Vintage Club Quinn

If you've been wondering what the next Vintage Club release is for this year, wonder no more - it will be the Sham, Quinn! Breyer posted a new photo of him on their Facebook page, and boy is he yummy!

There's no word on when he'll be officially available yet. He certainly is pretty, and a few years ago I might have bought him, but now...nah. I used to have 11 or so Shams in my collection, but the dreaded shelf space shortage struck again (that's a lot of s-words), so the Shams were culled. It's a nice color though, and I wouldn't mind seeing it on a few other models.

As for whether Sham is really a vintage mold or not, that depends on your definition of vintage. If the Sham mold is older than you are, you'd probably consider it vintage. If you were in high school or college when it was released, you probably wouldn't. It's a question Breyer is going to have to figure out eventually, because the definition of vintage is naturally going to start including newer and newer molds as time goes by. Personally, I don't have a problem with including Sham in the VC (after all, the mold was released before I was born), but I've never been a member of the VC nor have I ever had much interest in vintage models, so my opinion may not be worth much.

Rosie and Bailey are now available!

The next releases in this year's Vintage Club, Rosie and Bailey, are available on the Breyer website now! If you're a member, head on over there and complete your purchase.

Lady Phase and the Action Stock Horse Foal are both molds that I once had examples of in my collection, only to lose interest later (and run out of shelf space). I don't really miss either of them, though I was a little sad to see my Silky Keno go. Ah, well.

As for this release, I'm a little perplexed that they would use the long-tailed Lady Phase, since, you know...there's nothing vintage about that tail. For a truly vintage release, I'd think you would want to use the original tail. Maybe they wanted to draw attention away from the mold's deteriorating face? Who knows. Seriously, though, Breyer, fix Lady Phase's face or retire the mold. It's just getting sad now.

I'm also really not a fan of the old-style red roan at all, so I'm not at all sad that I'm missing out on this release. There are far better things to save my money for...like Chasing the Chesapeake!

Looking to the Future: Vintage Club 2017

It may be a bit early to start speculating about next year's Vintage Club releases, but I'm going to do it anyway. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, surfaces from this photo that was sent out to club members a few years ago:



So far, club members have seen:

Amigo, the charcoal Adios;
Halo, the Appaloosa-Performance-Horse-colorway on the Stretch Morgan;
Commander, the smoke Five Gaiter;
Denim (Diamonds?), the Copenhagen pinto Shetland Pony;
and Kiowa, the Indian Pony pinto on the Jumping Horse mold.

Molds that appear in the photo, but were used in the VC in other colors, include the Running Stallion, Man o' War, Quarter Horse Gelding, the Belgian, Semi-Rearing Mustang, Fighting Stallion, Running Foal (with Mare) and Western Prancing Horse.

Whew! I didn't realize quite so many of those molds had been used already. That only leaves a few of them from the photo: the Grazing Mare (presumably with the Foal), Western Horse, Thoroughbred Mare and Nursing Foal and the Longhorn Bull.

It's safe to assume they won't repeat any molds just yet - there are plenty of other vintage molds left that don't appear in the photo. I'll strike out all molds from the '80s in this list. These include: the Appaloosa Performance Horse, Black Beauty, the Black Stallion, Bolya/Halla, Brighty, Buckshot, the Clydesdale Mare and Foal, the Donkey, El Pastor, all three Family Arabians, the Foundation Stallion, the Fury Prancer, Galiceno, Haflinger, the Hanoverian, Justin Morgan, Legionario, the Lying Down Foal, Midnight Sun, Morganglanz, the Pacer, Phantom Wings, Phar Lap, the POA, possibly the PAF, Quarter Horse Yearling, the Race Horse, Saddlebred Weanling, San Domingo, the Scratching Foal, Sea Star, the Shire Mare, Smoky, the Stock Horse Stallion, Mare and Foal, Stud Spider, the Trakehner and the Western Pony.

That's a long list! I hope I didn't forget anyone. I don't think there's anyone on there from later than 1985. I have no idea what Reeves is considering the endpoint of the vintage molds. At this point it might be safe to consider everything up until 1990 or 1995 "vintage," but I don't know how many people would agree with me on that.

Of the molds that aren't lined through above, I think the Pacer, possibly Brighty, the Clydesdale Mare/Foal, some combination of the Family Arabians, Stud Spider and the Western Horse make good candidates. Of the foal molds on the list, I don't think they'll be used unless they could be paired up with an adult (but I doubt Phantom Wings or Sea Star will be used at all). I could see them doing a Scratching/Lying Down Foal set, however, since that's been done before. The Longhorn Bull may be a possibility, based on his inclusion in the test photo. I doubt Midnight Sun or the Donkey will be used, based on the former's bad history and the latter's...well...rather homely aesthetic.

Personally, I'm hoping we see the glossy alabaster Thoroughbred Mare and Nursing Foal next year, simply because they are two of the few vintage molds I collect (and I'd love to see them on my shelves!). The Adios is another I collect, and I did get the Amigo from a couple of years ago (as well as Mr. Chips, because I also collect Newsworthy). I've yet to actually join the Vintage Club, though, so my opinion may not be worth much.

As for the contemporary mold/vintage paint job and complimentary Stablemate, I don't want to speculate about those at all. So far there doesn't seem to be any discernible pattern to how they're chosen, so I'm content to wait and see.

Either way, I'm crossing my fingers for that Thoroughbred Mare and Nursing Foal!