On a Regular Basis: 1992 Traditional Models

As I mentioned back in my November post about my Morgans, 1992 was one of my favorite years for regular run models. I’ve talked about a few of my 1992 models already, so they’ll only get a brief mention here, but today I thought I’d cover the rest of the Traditionals, and next month I’ll do the Classics.

I wasn’t keeping detailed records of my collection back then - I didn’t even know what a spreadsheet was (gasp!) - so I don’t know the exact dates or methods by which I acquired the vast majority of these models. All but one were definitely acquired prior to September 1992, when I photographed my collection for the first time. In absence of a timeline, I’ll go in numerical order by their issue number.

 

 

This is #854 Memphis Storm, the 1992 Commemorative Edition of 7500 pieces. 

You could also call him, “Why Mel Initially Fell in Love With Shiny Things, Exhibit A.”

I have in my records that he’s #5143/7500, but I’ll be damned if I can find where that’s written on him. I thought perhaps his belly, but I can’t see it. I wonder if the ink has faded over the years?

The Midnight Sun mold has fallen out of favor over the years due to its “big lick” stance, which has historically been trained into the horses using a painful, abusive, horrible practice called soring. I won’t go into it here; it’s awful. Many collectors have gotten rid of their Midnight Sun molds for that reason. The few I have are from my childhood collection, and I can’t bring myself to part with them yet.

 

 

This is #855 Chaparral, the 1992 Limited Edition, and he has the honor of being the first Fighting Stallion in my collection. I was in love with the mold as soon as I saw #709 (the black leopard appy guy) in the 1990 catalog. Breyer produced a TON of regular run Fighting Stallions in the 90s and early 2000s (and a few Special Runs as well), so he was not by himself for long.

 

 

#858 Vermont Morgan got his turn in the spotlight in my November On a Regular Basis post, so you can go check out his deets there.

 

 

This model, #859 Family Appaloosa Stallion, was produced from 1992-1994. He initially belonged to my sister, who collected for a couple years in the early 90s. She gave me all her models when we reached adulthood, which was awesome of her.

 

 

Ever want to know if a Breyer has started to yellow? Bring it over to my house and we’ll stand it next to this gal, #860 Family Appaloosa Mare, who is so white she’s almost blue. If I’m ever questioning if something of mine is yellowed, out it comes and out she comes, and I stand them next to each other, and it’s immediately clear.

Like the stallion above, she was also produced from 1992-1994. She gets to go to all-collectibility shows when there’s a division for 90s RR models. Her show name is Proof Positive.

 

 

This model, #861 Family Appaloosa Foal, also produced from 1992-1994, is the only one for whom I know the details of his acquisition. After realizing upon my re-emergence into the hobby in 2010 that I had only 2/3 of the family, I started low-key looking for him. It didn’t take me long. A seller posted one for sale on MH$P in April 2011, and the family became complete.

 

 

Oh look, a Sham!

This is #863 Rana, who I think was supposed to be a blue taffy, maybe? That’s the only color interpretation that remotely makes sense, but even that’s a stretch. I’ve seen it called a lot of things; my official description for it is Weird. He’s still one of my faves, though, and one of my first handful of Shams. He was a regular run from 1992-1993.

 

 

I’ve always loved the cheeky little Running Foal. This is #865 Bluegrass Foal, a regular run from 1992-1994. His color was described as blue roan, and that’s mostly true, I suppose, though he’s lacking the characteristic dark head that most roans have.

 

 

#867 Tesoro got his few minutes of fame back in February’s On a Regular Basis post when I talked about my El Pastors. You can revisit his details there.

 

 

I loved this guy, #868 Highland Clydesdale, as soon as I saw his picture in the catalog. He’s still my favorite Clydesdale Stallion in my collection - yes, even above the shiny bay thing from 2002. 

I was looking him over the other day when I went to take his photo, and he could be the poster child for, “When he was NIB, the side you could see looks great, but the box side is atrocious.” He has so many boogers in his molding, it’s insane. It’s like they gobbed a bunch of plastic and hairballs on him and then painted over it all. Poor guy.

Next month I’ll go over my 1992 Classics!

Do That Conga: Stone ISH, Part 5

We’re up to the last ISH body style - Long Mane Short Tail - and while I only have one, and he's amazing, the story is a little embarrassing.

 

 

In March 2023, a seller posted this ISH for sale on the Peter Stone Sales Page Facebook group. The only accompanying info was that he was a test painted by Tom Bainbridge. I have been a fan of everything Tom Bainbridge since the late 90s, and the price was too good to pass up, so I bought it. The seller didn’t know anything about the model; he’d purchased it in a lot from California with a dozen other Stones. The model wasn’t in Stone’s website archives, nor was it on Stone Horse Reference. It was also confusingly signed “Custom Painted” on its belly, so I wasn’t sure if it was a factory horse or one that Tom might have done himself in his own studio. It looked OF to me, but I didn’t want to assume and show him in the wrong division.

 

I have a couple friends who are friends with Tom, and they suggested I message him to see if he had any memory of the model or at least if he could tell if it was OF or not. I wasn’t optimistic that I’d get a response - after all, I was just some rando sending him a PM on Facebook Messenger - let alone that he’d remember what the model was, out of the hundreds (thousands?) he’s painted over the years, let alone that he’d remember one from 20 years ago, since the model was signed 2003.

Well, Tom being the outstanding, kind human that he is, he did answer - and he did remember the horse. He said he’s 100% certain he painted it at the factory and that it’s OF, and said he “always thought he was quite striking.” Tom was almost positive the model was to be auctioned at Anti-NAN 2003. I reached out to a few people to see if I could find records of the auction items that year, but no dice. I’m perfectly happy to take Tom at his word; his reputation in the hobby is impeccable.

The embarrassing part is that as someone who has admired Tom’s work for almost thirty years and has had a Tom custom or test piece on my grail list forever, I was pretty much fangirling the entire conversation, and then messaged my friends that OH MY GOD TOM BAINBRIDGE TALKED TO ME.

Not one of my most dignified moments, for sure.
 

I’ve plunked the mystery ISH on the table a time or two; his show name is Tommaso.

Stone hasn’t used the LMST body style all that often, so the only one on my wish list is Make My Lapis, a blue pinto. As far as Tom Bainbridge ISHs, I’d love to give OOAKs Firestarter or Absinthe a forever home someday, but I doubt I'll ever find them.

That’s it for the ISHs … now to decide what conga I want to do next!

Sentimental Journey: Two Special Mid-States Distributing Models

Breyer issued a special run Traditional model through Mid-States Distributing from 1996-2016. Mid-States Distributing isn’t a store in and of itself; they supply probably thirty-ish farm store chains. None were ever local to me, and I wasn’t active in the hobby between high school graduation in 1997 and my return after grad school in 2010, so it didn’t really bother me that I couldn’t get the models.

Then I restarted with the hobby in 2010, and finding every possible store where I could get Breyers became a thing. The 2009 Mid-States model was also a Lady Phase, who I was actively conga-ing at the time, so it became even more important to find one. Unfortunately, there still weren’t any Mid-States Distributing retailers close to me, so I had to resort to getting the models I wanted on the secondary market instead of being able to hand-pick them myself.

Enter my awesome, ever-enabling sister.

She moved out to Lafayette, IN, around 2008-2009 to complete her doctorate at Purdue. There were Rural King stores all over the place out there, which often carried the Mid-States models. The first time I visited, she drove me to a Rural King store to see if we’d have any luck.

 

 

Not only did we find the 2009 Mid-States model, #710716 Red Rock, but there were probably at least 20 for me to choose from! I picked the one with the most even roaning and nicest shading. She’s #1634 of 3000. She’s shown for me a few times under the name Mercury’s Redstone Rocket. As with most of my models, I wanted a throwback to her original name, and I’m pretty fascinated by the history of space flight, so it fit.

 

 

The 2010 Mid-States model was #701718 Thunderbolt, a gray appaloosa on the Foundation Stallion mold. Unlike Red Rock, I knew I wasn’t ever going to show Thunderbolt and thus didn’t need to hand-pick one, so I asked my sister if she could swing by and grab him for me at some point during her travels. And being as awesome and ever-enabling as I mentioned above, she did. He’s #1804 of 2900.

I have a few other Mid-States SRs, but these two are the most sentimental because of the connection to my sister. I’ll get to the rest of them in a future Special Effects post.