Happy Easter, y'all! Easter day (Sunday) only I'm offering a discount of 10% off anything in my Model Horse Store using the coupon code SPRING10 as a way of saying thank you to everyone for your patronage! Also, I'm offering a special discount of 25% off any of my Peter Stone models using the code PS24 and, as always for this year, shipping is FREE! All orders made over the weekend will be shipped the middle of next week once I get home from visiting family for the holiday :) Easter reminds me of colorful eggs, so I've decided to make a post about the new upcoming Paddock Pals! I made a post about these cuties not too long ago, about how they taunted me for so long every time I went to Five Below until I finally gave in and now have congas of $5 ponies because... why not? I mean for the price they are adorable, and even though simple in design, what do you really want for five bucks? Breyer is upping their game now though by making the new ones - the unicorns at least - scented! One of the new scented pals is on the previously used Thoroughbred mold. His name is Lemon Drop (coincidence of being a Thoroughbred and called Lemon Drop?) and he smells like... you guessed it! Lemons. Now, I don't know why this is the only Paddock Pal mold that I haven't wanted so far. I saw the flaxen chestnut and the bay at my local Five Below, but passed on both of them. I don't know what it is about this mold that I don't care for, but I really wanted to like him because Thoroughbreds are one of my favorite breeds. I think it is because he is a simple standing mold and the others are more action-y. If he was running, I would have had a conga of this mold, hands down. Anyways, the other new guys on the block who is also on previously used molds are Chili, a handsome chestnut Arabian, and Biscuit, a unique cremello Quarter Horse. These two are not scented, they are regular horses, but are still beautiful! I love how they added a stocking this time, the first time these have sported anything other than solid colors. The last of the previously used molds is Mara, a very pretty in pink Arabian unicorn who is scented like strawberries. It will be interesting to see, or um... sniff these once they hit the shelves. Wonder what in the world made Breyer want to make them smelly? Now, introducing the new molds. There is a silver black Gypsy Vanner named Mousse and a grey Andalusian named Truffle. I'll be honest here... I'm having a hard time seeing Mousse as a Gypsy Vanner. In fact, when I first saw this mold, I thought it was an Icelandic horse. It looks so much like the Icelandic mold that I had to take a double take. I do like that he is dynamic though, so if I happen to find one in the wild, he'll likely be coming home with me. The Andalusian reminds me of a knockoff of Alborozo, so he'll definitely be coming home with me if I come across him. I like how his color is the opposite of the previous used greys: instead of having a dark grey body and light mane/tail, he has the opposite. Despite being plain colors, Breyer still finds a way to make them unique! These two new molds also have a smelly unicorn counterpart: Sugar Sparkle the Vanner and Concord the Andy. If you haven't guessed it by their pictures, Sugar Sparkle smells like cotton candy and Concord smells obviously like grapes. Finally, I would like to throw in here the sneak peek from the Collector Club newsletter for March. There is an issue of a 1980 version of Just About Horses that Breyer has made readable to members if you're interested to see what the articles talked about back in the day. The monthly giveaway is RD Marciea Bey. Lastly, the sneak peek is a decorator: Breyer didn't give much by the way of hints, but it is most likely going to be the decorator for the new Destination series. It looks like Egyptian gold to me, but who knows? It could really be anywhere!
The Vintage Club annual welcome letter arrived to my mailbox this week with some sneak peeks of upcoming models. A couple have me kind of intrigued. Here is a copy of the letter if you want to read it for yourself... We already know about the first release, Scorpion, the beautiful appaloosa, and the lamp pony on the Geronimo mold, Kirk, who is supposed to be one of the four main releases. There is also going to be a 1980s sculpture in "his" flashiest color yet (the emphasis on the his so it's going to definitely be a gelding or stallion) and a Marguerite Henry character. Now this is one of the ones I'm intrigued about, as I loved Marguerite Henry's stories as a child. The question is, who will it be? In the poster included with your membership it had this small section about Marguerite Henry: My guess is it'll either be the new Premier Club Standardbred mare as the horse from the Born to Trot book, or the new Premier Club Lipizzan Stallion as the White Horse of Lipizza. If it's the trotter, I'll likely keep her for my personal collection, but if it's the Lipizzan he'll likely be for sale, as I have no room on my shelves for that tall of a mold. I know many have been wanting a white Lipizzan so I'm leaning more towards that one, but we'll see! The final release, and I'm guessing the optional release, Breyer said will be "some tiny treasures to melt your vintage loving heart" so I'm guessing it'll be either a foal set, or Classics set. Most likely I'll be offering these to non-club members on the second hand market as well, so stay tuned later in the year if you're interested! Finally, the freebie will be the G1 Morgan in a vintage colorway. Since I'm more interested in the vintage molds on modern colors rather than the other way around, I will likely be offering this guy for sale as well in the near future. Finally, while I was on here, I did want to show off the VIP swag box that you get with VIP tickets. You’ll receive a holographic tote filled with super-cool merch to commemorate your trip to BreyerFest! In addition to your VIP wristband, your tote will have a 32 oz water bottle complete with drink sling, collectible enamel pins, a car sticker, a handheld light up fan, and a neon desk light. If you would like to get your VIP tickets, they are available through April 30th, or until sell out, but remember that early bird pricing ends April 15th so the VIP tickets will be going up next month. I'm really surprised these haven't sold out by now, but maybe they will now with the reveal of the swag box. People always ask me if the VIP ticket price is worth it, and honestly I haven't bought a VIP ticket since the very first year they were offered so I can't really offer much of an opinion. All I'll say is that if I didn't want to wait in the long store line, I'd definitely do it if there were limited editions I wanted. However, if you're more wanting just the special runs and not so much the store limited editions, I would stick with All Access.
The sneak peeks we were teased with earlier in the week that Breyer announced would only be available to in person attendees ended up actually being the Best Custom Contest prizes. One is named I Forgot That You Existed, and he is on the Mirado stablemate mold. I'm absolutely in love with his color, but there goes my conga out the window, as I'll never be able to win the Customs contest with my humble artwork. This is the model that the top twelve finalists receive... If you are one of the lucky six top winners of the Best Customs Contest, you'll get Look What You Made Me Do on the Marwari mold. Another incredibly handsome chestnut pinto. There adds two more new breeds to the lineup: the Marwari and an Andalusian. Does that eliminate the Andalusian Mare as the surprise? Well, not quite, but I can tell y'all that this will likely be a year that I'm wrong because I'm incredibly stumped. I'm honestly a bit disappointed that we're no longer getting an in person only stablemate, nor a plushy this year (unless Breyer happens to reveal those later but I doubt it) because they appealed to the younger collectors. I guess with the stablemate now being online, they don't think they particularly need one for the event anymore. As to the plushy... well that's the biggest shocker, as that was almost as synonymous with Breyerfest as the crystal. I did notice though that the plushy was usually about the only thing left in the Breyerfest store at the end of the weekend, so it's possible they just didn't sell as good as everything else therefore Breyer decided to pull them. Anyways, I know many have been asking about customs, and honestly I have been in an artist's slump since Christmas trying to come up with new designs. I'm happy to announce that I have several that are in the works now, and I've decided to provide a bit of a sneak peek of my own of these unfinished pieces: Right now I'm on doing stablemates due to time. I do have some traditionals planned for later in the year that I've been slowly working on as I get the time, but traditionals take a lot more paint and layers to finish, so I tend to take several months to finish them. They will be out with my Halloween and holiday customs.
Breyer has revealed the surprise horse for 2024: Girls Run the World. Since obviously we won't know what the surprise will be until Breyerfest (and before anyone asks I do NOT do presales on surprise models... I will however have several available during Breyerfest for sale that way you can pick your color) I always like to try to guess ahead of time. Each year, I narrow my guesses down to three by Breyerfest, and for the past four years I've been correct except for the year of Dundee. This year will be a bit of a challenge because the list of breeds is wide open. Now with Bobby Jo being used as the Oklahoma event model, Bluegrass Bandit as the volunteer model and internet favorite Weather Girl as the spring flagship edition, I need to really dig my claws in. The following criteria has applied to most or all previous Breyerfests: *The mold must be one that was used within the past 3 years but can NOT be released the year of Breyerfest. However it may be an active regular run at the time of it's Breyerfest release, just not RELEASED the same year as a run. Confusing, I know. *Premier Club or Moody molds are most commonly used, however for the Premier Club molds, they must be older than 3 years and with Moody molds be no older than 20 years old. *In years past, the mold usually fit the theme, however the 2024 theme is so wide open, it could really be anything. There is no breed specific to the theme, which makes it a lot harder to guess. *It is usually a live auction model from the year before. I say usually because there was two years when it didn't: in 2019 with the Moody Andalusian Stallion and again in 2021 with Dundee, unless you count the glossy Carter from the silent auction. *It is never a pony, animal or vintage mold. Could this possibly change? Well, anything with Breyer is a crapshoot so who knows? For now, we'll say no. *It is never a mold used previously as a surprise model but can be a mold used as a previous Breyerfest model, either a special run, limited edition, raffle model, etc. Also, no mold previously used as a gambler's choice of any sort (like Othello as the Treasure Hunt) has ever been a surprise. *New for this year... must be a mare mold. Breyer's only hint to us so far is that it is a mare mold, not surprising with the girl power theme. While technically any mold can be reverted to a mare, I'm only going to go with the molds that have been previously used as a mare in the past at least once. So who does that leave? Let's start with the live auction molds from 2023. I made the above graphic prior to learning that the surprise model will be a mare, so a few of those shown above will be excluded below because they have only ever been made as stallions.
-Ashquar (used as a special run for Breyerfest 2024) -Pacer (vintage) -Arabian Mare - I can see Breyer using this mold and making it in several different mane/tail variations as they did with the Cleveland Bay surprise from 2022. Will they do it? Who knows? Her last release was in 2020 making it not impossible that she could be used but closer to the longest time used. We do, however, already have an Arabian in the lineup this year so I think we might have another year where the surprise wasn't a raffle model from the year before. At this time, I'm not willing to put her on my top list just yet. -Huckleberry Bey (used as a gambler's choice for the 2023 Santa Surprise) -Georg (current 2024 regular run) -Paso Fino (used as a limited edition for Breyerfest 2024) -Stretch Morgan (vintage) -Desatado (stallion with no mare counterpart) -Vermeer (stallion with no mare counterpart) -Lipizzan Mare *see list below -Old Timer (vintage) -Fireheart (too new) -Bobby Jo (used as the event model for Spokes and Spurs) -Nikolas (pony) -Roy (vintage) -Strapless (over 20 years old) -Lonesome Glory (already was a surprise horse) -Semi Rearing Mustang (vintage) -Anamar (used last year as a Breyerfest SR) -PAS (vintage) -Welsh Mare (pony) -Newsworthy (pony) This doesn't leave very many molds, so the biggest question is if not a raffle model, then what? I'm going to eliminate the Shagya Arabian, much to the disappointment of social media, because she was used last year for the online special run and I don't see them using her twice in a row. Likewise, Emma and Bristol are eliminated for those reasons. I'm really teetering towards a Thoroughbred since that was the breed used on the banner at Breyerfest last year announcing the theme and is just about the only breed that hasn't been used so far. Therefore, my number one still remains: 1) Emerson: This mold actually came into my head recently. Although he was originally made as a stallion, it completely blew my mind that Breyer did make him a mare for Winx, who just recently retired last year. Since Ruffian has actually been retired a bit too long since she was last a regular run, and since Emerson is another Thoroughbred mld - which we are thus far lacking this year - I'm putting Emerson at the top of my list. 2) Wyatt: I said earlier in my post that I was excluding molds that had originally been produced male but changed to female later. Wyatt is still currently being produced for ATP Power. He has also already made his appearance at Breyerfest with Marzipan in 2022 and before that as Bozeman. His time as the surprise should happen soon. 3) Forever Saige: My reasoning for this gal to be the surprise is honestly simply because she fits most of the criteria, has been lightly used and is a current regular run. Yes, her breed has already been used in the lineup this year, but so has a Lipizzan, an Arabian and a stock horse so it's highly possible that the surprise will be a breed already used. Also, I just simply love this mold and would like to see more on her :) Honorable mention - Lipizzan Mare: She was the only raffle model last year that still has a chance, but she has a few other things going for her. This girl has been very lightly used over the years since she's been out, mostly as decorator colors. The last time she was seen as a regular run was the Favory Airiella set which retired in 2022 making her still within the 3 year range of being used previously. She also has the prancing attitude of a girl with confidence. My biggest issue is that historically only Roxy was a mold previously used as a volunteer model and also a surprise. Except for Roxy, none of the other molds used as volunteer models went on to be surprises, and the Lipizzan Mare was used as a volunteer model in 2022. Thinking out loud - Ruffian: This gal has made her appearance at Breyerfest several times as special runs, but never as the surprise yet, and her time is getting close to the 20 year cutoff. She is only 2 years away from being too old to be used as the surprise, but also because she radiates the "girl power" that the real horse was known for. However, she hasn't been used since 2018 when she was used as American Pharoah, which is over the 3 year rule and is the only reason why I decided to remove her from my list. While I absolutely love this mold myself, I must put my sentiments aside and focus solely on the trend of previous years' surprises. Thinking out loud - Andalusian Mare: I have my doubts about this mold since she was recently a gambler's choice for the Vintage Club in 2022 and I think it is unlikely they'd use her as another again so soon. However, she is a mare mold that would fit the theme, and so far the only Andalusian in the lineup is the show prize. Breyer West is happening right now, and those on social media are drooling over the in hand pictures of the Breyerfest models. I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't show too many of the special runs but they did show Blue Zeus (ahhhhh is he stunning!) and all of the traditional limited editions. I teetered upon the Classic, Just Like Fire, however after seeing him in hand, he is definitely coming home with me. I've been starting to collect Classics more and more since I quickly run out of shelf space with the traditionals, and that pattern was just made for that mold. Also, if you missed it, Bluegrass Bandit is the volunteer model this year so that ticks her off my early surprise guess. She was in third place only because they did a gaited breed for the surprise last year so I was skeptical about her, but I thought to throw her on there since her mold is so full of pizazz and spunk. Her name is Worth It, and that she is. I'm loving that blood red chestnut! I'm going to assume Breyer will add a third later, just like they did last year with Croi, and I bet it'll be a flaxen chestnut. Makes me want to volunteer myself if I had the time. I do wish Breyer would bring this mold back, or release a new Tennessee Walking mold through the Premier Club so Bluegrass Bandit can earn her well deserved retirement.
As for me, I'll be racking my brain as to whom I'm going to replace her with on my surprise guess... It has honestly been pretty quiet on the Breyer end of things. We *should* be expecting a second Vintage Club release this month, along with a new destination lottery model, per Breyer's Collector Club newsletter. As far as my own model store goes, I should be getting in some more models here shortly, as I purchased another small collection and I'm just waiting for the seller to ship them to me. Once they're here, I'll be adding them to my Model Horse Store.
I would also like to add that I've been reached out to about money being raised for a memorial plaque in honor of Andrea Gurdon. The person who reached out to me wasn't the person who made the Go Fund Me page, so I really hope that it is ok with her if I let others know about it, as I didn't even know this was in the works until it was brought up to me. I'm hoping I can help spread the word so that the goal amount will be reached in time for Breyerfest. They are literally almost there, so please if you have the spare funds, let's help ensure that Andrea goes down as a part of Breyer history and no better fitting place than the Kentucky Horse Park! If you'd like to donate, you can do so here. |
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