Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth: That's What Friends Are For

Ok, so some housekeeping first. 

 

The right side pane now lists the blogs I follow (which I highly recommend checking out!) and I have a follow button of my own. A friend (thanks Macie!) also pointed out that my blog posts weren't listed on the side for easy catch-up. That meant scrolling ... and scrolling ... and scrolling. Which, nope, so I fixed that, too. 

 

A thousand thank yous to those who have faithfully tuned in despite my technical ineptitude. I'm apparently That Person who builds complex Power BI data models and dashboards for a living and plays with Excel formulas for fun, but has to read Reddit threads and watch YouTube videos to lay out a simple blog. Sigh.

 

On to the ponies!

 

Remember the last one of these, where I talked about my awesome friends? Today’s Gift Horse post is actually about horses this time – all the models I received as gifts from friends this year.

 

 

This awesomely maroon (ha!) dude is #10118, Beowulf, the 2024 Halloween horse. I love the Semi-Rearing Mustang – I have a dozen of the things – but I was a little leery of buying this guy because of some controversy surrounding his design. Turns out I didn’t need to worry about buying one, because my friend Heather B gifted me one in March when she found herself with an extra.

 

 

These three lovely creatures are the other Classics I got for free in April from my friend Donna S (the fourth being the Spanish Norman Toys “R” Us special run from last month’s Special Effects post).

 

 

The lighter bay is Jet Run from the #3035 U.S. Equestrian Team Gift Set, a long-standing regular run from 1980-1993. This particular Jet Run has a B stamp, indicating he was made with cellulose propionate instead of cellulose acetate, which puts his production between 1980 and 1982. (Cellulose propionate can't be reground and mixed with cellulose acetate, so they had to have a way to distinguish the former from the latter.) I have been known to seek out B stamp models in the past, so having this guy end up being one is pretty neat.

 

 

The chestnut is from the #3055 Classic Arabian Family, an even longer regular run from 1973-1991. Some had tan feet and some had gray; I’m not sure which is more common. Of my four #3055 CAMs, three have tan feet and one has gray.

 

 

The dark bay is #601, Kelso, who was a regular run from 1975-1990. He doesn’t have a Breyer stamp, indicating he’s one of the earliest releases, which is also really cool.

 

And now for a longer story.
 
The Friday of this year’s BreyerFest, I woke up with a debilitating tension headache. I’ve been getting them with increasing frequency over the past year and they’re right on par with my migraines as far as intensity, pain, and general disruption to my life. 

I was surprised by this particular headache, but looking back, I shouldn’t have been. BreyerFest is a week of sheer craziness from one end to the other, with intense heat, a lot of activity, little sleep, poor hydration, and a few missed meals, plus I was really stressed from worrying about Felice. A bad headache was practically gift-wrapped for me.
 
I couldn’t stand the thought of missing a whole day of BreyerFest, though, so I dragged myself out of bed, showered, forced myself to eat something, took a lot of ibuprofen and Tylenol, downed some Liquid IV (which is seriously amazing stuff), and went to Kentucky Horse Park with my roomies. 

Due to a severe underestimation of the number of people wanting to enter KHP on Friday morning, the line was still horrifically long at 11:30 when we arrived. My roomies braved the long line and blazing sun, and wouldn’t hear of it when I said I’d wait with them. They installed me under a tree by the gate and settled everything with the staff manning the entry so I could just hop in line when they reached the front. We picked up our special runs first, and then I held everyone’s bags and spent a good ninety minutes up in the air-conditioned section of the covered arena where the Breyer staff eat their lunches, sitting on the floor in a corner with my sunglasses on and trying not to throw up, while my roomies were waited in line and shopped at the Breyer store. A couple of the staff checked in to make sure I was okay, which I also appreciated, and said I wasn’t bothering them at all being up there. My friend Cory kindly snagged a set of the Best of BreyerFest stablemates for me while she was there, and we settled up later. My roomies took really good care of me all day.
 
Before heading back to the hotel, everyone wanted to eat, so we went to the café near the front entrance. I ordered a plain chicken sandwich, still not trusting my stomach. As I was setting my food down, my friends Beth E and Sara R came into the café. Beth said, “We got you something,” and handed me two models.
 

Beth knew I hardcore conga the G2 Appaloosa - it’s tied with the G2 Warmblood for my largest Stablemate conga, at 32 pieces - so she grabbed this guy for me from one of the sample bins in the BreyerFest store. This colorway was used in a couple sets over the years: the regular run #59197 Little Red Stable and the Target special run #720597 Red Stable Set. 

 

 

I took a picture of my sample guy (on the left) with my matching #59197 Little Red Stable model (on the right). The sample guy is darker and oranger in coloring, while the regular run is lighter and softer. I love that they’re different and easy to tell apart!

 

 

Sara was aware of how much I love the colorway on the Classic-sized American Quarter Horse Stallion from the Playful Pony Family set (first issued through Tractor Supply, now a regular run). We had even split one of the sets earlier in the year, as I only wanted the Stallion and she only wanted the Mare & Foal. As soon as she saw this sample guy in the Breyer store, she knew I had to have him. The regular run set came with some fences, which were included in the bag with him.
 
I thanked Beth and Sara both profusely and told them I’d pay them for the models, but they both said, “Nope, you’re having a hard day. We got them for you to cheer you up.”
 
I am not a crying-in-public sort of person, nor am I an “I’m going to hug you when I’m sweaty and gross” kind of person, but I sure did both that day.
 
I hope everyone is lucky enough to have friends in their life as great as the ones I have in mine.

Full Spectrum: Winter Blues, Part 1

Meteorological winter lasts from December 1 through February 28 each year, while astronomical winter lasts from the winter solstice around December 21 through the spring equinox around March 20.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, that’s a lot of cold, dark, and snow, and it’s just gotten started.

To combat that, the next three months of Full Spectrum posts will put a happier spin on the Winter Blues and feature all the models in my collection that are literally the color blue. Of all the decorator options out there, blue models are what I am most drawn to, so I have quite a few of them. Today’s post will feature the blue filigree winter decorators.

This is #712256 Benasque, the blue filigree winter decorator from 2018. There were 350 made. I was lucky enough to be drawn to purchase him from the first round and couldn't pay for him fast enough. I show him on occasion; his show name is Andorra, after the country located in the Pyrenees mountains, which is just over a hundred miles from the town of Benasque. (See what I mean about nerdy naming conventions?)

  

Five years after the smashing success of Benasque, Breyer released this guy, #712504 Vail, as their winter decorator. Despite the significantly higher piece count (1000 models), I wasn’t lucky enough to get drawn for him. My friend Kelly K was, though, and she offered to let me buy him at cost. He and Benasque lived right next to each other on the shelf until my count of Totilas models more than doubled in July when they used him as this year’s BreyerFest surprise model, and I had to do some serious rearranging.

I wouldn’t mind if one of the blue filigree Prince Charming chase piece Stablemates or the blue filigree Andalusian Foal from the La Molina and Masella set made its way into my collection someday, though I’m not actively looking for either one at the moment.

In January’s Full Spectrum, I’ll talk about my other blue Traditional & Classic scale models, and in February, I’ll show the blue Stablemates.

Collectibility Spotlight - Modern Chalkies

In November's Collectibility Spotlight, I featured the vintage chalky models in my collection. Today, I'll show some of my modern chalkies.
 
Unlike most vintage chalkies, which were basecoated out of necessity due to the different colors of plastic used for molding during the oil crisis years, modern chalkies are often a choice. Sometimes that’s a deliberate design for the entire run, like the regular run Sshameless or the BreyerFest 2020 special run Ash.

Other times, it can be a way for the company to save money by repurposing stock that didn't sell. Instead of regrinding that plastic down, reinjecting it into a new mold, and going through all the steps of cleaning and prepping prior to paint, they just toss a white basecoat over the existing paint job and paint over it. Voila! New model that skips all the expensive injection molding steps. It’s been a pretty common practice with Breyer over the years.

It’s extra fun when only part of a run ends up being chalky. Many of the TSC special runs over the past few years have had a subset of chalky models - Jesse, Hwin, and Gibson, to name a few. Partial-run modern chalkies tend to play out in the secondary market just like vintage chalkies do: they’re harder to find, more desirable, and command higher prices.

 

 

Oh look, we’re starting with a Sham again! This glossy bay is from the 1990 Sears Wishbook #497510 Race Horse Set. The color on this guy varied from a nice, deep red bay all the way to a garish Halloween orange - the latter occurring in particular on any models made from the bad batches of plastic that cause shrinkies and oozies. None of the Halloween orange ones I’ve seen from this run have been chalky; all of the darker red, non-shrinky ones have been. I’ve got both; you’ll see shrinky Halloween Sears Sham in a future post.

The paint on this guy is super thick, which is the first indication that he's got a chalky basecoat. The dead giveaway, though, is in the small rubs on his left ear. They have a white halo around them.

 

 

 

In 2019, Breyer used the Moody Andalusian mold for that year’s BreyerFest as #711343 Hero’s Welcome Surprise. It was issued in six colors: dark dapple gray, pearl, chestnut pinto, rose gray, clearware green decorator, and an ultra-rare black leopard appaloosa. Once I got back from Kentucky and caught up on social media, I found out that a portion of two of the colors were modern chalkies - the dark dapple gray and the pearl. Their colors tended to be lighter and had a glow to them; their facial details were much sharper; and their dapples were more pronounced. As soon as I saw pictures of them, I had to have them, and the search began.

I didn’t have to hunt for long. I found the chalky pearl on MH$P just four days after I got home from BreyerFest.

 

I purchased the chalky dark dapple gray from a seller on eBay only five days after I found the chalky pearl. I made a Buy It Now offer slightly higher than the starting bid and was thrilled when the seller accepted.  

 

 

 

Unlike most of the other dark dapple gray chalky models, which have non-basecoated, pearly plastic tails, my guy has a fully basecoated tail. I’ve only seen two others with full chalky tails in the years since.

Based on the data collection I did immediately after that year’s BreyerFest, looking at sales on eBay, Facebook, and MH$P, I estimate that around 10% of each of the two colors came in chalky.

Both colors were also issued with a gloss finish, but I haven’t heard of any chalkies that were glossed. God help me if I do!

Special Effects: QVC Classics & Stablemates

The last post covered all the Traditional-scale QVC models in my collection. Today, we'll look at the Classics and Stablemates.

These three ladies are part of the Ladies of the Bluegrass set, issued in 2002. Like some of the other QVC models, I haven't run across a reference source that has their issue number or run size.

 

In a crazy twist of fate, I found all three of these models at BreyerFest 2012, but in three different places! I found the Silky Sullivan and Kelso in two different rooms in the CHIN, and the Ruffian at one of the vendors in the Covered Arena at Kentucky Horse Park.

 

 

This Kelso is painted like Regret, the first filly to ever win the Kentucky Derby in 1915. I've shown her a few times under the show name Miss Scarlet, a nod to both her color and one of my favorite movies of all time, Clue.

 

This Ruffian is painted like Genuine Risk, the second filly to win the Kentucky Derby in 1980.

 

 

This Silky Sullivan was painted like Winning Colors, the third (and last, to date) filly to win the Kentucky Derby in 1988.

 

 

These two models are from the Classic Racehorse 3-Piece Set, #500301, produced in 2001. I've never seen a definitive quantity on these, though Identify Your Breyer approximates 1500 sets were made.

 

 

I found the Silky Sullivan at BreyerFest 2012, the same year I found the Ladies of the Bluegrass set. That was a great year for finding Classics! I bought this one from the same seller as the glossy bay QVC Justin Morgan.

 

 

The Man O' War from that set has been high on my want list since my very first BreyerFest in 2010. He's incredibly popular (I mean, look at that color!), difficult to find, and tends to cost a lot when he comes up for sale. I just got him this year, and Heather B is once again responsible - though at least this time she let me pay her!

 

QVC released two Stablemates sets in 2002 called the Silver Cup Series. This is #505302, the Silver Cup Series 2nd Collection. I bought it direct from QVC. I show the G2 Appaloosa regularly; his show name is Parhelion.

 

[Incidentally, I have no idea where the little cups are from these sets; they weren't in the boxes when I pulled them out of the closet in the horse room. They're probably gallivanting around with the missing wooden base from the QVC Clydesdale Stallion.]

 

 

Having the second set made me want to hunt down the Silver Cup Series 1st Collection, #502901, pictured here. I purchased this set from a seller on Model Horse Sales Pages in September 2010.

 

I'm only hunting one non-Traditional-scale release - the Terrang to complete the Classic Racehorse 3-Piece Set. 

Special Effects: QVC Traditionals

This month's Special Effects will be a two-parter, where I showcase the models produced exclusively for QVC. I have quite a few, so we'll talk Traditionals today and get to the Classics and Stablemates next time.

 

 

In a complete non-surprise move, we're starting with a Sham.

This is #701595 Sham the Godolphin Arabian, produced for QVC in 1995. There were 1300 produced. He's distinguishable from regular run Shams by the 95 stamp on his inner hind leg. His color is slightly different, too; there were definitely regular run Shams this red, but many were darker. I bought this guy in room sales at the Clarion during my first BreyerFest in 2010.

Bay roan is one of my favorite horse colors, especially when Breyer does them well (in other words, they're not pink or purple). This Cantering Welsh Pony is from the #705495 Parade of Breeds set, a run of 1800 for QVC in 1995. She came with a bay Proud Arabian Mare and an alabaster Saddlebred Weanling. I found her by herself at a tack shop (The Playroom, which has since closed) in Lexington during BreyerFest 2011.

That store is also where I spent a solid twenty minutes hand-picking a set of Stablemates from probably thirty or forty boxes, but I'll tell that story another time.

This heckin' chonk is Buddy, run quantity unknown, produced for QVC in 1998. I bought him in room sales at the Clarion during BreyerFest 2013 after I walked into one of the rooms and he screamed "BUY ME, I'M SHINY!" at me from his shelf.

QVC Shiny Bay Thing #1! This is #502301 Justin Morgan from 2002. As far as I know, unless he has his COA from QVC, he's virtually indistinguishable from the BreyerFest glossy prize model. This particular model came from the collection of someone who would definitely know what she had, so I'm confident he's the QVC release. He was the first model I bought from room sales at BreyerFest 2012, in the first room I entered.

 

 

This is Equinox, whose issue number and run size are both unknown. She was produced in 2002. I bought her via Facebook from a local collector who was having a collection dispersal sale late in 2017.

 

While I was not the original owner of all the models above, I am the original owner of all the rest, ordering them direct from QVC.

 

 

QVC Shiny Bay Thing #2! I actually still have the packing slip from this guy and the set that follows, dated 5/3/2002. I'd have sworn to you that I was living in Columbus, OH, when I bought these, but the timing doesn't match up - I didn't move to Columbus until July that year. I love all Bay Things but Really Red Bay Things are my favorite. I showed this guy for awhile (til Hamilton came out) under the show name of Sforzando.

 

These sculpts were initially not all that popular for whatever reason (I think they're cute) but nowadays, every production run seems to command high prices, even the regular runs. This is #504002 Baby's First Steps, from 2002. They only cost $54 (with shipping!) from QVC when they were issued, but sell for several hundred dollars now.

 

 

QVC Shiny Bay Thing #3! This is #501102 Hickstead, produced in 2002, not to be confused with the Olympic gold medalist Dutch Warmblood of the same name, whom Breyer commemorated with a regular run on the Trakehner mold from 2012-2015. There was no published run quantity on this guy.

 

This is #504202 Mint Julep. He came with a Certificate of Authenticity that specified a run of 1500 pieces, and mine is numbered #32/1500 underneath his back hoof.

 

 

 

QVC Shiny Bay Thing #4! (Are you seeing a pattern here?) This is #510122 Clydesdale Stallion. He came with a wooden base, but he tends to stick to it, so he sits on the shelf without it and I keep it stored somewhere safe (and unknown to me, at the moment, since I couldn't find it when I went to do the photo shoot for today's post). The wooden base and COA are the only things that distinguish him from the regular run they produced from 2003-2004.

 

 

This is #501402 Grey Hawk. I'm 99.99% sure that my mom ordered him for me and had him shipped to her with the intention of giving him to me for Christmas, but then she forgot about him, and he lived in his box under her bed for a few months until she cleaned under there and found him. (Mom, since I know you're reading, if I'm wrong on that, please comment with the correction!)

 

Traditional-size QVC releases that I'd like to add to the herd someday: the aforementioned bay PAM and alabaster SBW from the #705495 set, since I already have the CWP; Phoenix Rising, the buckskin pinto Silver; the Special Delivery Mare & Foal set; and the LE Appaloosa Pleasure Horse.

 

Next up, the QVC Classics and Stablemates! 

On a Regular Basis: Traditional Black Beauty

I just realized I can respond to comments people have left (still getting used to how all this works!), so if you're a regular commenter and received a glut of notifications recently for my replies, my apologies!

 

I also noticed that at some point, my font size increased on my posts, so I went back to fix all the old posts to be consistent (since I was replying to comments anyway). I'm positive that's not something that would bother anyone but me, but it was making me twitch. My "I can't possibly be old enough to need bifocals" eyes liked the bigger font, so we're sticking with that.

 

Since I featured Dream Weaver in a post earlier this week, I thought I’d share the rest of my traditional Black Beauty models for today’s On a Regular Basis post, featuring regular runs. (Well, mostly.)

 

 

Many of the models I accumulated prior to rejoining the hobby in 2010 are a big question mark when it comes to when and how I acquired them. I’ve pieced together what I can from old photos and videos, but that still leaves around 300 or so that I’ll probably never be able to figure out. This guy, #722 Sir Wrangler, is one of the mysteries. He was a regular run from 1998-1999, so I would have picked him up sometime during college.

A few years ago, during a shelf space crisis, I packed Sir Wrangler into a bin to be sold at BreyerFest. Once I got to Kentucky, I pulled him out of the bin, unwrapped him, looked at him on the shelf, and started to have regrets about bringing him, and felt pretty bad about selling things in general. My roomie Beth told me to look at all of my sales models and repack all the ones that made me twinge. He was the first one that I packed back up; three or four others joined him in the bin. That was the year that I declared that no models I’d acquired prior to 2010 would ever leave my collection unless I was under financial duress. I had too many regrets for the ones I’d already parted with, and didn’t want to feel that again.

 

 

 

This guy, #802 Fade to Grey, a regular run from 1989-1990, appeared on every single birthday and Christmas wish list of mine for years and years and years. Like Dream Weaver, I loved him as soon as I saw him in the 1990 catalog. He was discontinued that year, though, so he wasn't in stock at any local places for my parents to buy him.

 

While I didn't manage to acquire one during my childhood, I discovered the magic of Model Horse Sales Pages shortly after jumping back into the hobby in 2010. In April 2011, a seller posted this Fade to Grey for a super cheap price. When I unpacked him, I was immediately worried that he was an oozy; he was so SHINY and his entire production run happened right smack in the middle of the bad plastic years (1987-1992). But a semigloss finish is normal for this guy, and he hasn’t shown any sign of trouble (knock on wood).

Remember the "Well, mostly" disclaimer above? That's for this guy, #430054 Sport Horse, and whether he's a regular run or not is debatable.

Arguments for a special run:
    •    He’s got a six-digit issue number, #430054, which are usually limited to special runs
    •    He’s not in the dealer or regular catalogs, which has traditionally been how regular runs           are defined
    •    He’s only available to order on the website and is not sold in stores

Arguments for a regular run:
    •    He’s been available to everyone via the Breyer website since 2022 and is still in stock as          of today
    •    Regular runs have high quantities, multi-year production, and broad availability
    •    There are other web-exclusive models in the catalogs, like the 75th anniversary Proud             Arabian Family set, so presence or absence from the catalog isn’t a surefire way to                 determine RR vs. SR

Given that I put him in a regular run post, it’s pretty clear how I feel about him.

I ordered him and a couple others from the Breeds Collection series in February 2022, shortly after they were released. I think this is the prettiest color they’ve ever put on Black Beauty.

Though the model is a long one and tends to tip over easily, there are a few Black Beauty models on my want list: the Talisman/Fairbanks special run (he was issued with both names), the regular run Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, and the TSC special run Lakota.

Do That Conga: Giselle

For today’s Do That Conga post, we’re looking at my collection of Giselles.

Giselle was sculpted by Brigitte Eberl, one of my favorite Breyer sculptors, and was first released through the Connoisseur line in 2008. I absolutely love the rich chestnut color they put on her for that first release, but I’ll never own one - she’s a porcelain, and I break breakable things.

Giselle, like many of my other congas, was not intentional; she just kind of happened.

My first Giselle was - shocker - a Shiny Bay Thing, this glossy #1474 GG Valentine, a regular run produced from 2010-2019. They glossed one set out of six (one per case). 

 

On March 4, 2017, I went to the New Year’s Bash: Defrosted Edition show hosted by my friend Chesna. I have no show documents or photos of models with ribbons from that day, but the magic of old Facebook posts tells me I was shadowing my friend Kelly K as she judged Breyer/Other collectibility. (Awww, baby judge Mel was just learning!)

Chesna had a Breyer dealer at the show, Tack Shack and Livestock Supplies, who had some incredible discounts on some of their models. When I saw the glossy GG Valentine & Heartbreaker set priced at just $25, I snatched it right up!

She was the only Giselle on my shelf until 2020, when they used her for the BreyerFest special run #711371 Slainte Surprise. I bought three BreyerFest tickets that year because they had three molds I conga in the lineup - Sham, the Trakehner, and Wintersong. That was the first year of online BreyerFest (thanks but no thanks, Covid) and the first year of using online form submission to pick your special runs (a practice they still use today). I put the Sham, Trakehner, and Wintersong first on my master list, followed by three Surprise models, and I was lucky enough to get all my picks.

 

I was even luckier that they used a mold I like for the Surprise. 

Chris had paid for the Sham and one of the Slainte Surprise models as my birthday gift, so when the box arrived with all my special runs, I told him to pick one of the three Surprise bags and that one would be his official gift. I was thrilled to open this glossy red roan pinto! The glossies are always significantly fewer in quantity (325 of each color in 2020) and I'm typically not lucky enough to pull any. Perhaps I should drag Chris to BreyerFest with me and have him select my Surprise bags! (Just kidding, I would never subject him to the insanity that is BreyerFest.)

The next Slainte Surprise I opened was a matte red roan. Yay for two different ones! There were 800 made of each color in matte.

My third Slainte Surprise was another matte roan. I ended up trading with my friend Penny for this matte black silver. Penny had gotten duplicates of that color but was missing a roan, so our trade worked out great.

Right after New Year’s in 2021, a seller posted this matte palomino Slainte Surprise l on Model Horse Sales Pages for less than cost due to some factory flaws. I didn’t mind the flaws and just wanted her for a shelf-sitter, so I pounced.

 

Six months later, in June 2021, my friend Marci listed these two for sale, the glossy palomino and glossy black silver Slainte Surprises, with a discount if you bought both together. The black silver looks particularly awesome in gloss; I wish they’d use that color more often.

And thus, within the span of a year, my Giselles went from one model to seven.

 

In September 2022, my friend Heather B (who has already been mentioned in this blog A Lot) was ready to part with her #712192 Chesapeake, the event model from the 2016 Chasing the Chesapeake event, and I was more than happy to agree to buy her. Shiny Flaxen Chestnut Things are my second-biggest weakness behind Shiny Bay Things.

 

My last Giselle has a fun story. 

 

Every year since 1983, except for 2020, my family has gone to Kraynaks in Sharon, PA, sometime on or around Black Friday. We call it K-Day and we all look forward to it immensely. 

Last year, K-Day was delayed all the way until December 8th thanks to the ludicrous 60” of snow my parents got at their house in Erie between November 28th (Thanksgiving Day) and December 3rd. 

 

 

Those are my parents' cars - my mom's in the driveway and my dad’s on the street - on November 30, 2024. That was probably 18-24" of snow - and it continued to come down for three more days after that!

 

When we finally got to Kraynaks in December, I picked out this gal, #10007 Calista, for my parents to give me as a Christmas present, because my mom says it’s not Christmas unless they give me a Breyer.

As far as Giselles on my want list still to be acquired - there aren’t any! I had both the matte and glossy appaloosa Slainte Surprises on my want list at one time, but the masking on the appaloosa spots was notoriously bad on the entire run, and I haven’t yet found one in either finish that I can live with. I'm sure they'll put other colors on Giselle in the future that will catch my eye, but for now, the conga is holding steady at nine.