Do That Conga: Weather Girl

A dishy-faced, super typey Arabian whose first release was called the Weather Girl Treasure Hunt, with names like Sunny, Partly Cloudy, Thunderstorm, and Rainbow?

Might as well just rubber-stamp her MEL.

As usual, I’ll go through my nine Weather Girls in order of acquisition.

 

 

In addition to the Treasure Hunt in 2011, Breyer used the Weather Girl mold for a BreyerFest Special Run - #711132 Jasmine. There were 1100 pieces made. I had a couple tickets that year and purchased two of them; one had a few minor rubs, so I sold her and kept the nicer of the two.

I showed mine a few times under the name Requiem, but she can’t compete with some of the more outstanding copies floating around in my region, so she is retired.

 

 

Even though I love the mold and Treasure Hunts in general, I didn’t feel the need to go off in pursuit of any of the Weather Girl releases right away. In September 2012, this #1462 Thunderstorm was for sale at a local show for only $30, so I snatched her up. I showed her rather successfully for several years until Felice crashed into the shelf one day and dominoed all my Weather Girls. Thunderstorm acquired shiny marks on both sides. I was pretty disappointed. I’ve been too scared to try the pink pearl eraser trick on her, so she’s retired. Her show name was Nimbus.

 

Weather Girl was completely retired as a mold between 2011 and 2016. This was purposeful - it was announced on the back of the Treasure Hunt boxes. She re-emerged in 2016 as #1752 Rhapsody in Black, who was based on a real horse, a daughter of Thee Desperado. I bought my Rhapsody in Black at Tractor Supply in January 2017, when all their Breyers were heavily discounted after Christmas. She was only $22 after tax!

 

 

My friend Kelly K. has enabled two Weather Girl purchases for me. #1465 Partly Cloudy was the first of the two, back in May 2017 when Kelly was doing a small collection purge. Partly Cloudy does pretty well in the show ring for me. Her show name is Cirrus.

 

 

#711271 Assam, the 2017 BreyerFest volunteer model, had her first blog appearance just a couple months ago in May’s Collectibility Spotlight post. You can check out more details about her there.

 

 

#712242 Grace has also appeared on the blog recently, back in April’s Collectibility Spotlight post about the Vintage Club Gambler's Choice models. I mentioned there that I was happy to receive the alabaster, but didn’t disclose that she was my first choice of the three colors. I know, right? Mel wanting an alabaster over a bay? What blasphemy is this? But it’s true. I had my heart set on alabaster as soon as I saw the release photo.

 

 

#711348 Natasha was released as a special run for BreyerFest 2019, Salute to Horse Heroes. There were 1620 of her made. 

Of all the themes and interesting interpretations of themes they’ve done at BreyerFest, this one was the weirdest for me. The Celebration Horse was one of the KHP Mounted Police horses, and they did a store special of a famous therapy horse, Zipped in Black Magic, so those two releases fit the Horse Heroes theme pretty well. The other two store specials were of horses with behavioral issues that happened to land with the right owners who had the patience to work with them, which was kind of a stretch, but okay.

The tent models, however, were all named after characters from the Marvel franchise, which was just … an odd way to go. We had Diana, Quill, Rocket, Pepper, Natasha, Banner (who was actually a neat idea - there were 30 pieces in an alternate bluish-green color), and Bucky. 
 

[Side Note: I love the character of Bucky Barnes down to the marrow of my bones, but naming a cute, fluffy, goofy, slobbery, affectionate Saint Bernard after THE WINTER SOLDIER? For God’s sake. The irony still makes my head explode.]

 

 

In January 2023, Breyer announced the next release in their Birds of a Feather series - #712499 Flamingo, a run of 500 pieces. The color is pretty wild - they could have gone obnoxiously pink, but didn’t, a decision for which I am eternally grateful. I personally wouldn’t show this model as anything other than a decorator, though some people feel she passes for a chestnut-going-gray. 

This is the second model my friend Kelly K. enabled for me. I wasn’t drawn for Flamingo, but she was, and she let me buy hers at cost.

 

 

#B-TR-10018 Picante was a Flagship store special run in 2024. Flagship stores earn the qualification by purchasing a minimum amount of inventory. I believe the closest one to me is Kraynaks, so I had planned to buy Picante on our annual Black Friday trip later that year, but my friend and BreyerFest roomie Heather M. picked one up for me from her local flagship retailer and brought her to BreyerFest for me. I had hopes of showing Picante as a part-Arab, but she emerged with a significant box rub on her side, darn it.

My Weather Girl conga will grow by at least one more when I finally decide to accept the high secondary market prices on the bay Grace and fork over the cash for one. The only others on my Weather Girl want list are unobtainiums - Winter Haven (8 made), glossy Thunderstorm (13 made), and glossy Partly Cloudy (11 made). A friend of mine has teased potentially selling her glossy Thunderstorm someday; I told her I’d be interested if she’d be willing to take time payments for the rest of my life.

Sentimental Journey: #709 Fighting Stallion

In my December Sentimental Journey post, I mentioned my amazement upon getting the 1990 box catalog and realizing how many models Breyer made. I didn’t know what a spreadsheet was back then, but you better believe I grabbed a notebook and started making my first ever wish list.

The horse in today’s post was at the top of the list. Yes, even above the Shams.

 

 

I fell in love with the #709 Fighting Stallion as soon as I saw him. [Catalog photo courtesy of Identify Your Breyer.] They made a model that was spicy? Hell yeah, sign me up! Unfortunately, 1990 was the last year of his production, and the internet wasn’t a thing yet, and neither my parents nor I knew where I could get one.

 

It would be more than 20 years before I had one on my shelves.

When I restarted collecting in 2010, I visited Model Horse Sales Pages almost every day. I’m sure there were a few #709 Fighting Stallions posted here and there, but I didn’t spring for one for awhile. The entire production run of #709 occurred during the bad plastic years, and many were severely yellowed and/or shrinking and/or oozing. I didn’t want just any #709 - I wanted a really, really nice one. I'd already waited a long time; I could wait awhile longer for the right one.

 

 

Then this guy was posted in February 2012 and I didn’t hesitate. He was the nicest one I'd seen since I started actively hunting for one.

I will admit, I was a little afraid to pull him down for photos a couple weekends ago. Bad plastic models are fine until one day they’re not; the Little Bits QHS and black JCP CAF that have been occupying my freezer for the past six months are evidence of that. I gave Mr. #709 a thorough once-over before bringing him downstairs for his photo shoot.

 

He’s awesome. Nice and white, and he’s still just as tall as my 60s glossy gray appaloosa (who will be featured in this series next month).

Worth the wait for sure. 

Fantastic Finds: Thrift Store Love Classics

I mentioned in my last blog post that a potential liberation was in the works. It didn’t turn out to be quite what we thought, but it was a liberation nonetheless, so I’m shuffling the order of my posts around so Fantastic Finds is up first this month.

 

 

The liberation started on Sunday afternoon when Heather B sent me this picture from a random thrift store group. Someone was asking about the set of cat dishware. Heather said, “Peek the ponies below! That’s a CMM!”

The Jet Run on the right was obvious, but I found it absolutely hilarious that she could recognize the Classic Mustang Mare in the bottom center from only 1/8 of its shadowed rear end. We were both convinced it was the JCP bay.

The store was closer to me than Heather, but closed on Sunday, so I made plans to head down Monday after work. I spent a goodly amount of time walking through the store, looking for the cat dishware or any horse-shaped object, but saw absolutely nothing. I thought maybe I was at the wrong store, since they have multiple locations. After one more careful pass, I finally spotted the cats, but the horses were definitely not on the shelves. I thought I was too late.

 

 

Cue the “jumbled models in a box on the floor” scene.

There were nine in total - the CMM, a Classic QH Family, a Nursing Mare & Foal, a charcoal FAF, a black appy Scratching Foal, and the Jet Run. 

 

The Sears CMM was pretty rubbed up and clearly wasn't the JCP bay that had prompted the liberation in the first place, but between her cheap price tag and Heather’s “No Love left behind” mentality, I bought her. I'll get her to Heather in early October when I see her at the GPMHS show - and she better not get any funny ideas about trying to pay me, after all the models she's given to me for free over the years!

 

Almost all the rest of the models had custom green felt pads stuck to the bottom of their feet, and the trads had clear nail polish on their hooves. I left the Nursing Mare & Foal, Jet Run, FAF, and Scratching Foal for someone else to find.

 

This set - #3045 Quarter Horse Family, a regular run from 1974-1993 - came home with me. Twenty years of production leaves lots of room for fun variations, as you'll see with the Mare.

The Mare is the reason for the purchase - she has black paint all the way up onto her belly. I included the pic I snapped of her at the thrift store because my dining room lighting kinda blunted the effect. She's awesome. And by now, yinz are familiar with my rules about sets - once I decided I wanted the Mare, I couldn’t leave the Stallion and Foal behind, despite their unfortunate nail-polish-remover socks.

I’m probably gonna show the Mare in October for funsies, provided I can find a way to remove the felt pads. [Taking suggestions if readers know any; if not, I'll turn to one of the model groups on Facebook.] Her show name will be La Brea.