Collectibility Spotlight: Volunteer Models, Part 1

BreyerFest is my favorite week of the year - and I do mean week, since I am down there Monday through Sunday - and it’s less than 60 days away. I’m starting to get excited.

I wanted to go to BreyerFest ever since I saw the first advertisement for it in the 1991 box catalog. In May of 2010, I quit a terrible job and bought my first BreyerFest ticket all in the same day. The former was an act of self-preservation; the latter was me saying, by God, I need some joy in my life, so I’m going to go do this thing I’ve always wanted to do. Later that day, I chatted with my parents about it, and when I said that I’d wanted to go to BreyerFest since I was a kid, I distinctly remember my mom saying, “You should have asked us. We’d have taken you.”

I was torn between kicking pre-teen/teen me for the missed opportunity, and awe that they would have even considered taking on the expense and the 8-hour drive each way for pre-teen/teen me to gallivant amongst plastic ponies for an entire weekend. I don’t think I ever would have asked for that much, but I’m glad to know all the same that they would have said yes. They have always been my biggest hobby champions and enablers.

BreyerFest 2010 was a magical experience. I’ll cover it in one of my “bonus” blog posts - perhaps later this month. Whilst wandering around the events at KHP that year, I learned that you could apply to volunteer for various jobs throughout the weekend - seminar attendant, the kids’ craft and activity tent, the diorama contest, the swap meet, and more - and that you got an exclusive model for doing so. In 2011, I applied as a workshop/seminar attendant, and was chosen. I have volunteered eleven more times since then - in 2013 for the diorama contest, and every year since 2016 (except 2020) as the results manager for the Children & Youth Shows. In 2025, I also stewarded BOO, Breyer’s fall online show. I have 12 volunteer models in my collection thus far.

 

 

This guy, #711430 Nottingham, the 2011 volunteer model, got his own post back in March as a sentimental favorite. You can go read more about him there, if you like. I don’t think I can say any better how much he means to me.

 

 

This is also #711433 Opry’s second appearance on the blog; I talked about her in my January Singles Bar post as my only Clydesdale Mare. She was the 2013 volunteer model.

 

 

This dude exploded every algorithm I was using to try to predict the volunteer mold. Blew them all to smithereens. He was used here as #711468 Caipirinha, a run of 163 models for volunteering at BreyerFest 2016. He was also used that year as a glossy prize model AND an auction model, which was absolutely unheard of. I still grumble about him every time someone asks me if I’m doing predictions.

 

 

I still remember the collective hobby head explosion that happened when this gal, #711271 Assam, was revealed as the volunteer model at BreyerFest 2017. The Weather Girl mold has been tremendously popular in the hobby since her first release in 2011. She’s pretty and typey and conformationally solid, and this particular release commands quite a price on the secondary market. She shows fairly well for me; her show name is Almira. She was the overall breed reserve champ in the BreyerFest division at BVG Live last year and got me a gigantic rosette.

Next month, I’ll go over my volunteer models from 2018-2022, and in July, I’ll finish up with 2023 and on. The timing of the July post should coincide with my receipt of my volunteer model for the Children & Youth Show. Since they started splitting into three colors, I have always received the third colorway, so I anticipate that’s what I’ll get this year as well. We’ve seen sooty buckskin and palomino so far. They said it’ll be another dilute; I’m hoping for a nice dark dun or a silver bay/silver black. I’m terrified it’ll be a double cream dilute (cremello or perlino), because those are my least favorite.

Special Effects: Tour Models

Starting in 1994, Breyer hosted “Tour” events across the country, at which a special run model was available for purchase. These events continued through 2002, then reappeared again briefly for 2007 and 2008 before being discontinued. I didn’t attend any of these events myself, but have picked up three of the tour models on the secondary market in the years since.

 

Ironically, the order I purchased them in is also the order in which they were released. 

 

 

As a person who congas Big Ben, I had to have #700301 Stormchaser, the 2001 tour model. His official production quantity was never released. I looked for one for many years, but his asking price was always more than I wanted to spend. Then, at my first BreyerFest in 2010, I found one for sale for $40 at the CHIN. Score!

 

 

#703002 Banat er Rih was the tour model for 2002. Like Stormchaser, her production quantity is unknown. I purchased mine from a seller on Model Horse Sales Pages in December 2011. Her color is soft and lovely; she’s one of my favorite releases on the PAM.

 

 

#703018 Caliente was the 2008 tour model and was a run of 1,000 pieces. I’m picky with chestnuts, but this guy’s color is outstanding. The glossy one is even more delicious; a friend of mine has one and I drool over it whenever she brings him out to a show. I purchased my matte one from the Black Horse Ranch collection sale during BreyerFest 2015. He doesn’t get to show often - there are better Spanish sculpts out there these days - but occasionally a class list will be split out enough that I give him a go for collectibility reasons. His show name is El Volcan.

The only tour models remaining on my wish list are the unobtainium raffle models - Silver Twilight, Batal, and Amira.

On a Regular Basis: The Winx Trio

Well, I knew it would happen eventually - I’d get so busy that the regularly scheduled time for a post would come and go, and I wouldn’t have a post written. I like to be 3-4 posts ahead of schedule, but that hasn’t happened for at least the last month. I’m writing them the day before, the morning of, or right up to the posting deadline.

It happens to the best of us, I suppose.

And I have a good excuse. I've been quite occupied with our newest addition.

 

We named him Oliver. Chris wanted a name that reflected his origin story, and a friend of his suggested Oliver Twist - a little guy with a rough start who maintained his goodness and decency in spite of the injustice and corruption around him. Our little man continues to be a total sweetheart - last night, he put his paws on my chest and rubbed his face on my nose - so the name fits. 

 

I’ll probably still call him “Little Man” forever. It’s already morphed into “Mannarino” as a nickname, so I’m off and running with my usual shenanigans. By this time next year, he’ll have at least half a dozen nicknames that have nothing to do with his actual name. 

 

He went to the vet today and got a clean bill of health - no FIV and no FeLV! He's got to be the luckiest cat in the world, to have been outside for a year, scrapping with other cats, and not have picked up a single infectious disease. He's also flea-free and his skin has healed enough that we don't have to give him the 10 days of Clavamox, which will make everyone happy. We're going to leave the sunroom door open so he can come into the house on his own schedule.

Since I’m (a) already a day late on this post and (b) still horrifically short on time, I’m going to give you a brief but telling glimpse into just how obsessed I am with bay things.

 

Behold, my *cough cough* three *cough cough* regular run #1828 Winx models.

 

 

The first one is explainable - I bought her as part of the 2021 Collector Club Appreciation sale. I wanted a glossy Winx, so I ordered a matte one in the hope they’d get the hint - and, happily, they did!

 

 

Then in January of 2022, not two months after I had just bought my first regular run Winx, Heather B and I went to Sir Troy’s Toy Kingdom in search of a Harley for her. (We are all slightly obsessed with Harley, the famous Sugarbush Draft who escorts horses to the track, and the Friesian is one of Heather’s favorite molds, so of course she had to have a Harley.) I’d already heard about chalky Winxes in the mix, so I wanted to look at the ones at Sir Troy’s to see if I could find one.

 

I'm pretty sure this gal is one. Her paint is much thicker than my original.

 

 

And then this other one with red shading jumped out at me, and I was doomed.

 

I keep telling myself I should sell one, but I just can't do it.