Collectibility Spotlight: Test Sham

I am an admirer of rarities, though I am not a rarities collector. As soon as a comma is involved in the price tag, I balk, and since nowadays even many of the not-as-rare rarities easily command four figures, I’m priced out pretty quickly.

The exception to that - the exception to every collecting rule I’ve ever set for myself along the way - is Sham.

• I don't collect decos or unicorns: Lavinia (purchased 2001)
• I don't collect multiples of the same model: #410 (11), #411 (2), #812 (3), glossy Sears SR (2), #3162 (3), #3163 (2), Best Choice (2), The Black Stallion (3)
• I don't collect breakable things: Galaxias (purchased 2011)
• I don't collect unpainted models: Naked Shams x4 (purchased in 2014, 2016, and 2018)
• I don't collect autographed models: Rudish Sham #1 (purchased 2014) and Rudish Sham #2 (purchased 2015)
• I don't collect models on lamps: Sham-on-a-lamp (purchased at BreyerFest 2015)
• I don't collect models with boxes: #410 with 80s box (purchased 2015), #410 with Sears box (purchased 2018)
• I don't collect culls: #812 from ebay (purchased 2018)
• I don't spend a comma on models: Smurfy (purchased 2020) and this guy, purchased in 2023, the subject of today's post:

 

On July 6, 2023, a seller posted this test Sham for sale on the Rare Model Horse Sales page on Facebook. This is what she wrote about him:

“Ever since I bought this handsome guy from a fellow collector (who knew very little about him other than she had bought him from an estate sale a few years ago), I knew he was something special. I attempted to research who he is and where he came from, and this is what I managed to find out:

This vintage Sham is a semi-OOAK Marney Walerius test model, part of an extremely limited run of models that she had brought with her as gifts for the judges of a show that was held in Texas, back in the 1980's. It is my understanding that not one of these models were exactly alike, even if a few look very similar to each other; there were small differences between each one, as they were not all painted exactly the same. This particular guy is a rich, dark red chestnut, with what is called a "skunk tail" (flaxen at the base, and fading into red), with four white socks and very light pink/cream colored hooves. He also features the classic "wheat ear" marking on his chest that all vintage Shams originally had (before Breyer decided to stop releasing the Sham mold with this marking, as too many people were mistaking it as a flaw).”

The seller had quite a lengthy want list as possible trades, so I was optimistic we could work something out. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything she wanted that was worth near the test Sham’s value. I reached out to her anyway, and over the course of the next few weeks, as we waited through her initial offer period and then some additional time as another interested party waffled back and forth on a final offer, we had some long and enjoyable conversations over Messenger about our mutual love of Sham and other Breyer Arabians.

Eventually, the other interested party withdrew, and the seller and I agreed on a trade - her test Sham for my Sanibel web special and quite a bit of cash to make up the difference in value.

I’d seen lots of pictures of the Sham at this point and was pretty convinced that he was what she said he was, but you never really know until you have the model in hand. In the time between when I paid for him and when he arrived, I half-convinced myself that he was just a cull of #410 and that I had grossly overspent.

As soon as I opened him, that worry disappeared.

 

 

He is so, so different in color from the regular #410 Shams. I put him next to my darkest and lightest #410s and it’s not even close. I have no doubt he’s original finish with a fully-executed paint job, and exactly what the seller was told he is - a Marney test from the mid-80s.

 

 

He’s got typical 80s seams, the wheat ear, and even some overspray on one fetlock, and his body color matches the chestnut Marney test on IDYB, though that one has a black nose and black hooves. The subtle difference supports the information the seller was told - that this might have been a small run, but each model was unique.

I knew right away that I was going to show him, so he needed a name. As a test, he obviously wasn't issued with a name, so I had nothing to work with. I wanted something that conveyed how momentous he is and also humorously reflected the sticker shock I had after buying him. Aftershock seemed a good fit - especially because he’s red, like the cinnamon liqueur.

If I have to limit myself to only one test model in my collection, I’m super happy it’s this one.

Special Effects: Connoisseur Models

From 2001 through 2011, Breyer produced the Connoisseur series - fifty runs of 350 pieces each, featuring complex, highly-detailed paint jobs of a caliber not-yet-seen in original finish plastic and sold exclusively to subscribers of Breyer’s Just About Horses (JAH) magazine. 

They were a smash hit.

Refinement of the new painting techniques used to create the Connoisseurs would lead to the introduction of the Breyer Premier Club in 2012, which offered Connoisseur-level paint jobs on brand new sculpts. Unlike the Connoisseurs, the Premier Club models aren’t limited to a finite quantity - anyone can sign up for the club each year. Early Premier Club memberships numbered around 750; Breyer hasn’t released membership numbers since 2014, but I’m sure they’re well into the thousands by now.

I digress.

I took a step back from the hobby after high school and thus didn’t know about the Connoisseurs until I resubscribed to Just About Horses in 2003. The first magazine I received, March/April 2003, had a picture of the horse who became the longest-standing and most intensely desired grail I’ve ever had. Most of the folks who read this blog already know who he is, but even though he was my first Connoisseur acquisition and I usually go in that order, I’m saving him for last, because he’s my favorite model in my collection. By a lot.

 

First up, my three others.

 

 

This is #90122 Hope-N-Glory, the tenth release in the Connoisseur series from the September/October 2002 JAH. She is #61/350. I’m a giant Lady Phase fan (she’s my second-biggest conga at 40 pieces) and it’s no wonder I’m in love with her paint job - it was designed by Tom Bainbridge, an artist whose work I’ve salivated over since I first saw a custom by him in the late 90s.

This Hope-N-Glory graces my shelves solely because of my friend Kelly W. It was the Saturday night of BreyerFest 2017. Kelly called me on my cell and told me to meet her in one of the CHIN rooms. When Kelly tells you to come see a Breyer, you go see the Breyer. When I got there, Kelly pointed to the Hope-N-Glory on the bed and said, “That’s a really good price.” It was a really good price - the cheapest I’d ever seen for her - but it was late Saturday night and I had already spent my plastic pony budget. I said that to Kelly; she said, “Well, then, I’m going to buy her for you because you need her, and you can just pay me back.” So she did, and I did, and that was that.

I show her regularly; her show name is Phrenology, an anagram of her issue name. She does okay, but there’s another Hope-N-Glory in my region whose mapping and coronet bands are a smidge cleaner and whose shading is a little nicer, so that one usually (and fairly) beats mine.

 

 

#90127 Del Fuego is the fifteenth release in the Connoisseur series, offered through the January/February 2004 issue of JAH. Mine is #329/350. I bought him through Model Horse Sales Pages in May of 2018. His price was lower than many because the seller didn’t have his COA. I would have liked the COA, but I wasn’t about to pass him up for that price.

His show name is Shango. He’s done fairly well in the show ring; of the nine shows he’s been to, he’s only been out of the ribbons twice.

 

 

This is one of those models that often makes me go, “Wow, I can’t believe I own one of these.”

#90143 Silverado, offered through the January/February 2008 JAH issue, is one of the most popular of the fifty Connoisseur models. People love the Wintersong sculpt, people love silver bay, and people love really well executed paint jobs. Roll those into one model and you’ve got Silverado.

Mine is #113/350 and I bought him from my friend Beth in May 2018. She gave me a “friend price” that was slightly under his current market value. The timing of his purchase worked out well for me (though not so much for Beth; sorry, Beth) because a year or two later, his market price tripled, then quadrupled. I could never afford to pay what he goes for now.

Beth showed him successfully with the name Evenstar Conquest. I totally forgot he had NAN cards and a name when she sold him to me, so I gave him the name Napa Valley. He did well for me for a few shows, though he is temporarily retired until I can get around to fixing an eartip rub he picked up somewhere along the way.

And now … drumroll please … here is my favorite model in my entire collection.

 

This horse.

It was March of 2003 and I had just resubscribed to JAH after a 10-year hiatus. I was sitting in my apartment in Columbus, Ohio, turning the pages of the March/April 2023 magazine, and wham. 

 

Never in my life have I instantly wanted to own a model horse as much as I wanted to own #90124 Fortissimo, the twelfth entry in the Connoisseur series.

I submitted my card for him right away (you entered through snail mail back then) and anxiously awaited the drawing. I had to have him. I looked at his picture almost every day.

I didn’t get drawn. 

To say I was disappointed is an understatement.

I eventually managed to put it aside, but I still looked at that page in that magazine all the freaking time.

Once I got through grad school and rejoined the hobby in 2010, I started actively looking for Fortissimo on the secondary market. I had a TON of near-misses, probably half a dozen, including one priced at a mere $225. His price had already started to climb by then and I despaired of ever being fast enough to grab one at a price I could afford.

Then I went to BreyerFest in 2013 and found one for sale at the CHIN. He was $600, which was more than I wanted to pay, but he was my holy grail, and I’d been looking for so long and missed out on so many, and I could inspect every millimeter of him right there in person. As soon as I held him in my hands, I knew I wasn’t going to walk away without owning him. I handed him back to the seller and asked if she could hold him for me for just a minute while I made a quick phone call.

That call was to my parents. I’d already spent a good bit of my BreyerFest money and didn’t have enough cash on hand to buy him outright. I asked my parents if they would front me the difference and allow me to pay them back. I knew they’d just give me the money without the expectation of repayment - they have always been enablers of my collection in the best way - but Fortissimo was my grail, the model I desired most for ten straight years, and it was really important to me to purchase him myself. They agreed, and I went back into the room and gave the seller the $300 I had left, with an agreement to send the rest in two weeks. She’d ship him to me as soon as she had the second payment.

I left the room in a daze, walked down to the CHIN bar where my friends were hanging out, sat down, and said, “I just spent $600 on a Fortissimo, I need a beer.”

At the time, that was by far the most I’d ever spent on a model horse. I was both horrified and so ecstatic I could barely talk. My friends found it quite entertaining.

I got a check in the mail from my parents shortly after I got back from BreyerFest, sent the other $300 plus shipping to the seller on July 31, and on August 10, 2013, ten years and five months after first seeing his picture in JAH, I finally had a Fortissimo on my shelves. He’s #146/350.

He’s been to 34 shows with me. He has 17 breed ribbons, 6 breed NAN cards, 16 collectibility ribbons, and 5 collectibility NAN cards. His show name is Crescendo, for obvious reasons.

Every time I pull him off the shelf to take him to a show; every time I get him out of the bin to put him on my table; every time I take him to and from the show table; every time he pins; every time I put him back in the bin after the show; and every time I put him back on the shelf, I say, “Hi, favorite!” Sometimes I even say it whenever I pass by his shelf in the horse room. When I toured Breyer headquarters in NJ during the Big Easy Bash, I took a picture of the Fortissimo on the shelves in the lobby and shared it on my Facebook with the caption, “Of course the Fortissimo in the lobby had to have a photograph of his own, since he's my favorite.” I shared my own Fortissimo on my Facebook for December photo challenges in both 2018 and 2019 on the “Favorite Model” day.

There will be other models I want, even some that might become grails because of how difficult they are to find, but there will never be another Fortissimo.

On a Regular Basis: El Pastor

Not sure how anyone else feels, but I’m pretty much over winter. 

We’re at 17 days in a row where the temperature hasn’t gotten above freezing; every blasted snowflake of the 12” that fell two weeks ago is still on the ground; and we had a white-out at our house last night (and not the fun kind where everyone wears white jerseys to the Pens game). We couldn’t see the trolley tracks fifty yards off the backyard because the snow was blowing so intensely. 

I was supposed to go Breyer shopping with friends today, but none of us wanted to deal with the bitter cold and partially-treated roads, so we rescheduled for later this month. I’m bundled on the couch under several layers of blankets instead, nursing a hot chocolate, watching curling (which I’m obsessed with at Olympics time), and blogging about El Pastors.

There are worse ways to spend the day.

 

 

This is #867 Tesoro, who was in the regular run lineup from 1992-1995. I don’t know exactly when I got this guy, but it must have been shortly after he was released - he was present in my collection pictures from September 1992. [Not real surprised by that, given how many of the 1992 regular runs I liked. I already had seven of them by the time I took those photos.]

Childhood me absolutely loved this horse. He is definitely one of my "near and dears."

At some point early in his life, he must have had one hell of a battle with an aggressive pencil, as he’s got marks all over him. I tried removing them as a kid but ended up taking a little paint off his neck, so I stopped. He’s worn his battle scars ever since.

 

 

#61 El Pastor was the first release on this mold. He was in the regular run lineup from 1974-1981. I got this guy in a lot on eBay in August 2017, along with a much-loved alabaster FAS, a bay FAF, a bay Classic Rearing Stallion, and a buckskin Indian Pony. The whole lot was $70 shipped.

He looked chalky from the pictures, which is why I bought the lot. Even though he wasn’t chalky, his shading is outstanding, particularly on his off-side. I’ve put him in the sales bin a few times since 2022 and keep taking him right back out as soon as I see how pretty he is.

I’ve got a few El Pastor models on my wish list: the BreyerWest special run Escondido, the State Line Tack special run Jamocha Jazz, and the web special Bandelier. Ironically, I was drawn for Bandelier, but funds for him weren’t in the cards at the time, so I passed him on to a fellow collector. Every time I see one, I wish I would have kept him.