Silver filigree is back!

 Exciting news today, everyone - we finally have a reveal of the silver filigree sneak peek! Check this guy out!

His name is Zugspitze. Kind of a mouthful, but whatevs. I love him! He’d make a great addition to my silver filigree collection. They upped production to 450, too, so I have a decent chance of getting one (I hope). They also upped the price, to $225 (gulp). But I haven’t been buying much lately, so I’m okay with it. I wonder how fast this one will sell out - it really wasn’t all that long ago that a run of 350 would get sneered at for being too common and languish on the website for ages before selling out. Get off my lawn, and such. But now we have so many people in the hobby that 350 isn’t nearly enough. I suppose that’s a good thing, in the long run - meaning we have a healthy number of people in the hobby. 

It's Benasque's long-lost family!

 Greetings, readers! The sneak peek from the October Collector Club newsletter has finally been revealed - behold! 

Ooooh! Hermosa and Corazon as holiday decorators? Sign me up! 

They're beautiful! I had thought silver filigree was dead in the water since we haven't seen one for so long, but clearly it hasn't been forgotten! I hope I get drawn for these! Looks like they upped the piece count to 450 though, so I might have a better chance of being drawn this time. 

From the website:

In Spain’s Pyrenees Mountains, the names La Molina and Masella are synonymous with skiing and amazing winter scenery. La Molina has a stunning silver filigree coat, and her foal Masella sports blue filigree. Both are completed by a high gloss finish, which takes their coloring to the next level! Each has “Collector Club 2020” on their belly. If you already own our 2018 Winter Web Special, Benasque, then you’ll want to scoop up the rest of this filigree family!

I have still not managed to obtain a Benasque, but...maybe someday. In the meantime, I hope I can get my hands on his family! The deadline for entry is 11/18...sheesh, that's a pretty short entry window. Oh well - fewer days I have to remember to enter! Good luck, everyone!  

Featured Model - 4/18/2020, Mont Tremblant

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...Mont Tremblant!



This pretty girl was the holiday web special for 2011. She's item #712047 and was a run of 350 on the Weather Girl mold sculpted by Brigitte Eberl.

As usual, silver filigree looks smashing on this mold! It's hard to screw up this type of paint job, though. I may be biased, as silver filigree is one of my favorite colorways. There's not much else to say about this one - she was pretty popular when she first came out, but I'm not sure if she's still popular these days.

The silver filigree colorway has been sadly neglected for the last few years - we got one every year for several years, but now it's been almost 4 years since we had one. I suppose Breyer must have gotten tired of being predictable, and it does get a little boring to see the same color released year after year. But maybe this year we'll get a silver filigree! I hope so.

As for Weather Girl herself, she was used at last year's Breyerfest, so I don't anticipate her showing up anywhere for this year's online 'Fest, nor do I see her being used as a web special. Maybe she'll get a new RR release? Or a web special release next year? I hope so!

Featured Model - 8/25/2018, Silver Filigree Silver

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 Silver Filigree Silver!



This guy was produced on the wildly popular Silver mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. He's model #1193.

The silver filigree Silver was produced as part of the 2007 "Where in the World is Pegasus?" treasure hunt. Rather than have the pegasus be the rare chase model (although it was the reward for collecting all the UPCs), Breyer slipped approximately 500 silver filigree and charcoal Silvers into the boxes for the regular run colors. These, predictably, caused a sensation among collectors and also caused a lot of issues for dealers, which is probably why that stunt was never repeated after 2007.

I wasn't a part of the hobby in 2007, so I missed out on all the excitement (and still haven't gotten my hands on the sorrel Appaloosa). Fortunately, I managed to snag this guy for a pretty good price on eBay a few years back, and he's been a proud part of my silver filigree collection ever since.

The Silver mold has experienced a bit of a resurgence in the last couple of years. He was used a lot immediately after his introduction due to his popularity, including being a Breyerfest special run three years in a row, being the Breyerfest live show grand and reserve prize in the same year, the aforementioned Treasure Hunt, a Breyerfest raffle model, and various special run and regular run releases. By 2010, most collectors agreed that the mold needed a break (and evidently so did Breyer), so he went several years without being used much.

Since his long break ended, Silver has appeared as a web special, a Breyerfest special run, a TSC special run, last year's Liberty and Glossy Liberty special run, and probably other things I'm forgetting. Where will he pop up next? I'm hoping to see a new regular run, personally. Or maybe he'll be used at the upcoming Scottsdale Stampede? I'd say he fits that theme pretty well, and he hasn't been used for a collector event that I know of, so I'd say he's overdue for that. I guess we'll find out in November!

I did a thing

So I know I said I wasn't going to do this, but I was at Walmart the other day and decided to check the toy section to see if they'd gotten anything Breyer-related in stock since the last time I was there. They didn't have any Stablemates, but there was a box of the blind bag Mini Whinnies. One thing led to another, and before I knew it...

So now I have a silver filigree Mini Whinny of my very own! Here's the other side.



The legs are kinda bendy, like I thought they'd be. But at least the eyes are painted.

Now, don't be getting any ideas from this. I still don't have any plans to buy more Mini Whinnies. This one was just lying on top of the pile, and as soon as I felt the stand I knew what it was, and then it was in my cart...

Ahem. Anyway. He's on our entertainment center with the rest of my silver filigree models. I do actually kinda like this sculpt, as it's less blobby than other Mini Whinny molds. You know, come to think of it, they used this one for a zipper pull at Breyerfest a few years ago...NO! I will not be sucked in!

Featured Model - 12/23/2017, Diamond Jubilee

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...Diamond Jubilee!



This handsome guy was produced back in 2010 for Breyer's 60th anniversary. A total of 2,010 models were produced (how creative!) on the American Saddlebred Stallion mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody.

The interesting thing about this model was the "real diamond dust" embedded in his finish. It's definitely visible if you look close, and it makes him a little more special than the typical silver filigree. Silver filigree is one of my favorite colorways, so it's probably safe to say my Diamond Jubilee isn't going anywhere.

The Moody ASB is one of those molds I wish was used more often. The last time he was in production was for last year's clearware Patriot model, and before that was in 2013 as the Holiday Horse. It's time he was used again! The older molds tend to get pushed out in favor of newer ones, however, so who knows when we'll see this guy again. Maybe he'll be a web special this year? I can't see him showing up at Breyerfest. but you never know.

2017 Silver Filigree Speculation

It's that time of year again, folks...time to speculate on what this year's silver filigree web special will be! Last year I was hesitant to predict there would be one, because they had a tendency to skip years occasionally, but since we've now had an uninterrupted streak since 2013, it's probably safe to assume we'll get a silver filigree this year, too. Here's a list of all the previous ones:

2008 - Silver Snow
2010 - Alpine
2011 - Mont Tremblant
2013 - Aspen
2014 - Chamonix, Banff
2015 - Sugarloaf
2016 - Avalanche

 There's also been a tendency to use new molds for this special run - and in recent years, that means one of the Premier Club molds from the previous year. As a refresher, last year's Premier Club molds were Geronimo, Shannondell and Yasmin.

Personally, I don't see them using Geronimo, as he appeared in matte and glossy at this year's Breyerfest and was the TSC special run to boot. Shannondell or Yasmin seem like more likely options, and since Shannondell was just used as Markus and also appeared at Breyerfest, that leaves Yasmin as the least-used as the bunch (with one piddling Breyerfest release that wasn't terribly popular, despite how pretty she was). So I personally hope Yasmin is the silver filigree this year. I wouldn't be surprised if it did turn out to be Shannondell, though, simply because he seems to be the more popular of the two molds.

As for when we'll find out, I seem to remember hearing about Avalanche in early November last year, so I'd guess around the same time frame for this year. Crossing my fingers for Yasmin!

Avalanche is here!

We have a new arrival in the house! Thanks to a generous Blabber, I was able to obtain an Avalanche, and she came in the mail yesterday. Behold!

I didn't see any glaring flaws on her, either! Which is good, because the box she came in had a hole punched in the side, covered with packing tape (!). Darn post office and/or packer. Oh well; at least she made it here in one piece.

From the stock photos, I thought she'd be more of the old-style silver filigree like the PAM, but that wasn't the case. Must have just been the sample they used - though it looks like there's been a lot of variety within the run from all the different Avalanche photos I've seen so far. Either way, she's welcome to join the group! Welcome to the silver sparklepony herd, Avalanche!

Featured Model - 11/11/2016, Chamonix

Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats on it and make some commentary. This week's victim is... Chamonix!




This handsome fellow, item #712113, was issued on Breyer mold #727, Ashquar. A Brigitte Eberl sculpt, Ashquar was the second Premier Club release of 2013. After his initial release, it took Breyer a while to use the mold again - in 2014 he showed up as the brick-and-mortar special run Sahran, and Chamonix showed up later that year.

A run of 300 models, Chamonix is a little less plentiful than many of the other holiday silver filigree releases we've had - Mont Tremblant, Sugarloaf and this year's Avalanche are all runs of 350, plus others I'm probably forgetting. This wasn't helped by the fact that apparently Reeves lost half of the shipment of Chamonix(es?) on the way over from China, and many of the people who ordered him in fall 2014 didn't end up receiving him until January or later. This was the case with mine - a helpful Blabber sold me hers after I wasn't drawn, and he didn't show up on my doorstep until January. He was worth the wait, though! Silver filigree is my favorite Breyer colorway (I refer to them as my "silver sparkleponies") and the only color I try to buy regardless of whether I collect the mold it's on or not. (So irritated I wasn't drawn for the silver filigree buffalo! Oh well.)

I've seen a lot of commentary about not liking Ashquar's snaky neck/head, but it honestly doesn't bother me. I've also seen him compared to the Black from Walter Farley's Black Stallion books, and it seems an apt comparison (other than the purist in me protesting that the Black wasn't a purebred Arabian!). He's a fun mold, and I've managed to get all of his releases so far. He definitely needs to be used again soon, though - maybe we'll get a RR release soon. He's now been a Breyerfest SR and a Collector Club SR - it would be nice to see him in a wider release. Maybe as a portrait of Magic Elixir? Or as the Black, though I have to admit I find most black paintjobs on models kinda boring without some chrome in there to mix it up. Either way, though, this mold needs to get some more love!

Breyer Winter Web Special - Avalanche!

Breyer has a new winter web special available for entry - Avalanche, on the Bobby Jo mold!



I have to say I'm a bit surprised about the mold choice - I hoped for the Fell Pony, but Forever Saige seemed more likely. Oh well.

I was on the fence about Bobby Jo and finally sold mine earlier this year after a lot of going back and forth on whether I liked her enough to keep her. I'll be entering for Avalanche regardless, because I collect the silver filigrees, but....just wish it had been on the Fell Pony instead. The color does look good on Bobby Jo, though. She'll have to live on the shelf next to Sugarloaf, Time to Party and Grane as sole mold representatives.

Entries close at 11:59 pm on 11/14. Good luck to everyone who enters!

Silver Filigree Speculation

One of the subjects that's come up lately is this year's silver filigree model: Which mold will it be on?

I'm always a little hesitant to assume that there will be a silver filigree model each year, mostly because sometimes they skip a year. Here's a list of what we've had so far:

2008 - Silver Snow
2010 - Alpine
2011 - Mont Tremblant
2013 - Aspen
2014 - Chamonix, Banff
2015 - Sugarloaf

So there have been a few skipped years in there. I personally wouldn't mind if they skipped this year completely, just to add a little variety in there (another release with Arosa's colorway? Yes please!). But, if they did make one, I'd want to see it on any of these molds:

Fell Pony
Icelandic Horse/Falhofnir
Forever Saige
Bouncer (I can dream, right?)

The Fell Pony is first on the list because it's a new mold and it just seems odd they haven't used her for anything else this year. Wouldn't she look gorgeous in silver filigree?

It's anyone's guess whether they'll use any from my list or something different altogether. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! I say that a lot...