Vermeer was released this past week, and he had some people who loved him while others... not so much. I wanted to love this horse, I truly did, but there's just something about him that I can't seem to put my finger on. It's neither the color nor the mold I dislike but more the combination of both of them. A Knabstrubber would have looked stunning in this color pattern, and vice versa the mold in a color like silver black, bay roan or dapple grey. Yes, I know that Friesians don't come in any of those colors, but plain black would have Premier Club members really upset that they're paying that much for a plain black horse, plus they're more of a drafty color than appaloosa. People are starting to get them in hand already, and while I do think he looks better than I was expecting, there is so much variation amongst them that I'm kind of glad I didn't take the gamble. The horse on right looks great, very similar to how Blaylock originally designed him. The horse on the left, however, looks more like what I would have expected. The grey is way too faint and hard to see, and the horse has less of a creamy color. Most of them looked like this. I can't wait to see what they come out with on this mold in future. I kind of wish they would have held off on making Harley until after they released this mold. The mane on this mold is a bit too long for him, I know, but we can pretend he grew it out. Blaylock stated on her Facebook that Georgian Grande horse could be a possibility. While any Friesian cross would work, I think this American Cream draft horse shown below (after all it's been many years since we've had that breed made as a Breyer) would make a cool regular run: Breyer was going super big on duns the past few years to the point where I actually made a post titled "Are we dun yet?" talking about that. This year, it's appaloosas. I've honestly never seen so many appaloosas in my life. It started the last day of the year with Ambrose, followed by Klaus for the Stablemates Club, then we were given Lionel for the flagship horse and the Collector Club released two appaloosas as lottery draws: Goji and Bilberry. It wasn't surprising that we had Oak in the Breyerfest lineup and the grullo appy for the 70th series. Just as a heads up to those who don't already know... they decided to make the Artist Signature ornament for the holidays this year with appaloosa horses on it. It seems to me like possibly they're gearing up for the colorful Breyerfest next year so I don't think the palate of color is going to go away any time soon. Which I'm perfectly fine with, by the way. I'm loving my two new additions who are as colorful as they can get: I love appaloosas in real life, but when it comes to Breyers, I prefer the realistic ones. I don't like Breyer's vintage splatter spots or blurry dots on their appaloosas, though lately they're getting a lot better. I went to Breyerfest last year for the first time specifically for the 30th anniversary stablemates and Zipped in Black Magic. Prior to that, the only appaloosas I owned in my permanent collection were DZ Weedo, Toro and Impress Me Shannon because of their realism. I have since also added Oak from this year's Breyerfest, flagship special Lionel and Quill (when I went to Breyerfest for Zipped in Black Magic).
I sold Klaus and traded my Nayati appy for a pinto because of all the bare plastic on them. I don't like a ton of bare plastic on my horses, though as an artist, I understand that leopards are much more tricky to paint than they look and take a lot of time whether base coated or not because of all the masking involved. I just prefer chalky models over bare plastic. The only exception was Lil Ricky Rocker, and that's only because of sentimental reasons... he was a symbol of Breyerfest for years. I do hope that Breyer continues being awesome and making realistic looking appaloosas, and hopefully we'll see more in the upcoming year. If there's one color pattern I need more of in my herd, it's appaloosas. Comments are closed.
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