A Brief Hiatus

If you're a regular visitor here, you may have noticed that I've fallen off my posting schedule this past week.

 

I need to take a brief hiatus. Every May since 2015, like clockwork, my brain hands me the unwanted gift of seasonal depression. I had hoped that my horrid bout of depression back in December and January meant that May would give me a miss this time ... but alas, here we are, in the thick of it.

 

I've got all the usual stuff - sadness, hopelessness, fatigue, brain fog, irritability, etc. but the most inconvenient part (and the most damaging to the blog) is the apathy. Every post requires planning, photography sessions, and not a small amount of time to write. I don't have much desire to do or care about anything right now - I could sit on the couch and stare into space for hours and not be bothered in the least - and the little I have gets divided between work and Oliver, which means everything else has gone by the wayside.

 

[Side note: If you're not offended by excessive, gratuitous, and hilarious use of the f-bomb, this song on YouTube is accurate to describe my mental state right now.]

 

I thought about pushing through, but I think that would lead to bad writing and boring posts, and my models deserve better than that. Instead, I'm gonna just accept where I'm at and take the rest of May off. 

 

I've already got the June 1 post written and ready to go, so that's when I'm planning to hop back in.

Full Spectrum: "Surprise" Web Specials

For today’s Full Spectrum post, I’ll be talking about my two decorator “Hey, here’s a surprise web special!” models.

 

 

For all that he’s not blue, this is one of my favorite decorator models in my collection. He's a lovely bay, nicely shaded, and fall is my favorite season of the year.

#712046 Fall in Love, a run of just 200 pieces on the ever-popular Nokota mold, was a surprise Cyber Monday special run in 2011. Like many web specials, he was offered by random drawing. I was not lucky enough to get selected.

On Saturday, April 28, 2012, I was attending the Southwest PA Classic show in southwest PA, hosted by my friends Bonnie and Leslie. I was just sitting there minding my own business when one of my friends (I think it was Kelly W) came over to me and said, “Fall in Love is available for straight purchase on Breyer’s site!” I didn’t have a smartphone until 2015, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t have my work laptop with me, so I have no idea how I ordered one. Maybe Kelly let me borrow her phone? Whatever the case, I was successful in snagging one. He gets to show in collectibility from time to time under the name Hojas, which is Spanish for leaves.

 

*****

Let’s talk about the Vault Sale.

In December 2012, five days before Christmas, Breyer announced that they would be releasing limited quantities of rare things through the Collector’s Club Vault sale. No one knew exactly what to expect. That round, they had Connoisseurs, including Silverado and Moon Warrior. Everyone promptly lost their shit. Breyer’s website malfunctioned quite a lot and most of the stock was grossly oversold (like … 30 people thought they got a Silverado, and less than a half dozen people actually ended up with one).

In May 2013, they announced another vault sale. This one invited us to “Strike the Mother Lode” with a limited run model. People were a little more wary given the issues from last time, but most of us dutifully logged in at 9:00 p.m. to take a chance.

The website crashed. As in HTTP error: 504 Gateway Timeout, “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” crashed. Amidst the flailing and constant refreshing, this wonderful LOTR meme was born:

 

After 13 minutes, the #760238 Mother Lode models appeared - a run of just 100 pieces, split into 80 of the solid gold charm, 10 appaloosa, and 10 pinto. They sold out within seconds. I am a huge Lady Phase fan and had one in my cart, but the checkout page took too long to load, and I got the sad notification that the stock was no longer available and my cart was empty. Blab and Facebook were full of many, many angry and disappointed people. I was among them.

Then, an hour after the models finally appeared on the website, someone posted in the Blab thread that more were back up. I ran straight to the site, did not pass Go, did not collect $200 … and I got one!

 

I didn’t quite believe it til I got the order confirmation and shipping notice. Obviously I got the solid gold charm, which was fine with me. I’m happy to have gotten one at all, and for cost. She gets to show occasionally; her show name is Vera Madre.

Collectibility Spotlight: Volunteer Models, Part 1

BreyerFest is my favorite week of the year - and I do mean week, since I am down there Monday through Sunday - and it’s less than 60 days away. I’m starting to get excited.

I wanted to go to BreyerFest ever since I saw the first advertisement for it in the 1991 box catalog. In May of 2010, I quit a terrible job and bought my first BreyerFest ticket all in the same day. The former was an act of self-preservation; the latter was me saying, by God, I need some joy in my life, so I’m going to go do this thing I’ve always wanted to do. Later that day, I chatted with my parents about it, and when I said that I’d wanted to go to BreyerFest since I was a kid, I distinctly remember my mom saying, “You should have asked us. We’d have taken you.”

I was torn between kicking pre-teen/teen me for the missed opportunity, and awe that they would have even considered taking on the expense and the 8-hour drive each way for pre-teen/teen me to gallivant amongst plastic ponies for an entire weekend. I don’t think I ever would have asked for that much, but I’m glad to know all the same that they would have said yes. They have always been my biggest hobby champions and enablers.

BreyerFest 2010 was a magical experience. I’ll cover it in one of my “bonus” blog posts - perhaps later this month. Whilst wandering around the events at KHP that year, I learned that you could apply to volunteer for various jobs throughout the weekend - seminar attendant, the kids’ craft and activity tent, the diorama contest, the swap meet, and more - and that you got an exclusive model for doing so. In 2011, I applied as a workshop/seminar attendant, and was chosen. I have volunteered eleven more times since then - in 2013 for the diorama contest, and every year since 2016 (except 2020) as the results manager for the Children & Youth Shows. In 2025, I also stewarded BOO, Breyer’s fall online show. I have 12 volunteer models in my collection thus far.

 

 

This guy, #711430 Nottingham, the 2011 volunteer model, got his own post back in March as a sentimental favorite. You can go read more about him there, if you like. I don’t think I can say any better how much he means to me.

 

 

This is also #711433 Opry’s second appearance on the blog; I talked about her in my January Singles Bar post as my only Clydesdale Mare. She was the 2013 volunteer model.

 

 

This dude exploded every algorithm I was using to try to predict the volunteer mold. Blew them all to smithereens. He was used here as #711468 Caipirinha, a run of 163 models for volunteering at BreyerFest 2016. He was also used that year as a glossy prize model AND an auction model, which was absolutely unheard of. I still grumble about him every time someone asks me if I’m doing predictions.

 

 

I still remember the collective hobby head explosion that happened when this gal, #711271 Assam, was revealed as the volunteer model at BreyerFest 2017. The Weather Girl mold has been tremendously popular in the hobby since her first release in 2011. She’s pretty and typey and conformationally solid, and this particular release commands quite a price on the secondary market. She shows fairly well for me; her show name is Almira. She was the overall breed reserve champ in the BreyerFest division at BVG Live last year and got me a gigantic rosette.

Next month, I’ll go over my volunteer models from 2018-2022, and in July, I’ll finish up with 2023 and on. The timing of the July post should coincide with my receipt of my volunteer model for the Children & Youth Show. Since they started splitting into three colors, I have always received the third colorway, so I anticipate that’s what I’ll get this year as well. We’ve seen sooty buckskin and palomino so far. They said it’ll be another dilute; I’m hoping for a nice dark dun or a silver bay/silver black. I’m terrified it’ll be a double cream dilute (cremello or perlino), because those are my least favorite.

Special Effects: Tour Models

Starting in 1994, Breyer hosted “Tour” events across the country, at which a special run model was available for purchase. These events continued through 2002, then reappeared again briefly for 2007 and 2008 before being discontinued. I didn’t attend any of these events myself, but have picked up three of the tour models on the secondary market in the years since.

 

Ironically, the order I purchased them in is also the order in which they were released. 

 

 

As a person who congas Big Ben, I had to have #700301 Stormchaser, the 2001 tour model. His official production quantity was never released. I looked for one for many years, but his asking price was always more than I wanted to spend. Then, at my first BreyerFest in 2010, I found one for sale for $40 at the CHIN. Score!

 

 

#703002 Banat er Rih was the tour model for 2002. Like Stormchaser, her production quantity is unknown. I purchased mine from a seller on Model Horse Sales Pages in December 2011. Her color is soft and lovely; she’s one of my favorite releases on the PAM.

 

 

#703018 Caliente was the 2008 tour model and was a run of 1,000 pieces. I’m picky with chestnuts, but this guy’s color is outstanding. The glossy one is even more delicious; a friend of mine has one and I drool over it whenever she brings him out to a show. I purchased my matte one from the Black Horse Ranch collection sale during BreyerFest 2015. He doesn’t get to show often - there are better Spanish sculpts out there these days - but occasionally a class list will be split out enough that I give him a go for collectibility reasons. His show name is El Volcan.

The only tour models remaining on my wish list are the unobtainium raffle models - Silver Twilight, Batal, and Amira.

On a Regular Basis: The Winx Trio

Well, I knew it would happen eventually - I’d get so busy that the regularly scheduled time for a post would come and go, and I wouldn’t have a post written. I like to be 3-4 posts ahead of schedule, but that hasn’t happened for at least the last month. I’m writing them the day before, the morning of, or right up to the posting deadline.

It happens to the best of us, I suppose.

And I have a good excuse. I've been quite occupied with our newest addition.

 

We named him Oliver. Chris wanted a name that reflected his origin story, and a friend of his suggested Oliver Twist - a little guy with a rough start who maintained his goodness and decency in spite of the injustice and corruption around him. Our little man continues to be a total sweetheart - last night, he put his paws on my chest and rubbed his face on my nose - so the name fits. 

 

I’ll probably still call him “Little Man” forever. It’s already morphed into “Mannarino” as a nickname, so I’m off and running with my usual shenanigans. By this time next year, he’ll have at least half a dozen nicknames that have nothing to do with his actual name. 

 

He went to the vet today and got a clean bill of health - no FIV and no FeLV! He's got to be the luckiest cat in the world, to have been outside for a year, scrapping with other cats, and not have picked up a single infectious disease. He's also flea-free and his skin has healed enough that we don't have to give him the 10 days of Clavamox, which will make everyone happy. We're going to leave the sunroom door open so he can come into the house on his own schedule.

Since I’m (a) already a day late on this post and (b) still horrifically short on time, I’m going to give you a brief but telling glimpse into just how obsessed I am with bay things.

 

Behold, my *cough cough* three *cough cough* regular run #1828 Winx models.

 

 

The first one is explainable - I bought her as part of the 2021 Collector Club Appreciation sale. I wanted a glossy Winx, so I ordered a matte one in the hope they’d get the hint - and, happily, they did!

 

 

Then in January of 2022, not two months after I had just bought my first regular run Winx, Heather B and I went to Sir Troy’s Toy Kingdom in search of a Harley for her. (We are all slightly obsessed with Harley, the famous Sugarbush Draft who escorts horses to the track, and the Friesian is one of Heather’s favorite molds, so of course she had to have a Harley.) I’d already heard about chalky Winxes in the mix, so I wanted to look at the ones at Sir Troy’s to see if I could find one.

 

I'm pretty sure this gal is one. Her paint is much thicker than my original.

 

 

And then this other one with red shading jumped out at me, and I was doomed.

 

I keep telling myself I should sell one, but I just can't do it.

Do That Conga: Stone ISH, Part 3

We’re up for part 3 of my ISH conga - the factory customized (FCM) models.

The 2005 Stone Base manual defined factory customs as, “[S]culpting the molds at the factory with additions or subtractions to the original.” For their upcoming 2026 SHCF show, Stone defines factory customs as: “[M]odels that can have a range of customizing from their standard form up to mane and tail swaps, gender swaps, ear repositioning, and adding unicorn or other smaller horns. Manes and Tails can be altered from the original version (IE tails customized to swish, ends of manes customized to be windblown, manes and tails modified to fit other sculptures).” There’s also a category called Extreme Factory Customized (EFCM), which includes turned/tucked heads, added wings, moved limbs, crazy detailing in the mane/tail (I always call that Spaghetti Hair), adding feather to the legs or extra bulk/less bulk in various parts of the body, or completely coating the body in another texture (for example, the dragon horses they’ve done from time to time that are covered head to toe in scales).

With a few exceptions, I don’t find a lot of Stone’s EFCMs to be realistic or attractive. I look at most of them and say, “Yeah, cool idea, but that’s not how [legs, necks, etc.] work in real horses.” One of my self-imposed collecting rules is that if I’m gonna drop a fortune on a Stone, it has to be showable in breed, and a lot of the EFCMs, while pretty pieces, just aren’t biomechanically sound.

FCMs that have simple mane/tail modifications are more my bread and butter. It’s not a surprise that they’re the most populous ISH body style in my collection. Here they are, in order of acquisition.

 

 

Banjo was a run of 15 windswept ISHs made for the Midwest Horse Fair in April 2019. I love Stone’s strawberry roans (universally, on any mold) so he was a must-have as soon as I saw his picture. Stone allowed orders via Facebook Messenger back then, so I messaged Elaine and snagged one. His show name is Bandurria - I wanted to keep with the theme of a stringed instrument.

 

 

I just talked about White Luna, a run of 7 models produced in 2017, in my bonus post for March about silver things, so you can read her full deets there. Still thrilled I was able to find her.

 

This horse is without a doubt my favorite ISH in my entire collection.

In 2023, I was a member of the Stone Loyalty Club. Members got special early-bird shopping at any in-person events, including Equilocity, which always occurs in Lexington during the same week as BreyerFest. That Friday, I hopped the shuttle from the CHIN over to the Fairfield Inn at the appointed time to get my shopping wristband, and then hung out in the lobby until it was time to go in. I wasn’t really interested in any of the runs, so I went straight to the OOAK tables.

I was initially eyeballing a beautifully shaded seal bay Arabian Foal named Norman, because I don’t have any of that sculpt in my collection and it would have filled a hole in my show string. In the end, though, I couldn’t resist the pull of a bay ISH. His issue name was Bear and he was painted by Dawn Quick. I had him glossed, of course.

 

[Side note: I do hope to still add Norman to my collection someday.]

I say this is my favorite ISH because he immediately grabs my eye from across the room. On multiple occasions, I’ve plunked him on a show table, gone back to my own table, and nebbed on the class from afar, and I’ve seen him and gone, “Wow, who is that, he’s gorgeous!” Only to realize it’s my own horse. I have five solid bay ISHs, four of whom are shiny, and he’s the only one who gets that Wow reaction out of me, every time.

He has been on the table at ten shows so far and has 7 breed NAN cards and 2 collectibility NAN cards. He’s only been completely out of the ribbons once, and given what else was on the table at that show, it was totally fair for him not to place. His show name is Desert Road.

 

 

If forced to choose a second-favorite ISH, it would be this gal, Cheerleader, a run of 14 ISHs from the 2019 Stone Super Bowl event. She was painted by Audrey Dixon and, like most Audrey Dixon chestnuts, it was love at first sight for me. I had a chance to buy her during the sale, but we’d just purchased a house not six months prior, and I couldn’t justify the expense.

In October 2023, a seller listed one on the Peter Stone Sales Page on Facebook, and the rest is history. Her show name is Chalice.

 

 

I have mixed feelings about this ISH.

He’s a DAH who was listed for offers in November 2024 and was immediately bid up higher than most DAHs typically go for. The reason was obvious - he was absolutely gorgeous in the seller’s photos. His sooty parts were super dark and contrasty and he had shiny, satiny finish. I was slightly uncomfortable with how high he went, but ended up with the high offer.

Then I got him in hand and was … seriously underwhelmed. I understand that models can look somewhat different depending on the lighting, but he looked like a totally different horse. He was lighter and washed out, not dark and contrasty like the seller's pictures. I like him significantly less in-hand.

That being said, he’s done pretty well in the show ring so far, with three NAN cards out of four shows. His show name is Gone Overboard - a reflection of how I got caught up in bidding and paid more than I should have.

 

 

Lance of Earth was a run of 30 pieces for the 2022 Art of the Horse event. He came in three colors - palomino, liver chestnut, and black, with 10 pieces made of each color, and he was a gambler’s choice - you didn’t know which color you were going to get. I only liked the liver chestnut, so I decided to wait to see if I could find one on the secondary market - hoping at least one of the ten had been glossed.

In December 2024, a glossy liver chestnut popped up on the Peter Stone Sales Page on Facebook, and I pounced. He has not been shown.

 

 

This is the customized version of Gleema My Star, a run of 30 produced in 2010. He was featured in my “Top 5 purchases of 2025” post. An absolutely gorgeous model. I bought him from my friend Ellen.

 

 

This ISH, Ruffalo, a OOAK produced for the 2019 Midwest Horse Fair (the same event where I got Banjo) and painted by Audrey Dixon, was in my top five most-wanted ISHs since he was released. I put out an ISO for him prior to BreyerFest in 2024; his then-owner responded to the post and said he was not for sale at the time. However, in September 2025, she was ready to part with him and put him up for sale on the Peter Stone Sales Page on Facebook. I didn’t see the post for several hours and thought I’d be too late, but he was still available, and now he is mine. He is unshown.

 

 

Ima Shifty Goodbar, a run of 15 for the 2017 Quarter Horse Congress, was featured in my March 2026 New Additions post, so you can read more about his acquisition details there. I’m so glad I finally have the big one to match the little one! He’s going to his first show this coming weekend. I named him Cagey Clark.

 

Most of the ISHs on my wish list are FCMs. Top of the list are Big Bad Wolf, Excuses Excuses, Firestarter (a 2008 Tom Bainbridge OOAK), Niveous, Rum Runner, and Seeker - because who doesn’t dream of one day owning a Seeker? 

Sentimental Journey: Ducky

In case the cat didn’t make it obvious enough, I am a person who likes rescuing things.

In mid-August 2014, on Blab, fellow hobbyist Amanda Reed shared an eBay link to the dirtiest FAM I’ve ever seen:

 

She was so gross that people didn’t know what she was - a supremely yellowed and/or scorched alabaster? A partially stripped bay or heavily damaged appaloosa? 

Well, she pinged my rescue nerve, so I made an offer significantly lower than the BIN price and to my surprise, the seller accepted. I received her a few days later and broke out my trusty bottle of old Lestoil. I made a thread about her on Blab called “One Ugly Duckling” to track her progress. Most of the photos here are from that thread.

As soon as I started working on her, it became clear that all the brown goo was grease splatter. The seller acquired the model as-is in Nashville, but nothing else was known about her. I wonder if she was just hanging around in a diner somewhere as part of the decor. Here's what her back looked like after the first round of Lestoil and some industrious scrubbing:

After half a bottle of Lestoil, a bunch of toothpaste, and lots time in a sunny window, she looks pretty darn good. She lost some paint from her mane/tail in the process, but I’m really pleased with how she came out. Apologies for the relatively shitty pics; my camera setup back then wasn't the best.

 

I named her Ducky.

Here are both sides of her, from start to finish.

 

(Bottom photo taken today with a much better camera)

(Bottom photo taken today with a much better camera)

Quite the transformation.

 

Here's a pic of our little rescue man from this morning, also, for tax. He's about the cutest thing ever.