Off-Script: BreyerFest Recap, Part 4

As much as I've tried to pare down my Stablemates over the years, they just keep finding their way in.

 

I'm also afraid I've fallen back in love with showing them, so I get the feeling that trend will continue.

 

Here are the Stablemates I brought home from BreyerFest this year.

 

***** 

 

For the first time ever, this year's All Access tickets came with a Single Day Stablemate if you ordered before a certain date, so that was kinda cool. I had three tickets this year, two of which were purchased before the deadline, so I got two Stablemates. I was one of those folks who was beyond excited when they released silhouettes of the molds ... and one of those folks who went, "Really?" when they were revealed. I was hoping for realistic colors, but oh well.

 

By the time we got to the model pickup tents on Friday, the most popular Stablemate by far, Helsinki on the Django mold, was long gone, but I was okay with that. He's pretty, and I'll probably acquire one someday, but he wasn't a must-have for this year. 

 

I chose #B-E-10762 Keflavik because I think the mold is super cute.

 

 

#B-EV-10762 Uppsala was an obvious choice - my boyfriend is Swedish, and I must have all of the mini-sized Semi-Rearing Mustangs. I do wish they'd done the colors reversed, though - blue on the edges with gold in the middle, like the flag. Oh well.

 

 

This series has become one of my favorite things about BreyerFest event models. It's called Best of BreyerFest and features five Stablemate models painted like Traditional rarities from previous years. This year's set, #B-EV-10765, seventh in the series, featured rarities from the 2008 BreyerFest - in order, Capri, the Early Bird model; Calabria, the Open Show overall reserve champion prize model; Totsi, the volunteer model; Seren, the Diorama contest prize model; and Monaco, the Open Show overall grand champion prize model.

 

I have the six sets that came before this one, and will continue buying them as long as they make them. I just think it's a really cool concept, and I'll never own the large counterparts, so why not?

 

On Sunday, as we were chumming around in the Covered Arena, a friend came up and whispered to us that there were Warehouse Find Stablemates by the registers in the Breyer store. So of course we went to check them out. They all had the same issue number - B-BF-10246.

 

I bought these three, and they shall be named as follows: Word of Mouth, Heard It Through The Grapevine, and The Latest Scuttlebutt.

 

Last but certainly not least - I followed through on my horrible pun from my June Pride series and started working my way toward a full spectrum of Kaleidoscopes.

 

 

I walked into my friend Shannon's room and this guy immediately yelled, "BUY ME!" I temporarily ignored his yelling in favor of snapping a picture and then heading back to my room to look at my laptop photos to make sure he was as different from my original as I thought. 

 

 

He was, so I went right back to buy him. He's so much more rainbow than my original guy (on the left in both photos)! I love the variations on this run so much!

 

On Saturday, I'll talk about my Special Runs and one LE who just didn't really fit anywhere else. Monday will be ... drumroll please ... my raffle model! (Eeeeeeeee!) I'll close out July with my 2026 volunteer model and a recap of one of my favorite aspects of BreyerFest - the kids' show.

Off-Script: BreyerFest Recap, Part 3

Never in a million years did I ever think I'd take a photo like this.

 

Well, I guess that's not entirely true. The morning of the show, as I was driving up the winding curves of Alltech Lane towards the arena, marveling at the giant clouds of gnats that were so thick I mistook them at first for patches of fog, I did say out loud to myself, "I'm winning a glossy prize model today." I laughed out loud after I said it - how utterly ridiculous - but I had a feeling.

 

It's happened before. When I worked with chronically mentally ill adults, I used to randomly sense things about patients; more often than not, the crisis phone would ring a day or two later, or we'd get a call that the patient had presented for evaluation at the hospital. It happened often enough to freak out my boss. 

 

Two weeks prior to BreyerFest, at my bowling league, we all bought our individual 50/50 tickets and our team 50/50 tickets as usual. When they announced that it was time for the drawing, I looked at our tickets, then at my teammates, and said, "Someone at this table is winning tonight." And we did, on a group ticket. 

 

I don't really believe in precognition or psychic abilities or willing things into reality by saying them out loud. I'm way too logic-based for that. But maybe, once in awhile, something aligns just right and logic takes a back seat to what the universe wants to happen.

 

The horse that won the glossy prize model is a regular run G1 Morgan Mare (#5038, made from 1976-1987) that I found via an advertised yard sale on Craigslist in August 2012. The ad just mentioned Breyers, so I wasn't sure what to expect. When I arrived, there were five of them all jumbled up in a box - a springtime frolic Ashley, a dark palomino G3 Standing Stock Horse from the Riding Academy set, a buckskin G1 Morgan Stallion, a leopard appaloosa G1 QHS, and the Morgan Mare, who I named Clarissa. The Ashley was priced at $3; the rest were $1 apiece. Five models for $7, and three of them G1s? Not a bad deal at all.

 

Being all thrown together in the box, I expected the worst, but Clarissa was pristine and had really nice shading. I don't show my minis all that much anymore (because I'm usually judging them!) but Clarissa has made the table probably a dozen times. She's accumulated a bunch of 2nd through 5th place ribbons in her show career. Never first place, though. She was always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

 

Then she did this at BreyerFest Live. I was beside myself - she'd finally come out on top! At one of the craziest shows there is, where you could put a horse with two dozen NAN cards and multiple NAN championships on the table and it might not get a single look. And she achieved my solitary goal for the show, which was getting a single ribbon out of 40 models shown. In my first class of the day!

 

I would have been happy enough with just that. 

 

I put her back up for section callbacks, but didn't expect her to really do anything there. First place in the Arabian class was a LOVELY bay G1 Arab Stallion, and a mulberry Alborozo SM had taken first in the Andalusian/Lusitano class. If it were my callback table and I were judging purely on breed and conformation, I would pin both of those over the G1 Morgan Mare - even a really nice one like Clarissa. That's fully what I expected to happen in the callback class.

 

The G1 Arab Stallion was announced as section reserve, which made sense to me - as I said, he'd have been one of my picks. I thought sure they'd call the Alby as section champ. But then they said, "Clarissa, owned by Melissa Grant."

 

I'm positive my friend Macie shrieked even louder than I did, as she was sitting right next to me. My friend Chesna came over, high-fived or hugged me (I don't even remember at this point), and said, "See? And you weren't even gonna show!"

 

She was right - I almost didn't. My mental health was so, so terrible all spring, and getting ready for BFL felt like too much. I also didn't think I could compete on a stage as large (or unpredictable) as BFL. In the weeks leading up to BFL, I drafted a few emails to Michelle, backing out, but never hit send because my friends talked me back into showing, every time I tried to quit.

 

Shortly after I floated back to my table with Clarissa and my prize model, my friend Korin handed me this sticker, which could not have been more appropriate or more meaningful.

 

My day was made right there, but I still had the entire rest of the show to go. No other model did as well as Clarissa, but I still came home with 10 ribbons! That's way more than I expected given the show and the size of the classes. Here are all my winners:

 

 

I was gonna talk about each one in detail, but I'll save that for my Show Stoppers series once I get the blog back to normal in August. This post is getting long enough already.

 

I never expected to enjoy BFL as much as I did, and it wasn't just the prize model that made the day fun. I thought I'd be running around like a maniac and missing classes left and right, but the show was extremely well-paced (we were done by 3:00!) and yet easy to follow, so I mostly sat and gabbed with my friends all day. It was the highest-stakes show I've ever done, by a lot, but it didn't really feel like that most of the time. [Except waiting for that final overall callback table to be judged. I thought my stomach was going to eat itself, even though I knew in my gut that Clarissa had done all she was going to do.] Chunk brought us some amazing fried chicken and sides for lunch. I got to cheer on my friends Mackenzie, Donna, Rachel, Amanda, Jackie, and Korin when they also won Shiny Prize Things, and also cheered on Macie as she tried to complete the ribbon rainbow. It's the most fun I've had at a show in a really, really long time.

 

Moral of the story: if you have friends who believe in you when you don't believe in yourself, friends who know you well enough to understand that you'll have a good time if you just give it a shot, friends who tell you that you can do something when you think you can't - keep those people close to you, cherish them, and listen to them, because they're probably right.

Off-Script: BreyerFest Recap, Part 2

I finally got caught up on posting my BreyerFest 2026 photo album on my Facebook, and have started on the Scandi Surprise data. For the latter, I’ve been focusing on confirmed unique models only, and currently have 754, or almost 10% of the run. Last year I got 15% of the Seize the Day run in confirmed unique models, so I’m hoping to get more data as people post their arrivals from the online tickets.

In case anyone is interested, here’s the order of rarity from most to least: Champagne, Roan, Bay, Pinto, Deco, Appaloosa. I’m around 450 each on the glossies (other than the Deco), but I suspect it’ll end up closer to 400. People are always after the glossies, so I tend to see more of those on the sales pages.
I’ll try to pop on here to share my final guesses right before Breyer announces the actual totals.

For today, here are the Breyer models I bought in this year’s room sales at the CHIN.

 

 

This dude just got his turn in my bonus post from the first day of my BreyerFest trip, but he’s a cute little thing, so here he is again. I’m happy to finally have the full set!

 

 

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve done trades in the hobby, aside from a straight trade of one Gambler’s Choice color for another, or one CCA Appreciation Model for another. Trading is awesome - it’s just not something I do much, because I’m kinda picky, and usually not interested in whatever someone is trading.

So when a gal walked into our room on Wednesday night and asked if I was willing to do a trade for my glossy Wells and a Classic Shire A body I had, I said, “Probably not, but what can you tempt me with?”

She held up this guy, #B-EV-10469 Seize the Day Surprise in glossy gray, and I immediately said, “Oh, hell yes!” The matte gray did nothing for me and the dapples tended to be REALLY fishy, but the gray in gloss is gorgeous. We both went away happy with the trade.

 

 

This is one of the coolest items I brought home this year. I conga the Grazing Mare and I love oddities, so when my friend Brooke posted an ad with her BreyerFest sales models and I spied this Grazing Mare cull, I messaged her right away and said, I’ll take her!

She was likely a reject for the #494155 Mare and Foal Set, a Sears special run from 1989-1990. She's missing at least one layer of paint to make her less red, and all her black points (mane, tail, knees, hooves, eyes, muzzle shading). For reference, here's what the finished ones look like (photo courtesy of Identify Your Breyer):

 

I have no idea what got her chucked into the reject bin, but someone fished her out and she’s been hanging out with Brooke for the last 20 years or so. I’m thrilled to have her on my shelves!

 

 

#1284 Indian Pony and Leotie Gift Set, a regular run from 2008 of only 2500 pieces, has been at the tip top of my Indian Pony wish list since her release. I have never been interested in the whole set, only the horse - and the whole set tends to be what comes up for sale most often, with a hefty price tag attached. I’ve looked and looked and looked for years for someone selling only the horse at a price that reflects the incompleteness of the set.

Finally, this year, it happened. The cool thing is that I got her from my friend Brooke’s CHIN roommate! I had no idea they were rooming together until I went to pick up the Grazing Mare early on Thursday evening, and then ended up back in the same room a few hours later whilst crossing the rest of the items off my pickup list. I’m so glad to finally have this model. My Indian Pony conga is up to 10 now.

On Monday, I’ll talk about my first ever BreyerFest Live mini show, which was epic in ways I never could have expected.