which I wouldn't have minded getting, but it's not a deal-breaker. Maybe I'll find one down the road. 

That brings me to the end for today - check back soon for more New Arrivals!  

Toss a coin to your Witcher...

 Somehow I forgot we were even waiting for a sneak peek reveal today - there I was all sad on Friday thinking I'd have to wait three long days to see it...only to forget all about it until this morning when we got the reveal. And what a reveal! Behold:

It probably didn't help that I've had this stuck in my head all weekend, but anyways...I love this guy! I think this is the first Breyerfest model this year that I'm actually excited for. Of course, it's hard to top the hype for Pollock last year, but this guy comes close (for me). I just wish his braids and bobs were painted, because he looks a little unfinished otherwise. Oh, and I kinda feel like they should have used the Shire B for this, although Shire B is the more recently-used mold. But I'd be happy to bring this one home in any case! Hmm, maybe they'll sneak some Shire Bs into the mix? Uh, in an evenly-distributed, easily-attainable way, I mean. 

Well, bring on the reveals! I hope we get the Stablemate set tomorrow! 

Featured Model - 3/2/2019, Tristan

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...Tristan!



Back in the halcyon days when Breyer used to make special run models for their Fun Days, this guy was the first of those special run models, in 2005. He's item #703105 on the Shire B mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. IDYB doesn't have a quantity listed, so I guess it's a mystery as to how many of these actually exist.

Tristan is definitely handsome! Too bad Breyer didn't keep making the Fun Day special runs - they must not have sold well enough to justify it. Fun Days still happen - they're the events Breyer puts on at various dealer locations around the country, with Stablemates painting and other activities. Mr. Tristan here isn't the most realistic color for a Shire (IDYB lists him as a red dun sabino) but he could always be a cross, I guess. His purple ribbons look nice, too.

The Shire A has been rather lightly used over the years since his introduction, though he's been a website special run twice in the last five years, which helps. He was also a regular run in the Best of British line for a couple of years - only his third regular run appearance since his introduction in 2002, which seems odd. I wonder if his feathering and larger size make him more expensive to produce, making the profit margins smaller? I guess we can only speculate, and wait for him to show up somewhere else soon. He's a handsome guy, so I hope he gets another release soon!

Featured Model - 6/24/2017, Shire A

Hello, readers, and welcome to Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats about it and provide commentary about it. In honor of the draft horse show happening in my little town this weekend, this week's model is...the Shire A, in his red ribbon color variation!

 

This handsome guy was issued on (duh) the Classic Shire A, sculpted by Kathleen Moody. The original release was a slightly different gray color and had blue and white ribbons rather than red and white, but over the years of his release (2002-2008) the paint job evidently changed to include the red and white and lighter color. He's a fancy guy!

I remember when the Shire A and his Shire B counterpart were first released - I was still in high school at the time and had no interest in them for some reason. Fast forward to 2013, when the beautiful - and thoroughly unexpected - Flurry showed up as a special run on the website. I had to have him! Which meant I had to have all the others as well. Thus, my collection of Shires A was born! (And B, but I only have Frosty - still some work to do there.) I still need to get my hands on the Delivery Wagon set - maybe someday. The Shires A and B (especially B) are molds that don't get used often enough, in my opinion. Let's hope we get another release on one or both of them soon!

Triton is here!

My Triton arrived a couple of days ago! Here's a pic:

He's quite the handsome fellow.

I was a little worried that the elastic cord holding the info card around his neck would leave yellow residue in his gloss (it happened with my Let's Celebrate), but fortunately, that wasn't an issue. I didn't see any other major flaws when I was looking him over, so this "Sharpieloosa," as some are calling him, is free to join the rest of my herd!

Let's hope they keep doing these Classics special runs in the future. I have around 20 Classics models in my collection, but wouldn't mind having more. The problem is, I don't collect most of the available molds, so hopefully they can get some new ones added to the lineup.

I know Reeves would like the brand to be more popular, because it was one of the questions they asked us in the focus group I was part of at Breyerfest 2013. The group's suggestions included coming out with more new molds, better sculptors, and (my suggestion) more special runs. So far, they seem to have followed that advice fairly well - Flurry, Frosty, Julien/Sophia/Cosette, the two unicorn mare and foal sets, Andreus, and now Triton (and probably others I'm forgetting) have all been released since that focus group happened. We've had two new molds: the repurposed porcelain Sir Buckingham and Harper, both sculpted by Sommer Prosser. So we know they are at least trying to make the Classics more of a hot item. Let's hope they continue those efforts in the future...and cross our fingers for a matching Shire B! Go Sebastian!

BreyerHorses.com Web Exclusive - Triton

So, the latest addition to the Breyer web site is the new Classics special run, Triton. He's certainly an...interesting fellow.

Despite his amateurish paint job, I ordered one, because I'm always happy to expand my Classic Shire A conga. The bonus? He's glossy! And he really doesn't look that bad. I definitely prefer him over the Pluto from the Let's Go Riding English set:

While I may be biased - as I've never been a fan of the Pluto mold - I'm not going to lie. I definitely like Triton better, even though The Little Mermaid was the first thing I thought of when I saw the name (why didn't they save it for a run similar to Under the Sea?).

There's no indication of a piece count for this release, but I'd guess around 1,000. Seems like I remember Flurry's run being around that number (back when you could add more than 12 of them to your cart at a time to see how many were left).

His price is a little bit higher than I would expect a Classic to cost: $35. Flurry and Frosty were both $25 if I remember right. Of course, there are already profit-seekers on eBay trying to sell him for $45 or more. It never fails. At least wait until it sells out, people.

Triton is available for purchase here - no collector club membership required. He does qualify for the Collector Club discount, surprisingly. It'll be interesting to see when/if this run sells out, and it does beg the question: are they going to make a Shire B to match? If so, I suggest he be named Sebastian!