Well, it's the end of April and Breyer has not released the sneak peek shown in last month's Collector Club newsletter. Just got the April newsletter today and there is a completely new sneak peek (speculation is that it's the real Kingfisher because it says "if you looked in the right places you would have caught this fellow's name") in the form of a blue roan pinto. Since Kingfishers are blue that would make the most sense. The sneak peek is shown below, and for those of you wondering a free set of the mare and foal pair Firefly and Hawkeye are the giveaway for this month in celebration of 10 years of the Premier Club. I'm wondering how much longer Breyer will continue the Premier Club? It was made to take over the Connoisseur series, as they state "connoisseur level paint jobs" when you sign up. However, the Conniosseur series only lasted 10 years before Breyer switched to the Premier Club, and I'm sure all good things must eventually come to an end. I mean, Breyer can only make so many molds before they have so many molds to choose from that they kind of stop using it (aka Emma, who I know wasn't released through the Premier Club but she was kind of pushed to the side because it seems that Premier Club molds would rather be focused on) and some molds due to popularity are just being over used, like Georg and Dundee of late. Which reminds me of the most recent reveal, Brandenburg, a horse I would love to add to my Dundee conga who is the Best Customs Contest prize model for Breyerfest this year. As I don't have enough confidence in my own decorators to even think about winning him, I do envy those who do, especially as I live relatively close to Kentucky's own town of Brandenburg. I digress. Going back to the sneak peek issue, it's leaving collectors wondering... whatever happened to last month's release? My guess is that - as with the regular run issue - Breyer is still waiting on the slow boat with the models on board. Since this year isn't nearly as bad as last year though, we can hope that the models will only be delayed a short while, so hopefully this month we'll be seeing them pop up. It seems it's been a while since we've had a release, unless you're in the specialty clubs, in which you should have ordered Phineas by now if you're in the Stablemates Club. Mine just came, and I'm happy to report that despite Breyer's wording she is indeed a "she" so glad to have a mare version of Prince Charming - or should I say Princess Charming? There has been so many variations seen with the star dapples that each model is so unique, and is one of the reasons I love this gal. I think she's going to be my favorite of the Stablemates Club horses this year. The first Premier Club horse should be coming out next month in May, and hopefully Breyer will update about the next step in the Breyerfest process, aka the creation of the master list. Those of you who are planning on attending Breyerfest in person: be sure to order your tickets if you haven't already! They will be going off sale very shortly.
My shipment of Anthems have arrived, and I'm shocked. Breyer really knocked it out of the park with these guys. I wasn't big on the patriotic series since the majority were clearware. The earliest in the series: Patriot, Allegiance and Illumination contained only red and blue plastic with the decorative measure being clear stars. They didn't really scream "flag" to me. Then there was Liberty, the first non-clearware of the series, who was a denim blue color with a blue jean design on the Silver mold. He, however, reminded me more of Quill than of the usual flag horses. Last year, Breyer came a bit closer with Old Glory. Although still only containing red and blue clearware plastic, at least he looked more like a flag with the addition of not only stars, but stripes as well. This year however... I mean just take a look at this guy! I'm loving the metallic sheen to his paint and yes, he is highly glossed. I'm happy to see that Breyer finally decided to include "white" in the form of the silvering in the middle rather than just on the stars or stripes. He really does fit in with their rainbow decorators, Prism and Crystalline for example, and by the sounds of it on social media many others agree. I honestly didn't really care for the Ethereal mold until Breyer made TSC limited edition "Wilder" last year, as I always felt that he could be just about anything since he wasn't really a specific breed. However, he was perfect for a flag horse because of his flowing mane and tail. I'm also feeling like I'm going to eventually need the grullo pinto that Breyer made a while ago for a mini conga. Those who pre-ordered this boy: please give me a couple more days to get them all packaged and shipped out, as I don't want to overwhelm my mailman with pickups. You should have your tracking number by the end of the week. I'm sure y'all will be pleased with this guy when he arrives to your door! Hope is now available for backorder on Breyer's website, although I will be getting him eventually. Apparently they're still having some shipping issues, thankfully not as bad as last year but they still haven't completely resolved yet - just the way the world is right now - so he won't be arriving here until about June/July according to Breyer. His other side has been revealed. I'm a bit saddened that he doesn't have any cool designs on his offside like he does his show side, but he's still cute.
I guess I posted this too soon in the week because I was notified today (04/22) by Breyer that my Anthem order will be shipping out and will arrive on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Orders will be shipped out first come, first serve and all should be out by Friday at the latest. This initial order is completely sold out, however I will be making a waiting list for future orders if you'd like to add him to your collection. I've seen him on social media and he is stunning! Will definitely post in-hand pictures once he arrives. Also, I had another surprise show up on my door today... Romeo! I pre-ordered him from my local flagship dealer in Ohio before we moved, as I'm not a brick-and-mortar (aka a physical store) so I unfortunately do not get him myself. However, I needed him for my Dundee conga, and here he is! Not too many flaws to note thankfully, as many have noted some major issues with this guy. His retail price is $55 which isn't bad for a limited edition. He is simple, yet still very beautiful. His white mane and tail are pearly, and his coat has a slight metallic sheen to it. I thought with Nistar Blazing Kansas and Ethel popping up on social media as well that we'd be getting them in soon, but apparently supply issues are still affecting some shipments, including these guys. Don't quote me on this but if Breyer is getting any in, they may be saving them to offer in the store at Breyerfest. If supply is super limited, they will do that before offering them to dealers. I'm assuming at this point that I probably won't have any in until after Breyerfest. I will update if this changes.
I am offering a bunch of stablemate models for sale on my eBay page with a portion of the proceeds going towards Nova Ukraine for the month of April only. As we are nearing the end of April, there is only a few weeks left before I take them down, so if you're interested be sure to get your order in before April 30th to help aid a good cause. As I prepare for Breyerfest (in essence is still a bit less than three months away but will be here before we know it) around this time to help quell not only my sanity, but yours I'm sure as well, I do a part of my blog called Random Ramblings where I talk about other aspects of the hobby than just new releases. It could really be about anything as far as the hobby goes, which is why I call it "random" ramblings. Today, for instance, I finally finished unpacking all of my collection. I have a lot more horses than I last counted, apparently, and finding shelf space was... agonizing to say the least. I couldn't bring my shelves with me from Ohio, as they were built into our walls and ripping them out wouldn't have made the new owners happy to find the damage they'd leave. When we purchased our Kentucky house, I did ask how much shelf space they'd be willing to put into the house, and they kind of looked at me like I was crazy when I told them I'd probably need a whole room full. They were only willing to put in a closet full of shelves so I still had to buy a couple bookshelves. I finally found a place for everyone, and now I'm happy to have my models on display again. Yes, it took me this long. Don't even ask how our new barn and real horse pasture are coming along... Going through my collection made me stop and think. I've been concentrating so hard on limited editions and special runs that my regular runs are quite limited in my collection. My question to myself is... why? After all, when I first started collecting - and I'm sure a lot of others started this way to - the very first horse I bought myself (not including the Misty/Stormy set gifted to me at Christmas) was regular run Barbaro, and I was happy with him. I liked his color, the slight metallic sheen, the expression in his eyes. He was just a plain bay, but so what? He was the portrait model of a real horse I'd never own but could have in my bedroom. I remember mine even had a slight variation in the form of a sock on his hind leg. Sadly, I no longer have him in my collection, as I sold him off when I let go of my racehorses, but I do still have Treasured Move, another regular run that is sentimental to me. Her buddies on the same mold, the grulla overo mare from the mare/foal gift set that I named "Third Times a Charm" back when I still showed Breyers and Truly Unsurpassed, are also regular runs that I can't seem to part with. If flashy horses are your thing: Adiah HP, the Gangsters and Spordur fra Bergi are today must-haves. These guys have complicated patterns similar to a lot of the lottery run models Breyer makes that goes for $150+. Bluegrass Bandit, when she came out, had a coat color and dappling similar to the connoisseur series, yet she was a regular run. Today she is still relatively reasonable in price, and I'm thankful that Breyer makes these beauties in the regular run line for us to enjoy without breaking the bank.
I always love the eye candy I get from seeing the super rare Breyerfest volunteer models, raffle models or show prize models. However, at the same time, if I received one myself I'd honestly take the money over the model and live with the regret of selling it because if I kept it, I'd always be afraid of something happening to it to depreciate its value. A horse worth a couple hundred I'd probably keep, but not thousands. One little bump off the shelf and that $1000 would go down to $500 easily. At least with regular runs, if anything happened to them, you know you could easily replace them. I ended up selling the majority of my Stone collection because I felt like I was spending too much money for the risk of something happening to them. I had no idea before I sold my Stones how hard they were to sell. Even in perfect condition, I ended up having to sell each of them for far less than what I paid in order to get them sold. A couple of them had been sitting for a few months with no serious takers. Can you imagine how little I would've gotten if they had any kind of flaws? From now on, I'm going to be a bit more picky about what I add to my Stone collection because apparently I'm only going to be collecting for keeps when it comes to them. I decided to focus on DAHs instead, not only because they're less costly than the runs. The DAHs are now only being offered once a month, but hey ya gotta fight for the runs too, right? The next release in the Stablemate Club is available to members. I'm a bit confused because when Breyer originally revealed this horse last year, they called her "Miss Phineas" however now they've shortened it to just Phineas and clearly stated in the description that he is indeed a he. So apparently the misses was dropped and we should be getting the usual stallion version after all. I wondered if they were going to turn this guy into a mare but I guess I got my answer. Anyways he's a beautiful star dapple grey Shagya Arabian on the Prince Charming mold, the first time this mold has been made without a horn. Collector Club members have until May 3rd to put in their order to stay in the club. Darker greys are always a favorite of mine, so this guy will be falling into my collection. Breyer has made a lot of lighter greys with the Shire gelding from the Best of British series and Catch Me being the most recent, but not too many darker greys with darker legs. These are the greys I tend to concentrate on with my personal collection, and it's very limited because of the lack of the color in Breyers. Hint hint, Breyer. The star dapples as seen on Phineas are even more rare. They were last used in stablemate form on the Arabian mold produced from 2011-2014 and then again on the limited edition traditional polo pony, Santiago, produced in 2015. This colorway hasn't been seen as a regular run since, but has been seen in the Premier Club quite often. Wyatt, Croi Damasha and Duende all have star dapples.
As to the other SMCC models, the only other I plan to keep is the dun Charleston. The spotted drafter and the Fireheart unicorn will be offered for sale once they're released. The Fjord gambler's choice will likely be for sale if I don't get the deco. If you're interested in any of those and aren't in the club, please visit my store once they're released. Happy belated Easter to those of you who celebrate it! I actually just came back from visiting family myself over the weekend and as thus missed out on announcing the newest upcoming release to the Breyer limited edition lineup: Anthem! Yes, the much anticipated leak discovered on Amazon has officially been shown. I'm honestly surprised at the choice of mold, considering that Ethereal was just used as a Tractor Supply special run last year and hasn't been used in years prior to that (an upcoming Breyerfest surprise, maybe?) but personally I think he was a great choice of mold with his flag-like tail. He'd go great with Times Square for those who are lucky enough to own him, as he was a bit patriotic himself. Just like Old Glory from last year, this guy will be made until the end of the year and then retired, so he'll be limited for the year only. Another release that I missed was on the Stone front. On Thursday at 3 PM they offered a few OOAKs for Easter. Most of them were floral/spring decorators. There is still an Easter bunny DAH pattern available in a few different molds for those who, like me, missed the Easter OOAKs. I will be getting one on the bunny pattern, my first bunny pattern ever, however if you've been a Stone collector for a while, you probably already own one since they've used this pattern for a few years now. Head on over and make your purchase before they sell out! Not many Stones go for $264.99 or under these days.
Attention Collector Club members: if you haven't seen Breyer's unicorn day giveaway, I highly recommend heading over to their website and checking it out here (please note that you have to be logged into your account in order to enter the drawing) as Breyer is giving away a special glossed set of their unicorn mare and foal sets to three lucky winners. When people ask me if I prefer matte or glossy, it really depends, because while I didn't like the matte version of Bellatrix and Spica, I do think that the gloss really makes their various color shading stand out on the glossy version. On the other hand, the gloss doesn't really do much to Rosalind/Rigel and Mira/Antares except make them a bit shinier. Which is your favorite? Here are the pictures of the glossies: Also for unicorn day, Peter Stone offered a pre-order for Violeta, a dark purple unicorn foal that is the baby of Del Toro, so if you were one of the lucky 13 people to snag him at Midnight Madness last year, don't miss out on adding his baby, or if you did miss out, this is the next best thing. While the Stone company frowns upon using their stock photos, if you want to see the foal - or possibly pre-order her yourself - you can check out their website here.
Happy unicorn day, everyone! Attention Vintage Club and Premier Club members: the welcome letters are going out so you should be receiving it soon! If you've recently moved, be sure to let Breyer know so that they can send you your letter to the correct address. There are lots of little hints in each letter. I'll start with the Vintage Club. By the way, if you didn't know your Vintage Club number (which is the same number in production as your model will be) then you will receive a card with your welcome letter that has your number on it. This will always be your number for as long as you stay in the club. You should also receive a poster. The letter reads: We've already seen Cooper and Sandman, both flashy and realistic colors. We're also due to get a *gasp* mare and foal set as a gambler's choice! From my assumption based upon what they haven't used yet, it'll most likely be the Family Arabian mare and foal or the Stock Horse mare and foal, although we could be surprised with some oddities. There's a possibility they could use the Lying Down Foal with a random mare or even Misty's Twilight with Sea Star, for example. The final model in the VC is a flocky! This is really exciting, as I've never personally came across one on a Breyer (this was way before my time, y'all) but I did have flocked models in other brands as a child... Grand Champions, anyone? I'm really excited to see the flocked Breyers brought back again. The freebie stablemate model will be a mini Dandy, a portrait model of the first ever release in the Vintage Club and the optional 5th purchase is a woodgrain on a "fan favorite vintage sculpture"... any idea who? This appears to be an excicing year to be a Vintage Club member! This may be the first year in which I actually don't sell any models from my membership but I will add that I may offer my spot for the optional release as long as it's not a mold I conga, as I'm not a big woodgrain fan. Now what about the Premier Club? Does it measure up? Well, everyone's opinion is different, of course, but here is what the Premier Club letter says: The Premier Club letter says that the second model will be a "unique breed" by Sarah Minkiewicz (whom you may remember sculpted the Mangalarga Marchador - the first of that breed in Breyer horses) and they use the Marwari as an example so I'm thinking it'll be a new breed. For me personally, I'm hoping for a Curly Bashkir, but I'm probably being too optimistic, although it would be really cool to have a Breyer model textured like that. The third model is a "great action model" and I'm wondering if this wasn't the horse from the sneak peek we saw last year, the Spanish breed horse with the flowing mane? It would make sense since it looked like he was rearing. As you all probably remember from last year as well, the stablemate is going to be a mini Georg.
Exciting things to look forward to if you're in either club! Stablemate Club members... unfortunately we don't get welcome letters but don't forget that we do get an optional 7th stablemate purchase at the end of the year. The Old Glory that I bought from Amazon arrived yesterday. As per many of the reviews I saw on Facebook, the box arrived in a crumbly cardboard box with no padding and, as such, the Breyer box that the horse was in was also crushed. Since I don't collect the boxes, I just threw it away, but the horse itself had a badly warped front leg and had some bubbling in the clearware (common in that type of plastic which is why I'm not fond of clearwares) so he's not show quality, but I guess if I were buying him for a child, they would care less, which is probably whom Amazon is catering to. At least it didn't arrive in a mailer like some people's did. While Amazon may be a good place to buy models if you're on a budget, I still back up the dealers because models can be hand picked. If you're not in the Collector Club or any of the specialty clubs (Stablemate, Vintage, Premier) the model releases have been slim so far. I do have some good news, though. There will be a new limited edition release coming out in June for you to look forward to, an adorable benefit model on the Bouncer mold. He is a glossy bay pinto with markings shaped like a child hugging a horse and a hand print on a heart shaped spot. This is on one side of the horse. The other side is a complete surprise, but it does look like the model will be glossy. Here is the picture to those who haven't seen it yet: A portion of the proceeds from each model will benefit PATH, an organization that helps kids of all ages in all kinds of situations, from learning disabilities to drug addiction to abuse, use horses as a way to cope with their trauma. This is a continuation of their "Hope" series that was started last year. As of right now, he hasn't been officially "released" by Breyer so we don't know how much he is going to be or how many, but he is now showing on their website under Featured Models. He will come in the collectible box shown. Some more good news: Nistar Blazing Kansas and Ethel will be on their way here soon. I saw one in hand pop up on Facebook, and they are really nice. The mare has a satiny sheen that looks very realistic compared to the flat matte Breyer usually uses. I'm half tempted to add them to my personal collection as well. I ended up purchasing the Misty and Phantom set, along with Adamek for my personal collection. Both of them had very nice coloring and no flaws only than the Phantom's leg being slightly warped from the box ties (easy fix using a hair dryer) and apparently they made Misty in this set have more historically accurate markings than she did in past Breyer models. Here are some pictures of them: Adamek was a little more flawed, despite his simple coloring. All the ones the dealer had where I got him had some kind of rubs, so I chose the model with the lightest and most metallic coloring. While I typically don't collect plain bays, I did like Adamek because of one certain feature: his mapped blaze. Mapping is something that hasn't been introduced to regular runs as of yet and I really hope they start. There have been a couple Adameks without mapping. I'm not sure if these were just variations or if Breyer decided that the mapping was too difficult and will be doing away with it (they sometimes alter regular run colors slightly after a few months of them first being released like the gelding versions of Kuchi for example) so I wanted to track down a mapped blaze just in case. I will be keeping this guy despite his many flaws because I conga this mold. He has numerous shiny marks, some black drips of paint on his back, some bubbling paint on his haunches, ear tip rubs, a shoulder rub on his box side and a hoof rub from the box but he stands well at least and his shading is beautiful. Whether or not I try to track down a less flawed specimen in future will depend upon if I can even find one. I would love to customize this mold eventually. My specialty are mural horses and this boy has a lot of space for a mural with how long he is.
|
Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|