Sentimental Journey: The 1990 JCPenney Christmas Catalog Models

The JCPenney Christmas Catalog was legendary in our house. Every day in the early fall, my sister and I would check the mail when we got home from school in the hope it would be there. On the day it arrived, we'd go through every page and start our Christmas lists. Some years, I made myself wait page by page until we got to the Breyers, letting the anticipation build; other years, I was too impatient and flipped straight to that page before we started our process.

 

These were the sets offered in 1990. I'm not sure if I took notice of the Breyers in that year's catalog before Paula pointed them out to me, but I definitely looked at that catalog page dozens of times before Christmas, hoping they'd all find their way under the tree. And they did - quite a few family members were in on the enabling that year. I got the Little Bits set from my parents, the 3-piece Traditional set from my Aunt Sheri and Uncle Ray, and the 3-piece Classic Arab set from my maternal grandparents, in that order.

Here are my Little Bits - the very first ones I opened Christmas morning. These four - the bay Morgan, white Arabian, gray Thoroughbred, and brown Saddlebred - are still in decent shape, with a couple bumps and bruises from playing with them as a kid. The Morgan and Saddlebred liked to play dominoes, so they have a few more marks than the others.

The other two models from that set, the dapple gray Clydesdale and black leopard appaloosa Quarter Horse Stallion (QHS) are vinegar syndrome victims. You can read more about vinegar syndrome in this fantastic blog post by a fellow hobbyist. 

This poor guy started decomposing first, probably twenty or so years ago. He's spent his entire life on a shelf and endured at least fifteen years of non-climate-controlled, hot and humid summers in my childhood bedroom with nary a hiccup, only to start oozing as soon as my parents put in central air (go figure). He's a hot mess express, cracked in dozens of places and discolored. He was the first one out of the box that Christmas morning - the first Breyer I held that was my own - so I can't bear to throw him away.

The black leopard QHS just started oozing earlier this year. You can see the discoloration near where his legs meet his body and some bubbling on his stifle. He's been occupying my freezer for a couple months to try to slow down the process.

This is the 3-piece Traditional set. They, too, have war wounds from being played with and have started to succumb to the plastic problems of the late 80s and early 90s. The dapple gray Lady Phase and palomino Quarter Horse Gelding (QHG) are both shrinkies. Neither has shown signs of oozing (knock on wood) but they're definitely smaller than their counterparts. Lady Phase tends to yellow, so she gets some spa time in a sunny window here and there, and the QHG has turned an interesting shade of Crayola Sunglow. Rugged Lark seems unscathed so far - he's still normal-sized and not discolored.

I came across a second set of these models at an estate sale a couple years ago, but I'll get to those in a future Fantastic Finds post.

This set has the most sentimental value to me. Arabians have always been my favorite breed, and I stared and stared at that beautiful black Classic Arabian Stallion (CAS, left) every time I looked at that catalog page. My first real horse loves, Black Beauty and Shetan, were both black, and while this guy had more white on him than either of them, he still reminded me of them. He was immediately the "herd stallion" in my mind - he looked confident, like a leader - and he's still the patriarch of my collection to this day. The Classic Arabians would eventually became my first intentional congas. You'll see them down the road in Do That Conga posts.

The little foal started oozing and warping about a month ago, so he's keeping the QHS company in the freezer. I'm holding out hope that my CAS won't someday become a victim, too, but unfortunately you never know with models from that era. They're perfectly fine one day and suddenly they're not.

These dozen models were my first Breyers and even if they all turn into puddles of goo someday, they'll always have a home with me.