Special Effects: Classic Gambler's Choice Models, Part 1

In July 2016, Breyer conducted a poll to vote on four colors for an upcoming Collector Club exclusive release on the Classic-scale Swaps mold. The release was named Scotty and the colors were modeled after previous releases - Jazz Fusion (glossy bay pinto), Fandango (matte dun), Burbank (matte bay roan appaloosa), and Uncalled For (glossy silver bay). In 2017, Breyer announced that all but the matte dun were so closely tied that they decided to do a gambler’s choice release on the other three colors, in quantities of 500 pieces each - and it was such a hit that they did another Classic gambler's choice later that year, and have continued to do one every year since.

For the March and April Special Effects posts, I’ll be covering the Classic gambler’s choice models in my collection.

 

 

#712231 Scotty in glossy silver bay was part of the first gambler’s choice release in 2017, as I said above, but is actually the most recent gambler’s choice Classic to join my collection. I liked all three colors, but for whatever reason, I didn’t participate that year. I’ve been low-key hunting them ever since.

With a finite quantity of 500 apiece and extreme popularity as both the first release and one of the best color lineups, they can get pricey on the secondary market. I lucked into this silver bay at the BVG Live Show and swap meet in April 2025. He was priced at only $30 - that’s less than he would have cost to get him direct from Breyer if you factor in shipping. I was so busy showing that I didn’t get to check out the swap meet vendors until lunchtime. I couldn’t believe he was still sitting there with that price tag on him. Lucky me!

 

I’m interested in the other two colors, but like the silver bay, I can wait to find a good deal.

 

 

#712237 Calvin was also released in 2017 with quantities of 500 apiece. All three had the same appaloosa pattern and leg/face markings, but the colors were different. Felice had a Collector Club membership that year, so I was able to order one on “her” account and one on mine. The blue was my first choice, but I received two bays. I traded one with my friend Ellen for her extra chestnut. Where I got the blue guy remains a mystery.

 

 

#712261 Callahan was the Classic gambler’s choice release on the Shire B mold in 2018. There were three colors, styled after popular releases on the Wintersong mold - a glossy palomino pinto like Pamplemousse, a matte silver bay like Silverado, and a silver filigree like Silver Snow. Unlike the past two releases, Breyer didn’t announce a finite quantity. As was the pattern by then, I wanted the silver bay the most, and received the other two with my membership and Felice’s. I was later able to trade the silver filigree with my friend Jackie for her silver bay.

I’ll probably sneak them into some photos with their larger counterparts, Pamplemousse and Silverado, once I get to my Wintersong conga.

 

 

#712302 Lancelot was the 2019 Classic gambler’s choice on the Man O’ War mold, in three colors - glossy interference blue, glossy palomino, and matte bay appaloosa. Blue was again my clear first choice, and again I received two bay appaloosas. As I mentioned in my Winter Blues post in January, Heather B came through for me and straight traded her blue for one of my bay appaloosas. I’m still on the hunt for a glossy palomino.

Next month I’ll get to Nayati, Slyder (of which one has a cool story) and my personal favorite of all the gambler’s choice releases, Zayn.

On a Regular Basis: Salinero

I’m not sure if I’ve said this yet, but the head on a model is often the deciding factor on whether I like it or not. Head shape, facial expression, eyes, and markings matter a lot for me. I can like an extreme pinto or loud appaloosa model if it has a solid dark head (cough cough, Decimus). I can dislike a solid-bodied horse if it has a large bald face or other giant white face marking, even if it’s a sculpt I generally love. Fandango on the Moody Andalusian Stallion comes to mind for that one - great sculpt, great color, but the face marking totally puts me off him. If a mold’s head and face are good enough - the Victrix/Veronka resin for me, for example - I can like it any way it comes.

Salinero, sculpted by Brigitte Eberl, has a great head and face. I love his Roman nose and kind eyes. I fell in love with him as soon as he was released.

I have seven total on the mold, and four have already been featured in the blog - Riesling in December’s Show Stoppers post, Prague in my December Bonus post, and Salvino and El Capitan in January’s Special Effects posts, which covered event models. The other three are regular runs, so they’re on deck for today.

 

 

#704 Keltec Salinero was a regular run from 2007 to 2009 and the first release on the mold. He was sculpted and named after the real Keltec Salinero, a Hanoverian stallion who won two individual golds, a team silver, and a team bronze at various Olympics from 2004 - 2012 with rider Anky van Grunsven. Despite my instant love for the mold, I didn’t add a Keltec Salinero to my collection until April 2019, when another PA collector had a massive liquidation sale. My friend Beth E helped me snag him. I have not shown him.

 

 

#1802 Verdades, a regular run from 2018 to 2020, was a portrait the real horse of the same name, a Dutch Warmblood who won bronze at the 2016 Olympics with rider Laura Graves in addition to medals at various World Championships, World Cup Finals, and Pan American Games. He sadly passed away at age 23 right before Christmas last year.

I hand-picked my Verdades in the Breyer store at BreyerFest 2019. He’s only been entered in photo shows so far. His show name is Adverse, which is an anagram of his name (minus one d).

 

 

#1411 Cloud Nine was a regular run during the second half of 2010 only. He was from the Collector’s Choice series, in which Breyer chose mold and color combinations based on suggestions submitted through their website. I bought my Cloud Nine from Heather B in May 2021. Like many models produced in the early 2010s, which were produced from a plastic mix that contained too much regrind, he’s gone quite yellow over the years. Before he yellowed too badly, I showed him under the name MVP.

Since I love Salinero so much, there are a bunch on my wish list. Easiest to obtain will be 2012-2013 regular run Mistral Hojris and a glossy Verdades from the 2019 Customer Appreciation Event sale. Someday I’ll probably fork over big bucks for the star dapple gray Elegance Dressage set. Unobtainiums include the glossy 2007 BreyerFest Live Show Prize Keltec Salinero and the 2007 BreyerFest raffle model Tacoma.

Do That Conga: Stone ISH, Part 1

With four “Do That Conga” posts under my belt, it’s time to start on one of my biggest congas: the Stone ISH.

If I graphed my Stone ISH purchasing over the years, it would look kinda like the BreyerFest auction prices graph - steady for years, a slight uptick, and then WHAM, into the stratosphere. Through the end of 2022, I had five ISHs; with the purchase of Ima Shifty Goodbar last Thursday, I’m now at 29.

The ISH was sculpted by Carol Williams, premiered in 1999, and was originally issued in four body styles (mare/stallion changes notwithstanding):

• Short mane/short tail (SM/ST)
• Short mane/long tail (SM/LT)
• Long mane/short tail (LM/ST)
• Long mane/long tail (LM/LT)

They started experimenting with factory customs in 2002 or so, turning ears and changing manes and tails and such, and now hundreds of variations of the ISH exist. There have been over 130 different customizations available just for the Design-A-Horse program.

I got curious about the distribution of the body styles amongst my ISHs, so I did a quick count. Turns out I’m pretty in love with the mold no matter what they do with it. I have 9 with factory customization, 8 long mane/long tail, 6 short mane/long tail, and 6 short mane/short tail. The non-customized long mane/short tail body has been used much more rarely than the otheres - only eleven releases prior to 2005, while there were dozens of releases on the other body styles. I’m not surprised I don’t have any of those in my collection ... yet.

Since my distribution of body styles is fairly even, they'll split up nicely over the next four months of Do That Conga posts. My first ISH was a short mane/short tail, so I’m going to start with those today. The next body style I picked up was a long mane/long tail, so those will be featured in April. ISH #3 was a factory custom, so I’ll go over those in May, and I’ll finish up in June with the short mane/long tail ISHs.

 

 

Whilst wandering the CHIN during BreyerFest 2014, I happened into the room of a hobby friend, Beth D. This lovely ISH, #9997 Legacy, a run of 250 models in 2000 for subscribers of The Hobby Horse News magazine, was standing there on the shelves and priced at only $40. I’m not an appaloosa person, but I love red duns, and Legacy was pretty adamant about coming home with me.

I’d bought a totally random model from Beth the year prior, a customized Breyer Saddlebred Weanling, so I said something like, “Well, Beth, you got me again!” when I handed her the money for Legacy. Because of that, Legacy’s show name is Double or Nothing. She has done surprisingly well in the show ring for being an older model - and extra so because until writing this blog post, I didn’t realize she was a mare, and I have shown her as a stallion her entire life. Oops!

 

My next short mane/short tail ISH didn’t come along until November 2022. My friend Chesna hosted a swap meet in Ohio right before Thanksgiving that year. I took a bunch of models with me, hoping to make some great sales prior to Christmas. I wasn’t supposed to buy anything.

Apparently, older ISHs priced at $40 are my kryptonite, because that’s what happened again here.

This is #9978 Gigabyte, a run of 575 models produced in 2000 for the Haynet online community and distributed through P.S. Cord & Co. [I tried googling P.S. Cord & Co. to learn more about them, but all google wanted to tell me was what cords to use for a Playstation and how to replace them if they don’t work. Womp womp.]

I walked around the swap meet hall several times that morning and kept coming back to him. I hadn’t made any sales yet, and I wasn’t supposed to buy anything, but he was so pretty that I couldn’t resist.

 

He doesn't get to come out to play much in the show ring, but when he does, his show name is Muscle Memory. 

 

 

This ISH and the next were both purchased from the same seller via Facebook in early March 2024. Early 2024 was rough for me - our cat Monti wasn’t doing well and we eventually lost him to kidney failure later in March, and the hobby itself wasn’t my favorite place for a couple reasons (which I might talk about later, but probably not). That led me to stress-buying five ISHs from the secondary market in the first three months of 2024.

First up is a glossy Rocky, a run of unknown quantity for Equine Affair in 2006. This color is outstanding and looks especially good in gloss. I’d like a matte one someday, too. He was the first one to catch my eye from the seller’s photos.

 

This shiny bay thing is Noble Steeds Coach, a run of 15 models from the 2022 Stone Super Bowl event. All runs that year were gambler’s choices - the Noble Steeds vs. the Rough Riders. While I loved the Noble Steeds bay, I didn’t care for the Rough Riders bay appaloosa with football-shaped spots in his blanket, so I chose not to take the gamble. I was super happy when I noticed Noble Steeds Coach, in gloss no less, not too far from Rocky on the seller’s shelves.

 

His show name is Outside Chance. 

 

Ahhhh, one of Mel’s most famous “What the actual f***?” purchases.

I’ve said it many times - further up this blog post, for example - I am not an appaloosa person. I am especially not a loud appaloosa person. My solid-colored-horse-loving brain tends to nope right out as soon as I see spots.

Except, apparently, when it comes to Decimus, a run of 60 pieces for Equilocity 2005.

He was on my want list for a long, long time.

On the Fourth of July in 2024, my friend Eleanor posted a few Stones for sale and said she could bring them to BreyerFest for interested buyers. Decimus was among them. So was another ISH (who I’ll get to in April) and a shiny bay Standing Draft. We made a deal for all three. Five days later, we met up at the CHIN for the exchange.

 

I don’t like appaloosas. I don’t like loud appaloosas.

I love this horse.

 

(Photo courtesy of myhomemaderecipe.com) 

 

Eleanor showed him with the name Spotted Dick. That sounds like a name my friend Chunk would come up with - he loves to think of names judges generally can't yell across a crowded show hall - but I can't say I disagree with Decimus' resemblance to the same-named dessert pictured above, so I kept it.

 

 

Vic just got his first turn in the spotlight this past weekend in my February acquisitions post, so I won’t say much else about him here, other than how much I love his color.

 

There are five short mane/short tail ISHs on my wish list: ES Bayberry, Hot Spots, and a glossy Caroline's Summer Star, who are all higher quantity older runs; and OOAKs Royal Quest and Stone Blitz, both painted by ... surprise ... Audrey Dixon. Stone Blitz came up for sale this past year at the CHIN during BreyerFest, but I sadly didn't get to the room fast enough to snag him.