Off-Script: BreyerFest Recap, Part 6

I'm going to tell the story of my raffle win this past BreyerFest, and I can't do that without talking about my first raffle win, so the other guy will get his turn in the spotlight today, too. 

 

The setting: It's Saturday, July 11, day 6 of what has already been an absolutely amazing BreyerFest week. I've spent time with so many friends, checked Kentucky Derby winners Mage and Mystik Dan off my "must see" list (I'm now up to 20!), got a glimpse of Silver Charm, won a glossy prize model at my first BreyerFest Live Show, picked up my special runs, made a wonderful trade to get a matte Oseberg, volunteered at the kids' show, and purchased a whole bunch of models that make me happy. It's now time for the Saturday raffle.

 

I always spend $50 on the raffles. I've done an even split of $25 per day every year except for 2017, when I liked one model (Rangoli) significantly more than the other (Rana) and did $40 for one day and $10 for the other. Tickets used to be $1 each or 6 for $5, so $25 got me 30 tickets. They're now $2 each or 8 for $10, so $25 gets me 20 tickets. Despite the increase of cost per ticket and getting fewer tickets for my allotted money, I've never felt the need to spend more. I'd rather turn my BreyerFest model cash into something guaranteed at the CHIN.

 

It's always been my custom to drop my tickets in the bin on Saturday after the kids' show. The kids' show ran a little longer than usual this year, though - no one's fault, it just happens sometimes - and me and my fellow kids' show volunteers were worried about being able to get our tickets turned in before the cutoff time. A friend of a friend came to our rescue, trekked up to the Alltech to grab our tickets, took them to the Covered Arena, and got them into the bin for us. I'm glad she did - we would have made it in time, but barely, and none of us needed the stress.

 

For years now, we've stood down at the far corner of the Covered Arena to the left of the stage, where the live horse entertainment comes and goes, to watch the raffle. It means a quick exit once the raffle is over so we can get to our cars and get back to the CHIN as fast as possible in the hope of nabbing the ever-elusive parking space.

 

So there we are, assembled as usual, sweating as usual, extra worried about parking because of all the construction at the CHIN, listening to them read off the names of the diorama contest winners. And then it's go time.

 

My friend Kelly M's husband gets drawn, which is cool, and then my friend Jackie, who is standing with us so we get to cheer really loud for her. Midway through the pack, the announcer says, “Is there anyone here named Melissa?”

All of my friends: turn to stare at me

Me: “Yeah, it’s not me.”

I mean, it couldn't possibly be me, right? I did write Melissa instead of Mel on my tickets, but there are a zillion Melissas in the hobby - there are two besides me who show in my region on the regular. There are also many Melissas like me who go by Mel but might have written Melissa on their tickets, or used stamps or return address labels with their full names. 

 

I'd also never won an in-person raffle, and I only had 20 tickets, so there was no way it could have been me.

 

Raffle guy: “How about Melissa Grant?”
 

Me: loud shriek

 

All of my friends: even louder shrieks

 

I remember every step of the walk over to the stage - and yes, I did walk; I was carrying my volunteer model and with my luck, I'd have tripped over a horse chestnut in my excitement and gone ass over tin cups into the dirt and ended up at the ER with Georg legs embedded in my spleen. The whole time, my anxiety-prone brain was going, "Is this really happening? Is everyone watching me? What if it's not me and their ticket doesn't match my stubs and it ends up being a mistake? What if they start to ask me questions? What if I can't talk because I'm too excited and I end up sounding like a total idiot? What if they want to interview me for footage for the online coverage? Did I really just win a raffle model? Is this really happening?"

I got up to the stage and a really nice employee came over holding the raffle bag. She smiled at me and said, "Are you so excited right now?" I babbled something like, "Oh my God, I've never won in person, I can't believe it." My hands were shaking. 

 

She held up the ticket and it was number 481532. I stopped worrying about it being a mistake then - I knew that was within the range of tickets I'd bought, because I'm a nerd who remembers numbers really well.

 

The *only* thing I dislike about the whole process is that they make you give them your stub. I have neither the 481532 ticket that was drawn from the bin, nor the stub that matched. I would have liked to keep that with my model as a souvenir, but oh well. 

 

Here's the crappy CHIN pic I took to send to my parents and sister, alongside a text that said, "HOLY SHIT I WON A RAFFLE MODEL." I've got my tickets next to her, with 481532 missing, and her COA is thoroughly crumpled because of this:

 

I miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight have hugged the living daylights out of the bag. More than once. (Thanks to my friend Heather M for snapping this pic!)

 

Here's a better picture of her in the lobby by the 500s:

 

Her name is Pining for the Fjords and her number is #B-EV-10777. There were 26 of her made, 25 for the raffle and one for the live auction.

 

She was the icing on the cake for the best BreyerFest I've ever had. 

 

At the beginning of this post, I said that I can't really talk about this raffle win without also bringing up my only other one, and here's why: Order of the Thistle was the Saturday raffle on July 11, 2020 - six years ago to the exact day as I won Pining for the Fjords. Here's his story.

 

We all know how bad 2020 sucked, and that BreyerFest was a virtual event only. In a normal year, they only have to follow Kentucky (and maybe New Jersey?) laws when doing the raffles, but since this one was virtual and eligible entrants were all over the country and in Canada, they couldn’t sell tickets like they normally would.  Instead, they gave each 3-day ticket buyer one free entry (though you did still have to fill out an entry form if you wanted a chance to win) and did a random computer draw, just like they do for web specials and such.

During the Saturday broadcast, they showed the first names, last initials, and state for the winners during the live feed. I got super excited when I saw “Melissa G,” but then it said “UN” for the state. I was like, where the hell is that? I knew we didn't have any states starting with UN, so I started looking at Canadian provinces and then countries. I couldn't find anything that matched. When Jaime got to my name, she announced it as, “Melissa G of . . . Unknown?” So that didn't tell me anything.

 

The winners were supposed to get emails, so I checked my inbox, but I had nothing, so I assumed it wasn’t me. I initially shrugged it off, but I kept thinking about all the crazy glitches Breyer was having that weekend, and the fact that I don't often get all the emails from Breyer that I should, and coming back to that “of Unknown.” I decided to email customer service to inquire. 

 

Within 15 minutes, I had an email from Kat McDermott asking me to confirm my address and phone number, and then a second email stating, "Congrats on your win! It is you!"

Yinz, when I say I lost my shit - I yelled a lot of swear words and started squealing and jumping up and down. I was in my sun room, and my neighbors were having a party on their back deck, and I'm sure I looked absolutely hilarious (and possibly a tad psychotic) with all my flailing around and screaming.

 

Here is #711385 Order of the Thistle, the BreyerFest 2020 Saturday raffle model, one of 26 made.

 

I had to incorporate "Melissa G of Unknown" into his name somehow, and 2020 was the first virtual BreyerFest, so I dubbed him Virtually Unknown. He's been to 17 shows and has earned 4 breed NAN cards, 8 collectibility NAN cards, three section champs for collectibility, and one section reserve champ for collectibility.

 

I feel incredibly lucky to own both of these models.

 

If any of you reading this have won a raffle model, I'd love to hear about it in a comment!

Off-Script: BreyerFest Recap, Part 5

Today's post is about the tent line Special Runs, and my Classic that just didn't fit anywhere else. I'll start with the latter.

 

This is #B-EV-10764 Dalarna, who is Not My Usual Thing At All. But as I mentioned in yesterday's post, my boyfriend is of Swedish origin, and we have several Dala horses on our built-ins in the living room. I showed Dalarna to Chris before BreyerFest and he said, "Wow, that's really cool!" So of course I had to buy one. All of my Breyers except one (Torlinie, the soccer ball Clydesdale SM, who lives on the built-ins next to Chris's soccer bobbleheads) are up in the horse room, but I'm going to try to sneak Dalarna onto the built-ins with the other Dala horses and see how long it takes him to notice. Should be a fun little game.

 

Now onto the tent models. 

 

For the first time since 2020, the Master List failed me.

 

My track record through 2025 using the Master List was as follows:

• 2020 - 3 tickets - Slainte Surprise x3, Lugh, Thorn, Ash
• 2021 - 1 ticket - Seven Arts Surprise, Pollock
• 2022 - 4 tickets - Rotating Draft Surprise x4, Franz, Landler, Brahms, Stein
• 2023 - 1 ticket - Stagecoach Surprise, Wells
• 2024 - 1 ticket - Girls Run the World Surprise, Edge of Glory
• 2025 - 1 ticket - Seize the Day Surprise, To the Ties that Bind Us 

I got everything I wanted, six years in a row, even in 2021 when it seemed like pretty much every single VIP ticket holder bought Pollock and there wouldn't be any left for regular ticket holders, and in 2022 when everyone and their mom was frothing at the mouth over Stein.

 

My Preference List this year for my three tickets went like this: Oseberg, Oseberg, Surprise, Surprise, Surprise, Wanderer, Aquavit, Thingvellir. Oseberg got both the top spots because (A) I conga the living daylights out of Wintersong and (B) they had already revealed him as a 50/50 matte glossy split after accidentally (?) leaking a photo of the glossy, and (C) I wanted both finishes, obviously. I didn't go any further than those eight slots on my Master List because those five models were the only ones I was interested in. I was slightly concerned about getting both Osebergs because he was by far the most popular on all the polls people did ranking their favorite SRs, but I thought, hey, the Master List hasn't failed me yet, and even though he's popular, I should at least get one.

 

I got zero.

 

The rest of my Master List went according to plan, but Oseberg was not anywhere to be found. I suppose my luck had to run out sooner or later, but why on a Wintersong year? I was majorly disappointed.

 

Vermeer was amongst my top four guesses for the Scandi Surprise, so I felt pleased with my data analysis when he was revealed to be this year's Surprise mold. I was not so pleased that I had three of them on my tickets, as I am not a Vermeer fan, but by the time I went to pick mine up on Friday, I knew the run had gone over super well and selling them likely wouldn't be a problem. My friend Nina also messaged me that she loves Vermeer and said she might have an extra Oseberg to trade with me, depending on which colors and finishes of the Surprise I received. I started to feel a sliver of hope that I might secure one of the two Osebergs at a reasonable cost before I left Kentucky.

 

There's more to the story, of course.

 

A dear friend and fellow hobbyist had an absolutely terrible couple weeks leading up to BreyerFest, including a death in the family, and also experienced a significant loss during BreyerFest, which resulted in her having to make a trip home mid-Fest to handle family business. I picked up her SRs - an Oseberg and a Surprise - along with my six allotted models. All four of the Surprises (her one and my three) ended up in the same bag. When we got back to the hotel, I asked my roomie Heather to reach into the bag and randomly pick one of the four Surprises to give to our friend, and set it to the side with the Oseberg for her to open when she got back to Kentucky. I then started opening my SRs.

 

 

I started with #B-EV-10768 Wanderer because he was the most straightforward - they didn't do any variations on him. The Fireheart mold is "just okay" in my book, but they had me at that lovely purply-blue color. He's super neat, even though my dining room light doesn't do him any favors.

 

Next up was #B-EV-10773 Aquavit, who had an announced 50/50 split - half the models had the regular swishy tail, and half had a custom belled tail. I knew as soon as I grabbed the bag that I had a swishy tail - it noticeably sticks out. I'm perfectly happy with that, though, as I like the swishy tail better. 

 

She's basecoated, too. I assumed they all were, but it seems not - I've seen pictures of non-basecoated ones on Facebook, and there are a bunch of sold ones on eBay that weren't basecoated. Once I'm done with the fervor of tracking and predicting Surprise quantities, I'll probably take a look at Aquavit to see how common the basecoated version is. It already seems much more prevalent than the basecoated Hero's Welcome Surprises from 2019, which I estimated to be only about 10% of the run.

 

 

#B-EV-10775 Thingvellir was announced as one of this year's color splits, a 50/50 mix between grulla pinto and sooty palomino pinto. I liked the sooty palomino color better than the grulla, but I got the grulla, and that's okay. I have a soft spot for the Man O' War mold and this guy isn't going anywhere. I'll be on the hunt for a sooty palomino next year at BreyerFest. He shouldn't be too hard or expensive to find.

 

Then it came time to unwrap my Surprise models. There were six colors - bay roan, amber champagne, solid bay, black appaloosa, flaxen chestnut pinto, and glossy gold sabino decorator. The glossy bay was obviously my #1 hope, followed by matte bay; I knew I would sell any other color (no matter the finish) or offer them to Nina in the hope of pulling off the Oseberg trade.

 

The first one I opened was a matte champagne. The second was a matte black leopard appaloosa. The third was a matte bay roan with an unfortunate giant scratch on his on-side barrel. [I put him up for sale at $80 in my room that night, and someone did buy him. I'm not happy to have lost the extra $50 in value had he not been damaged, but whatever.]

 

So because bay was the only one I was really interested in, I didn't pull one, and my abysmal luck with pulling shiny Surprises from the line remained untarnished. I felt the Oseberg trade slipping away - I was sure that Nina would be able to easily acquire the matte colors, and would only be interested in glossies or the deco.

 

I texted Nina to let her know what matte models I had, and to my surprise, she said she wanted to come down to the room see the appaloosa, and would bring her extra matte Oseberg with her. After approximately 30 seconds of ogling the appaloosa and telling me how much she loved him, she asked if I would straight trade him for Oseberg. I asked if she was sure - even the matte Oseberg was selling for MUCH higher than any of the matte surprises at the time - but she insisted she was happy with the trade. I'm pretty sure I even saw her hugging the appaloosa as she walked out of the room.

 

 

So here he is, B-EV-10772 Oseberg in matte seal bay. Again, my dining room light is giving him no credit. He is magnificent. He might be my favorite release ever on Wintersong, and I didn't think I'd ever like anyone better than Silverado. A million thanks to Nina for the trade!

 

And it turns out said trade might not have been lopsided at all. The appaloosa is definitely the Surprise color I'm seeing the least of so far in my data tracking, both in person at BreyerFest and the CHIN and in my stalking of all hobby-related groups. He and the deco were the most popular colors, and there are quite a few up for sale because people are paying bank for them - but when I add all the eBay listed plus sold together, he's still the rarest color, and I'm not seeing them all that often in non-sales posts like haul threads and "Which color did you get?" polls. The matte appaloosa is also selling higher on eBay than the matte Oseberg, perhaps due to his popularity, perhaps due to people picking up on the fact that he seems to be the lowest quantity color. Who knew? But it's actually pretty cool. I didn't need the appaloosa at all, rarity or no, and now I feel like we both really lucked out and got what we each wanted the most for almost an even amount of money spent.

 

It gets even better.

 

On Saturday evening, our friend who had had to miss part of BreyerFest made it back to Kentucky. She came down to our room to open her Oseberg and Surprise. A glossy Oseberg was the thing she wanted the most out of anything at BreyerFest this year. I was in despair, though - I never, ever pull shiny things from the line (as evidenced by my lower-than-statistically-probable rate of pulling glossy surprises, and pulling exactly zero again this year), and I said right before the packaging came off that I should have had my roomie Heather pick it up instead of me, because I was certain my "lack of glossies" curse had transferred itself to my friend's Oseberg.

 

Her Oseberg was glossy!

 

Then she opened her Surprise model, which I had picked up from the line but Heather had chosen at random from the bag. It was a glossy roan!

 

In a truly magnificent alignment of the universe, I not only managed to pull two glossies from the line this year, but both were for a friend having a really, really shitty week who needed a bit of good model mojo. It doesn't get any better than that.

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.