Breyer's Collector Club June newsletter arrived... on the last day of June. Ok, I can maybe forgive Breyer for being so late this time. After all, with the mid years just being released and Breyerfest literally only a couple weeks away now, it makes you wonder how anyone would have time to write up an entire newsletter. Indeed, it seemed rather rushed this time, but maybe it was just me? Anyways, the giveaway is another regular run, the Gypsy Vanner. Since I already own him, I won't be entering, but once again good luck to those that do! The sneak peek has me stumped. It's a decorator, no doubt, but I can't figure out for the life of me to what it could be for. This is what Breyer says: "We have something sweet in store for the Collector Club! Our decorator fans will certainly be happy with this upcoming model. This one won't be revealed until after BreyerFest, so sit tight!" Here is the sneak peek: It looks... like my grandmother's tablecloth to be honest. It makes me wonder if this will be a new series of lottery models? I mean we've been on the America the Beautiful and Berry Ponies series for a while now. It's time for some fresh blood, and that color sure looks bloody. I thought maybe it was the fall flagship special, but since it says specifically "Collector Club" I'm thinking it's something that's not going to be available to everyone like the flagship special would be. Could the fall Collector Club special run be a decorator this year? I'm not sure what else to make of it. Oh, well. I guess we'll soon find out. They said they'd reveal it after Breyerfest, and Breyerfest is so close now you can almost smell the horses.
Funny story. If you rememeber me talking about when the regular runs were first revealed at the end of last year I mentioned how the 70th anniversary chase piece was a horse I could live without. He had an awful lot of bare plastic and I couldn't see myself paying the price tag I knew he was going to fetch for that much bare plastic. Although I loved his blue eyes (blue eyed horses are a particular weakness of mine) I thought the Saddlebred was prettier. Fast forward to last week when I ordered Chroma. I decided to throw a 70th anniversary horse in my cart just to see what I ended up with and so that poor Chroma didn't have to ride in those tiny boxes Breyer now ships them in only to be crushed in the mail. At the same time that Chroma was released, I found out that Breyer had shipped my latest order of 70th anniversary models (most of them were pre-orders that people had been waiting on for weeks) so I thought cool, I'll get everything together. When my order arrived, there were the two tall boxes of 70th anniversary pre-orders and one small box containing Chroma plus the 70th anniversary horse I bought as her travelling companion. I first went through the big boxes to make sure I had enough for pre-orders (the boxes each contained six horses and they were completely random... neither box had the exact same horses) which thankfully I did, though I only received two Fighting Stallions between both boxes. I was a bit disappointed to not receive any chase pieces since so many people had asked me about him but I did have an extra Indian Pony, two Andalusians and a Saddlebred. Now for the package with Chroma. I tore open the package like a 12 year old on her birthday to find: I was........ shocked. Unsure. I don't like all that bare plastic but those baby blue eyes. I don't know. Maybe I should just sell him and act like he came in my dealer shipment? I know. I'll just put him on my shelf with my very selective Smarty Jones conga and see if he grows on me. He grew. He's a keeper. To be honest, the stock photos don't do this guy justice. The contrast of the pitch black against the white is a thing of beauty, and those blue eyes! I want all the blue eyed horses, regardless of color. Will it ever happen? No. But I can try to obtain as many as possible, and since this guy unexpectedly came my way, it seems a bit like fate. Of all five horses, they could have sent me anything, and they send me the rarest one. The best deal... I only paid $49.99 for him! I do have another shipment of 70th anniversary horses on the way with my mid years. Breyer was amazing and sent them together so I wouldn't have to pay extra shipping. I haven't done any pre-orders for this lot so they will all be available as soon as I see which ones they send me and, if there are any chase pieces, I will surely offer them up for auction. The chase piece has been averaging 1 in every 6 boxes so this will be boxes #3 & #4 for me. Fingers crossed that one of them is the lucky box. Oh, and before I forget, little Chroma looked absolutely nothing like the stock photo either, but unlike the 70th chaser, I was very underwhelmed by him in real life. This is what he looks like versus what he's supposed to look like: There's supposed to be a nice bit of pink in there but the pink areas on mine look more red. The red then leaks into the gold of his barrel and makes it look... bronze? Yeah, I'm not super impressed with this one. Then again, I'm not big on clearwares to begin with. They look amazing in light but kind of ugly sitting on your shelf in a room with little lighting. I think I'm going to end up selling him after all. I also plan to sell Sultan whenever he's released. The other two (three if you count the dapple grey mini Clydesdale that's supposed to be released later in the year) I'm planning on keeping though. I really wanted to keep Chroma. I love the mold and rainbow decorators are my favorites but he unfortunately didn't live up to my expectations.
Hopefully soon we'll get another sneak peek of the upcoming Premier Club horse. Gotta be soon, right? I'm often asked why I make so many Halloween customs. When you scroll through my custom horses, you'll notice that a huge portion of what I make are Halloween horses, sometimes using my own ideas and other times inspired by previous Halloween decorators made by Breyer. Honestly, Halloween decorators are so much fun to make. They're challenging without being impossible, they're unique and they're popular. Most importantly though (and I totally understand if after this post you think I'm a weirdo and stop following my blog though I'm hoping the majority of you will find it interesting) is my own experiences with the paranormal. If y'all don't mind, I'd like to drift a bit away from the model horse hobby and take you on a ghost hunt. Well, actually several ghost hunts because, aside from Breyer, I'm a huge believer in spiritualism. I can completely understand if you're a skeptic and if you stop reading right here. It's ok. If you do decide to continue, I would like to share with you my own experiences with the paranormal. Anyways, we'll start with the first time I ever encountered a ghost. Actually, I didn't realize it at the time that I did, until I got home and reviewed the pictures I took on my camera. It was at Washaba Street Caves in Saint Paul, MN. My husband grew up there, and we were visiting relatives when he suggested going to this place reported to be one of the most haunted places in Minnesota. I wasn't expecting much. It was a tour, so I figured with all the people around, nothing would show up. Then, we got to near the back of the cave and the guide (dressed in 1920s attire back in the day when Washaba was a speakeasy during prohibition) told us to take pictures while he tried to summon the spirits. He said that this back area was the most haunted part of the cave, and that we were bound to catch something. I saw nothing in real life, but when we got back home, I was shocked to find an orb sitting right over the man's hand as he was speaking to them! In a couple other snap shots, I saw a yellow and red orb, which I thought was weird, but unfortunately I lost the pictures in a move since that time so I don't have them to show you. However, I do have a few pictures I've saved from more recent years. The first was taken at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV. This is reportedly one of the most haunted locations on the east coast, and hubby wanted to see it. We took a daytime ghost hunt, as I wasn't up to par at the time at the thought of being there in the dark with the spirits, and it didn't disappoint. Honestly, it was this location, not necessarily the Wabasha Street Caves, that got me interested in the paranormal. During an EVP session, hubby ended up capturing this floating orb/mist on the bottom left of the screen close to the dowsing rods. Although we didn't catch anything else in photos, we did get some words on the spirit box in a different room, in which we heard a loud boom as we were leaving the room, both of which were caught on video. Another time we heard what sounded like someone dropping marbles in a sink. When we went into the room we heard it coming from, it stopped. We walked back out and started down the hallway, then it started up again. We returned to the room to again find nothing and the sound stopped. On our way out into the hallway this time, I got cold chills all of a sudden, and goosebumps on my arms/legs despite it being a warm, humid June afternoon. I truly believed that I walked through whoever was in that room making those sounds and that was my body's reaction. Our final encounter that day was while my husband was recording a video. A ball of light flashed in front of his camera while I was talking to the tour guide. Although I can't add the video on a free Weebly site, maybe one day I'll upload it to my Youtube channel. It's raw footage, and obviously we're complete amateurs so it's not going to be a Ghost Adventures quality documentary, but it's still interesting. Last weekend, we stayed in Gettysburg at the Tillie Pierce House. This was our first stay in what was known to be a true haunted house, as it was a field hospital during the battle. Now let me tell ya, if you're into ghosts, Gettysburg has it going on! The place is so haunted that the people who live there are meandering with spirits on a daily basis, and they've got plenty of stories of their own. To get back to horses for a moment, we did go on a guided horseback ride through the battlefield, which is really cool and I highly recommend to all you horse lovers. We rode the battlefield the last time we were in Gettysburg a couple years ago on our own horses but this time we had a narrator to tell us what we were riding over. Hubby was on a pretty little palomino named Disney, who was very, um... shall we say... mare-ish, and I rode Blue, who ironically shares a name with our dapple grey at home. This Blue, however, was a fleabitten grey with very little actual grey, mostly white. He was probably a dapple grey at one time and then faded to white as he got older. I did think his pink nose was adorable! He was fun to ride, one of those horses that isn't so barn sour they just follow the leader. He actually listened to my commands, and every time we'd stop, he'd look back at me as if asking what we were going to do next. Disney, on the other hand, sure made sure we kept our distance. She was side-eyeing Blue the whole ride LOL. After our 2 hour ride, we went back to the hotel until 11 PM when we decided to take a ghost tour in town that went to the Jennie Wade House (who was the only civilian to be killed during the war) and the Orphanage. Again, as with the Wabasha Street Caves, it was a big group so I didn't think we'd be likely to catch much, and I was correct with the Orphanage. We didn't really get much activity there. The Jennie Wade House, however, was a different story. Only two things in the house are original: a clock and a bread pan. Jennie was apparently making bread on that bread pan when she was shot, and when I took a picture of the bread pan, I caught this: Apparently Jennie is still baking bread in the exact same place where she was shot over 100 years ago. It was the only picture in the house that I captured that had a mist both times I took the picture. I tried it again to take a better one but the mist was still there, though not as bright. In another part of the house, the guide said it was haunted by a little boy, and that he particularly liked this trunk: While taking a picture of the trunk, I saw a ball of light flash through the lens of my camera. I didn't catch the ball the first time, but I did the second time. Was it the little boy? After leaving the attic where the trunk was, we headed down to the basement, where Jennie's father is still said to reside (and where Zak from Ghost Adventures was pinched in the rear after climbing on top of her dead "body"... yeah you'll have to look that one up if you've never seen it) and for some reason, I felt drawn to this hallway, so I started filming. I ended up capturing a video of what looked like the shadow of a little person peeking from behind the veil that was covering the hallway. I truly wish I could upload videos to share it with y'all because it creeped me out! Not only that, but I saw it out of the corner of my eye before I realized I caught it on video. It was pitch black down there and everyone on the tour was sitting down, so I see no other logical explanation. One picture that I can share with you though is a picture I snapped of the battlefield on the way back from our ghost tour. I figured since we were walking down the road beside it, why not? At first, I didn't see anything, but then on further inspection, I ended up zooming in on what I thought looked like a soldier staring back at me beside the tree on the far left. It was night so there should have been nobody else on the battlefield since the park closed at 10 PM, and honestly it looked too transparent to be a living person. Note the hat he's wearing. This was the first full body apparition I've ever caught as of yet. This was it, however, as we were woken up at 5 AM to the sound of footsteps and someone heavy breathing down the hallway, past our door, and ended at the stairs before we heard no more. The owner said she never stays at the house, and the only other people in the house at the time were in the room to the right of us while the stairs were to the left. I thought maybe it was one of them and they had asthma or something, only to find out that the footsteps had woken them too, and that they were both still in their room sleeping when it happened. Who was it then? Well, the only explanation I can come up with possibly a soldier who had a pierced lung and died while the house was used as a field hospital.
While this isn't all the haunted places we've been to, it should give you an idea of the inspiration behind my Halloween horses. I hope you enjoyed this post, even though it wasn't really horse related. Please feel free to share any paranormal experience you've ever had. Take care until the next post :) While us Stablemate Club members are still waiting for our pony this month, Josiah from the Vintage Club has been released. This cute Wedgewood blue Belgian was my favorite release from the Vintage Club this year and I'm having a difficult time restraining myself from tracking one down on the second hand market, however with Breyerfest coming up so soon, I think I'm going to give him a pass. Since not many have shown up on the second hand market, it seems as if many others in the club are keeping them in their collections rather than flipping them, so I'm assuming the price of this guy is going to skyrocket rather than eventually go down, unlike most of the Vintage Club horses. Another recent release to Collector Club members is another test run. This test run has vintage appaloosa coloring on the Ruffian mold. There are some shiny spots but otherwise no other flaws to note. It will be given to one lucky person for the low price of $1000! Now before I get comments about how much the test runs are, remember that the one of a kind raffle models at Breyerfest go for a lot more, so the fact that this is a one of a kind makes this price a steal. I won't be entering because again I'm saving up for Breyerfest, but I thought I would mention this lovely lady for those who do want to enter. Breyer doesn't appear to be doing another year of the Fairytale Friends Club. Not surprisingly since they re-opened membership mid year, something which they've never done with other clubs before. The people that did take the plunge didn't seem too thrilled with the quality of them (and was what made me skeptical about joining the club) because, minus the glitter, the stablemates were too similar to the $3 unicorns from Walmart, and I don't think there are enough Mini Whinnies collectors to keep the club going another year. It was a good try, especially after numerous people requested a fantasy club, but they would have needed to do a little bit more... realistic horse colored unicorns, pegasus, more complicated decorator colors... something... in order for people to want to join the club. Glitter, unfortunately, doesn't cut it.
I own Seafoam and I found his coloring too similar to the new Unicorn Mystery blind bags series 3 blue Walking Thoroughbred. The Clydesdale mold is one of my favorite stablemates molds and I found the guy dirt cheap, though admittedly I wasn't too impressed with the glitter. I did find the Mini Whinnies Gypsy Vanner adorable and I miss the satin drawstring mini bags they used to include with the Stablemates Club. Some good news is that if they don't do another year of the Fairytale Friends Club, the value of the horses will probably increase with time. However, if I'm wrong and they do end up re-opening the Fairytale Friends Club again, I'll surely let y'all know! Of all Breyer's pony sizes, the Classics and Mini Whinnies are the least I have in my collection. I don't necessarily dislike either, it's just that Breyer seems to gear these sizes more towards kids and thus there isn't as much to choose from. There are very limited portrait models done in Classics size and they only come out with new horses every few years. For Mini Whinnies, they seem to be coming out with new series regularly but they aren't worth much in resell value. Today we're going to concentrate solely on Mini Whinnies. Who doesn't love these adorable hunks of rubber? I mean they are seriously cute but aren't very displayable since their bendy legs make them fall over so easy. For space issues though, they are very efficient. There were two separate series of Mini Whinnies Surprises, and this can be a bit confusing so I'll try to explain. One set was made as a Walmart exclusive while the other was made for Breyer dealers and Breyer's website. For the first Walmart series, you had the possibility of getting a silver charm chaser named Sterling on the Running Thoroughbred mold. This one was easy, all you had to do was feel for a stand. For the Breyer series it was a gold filigree Drafter named Treasure. The series 2 made for Walmart included a green filigree chaser named Emerald. This one was a bit more challenging to feel for but not impossible, as I managed to find three of them. The ones for Breyer dealers included a pink filigree chaser named Strawberry who came with a stand so she, like Sterling, was easy to feel for. Series 2 was made up of a lot of remakes from long retired Mini Whinnies collections. Next came series 3 and, to the excitement of MW collectors, came all new molds for the Walmart exclusives. The Walmart exclusives contained shrinkies of Wixom, Cigar, Hambletonian, Malik and Liam with American Dream as chaser "Violet" in purple filigree coloring. The Breyer ones also had new packaging and a new name... Freedom Series. They had old molds but all new colors. There appears to be a new series 4 for Walmart but, at least at the time of this post, so far no new series for the Breyer ones, however they did come out with a new unicorn series through Breyer. The unicorn series included new molds from the Fairytale Friends Club. The new series 4 for Walmart had old molds, new colors and weren't nearly as many as there usually are. Both series have a gold chase piece. I'm sure we'll see more Mini Whinnies in future.
As my local Walmarts are still out of paint, I've decided to finish the final customs I've been working on since March. Yes, I know, I've really been procrastinating on them, but honestly I've had zero modivation to complete them with everything that's been going on lately with everything that's been going on. Maybe because when I took them on, I had a very difficult task ahead of me. I wanted to make a few stablemate customs similar to previous Halloween horses, but not quite the same so as not to explore the issue of copyright laws. I ended up doing four stablemates inspired by Mischief Night, Frankensteed, Cryptic (not really sure why I decided to go with him since he already has a mini... I like my glow in the dark skeletons, I guess) and Samhain. I also finished two in Classics sized. I'm going to dub this the "Halloween Inspiration Series" for 2020. Both Classics were done on the American Dream mold: one was inspired by Skullduggery and the other was inspired by Mischief Night. In the works are a couple for my 2020 series, the Wild Life Collection. I have an American Dream leopard and a traditional sized pony rainbow leopard, like a mirror image of the stablemate sized rainbow leopard I did earlier this year. Finally, I have three stablemate inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2 horses that I just completed. I'm selling them as a trio. These will likely be my final customs until my local stores decide to get in more paint which, who knows when that'll be. Maybe not until fall. Breyer seems to be a bit behind as well, probably gearing up for the emotional toll that will be virtual Breyerfest, though admittedly they seem to be doing a great job of keeping things orderly so far. My 70th anniversary horses, which were to be shipped by the end of this week, have not yet left the factory. My goal is to have them by mid June so I'm hoping they'll ship next week. I've got 24 coming all told, so it'll be a pretty big order. I already have about half booked for pre-orders... thank you so much for your support and for being patient! The rest will be put up for sale once they get here and I see how many of each color I've received. I can't guarantee any chase pieces, though if I receive any, I'll surely put them up for sale on eBay for y'all.
Again, thank you everyone for helping me reach my sales goals as a new and upcoming Breyer dealer. Your purchases of my customs and RRs will help so that I can offer everyone more (and possibly rarer) models in future. You guys are the best! You can now choose your ticket types for BF special runs! Applies to 3 day ticket holders only. Store specials and the Celtic Fling specials are NOT included. Prices are actually decent. I thought maybe Breyer would increase prices to compensate for the free shipping, but I was surprised that most of them (minus the surprise who is always $85) are only $55-65 each. Apparently Thorn is the 50/50 split. Here is a screenshot of the break down: Since there are two I don't care for (I'm not fond of the mold or color of both Lugh Boudicca) along with two I'm kind of meh about, meaning if I end up with them, I'll keep them, but if not, I won't be tracking them down on the second hand market (Ash because grey is too overdone on the Othello mold and Thorn who has a color I love but is on a mold I don't care for) and because I would like to try for multiple surprise horses, I decided to go with the family list. Chances are I'll end up with duplicates since I have the top three on all my lists, but if I do, I will be offering them for sale.
I'm glad they made so many of Oak, the mare/foal set and Ash since they probably figured those would be the most popular. I wonder if I'll have better luck online than the horrible numbers I was picked in line at last year's Breyerfest? I had the unfortunate position of being near the back each time. The only reason I ended up with a surprise model is because I had the last ticket time on Sunday and there were only half as many people in line that typically were. From now on, that last ticket time will be my friend while most people try avoiding Sunday times to be one of the first to get their models. Me... I'm patient so long as I get what I'm after in the end. ...and the final Breyerfest reveal. This Breyerfest will have me broke, no doubt, as I like most of what is being offered. Minus the crystal and plushy (which I never collect anyways) the only other things I'm not interested are the decos and Lugh. Thorn and Ash are on my maybe list, meaning if I get one I'll keep it but if I don't then no big deal. I'm not going to chase them down on the second hand market because I don't want them THAT bad. The rest I really hope to obtain, this beautiful Stablemate set included: They are meant to portray previous raffle models North Star, Windswept, Carlisle, Que Sera Sera and Viajero in miniature. These guys are so detailed and cute it makes me wonder how much they're going to be? I also note that it says "series 1" on the box. Will we see more of these at future Breyerfests? I sure hope so! The "shrinkies" are hot items right now. I'm not complaining. Give me a couple years and then I'll probably be like ugh, not MORE shrinkies! But for now... bring 'em on! Finally, here are the mid years: Yes! Beloved Adiah HP is finally entering the Breyer ring! We saw her previewed earlier in the year. Now she'll finally be on our shelves. Here he is, the beautiful sire of Paint Me a Pepto, and a horse I always wished Breyer to portray. They did a really good job on his roaning, and who is excited to see Dundee as a regular run finally? Rugged Lark fans will get to add a new progeny to their collection with this guy, whose name is Checkers. The Halloween horse will be limited to only 12 pieces per dealer, and on this mold, I'm sure he'll sell out quick! This one reminds me in a way of Goblin. More shrinkies! Aren't these Stablemates the cutest? They even have a mini Bramble and Solar along with TWO chase pieces this time, a chase and a "super" chase. One is possibly Alborozo since he's on the package. That Emma though... Oh... My... Plastic... Ponies! Someone catch me while I faint. I don't like to conga many molds but this one has me tempted. I hope they use her for the Stablemates Club in future.
Mid years are due to arrive in July. If you'd like to pre-order now, you can message me through my website and I'll hold one for you with completed PayPal payment. Pricing is listed on my Contact page. I'm also currently taking pre-orders on eBay for 70th anniversary models. You will be able to choose your color but quantities are limited for this order. I do plan to order more 70th horses after Breyerfest. |
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