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.

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.