I've had a couple people asking if they could pay for shipping earlier than the Monday after Breyerfest, so here is what I'll do: if you pre-ordered either a single model or a single traditional model with a stablemate, I will be sending you an invoice for shipping later today since I know about how much a single model weighs, and stablemates don't typically add much more weight. However, if you purchased multiple models from me, I'll have to weigh them all first before I ship them so that you're not overcharged for shipping, and unfortunately I won't be able to do this until I get home from Breyerfest, as I'm unable to pack my scale with me.
If you receive a shipping invoice today and choose to wait until after Breyerfest to pay it, that's perfectly fine, as I know some of you have been budgeting for this around my pre-announced schedule. I understand that this is coming last minute, but I also understand that many of you are super excited to get your models ASAP, and not being able to go to the KHP shouldn't mean you have to wait. If you do however pay it before Breyerfest or pay it during Breyerfest, I'll ship your models out from Lexington directly so they'll be on the road to you before the event is even over. Once you pay your invoice, you'll receive a tracking number, although it obviously won't truly be shipped until Breyerfest weekend even though it'll be marked as shipped. This is just for me to keep track of who paid shipping and who didn't. We'll be leaving for Lexington on Thursday evening. I'll update with the surprise model (and any other unknown surprises) as soon as they are found out. Prost! So the time has come... who will be the Rotating Draft surprise? Here is a breakdown of the previous year's surprise models. Notice that most times Breyer keeps the surprise model relatively close to the theme: Surprise models starting from 2012 onwards were: 2012 British Invasion - Flash (British Riding Pony) 2013 Denim and Diamonds - Roxy (all American Quarter Horse who was previously a celebration model) 2014 Silver Jubilee - Nokota (not region specific but he does look like he's partying) 2015 Vive la France - Lonesome Glory (famous for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe Thoroughbred race) 2016 Brazil's Canival - Esprit (Spanish breed for a Spanish speaking country) 2017 Gateway to India - Latigo (the only theme where the mold didn't fit the theme) 2018 Off to the Races - Smarty Jones (Thoroughbred racehorse) 2019 Salute to Horse Heroes - Andalusian Stallion (not region specific) 2020 Celtic Fling - Giselle (most likely to represent the Irish Draught warmblood) 2021 Horse of a Different Color - Dundee (not region specific but Quarter Horses do come in a palette of colors) Here are my final guesses: 1. Lipizzaner MareI think "draft" isn't referring to a draught horse (that would be too obvious) but a draft beer. I think it is going to be the overlooked Lipizzaner Mare. This breed hails from the Spanish Riding School, located in Austria. Austria is Germany's neighbor, so I'd imagine there could be Lipizzans in Germany as well. Carina matches all the criteria except the live auction criteria, however I think we can discount that since the virus limited the number of live auction models made, and Dundee also wasn't in the live auction in 2020. She was, however, made within the past year as regular run Favory Airiella, isn't the most popular model to start fights at Breyerfest, is a Premier Club model made over 3 years ago and has so far had limited colors on her. Also since 2019 the trend has been stallion-mare-stallion so we're due for a mare this year if that continues. Despite all this, I haven't seen anyone guess her. 2. Cleveland BayOf all the draft breeds, I think the most likely is the Cleveland Bay, who could be part draft/part warmblood himself, both breeds of which are big in this theme. He also has a slight lead since many of the surprise models were celebration models at one time themselves, and he was a celebration model back in 2019. The only reason he's not number one is due to his size. Most of the surprises were on smaller molds. 3. Bobby JoThe reason she is so far down on my top three is because there is already a stock horse in the lineup (Wyatt) and Germany isn't really known for stock breeds. However, she's been pretty lightly used since her release in 2015 and fits with the "rotating" part since she's circling. She is also a mare. Honorable Mention: OthelloOthello has been a hot topic for years, and this year there isn't really anything preventing him from being used. I'm kind of hoping for Othello because I'd love to see him in more colors than just fifty shades of grey. While a popular mold at one time, he isn't as popular now as, say, Georg would be. His two downfalls preventing him from being higher up on my list is that he is technically a Shire, and to my knowledge there are no super heavily footed German breed similar to the Shire, and the fact that he was already used in the Treasure Hunt series so he was already technically a surprise model.
So what do y'all think? After seeing all the auciton lots and releases up until now, who is your final guess for the surprise? Are you sticking with your original guess or has it changed from your early guess? Of course I'll be sure to post as soon as I know who it is on Friday when the first people in line open their surprises! We all love to see this eye candy, although the majority of us will never own one, myself included since they're now allowing online bidding at Breyerfest, as well as in person bidding. I understand though that this will help inflate prices to sky high, record prices that will raise more money for their selected charities. Whether you plan to bid or not, here is the list of live auction lots (I'll add more as Breyer reveals them) so we can all drool over them while at the same time finding out who is not going to be the surprise horse this year! Shannondell! A big, big surprise guess is officially eliminated (I speculated it wouldn't be Shannondell because of Cardinal being released just last winter but didn't want to give those who guessed Shannondell their hopes up) with this stunning boy, a beautiful bay leopard appaloosa with peacock spotting. I can definitely see this guy going up there in price. This one hurts a bit not to be able to add to my collection, as the Andalusian Stallion is one of my non-Premier Club molds that I conga. With his beautiful dapple sooty palomino coat, I'm loving this one. I like how his mane/tail are blonde rather than the old man grey or silvering in the mane/tail that they like to make on many of their sooty palominos. A beautiful glossy bay tobiano Fighting Stallion with his cat track markings and most likely mapping, this guy would be the perfect sire for the Robin and Nestling pair. Latigo honestly wasn't a mold I cared for at first (too skinny for what I like to see in a stock horse) however I've somehow over the years managed to end up with a small conga of him, and have honestly always wanted him in a solid dapple grey. One day, hopefully, as he looks amazing in this star dapple grey! I understand that a lot of these live auction models are Breyer testing out new colors, and this is a first for this one. Supposed to be a dark chestnut but with black legs? Possibly more of a brown than a chestnut to me, but this is what Breyer has him listed as. I guess that eliminates Valegro as a possibility for the surprise model (some people speculated him for this Warmblood heavy theme) since he's in the live auction. I love how Breyer made this guy a "sun faded bay pinto" because this is a color I've been dying for it to pop up in Breyers. In Stones they have a sunburnt bay, and I've been hoping Breyer would make their own version of it one day. This guy has some neat mapping too! While I wasn't expecting the Icelandic myself, several others were guessing him since drafters, Warmbloods and ponies are taking over the German theme. A bit of a surprise to see the return of this mold, but the Missouri Fox Trotter is making an appearance as a chalky shaded dun. While I'm not sure how the color really looks on a Missouri Fox Trotter (a better choice would have been a mold like Fireheart) I'm loving his striped hooves and the realistic leg barring. The Firefly and Hawkeye molds return as a unique pair. A sunbleached (again, thank you Breyer for finally toying with the sun bleaching) dark bay frame overo with blue eyes and her buckskin foal. I still laugh at the tired looking old mare and the spunky foal in contrast. If that doesn't represent motherhood, I don't know what does. Esprit has been making quite a return lately, with just being used as the patriotic model last year and as Apollo for Breyerfest 2021. He is making yet another return at Breyerfest this year in the form of this guy, a red bay tobiano. As he was already used as a Breyerfest surprise model, he won't be a surprise again. Welp... this eliminates Bristol officially as the surprise. Although not on my top 3 list mostly due to her being a Breyerfest model last year, I was secretly wishing for her as a potential surprise for this year due to Germany being well known for their Warmblood horses. I guess it wasn't her year. Soon, hopefully. She is being done as a leopard appaloosa in Germany's flag colors. We're seeing Fireheart also show up as an auction model after seeing him already used as special run, Stein. This guy is a few spot appaloosa with Indian war paint. While I do love models with Indian war paint, Breyer likes to put it on models with a lot of white (the Vintage Club Foundation Stallion "Nonoma" for example) however when they used it with Spirit and the buckskin appaloosa regular run made 2013-2015 I added both of those to my personal collection. This horse was most likely a variation of the celebration horse, Dani, from last year's Breyerfest that for whatever reason didn't make it to production. She has a beautiful rainbow interference finish. All of you who guessed Hamilton as the surprise horse this year... unfortunately I think this throws him out. Although he wasn't one of my top three, I'm secretly a bit disappointed too because, after selling off my Hamilton collection last year, I decided to get them back and I would love to see more colors on this mold. However he is in the live auction as a lush dappled dark bay with a high gloss finish. This gal is probably my favorite live auction piece! I love roans and this red roan pintaloosa is irresistible! Also, check out that new mane! Is this a hint that Rapunzel may be the 50/50 mane split with this new mane type being the other potential half? We can only hope... All hail the return of Silver on a beautiful silvery pegasus! It's been ages since we've seen a pegasus at Breyerfest so fantasy lovers will be incredibly happy with this piece! The shimmery coral blue returns with this mare and foal set! Does this mean that the Vintage Club mare/foal set won't be this pair? If so that'll narrow it down a bit. Or perhaps this was a sample for that set? Hopefully we'll be finding out soon! This mold was another popular guess for the surprise horse, although I was hesitant to put him at the top of my list due to him being released as both Sjoerd and Kingfisher. However people were speculating that since he was released only as the modified version meant they could have still used his original draft version, but I'm pretty sure this eliminates him. He is being used in the auction instead as a glossy honey bay with blue/black points. This beautiful black sabino Nokota is a beauty that whoever wins will behold. Obviously since Nokota was used as a surprise previously he couldn't be used again but it is nice to see the return of this mold, and a beautiful color to boot! I'm not sure how I feel about the partial roached mane, though. Roached manes have always been a make it or break it for me in models. I sold off my Smarty Jones "Santiago" and decided against "Turnbridge Wells" because of their roached manes. I'm not sure what color Breyer was trying to make here but I kind of like it! He is listed as "dapple grey" on the auction but page he looks like he also has a frame overo middle with appaloosa spots? I'm assuming this was a test color, perhaps for Brahms? Perhaps he was left unfinished which explains the enormous amount of unpainted area. Or could he be a fading roan? Who knows?
Breyerfest is literally NEXT WEEK everyone! It has really heated up here in Kentucky (the temperatures have been in the 90s with real feels reaching the 100s) so I highly stress to prepare for the weather for those of you attending in person. Kentucky weather changes day to day, even hour to hour, so don't go by what your weather app is saying now. For example, I checked the weather for our area Tuesday and it said 96 degrees with a 0% chance of rain for the next day. Come Wednesday we had a big storm blow in out of nowhere that was so powerful it blew a section of our fence down, knocking the temperature down to 88 degrees and ended up with us chasing a loose donkey for an hour so just prepare for all weather. I know several of you from Oregon, Washington and California have already started on your drive or will be soon, so safe travels to y'all! Pickup people should have all been sent their final invoices (let me know if you didn't receive it by now) and all pickups have been fulfilled. I will be including the punched tickets with the models to my pickup people. Boxed models will be hand selected based on what I see from the window side. I cannot guarantee the box side since they will be sent still tied in their boxes but usually these models have very few issues. Special runs will be glanced over and exchanged if there are major flaws - something I couldn't do last year when it was virtual since Breyer wouldn't allow exchanges. These are not boxed, just wrapped in bubble wrap and usually have a bag with their name on the sticker. There may be variations amongst these (there is likely to be a 50/50 matte and glossy split as well as a mane/tail variation) but please understand that I'm unable to take preferences, as I know that the majority of you would want the glossy split, and I want to make it fair for everyone.
Wait list people will have leftovers posted tomorrow at noon CST. If they don't sell out, they will be offered to everyone else in my Model Horse Store on Saturday, July 9th. Full payment will be expected from these models, including shipping. As with the pickup people punched tickets will be included. |
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