They do exist!

 Exciting news, readers! This year's TSC special runs appeared on the website today! Search "Breyer" on TSC's webpage and they'll be at the bottom of the last page (try not to pass out when you see them!). I was starting to get worried that we'd all been pranked or something. Anyway, the two special runs we were expecting (Brooks, on the Troubadour mold and Colby, on San Domingo) are included, as well as two more we didn't know about! Say hello to Martina: 

A new Forever Saige! Be still, my heart! 

We also get a new Firefly, called Emery:

She looks black in that little picture, but she's actually blue, in a nod to the blue FFA jackets. 

Here's Colby again:

Nice color, but nothing I need. 

And lastly, here's Brooks again:

I definitely want Brooks and Martina, so I guess I'll be checking the local TSC stores a while longer. I wonder if we'll get more later? Seems odd not to have some new Stablemate sets, too. Maybe the tariffs killed them or something. 

Also, my second replacement Rowan shipped yesterday, so hopefully the third time's the charm on this one! 

September CC newsletter and new site additions!

Greetings, readers! Well, the enablers out there have convinced me (there’s at least one of them, anyway), and I did end up purchasing a Juriaan today. He can keep my matte Seurat company while I work on rebuilding my Vermeer conga. Good thing there aren’t very many of him! In other news, several new items were added to the Breyer site today, starting with these beauties: 

Wow! Nothing I need, but they sure are pretty! They’re $150, but that gets you a CCA order in one fell swoop, so that’s a pretty good deal in my opinion. It’s nice to see a family set, too! We hardly ever see those anymore, other than the Stablemate families. I thought about ordering a set for the CCA model, but I already have the glossies I want from this offering, and I did end up putting together a CCA order consisting of other stuff I wanted, including this year’s fall Classics decorator!

His name is Sylvan. Isn’t he pretty? I like his silver-purple color. 

Other website additions I didn’t buy include this new Misty:

Her name is Cuddles, which is disconcertingly close to Puddles, at least in my vernacular. YMMV, I guess. 

We also get this unicorn whose name I’ve forgotten, which was previewed in the CC tent at Breyerfest:

Pretty, but nothing I need. There’s also this:

What a cutie! Though also nothing I need. That’s it for the new stuff for now, but be sure to check your email if you’re a Collector Club member, because this month’s Collector Club newsletter is out! There’s an article about model horse showing in other parts of the world, a new workshop, an Arachne giveaway, and this sneak peek:

Prevailing opinion on the Internets is that it’s Fireheart. Ooh, he’d be pretty in silver filigree! I hope we don’t have to wait too long for the reveal!

Breyerfest Day 1: YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!

 Well, readers, the first day of Breyerfest is over! And I thought I was prepared for whatever Breyer was going to throw at us - but I was woefully incorrect on that front! Well, where do I start? I spent the day at the model horse show at Alltech Arena - but no luck winning any prize models, unfortunately. Maybe next year. It was certainly exciting, and then daunting, and then terrifying as the new variations kept being announced. The surprise is Totilas? And there are at least six colors? And not all of them are glossy? And YOLO and Getting the Party Started have two variations? But Good Times and Great Friends don’t have any? Huh? And one of the YOLO variations is holographic?? Ack, I can’t take it anymore!

So anyway. The surprise model colors are as follows:

Smutty palomino (matte and glossy) 

Dapple gray (matte and glossy)

Colorshift blue/purple partial filigree (only glossy)

Blue roan (only matte)

Palomino pinto (matte and glossy)

Silver bay (matte and glossy)

Is there another color? I feel like I’m forgetting something.

As mentioned earlier, there’s no variation for Good Times and Great Friends, and also the dog whose name I’m too tired to remember and Hats Off to You. Seems odd to leave those out, but I guess that’s less to buy, so I’m kinda okay with it. Oh, and I forgot my phone at my house after the live show, so I don’t have photos of any of this! Yay! But anyway:

The variations for the Show Jumping Warmblood are a matte/glossy split, and they also have a banded version and loose mane version.

The variation for Future is Bright is the roached mane we already knew about.

The variations for Get This Party Started are a buckskin version and a significantly less common blue/purple color shift.

The variations for the Silver are a gold one and a much-less-common silver version. Silver Silver, hah!

The variations for YOLO are a sabino version and a holographic version. I’m hoping the holographic one isn’t as rare as it seems, for the sake of my own sanity.

I was a bit short on money today, so we only got a few special runs - but we did get a buckskin Getting the Party Started, which is already sold. Also got a smutty palomino surprise, Good Times and Great Friends and a sabino YOLO. Sales tonight were much improved, so I’m hoping to get a lot more SRs tomorrow! Uh, but if you’d like to help with the effort, feel free to stop by room 409 and peruse what I have for sale!

There are also variations with the online special runs - Hooplah now comes in matte and glossy, and Shindig has a blue/orange (I think) alternate color. I promptly ordered another Shindig when I heard the news, but I’m in the process of selling my Bristols, so I didn’t order any Hooplahs. Too bad! 

I can’t remember if I had anything else to talk about, but if so I’ll probably wake up in a cold sweat at 1AM remembering it. Guess I’ll write about it tomorrow! Time to head to bed.

Seeing Doubles at Tractor Supply

 More exciting news, everyone - this year's TSC special runs have been revealed! They can be found here (toward the bottom of the page and on the next page). First off, one of the Traditionals - it's a new Dundee named Merle! 

What a stunning model! He's beautiful. 

Here's the other Traditonal: 

His name is Applegate, according to the box. Interesting to see he has his own blanket rather than being blue, like last year's Geronimo. I'll try not to talk about yet another bay Flash...

Next we have the Classics set: 

They're the "Playful Pony Family." I don't think the Classic Quarter Horse Stallion is, uh, a pony? I guess it doesn't matter since he's the same size as the Haflinger mare. 

Next, here's an 8-piece Stablemates box set:

Anything look familiar? Well, don't stop now, because we aren't done yet. More Horse Foal Surprise sets:

Huh, interesting. The gray Vanner is repeated from the blind bags. The palomino G2 Morgan is repeated in the box set and the Horse Foal Surprise sets, as is the Cassidy (finally a new release!) and the buckskin Indian Pony. What is going on? Are the foals repeated in the Horse Foal Surprise sets too? 

There are also new Unicorn Foal Surprise sets, but the Magnolia, Greyson, Croi and Fireheart models are all repeated from the current Sparkling Splendor Unicorn Set, and the Warmblood Mare and G2 Morgan are repeated from the Unicorn Treasures carded regular runs. 

Soooo....why are all these repeats happening all of a sudden? I can't say I'm interested in buying these unicorn family sets just to get the foals - I'll have to wait and see what they are first and hope they're on molds I don't collect. Maybe they're repeats as well? 

I hope this trend doesn't continue. Maybe they figured they could get away with it since these are all technically special runs for TSC and maybe the customer base doesn't overlap that much and no one would notice? But clearly the collectors would, so it's not like they're fooling anyone. Maybe it's a cost-saving measure...? Who knows.

There's also this other FFA-themed Stablemates set:

A lot of people are turned off by the words stamped on the sides of the horses. Maybe they're only on one side? It's kind of an odd design, but at least the colors aren't repeated from another release, eh? 

Lastly, it turns out horses aren't the only Breyer animals being shrunk - check out the FFA ornament! 

It's the Cow! I laughed when I saw it. I'm kind of tempted to get it, even though I'm not an animal collector. I'm sure I'll be in a TSC again in the near future, so maybe I'll pick one up! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Nimbus

 Hello, readers! Good news - I finally had time to pull Breyerfest photos off my camera. I'm still in the process of editing them all, but I came across the Collector Club tent photos today and figured I'd get rolling on Breyerfest Closeups posts. As a reminder, this is a series of posts I do after each Breyerfests, featuring as many photos from as many different angles as I can get of the models revealed in the Collector Club tent. Today I'm going to start with Nimbus, the new unicorn on the Mason mold! 

Yay, another release on Mason! I'm glad to see him getting another release after being slightly neglected for the first couple of years after his debut. It's a little interesting that he's getting another unicorn release so soon(ish) after the first one, but I'm not going to complain. 

Blue is my favorite color, so I'm happy with this guy even if his paint job is a little plain. 

He happens to be the Breyer colors - blue and gold/yellow. I wonder if that's a coincidence? 

Sorry for the slightly out-of-focus photos. I was super excited about a new Mason! He's only had a handful of releases since his 2018 debut, so it's good to see him out and about (and makes sense now that he has the new palomino RR release). I'm excited to see him on the website later this year! 

Check back soon for the next installment of Breyerfest Closeups. It's going to be a busy few weeks until we get moved to Kentucky, and even busier now that I've started working on an exciting new series of posts to hopefully keep the blog active while we're busy moving. So I guess I'd better keep working! 

Breyerfest Day 0: Actually Quite Pleasant

 Greetings, readers! I'm happy to report that we made it to the Clarion and have been doing pretty good sales from Room 409. Feel free to stop in and mention the blog for a free Stablemate! The weather has been pretty good so far - usually July in Kentucky is enough to make you wince every time you step outside, but that doesn't seem to be the case here just yet - as long as you stay in the shade.

I can announce that the Breyerfest Live glossies have been revealed - Adamek (NOOOOOO) and the palomino Orren Mixer. I don't have photos I can use yet, however.

Breyer also broke all our hearts today by revealing that the Rhenish Draft will be available in both matte and glossy finishes, randomly shipped:

That means I’ll have to order two of them, dangit.

I also just returned from a trip to the Artisan's Gallery - chaos as always, but I'm happy to finally be back in Kentucky after three years! Here's some of what I saw, starting with Snowbird, this year's Holiday Horse:

I'm definitely going to try to snag one of these at the Breyer Store tomorrow, he's too pretty to leave behind. Guess my husband will have to find something else to buy me for Christmas this year.

Next, here's a not-so-great in-hand (literally!) Zafirah photo:

Next, a shot of various 2022 releases, including the new mid-year release Battlefield Angel. There's also a glimpse at this year's Halloween Horse:

And this year's Stablemates Club gambler's choice: 

I'm still liking the decorator best (is that really a surprise at this point?).

Next, a shot of Constantia:

I definitely like her, but I'm not sure I like how sharp the edges of her markings are with that "roaning" on top of them. Seems like they should be less defined.

Here are some Breyerfest special runs:

Didn't get a great picture of Stein, I guess. I'll make up for that later. Here are some more! 

While I was taking these photos, the volunteers behind the booth were having a debate about smelling the bears and whether they would smell like anything - apparently they've been getting a lot of questions about that (it was announced that they would be scented, presumably like gummy bears). One of the volunteers did eventually pick one of them up and take a sniff. Hah! 

Here's a previously-unseen woodgrain (?) Indian Pony for the Vintage Club. Aren't we missing one more VC release? The optional model maybe? 

Unfortunately, that was all there was to see for the VC. Notice the Kingfisher in the background, taunting me. Someday I'll find one.

Looks like the single-day Stablemates are in boxes this year - I was hoping for bags again, but I guess not. 

I had to backtrack a little to get this photo, as I'd failed to notice the Stablemates Club stuff, including the optional mini Fireheart for later this year. He's darker than I expected, though it could have just been the lighting - the Clarion isn't exactly known for its great lighting.

That's all I have for today - check back tomorrow night sometime for a full report on the Breyerfest Day 1 happenings! Uh, it may be kinda late, as we're probably going to attend the show at the Alltech Arena and get that out of the way. But it'll come at some point, never fear! Hopefully before midnight. Ciao for now - I can't wait until tomorrow! 

Florian and Cystalline and Fabio, oh my!

Greetings, readers! My Crystalline model has arrived (as well as Florian and Fabio)! Hooray! Okay, they've all been here for a few days now,  but I've been too busy to post about them until now. First, let's take a look at Florian!

I love that he has the tiniest of blue eyes! It's amazing the kind of detail they can get on Stablemates these days.

He's definitely a handsome guy! He makes a good addition to my G2 Warmblood conga. But this release leaves me wondering which future one is going to be the matte/glossy - the decorator? Or maybe the G2 Arabian? Hmm, that might make all of mine easier to sell. I guess we'll hopefully find out in June.

Next, let's look at Crystalline!

Did anyone else notice Crystalline's box design is identical to Prism's? I thought that was neat. As for Crystalline herself, this one is another home run as far as I'm concerned. She's beautiful!

I love the color transition from blue to purple on her mane. Can we see more of that, please?

I like the way her pink tail fades out to white, too. You know, now that I think about it, it would be fun if Breyer brought some actual "decorator" horses to Breyerfest some year. You know, just take a white (or white-gray) horse and some non-toxic paint/dye and just go to town on it. I'd love to see a real-life Crystalline! Make it happen, Breyer! Maybe that's easier said than done, though...

Anyway, let's move on to Fabio!

Hubba hubba indeed. Splash pinto is definitely a knockout on this model, and he's not nearly as orange as the prototype! And, I love his slightly-pearly tail! Wins all around.

Part of me just wishes he'd been glossy, but I guess we can't have glossy everything. They'll probably gloss one for the Breyerfest silent auction just to spite me.



Florian and Crystalline were both pretty nice quality-wise, but Fabio has a few booboos. Nothing major or worth sending him back over (and the point is moot, because there aren't any replacements left). Lots of things have been selling out lately - is Breyer just that on point with the new releases, or are people just bored at home and looking for things to buy? I guess we'll find out if/when the stay-at-home orders are lifted. In the meantime, keep coming out with the incredible releases, Breyer!

Prism is here (but we're not)!

As promised, here's my post about Prism! I almost forgot he'd arrived, and thus he sat outside my front door all afternoon. I guess that's what happens when you're trying to pack a million different things for the big trip. So, here he is!



I'd hoped to get this posted yesterday, but ultimately ran out of time. So I'm finishing it now as we drive through Missouri! I'm working from my iPad here, so if the formatting is messed up, that's probably why. But anyway... I just had to include a picture of Prism's box here, because I love it so much. It fits perfectly with his decorator theme and it's definitely a departure from the usual yellow box. Love it!

So this is Prism out of his box. I LOVE HIM. He doesn't have quite as much detail as his auction model predecessors, but I was expecting that. I love his rainbow colors and the way they all blend into each other so nicely. 

I love the shade of purple they used, and I especially love how it blends into the blue and the white. Definitely one of my favorite releases of the last couple of years! I'm so glad mine came in before Breyerfest.

 

Quality-wise, I didn't see a thing wrong with him. He's gorgeous in every way and has a nice, thick coat of gloss to boot! I really hope we see this color on another release someday - I'd definitely buy this color again! 

That's all I've got for now. We'll arrive at the Clarion early tomorrow evening, but I'm hoping to sneak through the KHP visitor center and get photos of those elusive auction models. In any case, I'll definitely get photos of the Artisan's Gallery lineup, so stay tuned!

Carina and Selene and Rosalind and Rigel are here!

Whew, that was a bit of a mouthful. Nonetheless, they're here! They actually arrived last week, but this is the earliest I've had time to take some quick photos of them. I'll start with Carina!

I really like this mare's pose! She looks like she's doing the piaffe/passage, but could also just be prancing. It could go either way! She has a nice face, too.

I'm still not crazy about the pink eyewhites trend Breyer seems to be stuck on, but that's a relatively minor issue. Quality-wise, my Carina and Selene models are both pretty nice - some seams got missed, and there's some blurred masking here and there, but nothing major. Now for Selene!

I'm not quite as enamored with the foal as I am with the mare - there's something odd about her front legs, and it seems strange that she's not also trotting to keep up with the mare. But I like her slightly turned head and the impression that she's giving us the side-eye.

Like I said, some blurred edges, but nothing major.

Next: Rosalind!

I really like the color on this mare! She's so shiny and pearly - I love it! And like I said before, I like that the horn looks natural rather than a vaguely-horn-shaped bit of plastic slapped on the horse's forehead. Now let's take a look at Rigel!

He matches his mother pretty well, and has a cute little baby horn! I like their blue eyes, too. Sometimes blue eyes can look weird on a model, but I think it works here.




Quality-wise, they have a few small issues (some small scuffs on the foal, pinpoint black marks on the mare), but again nothing major. I'm happy to have them join my herd!

In other news, I was drawn for a St. Moritz! Huzzah! Hopefully he gets here fast so I can take some photos of him for the blog. He needs to join my Esprit herd!