Look before you Leap

Happy Leap Day. Most of the sales have ended now... It's kind of late on the East Coast... but I managed not to buy anything from Reeves. Leap days are cool. But February has not been, so an extra day was just kind of 'meh'. At least I can remember it as the night I chewed my hair in a bat cat T-Shirt and blogged. For the 2nd time that day. I've done this before, actually. Don't be surprised. Cat t-shirts and jean shorts are kind of the norm. I'll leave you this evening with a beautiful line art of an Andalusian, of which I colored his mane and eye on MS Paint.

The Poor Galiceno

I was reading back the old Breyer History Diva posts,  and noted she mentioned that the Galiceno Pony mold doesn't inspire much but forgetfulness. I'll admit, Galiceno isn't even on my pony-radar. I don't know why. It's a nice pony mold, just a little plain and generic. It's mold #100, sculpted by the much-loved-by-me Chris Hess, whom we owe lots to. What's not to love?

Galiceno

She's come in a not-displeasing array of colors, but we are due for another release. A Breyerfest Special Run would be the obvious choice for her next appearance. Sporting something edgy, like cremello splash pinto. With a blue eye, maybe. That would be exciting. Alas, something more reserved is more likely, like Palomino Pinto. Or a very dapply grey, like the Celebration horse this year. Neither of these options are unappealing.

One of my 'wants' for several years has been Black Hand, the POA Sire:

A rather fetching Black Leopard pony, indeed. Very handsome boy, and many seem to agree, given the prices a new in box example can fetch (for a Galiceno). But the right one has never come up for sale, so I am left Black-Handless. Not the worst thing to be, just another horse to look around for at Breyerfest this year...

There have been only 5 somewhat-easily-obtainable models on the Galiceno mold, the other 4 being Auction or very limited models. One of the Limited models is a flashy metallic dun Breyerfest Contest Prize for 2004, the other being a Passage to the Pacific Special Run. ''Fiesta,'' the PTTP Special Run doesn't do much for me, which is more of a relieve than other wise. It's a nice paint job, just a little plain for a model that demands such a high price tag. Some gloss might have helped, I think. But she only has a 16 piece run, which means (s)he-who-has-her probably adores her.

Fiesta

One of the more obtainable Galiceno ponies would be Sergent Reckless, Korean War Hero. I'm a fan of a simple Chestnut paint job, and I like her a lot. For someone reason she hasn't graced my collection yet, though. I'm guessing she did rather well with the General Public during her run from 2012-2014(?), given that she's a Decorated War Hero, and was a really, really awesome real life horse.

The blankets a bonus, too, of course, featuring all her awards.

The last Galiceno Pony I'll mention is perhaps the strangest; Freckle Doll. She's a bay pinto, and very strange. It's a bay that looks like someone painted a white square on, for fun,  with equine paint. Not exactly a Pinto you'd expect to see in the real-life herd of horses, so definitely a... unique little booger:

   I'll also include a picture of the rather nice light Dun Criollo Pony for good measure:

And so, these are the models we've received on the Galiceno Mold. In 38 years only 9 models. Other molds definitely get better treatment, like Cleveland Bay and Lonesome Glory, who have considerably more models in a considerably smaller amount of time. There are lots of models like that. But that's a topic for another day.

Carpet Herd

I just love the term 'Carpet Herd'. It's so cute and appropriate for those older play models you won't ever part with. Now if you still have your carpet herd, go into your 'Horse Room' and take a long look at them. Reconcile with your memories of them. Thank them. If it wasn't for them you wouldn't be in the hobby. We have a lot to thank them for. Good times, and child hood fun, but an introduction to the hobby, too. This magical hobby that means so much to us. I will now tell you about my carpet herd.

My first models were from a Classics gift set that TSC sold online for a holiday season. This one:

But my doll was different, and I named her Jesse. The models were donned Partner (Stallion) and Honey (mare). Honey is still LSQ, I'll add, mostly because she stayed in her pretty red barn, with some older Mohaired models of my mom's, and her old 'spice- running foal', too. Of course Mom gave me her old models; it was all about increasing the herd! The other horses I got that Christmas with the gift set were these:

 

The Morgan mare and foal aren't in notable condition. Nothing severe. They mostly stayed in the lil red barn, too. Mean while, those 2010 WEG horses were what I played with. They're in horrid condition. The Warmblood Stallion is the worst, with scratches, rubs, and shiny bits. I affectionately named him Black Pea- awful, I know, and he roamed the rug with reckless abandon. The Thoroughbred got dyed pink in some places a year ago which makes me sad. He was my favorite of the bunch, named Blue Ribbon Jeans. If anyone knows who to remove pink dye from models, LET ME KNOW. The Warmblood Mare, Roman, (who I call a gelding) is rubbed up like the Warmblood Stallion, yet they still remain special. Perhaps later I'll elaberate greater on all the mates of the carpet herd.  They're all super special, although one super duper special fellow does come to mind right away when I think special. He's not my first Classic, model, traditional, or anything like that. He's a (almost) stripped classics 'Rex- Fighting Stallion', who was my first model from ebay. He came all the way from San Francisco, I recall, and was a very special gift from Mom, when I was 7. Ebay is the normalty now for getting unique things and models in general for me, but back then Ebay was dangerous and cool. He came a long way. Mom had to work hard to get him for me. I never learned what she meant, but I'll always figure, happily, that there was an insane bidding war over him. And she won. I slightly remember the box he came in: a slightly beat up white box, and Mom unwrapped him and gave him to me. He will always have his marks, but he's so unique and special. His name? Charcoal. Because it was just fitting enough for an almost all white model when I was 7. 

Most of the Carpet Herd: BUT NOT ALL!!!

Getting the Word Out

No one really pays too much attention to this blog. I like that, I think. I can say anything I want about anything, really, and be confident in it's presence on the internet and no one will really care. It'd be nice to have a pack of wolves stalking my blog, with a cute nickname like the 'Paranormas' but I don't think that's realistic. I don't inform or anything important. I pretend I'm your buddy and I'm telling you about something model horsey. Mostly because I love talking about it. Whether or not anybody cares that much about what I actually say doesn't really matter too much. I'd like to think my friends read this blog. If they don't, then moving on. Let's talk about cats.

It's been too long since we've seen a Breyer Kitten. You know, that awesome giant 6 inch kitty thing? That many call 'The Creepy Meow'?  This is one of them:

Slightly creepy. Maybe. Still, they're neat little creepos and a new release would be nice. Like all of the Non-Companion-Animal Dogs, the kitten mold hasn't seen much attention since the 1900's, with 3 releases in the past 16 years. This is generous. All of the other molds have seen two or less since 2000, or none at all. Grant it one of those 3 releases is a release of 50, Angel from the Vault Sale a while back, and thus un-obtainable for the majority of cat lovers. The newest release pre-Angel was in 2003- a Christmas set, thus also limited to some extent. Then there was Calico Patches, who allegedly haunted the Breyerfest Pit for years after it's SR date of 2000:

Thus the 20th Century Kitten Releases are rather few and far between, and all are limited. Yet the odds of a 6 inch kitten being a regular run anytime soon seems like a slim chance, unless it's a retro release, which I'd be cool with. And the odds of the kitten being a Breyerfest Special Run again seems slim, too; as Calico proved, kitten SRs don't sell well. But moving on. There are other molds that deserve attention, too, including poor Benji and Tiffany:

Alas they haven't been in production since 1978, making them practically retired. They 'tanked' when they were first introduced, not selling well, and only meriting a run from 1977-1978, and some time in the JCPenny Holiday Catalog. A nice paint job would work wonders. A chestnut-pinto style on Benji would be lovely, a sweet tawny-pinto on Tiffany just as nice. Sell them as a set for $25-$30 and your in business. But they've been out of production for 38 years, so perhaps that's a hint that Breyer has intentionally forgotten about them. Only even more time will tell.

It was Obvi

Of course the Sunday Raffle model is Geronimo;

A tasty paint job, too. Rather reminiscent of some past Auction Models. Palomino paint has been a raffle model for the second time in a row now. I am quite pleased with it, too! I love palomino. Throw in nice chrome and some little (or excessive!) paint markings and I might drool a little. (Remember C'est Bon?) However, I'm not going thrill-crazy over this model because of a few reasons;

1. The topic I discussed in the last post is still bothering me
2. If I could only win one of the three raffle models I would pick Cinza
3. He was no surprise; we all knew what he was going to look like, so he didn't have the WOW that he should have had


I am happy to point out Breyer's kind of MAJOR goof up;
_____________________________________________________________________

"Areia is on the Geronimo mold (#733) first introduced as the first horse of the 2015 Premier Club. He is a dappled, sooty palomino overo pinto and his coloring reminded us of the exquisite white sand beaches of Brazil hence his name."
_____________________________________________________________________

Really Breyer? This seems pathetic. Although if he had been the first Premier model of 2015 he would be a great choice for this role, so perhaps they're trying to convince us that he is from 2015. It could just be a mistake, but again, conspiracy theories!!! Perhaps they just don't want to address the fact that people haven't even received the original Geronimo yet and they've already announced another model on the mold. Perhaps they're brushing it off with an intentional mistake that most others will just brush off with a "Dumb ole Breyer... Geronimo's from 2016, not 2015... duh." and move on. Not write a blog post about it.  I actually don't think anyone else is going to care, (more or less, excessively) about this matter. But I know that no one really acknowledges my little blog over on blog spot, either, and that's that. I'll leave the matter behind by saying that the model 'Areia' actually strikes the most resemblance to, right off the top of my head, is Truffles;

Smutty Dapple Palominos with blue in the eyes and paint markings. And both are extremely limited Breyerfest models that have appeared in the past two years. Sure the paint-marking-styles are different, but whatever.  Truffles did go over well last year. As did C'sest Bon. And the Geronimo Mold. However, on a funny point, unlike Areia's 'off side' photo, Truffles is not as mustangy-flattery:

 In fact it kind of looks like he noticed some chocolate on the stall floor that his eyes are bugging out at. This photo does not prevent him from being adorable though. In fact, it might make him more so.

Cup of Tea

Mmm. Just a quiet evening on the couch sipping tea and reading old Breyer History Diva posts. I have not had a very desirable past week, so none of you should be in envy (I doubt you are, anyway), but this feels nice.

I have come to a rather crushing and sad peace with the worst thing to happen in a long time, which occurred last Friday night and which I'd rather not address publicly. I had a fine Saturday, managing to enjoy the Scottsdale Arabian Show despite the occurrences the night before, but Sunday I caught some rechid cold-flu that has left me rather couch-ridden since. It is the usual suspects; soar throat, inordinate amounts of flem, and tiredness. The Laptop was not an option until yesterday, which I spent catching up on such pleasures as the Breyerfest Blog and Collector Club Forums, aside from emails and the normal, un-entertaining business. Tea has been of great help here, as now I am more mobile and can actually move my fingers in semi-rapid succession. That was an unnecessary explanation for my absence, and so I congratulate you if you are still reading. Thanks.

Something that has been floating around everywhere from Facebook (A water I dare not tred) to the Collector Club Forums is the Breyerfest Sunday Raffle Model, of which is (apparently FOR SURE) a palomino pinto Geronimo. This is Geronimo;

Beautiful model I'd say. Very daunting to someone who knows quite well she cannot afford the Premier Collection. It's a lovely bay pinto, though it appears to be a bit on the grullo-y side, and the mold is sculpted by the rather beloved Kitty Cantrell, although I believe I must refer to her as Mooning Piglet Studios. I adore her work, and Stock Horses in general, and the resemblance to the Peter Stone ISH is nice, too, though perhaps unintentional. Or most definitely unintentional. I will always have my conspiracy theories, or just theories, though conspiracy theories is cooler and funner to type.  Anyway it is queer that a 2016 Premier Club Model has showed up even as an extremely limited Breyerfest 2016 model. I don't think Breyer has ever done this before. Considering that the Premier Club Members have not even received their Geronimo and he has already been revealed as a Raffle Model in 2016, it seems curious. But everyone is, un-blamebly, thrilled. It is no longer exclusively a Premeir2016 Model! Now ANYONE at Breyerfest who purchases a ticket could win one! The mold is not available EXCLUSIVELY to Premier Club Members in 2016!

 I'm not sure how this is going over with actual Premier Members, but I suppose it depends on how much they like the mold and if they love it enough to want to see it used quite often. This could be Breyer making the mold an understandable option for a regular run in 2017, skipping over a year. It took Wyatt, the first premier model of 2014, two years to make his way to Regular Run hood. In 2014 he was just the Premier Model, as he should have been. In 2015 he was a Raffle model and then a TSC Special. Lastly he became Babyflo, a regular run for 2016.  They are skipping over the second year and compiling raffle-model-hood and premier-model-hood into one year. I don't think Geronimo would be the choice for the 2017 TSC Special Run though, so this would logically mean that his next appearance would be as a RR. Why I compare him to Wyatt is for 4 reasons:

1: He is a Stock Horse Mold
2. He was the first model of a previous Premier Club
3. He was also a Breyerfest Raffle Model
4. He was also highly anticipated

I am not opposed to him being a Regular Run in 2017 at all, I just think it would be a strange move by Breyer. However it could happen, strange or not. I happen to think he'd be delightful in a satin jet black with chrome and a blue eye, but color is subject to different opinions.

What this could mean though, is that Breyer is anticipating Geronimo's mold arrival more than would be usual. We may never know.

No Shock

I didn't win Bramble. No surprise there! I was hopeful, as usual, but also as usual, my hopes lead to disappointment. I'm keeping in mid that this is only my second year in the club, and that every year I lose the lottery for my favorite model of that year. Last year it was Orion, this hunky, delicious, 'pearl buckskin' (I've been calling it Cremello) Desatado;

A blue eye would have made him better.

Desatado is one of my FAVORITE molds, but I did kind of get burnt out last year. He was a regular run (Picasso), a Web Special (Orion), and an Exclusive Event Model (Four Stars). Now at the very beginning of the next year, we find out he's a Breyer Fest Store Special. While Breyer mentioned that Desatado is a 'fan favorite mold', as ALL the rearing models are to some extent, it doesn't really explain the 4 releases extremely close in release dates. Oh well. I only have one Desatado and he's not even Original Finish, so I really shouldn't be pondering this topic. Back to Web Specials and Lottery Luck. 

Interestingly, I was not at all excited by Solar, the first Web Special of 2015. I lost him, and was not at all disappointed. In hindsight I should have been; I'm extremely fond of the original Brishen mold, and why Solar's chestnut-paint coloring didn't appeal to me is a mystery. Perhaps it's because I still prefer the regular run bay/buckskin-paint to all of the others. Shrug. The only lottery I won last year was number 4. I didn't enter number 6 because I didn't really like Sugar Loaf, and there was somebody who really did like her and wanted her. I really wanted Padma, (almost as much as Orion) but, again, lost. The Web Special I did win was Milky Way; 

Yes, I like her very much. Mine is chock full of flaws, but since she's my only Web Special, I'm OK with it. She was Lottery Number 4, and I'm hoping that she doesn't mean I'll only win Lottery Number 4s. Whatever happens happens, and if it's another lack-luster year without Web Specials on my shelf, I'll survive. And don't even mention Wait Lists. I didn't get on one, and their a bunch of hooey anyway. Yep, that was a rant...

Until later, Adios!

Cheescake.

Cheesecake. It's a delicious, savory-sweet desert that goes well with chocolate and pumpkin. It is no secret that I love cheesecake. Do you love cheesecake? I think your going to love this Cheesecake;

He's my re-sculpted custom Breyer Stablemate Percheron, painted by Silver Lion Studios. He has a few rough places, (hard to see because he photographs so well!) but I adore him anyway. Feel free to drool over him for a bit, as it I have to go now, thus this post is short and sweet, like Mr. Cheesecake.

The Dapple Discussion

Let's talk dapples. It's not a topic I was intending on discussing tonight, but after looking at Mamacita's dappling on the Breyerfest Blog, I feel like I need to.

Mamacita and Chico- Breyerfest 2016 Special Runs

 Yep. She sports my rather beloved chicken wire dappling. I adore it. I think it's awesome, and just lovely. For a lot of people, chicken-wire dappling is a big improvement; I mean, Breyer has seen some pretty weird dapple jobs in the past, but for others it's still an imperfection. Not everyone cares for the chicken-wire-esque pattern; but Mamacita's extreme dappling is still going over well. It holds some resemblance to a real horse's 'dapple job', but it's still rather extreme and pronounced, compared to this rather nice dappled draft horse, shown below;

 This one looks particularly close to Mamacita's paint job. Most dapply horses don't look that close, though. And Breyer's star/snowflake dapples are a long way off from a basic, real horse with snowflake dapples;

A Really Pretty Dapply Horse

An Especially nice Example of a Snowflake Dapple Draft Horse

Another Star Dappled Horse

 Here we face a battle of Idealism, or Realistic-ness. The chicken-wire dapples and current star dapples  are working fine for Breyer; they're really pretty, and lovely, and I absolutely adore them. But it's a ways off from the real thing. From a horse-fanatic stand point I feel like the models should be highly representative examples of real horses; in  plastic form. But from a model-horse-hobbyist view, I love perfection, different patterns, and semi-unrealistic colors. One rather spot-on paint job Breyer has released recently is reverse-dapple. Take a taste of Bramble, the first Collector Club Web Special of 2016;

 

Pretty, huh? Among a large majority of others, I'm hoping to win the opportunity to buy her, although my luck has been rather rough with the lotteries. I adore blue roan, and those white noses again, so, besides her price tag, I'm terribly fond of her. Reverse dapple is an interesting, extremely under-used, paint job, that is a refreshing breath of air for most. It's different; and I like it. Besides, the model's paint job/design looks rather close to a real reverse dapple roan;

Of course she's a shade bluer, because she's 'Bramble' part of this years Berry Ponies theme, and bramble berries are blue-black, or red. She would be a blue-black blackberry, like the kind on this bramble bush;

I don't think berry colored ponies were on anybody's radar as far as this years Collector Club Web Special theme, but the reviews seem to be ok. No one seems particularly thrilled about it, but no one's complaining about it either (at least not on the one forum I check). I'm ok with it; I'm not thrilled, but since a Strawberry Roan might be involved, I won't complain. I love Breyer's pony molds, I just feel like 'berries' are a lame, little-kid-reminiscent theme. Whatever. I love Bramble, and the odds are all for me loving the next 3 Berry colored releases, too.

All though I will point out that reverse dapple blue roan is quite different than a reverse dapple roan. It's more elaborate, the one above being the best and only one on the internet.

Until later, Bon Voyage~

7 Days Late

It's been a heck of a few days. My precious rescue rabbit died a few nights ago, which was awful. I'm still crying; it was nice having something to believe in, and I miss it's company. To confuse my emotion just enough, the same day I made it over to the Toy Store with Mom... finally. Opening up the plastic store bag with this inside was just enough to lift my spirits above seriously-considering-crawling-in-a-hole;

Yes...  I brought home a lot. But the Mystery foal set is my Mom's, and the Collecta dog and the rider my Mom bought for me and my friend. I wasn't planning on buying that donkey... but I will say he's quite nice. The mold is of a nice size, and the paint job is pretty impeccable. I wouldn't hesitate to show mine, if I had time to show a, you know, donkey. Another thing I want to point out is the beauty of his eye. It's bi-colored; but not creepily like Tallulah or Buckaroo or any other bi colored model. It's glossed nicely, mostly black, with a beautiful brown undertone around the bottom of it. I'd love to see it on horse models in the future! His factory given name is Hickory Hill's Wallstreet, but I haven't thought of a clever new title for him yet.

My Awesome Donkey

I also didn't fathom that they would even have a Valegro. Of all the things in the world, they have that hunky plastic horse that not even Breyer has yet? Wow. He was the last one, too, as was that Elska in front of him. She's actually the only thing I intended on getting; but you know.... She has a few minor flaws, but I needed a pony for a photo shoot, and I wanted her any way. *tries to think of better expression that 'two birds, one stone' but fails* ... She is on a sweet mold... I'd like to see a dappled chocolate palomino on that mold in the future. Wouldn't that be delightful? And yeah, like everyone else in the Universe, I really wanted a glossy. But this matte one didn't exactly break my heart, either.

And as I should have expected, the Valegro Stablemate is quite a bit nicer in person. You can tell that the photo piece was a sample/quick test thingy. The real production pieces are crisply masked, have nicely airbrushed socks, clean and sharp paint jobs, and just a lovely smooth finish. Really fantastic, but he's not one of those models that I'm going 'Omigosh I must show!!!!' over. He's a really cool model that I'm thrilled to have, even at three inches tall, and I don't feel like exploiting his beauty. I'll have some better pictures to offer of him later- because I think everyone does deserve to see how nice they all are- but I'd be shocked if he landed on the show string for this year. I love him. That's where the train stops.

 And yes I bought a Jellycat Brown Bunny Stuffy. Because I have a thing for bunnies, and it reminds me of me late foster boy.

As much as I did bring home, I regret not snagging a few other things. They had the new paddock set with the horse ball that was nice, and a rack of those grey appaloosa thoroughbred stablemates from last year. And their selection of Collecta dogs featured much more than that sweet Wrinkle Puppy. They had lots of models I would have gotten if I didn't already have Valegro napping in the cart, too. That strangely entrancing Welsh Cob and Chocolate Chip Kisses in particular, though I will add that the Harper Classic is very nice, as well. MyToy Store in particular is the best one ever; just sayin'. As for the opening of Valegro, it will wait until I'm in a particularly solemn mood, when I need a cheer up. I could have today, but one of the Classics from Christmas was begging to be opened instead. It was Charm, from the Canterwood Crest series;

Bad picture, I realize that. It was about to rain and  I wasn't about to get him all wet and slushy. Yes I like this model very much. Generic chestnut coloring, but a nice example of the mold, none the less. I got Aristocrat in one of the grab bags last year, so for Christmas I wanted Book 1. Besides my insane love of white noses. Don't even get me started on how much I like white noses!!! The book most certainly is highschool-trauma-with-horses, and that's after I've only read a few chapters of it. I enjoy it, perhaps because of the relate-ibility, but it remains shallow in my mind. Anyway, I guess that's all for now. Until later, Au Revoir!