That's a new one...

You're doing it wrong, Breyer! You're supposed to reveal the previous teaser before you show the next one! Sigh...



From the blog:

The next BreyerFest 2019 model is almost certainly black and white based on these sneak peeks, but you will have to stay tuned to the BreyerFest Blog to find out more!

 That face looks like Mason, last year's Classics Horse of the Year - are they finally using him for something? I hope so! He'd look good in some type of black pinto! I'm guessing the image on the right is his tail (flipped upside down to confuse us). If it's a new Mason, I'll be excited!

Breyerfest teaser and...Glitter Unicorn Club? Sign me up!

I guess the Lancelot reveal isn't the only exciting news of the day! There's a new teaser on the Breyerfest blog!

Looks like a plush to me - I bet that's black mohair at the top of the image. Whatever it is, it's probably something cute!

In other news, I guess there's going to be a new Breyer club! Check out this teaser:

So, we're getting another Stablemate club? Or maybe the releases are in a variety of scales? Or maybe those are the only two releases - who knows. Maybe it's like the Kid's Club and those are the only releases. In any case, it looks like we're getting a Stablemate version of Firebird...or is it Oberon? They aren't the same sculpt, are they? I'm a little fuzzy there. Here are the originals for comparison:

Now that I look at Firebird/Oberon, it looks like the new one is mirrored the other direction! It also doesn't look like the sculpt shrunk down very well, sadly. Those legs look a tad noodly...

As for the actual club, I was never a fan of Firebird  - so at least I won't need that release - but that Alborozo is another story. I wonder why both releases are the same color? I've never been a big fan of pink, but at least it's a light pink. I'm not big on the glitter-encrusted manes and tails, either. I think a nice application of "less is more" would have worked better there. Hopefully they at least don't shed the glitter.

Anyway, I hope we don't have to wait too long to find out about the new teaser or this new club! And I also hope Breyer eventually gets around to converting some old porcelains to Stablemates that I actually like...like Chesterfield (okay, he was a resin, but you get my drift) or the Shire Mare, or even the old Icelandic, or...HAMBLETONIAN! They used him as the Breyerfest crystal last year - doesn't that mean he could be used for something else?! Ooh, the old circus ponies (sans tack) would be cute Stablemates too! Make it happen, Breyer!

Lancelot!

Fear not, readers! There's a Classic gambler's choice special run again this year, and this time it's on Man o' War! Meet Lancelot!

Well, I like all of those colors, but they've once again chosen a Classic mold I don't collect. To be fair, that's most Classic molds, so that's going to happen a lot. But imagine if they'd used the new Mason mold instead, since we haven't seen anything new on him yet? Swoon...but anyway.

Truth be told, I'm kind of over all the randomly-shipped stuff anyway - it's just more blind bag garbage by another name. I really like that shade of blue, though - it looks like the Blue Candy color you see on Ford cars.

 My loss is your gain, though - I'm not going to order any of these, so that's more for people who love him! I'm sure he'll sell out fast.

Featured Model - 5/4/2019, Onyx

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...Onyx!



This model was the last special run produced for Breyer Fun Day events in 2010 - nowadays they just have a show and Stablemate painting (if that). Anyway, he's one of only four releases we've seen on the Show Arabian mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody, and he's item #703113. No word on how many were produced.

This mold looks quite striking in this color! I like the contrast of his lighter mane and tail against the rest of his body. And he's glossy to boot! What a handsome guy. I was going to write something about how presumably unpopular he was, but there aren't any of him for sale on eBay right now, and apparently only three have been sold there in the last 3 months. Maybe his popularity went up? That, or a lot fewer pieces were produced than we thought.

As for the Show Arabian itself, is it bad that I think this mold is criminally underused? I mean, they have to be planning to do something with him eventually, right? They got the mold out to make 1,000  bodies for the Marigold special run back in 2017 - presumably they'd run a few thousand more to make it worth the effort, wouldn't they? Maybe I'm just biased because I want to see a new release on this mold.

Hopefully we get something new on him soon - I'll definitely buy it, as long as I can suppress the ever-present urge to snap that mane right off his body whenever I see him. It just looks so snappable! Gah.

Resin to Plastic

One of the things I like to contemplate from time to time is the conversion of resin sculptures to plastic for mass release. This is how all Breyer molds are made, but as you all know, there's a healthy market in artist resins produced by hobby sculptors. This market is a large part of how Breyer finds its sculptors - either to sculpt for them, or to sell the rights to a given resin to Breyer so it can be produced in plastic.

So, one of the things I like to think about is which artist resins out there I'd like to see in plastic. Of course, sometimes Breyer gets beaten to the punch and somebody else gets the rights to a resin first. I'm talking about Kitty Cantrell's Wahoo resin that was released a few years ago. Stone acquired the rights to it fairly recently, to use it as a new Pebbles release (albeit with a changed front leg). I view this as one of Breyer's biggest missed opportunities of the last few years - it's been almost 20 years since we last got a rearing Traditional mold, and Kitty's sculpts tend to be popular with collectors. And since I don't have the money to collect resins, I really wanted to see Wahoo produced in plastic! But I guess that's just how it goes sometimes.

Wahoo isn't the only resin I wanted produced in plastic, though. Here's a quick list of some others:

Infinity by Kathleen Moody

Minuet by Kathleen Moody

Esplendida by Brigitte Eberl

Almanzor by Brigitte Eberl

Independence by Sarah Rose

Heritage by Emilia Kurila

Extreme Justice by Sommer Prosser

Elnathan by Tabatha Pack

Those are all I can think of for now, though my memory is like Swiss cheese these days, so I could be forgetting some. Which resin sculpts would you like to see in plastic (by Breyer, Stone or anyone else)? Let me know in the comments!

My Gweneveres are here!

Greetings, everyone! My Gweneveres survived the Great Bubble Mailer Fiasco of 2019 in one piece, and so did their boxes - mostly. Behold (and sorry for the godawful photos)!




When you're at home wrangling two kids and a dog, you have to take some quick photos when you can. Anyway, the color on these ladies is really nice, and I love the pearly mane and tail (as usual)! It makes me wish they'd used a mold I collect, because I just don't collect the G1 Morgan Mare, nice as she is.



I ordered several blind bag Stablemates with my Gwens, in the faint hope that I'd get one of the chase Alborozos I still need. Alas, my luck wasn't that good, and I didn't get either of them. Fortunately, despite being shipped in bubble mailers, the boxes were only mildly damaged. Hopefully that doesn't affect their resale value.

It's hard to find the time or inclination to list anything on eBay these days, so I might just wait until Breyerfest and sell them there.

Quality-wise, I didn't see anything horrible in a quick glance, but that was all the time I had to look at them. Hopefully nothing terrible reveals itself when I get around to selling them! I also hope Breyer's new warehouse learned their lesson about sending things in bubble mailers after the earful collectors have been giving them over the last week. Considering the number of blind bags I ordered, I was really nervous things were going to show up broken - and if I'd gotten a broken chase piece I would have been irate! Fortunately (or not), I wasn't lucky enough to get a chase piece anyway, so the point is moot.

So, hopefully I don't have much trouble selling these - and now I'll go back to waiting for the next release! I'm hoping the Belgian or the new Thoroughbred is next! 

Rhian and Cadell are now available!

Sheesh, they aren't wasting any time! This year's first Premier Club release, Rhian and Cadell, are available on the website!



I'm excited to get this set in hand and see what I think of them! I think the mare will make a good companion for Bouncer, and while I'm not as thrilled with the foal, he (she?) is definitely a cutie. I hope Breyer gets their shipping backlog figured out soon so I don't have to wait too long to get them!