Collectibility Spotlight: Web Specials, Part 1

I started talking about web specials back in May’s Full Spectrum post and covered my newest one, Belize, in last month’s New Additions post, so now seems as good a time as any to continue in that vein.

The vast majority of limited quantity web specials Breyer releases are lottery draws. If you want to enter (for yourself or someone else), you just sign up during the entry period, and then Breyer draws a random list of winners. I would estimate I got pulled from either the initial draw or the wait list about 25% of the time early on, even though the quantities were lower. These days, despite a marked increase in the quantity of each run and the fact that I enter for almost all of them, I’m lucky if I get picked once every couple years.

Most of my web specials have been acquired direct from Breyer, so with one exception, the order of acquisition matches the order of release.

 

 

In my opinion, this is one of the prettiest horses in my collection. I wish they would use this color more often because it is outstanding. #712005 Delia was the first ever Breyer Web special, a run of 500 pieces in fall 2008. I wasn’t involved in the hobby at that time; I had just graduated with my Masters degree in August that year and was still looking for my first post-Masters job, so money was tight. I started looking for one when I rejoined the hobby in 2010 and purchased my Delia a couple years later in November 2012 from a seller on MH$P. 

I showed her quite a lot after I got her - there’s not a flaw on her - but she only has two 4th place ribbons to her name. Her show name is Adelaide.

 

 

#712072 Arosa was a run of 255 pieces in December 2012. When I said my luck with drawings was better by then, this is a good example - Arosa was the third web special I’d been drawn for within a year’s span, after Mont Tremblant in December 2011 and I’m Yours in February 2012. (I have since parted with both of the latter.)

 

 Every time I make a list of potential models to sell, he ends up on it. And then I pull him off the shelf and say, "Nope, he's too pretty," and back on the shelf he goes.

 

 

 

In 2013, Breyer started releasing web specials associated with a theme. Greek Gods was the first series, and the first three releases in that series - Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo, with 225-240 pieces apiece - are highly sought after and contain commas in their price tags on the secondary market. I didn’t particularly care for Poseidon, but I have always been sad to not have been drawn for Zeus and Apollo.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get drawn for the fourth release in the series, #712098 Dionysus, a run of 250 pieces. Despite my overwhelming positive feelings towards Kathleen Moody sculpts, Ethereal has never done anything for me (it’s his mane). Throw Shiny Bay on him, though, and he quickly became a “Yes, please.”

 

 

#712134 Solar, the first release in the Celestial Series in January 2015 and a run of 350 pieces, has the distinct honor of being the first web special won by a friend and passed along to me. I love the color on him, but didn’t get drawn on my own account. Enter my friend Lori S., who got drawn but decided to pass him along, and my friend Penny L., who quickly secured him for me from Lori whilst I was away from my phone dealing with copious amounts of Angry Children and Drama at the residential facility where I worked at the time. Yay for enabling friends!

 

 

#712221 Wailua was the second release in the America the Beautiful series, a run of 350 pieces in March 2017. My friend Jackie H. is the responsible party this time, enabling me to buy him direct from Breyer when she got drawn on both of her accounts. Legionario, dapple gray, glossy - what’s not to love?

 

 

This gal, #712110 Athena, the third release in the Greek Goddesses series in May 2014 and a run of 250 pieces, was my #1 want on the Ruffian mold since the day I first heard about her release. That color is *chef’s kiss.* She immediately commanded a high price on the secondary market and remains up there today, often commanding $600-800. I snagged mine from MH$P in February 2018 for $220 shipped and considered myself lucky. She’s the only one of mine whose acquisition date isn’t anywhere near her release date.

Next month I’ll cover my other five (at least as of right now) web specials, and include my wish list of future ones to acquire, which I’m sure will be long, distinguished, and horrible for my bank account.

Special Effects: Other Mid-States Special Runs

Last month in my Sentimental Journey post, I talked about a couple Mid-States runs that had special meaning to me because my sister helped me acquire them. Today I’ll cover the other three Mid-States special runs in my collection.

 

 

#7007 Mamin Nez Perce was a run of 4400 models for Mid-States in 2007. It was love at first sight the minute I saw a picture of him - he reminded me a lot of Fortissimo, even though he’s bay instead of sooty buckskin. He was one of the models I short-listed as must-finds at BreyerFest 2010.

And find him I did, in the swap meet, for $32.

 

 

#701797 Just Incredible was a run of an estimated 5000-6000 pieces in 1997. He’s got the big circular resist dapples that Breyer favored in the late 90s, though he’s not as bad as Cloud on the Swaps mold. I always thought he was a rather attractive shade of light sorrel or dark palomino, so when my friend Ellen V posted hers for sale in July 2014, I purchased him.

 

 

#701730 Sonsela was the 2015 Mid-States special run. There was no announced quantity on her. I’m a sucker for Lady Phase and all things drastically shaded red bay (though my lighting isn't doing her any favors here), so I stopped at the Rural King in St. Clairsville, OH, on the way to the QH Congress show on 10/9/15 and hand-picked one.

I’m glad I got to choose her myself, because she does really well in the show ring, despite the general “Holy shit” size of the Breyer stock classes. Her show name is Lesson Learned.

As a general disclaimer, my posts might become shorter or more sporadic (or both) over the next two months. Our impending health record transition at work that was postponed from May is scheduled for October 3rd and a lot of things are already figuratively on fire. I’ve been working a lot of extra hours since mid-August and I expect that to steadily increase until early November, which won’t leave me with a lot of free time or spare brain cells for the blog. I have all my posts planned out and all photos taken through the end of October, so I’m hoping that allows me to stay on track. I’m going to do my darndest.

On a Regular Basis: 1992 Classics

In last month’s On a Regular Basis post, I talked about my Traditional regular run models that were first released in 1992 - one of my favorite years of new releases to date. Here are the Classics.

 

 

This little dude, #480 Mesteno, a regular run from 1992-1998, spawned a ridiculous number of conga lines. As in, every Mesteno series mold. Literally every one. I conga them all.

Like many of my early models, I don’t know when or where I got him. I took my first collection photos in September 1992, but for some reason, I only got the Traditionals. My Classics and Paddock Pals are nowhere to be found in those photos. I was really excited about the Mesteno the Messenger series, so I think I probably snagged him early in 1992, but we'll never know for sure.

 

 

#3056 Desert Arabian Family was produced from 1992-1994. Having already fallen solidly in love with the CAS (and falling more and more in love with the CAM and CAF, too), I of course had to have this set. And, well, they’re all bay things, so yeah. 

Like Mesteno, I’m not certain where or when I got them. I definitely obtained the 1993 Drinkers of the Wind TRU set prior to getting the Desert Arabian Family, though - I have distinct memories of my black JCP and gray Drinkers CASs leading a band of horses galloping across one of my shelves, and I would have put the bay CAS right up there with them if I'd had one at the time. I'm guessing I didn't get these guys til later in1993 or sometime in 1994.

 

 

The #3346 Hanoverian Family made my wish list for quite a long time, but I never managed to acquire them in my childhood. Cue room sales, BreyerFest 2012, where there they were, complete with their box. They were $3 apiece and the box was free. (I wanted to have the box in the photos also, but it’s currently buried in the horse room closet, and there are floorses in front of said closet, and I’m not moving everyone just to take a picture of a box.) 

 

I didn’t write down the room number of where I bought them (I never do) but somehow my friend Ellen V. is coming to mind. I’ll have to ask her if she remembers selling this set at BreyerFest. She has a great memory for those things - she remembered selling me a 1988 Kentucky Derby glass at one of my first BreyerFests. Though that was probably because I ugly cried in her room when I bought it. It was a replacement for one my grandma had given to me in my childhood, that I had accidentally broken shortly after she died in 2004.

Having been such a fan of the 1992 new releases, I have already acquired most of the ones I want. The only one I’m still looking for is the #3347 Trakehner Family.