On a Regular Basis: #683 Colorful Foals Gift Set

Back in February, as I was moving some models around to take blog photos, I experienced a calamity in the form of multiple broken G2 Rearing Arabs, who plummeted to their doom and snapped legs off like twigs as soon as they hit the hardwood floor.

It almost made me give up the blog.

Instead, I’ve been confining myself to writing about the models I already have photographed. That’s actually a decent amount of my collection, so it hasn’t been too much of hinderance so far.

For today’s regular run post, I’m going to talk about three little shits that multiplied themselves literally overnight (it’s not my fault, I swear!) and have turned into an unintended popcorn horse - the leopard appaloosa Classic Andalusian Foal from the #683 Color Foals Gift Set. I also have a couple of the models that have accompanied him in those sets, so they’ll get their turn today also,

 

 

My first acquisition from the #683 sets was this shaded dun Classic Quarter Horse Foal (CQHF), whom I purchased through Model Horse Sales Pages in November 2018. I’d been on the lookout for a nice one for awhile. The CQHF was only part of the #683 set in 2005, and was then replaced with Rojo for the rest of the run after Breyer lost the rights to produce the HR molds. The CQHF isn’t as easy to find, since he was only in the set for part of a year, and he also tends to be outstanding as far as the depth of his color and shading, so the ones that come up for sale aren’t cheap.

I knew this guy wasn’t minty-mint when I bought him, but he arrived in worse shape than the seller’s photos showed. It wasn’t worth the hassle of a refund/return, so I kept him. I would still like to find a showable one someday.

 

 

This is the Rojo from the set, who replaced the CQHF sometime in 2005. Aside from the noticeable difference in the conformation of the sculpts - the CQHF is pretty well put-together, while Rojo is definitely a more artistic sculpt - they also didn’t take nearly the time with the paint jobs on the Rojos, as they tend to be much flatter and more monochrome than the CQHF. Still, I conga all the Mesteno molds, and this Rojo was one I needed for my collection. He and the Classic Andalusian Foal on the left in the photo below were acquired from my friend Heather B in July 2020.

 

And then they multiplied.

I’ve loved the Classic Andalusian Foal since I was a kid, with his cute little cocked head and those giant eyes. Even though I’m typically not an appaloosa person, I’ve always been impressed with the detail on this particular paint job - they tend to have nice body shading and several layers of spots, from the large round ones to tiny flecked ones. It wasn’t a hardship to get one in the set when I bought the Rojo.

Fast forward to 2024, when I went over to Heather B’s house to hang out. Heather was trying to purge some things, so we were sitting on the floor going through her sales stuff, while one of her cats, Wally, who had never met me before that day, shoved my arm out of the way and made himself right at home in my lap. (I love all of Heather’s cats, but Wally is far and away my favorite favorite. He is the best, sweetest little old man cat who just wants to love and be loved.) Heather is a giant Maureen Love sculpt fan and had bought numerous #683 sets in the hunt for a nice, showable CQHF. She had the little leopard Andy Foals already sitting aside and turned to me and said, “Mel, you’re taking those home with you.” I told her I already had one, from the set I’d bought from her several years ago, but she insisted. She also wouldn’t let me pay her for them. They’re the middle and right foals in the picture above.

They're all slightly different as far as the size and concentration of their spots, so how could I possibly part with any of them?

Maybe, when I finally find a showable CQHF from this set, he'll be for sale by himself … but if not, these little Classic Andalusian Foals are in danger of further multiplication.

Do That Conga: Stone ISH, Part 2

Last month, I embarked on my ever-growing ISH conga, talking about the short mane/short tail body style. This month, I’ll talk about my long mane/long tail ISHs. There are seven of them. The eighth I thought I had is actually a long mane/short tail who was labelled incorrectly in my spreadsheet (gahhhhh, this data nerd is cringing in horror!) I’ve already written the content for him, so I could probably toss him onto this post anyway, but since July's conga post will need to go up a mere two days before I leave for BreyerFest, I'm gonna save him for then. July Mel will profusely thank April Mel for already having a post ready to go.

 

 

This DAH ISH was my second ISH ever. I ordered him in May 2017. He’s seal bay with dapples, painted by Julie Keim, whose seal bays are absolutely to die for. I ordered gloss, of course, because all bays should be glossed, though he initially arrived to me in matte and I had to send him back to get his proper coat of shiny.

This horse kicks ass and takes names in the show ring. He was the overall breed champion at his first ever show and continues to do well almost ten years after his purchase despite the gargantuan size of Stone Paint classes. He's definitely not the flashiest Paint out there, but he is correct - the badger face is a sabino trait, so I gave him knee-high whites on the front and extreme high (up onto the belly) whites on the rear legs to be consistent with that, and blue eyes because the white covers them both. His show name is Zenith.

 

 

I’ll give you two guesses as to who painted this ISH - Letting Go, a run of 10 for Art of the Horse 2021 - but you’re only gonna need one.

Yet again, Mel falls victim to a lovely light flaxen chestnut painted by Audrey Dixon.

I’m pretty sure I stalked the website the day he was released so I could make sure I got one. I adore his soft color. I left him matte; I wasn’t sure if the color would go too orange or yellow in gloss. I’ve seen glossed ones and while they didn't stray too far into orange or yellow territory, I do like him better in matte, so I’m happy with my decision. His show name is Moving On.

 

 

This is #IS17043 Goo, a run of 200 pieces for the Artisan Hall series in 2003, designed and painted by Sarah Minkiewicz. The Stone Horse Reference site says “an unknown number of mares were made.” My copy of Goo is one of them.

Goo has a story. She was a Mercari purchase in late June 2023. The seller shipped pretty quickly, but UPS didn’t see fit to deliver her for eight days. I was at BreyerFest by the time the box arrived. I was sitting in our hotel room at the CHIN one night, minding room sales, arguing via text with Chris that pickles DO NOT belong on tacos (long story), when I remembered Goo’s delivery and asked Chris to get her box off the porch. He said he already had … and if there was a horse in it, it was probably broken, because the box looked like an accordion. He sent photos.

It was bad.

Chris is afraid to be anywhere near my horses most of the time and will only go into the horse room if I'm in there with him, but I called him and begged him to open the box so I could see if Goo was okay, and so I could let the seller know if there was any damage. Chris said he was also Very Concerned and agreed to open the box. He took lots of pictures before opening and also took pictures of every step of opening the box and unwrapping her.

Miraculously, Goo survived with nary a scratch. He even took her into the horse room and set her on the floor next to one of my shelves, and sent me a “proof of life” photo.

Her show name is Treacle, because treacle tarts have a gooey filling.

 

 

Oh look, a shiny blue thing! I talked about Little Bird in my January Full Spectrum post, so you can read his deets over there, if you’re so inclined.

 

 

This model is somewhat of a mystery. He was advertised for sale in June 2024 as Monroe, a run of brindle ISHs from 2011, but those were the short mane/short tail body and had only three stockings. I let the seller know that Monroe wasn’t a match for what she had, but she kept the price as-is.

The best we can figure is that this is a OOAK ISH painted by Julie Keim somewhere around 2008 or 2009. Her initials are on the bottom of one of his hooves (she was kind enough to confirm them as hers at a show we attended together), and he’s the cream-colored plastic, which was commonly used in 2008-2009. Stone’s record-keeping at times has been as hit-or-miss as Breyer’s, so there are many OOAKs out there that have unknown origins. I provided photos and a write-up of what I knew about him to Barb Bacon, so he’s on the Stone Horse Reference site now.

His show name is Uomo Misterioso, which is Italian for Mystery Man.

 

 

This is Black Tie, a 2004 run that was evenly split between glossy stallions and glossy mares. Mine is a mare. I got her from my friend Eleanor at BreyerFest in 2024. Her show name is Just a Formality.

 

 

Dazzle was a special run for the Ginger Horse tack shop in 2004. She was evenly split between 50 glossy and 50 matte models. I bought her in November 2024 through a Facebook group that offers weekly auctions from the estate of a long-time collector. She is unshown.

There are seven long mane/long tail ISHs on my wish list: Abby, a matte Black Tie, Denali, the Holiday Horse, Miss Dainty Doc, Ragtime, and Silver Spur. The only one that might take a little bit of searching is Denali, as there are only five of him.

Factory Custom ISHs coming up next in May!

Sentimental Journey: Nautical and JCP Huck

How is it April already?

I am neither clever enough nor enough of a prankster to pull some convincing April Fools shenanigans on this blog, so it’ll just be business as usual today.

One of the best parts of BreyerFest for me is seeing all my friends. I’m lucky enough to have a close group of hobby peeps who live close to me and whom I see on the regular, but there are plenty of others whom I only see at the occasional show or at BreyerFest. My friend Susan is one of those. 

Susan has a spectacular collection of models, mostly gray and mostly of the Spanish variety. Some of the pieces she owns are jaw-dropping examples of the best artistry the hobby has to offer. She rotates other models in and out of her collection on a fairly regular basis, and when she decides to switch directions with her collection and have a sell-off, she prices her items silly cheap. I remember when she decided to part with a number of her Stone Trotting Drafts at one of our local shows, and she had them priced at like $25 each. You feel like you’re stealing from her, but she insists that’s all she wants for them. I feel like she’s wired kinda like my friend Heather, where sometimes it means more to have someone get a model they really like than to make money on it.

These two models are examples of that.

 

 

I have a modest Big Ben conga - none of the rarities, but I have all of the regular runs and most of the high-quantity special runs they’ve released. This guy, #701500 Nautical, a run of 750 pieces for the USET in 2000, was on my short list of most-wanted models from the time I went to my first BreyerFest in 2010, but the ones I’d seen for sale were always priced out of my budget. 

When I saw him in Susan’s room during BreyerFest 2015, I prepared myself to be priced out again - but she had a mere $20 on the tag. Knowing how Susan is but also not wanting to deprive a friend of a fair sale, I said, “Susan, are you sure? He’s worth much more than that.” She smiled and said something like, “Yes, but I’m especially sure because you’re the one buying him and I can tell how much you want him.”

 

 

In 2006, JCPenney released the #410146 Pinto Half-Arabian Family through their Christmas catalog. I was well into grad school by then and had taken a large step back from collecting, so I didn’t acquire them at the time, and have regretted it ever since. The Susecion & Le Fire from the set don’t come up for sale often and command quite a lot of money, often $300 and up for the pair. This guy, on the Huck Bey mold, obviously isn’t any more rare than the rest of the set, but he isn’t as popular from a mold standpoint and is thus a little more common (and less expensive) to find.

Susan had him for sale, too, mint as mint can be, for half of what he normally fetches on the market. I am overrun with Araby-things in my show string and I tend to pick my Partly Cloudy Weather Girl over him for the Part-Arabian class, but he’s made the table a few times here and there. His show name is Bashir.

I got both of these models for less than I expected to pay for one of them individually, and it was clear Susan was just as happy about that as I was. The word that comes to mind when I think about the expression on her face is “gleeful.” Buying these two models from a dear friend is such a happy memory!