Full Spectrum: Kaleidoscope

#711500 Kaleidoscope was a BreyerFest Limited Edition of 6500 pieces in 2021. He wasn’t a must-have at first - he looked a lot more purple in the promo photo than he ended up being. But he's blue, and you know me and blue things. The more I saw of him, the more I liked him, so I ordered one from the store.

 

The variation in paint jobs on this guy is pretty huge. Some are like mine and have more of the blue color; some are really, really rainbow. Some have large spots, some have tiny ones. I can see myself buying more over the years and ending up with a ... full spectrum.

 

See what I did there? 

Full Spectrum: Prism #2

Before we get to today's rainbow pony - as promised, here is Donut Oliver.

 

 

He's doing really well, healing up nicely, inhaling his food like always, stinking up the entire house anytime he poops (seriously, how can such a tiny thing produce that much stench!), and being affectionate. I'm hoping, and I'm sure he is too, that things look good enough tomorrow afternoon that we can remove the donut.

 

I'm going to go a little out of order with today's rainbow pony. Kaleidoscope was supposed to be next, but I don't have a pic of him, so I'm going to swap him out with my second copy of Prism.

 

 

With a few notable exceptions (cough cough Sham), I don't usually have duplicates in my collection, but this guy has a really awesome story and is one of my never-sells.

 

In early December 2023, I had a supervisor at work named Jade. She taught me how to get started in Power BI, a data analysis and visualization tool that is by far the best and most rewarding thing I do at my job. She and I were super close and still text to this day, even though she is now working elsewhere. She knew all about my Breyer collection. Before Christmas that year, she and I had this text exchange:

Jade: I FOUND A BREYER AT GOODWILL ON MONDAY!!! Coolest one ever!!!!

 

Me: Send me a pic!

Jade: No way, I bought it for you for Christmas. It was too perfect to leave behind, plus I googled it and was like, "Well that's a good deal, I'm taking you to a very good home little dude/ette."

 

Knowing that a Goodwill find can be anything from a super rare deco to a common regular run missing a limb or half its paint, I wasn't sure what to expect, but Jade was beside herself with excitement to give it to me, and she'd said it was in great condition, and she was able to find it using google, so I figured it was probably something at least moderately cool. We met up right after New Year's for our exchange.

 

I couldn't believe that Prism was the one she found! She got him for less than $20. His original cost was $60 and his secondary market sales were $150 and up at the time, so her excitement over the price was well justified. She even wrapped his mane and tail in bubble wrap before boxing him up to give to me. It was so professional that, had I not known that these guys came in the regular clear-front boxes with wire ties, I'd have thought it had been done at the factory.

 

He’s A LOT redder around his head than my original guy, one of the darkest I've seen, so that’s how I tell him apart from my original. I think of Jade and our friendship every time I see him.

Full Spectrum: Pollock

Gah, I missed a post deadline again! (And why is there not a facepalm emoji on this thing?)

 

In my defense, Oliver got neutered today, and I was picking him up, getting him home, witnessing his rather traumatizing epic freakout when I put the e-collar on him, running to Petco to purchase alternatives, and worrying about him (because even though I'm on anti-anxiety meds now, I'm still me) during the time I would normally be writing my Monday post.

 

For the record, he's fine. We put him back in the sunroom, since that's where he's most comfortable, and gave him lots of quiet space to decompress. We successfully swapped out the hard plastic e-collar for a soft donut one, and while he is Not A Fan of the donut, he's much less terrified of it than he was of the hard plastic cone. We lured him out from behind the sofa with a couple small plates of wet food and some of his dry food, and by the end of the evening, he was flopping on his side (as much as the donut would allow) and purring and making air biscuits and letting me rub his belly. After a rough day for us both, it was nice to see a glimpse of my normal cat, and to see that the trust between us hasn't completely imploded.

 

I'll post a picture of "Donut Oliver" as soon as he allows me to take one.

 

In the meantime, here's another rainbow thing. Excuse the presence of the Seven Arts Surprise in the photo below - this is the only pic I had on hand on short notice!

 

 

BreyerFest special run lineups tend to be all or nothing for me. I either need everything (this year, cough cough) or I need almost nothing. 2021 was one of the latter years. The only model I wanted from the special runs was the rainbow #711398 Pollock, a run of 1600 pieces. 

 

BreyerFest was online again that year and your selections were assigned to you based on your preference list and where you fell in the picking order. (That would become the norm for all BreyerFests going forward, even if you're there in person.) Pollock was insanely popular and I didn’t think I had much of a chance of getting drawn to buy one, especially since many people chose him with their VIP tickets. But I logged in the first morning of Virtual BreyerFest and there he was in my cart. While waiting for him to arrive, I prayed the entire time that he wouldn’t be the 200-piece gold variation, because that one had very little rainbow color compared to the original. I was probably one of the only people wishing for the more common, less valuable model, and happily that's what I got. 

 

I’ve only shown him once or twice; his show name is Magically Delicious, for obvious reasons.