Christmas Countdown - Leftover Jesses?

This morning Breyer added a new item to their site for Day 22 of their Christmas Countdown:



He appears to be identical to the Tractor Supply SR 'Jesse' from last year - and is already sold out. I didn't buy one, though; I'm not really into the Wyatt mold, so I passed him up. I'm guessing they had extra Jesse models left over from last year - maybe they just referred to it as the "Palomino Quarter Horse" on the website so TSC wouldn't get upset about an exclusive showing up on Breyer's own website later. We'll have to wait and see what the boxes look like.

Discount Code Frustrations

I woke up to an email from Breyer this morning - for Cyber Monday they're offering free shipping on purchases of $25 or more from the website. (Their Cyber Monday sale items are also now available; nothing particularly exciting, except Crane must not have sold as well as they'd hoped.)

Unfortunately, when it comes to buying things directly off Breyer's website, I'm a bit of a cheapskate. I don't like to order anything from the regular line unless I can get it for at least 10% off with free shipping (hint: they're usually cheaper on Amazon!). How I miss the December free shipping + 10% off promo!

So I'm a bit peeved, because I want to order a couple of things off the website, but I want to get the free calendar they're offering with purchases of $50 or more - but I can't combine the calendar offer with either the Cyber Monday free shipping or the 10% off Collector Club discount and it's making me super irritated. They could at least make the calendar stack with other discounts. What's the harm in that?

I want the calendar because I need a new wall calendar for 2017, and there's a photo of one of the new releases for 2017 in it (Bandera, a bronze decorator Geronimo with brand symbols all over him). But I don't want to pay full price + shipping just to get a calendar. Blargh. Better luck next time, I guess.

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 - 11/26/2016, El Caballo Peruano de Paso

Hello and welcome to another installment of Featured Model, the weekly blog event where I pick a model from my collection, give some stats on it and provide commentary. I hope we've all recovered sufficiently from Thanksgiving! This week's lucky model is...El Caballo Peruano de Paso (The Horse from the Land of the Incas)! Or, as I call him, Champagne Ride (because who can remember that mouthful?).

 

This handsome guy was a limited edition set (item number 1223) released in 2004; he was a run of 1500 on the Peruvian Paso mold sculpted by Linda York. He came in a fancy window box and included a traditional Peruvian saddle, bridle, and rider (with the requisite tray of champagne glasses). The COA for this set came tightly rolled up and tied with a ribbon - when I got mine out of the box, I thought it would never lie flat. Even now, it's pressed between the pages of a book, hopefully flattening out.

The only real issue I had with this set was that I didn't realize the bit for the bridle was actually in the horse's mouth - they put a hole in his mouth for the bit to go in! I had to use a nail clipper to clip the bit in half so I could take it out. I had been hoping to keep all the tack intact, so that really irked me - especially since it's a situation with no good resolution. Either you damage the tack getting it off the horse, or you leave it on and risk the tack itself damaging the model, either from dye leaching onto it or "shadows" from the paint fading around it. No thanks!

This is another one of those molds I'm somewhat conflicted about. Most of the issue is wondering which side is his "show" side, and which is his "off" side. It seems like his luxurious mane (right)side should be the show side, but he's looking slightly to the left, which would put the show side on his left side. Argh! He does look good in palomino, though. I wouldn't mind seeing him in a palomino like Breyer has been doing lately with dark shading on the points.

I think this is one of Breyer's more underrated molds. He has his own particular charm, and he's been issued in so many great auction model colors! I drooled over the blue roan tobiano from 2011, the red bay overo from 2010, and of course would kill to own the silver filigree one from 2003 (Curse you, Breyer!). And the silver bay Breyerfest prize is to die for. On the more attainable front, RCH Ventarrones was a great color, too - especially in gloss! Droolworthy for sure. Let's hope this mold gets another release soon! He deserves it.

Slow News Week

Not much new and exciting to report this week, unfortunately. Well, so far, anyway. But I doubt they'll reveal anything tomorrow because, you know, Thanksgiving and all. Hopefully Breyer adds some snazzy new items to the Black Friday sale, though! In the meantime, my yearly Breyer catalog arrived a couple of days ago (3 catalogs, actually...). Not much new to report in there either, but I did notice something on the last page...



The special run for next year's Kid's Club is what looks like a light gray Classic Ruffian! She looks similar to the gray Ruffian that was a WEG special run for 2014, but lighter. Interesting! This would only be the third time Ruffian has been issued in gray (the first being a gray blanket Appaloosa version in the '90s).

Other than that, there isn't much exciting in the catalog, although I was pleased to see a little diversity amongst the catalog models, and even a boy or two! It really irritates me when Breyer describes its products as being for "horse-crazy girls" because...love of horses isn't (and shouldn't) be a girls-only club. Now, if we could get even more diversity in there, and more boys, and if the photographer would tell the kids to actually play with the models and/or look natural instead of holding them with a pasted-on smile, we'd really be getting somewhere.

Also, the "illusive" typo regarding Xavier got into the catalog, too. Somebody fix that, please!

Alas, that's all I have for today. Hopefully I have something new and exciting to post about later this week, but until then, Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Featured Model - 11/19/2016, Applejack

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 provide commentary. This week's selection is...Applejack!



This dapper little fellow, item #1457, was produced in the latter half of 2011 as part of the (now-discontinued) Collector's Choice series, where collectors could send in their ideas for models and possibly have them produced as a limited run. He was produced on the Cefnoakpark Bouncer mold sculpted by Kathleen Moody. There's no indication of how many of these were made, but I think Collector's Choice models were considered regular run items, so: however many RR items could be produced in a 6-month period, presumably. This particular release is obviously inspired by My Little Pony (though I'm not sure Breyer got the memo?).

I wasn't able to buy Applejack when it first came out because I hadn't yet located the one flagship dealer in my area that would probably have carried it. I was especially irked about it because earlier in the year, Breyer had made a Collector's Choice model (Gathering Storm) available directly from their website - but didn't bother to do it with Applejack. So frustrating!

But on to the commentary- I really like this model. Before I bought him, I hadn't realized how shiny and pearly his mane and tail were, and was pleasantly surprised when I unwrapped him. He's pretty! I'm a sucker for pearly, though. I also seem to remember that a lot of these models had box rubs and other factory flaws, but I'm happy to report mine has very few.

I like the Bouncer mold a lot, but only have 4 of his releases. This is another mold that needs to be used more often - I still can't believe they didn't use him for one of the Berry Pony web specials. And I'd have been totally fine with the 2012 Breyerfest Sixes and Sevens being on Bouncer instead (can you imagine the hysteria over the glossy/matte split?). Okay, maybe it's better they didn't do that release on Bouncer.

Collector Club Black Friday pre-sale!

I got an email this morning that Breyer is having a Black Friday sale, with early access for Collector Club members starting today!



 Included in the sale are things like this year's VC Charlie on the Bobby Jo mold, last year's VC Stablemate Bravo, and various other RR items! Sadly, it looks like Bravo has already sold out, but hurry up and grab a Charlie!