Show Stoppers: Artist Resins

As I said in last month’s Show Stoppers post, I am mostly an Original Finish collector. Artist Resins (ARs) are the scarcest thing in my collection - I, the person who breaks Breakable Things just by looking at them, even have more Breakable Things than ARs. There are many AR sculpts out there that I love (cough cough VINCENZO cough cough), but I’ve talked about my hesitation to drop a comma on things, and good paint jobs on ARs typically involve commas. The naked resins themselves are also Not Cheap.

Thus it is that I find myself with a mere five ARs to my name. Only four of them will make today’s post - this is a post about show models and my Veronka, despite being purchased in 2022, is still naked. I’m having a problem deciding on her color because that sculpt literally looks good in everything.

(Who am I kidding. She’ll end up bay.)

 

Given how long I’ve lusted over Vincenzo, I never thought a Walter - well, a pair of Walters - would be the first ARs in my collection.

But then Sheryl Leisure had a table at the Artisan Gallery at BreyerFest 2015 and had a bunch of painted Walters there for the incredibly cheap price of $125 each. I stood there and debated between the dapple gray and the caramel dun for like twenty minutes. Then it went like this:
    Sheryl: “See something you like?”
    Me: “I’m trying to decide between these two.”
    Sheryl: “How about both for $200?”
    Me: “Sold.”

 

I've only shown them once; the caramel dun placed 5th and the gray placed 6th. I don't remember which name goes with which model, but one of them is called Impulse Buy and the other is Steal of a Deal.

They’re slightly tippy and Felice the Destructor absolutely would have done them in, so they stayed safely in their boxes until we moved into our current house and I had a room with a door that closed. I probably should have redone their glamour shots with the better camera on my newer phone instead of using these ones from 2015, but there have been some Incidents in the horse room lately and suffice it to say, I'm afraid to touch anything.

 

 

The next AR to join my collection was this delicious Cromwell, painted by the incomparable Myla Pearce. His show name is Pompous Pete, though I just call him Pete for short. Pete was originally purchased and commissioned by my friend Heather B.

 

[It seems I can't get through one of these posts without Heather showing up somewhere.]

Heather brought Pete to a bunch of shows in the early and mid-2010s. I drooled over him every time I saw him. I’m pretty sure I voted him as the Overall Overall one time when the show holders asked the showers to vote. There is such depth to his paint job and the only words I can think of to describe his whites are “soft” and “touchable.” I’m really a pinto person, and I’m definitely not a draft person, but Pete won me over the second I saw him.

Fast forward to early 2018, when Heather said to me, “Do you want Pete?” I wonder what my face looked like when she asked; I’m sure it was some interesting combination of shock, disbelief, and “Oh hell yeah!” Heather was intensely congaing Brishens at the time and didn’t have an original Brishen in her collection because most of them were decidedly greenish in tone, not the lovely liver color from the stock photo. Mine was less green than most, so Heather suggested a trade of her Pete for my Brishen plus a pitiful amount of cash. I still feel bad about how little it was; the blank Cromwell body probably cost her more than that. It was definitely a lopsided trade, but Pete going somewhere he’d be appreciated was more important to her than what she could get for him.

Have I mentioned she’s the best?

On January 8, 2018, we met up for the exchange, and Pete was mine.

I show the ever-loving hell out of him, despite the fact that (a) he’s a heavy wee thing and (b) he takes up a lot of room in the show tote and (c) I’m typically managing multiple OF divisions and/or judging something at the same time, so having to keep track of AR classes for one model is an extra level of challenge. He’s been on the table at 13 shows since I bought him and has only been entirely shut out of the ribbons once. With me, he’s earned 5 breed NAN cards, 5 workmanship NAN cards, a reserve section champ in workmanship, two section champs and two overall (entire division) champs in workmanship, and a Top 5 in Region 10 for workmanship. Myla did an incredible job on him and I am thankful every day that he graces my shelves.

 

 

This Denderah resin, sculpted by Karen Gerhardt, made his first appearance on my blog as one of my “Top 5 of 2025” models. I wanted to tell his full story then, but it’s show-related, so I saved it for here.

Quick recap - Denderah was a pandemic purchase in August 2020. He hung around naked until January 2025, when the perfect set of circumstances aligned to get him painted: I had finally landed on his color, Jennifer Danza had just opened commission slots, and my parents had gifted me some Christmas money, which I chose to put toward his paint job. (That last part will become important in a bit.) I sent him off to Jennifer with the instructions to make him a red bay shaded to hell and back, and he arrived to me in April, every bit as outstanding as I’d hoped he’d be.

In early June 2025, I took Denderah with me to a two-day show in Hammondsport, NY. We’ve got family up there on my mom’s side, so my mom came with me. Our cousin JoAnn graciously put us up at her house for the weekend, which was exactly a three-minute drive from the show hall, and she and my mom had a great time hanging out and catching up while I was at the shows.

They stopped by the hall on Saturday afternoon to see what the fuss was all about. JoAnn has always been intrigued by the hobby, and my mom said something like, “You talk about these shows all the time and I can never quite picture what you’re doing, so I want to see it for myself.”

Their timing could not have been better. Workmanship classes at these shows were split out from the breed classes, and the bay class was called shortly after they arrived, so my mom got to see me take Denderah up to the show table. A few minutes later, the judge finished up - and Denderah had a first place ribbon and a yellow NAN card in front of him. I’m pretty sure I squealed out loud and yelled “Mom!” across the show hall and held his winnings up for her to see.

As I said above, my parents have always been my biggest enablers and biggest champions when it comes to my collection. To have my mom help fund Denderah’s workmanship and be there to see him get his first NAN card for workmanship was the best moment of the whole weekend.

I’m pretty sure she would say that the best part for her was the huge ridiculous grin on my face when I brought him back to my table.

He went on to take earn a Top 5 rosette in workmanship that day, and then did the exact same thing on Sunday under a different judge. At a show in October, he took first in his class in both breed and workmanship, and also section reserved in both. His show career is just beginning and I can’t wait to see what else he does.

 

My next order of business with ARs is to get my Veronka painted.

 

Then maybe I'll finally get myself a Vincenzo. 

Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth: 60s Bay Fighting Stallion

In addition to all my awesome model horse hobby friends who have gifted me things, I have also been gifted models from non-model-horse collectors.

I’ll have known my boyfriend, Chris, for 25 years this April. (God, we’re not that old, are we?) In high school, he was friends with a guy named Steve, who married a gal named Carrie. Steve and Carrie been together as long as Chris and I, if not longer. They're Jeep people, like Chris, and they also have a floofy black kitty whom they rescued as a feral kitten, which automatically makes them Really Cool People. We’re all friends on Facebook.

Carrie has been a long-time collector of Barbies, and she and Steve frequently go out treasure hunting to flea markets and estate/yard/rummage sales. In August 2015, Carrie sent me a message that she had acquired eight Breyers at a rummage sale and wanted help identifying and pricing them. They were a mix of 60s-70s vintage models and some newer, mid-2000s regular runs. I couldn’t tell from the photos if any of the vintage ones were chalky (they were all correct for the era) so we agreed to meet up at my house so I could look at them. Carrie and Steve also wanted to meet Felice, who was only three months old at that time and already a Facebook star in her own right.

As soon as Carrie freed this guy from his bubble wrap, I knew I had to have him.

 

 

This guy is one of the prettiest bay Fighting Stallions I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot. #35 King, The Fighting Stallion had a long, long run in Breyer’s lineup, from 1961-1987. There are a zillion copies of him out there. This particular model is from the 60s - he doesn’t have the USA stamp, he’s got factory eyewhites, and he has remnants of the foot and tail pads that Breyer added to some models throughout the 60s to prevent them from scuffing furniture. The 60s models also tend to have the best shading, and this guy's shading is outstanding on both sides, so that also points him to this time frame.

He’s awesome.

The rest of the models in the lot were in great shape, except for a chipped ear on the bay Running Mare. I cleaned up a few stray marks on them, and then helped Steve and Carrie write up the descriptions for their eBay store and set Buy-It-Now prices. Once we arrived at a price on the Fighter, I asked them for their PayPal address so I could pay them.

Steve and Carrie looked at each other, came to an agreement without saying a word, and then Carrie said, “Consider it payment for helping us with the rest of them.”

I double and triple checked that they were okay with that - he was by far the most valuable of the lot and would have gotten them a great return on their initial investment - but they insisted that I keep him for free.

His show name is their last name, which I won’t share here in the interest of their privacy.

I also wanted to share these pictures - Felice absolutely hated when I was in the horse room without her, and would wail and shove her piggies under the door until I gave in and went out to pet her. I was in the horse room one day trying to get a quick photo of this guy when Felice decided she’d had enough, and these awesome photobombs occurred.

 

"MOM! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE, MOM!"

Full Spectrum: Even More Winter Blues

Ever see the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone? Remember when Madam Mim is having that epic tantrum at the end about hating sunshine, which devolves into her screeching the word “HATE” over and over again?

That’s how I feel about Valentine’s Day.

So today, we ain’t talking about pink models, red models, models with hearts on them, none of that. We’re continuing on with our Winter Blues series. Today is the Stablemates.

 

 

#701705 Stablemates Mini Fanfare was released through the JAH magazine in 2004. There were 1500 total sets made. Each set had the G1 Saddlebred in the four original decorator colors - Gold Charm, Florentine, Wedgewood, and Copenhagen, along with a G1 Draft in one of four colors (who I talked about in last month’s Collectibility Spotlight post). I’ve considered parting with the set in the past, but every time I pull these guys down to pack them up, I just can’t do it.

 

 

#711158 Dungaree was one of the four Single-Day Stablemates produced for BreyerFest 2013. I bought the full set that year, but he’s the only one of the four who is still here. I parted with my Chrome at BreyerWest 2018, and my Rivet and Indigo sadly yellowed while briefly stored between moves. I think they reacted with the bubble wrap.

 

 

I love this little mold. He has the goofiest face, especially when they paint eyewhites on him. This blue guy is #711282 Big Lex, one of the four Single-Day Stablemates made for BreyerFest 2018, Off to the Races. They’ve done a few representations of Big Lex over the years, but I like this little Stablemate the best. I’m sure the gloss has something to do with that.

I bought the full set of Stablemates that year as well, and none of them will ever leave me. My bestie and I have been in love with Silver Charm since his Triple Crown bid in 1998; Man O’ War is my favorite racehorse of all time; and Ruffian is on the G3 Standing Thoroughbred, whom I conga, and is also a Shiny Bay Thing.

I recently saw the set advertised for $550, which seemed like crazy town to me, but apparently that's what they're going for, because it sold.

 

 

This shrunken-down Albycorn (Alborozo unicorn - someone dubbed them that and man did it sure stick in my head) was the chase piece for the Horse Crazy Unicorn Surprise blind bag series, produced from 2018-2020. Even though he was the chase piece, and thus rarer than the others in the series, he wasn’t overly difficult to find, given how long the series was produced. I didn’t even have to go “feeling up the blind bags” to find mine - the seller from whom I bought Hakan in 2020 (featured earlier this month in my Do That Conga post) included the him as a free ride-along!

 

 

I’m not a huge unicorn person, but he’s blue, and he’s a G2 Warmblood, and I’ve congaed this mold since it was first released in 1998 and currently have 32 of them, so I had to have him. I bought him in April 2021 as a ride-along with my Stablemates Club release, Hendrik, so the latter would be double-boxed and less likely to get Seriously Mangled by the post office during shipping.

 

 

God, I hate this mold. (Again, picturing Madam Mim screaming, “Hate! Hate! Hate!”)

But of course they put blue on it, so I had to have it.

This is #712381 Dahlia, who was the gambler’s choice release for the Stablemates Club in 2021. I was in the club that year and received the glossy champagne with my own membership. It seems I completely fell off the map at the end of 2021 and didn’t write down where I got the blue one from (or anything else I bought in November and December that year), but I’m 99.99% sure Heather B was involved again, because I know I got this model at cost.

 

She's the only one of this bunch that I show. I had already named her glossy champagne sister Caledonia, so this blue gal became Caledonia Waterfalls.

 

 

This is #712413 Clydesdale Christmas, the annual holiday Stablemates blind bag release in 2021. Four colors were available, all glossed - blue, gold charm, silver, and red. Blue was obviously my first choice. I received both blue and gold charm; I sold the latter at BreyerFest 2024. Someday I’ll probably pick up a red one, since red is my favorite color.

I absolutely love that they shrunk down the Traditional-scale Clydesdale Stallion. He will someday be a large conga.

 

 

So this is a model I CM’d myself. When I write these posts, I always like to say when models joined my collection, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out when I’d done him. I’d have sworn to you that it was only two or three years ago, but his in-progress photos eluded me for quite awhile.

That’s because it has been a whopping SIX years since I did this guy, and I just didn’t go back far enough. He was a pandemic creation, borne of a Saturday in August 2020 when the only safe way to gather with people was outside. A few of my friends came over and we learned how to flock models on my back deck. I knew right away that I didn’t want something realistic, and my friend had brought a ton of colors with her, so I decided on a blue pinto. 

 

He has a bad hair day every day of his life, and his eyes are scary as hell and need redone, and I’m not sure I’d ever flock a model again by choice, but I’m overall pretty happy with the way he came out.

 

 

This guy arrived in late September 2025, quite a bit before I was expecting him. He’s part of the #B-CS-10464 set from the 2025 Deluxe Collector’s Club. One model in the set was a glossy bay appaloosa on the same mold, named Darius, while the other was one of the four original decorator colors. I’d have preferred the solid blue Wedgewood, but this Copenhagen was my second choice.

 

 

This is #B-CS-10353 Chickadee, the gambler’s choice from the 2025 Stablemates Club. This guy was my first choice of the four colors, even though I hate that pearly shit they put all over everything. The blue totally redeemed him in my eyes. My second choice would have been the glossy solid silver bay (shocking, I know).

He arrived in mid-October last year and was one bright spot amidst a whole bunch of awfulness between work and Felice.

Next month, I’ll finish up the Winter Blues series with the Breyer Traditionals.

Collectibility Spotlight: Test Sham

I am an admirer of rarities, though I am not a rarities collector. As soon as a comma is involved in the price tag, I balk, and since nowadays even many of the not-as-rare rarities easily command four figures, I’m priced out pretty quickly.

The exception to that - the exception to every collecting rule I’ve ever set for myself along the way - is Sham.

• I don't collect decos or unicorns: Lavinia (purchased 2001)
• I don't collect multiples of the same model: #410 (11), #411 (2), #812 (3), glossy Sears SR (2), #3162 (3), #3163 (2), Best Choice (2), The Black Stallion (3)
• I don't collect breakable things: Galaxias (purchased 2011)
• I don't collect unpainted models: Naked Shams x4 (purchased in 2014, 2016, and 2018)
• I don't collect autographed models: Rudish Sham #1 (purchased 2014) and Rudish Sham #2 (purchased 2015)
• I don't collect models on lamps: Sham-on-a-lamp (purchased at BreyerFest 2015)
• I don't collect models with boxes: #410 with 80s box (purchased 2015), #410 with Sears box (purchased 2018)
• I don't collect culls: #812 from ebay (purchased 2018)
• I don't spend a comma on models: Smurfy (purchased 2020) and this guy, purchased in 2023, the subject of today's post:

 

On July 6, 2023, a seller posted this test Sham for sale on the Rare Model Horse Sales page on Facebook. This is what she wrote about him:

“Ever since I bought this handsome guy from a fellow collector (who knew very little about him other than she had bought him from an estate sale a few years ago), I knew he was something special. I attempted to research who he is and where he came from, and this is what I managed to find out:

This vintage Sham is a semi-OOAK Marney Walerius test model, part of an extremely limited run of models that she had brought with her as gifts for the judges of a show that was held in Texas, back in the 1980's. It is my understanding that not one of these models were exactly alike, even if a few look very similar to each other; there were small differences between each one, as they were not all painted exactly the same. This particular guy is a rich, dark red chestnut, with what is called a "skunk tail" (flaxen at the base, and fading into red), with four white socks and very light pink/cream colored hooves. He also features the classic "wheat ear" marking on his chest that all vintage Shams originally had (before Breyer decided to stop releasing the Sham mold with this marking, as too many people were mistaking it as a flaw).”

The seller had quite a lengthy want list as possible trades, so I was optimistic we could work something out. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything she wanted that was worth near the test Sham’s value. I reached out to her anyway, and over the course of the next few weeks, as we waited through her initial offer period and then some additional time as another interested party waffled back and forth on a final offer, we had some long and enjoyable conversations over Messenger about our mutual love of Sham and other Breyer Arabians.

Eventually, the other interested party withdrew, and the seller and I agreed on a trade - her test Sham for my Sanibel web special and quite a bit of cash to make up the difference in value.

I’d seen lots of pictures of the Sham at this point and was pretty convinced that he was what she said he was, but you never really know until you have the model in hand. In the time between when I paid for him and when he arrived, I half-convinced myself that he was just a cull of #410 and that I had grossly overspent.

As soon as I opened him, that worry disappeared.

 

 

He is so, so different in color from the regular #410 Shams. I put him next to my darkest and lightest #410s and it’s not even close. I have no doubt he’s original finish with a fully-executed paint job, and exactly what the seller was told he is - a Marney test from the mid-80s.

 

 

He’s got typical 80s seams, the wheat ear, and even some overspray on one fetlock, and his body color matches the chestnut Marney test on IDYB, though that one has a black nose and black hooves. The subtle difference supports the information the seller was told - that this might have been a small run, but each model was unique.

I knew right away that I was going to show him, so he needed a name. As a test, he obviously wasn't issued with a name, so I had nothing to work with. I wanted something that conveyed how momentous he is and also humorously reflected the sticker shock I had after buying him. Aftershock seemed a good fit - especially because he’s red, like the cinnamon liqueur.

If I have to limit myself to only one test model in my collection, I’m super happy it’s this one.

Special Effects: Connoisseur Models

From 2001 through 2011, Breyer produced the Connoisseur series - fifty runs of 350 pieces each, featuring complex, highly-detailed paint jobs of a caliber not-yet-seen in original finish plastic and sold exclusively to subscribers of Breyer’s Just About Horses (JAH) magazine. 

They were a smash hit.

Refinement of the new painting techniques used to create the Connoisseurs would lead to the introduction of the Breyer Premier Club in 2012, which offered Connoisseur-level paint jobs on brand new sculpts. Unlike the Connoisseurs, the Premier Club models aren’t limited to a finite quantity - anyone can sign up for the club each year. Early Premier Club memberships numbered around 750; Breyer hasn’t released membership numbers since 2014, but I’m sure they’re well into the thousands by now.

I digress.

I took a step back from the hobby after high school and thus didn’t know about the Connoisseurs until I resubscribed to Just About Horses in 2003. The first magazine I received, March/April 2003, had a picture of the horse who became the longest-standing and most intensely desired grail I’ve ever had. Most of the folks who read this blog already know who he is, but even though he was my first Connoisseur acquisition and I usually go in that order, I’m saving him for last, because he’s my favorite model in my collection. By a lot.

 

First up, my three others.

 

 

This is #90122 Hope-N-Glory, the tenth release in the Connoisseur series from the September/October 2002 JAH. She is #61/350. I’m a giant Lady Phase fan (she’s my second-biggest conga at 40 pieces) and it’s no wonder I’m in love with her paint job - it was designed by Tom Bainbridge, an artist whose work I’ve salivated over since I first saw a custom by him in the late 90s.

This Hope-N-Glory graces my shelves solely because of my friend Kelly W. It was the Saturday night of BreyerFest 2017. Kelly called me on my cell and told me to meet her in one of the CHIN rooms. When Kelly tells you to come see a Breyer, you go see the Breyer. When I got there, Kelly pointed to the Hope-N-Glory on the bed and said, “That’s a really good price.” It was a really good price - the cheapest I’d ever seen for her - but it was late Saturday night and I had already spent my plastic pony budget. I said that to Kelly; she said, “Well, then, I’m going to buy her for you because you need her, and you can just pay me back.” So she did, and I did, and that was that.

I show her regularly; her show name is Phrenology, an anagram of her issue name. She does okay, but there’s another Hope-N-Glory in my region whose mapping and coronet bands are a smidge cleaner and whose shading is a little nicer, so that one usually (and fairly) beats mine.

 

 

#90127 Del Fuego is the fifteenth release in the Connoisseur series, offered through the January/February 2004 issue of JAH. Mine is #329/350. I bought him through Model Horse Sales Pages in May of 2018. His price was lower than many because the seller didn’t have his COA. I would have liked the COA, but I wasn’t about to pass him up for that price.

His show name is Shango. He’s done fairly well in the show ring; of the nine shows he’s been to, he’s only been out of the ribbons twice.

 

 

This is one of those models that often makes me go, “Wow, I can’t believe I own one of these.”

#90143 Silverado, offered through the January/February 2008 JAH issue, is one of the most popular of the fifty Connoisseur models. People love the Wintersong sculpt, people love silver bay, and people love really well executed paint jobs. Roll those into one model and you’ve got Silverado.

Mine is #113/350 and I bought him from my friend Beth in May 2018. She gave me a “friend price” that was slightly under his current market value. The timing of his purchase worked out well for me (though not so much for Beth; sorry, Beth) because a year or two later, his market price tripled, then quadrupled. I could never afford to pay what he goes for now.

Beth showed him successfully with the name Evenstar Conquest. I totally forgot he had NAN cards and a name when she sold him to me, so I gave him the name Napa Valley. He did well for me for a few shows, though he is temporarily retired until I can get around to fixing an eartip rub he picked up somewhere along the way.

And now … drumroll please … here is my favorite model in my entire collection.

 

This horse.

It was March of 2003 and I had just resubscribed to JAH after a 10-year hiatus. I was sitting in my apartment in Columbus, Ohio, turning the pages of the March/April 2023 magazine, and wham. 

 

Never in my life have I instantly wanted to own a model horse as much as I wanted to own #90124 Fortissimo, the twelfth entry in the Connoisseur series.

I submitted my card for him right away (you entered through snail mail back then) and anxiously awaited the drawing. I had to have him. I looked at his picture almost every day.

I didn’t get drawn. 

To say I was disappointed is an understatement.

I eventually managed to put it aside, but I still looked at that page in that magazine all the freaking time.

Once I got through grad school and rejoined the hobby in 2010, I started actively looking for Fortissimo on the secondary market. I had a TON of near-misses, probably half a dozen, including one priced at a mere $225. His price had already started to climb by then and I despaired of ever being fast enough to grab one at a price I could afford.

Then I went to BreyerFest in 2013 and found one for sale at the CHIN. He was $600, which was more than I wanted to pay, but he was my holy grail, and I’d been looking for so long and missed out on so many, and I could inspect every millimeter of him right there in person. As soon as I held him in my hands, I knew I wasn’t going to walk away without owning him. I handed him back to the seller and asked if she could hold him for me for just a minute while I made a quick phone call.

That call was to my parents. I’d already spent a good bit of my BreyerFest money and didn’t have enough cash on hand to buy him outright. I asked my parents if they would front me the difference and allow me to pay them back. I knew they’d just give me the money without the expectation of repayment - they have always been enablers of my collection in the best way - but Fortissimo was my grail, the model I desired most for ten straight years, and it was really important to me to purchase him myself. They agreed, and I went back into the room and gave the seller the $300 I had left, with an agreement to send the rest in two weeks. She’d ship him to me as soon as she had the second payment.

I left the room in a daze, walked down to the CHIN bar where my friends were hanging out, sat down, and said, “I just spent $600 on a Fortissimo, I need a beer.”

At the time, that was by far the most I’d ever spent on a model horse. I was both horrified and so ecstatic I could barely talk. My friends found it quite entertaining.

I got a check in the mail from my parents shortly after I got back from BreyerFest, sent the other $300 plus shipping to the seller on July 31, and on August 10, 2013, ten years and five months after first seeing his picture in JAH, I finally had a Fortissimo on my shelves. He’s #146/350.

He’s been to 34 shows with me. He has 17 breed ribbons, 6 breed NAN cards, 16 collectibility ribbons, and 5 collectibility NAN cards. His show name is Crescendo, for obvious reasons.

Every time I pull him off the shelf to take him to a show; every time I get him out of the bin to put him on my table; every time I take him to and from the show table; every time he pins; every time I put him back in the bin after the show; and every time I put him back on the shelf, I say, “Hi, favorite!” Sometimes I even say it whenever I pass by his shelf in the horse room. When I toured Breyer headquarters in NJ during the Big Easy Bash, I took a picture of the Fortissimo on the shelves in the lobby and shared it on my Facebook with the caption, “Of course the Fortissimo in the lobby had to have a photograph of his own, since he's my favorite.” I shared my own Fortissimo on my Facebook for December photo challenges in both 2018 and 2019 on the “Favorite Model” day.

There will be other models I want, even some that might become grails because of how difficult they are to find, but there will never be another Fortissimo.

On a Regular Basis: El Pastor

Not sure how anyone else feels, but I’m pretty much over winter. 

We’re at 17 days in a row where the temperature hasn’t gotten above freezing; every blasted snowflake of the 12” that fell two weeks ago is still on the ground; and we had a white-out at our house last night (and not the fun kind where everyone wears white jerseys to the Pens game). We couldn’t see the trolley tracks fifty yards off the backyard because the snow was blowing so intensely. 

I was supposed to go Breyer shopping with friends today, but none of us wanted to deal with the bitter cold and partially-treated roads, so we rescheduled for later this month. I’m bundled on the couch under several layers of blankets instead, nursing a hot chocolate, watching curling (which I’m obsessed with at Olympics time), and blogging about El Pastors.

There are worse ways to spend the day.

 

 

This is #867 Tesoro, who was in the regular run lineup from 1992-1995. I don’t know exactly when I got this guy, but it must have been shortly after he was released - he was present in my collection pictures from September 1992. [Not real surprised by that, given how many of the 1992 regular runs I liked. I already had seven of them by the time I took those photos.]

Childhood me absolutely loved this horse. He is definitely one of my "near and dears."

At some point early in his life, he must have had one hell of a battle with an aggressive pencil, as he’s got marks all over him. I tried removing them as a kid but ended up taking a little paint off his neck, so I stopped. He’s worn his battle scars ever since.

 

 

#61 El Pastor was the first release on this mold. He was in the regular run lineup from 1974-1981. I got this guy in a lot on eBay in August 2017, along with a much-loved alabaster FAS, a bay FAF, a bay Classic Rearing Stallion, and a buckskin Indian Pony. The whole lot was $70 shipped.

He looked chalky from the pictures, which is why I bought the lot. Even though he wasn’t chalky, his shading is outstanding, particularly on his off-side. I’ve put him in the sales bin a few times since 2022 and keep taking him right back out as soon as I see how pretty he is.

I’ve got a few El Pastor models on my wish list: the BreyerWest special run Escondido, the State Line Tack special run Jamocha Jazz, and the web special Bandelier. Ironically, I was drawn for Bandelier, but funds for him weren’t in the cards at the time, so I passed him on to a fellow collector. Every time I see one, I wish I would have kept him.

Do That Conga: Smarty Jones

I’m running right up against time for this one and had to see what photographs I already had, so I’m going to loosely interpret the word “conga” for today and talk about my Smarty Jones models, which only number four in quantity.

 

 

This is #711047 Rushmore, a 2007 BreyerFest special run of 1250 pieces. I bought him from my friend Kelly W in April 2011. He has been an outstanding show horse for me - of the seven times he’s been on the table, he’s picked up four NAN cards and only finished out of the ribbons once. His show name is Jefferson.

 

 

This is #1345 Secretariat, a regular run that was first released in 2009 and is still in the lineup today. I got mine back in April 2014 when Tuesday Morning was still a thing and regularly received overstock from Breyer. I’m not quite sure why, but I drove all the way up to the Quaker Village Shopping Center in Leetsdale to get him.

I feel like Smarty Jones makes a better Quarter Horse than a Thoroughbred, and I’m completely overrun with stock horses, so this guy has only done a couple of photo shows during the pandemic. His show name was Create A Stir, which is an anagram of Secretariat.

 

 

A couple months later, on my birthday in 2014 - the same day I found my chalky buckskin Mustang while antiquing - I visited my friend and local Breyer dealer, Bonnie, to buy myself a present or two. This guy, #1712 Frankel, a regular run from 2013-2015, was one of my purchases. I believe he’s a modern chalky, as he has a nice white halo around his face marking. I think this bay is one of the prettiest colors they've ever put on him.

 

Like Secretariat, he’s only ever shown in photo shows, and I did the same thing with his name as I did with Secretariat’s - used an anagram. His name was Fen Lark.

 

 

I’ve probably said this before - I am neither a fan of cream dilutes nor a fan of patterned models, but put them together, and something glitches in my brain. I liked this model as soon as I saw him. He’s #701741 Hakan, a Tractor Supply Company special run from 2019. Some of these guys had a more uniform color and some had incredible shading; I looked at quite a few online before this guy practically leaped out of the picture from a Facebook group and onto my shelves in June 2020. His shading is outstanding. 

Being a mostly solid-colored horse fan, I don’t have a ton of appaloosas, so he gets into the show ring fairly regularly. His show name is Caldeum, a reference to the city in the video game series Diablo, which was ruled by emperors Hakan I and Hakan II. I didn’t play Diablo myself, but had a friend in college who was absolutely obsessed with it, and I spent many hours watching him play it.

I like this mold a lot, so I’ve got a whole bunch of Smarty Jones models on my wish list: Phantasma, Santiago, both finishes of Smarty Jones himself, both finishes of the bay pinto and black Dark Horse Surprises, both finishes of Riley, glossy Secretariat, and Daytona. A couple of those are relatively easy and cheap to obtain, but I’ll probably never have most of them.

Sentimental Journey: Muir Woods

Sometimes things in life have a really interesting way of coming together.

 

In early February 2019, Chris and I took a trip to San Francisco. The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team was playing nearby in San Jose and I’d never been to California, so I went with him. Our flight out was first thing in the morning on January 31, putting us in San Fran around 11:00 a.m. We'd spend the rest of that day and the next sightseeing, hit up both the soccer game and the Sharks home game down in San Jose on February 2, and then fly home February 3.

 

Predictably, that’s not how things happened. There was a significant delay with our flight and we didn’t get out of Pittsburgh until 4:00 p.m. They ended up putting us on a direct flight rather than one with connections like we’d originally had, but it was already dark when we landed in San Francisco. We lost an entire day of sightseeing.

 

We had to eliminate some of the things each of us wanted to see (for me, sadly, that meant Alcatraz) and cram the rest into a full day on February 1. We had a rental car, so we went to Lombard Street, the Palace of Fine Arts, Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Painted Ladies. Chris wanted to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, so we did that. When we got to the other side, he mentioned a park he’d last visited as a kid, an old-growth coastal redwood forest, and asked if I minded giving it a try even though it was rainy. I’ve always felt a strong spiritual connection to trees and there’s sense of peace I get when I’m in the woods that I don’t get anywhere else, so I immediately said yes, rain be damned.

 

The park was Muir Woods, and it was easily my favorite part of the trip. 

 

 
The next morning, as we were getting ready to head to San Jose for the soccer game, I happened to check my email on my phone and saw the announcement for the web special #712292 Muir Woods, a run of 350 pieces from the America the Beautiful Series, honoring National Parks across the U.S. He was released on February 1 - the same day I was in the real place.

That made him an instant must-have.

 

 

Given that I was already sentimentally attached, I was nervous that I wouldn’t get drawn for him. My luck with web special lotteries is abysmal. But the alignment of the universe that caused me to be in Muir Woods the day he was released must have still been at play, because I got picked for him from the first draw. He’s as gorgeous in person as he was in the promo photos. Every time I look at him, I think about the real place and how awesome it was to be there.

 

I also don't think it's a coincidence that my Sentimental Journey post was on tap for today, exactly seven years later.

 

Whenever the time comes to disperse my collection, he'll be one of the last to go. 

New Additions: January 2026

One of my 2026 goals was to buy fewer models and spend less money. I’ve long been out of space in the horse room, the Floorses are multiplying at an alarming rate, and I dropped a ton of money last year trying in vain to save my cat, so finding some discipline in both quantity and expenditure was in order.

That lasted exactly 18 hours and 31 minutes into 2026.

 

 

On the evening of January 1, a seller posted this delicious thing, a liver chestnut Pebbles Arabian Mare, on the Peter Stone Sales Page on Facebook. The seller wasn’t sure if she’s a OOAK You-Color-It or a You-Call-It model (the former is your choice of color, pattern, and markings on a pre-selected body, while the latter is pretty much anything goes, including some super extreme customizations), but what she is doesn’t really matter to me. I just said, “Yes, please,” and bought her.

Four days later, my washing machine entered the end of its life cycle. It’s still here, but multiple pieces (that are no longer made) are broken within the drum and it sounds like the bastard offspring of a velociraptor and a bad fan belt when it spins. We’ll have to get a new one sooner rather than later. Luckily that was covered by our home warranty, who sent us a Lowe’s gift card to go pick out a new one.

Two days after that, my water heater crapped out, which was NOT covered by the home warranty, and there went my “fun money” budget for the foreseeable future.

 

However ...

 

 

Then this happened.

 

I shouldn’t have even bought this guy, but come on - he is the definition of what I most enjoy collecting. Arabian? Check. Bay? Check. Glossy? Check. Painted by Audrey Dixon? Check.

Obliteration of Mel’s willpower? Check.

His issue name is Wisenheimer and he was a run of 3 models released in November 2018. I’ve looked at this guy’s picture on the Stone Horse Reference site dozens of times in the past few years. With a quantity of 3, I never thought I’d find one. I messaged the seller as soon as I saw him and said, “I’ll take him.” Didn’t even want more pics. Didn’t negotiate the price or ask for time pays, even though the seller probably would have accommodated the latter since I’ve bought other models from her in the past. I had grabby hands the second I saw him.

He snuck in just ahead of the snow storm we got last weekend, which dumped a foot of snow on us overnight Saturday and into Sunday evening and was followed by an entire week of highs in the single digits/teens and lows as frigid as -14 (this morning). I'm glad the seller shipped him out as fast as she did!

The Singles Bar: The Letter C (Breyer Edition)

Continuing on alphabetically by mold name, today’s Singles Bar post contains my lone wolves on Breyer molds that begin with C.

 

 

This is #711433 Opry, the BreyerFest volunteer model from 2013. There were 155 produced. I’ve had several Clydesdale Mares throughout my collecting years, but she’s the only one who remains.

I was lucky enough to be picked for volunteering that year and received Opry for helping with the diorama contest. I accepted entries Friday morning from 9-12 and gave them back to entrants on Saturday evening from 4-7 once the winners were announced. In addition to getting all the entrants’ information as I accepted their entries, I had to measure the entries with a plexiglass cube to make sure they fit the 12x12x12 requirement.

One gal, a teen in a wheelchair who’d recently had a major surgery and didn’t think she’d make it to BreyerFest at all, came up to the table with her entry pretty early in my morning shift. I could tell right away that the entry was far too tall. Both the entrant and her mom were visibly distressed. I told them that all was not lost - they had til 4:00 to trim down the entry and get it back to the booth. They asked for a pair of scissors and some tape, and spent probably 20-30 minutes moving things around and getting it down to the right size. Once it met the requirement, they turned it in, thanked me profusely - I’m not sure why, as all I did was remind them of the rules and hand them the scissors and tape - and went on their way.

I’m glad they were able to get it submitted, because her entry was one of the winners.

In 2013, they were still announcing all the auction models prior to BreyerFest, and I was a bit disappointed when Opry was announced as the volunteer model. A cream dilute draft? Totally not my thing. (Well, except Pamplemousse, but we’ll get to him another day.) I stuck her on a shelf in my living room when I got home and looked at her every day over the course of several months, and ended up absolutely falling in love with her. She’s still one of my favorite volunteer models to this day.

 

 

I’ve shown her a handful of times in collectibility under the name Patsy Cline. Her biggest win came at a non-NAN-qualifying show with an OF color division, where she was declared the overall champ.

Opry will likely remain my only Clydesdale Mare for the foreseeable future, as the only others on my want list are somewhat difficult and pricey to obtain - the Connoisseur model Lanark’s Rosebud and the BreyerWest special run Del Mar.

 

 

A BreyerFest surprise model named after beer and released the first year they had the beer tent? Yes please!

This is the #711510 Rotating Draft Surprise in silver bay, one of six colors they used on the mold that year. I’m not typically a Cleveland Bay mold fan - he is sooooooooo loooooooong and takes up a ton of room on the shelf - but I had to have one of these as soon as I saw the color. There were 1200 made.

I had an astonishing four BreyerFest tickets that year. In my defense, it was the first BreyerFest back in Kentucky after two years of online-only during the pandemic, and I liked a ton of the special runs. I ended up with four surprises - two Wedgewood pintos, another one I don’t remember (maybe a buckskin pinto?), and a matte gray appaloosa, who ended up being one of the rare ones. A friend of mine avidly congas the Cleveland Bay mold, so I sold him to her for cost, and then bought this silver bay guy from my friend Nina, who had a duplicate. Everyone ended up happy!

Other Cleveland Bays on my wish list include obtainables O’Leary’s Irish Diamond and Griffin. I had a Griffin but sold him at BreyerFest 2024 and instantly regretted it. He wasn’t at all popular due to his Cheetos-orange color, so finding another won’t be difficult. The only unobtainium Cleveland Bay on my wish list is a glossy O’Leary’s Irish Diamond.

 

 

So I have a thing about cows. 

For my birthday one year late in high school or early in college, my sister got me a stuffed Beanie Baby Pillow Pal named Moo-Moo. Moo-Moo became a whole thing in our family. We affectionately refer to her as The Family Disorder - everyone talks to her. My sister crocheted her a sweater. Moo-Moo has been gifted many hats (including some fancy Kentucky Derby hats). My best friend sends her a birthday card every year. Moo-Moo has a whole personality including likes and dislikes, cannot be trusted around beer, and faints every time she hears any beef-related food words.

So when this Cow model, #711256 Diwali, was announced as the animal special run for BreyerFest 2017, she went straight onto my want list. In sixteen BreyerFests, she’s the only animal run I’ve ever purchased from the tent line.

I don’t have any other Cow models on my wish list, not being a collector of the animal molds, but I wouldn’t pass one up if I stumbled upon it in the wild and the price was right.

 

 

This is #B-BF-10089 Miss Independent, a run of 2200 pieces from BreyerFest 2024. I liked the color immediately, but there were others higher on my want list that year and I only had one ticket, so I passed her up.

If she looks downhill, that’s because she is, at the moment - she got a trifle warm during her journey in a shipping container from China and her left front cannon bone softened like overcooked spaghetti, ending up at a 90-degree angle. I can fix her with a heat gun, just need to drum up the courage to do so. I snatched her up during room sales last year for only $40. If I ever show her, her name will definitely be Spaghetti Leg.

I’m quite a fan of this mold, though I haven’t always liked the colors they’ve put on it. The only ones on my wish list at the moment are True North from the Premier Club and the unobtainable raffle model Rangoli.

 

 

This is #712435 Shelbourne, a release from the 2022 Stablemates Collector’s Club. I purchased him direct from Breyer. The Cantering Morgan mold seems popular enough, but I’m not a fan. This guy gets to stay because I like his color and because I like Shiny Things. The only other one I’d like to have is the 2020 BreyerFest single day model, Skye (who is also a Shiny Thing).

 

I have several Stone Chips that are singletons and was going to cover them today as well, but this post is already kinda long. I'm gonna do February Mel a favor and save the Stone Chips for next month.