On a Regular Basis: Morgans

These two could easily have gone into a Sentimental Journey post; both came to me early in my collecting days. But I've never been a big regular run (RR) collector and many of my regular run models will be covered by other categories of posts, so I need to save things for the Regular Run category where I can. 

This mold is the Morgan, mold #48 sculpted by Chris Hess. A close hobby friend of mine adores this mold and has almost every one they've ever produced, including some teeny tiny runs and a couple one-of-a-kind auction models. I've only got these two, but they both mean a lot to me.

First up is #831, Show Stance Morgan, a Breyer regular run from 1990-1991, and he's got a story. I got him from my parents on Christmas morning, 1992, when I was 13. My dad had won a camcorder sometime in 1991 (I think maybe by calling into a radio show?) and recorded pretty much everything my sister and I did throughout our high school years. He recently put a lot of those home videos on a thumb drive and I've been slowly going through them. For all the cringey teen moments on there, there are some gems, and this guy is one of them.

Here's how the sequence of events went that Christmas morning:

• I tore off the wrapping paper (this was back in the day before I started trying not to rip it) and saw what model it was
• I legit squealed
• I said that he was the model I was pining over at our annual Kraynaks trip
• I legit hugged the box
• My dad got me a pair of wire cutters and I freed the model from the box
• As soon as the model was free, I hugged it
• I held it up to my nose and audibly took a huge whiff of New Breyer Smell
• I proceeded to spend the next full five minutes of the video grinning from ear to ear, looking him over, hugging him, petting his back, calling him pretty, and declaring him as one of my new favorites

 As my sister started opening one of her presents, my dad asked me, "What color would you call that?" I - without hesitation, decisively, with all the authority of a 13-year-old kid who loved horses but knew next to nothing about them - said, "Maroon."

So of course that's now his barn name.

 

1992 was without a doubt my favorite Breyer year of the 90s. I liked so many of the new regular run models that year, and even acquired a Dealer Catalog (pictured above, photo courtesy of Identify Your Breyer) somewhere along the way that I looked at constantly. Many of the models released that year would end up on subsequent birthday and Christmas lists.

 

This is #858, Vermont Morgan, who was a regular run from 1992-1993. I'm not sure exactly when he came into my herd - he's not in ay Christmas or birthday videos/photos and he's not in my collection photos from September 1992, so I likely got him between then and his discontinuation at the end of 1993. I probably got him at Toys "R" Us, which is where I got most of my childhood, non-gifted Breyers. Of all the colors they've done on the Morgan, this one has always been my favorite.

As far as Morgans I'd like to add to the collection someday, the list is short - just the 1998 Mid-States special run Stonington and the 1994-1995 regular run Lippitt Pegasus. Both are bays, which I'm sure will surprise no one who knows me.