Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth: Great Spirit sets

A bit of a shorter post today; I find myself with a dearth of mental energy due to how chaotic work has been. I’m a Clinical Data Analyst (aka Giant Data Nerd) and my organization started switching to a different instance of our Electronic Health Record in late September, which has made my job ... interesting. No mapping was done for some of the things that changed (like patient visit types and appointment scheduling modes), so the data between the systems doesn’t match, and figuring out how and why and then wrangling the new data around to match the old data has been nightmarish. I want to have enough brain left to keep up with these blog posts, but it’s a struggle at the moment.

For today’s Gift Horse post, I needed something both easy to write about and easy to photograph, so I’m visiting Christmas gifts from 2001 and 2003, when JCPenney produced several sets of models with “Great Spirit” in the name, symbolizing (according to the COAs) the “Great American West” and spirits of animals valued by Indigenous People of the Great Plains.

 

 

#410201 Great Spirit Mare & Foal set was produced in 2001. No piece count was ever released for this set. They were just called "Breyer Paint Mare & Foal" in the catalog, but came with a COA with the Breyer-issued name above. The bright flaxen chestnut Marabella has a bear shape on her flank; if you squint, you can see it on mine. The masking went a little askew, so the bear's eye is up underneath its ear, and it also looks like it has a camel hump. The bear is much easier to perceive on other copies I've seen. 

 

She was my second on the Marabella mold; the foal was my first on the Ashley mold. I got them for Christmas that year from my parents.

In 2002, JCPenney released the Great Spirit II set, called Legend of the Wolf. The molds were Buckshot and Phantom Wings, and the Buckshot had a wolf in the pattern on his side. I’m not a fan of those molds and don’t currently have any of either in my collection, so I didn’t ask for the set that year.

 

 

#410703 Great Spirit of the Mighty Eagle III was produced in 2003, again with no piece count released. I got them for Christmas that year from my parents. The set represented Mustangs with an eagle pattern on them. The eagle is easy to make out on the Running Stallion, though the foal's head is hiding a good bit of it here. 

 

The COA doesn’t name them individually, but the JCPenney catalog called the Running Stallion “Kwahu” and the Action Stock Horse Foal “Alo.” Both were the second of each mold in my collection, with the #810 Action Appaloosa Foal preceding “Alo” and Rumbling Thunder preceding “Kwahu.”

 

I ended up with a second set of these guys when I bought a small lot of random models from a local Pittsburgher selling her collection through Craigslist. The duplicate set found a new home during BreyerFest 2012.

Full Spectrum: Still More Winter Blues

Wrapping up the Winter Blues series today, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Meteorological spring started on March 1, with astronomical spring just around the corner next week. January and February were especially brutal this year. My gas bill was insane. March started better - we hit 78 degrees in Pittsburgh a week ago, ahead of a storm that I would swear dumped 2” of rain in fifteen minutes. It looked like we were under a waterfall. My poor sump pump couldn’t keep up and we got water in the basement and the garage (sigh). 

Anyone who knows me knows I’m as big of a weather nerd as I am a model horse nerd. Half my BreyerFest photo album every year is clouds. So of course I saw Saturday’s beast coming on radar and was out snapping pictures and panoramics as it approached. The shelf cloud at the front of the storm was pretty cool.

 

 

Anyway, back to the ponies. I saved the Breyer Traditionals for last on purpose. You’ll see why when we get to the last horse.

 

 

In 2006, Breyer did their first Treasure Hunt series, releasing the Lady Phase mold in four colors - palomino pinto, fleabit gray, chestnut, and black appaloosa. The lucky finders of all four colors could send in the UPC codes from the boxes to redeem a prize model, who was this lovely Wedgewood. The snippet on the back of her box listed her number as #1248, but I’ve also seen #1215 listed. The latter makes more sense, since the other four colors were released with the numbers 1211 - 1214.

All four of the original colors came in both short- and long-tail versions, as did the Wedgewoods. I have a complete set of both. I wasn’t collecting at the time these were released, being a poor, overworked grad student, so I’ve come by all of them secondhand. I bought the short-tail Wedgewood Lady Phase from Model Horse Sales Pages in June 2011, and the long-tail Wedgewood joined my collection from a room sales pickup at BreyerFest 2018. I’ve only shown the short-tail; her show name is Stonewashed.

 

 

This little cutie is #710301 Shadow of Blue, a 2001 BreyerFest special run of 1600 pieces. I picked her up in room sales during BreyerFest 2013. She could pass for a realistic model in this crappy lighting, but she's definitely too blue for that when you see her in person. Her show name is Sapphire.

 

 

As soon as this guy was announced - #711508 Franz, a 2022 BreyerFest special run of 2000 pieces - I knew I had to have him. Even though it was twenty-cough-cough years ago, I distinctly remember my first time seeing Franz Marc’s blue horse paintings during an undergrad class for my art minor. They struck a chord (obviously, look how obsessed I am with blue horse-shaped things) so I didn’t hesitate to put Franz onto my BreyerFest special run preference list that year.

 

 

BreyerFest 2025 was one of those years where I didn’t really need any of the special runs heading into the event - except this guy, #B-EV-10441 To the Ties That Bind Us. Silver mold? Yes! Blue? Yes! Outlines of other Breyers, including Sham, on his butt? Yes!

Could have done with a shorter, less awkward name, but whatever.

The first few people through the tent line quickly discovered that there was a gold variation on this guy. Rumors flew that the gold was a micro-run, and the prices went absolutely nuts for the gold guys on eBay for a few days. As more people obtained and opened them, it became pretty clear that the blue and gold were evenly distributed and that the silver Silver (ha, silver Silver) was the micro-run. A silver Silver would have been cool (I’d have given it to my friend Nina for her conga) but I was happy to open the blue that I’d had my heart set on.

The high resale values on both the blue and gold have persisted well past BreyerFest, likely due to Silver's popularity in general and how well this particular release was received. They’re still selling regularly on eBay for $250-350.

And now … drumroll please … the paramount blue horse in my collection, the grail of all grails, the horse I never in a million years thought I’d ever get to own:

 

 

The one, the only, Smurfy Sham.

BreyerFest in 1991 was divided into four parts across the country - Redmond/Bend, OR; York, PA; Lexington, KY; and Pomona, CA. Each location had its own raffle model of 21 pieces. Oregon had a Copenhagen San Domingo, Kentucky had a Gold Charm Man O' War, and California had a Florentine Legionario. #414091 Sham was the York, PA raffle model in the fourth original decorator color, Wedgewood.

His issue name wasn’t Smurfy, though it should have been - their attempts to replicate the Wedgewood of the 60s decorators went a *smidge* sideways. I don’t know who coined the term Smurfy for him, but it’s dead-on.

Being a Sham nut, I always wanted to have a Smurfy, but never expected to actually get one for several reasons. (1) There have been a ton of fakes of this guy over the years, so I had to have one with provenance - one that came from an original winner (or at least had a definitive chain of ownership leading back to an original winner). (2) My pocketbook for rarities is fairly pitiful compared to the heavy-hitters in the hobby, so even if I could find a real one, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to compete. (3) Even if I could technically afford it, I typically have trouble pulling the trigger on large plastic pony purchases. The odds were not in my favor.

In 2020, of all the years, nothing was in anyone’s favor. Everything was cancelled. Work and school occurred from home. Social events happened on Zoom or not at all. The Seattle event (for which I'd been lucky enough to get picked) was cancelled and BreyerFest was moved entirely online. It was a time of isolation, depression, and fear for a lot of folks. 

 

Some hobbyists coped with that by putting out ISOs for their grails. And they started finding them.
 

On May 11, 2020, after seeing yet another person get their hands on something crazy rare they’d always wanted, I said, “What the hell,” and I made an ISO post for Smurfy on the Rare Model Horse Sales Facebook group.

Later that same day, I got a message on Messenger from my friend Nina. I knew she had a Smurfy (even before she messaged me), but I also knew that he was incredibly sentimental to her - her mother had won him at the York, PA BreyerFest, and her mother had since passed, so he was extra special to her. I didn’t think she’d ever part with him for that reason, so I was really surprised when she responded to my ISO post. She said she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to let him go, but she’d think about it, since she knew how special he'd be to me and that he'd have a forever home here. I told her to take her time and if she decided she wasn’t ready, that was totally fine.

Within a couple weeks, she messaged me that she was ready and named her price.

I have never transferred money between my bank accounts that fast in my LIFE.

Smurfy at FAMulous 2022, winning all the things.

 

He’s come to every single show with me (as long as I’m not judging the Breyer division) since things started up again post-pandemic in late 2021. He’s been on the table sixteen times, hasn’t ever been shut out of the ribbons, and has completed the ribbon rainbow - nine firsts, three seconds, and one each of third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. He’s also been section champ twice, section reserve champ twice, and an overall collectibility champ once. His show name is Once in a Blue Moon.

He is one of the most special models in my collection, and I will be forever thankful to my friend Nina for allowing a piece that was so special to her to find a new home on my shelves. He is greatly treasured here.

Collectibility Spotlight: Diorama Contest Prize Models

Since at least 2008 (perhaps before that, too?), Breyer has included a diorama contest as part of BreyerFest. There’s a theme for the contest that aligns with the overall BreyerFest theme, and there are a few rules - at least one Breyer model must be used, and the whole thing has to fit within a 12x12x12 inch cube. Twenty-eight are selected as winners from four different age categories; there is only one category for adults 18 and up, so only 7 prizes go to adults. The vast majority of entrants are adults, so it’s really tough to win.

I did the diorama contest in 2013, 2014, and 2017. Because these are technically models in my collection, here are pictures of my three dioramas. None were winners, but I had fun making them all.

 

 

In 2013, the BreyerFest theme was Denim and Diamonds, and the diorama contest theme was the Music City Mashup, where entrants were to transform a Breyer model into a famous Country music legend. I did a diorama of Patsy Cline singing at the Grand Ole Opry. This picture was on the Wikipedia page for the Grand Ole Opry and I used it as my inspiration:

 

 

In preparing this diorama, I walked into a local hobby store and asked the person at the front if they had any doll clothing that I could reasonably slice and dice to fit on a model horse. They didn’t even bat an eyelash and pointed me to the right aisle. I didn’t find anything that would work, so I bought a Barbie outfit on eBay. I did experience a little pang as I started mangling the Barbie outfit, hoping I wasn’t destroying something rare and collectible from that realm. But the eBay listing wasn’t new nor was it expensive, so I figured I was okay. The boots, hay bales, and pitchfork were loaned to me by a friend, and I had the Ruffian body on hand. Everything else in the diorama was made by me.

 

BreyerFest 2014 was the Silver Jubilee - the 25th anniversary of BreyerFest. Many of the exclusive models had party-themed names: Pop the Cork, Champagne Toast, Jubilee, Celebration. Accordingly, the diorama contest theme was Party Time, and entrants were encouraged to share one of their favorite Breyer-related memories. I loved going into toy stores as a kid and wondering what Breyers I might find there. Walking into the Vendor Fair for the first time at BreyerFest 2010 was that same excited feeling, magnified by ten. There were SO MANY models. In honor of that feeling, I made a miniature Breyer store at the Vendor Fair, complete with the blue and yellow dividers Breyer used to separate the vendor spaces.

I had a little bit of help with this one - my Dad sized and printed out the Breyer logos and model names for the little plastic boxes. I made the boxes myself; I took the clear plastic from the front of a Breyer box, cut it slightly larger than the yellow box backing, and then scored it so I could fold it up and fit into the front of the little yellow boxes. The boxes were the most challenging part to make. I had a great time with this one.

 

 

The theme for BreyerFest 2017 was Gateway to India, and the diorama contest had the same name. I had a PAM body I’d inherited from a friend - the poor gal had been stripped with bleach at some point (not by my friend) and had all kinds of interesting cracks all over her body. She wasn’t ever going to be stable enough to do anything with as far as a legit custom, so she got primered in black chalkboard paint, which was thick enough to hide most of the damage, and used in my diorama. I knew right away that I wanted to do something with rangoli, a form of art displayed during festivals and ceremonies where designs are drawn on the floor using colored rice, colored sand, flour, charcoal, dry pigments, or flower petals. The designs are often augmented by candles.

I printed out some rangoli designs I found on the internet and bought a bunch of colored sand. Using the sand and some good old-fashioned Elmers glue, I replicated the rangoli designs on the PAM, putting on the glue and then dropping the sand over her, one little section at a time. Since chalkboard paint was her base, and thus easy to color on, I used colored pencil for her stockings, stripe, mane, tail, hooves, and eyes. She was also a lot of fun to make. She’s still hanging out in my basement.

The story doesn’t end here - though I haven’t ever won one directly, I do have two diorama contest prize models in my collection. One is an “I can’t believe I actually own this model” and the other is the result of one of my favorite BreyerFest stories of all time.

I’m gonna start with the first one.

 

 

This horse, #711443 Walk of Fame, is the sole reason I started entering diorama contests to begin with. He was the prize model for the 2013 Denim & Diamonds BreyerFest, where I made Patsy Cline. I was sad not to have won him, though not surprised, given the competition and relative scarcity of prize models for adults.

On March 10, 2020, right before everything shut down with the pandemic, my friend Beth E messaged our hobby friends group chat and asked if anyone was interested in her Walk of Fame. I was like ME ME ME BETH ME ME ME!!!! She told me all she wanted for him was the value of the trade she’d done to acquire him a few years ago, and that she’d take time payments. I was like, “Beth, are you sure? Are you really sure?” Because the trade value back when she got him was nowhere near what he was worth in 2020. Beth said, “I’m sure. I’d rather he be kept in the family.”

To this day, every time I look at him, I still think to myself, I can’t believe I own this horse.

He does great in collectibility (no surprise there) and has NAN’d all but two times he’s been on the table. One of those was a justified third place given what else was on the table, and the other … well, to put it nicely, the judge really didn’t know much about Breyer collectibility and pinned a lot of not-rare things over rare things that day.

His show name is the one Beth gave him, Act Naturally.

 

***********

 

Now onto one of my favorite BreyerFest stories of all time.

So most people reading this blog probably know about the Ninja Pit of Death (NPOD). For the sake of my parents (who I know tune in here regularly and aren’t as well-versed in the more niche aspects of the hobby), the NPOD is the Breyer store first thing on Friday morning at BreyerFest. Breyer was known for putting many Rare and Valuable Things in the NPOD. The NPOD got its name due to the flying elbows, shoving, and other general not-coolness amongst rabid hobbyists trying for a big score.

By 2014, Breyer said, “Enough of this nonsense behavior,” and started handing out numbers to shoppers waiting in line. Back then, people started lining up on Thursday; now it’s like Tuesday, or something equally as eyebrow-raising. The line numbers helped cut back on the chaos a little. Breyer also announced that year that they would be “spreading the wealth” and distributing the rarities at random throughout the weekend, not just putting them all in the NPOD for Friday morning. Many hobbyists were skeptical.

I’ve never participated in the NPOD. I enjoy sleeping, and my hips and spine don’t enjoy prolonged contact with pavement, and there really isn’t any Breyer I would deem worth potential bodily injury to obtain. (Even a Sham.) I find the phenomenon fascinating, and there are definitely things I’ve been sad to miss out on - the volunteer chestnut 2010 WEG Esprit that found its way into the pit in 2011, for example - but it’s never been something I wanted to do.

Thus, I don’t go into the Breyer store until much, much later in the day on Friday, and if there’s not a Limited Edition I’m interested in, sometimes I don’t get there til Saturday or Sunday. 
 

On Friday, July 17, 2015, I wandered into the Breyer store at 3:15 p.m.

On one of the tables closest to the roll-up doors was this.

 

 

I did a double take, then a triple take, and went wait, wasn’t she the diorama contest prize model last year? 

I snatched her up so fast, I’m shocked I didn’t accidentally drop her or launch her into the air and across the store. I made a beeline for the checkout, clutching her to my bosom, scared someone would ascertain what I had in my hands and I’d be a victim of those flying elbows everyone always talked about.

I checked out without issue and my brain promptly turned into nothing but a series of exclamation points.

When I unwrapped her at the CHIN, I noticed a partially scratched-off signature on her belly that said "CC 11/7/13." I took her upstairs to my friends Kelly and Kelly and said, “What could that be, and is she worth less because someone signed it and then poorly attempted to remove it?” They immediately recognized it as what is typically signed on the model when it's approved as a prototype - the approver's initials and the date. [Why they'd try to remove that before putting her in the store is beyond me.]

 

 

So not only is she something rare - she’s the prototype from which all the rest were made, and she was just lying on the table in the Breyer store at 3:15 on a Friday, waiting for someone to discover her. 

Spread the wealth, indeed!

She is by far the coolest thing I’ve ever found in the Breyer store.

Her show name is Rose Blossom.