Breyerfest Closeups: Cheryl White and Jetolara Gift Set

 Greetings, readers! I've got another Breyerfest Closeups for you tonight - the new Cheryl White set with the Classic/Freedom Series Thoroughbred. Here we go! 

This set is one of Breyer's fall releases and will be available in September. The doll and horse are portraits of real-life jockey Cheryl White, the first black female jockey, and her horse Jetolara, who she won her first race on in 1971. The book was co-written by Cheryl's brother Raymond White Jr. and Sarah Maslin Nir. If you want to buy the book separately (like me, because I don't collect the mold), it can be found on Amazon and will be published on September 5. Interestingly, the book is the second in a series called Once Upon a Horse, "stories inspired by real horses and the people who love them." I don't remember this being mentioned in the live Breyerfest coverage, but I might have missed that. 

There is a ton of shading on that Jetolara model! This one is probably a sample, so I wonder if the regular production models will have that much shading. 

If this set is successful, I wonder if Breyer will make tie-in models for the next few books in the series? They seem to like doing Classic horse-and-book sets, so I'd say the chances are high. Anyway, I'm excited to read this book! It looks like an interesting story, and these types of stories need to be told more often. 

On a side note, there's yet another Trad horse in the TSC lineup - Lefty! 

Kind of a weird name, but whatevs. It's a new release on Cigar, and he's not bay! Huzzah! 

Still no sign of the Trad-size blue cow, but I guess there's still time. My order of Merle and the Classics set shipped on Friday and is scheduled to arrive this Friday, so I'm excited to see those as well! 

Featured JAH: 8/5/2023, Summer I 1993

 Hello and welcome to another installment of Featured JAH! I hope everyone enjoyed last week's inaugural installment of the new blog series. This week's issue is Summer I 1993. Let's get right into it, shall we? Oh, before I start - I forgot to mention this last week, but JAH started out as a tri-fold pamphlet before eventually morphing into the form seen here, which was a half-size magazine measuring 8.5" x 5.5". Probably not a coincidence that the magazine is the same size as a standard sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper when laid out flat. This will become relevant later, I promise.

These magazines will obviously show varying amounts of wear, but this one is in pretty good condition. Anyway, this cover model is Sno-Jax Specialty, who appeared somewhat frequently in these old issues. The back cover is a random Appaloosa butt, presumably from Black Horse Ranch given that the photo is credited to Karen Grimm. 

On the first page, we have a first sneak peek at the Spanish Barb (prior to receiving his clothes), and the Proud Mother and Newborn Foal gift sets on Lady Roxana and the CAF. On the opposite page we can see the ticket reservation form for Breyerfest '93. In those days, Friday night was called Old Kentucky Night every year (I think) and that was the big event where attendees feasted on cookout-type food and the Celebration Horses were handed out. 

Okay, here's the Editor's Desk on page 2. In the photo with Megan you can see a prototype for the Mesteno "The Challenger" mold. There's some more of that goofy humor on this page with the "at last, the Club listing!" On the opposite page we have a description of Breyerfest 1993, in which the live show took place all day on Friday, the Old Kentucky Night dinner happened Friday night followed by the live auction, and the vendor show and raffle happened on Saturday...and that was about it. I guess Breyerfest wasn't quite as popular in those days, and there were no special runs other than the Celebration Horse and raffle. Again, I like the bit about "after staying up all night running from room to room in our host hotel, the Holiday Inn Lexington-North," (which is what the Clarion was called at the time). I've certainly never done that myself, but other people still do, I guess? 

The centerfold of the magazine is this full-color preview of Nevada Star (the raffle model) and Grayingham Lucky Lad, the Celebration Horse. Huh, a scan of this exact page appears on the IDYB entry for this model. I guess that makes sense if no one has managed to get any photos of one since 1993. 

On page 18 we have a preview of some of the Breyerfest 1993 auction models. Now, in those days the auction models weren't created specially for the auction - they were actual old tests from the archives. So that bay appaloosa Lady Phase is probably the test for Prairie Flower, the German export model for Equitana that year, and the black leopard Lady Phase is a sample for the regular run Family Appaloosa Mare. So the Classic Quarter Horse Family would have been the only colors readers hadn't seen prior to that point. On page 19 is the remainder of an article about live showing. 

At the end of this issue is a Vintage Point focusing on Stud Spider, and you can also see the entry form for the Breyerfest 1993 live show. 

Here's the rest of the Stud Spider article. I edited out the other page because it was just the (blank) back side of the show entry form. 

Other highlights from this issue: an article about Night Vision and Karen Grimm's Appaloosas, by Karen Grimm herself; making model horse props on a budget; Blast From the Past (featuring the Appaloosa Performance Horse).

That's it for this week's issue - check back next week for another exciting installment! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Mini Zafirah

 Greetings, readers! Well, it's pretty late in the day, but I decided to write a quick Breyerfest Closeups post before I hit the hay. Today's model is: the mini Zafirah! 

This is the free Stablemate for this year's Premier Club and will be sent out at the end of the year, presumably included with the final release. She's a teeny version of Zafirah! I gotta admit, those front legs don't look nearly as bad at this scale. 

I'm tempted to keep her...but I'd rather try to trade her for the Vintage Club mini Lipizzaner. 

Sorry for having so few photos, but it was hard to get any decent angles. The front legs do look better here - they aren't as evenly lined up with each other as the Traditional version and don't seem to be so abnormally straight, so she looks a little better. But I don't think I'm going to keep her. 

That's it for the Breyerfest Closeup, but I do have something else to add - another TSC model appeared on the website today! 

Say hello to Gibson the Bubble-Butt Belgian! Very nice. He looks a lot like Dusty on the Halla mold from a few years back. I wondered if there was going to be another Traditional or not. The TSC stuff must be selling pretty well if they're coming out with all this new stuff. 

Also, the fine print on the Cow ornament is that there's a Traditional Blue Cow coming as well! But she apparently hasn't been added to the website set. Maybe on Monday? In other, other news, the Merle and Classics Pony Family set I ordered have apparently already shipped - which is good, because I was a dumbdumb and had them shipped to our old address, which we're leaving in three weeks. I hope they arrive before then! 

Seeing Doubles at Tractor Supply

 More exciting news, everyone - this year's TSC special runs have been revealed! They can be found here (toward the bottom of the page and on the next page). First off, one of the Traditionals - it's a new Dundee named Merle! 

What a stunning model! He's beautiful. 

Here's the other Traditonal: 

His name is Applegate, according to the box. Interesting to see he has his own blanket rather than being blue, like last year's Geronimo. I'll try not to talk about yet another bay Flash...

Next we have the Classics set: 

They're the "Playful Pony Family." I don't think the Classic Quarter Horse Stallion is, uh, a pony? I guess it doesn't matter since he's the same size as the Haflinger mare. 

Next, here's an 8-piece Stablemates box set:

Anything look familiar? Well, don't stop now, because we aren't done yet. More Horse Foal Surprise sets:

Huh, interesting. The gray Vanner is repeated from the blind bags. The palomino G2 Morgan is repeated in the box set and the Horse Foal Surprise sets, as is the Cassidy (finally a new release!) and the buckskin Indian Pony. What is going on? Are the foals repeated in the Horse Foal Surprise sets too? 

There are also new Unicorn Foal Surprise sets, but the Magnolia, Greyson, Croi and Fireheart models are all repeated from the current Sparkling Splendor Unicorn Set, and the Warmblood Mare and G2 Morgan are repeated from the Unicorn Treasures carded regular runs. 

Soooo....why are all these repeats happening all of a sudden? I can't say I'm interested in buying these unicorn family sets just to get the foals - I'll have to wait and see what they are first and hope they're on molds I don't collect. Maybe they're repeats as well? 

I hope this trend doesn't continue. Maybe they figured they could get away with it since these are all technically special runs for TSC and maybe the customer base doesn't overlap that much and no one would notice? But clearly the collectors would, so it's not like they're fooling anyone. Maybe it's a cost-saving measure...? Who knows.

There's also this other FFA-themed Stablemates set:

A lot of people are turned off by the words stamped on the sides of the horses. Maybe they're only on one side? It's kind of an odd design, but at least the colors aren't repeated from another release, eh? 

Lastly, it turns out horses aren't the only Breyer animals being shrunk - check out the FFA ornament! 

It's the Cow! I laughed when I saw it. I'm kind of tempted to get it, even though I'm not an animal collector. I'm sure I'll be in a TSC again in the near future, so maybe I'll pick one up! 

Oriole and TSC chase piece!

 Exciting news today, readers- the selections for Oriole have been made! If you entered for her, check your email to see if you were drawn to purchase her. I wasn't drawn, but was able to find one to purchase secondhand! Huzzah! I can't wait to see what she looks like in person. 

In other news, it turns out the second Tractor Supply chase piece is a grullo (?) Rivet. Behold: 

Thanks to Diana T. for supplying the photo! This just means I need to find the Peruvian Paso and I'll be set. Thankfully, the reaction to these seems to be a bit lukewarm - hmm, I just can't seem to put my finger on why. Anyways, hopefully this means the chase pieces won't command ridiculous prices on the secondary market! Good luck hunting for them! 

Tractor Supply Stablemates!

So today I decided to check various local Tractor Supply locations and see if I could find the new blind bag Stablemates. The first two I checked yielded nothing, which didn't really surprise me because it's kind of early to expect to find them here. So I debated about vising the third store, because I'd never found blind bags at that particular store and if the other two didn't have them, this one definitely wouldn't, right? 

Wrong! 

Success! 

I'm a little sad I didn't get one of the chase pieces, but at least I got the Vanner, the only one I want other than the Peruvian Paso chase. I probably would have been a little more excited about this if these hadn't been mostly reissues of other stuff. I mean...why? 

This is a really pretty color on the Vanner, though. 

Considering how kinda-blah the Peruvian Paso chase is, I kinda think this Vanner should have been the chase instead? But then I wouldn't have gotten one, so I shouldn't complain. 

Well, now I just have to figure out how to find one of those Pasos and also figure out what the other chase model is, because I don't think we've seen it yet? Maybe we have and I just forgot. 

Well, back to scanning more JAH back issues. Don't forget to get your entries in for Oriole! Tomorrow is the last day! 

Breyerfest Closeups: Santino

 Greetings, readers! Well, it's time for another Breyerfest Closeups post! This time we're taking an up-close look at Santino, the new gambler's choice (groan) release on the Classic Polo Pony. It's about time this mold got some love! Check them out: 

So we have a glossy dappled palomino, an interestingly-patterned bay pinto and a chestnut extended blanket appaloosa. Hooray! They're all really attractive colors, though nothing I need to buy. 

Here's a closeup of the chestnut appaloosa. I like the blue bands in his tail! 

Here's the bay. It looks like all three colors have the same color tail bands, which is a little disappointing. I can't decide if the bay pinto or the palomino is my favorite. 

The palomino has a TON of dapples! I wonder if the mane and tail are pearly? Doesn't look like I got close enough to tell in these photos. 

It seems like these guys have a different type of base than usual, too. Isn't it usually plastic? These look like wood. Maybe it's just plastic that looks like wood. The ones on IDYB look like plastic that looks like wood, so I guess we'll find out. 

I'm mostly just glad that this is a release I don't need to buy, because my wallet is still pretty tapped out from Breyerfest. These guys are pretty, though! 

I wish I'd been able to get some different angles, but I tend to obey the "Please don't touch" signs, so these were the only ones I could get. Oh well. 

Well, I think most of us are hoping Breyer waits a good long while before they release these, so people can recover from Breyerfest. Of course, that probably means they'll be released this week - let's hope not!