Singles Bar: The Letters G & H

This post was supposed to go up on Saturday, but life got in the way a lot last week, so today’s bonus post is getting shuffled to another month and I’m playing catch-up on my Singles Bar series.

I have made the difficult decision to suspend the blog for October, except perhaps sneaking in a “Hey, it’s been a whole year of blogging” recap toward the end of the month. In spite of my careful planning and photo-taking, the blog is already too much to keep up with due to everything going on at work and some new developments in my personal life that are going to require a lot of attention and emotional energy for the time being. (As evidenced by missing Saturday’s post, and this one taking me an hour to write because my brain just wouldn't brain.) Something’s gotta give, and unfortunately this is where the give has to happen.

For now, enjoy my singletons on molds starting with G and H. I’m going to save my oldest model for last because she’s a sentimental favorite, but the rest will be in order of acquisition, as usual.

 

 

My only Hanoverian at the moment is #951 Borodino II, a regular run from 1996-1997. I don’t have an exact purchase date, but I suspect it was sometime in 1996, since he doesn’t have the creepy lizard eyes that the early 1997 models did.

I don’t have any Hanoverians on my wish list, so he’s likely to be a loner for awhile.

 

 

This is #88719 Hanoverian Mare - Bay. She’s a CollectA and was given to me as a Christmas gift from my parents in 2015.

She has only been issued in this color so far, so she’ll be a loner til they try a new paint scheme on her.

 

 

This cute little pony is #1238 Donner, a regular run from 2004-2005 on the Haflinger mold. I’ve always loved this release for his shaded red bay color (shocking) but it took me quite awhile to acquire one. He joined my collection on 5/2/2019, when I decided to stop at an antique store in eastern Ohio on my way to Stone Horse Country Fair for the Paint Your Own event. The antique store had been a Breyer dealer in the past so they had a lot of NIB stuff. He was pretty high up on one of the shelves; I had to ask for assistance in getting him down.

The only obtainable Haflinger on my wish list is RDA Strikey. I’ve seen several for sale at the CHIN over the years, but they’ve either been damaged or had fish scale dapples. I can wait for the right one to come my way; Donner told me he's just fine hanging out on the shelf next to my Indian Ponies. Unobtainium Haflingers on my wish list include Sceptre and Cavalcade, both prize models from past BreyerFests who will likely be outside my budget forever.

 

 

This is Whippletree from the #711268 Best of BreyerFest Series 4 set, a run of 2000 pieces in 2023. I bought the set from the Breyer store during BreyerFest. I think the Giorgio Stablemate (the mini version of the Traditional-sized Georg)  is super cute, so Whippletree won’t be by himself for long.

 

 

My volunteer Georg, #B-EV-10781 Vegvisir, just got his turn in the spotlight in late July, so you can read more about him there. He’s super fun and has no eyes!

The only Georg on my wishlist is the original release from the Premier Club, and he’s another one of those “I’m waiting for the right one to find me” models.

 

 

Saved the best for last. 

My only Halla is #820 Noble Jumper, a regular run from 1990-1991. I don’t have a purchase date on her, but she is without a doubt one of the first models I acquired after starting my collection with the JCPenney sets for Christmas in December 1990. She was discontinued after 1991 and would have been harder to find after that, and I definitely had her before September 1992, when I photographed my collection for the first time, so I know she’s one of the models I’ve had the longest.

The Halla mold has never really wowed me, but something about this girl has always resonated. I’m super sentimental about her; I just love her.

Back in 2023, during our second rendition of Are You Kitten Me Live, I was the judge for Traditional/Classic Breyer. We had several clinky cats that we were using as Judge’s Choice awards that year, to hand out however we saw fit. 

My Judge’s Choice award that day went to a Noble Jumper. I couldn’t pin her in the class, but I loved that someone brought her along and stuck her on the table. I announced the award and everything, and thanked the shower for bringing her out.

Please think good thoughts for me as we roll out the new health record for the rest of the organization at work on October 3 ... and if you could spare some good vibes for a family member with a health issue, I’d sure appreciate that as well.

Catch yinz on the flip side.

Other Makes: Clinky Things Part 1

With Clinkypalooza imminently on the horizon (just three weeks from when this blog entry posts) and my “Other Makes” series up for discussion today, I figure now is as good a time as any to talk about a couple clinky pieces in my collection.

I love Chinas, and there are some truly outstanding OF and CMG China pieces in the hobby that would look really pretty on my shelves - but I don't collect them. That’s for one reason and one reason only: If it’s breakable, I’ll find a way to break it. I wish that wasn’t the case, but just as with real horses, I prefer to admire from afar, rather than touch.

So how is it, then, that these two highly breakable things found their way into my collection?

I was antiquing at The Hub in Pittsburgh in January 2018 and saw them for $25 apiece, and impulsively bought them, that’s how.

The top one is Pamela Du Boulay’s “Black Beauty and Merrylegs,” issued through the Franklin Mint in 1990. The bottom is “The Arabian Knight” from the Lenox International Horse Sculptures collection in 1988. I really know nothing about them other than that. They're the two biggest clinky things I have. The other six are minis, and I'm planning to talk about them in October, along with whatever free goodies I might bring back from Clinkypalooza.

I’d love to move these guys on to someone who will appreciate them more than me, but I haven’t gotten any bites when I’ve listed them for sale, and the thought of having to pack and ship (or even pack and transport) them somewhere makes my skin crawl, so they’re still on my shelves.

Show Stoppers: Traditional Paints

It’s no secret by now that my collection heavily favors Stock molds. I’ve rotated quite a few models in and out of my show string over the years, trying to spread the love, mostly between my Lady Phases ... and trying to figure out what judges like in stock molds, with only moderate success.

Here are six models I’ve shown in the Paint class over the years.

 

 

This Lady Phase, #1214 Palomino Pinto, was part of the 2006 treasure hunt. I took a drive out to a closing Breyer dealer in Blairsville, PA (Horse & Rider Etc.) in May 2011 when they were liquidating their inventory and mentioned having a bunch of her for sale. I think she was $15.

She only brought home a single 6th place ribbon in her first half dozen times out in the show ring, so I retired her. Her show name was Fashionably Late.

 

 

This Lady Phase from the #1446 Overo Paint Mare & Foal set has been one of my most successful stock horses. She’s placed in some massive classes and has about a 50% success rate in getting a ribbon. Of the 21 times she’s been on the table, she has 10 ribbons, 2 breed NAN cards, and a section reserve champ. I hand-picked her from my friend Bonnie’s Breyer dealership (Breyers By Mail) in February 2012. Her markings are some of the cleanest I’ve ever seen despite the intricacy of her pattern, which might be part of why she does so well in the ring. Her show name is Alice.

 

 

#711161 CC Shuffle Surprise was a BreyerFest special run in 2013. This gal, the blue roan pinto, was the rarest matte color. She’s now retired due to some slight yellowing, but got a couple breed ribbons and a couple collectibility NAN cards in her show career. Her show name was Sheza Lil Loopy, which you can read more about back in my Nov 2025 Show Stoppers post where I talked about goofy names.

 

 

#90174 Bobby Jo is one of my favorite Premier Club releases. I think the sculpt is conformationally excellent and she looks good in a lot of colors. I wasn’t in the Premier Club that year, so I bought her secondhand from my friend Kelly W. in May 2016.

She’s been on the table 15 times so far, placing in breed six times, earning 4 breed NAN cards, and cleaning up at the 2024 NY Breeders Show in Region 10 with a section champ and overall division champ.

 

 

I first talked about #90122 Hope N Glory in my February 2026 Special Effects post, where I discussed the few Connoisseurs in my collection. She has a cool acquisition story; you can read about it back on the other post. Her show name is Phrenology. She gets into the show ring quite a lot because she’s both a good breed horse and a contender in collectibility. She does okay; as I mentioned in my February post, there’s another Hope N Glory in my region that she’s often up against, and that one is a little nicer.

 

 

This #711400 Seven Arts Surprise in glossy bay maximum sabino was a run of 325 pieces at BreyerFest 2019. He was just featured on my blog back in July when I talked about glossy surprise models. He’s been on the show table 7 times and has four ribbons and a section reserve champ so far.

I like naming my horses something analogous to their issue names, so it was a no-brainer to assign him as Bob Ross. I grew up in awe of the real Bob Ross and regularly watched The Joy of Painting on WQLN (our local PBS station in Erie) as a kid. I couldn’t (and still can’t) believe what that man could do with a canvas and oil paint in just 30 minutes.

Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth: Misty & Stormy

Since time is of the essence and I’ve mentioned my sister a whole bunch lately, today I will share the last two Breyers she gifted me when she decided to stop collecting. I’ve already talked about her #839 dapple gray PAS and her #859 Family Appaloosa Stallion on Stud Spider. 

 

 

These last two are pretty iconic. This is #20 Misty of Chincoteague (or just Misty, or Marguerite Henry’s Misty, or Misty by Marguerite Henry, or Marguerite Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague, depending on the year and catalog) and her foal, #19 Marguerite Henry’s Stormy. I don’t think there’s a run in the history of the company that has been produced as long as these two have.

Misty has been in the lineup in some form or other since the mold was introduced in 1972. That’ll be 55 years next year! She’s come with books and camping gear, by herself and in sets with Stormy, in various boxes, and has had some pattern changes, especially early in her production. There’s a three-eyed Misty and a four-eyed Misty (depending on whether or not there’s a white circle around her left eye). Despite her lengthy run, people who really know Misty can look at any Misty model and tell by the color and pattern roughly what decade it was produced in.

Stormy wasn’t introduced until 1977, but she has also faithfully been in the lineup every year since then, alone or in sets with Misty.

I believe my sister got both of these in 1992. They would have been sold separately then, not as a set.

A Misty and Stormy connoisseur I am not, and a Misty and Stormy mold fan I am not (my only other Misty is Sari, and Stormy is a singleton), but it would feel a little weird to have over 1500 Breyers and NOT have the set that’s been popular enough to be faithfully produced every year since before I was born.

I’m really happy my sister decided to get them and then passed them along to me.

Full Spectrum: Glossy Charcoal

Let’s talk shark holes.

Back in the day, an adventurous YouTuber made an animated video of a Breyer newbie wandering the confusing layout of the Holiday Inn North and looking for room 890 (which doesn’t exist), where a glossy charcoal Running Stallion had been advertised for sale on a flyer. The animation was computer-narrated, and every time the animated shopper stopped to ask another animated shopper how to get to room 890 because they were looking for a charcoal Running Stallion, the computer pronounced charcoal as “shark hole.”

Thus the legend of the famous Room 890 Glossy Shark Hole Running Stallion was born. 

The legend is alive and well today. There’s usually at least one poster hanging on the CHIN walls every year that references it. On a Blab thread this past July about the upcoming proposed changes to the CHIN, someone asked how to get to the pool, and a fellow hobbyist replied, “You really don't want to go to the pool anyways, that's where all the shark hole stallions are.” Someone else asked, “What are shark hole stallions?” Cue the retelling.

Unfortunately, the YouTube link to the video is long defunct, or I’d share it here. It was a riot.

I first fell in love with glossy shark holes when I got limited edition #854 Memphis Storm as a kid. I just talked about Memphis Storm last month in my On a Regular Basis post, so this seemed like a good time to visit the other glossy shark holes in my collection.

 

This G1 Draft, #502901 Silver Cup Series (1st Collection) from 2002, got his first featurette on the blog in December 2025’s Special Effects post. You can read more about him there.

 

 

#701709 Cream and Cocoa were a Just About Horses special run in 2009. There were 1200 made. They must not have sold out, because Breyer put a whole bunch in the store at BreyerFest in 2011 for a discount ($50, compared to their original issue price of $80). Being the Grazing Mare & Foal fan that I am and also being a person unable to resist a great deal, I snagged a set.

You’ll have to forgive the inclusion of Cream in today’s post; she’s a glossy smoke, not a shark hole, but it didn’t make sense to leave her out when I was already talking about the set.

 

 

#712014 Amigo, a run of 500, was the third release in the 2014 Vintage Club, in July (like a week before BreyerFest, so the timing was … less than awesome). I was a member that year, so I got him direct from Breyer. You can't see how awesome and rich his color and shading are here because of my crap light setup, but he’s easily in my top 3 favorite Vintage Club releases of all time.

 

 

#711283 Claude was the optional model for the 2019 Vintage Club, released in October 2019. I was a member of the Vintage Club that year as well, so I got him direct from Breyer. They made 470 glossy and 30 matte. Though I’m sure I could have made bank on a matte if I’d gotten one, shark hole does nothing for me in matte, so I was happy to get the glossy.

 

 

My Big Ben conga gained another member in March 2020 thanks to my friend Beth E., who was having a small collection selloff. #1456 Gathering Storm was the Collector’s Choice model for the first half of 2011. Collector’s Choice models were color/pattern/mold combos suggested to Breyer by collectors. I would have preferred a solid shark hole instead of a loudly patterned one, but my Big Ben conga excludes no one.

 

 

Beth E. is also responsible for this little dude, the miniaturized version of the traditional Fighting Stallion. He was released in the regular run blind bag set #6051 70th Anniversary Mystery Horse Surprise. The Fighting Stallion is one of the most popular Breyer molds of all time, and like many hobbyists, I was thrilled when they produced him as a mini-me. Beth had bought an entire box of the blind bags and was selling her extras in July 2020, so I bought one of her Fighters.

As far as shark holes I’d like to add to my collection someday, Storm from the 2016 Vintage Club is the only one currently on the list. That being said, if a minty mint glossy vintage Fighting Stallion or Mustang came my way at the right price, I wouldn’t turn it down.

Collectibility Spotlight: Web Specials, Part 1

I started talking about web specials back in May’s Full Spectrum post and covered my newest one, Belize, in last month’s New Additions post, so now seems as good a time as any to continue in that vein.

The vast majority of limited quantity web specials Breyer releases are lottery draws. If you want to enter (for yourself or someone else), you just sign up during the entry period, and then Breyer draws a random list of winners. I would estimate I got pulled from either the initial draw or the wait list about 25% of the time early on, even though the quantities were lower. These days, despite a marked increase in the quantity of each run and the fact that I enter for almost all of them, I’m lucky if I get picked once every couple years.

Most of my web specials have been acquired direct from Breyer, so with one exception, the order of acquisition matches the order of release.

 

 

In my opinion, this is one of the prettiest horses in my collection. I wish they would use this color more often because it is outstanding. #712005 Delia was the first ever Breyer Web special, a run of 500 pieces in fall 2008. I wasn’t involved in the hobby at that time; I had just graduated with my Masters degree in August that year and was still looking for my first post-Masters job, so money was tight. I started looking for one when I rejoined the hobby in 2010 and purchased my Delia a couple years later in November 2012 from a seller on MH$P. 

I showed her quite a lot after I got her - there’s not a flaw on her - but she only has two 4th place ribbons to her name. Her show name is Adelaide.

 

 

#712072 Arosa was a run of 255 pieces in December 2012. When I said my luck with drawings was better by then, this is a good example - Arosa was the third web special I’d been drawn for within a year’s span, after Mont Tremblant in December 2011 and I’m Yours in February 2012. (I have since parted with both of the latter.)

 

 Every time I make a list of potential models to sell, he ends up on it. And then I pull him off the shelf and say, "Nope, he's too pretty," and back on the shelf he goes.

 

 

 

In 2013, Breyer started releasing web specials associated with a theme. Greek Gods was the first series, and the first three releases in that series - Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo, with 225-240 pieces apiece - are highly sought after and contain commas in their price tags on the secondary market. I didn’t particularly care for Poseidon, but I have always been sad to not have been drawn for Zeus and Apollo.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get drawn for the fourth release in the series, #712098 Dionysus, a run of 250 pieces. Despite my overwhelming positive feelings towards Kathleen Moody sculpts, Ethereal has never done anything for me (it’s his mane). Throw Shiny Bay on him, though, and he quickly became a “Yes, please.”

 

 

#712134 Solar, the first release in the Celestial Series in January 2015 and a run of 350 pieces, has the distinct honor of being the first web special won by a friend and passed along to me. I love the color on him, but didn’t get drawn on my own account. Enter my friend Lori S., who got drawn but decided to pass him along, and my friend Penny L., who quickly secured him for me from Lori whilst I was away from my phone dealing with copious amounts of Angry Children and Drama at the residential facility where I worked at the time. Yay for enabling friends!

 

 

#712221 Wailua was the second release in the America the Beautiful series, a run of 350 pieces in March 2017. My friend Jackie H. is the responsible party this time, enabling me to buy him direct from Breyer when she got drawn on both of her accounts. Legionario, dapple gray, glossy - what’s not to love?

 

 

This gal, #712110 Athena, the third release in the Greek Goddesses series in May 2014 and a run of 250 pieces, was my #1 want on the Ruffian mold since the day I first heard about her release. That color is *chef’s kiss.* She immediately commanded a high price on the secondary market and remains up there today, often commanding $600-800. I snagged mine from MH$P in February 2018 for $220 shipped and considered myself lucky. She’s the only one of mine whose acquisition date isn’t anywhere near her release date.

Next month I’ll cover my other five (at least as of right now) web specials, and include my wish list of future ones to acquire, which I’m sure will be long, distinguished, and horrible for my bank account.

Special Effects: Other Mid-States Special Runs

Last month in my Sentimental Journey post, I talked about a couple Mid-States runs that had special meaning to me because my sister helped me acquire them. Today I’ll cover the other three Mid-States special runs in my collection.

 

 

#7007 Mamin Nez Perce was a run of 4400 models for Mid-States in 2007. It was love at first sight the minute I saw a picture of him - he reminded me a lot of Fortissimo, even though he’s bay instead of sooty buckskin. He was one of the models I short-listed as must-finds at BreyerFest 2010.

And find him I did, in the swap meet, for $32.

 

 

#701797 Just Incredible was a run of an estimated 5000-6000 pieces in 1997. He’s got the big circular resist dapples that Breyer favored in the late 90s, though he’s not as bad as Cloud on the Swaps mold. I always thought he was a rather attractive shade of light sorrel or dark palomino, so when my friend Ellen V posted hers for sale in July 2014, I purchased him.

 

 

#701730 Sonsela was the 2015 Mid-States special run. There was no announced quantity on her. I’m a sucker for Lady Phase and all things drastically shaded red bay (though my lighting isn't doing her any favors here), so I stopped at the Rural King in St. Clairsville, OH, on the way to the QH Congress show on 10/9/15 and hand-picked one.

I’m glad I got to choose her myself, because she does really well in the show ring, despite the general “Holy shit” size of the Breyer stock classes. Her show name is Lesson Learned.

As a general disclaimer, my posts might become shorter or more sporadic (or both) over the next two months. Our impending health record transition at work that was postponed from May is scheduled for October 3rd and a lot of things are already figuratively on fire. I’ve been working a lot of extra hours since mid-August and I expect that to steadily increase until early November, which won’t leave me with a lot of free time or spare brain cells for the blog. I have all my posts planned out and all photos taken through the end of October, so I’m hoping that allows me to stay on track. I’m going to do my darndest.

On a Regular Basis: 1992 Classics

In last month’s On a Regular Basis post, I talked about my Traditional regular run models that were first released in 1992 - one of my favorite years of new releases to date. Here are the Classics.

 

 

This little dude, #480 Mesteno, a regular run from 1992-1998, spawned a ridiculous number of conga lines. As in, every Mesteno series mold. Literally every one. I conga them all.

Like many of my early models, I don’t know when or where I got him. I took my first collection photos in September 1992, but for some reason, I only got the Traditionals. My Classics and Paddock Pals are nowhere to be found in those photos. I was really excited about the Mesteno the Messenger series, so I think I probably snagged him early in 1992, but we'll never know for sure.

 

 

#3056 Desert Arabian Family was produced from 1992-1994. Having already fallen solidly in love with the CAS (and falling more and more in love with the CAM and CAF, too), I of course had to have this set. And, well, they’re all bay things, so yeah. 

Like Mesteno, I’m not certain where or when I got them. I definitely obtained the 1993 Drinkers of the Wind TRU set prior to getting the Desert Arabian Family, though - I have distinct memories of my black JCP and gray Drinkers CASs leading a band of horses galloping across one of my shelves, and I would have put the bay CAS right up there with them if I'd had one at the time. I'm guessing I didn't get these guys til later in1993 or sometime in 1994.

 

 

The #3346 Hanoverian Family made my wish list for quite a long time, but I never managed to acquire them in my childhood. Cue room sales, BreyerFest 2012, where there they were, complete with their box. They were $3 apiece and the box was free. (I wanted to have the box in the photos also, but it’s currently buried in the horse room closet, and there are floorses in front of said closet, and I’m not moving everyone just to take a picture of a box.) 

 

I didn’t write down the room number of where I bought them (I never do) but somehow my friend Ellen V. is coming to mind. I’ll have to ask her if she remembers selling this set at BreyerFest. She has a great memory for those things - she remembered selling me a 1988 Kentucky Derby glass at one of my first BreyerFests. Though that was probably because I ugly cried in her room when I bought it. It was a replacement for one my grandma had given to me in my childhood, that I had accidentally broken shortly after she died in 2004.

Having been such a fan of the 1992 new releases, I have already acquired most of the ones I want. The only one I’m still looking for is the #3347 Trakehner Family.

Do That Conga: Weather Girl

A dishy-faced, super typey Arabian whose first release was called the Weather Girl Treasure Hunt, with names like Sunny, Partly Cloudy, Thunderstorm, and Rainbow?

Might as well just rubber-stamp her MEL.

As usual, I’ll go through my nine Weather Girls in order of acquisition.

 

 

In addition to the Treasure Hunt in 2011, Breyer used the Weather Girl mold for a BreyerFest Special Run - #711132 Jasmine. There were 1100 pieces made. I had a couple tickets that year and purchased two of them; one had a few minor rubs, so I sold her and kept the nicer of the two.

I showed mine a few times under the name Requiem, but she can’t compete with some of the more outstanding copies floating around in my region, so she is retired.

 

 

Even though I love the mold and Treasure Hunts in general, I didn’t feel the need to go off in pursuit of any of the Weather Girl releases right away. In September 2012, this #1462 Thunderstorm was for sale at a local show for only $30, so I snatched her up. I showed her rather successfully for several years until Felice crashed into the shelf one day and dominoed all my Weather Girls. Thunderstorm acquired shiny marks on both sides. I was pretty disappointed. I’ve been too scared to try the pink pearl eraser trick on her, so she’s retired. Her show name was Nimbus.

 

Weather Girl was completely retired as a mold between 2011 and 2016. This was purposeful - it was announced on the back of the Treasure Hunt boxes. She re-emerged in 2016 as #1752 Rhapsody in Black, who was based on a real horse, a daughter of Thee Desperado. I bought my Rhapsody in Black at Tractor Supply in January 2017, when all their Breyers were heavily discounted after Christmas. She was only $22 after tax!

 

 

My friend Kelly K. has enabled two Weather Girl purchases for me. #1465 Partly Cloudy was the first of the two, back in May 2017 when Kelly was doing a small collection purge. Partly Cloudy does pretty well in the show ring for me. Her show name is Cirrus.

 

 

#711271 Assam, the 2017 BreyerFest volunteer model, had her first blog appearance just a couple months ago in May’s Collectibility Spotlight post. You can check out more details about her there.

 

 

#712242 Grace has also appeared on the blog recently, back in April’s Collectibility Spotlight post about the Vintage Club Gambler's Choice models. I mentioned there that I was happy to receive the alabaster, but didn’t disclose that she was my first choice of the three colors. I know, right? Mel wanting an alabaster over a bay? What blasphemy is this? But it’s true. I had my heart set on alabaster as soon as I saw the release photo.

 

 

#711348 Natasha was released as a special run for BreyerFest 2019, Salute to Horse Heroes. There were 1620 of her made. 

Of all the themes and interesting interpretations of themes they’ve done at BreyerFest, this one was the weirdest for me. The Celebration Horse was one of the KHP Mounted Police horses, and they did a store special of a famous therapy horse, Zipped in Black Magic, so those two releases fit the Horse Heroes theme pretty well. The other two store specials were of horses with behavioral issues that happened to land with the right owners who had the patience to work with them, which was kind of a stretch, but okay.

The tent models, however, were all named after characters from the Marvel franchise, which was just … an odd way to go. We had Diana, Quill, Rocket, Pepper, Natasha, Banner (who was actually a neat idea - there were 30 pieces in an alternate bluish-green color), and Bucky. 
 

[Side Note: I love the character of Bucky Barnes down to the marrow of my bones, but naming a cute, fluffy, goofy, slobbery, affectionate Saint Bernard after THE WINTER SOLDIER? For God’s sake. The irony still makes my head explode.]

 

 

In January 2023, Breyer announced the next release in their Birds of a Feather series - #712499 Flamingo, a run of 500 pieces. The color is pretty wild - they could have gone obnoxiously pink, but didn’t, a decision for which I am eternally grateful. I personally wouldn’t show this model as anything other than a decorator, though some people feel she passes for a chestnut-going-gray. 

This is the second model my friend Kelly K. enabled for me. I wasn’t drawn for Flamingo, but she was, and she let me buy hers at cost.

 

 

#B-TR-10018 Picante was a Flagship store special run in 2024. Flagship stores earn the qualification by purchasing a minimum amount of inventory. I believe the closest one to me is Kraynaks, so I had planned to buy Picante on our annual Black Friday trip later that year, but my friend and BreyerFest roomie Heather M. picked one up for me from her local flagship retailer and brought her to BreyerFest for me. I had hopes of showing Picante as a part-Arab, but she emerged with a significant box rub on her side, darn it.

My Weather Girl conga will grow by at least one more when I finally decide to accept the high secondary market prices on the bay Grace and fork over the cash for one. The only others on my Weather Girl want list are unobtainiums - Winter Haven (8 made), glossy Thunderstorm (13 made), and glossy Partly Cloudy (11 made). A friend of mine has teased potentially selling her glossy Thunderstorm someday; I told her I’d be interested if she’d be willing to take time payments for the rest of my life.

Sentimental Journey: #709 Fighting Stallion

In my December Sentimental Journey post, I mentioned my amazement upon getting the 1990 box catalog and realizing how many models Breyer made. I didn’t know what a spreadsheet was back then, but you better believe I grabbed a notebook and started making my first ever wish list.

The horse in today’s post was at the top of the list. Yes, even above the Shams.

 

 

I fell in love with the #709 Fighting Stallion as soon as I saw him. [Catalog photo courtesy of Identify Your Breyer.] They made a model that was spicy? Hell yeah, sign me up! Unfortunately, 1990 was the last year of his production, and the internet wasn’t a thing yet, and neither my parents nor I knew where I could get one.

 

It would be more than 20 years before I had one on my shelves.

When I restarted collecting in 2010, I visited Model Horse Sales Pages almost every day. I’m sure there were a few #709 Fighting Stallions posted here and there, but I didn’t spring for one for awhile. The entire production run of #709 occurred during the bad plastic years, and many were severely yellowed and/or shrinking and/or oozing. I didn’t want just any #709 - I wanted a really, really nice one. I'd already waited a long time; I could wait awhile longer for the right one.

 

 

Then this guy was posted in February 2012 and I didn’t hesitate. He was the nicest one I'd seen since I started actively hunting for one.

I will admit, I was a little afraid to pull him down for photos a couple weekends ago. Bad plastic models are fine until one day they’re not; the Little Bits QHS and black JCP CAF that have been occupying my freezer for the past six months are evidence of that. I gave Mr. #709 a thorough once-over before bringing him downstairs for his photo shoot.

 

He’s awesome. Nice and white, and he’s still just as tall as my 60s glossy gray appaloosa (who will be featured in this series next month).

Worth the wait for sure.