Huzzah! A mare and foal set for Breyerfest!

Amid all the doom and gloom, we got a special run reveal from Breyer today!



Say hello to Brighid and Beltane! (I foresee a lot of name-butchering later when it comes time for people to sell their extras...) As I thought, it's a Rhian and Cadell set! From the blog:

Brighid, named after the ancient Irish goddess associated with springtime, fertility, and healing, keeps a close watch on her little foal, Beltane, named for the festival marking the start of the summer pastoral season in the Celtic calendar. These two cuties look poised to take a dance around the Maypole together, don’t they?  Happy Spring!

They certainly are cute! I love the color on the mare. As usual, I can take or leave the foal, but I do like his two-tone tail. Let's hope that if Breyerfest is canceled, we can at least buy these on the website afterward, because I like them a lot...

On the subject of Breyerfest, the first ticket mailing has now been delayed until April 13. I don't think this is a good sign for the event going forward, but I suppose they could just be trying to be cautious... All the same, I have a feeling we won't be heading back to Kentucky until 2021 (or never, if the country goes into another depression...).

Featured Model - 3/28/2020, Darley

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...Darley!

This model was the new mold introduced at the end of the 2018 Stablemates Club. What a looker! He's item #712250 and was sculpted by Tabatha Pack.

I wasn't all that crazy about this model when we'd only seen the whiteware version, but it just goes to show that the right paint job (or any paint job) makes all the difference! I love his gulastra plume - hopefully we see that on more models in the future. He definitely has a lot of character - it's a little confusing as to what he's doing exactly, but if you think of it as "playful Arabian stallion goofing around," it makes a little more sense.

As for Darley, he made his 2019 debut at Breyerfest, in the 30th Anniversary Stablemate Set! He's now being used in the new Deluxe Horse Collection, which was the replacement for the long-running shadowbox set. I haven't obtained one of these sets yet myself - I've heard rumblings on the Internets about the models falling out of the plastic packaging and winding up in a pile at the bottom of the box, so I was figuring I'd try to handpick a set at Breyerfest. Not sure how that will go with the all-but-certain cancellation of Breyerfest, but I guess I can hope.

Where will we see Darley next? Maybe a mid-year Stablemates release? We haven't seen any of the Breyerfest Stablemates yet, so it's moderately likely he'll pop up there. Otherwise, we'll just have to hope for next year!

Another sneak peek!

As the blog says: another day, another sneak peek...



What could it be? I'm still waiting to see a Rhian and Cadell set, so that's going to be my guess. Hope we find out soon!

The Diorama Contest prize is revealed!

Monday's sneak peek has been revealed - it's Feis, the Breyerfest diorama contest prize!



Pretty, but not my cup of tea. From the blog:

A Feis (pronounced fesh) is a traditional Gaelic arts and cultural festival that commonly includes Irish dance competitions. Feiseanna are held all around the world these days, and if you’d like to get a taste for yourself, you’ll be able to see students from the Bluegrass Ceili Academy performing at BreyerFest this summer!

Well...if we're really lucky, maybe we'll get to see those students perform. The way things are now, I suspect we'll be watching videos of them instead....

New Sneak Peek, and Bad News for Seattle-goers...

I'll get the bad news out of the way first - the email went out earlier today that the Seattle Soiree has been cancelled. Unfortunate, but with the Covid-19 crisis not showing any signs of slowing down, it's probably for the best. According to the would-be attendees, Breyer is offering them two options: get a full refund on their tickets and have priority for tickets to the next collector event (whenever that is), or choose to receive their ticket models and then enter a lottery to purchase the boutique models for the event. I'm guessing most people will get the ticket models and enter the lottery. Anyone want to sell me a Redmond?

In other news, there's a new Breyerfest sneak peek on the blog:



I still think Breyerfest is likely to be cancelled, so I'm holding off on my excitement. However, prevailing opinion on the Internets is that this is a Bouncer. I wouldn't necessarily say no to a new Bouncer, but a Rhian/Cadell set still hasn't materialized, so....yeah...kinda wondering where that is.

Featured Model - 3/21/20, High Tide

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...High Tide!



This unique model is one of the new releases for 2020! I got him a few weeks ago and wanted to feature him on the blog! He's item #62212 on the Malik mold sculpted by Sarah Mink.

I've definitely seen a lot of variation in the finish for these models - some of them have less silver, others have more, while some have fewer spots, or more, or differences in the size of the spots. The technique used to paint these means there will always be a lot of variations, so it's fun to see all the differences between them. At first I was a little iffy about whether I liked this guy, but once I got him in hand I liked him a lot more.

I like Malik because he's so different from a typical Classics model with the over-the-top hair. I thought that kind of stuff was reserved for Moody sculpts, but clearly I was wrong! I wonder how they'll use him next? I don't anticipate him being a Breyerfest model this year, but maybe he'll be a gambler's choice on the website, or a Halloween model. I'm sure he'll have plenty of regular run releases in the near future too, if we can wait that long! I don't think we've heard what this year's glossy Classics model (for the live show giveaways) is yet, so maybe it's a glossy Malik? That would be pretty cool.

Sunchaser and Starlight are here!

Hark, a ray of sunshine in these dark times! My Sunchaser and Starlight models are here. Okay, Sunchaser has been here for a few days, but I wanted to wait until Starlight got here so I could put them both into one post. So, let's start with Sunchaser!

Not a whole lot to say about Sunchaser that hasn't already been said - I like his color a lot better than some of the previous releases in the club, but I hope they do some different, more-complicated paint jobs in the future.

At least he's relatively flaw-free! The glitter encrustation on his mane and tail don't seem to be as bad as previous releases, though I'd prefer to see the glitter go away completely. I forgot to take a picture of his matching Saddlebred counterpart, but it won't stand up anyway, so you're not really missing much.

So, let's take a look at Starlight!

I was excited to see this girl after all the photos I've seen online, and she doesn't disappoint!

As usual, she's huge - I like her flying tail and everything, but part of me wishes it wasn't quite so long. I'm pretty sure she's the longest Breyer model I've ever had - maybe that's why Zena was discontinued so soon, because she's just so LONG! 

I didn't see any flaws on her either, other than the usual mane/tail overspray. I wonder if that was done on purpose, to emulate the flaws of yesteryear? Heh heh.  If I were inclined to nitpick, I'd want her muzzle to be a little darker, but it's not a dealbreaker. She can join her sisters on the shelf (and already has). I hope everyone else likes their Starlights just as much!