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.

Off-Script: BreyerFest Recap, Part 3

Never in a million years did I ever think I'd take a photo like this.

 

Well, I guess that's not entirely true. The morning of the show, as I was driving up the winding curves of Alltech Lane towards the arena, marveling at the giant clouds of gnats that were so thick I mistook them at first for patches of fog, I did say out loud to myself, "I'm winning a glossy prize model today." I laughed out loud after I said it - how utterly ridiculous - but I had a feeling.

 

It's happened before. When I worked with chronically mentally ill adults, I used to randomly sense things about patients; more often than not, the crisis phone would ring a day or two later, or we'd get a call that the patient had presented for evaluation at the hospital. It happened often enough to freak out my boss. 

 

Two weeks prior to BreyerFest, at my bowling league, we all bought our individual 50/50 tickets and our team 50/50 tickets as usual. When they announced that it was time for the drawing, I looked at our tickets, then at my teammates, and said, "Someone at this table is winning tonight." And we did, on a group ticket. 

 

I don't really believe in precognition or psychic abilities or willing things into reality by saying them out loud. I'm way too logic-based for that. But maybe, once in awhile, something aligns just right and logic takes a back seat to what the universe wants to happen.

 

The horse that won the glossy prize model is a regular run G1 Morgan Mare (#5038, made from 1976-1987) that I found via an advertised yard sale on Craigslist in August 2012. The ad just mentioned Breyers, so I wasn't sure what to expect. When I arrived, there were five of them all jumbled up in a box - a springtime frolic Ashley, a dark palomino G3 Standing Stock Horse from the Riding Academy set, a buckskin G1 Morgan Stallion, a leopard appaloosa G1 QHS, and the Morgan Mare, who I named Clarissa. The Ashley was priced at $3; the rest were $1 apiece. Five models for $7, and three of them G1s? Not a bad deal at all.

 

Being all thrown together in the box, I expected the worst, but Clarissa was pristine and had really nice shading. I don't show my minis all that much anymore (because I'm usually judging them!) but Clarissa has made the table probably a dozen times. She's accumulated a bunch of 2nd through 5th place ribbons in her show career. Never first place, though. She was always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

 

Then she did this at BreyerFest Live. I was beside myself - she'd finally come out on top! At one of the craziest shows there is, where you could put a horse with two dozen NAN cards and multiple NAN championships on the table and it might not get a single look. And she achieved my solitary goal for the show, which was getting a single ribbon out of 40 models shown. In my first class of the day!

 

I would have been happy enough with just that. 

 

I put her back up for section callbacks, but didn't expect her to really do anything there. First place in the Arabian class was a LOVELY bay G1 Arab Stallion, and a mulberry Alborozo SM had taken first in the Andalusian/Lusitano class. If it were my callback table and I were judging purely on breed and conformation, I would pin both of those over the G1 Morgan Mare - even a really nice one like Clarissa. That's fully what I expected to happen in the callback class.

 

The G1 Arab Stallion was announced as section reserve, which made sense to me - as I said, he'd have been one of my picks. I thought sure they'd call the Alby as section champ. But then they said, "Clarissa, owned by Melissa Grant."

 

I'm positive my friend Macie shrieked even louder than I did, as she was sitting right next to me. My friend Chesna came over, high-fived or hugged me (I don't even remember at this point), and said, "See? And you weren't even gonna show!"

 

She was right - I almost didn't. My mental health was so, so terrible all spring, and getting ready for BFL felt like too much. I also didn't think I could compete on a stage as large (or unpredictable) as BFL. In the weeks leading up to BFL, I drafted a few emails to Michelle, backing out, but never hit send because my friends talked me back into showing, every time I tried to quit.

 

Shortly after I floated back to my table with Clarissa and my prize model, my friend Korin handed me this sticker, which could not have been more appropriate or more meaningful.

 

My day was made right there, but I still had the entire rest of the show to go. No other model did as well as Clarissa, but I still came home with 10 ribbons! That's way more than I expected given the show and the size of the classes. Here are all my winners:

 

 

I was gonna talk about each one in detail, but I'll save that for my Show Stoppers series once I get the blog back to normal in August. This post is getting long enough already.

 

I never expected to enjoy BFL as much as I did, and it wasn't just the prize model that made the day fun. I thought I'd be running around like a maniac and missing classes left and right, but the show was extremely well-paced (we were done by 3:00!) and yet easy to follow, so I mostly sat and gabbed with my friends all day. It was the highest-stakes show I've ever done, by a lot, but it didn't really feel like that most of the time. [Except waiting for that final overall callback table to be judged. I thought my stomach was going to eat itself, even though I knew in my gut that Clarissa had done all she was going to do.] Chunk brought us some amazing fried chicken and sides for lunch. I got to cheer on my friends Mackenzie, Donna, Rachel, Amanda, Jackie, and Korin when they also won Shiny Prize Things, and also cheered on Macie as she tried to complete the ribbon rainbow. It's the most fun I've had at a show in a really, really long time.

 

Moral of the story: if you have friends who believe in you when you don't believe in yourself, friends who know you well enough to understand that you'll have a good time if you just give it a shot, friends who tell you that you can do something when you think you can't - keep those people close to you, cherish them, and listen to them, because they're probably right.