Full Spectrum: Custom G2 Scrambling Foal

This time next week, I will be in Lexington!!!! I can't wait! 

 

I have arranged a couple purchases in advance: The newest edition of my friend Penny's Breyer Animal Quick Reference book, the newest edition of Lesli Kathman's Breeds & Colors book, a cull Grazing Mare purchased from a friend, and four Stones purchased from an estate a few friends of mine are helping to disperse - two Arabians, an ISH, and my first Stone Tennessee Walking Horse!

 

Before I immerse myself completely in the joys of BreyerFest, I've got one more rainbow pony for Pride month. 

 

 

This adorable little thing is the third custom from the group I won at Rainbow Rave Live last year, a rainbow striped G2 Scrambling Foal. She makes a complete family with the two adults.

 

Pride Month has been an interesting experience this year. I'm glad to see companies still promoting it despite the bigotry, discrimination, and threats by the current administration, but the hateful voices have gotten a lot louder, and it's scary to watch our society take giant steps backward in a way that puts folks who are non-white, non-cisgender, non-heterosexual, non-wealthy, and non-male more at risk than ever. We need to do better.

 

Be inclusive and kind, love your neighbor, treat others as you would want to be treated, and value the beautiful diversity of the human experience. 

Full Spectrum: CM G3 Cantering Warmblood #2

I'm on a mission to get all my posts done and scheduled through the Monday after BreyerFest, so today's post is going to be short.

 

 

This is another custom G3 Cantering Warmblood I won in the raffle at Rainbow Rave Live last year. His spots are haloed in the same rosy gold used on his hooves. I love that his base color and halo color are opposite of the other guy, and that he has a lot of red on him. Sometimes with the rainbow ones Breyer does, I feel like the red is kind of an afterthought, and most of them are distinctly reddish-orange or more toward magenta. I wonder if red is a hard OF color to paint? I know it's a difficult color to carry off in house paint - you've got to have the right shade of primer underneath, and it often takes a ton of coats to look uniform.

 

Must be kinda like silver paint for cars. My buddy who restores cars and has his own paint shop says it's a nightmare to work with.

 

I've got one more rainbow custom who will post tomorrow, and then we'll be eating, sleeping, and breathing BreyerFest for most if not all of July!

Full Spectrum: CM G3 Cantering Warmblood #1

Oliver would like you to know that he is donut-free, and that he greatly missed his toys, and that he does not apologize for making me late on this blog post because he suffered through eight days of restricted playtime and now requires me to play with him for hours every night as a catch-up, thank you very much.

 

In my last post about Equidae, I mentioned Rainbow Rave Live, an annual LGBTQ+ friendly show that benefits the Trevor Project. The next three posts will also feature models I got at RRL, so let me briefly talk about it.

 

My first time attending was in May 2023, less than a week after I mangled my right ankle tripping over air in my driveway. It was wonderfully swollen and appropriately fit into the rainbow theme of the show with all the bruising. I should have entered it in one of the fun classes. I'd have called it Three Severed Ligaments: A Color Study.

 

I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle the rigors of a show day, but the cause was really important to me and the hostess, Sarah, said she could put me at a table right next to the ring I was showing in the most, so I made the trek. I've been back every year since. It's a pretty awesome show, well-run with quality judges, rainbow tablecloths, callback tables for each division (best idea EVER), hilarious fun classes, and a huge raffle.

 

In 2025, I was lucky enough to win three rainbow custom Stablemates from the raffle, so that's who I'll be talking about over the next few posts. Here's the first one, a G3 Cantering Warmblood in rainbow leopard appaloosa. His spots are haloed in silver to match his hooves, which is a neat effect. The Cantering Warmblood is one of my favorite G3 molds; I have 21 original finish and four customs.

 

Funny story – Sarah (the hostess) was pulling tickets and announcing raffle item winners toward the end of the show. She announced that someone had dropped the “Keep This Ticket” halves into the cup instead of the half we were supposed to write our name on. I heard the announcement, but I was up to my eyeballs in judging a huge Breyer division and figured it wasn't me, so I ignored it.

 

I managed to make it back to my table a little while later and glanced at my raffle tickets – which didn’t say “Keep This Ticket” on them, and also had my name written on the back. I was like, oh no, did I forget to put them in?! But I couldn't find the "Keep This Ticket" sides, and I definitely remembered dropping my tickets into the cup with the rainbow Stablemates, because they were what I wanted the most. Then the light bulb went on - what if I was the ding-dong who dropped the wrong tickets in? I went over to the raffle table, where the three Stablemates were still sitting in front of their raffle cup. Sarah had taped the winning ticket to the cup, and sure enough, it was mine. Oops!

 

All's well that ends well, though, because I still got to bring home three cool handmade rainbow ponies.

Full Spectrum: Equidae

The model horse portion of today's blog entry is rather short - it was a straightforward acquisition - so to make it worth the visit, I'll share another picture of Oliver, who is, much to his dismay, still a Donut.

 

 

He has managed to extract himself from the donut twice - once on Thursday morning when I was in a work meeting, and once on Saturday morning when I was sitting right next to him on the couch. Both times, he immediately went for his surgery site and got himself all irritated, so back into the donut he went. I'm thinking it'll be another day or two until I'm fully comfortable letting him out of it.

 

He's handling it pretty well, though his digestive issues are ongoing. His poop still clears the room, it's not as firm as it should be, and he's gulping a lot before and after he eats. I'm sure the stress of the neuter and donut aren't helping, but his problems predate all that. We're going to try switching him to a Limited Ingredient, filler-free, salmon-based kibble, and see if he does better.

 

And now for the rainbow pony. 

 

 

I have loved the Wintersong mold since his original release in plastic in 2007. As a mostly Arab and Stock collector, chonky floofy drafty things really aren't my jam, but Wintersong is the exception. He will definitely be featured in an upcoming Do That Conga post; I have seventeen of them (and hopefully I will add both a matte and glossy Oseberg by the conclusion of this year's BreyerFest!) 

 

For now, here’s #1849, Equidae, a regular run from 2021-2022. The coolest thing about this guy is that I couldn't have gotten him in a more appropriate place - I won him in 2023 from the raffle at Rainbow Rave Live, an LGBTQ+ friendly show that benefits the Trevor Project.

Full Spectrum: Kaleidoscope

#711500 Kaleidoscope was a BreyerFest Limited Edition of 6500 pieces in 2021. He wasn’t a must-have at first - he looked a lot more purple in the promo photo than he ended up being. But he's blue, and you know me and blue things. The more I saw of him, the more I liked him, so I ordered one from the store.

 

The variation in paint jobs on this guy is pretty huge. Some are like mine and have more of the blue color; some are really, really rainbow. Some have large spots, some have tiny ones. I can see myself buying more over the years and ending up with a ... full spectrum.

 

See what I did there? 

Full Spectrum: Prism #2

Before we get to today's rainbow pony - as promised, here is Donut Oliver.

 

 

He's doing really well, healing up nicely, inhaling his food like always, stinking up the entire house anytime he poops (seriously, how can such a tiny thing produce that much stench!), and being affectionate. I'm hoping, and I'm sure he is too, that things look good enough tomorrow afternoon that we can remove the donut.

 

I'm going to go a little out of order with today's rainbow pony. Kaleidoscope was supposed to be next, but I don't have a pic of him, so I'm going to swap him out with my second copy of Prism.

 

 

With a few notable exceptions (cough cough Sham), I don't usually have duplicates in my collection, but this guy has a really awesome story and is one of my never-sells.

 

In early December 2023, I had a supervisor at work named Jade. She taught me how to get started in Power BI, a data analysis and visualization tool that is by far the best and most rewarding thing I do at my job. She and I were super close and still text to this day, even though she is now working elsewhere. She knew all about my Breyer collection. Before Christmas that year, she and I had this text exchange:

Jade: I FOUND A BREYER AT GOODWILL ON MONDAY!!! Coolest one ever!!!!

 

Me: Send me a pic!

Jade: No way, I bought it for you for Christmas. It was too perfect to leave behind, plus I googled it and was like, "Well that's a good deal, I'm taking you to a very good home little dude/ette."

 

Knowing that a Goodwill find can be anything from a super rare deco to a common regular run missing a limb or half its paint, I wasn't sure what to expect, but Jade was beside herself with excitement to give it to me, and she'd said it was in great condition, and she was able to find it using google, so I figured it was probably something at least moderately cool. We met up right after New Year's for our exchange.

 

I couldn't believe that Prism was the one she found! She got him for less than $20. His original cost was $60 and his secondary market sales were $150 and up at the time, so her excitement over the price was well justified. She even wrapped his mane and tail in bubble wrap before boxing him up to give to me. It was so professional that, had I not known that these guys came in the regular clear-front boxes with wire ties, I'd have thought it had been done at the factory.

 

He’s A LOT redder around his head than my original guy, one of the darkest I've seen, so that’s how I tell him apart from my original. I think of Jade and our friendship every time I see him.

Full Spectrum: Pollock

Gah, I missed a post deadline again! (And why is there not a facepalm emoji on this thing?)

 

In my defense, Oliver got neutered today, and I was picking him up, getting him home, witnessing his rather traumatizing epic freakout when I put the e-collar on him, running to Petco to purchase alternatives, and worrying about him (because even though I'm on anti-anxiety meds now, I'm still me) during the time I would normally be writing my Monday post.

 

For the record, he's fine. We put him back in the sunroom, since that's where he's most comfortable, and gave him lots of quiet space to decompress. We successfully swapped out the hard plastic e-collar for a soft donut one, and while he is Not A Fan of the donut, he's much less terrified of it than he was of the hard plastic cone. We lured him out from behind the sofa with a couple small plates of wet food and some of his dry food, and by the end of the evening, he was flopping on his side (as much as the donut would allow) and purring and making air biscuits and letting me rub his belly. After a rough day for us both, it was nice to see a glimpse of my normal cat, and to see that the trust between us hasn't completely imploded.

 

I'll post a picture of "Donut Oliver" as soon as he allows me to take one.

 

In the meantime, here's another rainbow thing. Excuse the presence of the Seven Arts Surprise in the photo below - this is the only pic I had on hand on short notice!

 

 

BreyerFest special run lineups tend to be all or nothing for me. I either need everything (this year, cough cough) or I need almost nothing. 2021 was one of the latter years. The only model I wanted from the special runs was the rainbow #711398 Pollock, a run of 1600 pieces. 

 

BreyerFest was online again that year and your selections were assigned to you based on your preference list and where you fell in the picking order. (That would become the norm for all BreyerFests going forward, even if you're there in person.) Pollock was insanely popular and I didn’t think I had much of a chance of getting drawn to buy one, especially since many people chose him with their VIP tickets. But I logged in the first morning of Virtual BreyerFest and there he was in my cart. While waiting for him to arrive, I prayed the entire time that he wouldn’t be the 200-piece gold variation, because that one had very little rainbow color compared to the original. I was probably one of the only people wishing for the more common, less valuable model, and happily that's what I got. 

 

I’ve only shown him once or twice; his show name is Magically Delicious, for obvious reasons.

Full Spectrum: Hope and Disappointment

Next up in the parade of rainbow ponies is #62121, Hope. Some of the proceeds from each model went to Covenant House, which helps young people who are survivors of human trafficking or facing homelessness. It’s a good cause, it’s a rainbow horse, and I like this mold, so I ordered one as a tagalong with one of my SM Club models in June 2021. 

 

Here's where the "disappointment" part of the post title comes in: 

 

 

I noticed earlier this year that the model has developed a pretty awful seam split on his face - it goes all the way back to his mane. A disturbing number of newer models have been developing seam splits in recent years. I'm not sure if the manufacturing process has changed or if they're just getting overambitious when they sand the seams. Either way, it sucks. This one is destined for the body box, and I'll try to pick up a not-split one some year at BreyerFest.

Full Spectrum: Spectrum

Okay, the double Spectrum in the title kinda made me twitch, but there's really no help for it.

 

#1834, Spectrum, was a Flagship store special run in 2020, again limited to 3500 pieces. I got her from Kraynaks, too, but in a more roundabout way. 

 

We missed our annual family Kraynaks trip that year due to the pandemic, which was super depressing. We’d gone to see the Christmas tree display at Kraynaks every year without fail since 1983, when I was four years old. Even if we had to move it to a different day because one or another family member was working or Mother Nature threw a temper tantrum and sent a blizzard, we always found a way to make it. It's one of the longest-standing family traditions we have, and it's one of the days I look forward to the most all year. 2020 was hard in a lot of ways, but not being able to go to Kraynaks with my family was one of the hardest things.

 

In early 2021, after we'd been vaccinated, a few friends and I went up to Kraynaks for a hobby shopping day. It was incredibly weird to be there without the throngs of people - even though it's fairly close by, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been there outside of the holiday season, and I'd still have fingers left - and the shelves were scarily empty. I feared Kraynaks was going to be another casualty of the pandemic, but my friends (who go there much more often than I do) said that's normal for them after the holidays. (They were right, of course. Kraynaks is still there and doing just fine.)

 

I wasn't with my family, and it was a strange time to be there, but it was still really nice to be with my friends having a hobby day and doing something normal after a year where nothing was normal.

 

Spectrum was one of the models I brought home that day.

Full Spectrum: Prism #1

Yikes, Monday totally snuck up on me! It was an uncharacteristically busy weekend, especially Sunday. I typically avoid scheduling anything (even errands) on Sundays - a longstanding habit from high school and grad school where Sunday was my solitary day off every week - but I was out of the house for a good bit yesterday. I'll blame that for missing today's scheduled post by a few hours.

 

I've got a four-day weekend coming up for my birthday, so hopefully I can play catch-up on the blog during that time and get a bunch of posts scheduled.

 

Today's Full Spectrum post was always going to be short, and I suppose that's for the best, given the lateness of the hour as I'm hammering this out!

 

 

This is #1801, Prism, a limited edition of 3500 pieces in 2018. Kraynaks still had some left during our annual Black Friday trip in 2019, so I picked one out for my parents to give me as a Christmas gift that year.

 

I have a second Prism in my collection and his story is much longer (and involves a non-hobbyist!); you'll see him later this month. 

Full Spectrum: Customs Part 1

Five of my thirteen rainbow models are customs. Sheer happenstance has them nicely grouped into two distinct sets, so I'll talk about the first group today.

 

 

These two customs were painted by my friend Heather Jackson-Lain of Soul Pony Studios. 

 

Before BreyerFest 2019, she posted a CHIN sales preview on her studio page on Facebook, and the pastel rainbow G5 Chrome immediately caught my eye. I wasn't sure if I'd get to her room in time to buy him, but happily, I did!

  
The Sherman Morgan Mini Whinnie was also obtained from Heather in an unofficial trade a couple months later. I had sent her some blank medallions that I was never going to get around to painting, without expecting anything in return; I just wanted someone to get some enjoyment out of them, and who better to send them to than a hobby artist who was up-and-coming at the time? But Heather had paid attention a few days prior when I’d gushed on her studio page about some rainbow Sherman Morgan Mini Whinnies she’d already painted, and sent me one as a surprise thank you for the medallions. He likes to hang out between his larger deco buddies Crescent City and Carpe Diem on the shelf.

 

Full Spectrum: Finn

I had a little trouble believing this guy was my first rainbow model, but I triple checked my purchase dates, and he's numero uno.

 

#712249 Finn was released in 2018 as a Gambler’s Choice for the Stablemate Club. Four colors were available to ship randomly – rainbow, grulla pinto, flaxen chestnut, and dun appaloosa. I ordered him on October 10, 2018, which means he would have been the first Breyer I received after we moved into our house.

 

Given my longstanding love affair with rainbows, I had my heart set on the rainbow guy right from the start, but my luck with Gambler’s Choices hasn’t historically been all that great, so I didn’t think I stood much of a chance.
 
Luck was with me this time, because he’s the one I received straight from Breyer. I might have squealed when I opened the box. His show name is Regenbogen, which is German for rainbow.

Full Spectrum: It's Pride Month!

If this blog were a TV show, now would be the time for the following announcement: “This concludes the temporary blog hiatus. We will now return to your regularly scheduled programming.”

I’m still not back to my normal self, but I have started an antidepressant, and my anxiety has decreased a little bit as Oliver continues to settle in. [For the record, he’s still the cutest little man that ever was, even if he’s starting to test the limits as he gets more comfortable. Knocking my office supplies around my desk and swiping his tail across my face during work meetings are some of his new favorite pastimes.

Still, he’s becoming a cat, not just a scared little thing hiding at every sound, so I can’t really complain.]

I’m going to take the blog in a different direction for June, because first and foremost, I need to keep realistic expectations for myself as I continue working on my mental health, and secondly - it’s Pride Month!

My mother can vouch for the fact that I’ve always loved rainbows. In our old house, where I spent the first 10 years of my life, she had a collection of prisms which she hung from the kitchen ceiling. The kitchen was on the west side of the house, so any afternoon when the sun was shining, the walls and floors were covered in dancing rainbows. I loved to be in there. 

I was also the kid in elementary school who got yelled at for taking too long to put the crayons away because I had to put them in rainbow order in the box.

As an adult, rainbows have another meaning to me - I am an outspoken, visible supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community. I started to write out the ways I’m involved, but that got to sounding like I’m tooting my own horn, and that’s really not who I am as a person. If you’re interested in the ways I show up for the community or the list of organizations I support, just ask.

In honor of Pride Month, my love for rainbows, and my firm belief that all individuals have the right to be treated with dignity and respect and to be loved and accepted for who they are, all my posts this month will be in the Full Spectrum series and will feature one or more of my rainbow-colored models. Here’s a preview!

 

 

Be inclusive and kind, love your neighbor, treat others as you would want to be treated, and value the beautiful diversity of the human experience.