The 2017 Stablemate Club is now available!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Looks like Breyer decided to make its own Halloween surprise for us - the 2017 Stablemate Club is now open for business!



Next year's first release is a "bay sabino G1 Thoroughbred Mare" in glossy, called Coco. We saw a preview of her at the Chasing the Chesapeake event two weeks ago. Sweet!

"The Club will have six releases, one every other month, and will include a Gambler's Choice (you'll receive one of four colors, randomly selected), a clearware decorator and a brand new sculpture by Maggie Bennett! These detailed new pieces are exclusively available to Stablemates Collector's Club members only, so don't miss out!"
Dang it all, that means I'm going to have to have my husband join the club again for another chance at whatever the gambler's choice is (I hope it's something I want this time). I'll be crossing my fingers that next year's releases include a few more things I want than this year's did, although it wasn't terribly difficult to sell the ones I didn't want.

I wonder if we'll get to see the Maggie Bennett sculpt ahead of time like we did with Django last year? I hope so. The clearware decorator should be exciting, too!

I'd been waiting for this club to open so I could renew my Collector Club membership and join the Premier and Stablemate clubs all at the same time - that's all taken care of now! I'm looking forward to next year's clubs!

Featured Model - 10/29/2016, JCPenney Pinto Susecion

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

This model was issued through JCPenney in 2006 with a matching Huck and Le Fire as the Pinto Half Arabian Family, item #410146. She was done on the popular Susecion mold #580, first introduced with Le Fire (#581) in 2002, both sculpted by Kathleen Moody. There's no indication of how many of these were produced, sadly, but they'll set you back a fair amount if you want to buy them now (trust me!).

I like this mare, despite how derpy her face looks when you look at her straight-on. Hasn't everyone had a look like that on their face at least once in their lives? Possibly shortly after giving birth? And I like her maternal devotion to her wobbly-legged foal. As a bonus, I like the way this model's color is executed - I've always liked a good buckskin (though it does beg the question of what breed this mare is, exactly - buckskin Paint Horse x Arabian?).

Susecion and Le Fire are a set of molds that just haven't been used all that much since their release, and when they are used the releases tend to be small. The original release ran for a respectable three years (in an era when most releases only get two). Then they were used for the 2008 Treasure Hunt; TH releases were technically regular runs, but only for the year. Everything else they've been used for has been limited in some way, including the droolworthy 2012 raffle set, Queen Mum and the Prince.

When I was thinking of names for this set, the only things I could think of were to use names derived from the Bold Impression/Decoupage/Impressionistic Page Connoisseur models. So I named this mare Cut Piece as a reference to the Yoko Ono performance art from the '60s. 

I think it's high time this set was used again - and the holidays are coming up! Let's see them get a release as the mare and foal set they've been doing for the last couple of years, with matching blankets. They could be named Noelle and Nick!

Poltergeist Sweepstakes

Hmm. evidently Breyer is holding a contest to give away a Poltergeist model to one lucky winner.



 Entry period ends at midnight tonight! Edit: Durr, I read the rules wrong. The entry period ends 10/31 at midnight. Get your entry in now if you haven't gotten your Poltergeist yet! The contest is open to everyone; no Collector Club membership required. Good luck!

New Classic - Coeur de Lion!

There's a new Classics special run on the Breyer website! He's a little mini-Lionheart:

 
  "Inspired by the popular limited edition Lionheart model, Coeur de Lion is ready to find a place of honor in your collection!  We've painted up a favorite Classics sculpt in a rich dunalino with metallic accents. He also has primitive leg barring and a dorsal stripe all topped off with a spotted blanket and heavy gloss. Coeur de Lion is exclusively offered to Breyer Collectors Club members first!* 1/12 scale and comes in a mail order box."

He looks really nice! Too bad I don't collect the Terrang mold...oh well. His price is only $25! I wonder why Triton was $35; his paint job can't have been more complicated than this. Get him here.

Gideon is finally available!

At long last, Gideon is available to order!



From the website:

"Gideon is the epitome of the beauty and athleticism of the American Paint Horse. His deeply shaded and beautifully patterned coat accentuate his strong working stock horse conformation and flowing mane and tail.

As a Breyer Collector Club special edition, Gideon will be a treasured addition to your collection! Marked Collector Club 2016 on the belly."
Here's his other side!


So, I think his color is some kind of grullo? They didn't give any hints in the blurb. Although, they are actually giving us a run number this time - I don't think they've done that before. He's a run of 1,000 - they must think he's going to be pretty popular. I wonder if he was delayed to make the run a little bigger?

I don't collect SCO, so I won't be ordering him. That's okay - more for everyone else!

So, I wonder when the 2017 Stablemate Club will become available, and when this year's JAH will arrive. Geez, by this time last year I think all of the clubs were open, and had been for a while. What's with the delay?!

Chasing the Chesapeake models!

Now that my Chasing the Chesapeake goodies have finally arrived - and I got some time to unpack and photograph them - here they are! First, Chesapeake herself:

This model is gorgeous. Chestnut fits the Giselle mold well, and the gloss is just the icing on the cake. Her gloss is nice and thick, and I really like the chestnuts the company has been doing lately. Sadly, she leaves a little to be desired quality-wise; she has quite a few small bits of debris in her gloss. We needed to get back to the airport as soon as possible after the boutique ended, however, so we couldn't take the time to wait in line and get her exchanged. Fortunately, I don't show, so it's more an annoyance than anything else.

Next on our list is Raven!

This model is also gorgeous. He has lots of subtle dapples and I really like the contrast of the white of his tail. And I couldn't find a thing wrong with him, quality-wise. Just really well-done...although I am left wondering what a Missouri Fox Trotter has to do with a Chesapeake (Bay?) theme - although I'm guessing his name, Raven, is a reference to the Baltimore Ravens.

The next model is...Mason!

I really like this model's paint job. The last palomino Goffert we got was Noelle, and she was on the light side. This guy is typical of the palomino paint jobs we've seen from Breyer lately, with the darker points. I really like the metallic sheen in his paint and his creamy white mane and tail. The two we got were mostly okay, quality-wise, but the one I'm selling has some grayish debris around the edge of one of his pinto markings, and the one I kept has some dark smudges on his mane/tail that look like you could take them off with a white eraser. All of the pinto markings' edges were crisp on both models, though; I would have been disappointed to see smeared edges on a run this small. Both of my Masons are stallions; evidently 24 gelding versions were scattered into the mix. Again, though, I'm questioning the mold and color choice for a Chesapeake theme. "Mason" probably refers to...Freemasonry? Maybe? Or perhaps to Dixon - more on that below.

Third on the list is... Black-Eyed Susan!

I felt really lucky to get this one - she sold out faster than anything else other than Sagamore Rye (who I will get someday! *shakes fist*). Her color could have been boring, what with her lack of white markings, but she has so much depth and shading to her paint job that it's hard to fault her. And I couldn't find any flaws on this one either. The black-eyed Susan is the state flower of Maryland, so I can see where they got that from (although I'd probably have given it to a buckskin horse). I think the name works with her color, though. And they finally used the Fell Pony for something! I thought it was really odd that she was a brand-new mold and they hadn't yet used her for anything other than her first release. Fingers crossed for a silver filigree in December!

And lastly...Dixon!

This model is really, really nice. Her paint job has tons of dapples, but none of them have that unfortunate chicken-wire effect. Her eyes are nicely painted and her color is basically a more-shaded, mealy version of Chesapeake's. She's gorgeous, and if I still had room to collect Halla, I'd keep her. As it is, I sold my three Halla/Bolya models ages ago because I just didn't have room for them. Her name, Dixon, brings me back to my confusion regarding Mason's name - I'm wondering if the two are simply a reference to the Mason-Dixon line.

As for the other two models I didn't acquire, some Googling reveals that Testudo is the (turtle) mascot of the University of Maryland, and Sagamore Rye is a type of whiskey made in Maryland.

So, I think we mostly have a case of Breyer only loosely adhering to the theme of the event, with regard to the mold choices - which is typical. We should probably be happy that they at least used Maryland-themed names. At this point I'm mostly just relieved that there wasn't an Othello mold in the mix, or I would have been losing my mind trying to get my hands on it.

As for the next one of this type of event? Apparently it was announced that the next event will take place in spring 2018 - that works for me. The less last-minute shift trading with coworkers I have to do, the better.

The final 2016 Premier Club model has been revealed!

Sneaky Breyer, unveiling it on a Sunday when I wasn't expecting it...but, at least we didn't have to wait until later in the week, eh? So, our final Premier Club model of the year is...Yasmin!

 

 On first glance, I was kind of meh about her, but every time I look at her I like her a little more. We'll see what she looks like when I get her out of the packaging, but so far, things are looking good. Apparently she's a rework of a prior Eberl resin, which always makes me wonder why Breyer doesn't get the rights to other older resins and release them in plastic. I'd love it if they released Kathleen Moody's Infinity or Minuet resins in plastic (although Minuet's off side looks a little odd). I am not a resin collector, so the more older ones that make the transition to plastic, the better.

I also think Yasmin would make a great team with Weather Girl, though I'm not sure how comparable they will be size-wise.

I still wouldn't mind seeing a nice Saddlebred or TWH release in the Premier Club, though; I guess I'll have to cross my fingers next year.

Also, my Chasing the Chesapeake models arrived on Friday, so hopefully I can get some photos of them up later this week.