The Addition of Charm

My Primrose came today- I ordered her on the last possible day because my other purchases left the wallet a little sad looking.  I'll say that Breyer got the packaging perfect: she came in an adorable blue satin bag.

ignore the old 'catalog' and lil bits saddle

Except she wasn't bubble wrapped super tight and her nose is all boogered up. But unlike everybody else, I'm not sending her back. She'd have to be split in half before I'd consider sending her back. I'm more forgiving than others with Web Specials/Stablemates from Breyer.com, and a few flaws don't chock up to me 'giving up' on a model. I'm lucky enough to be in the club and have a Prim Rose at all. She may have a boogered up nose and some smudgy spots on her blanket. But I have a few flaws, too. So, after the initial 'Ahh, bummer' she began to settle in quite nicely:

She'll be a shelf model. That's just fine. 

Skeeterbug going 'Hey man, point the camera at ME!" and looking all cute

 I'm also giving Breyer some slack because of  the obvious. It's an open ended run with an intricate paint job on a mold they haven't dealt with in years. And she's minuscule compared to the Web Specials, which at ten times larger, also have flaws. Let's face it: It's not a recipe for success. Things will get better. Let's consider this as a dress-rehearsal. Durango is a new mold with a more simple paint job. I think he'll be of better qaulity than Prim Rose dear. Practice makes perfect, and as Breyer's taught us, it's true. The more they practice the better they get. But they can't practice dapples on every single release they make. So we haven't reached perfection on some things. That's ok, too. Some times imperfection is just the addition of charm.

And yes, my accessible models are currently residing in an armoire.

Because it's better than a ping pong table.

goodnight~

Another Interesting Topic

So my Lets Go Riding English set came in the mail yesterday: YAY! From Ebay of course, the advertising picture was of a doll with a long braid and a morgan mare with minimal white. The actual model I received has chrome, and the doll has short fluffy brown/black hair. I expected this variation, but I'd also thought the Braid Version was the original set sold, and had just been adjusted later. Thus making the braid version a relatively common piece. I was curious, though, after receiving mine, when the sets were changed, and mosied over to Identify Your Breyer. The no-chrome version of the mare isn't listed. Weird. And all the in-hand sets on Ebay have the short-haired/chrome version. Which leads me to believe that the no-chrome version never really existed out of a test-color-pre-production-piece zone. Bummer. I quite liked the doll with the hair.  However, if a braided-doll/no-chrome set pops up it might be worth considerably more than the currently rather cheap chrome versions. I suppose if that did happen the selling price would give an idea of how rare they are. Perhaps a lucky find at Breyerfest will lead me otherwise, but until then all evidence supports that the braid-version never existed in a retail state. Oh well.

A niceish Sunset Picture

In more exciting news, I pre-ordered my American Pharaoh Resin. Another yay! The price is reasonable and the detail looks quite nice. I'd love to see other racehorses done on this mold, such as Zenyatta (hint hint) or (insert any famous race horse here). And the Collector Club discount actually worked, which took a pleasing $10 off the $15 shipping price. Woo hoo! It'll be a while before he comes in the mail which is for better, not worse. The Breyer situation isn't exactly good, and if he arrived in the next two months he would be forced to stay un-opened: a shame it would be. We have a ping pong table in the living room that's been playing as kind of a catch-all for random things. It currently houses most of my recently-added Breyers and Peter Stones, and the models I chose to have excess to right away. Of course Mr. Gypsy Vanner was in that pool, with Charm- a classic- and Snowball the Christmas Pony. Anyway, I'll leave you with A photo I took yesterday. No I'm not completely satisfied with it in any way but I got what I got.

And with rain for no apparent reason....

Gah, it's grainy and you can't see all of Cortez. Growl. Oh well.

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;
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"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."
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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.