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.