My green goblin arrived today. I wasn't sure if I'd like the green color, but this guy actually has some shimmery blue interference in him as well. He reminds me of Mirror Image - I know I'm going way back with that one - but with a green and blue sheen instead of blue and purple. With the glow in the dark white areas, he's acutally really cool, and the gloss is an added bonus. He is the first glossy in the Halloween series since Illuminati. He is almost flawless if it weren't for some air bubbles in his mane, however as a customizer I know that when using gloss, it's incredibly hard to completely eliminate all the air bubbles in the finish. Like fleas, they're just part of the territory. Like many others, I'm still waiting on Tabitha and the stablemates, but Breyer did state that they'll be shipped this week so let's hope they turn up soon. Really excited to see who I get. I just added some more Halloween customs today so be sure to check them out if you're interested. I've noticed sales this year aren't nearly as hot as they were last year, and it's not just my business, but the larger companies as well. Breyer still has both Maelstorm and Tabitha available, and Stone horses also hasn't been selling out of their models. Hobbyists were blaming Breyerfest recovery, but I'm not so sure. I'm thinking it's the economy more so than Breyerfest. Last year, for example, my Halloween customs were selling like hotcakes. This year... crickets.
Anyways, I hope y'all have a nice weekend. I'll be back next week once the rest of my Halloween order turns up, unless Breyer releases something in the meantime by then. In my personal collection, there are only two vintage molds I conga... Misty and Lady Phase. Misty because I've always loved wild horses, and although Lady Phase is a stock horse, she was gifted to me by my parents as a child for Christmas so she's sentimental. She's come in some pretty colors over the years that makes her kind of hard to resist, and Jolene was no exception. I really need some more golds in my collection. The local stores here still don't have Jolene or Zeke but I did acquire Jolene through the help of a collector friend at a very reasonable markup so I'm blessed to have met some of the nicest people in this hobby. I went back to my local Tractor Supply for the other Ashton they had and have added him to my store for anyone looking for him. I charged the same rate my friend charged me for Jolene which is lower than the asking price on eBay so I'm passing the gesture on to anyone who wants him but doesn't have a Tractor Supply close by. Jolene is stunning and flawless. All the Tractor Supply releases this year were amazing, Zeke included, although he won't be joining my herd since I'm weeding out my Zippos. Right now my shelves are at max capacity so I need to be super selective. I received my shipment of Snowbirds yesterday, and will be shipping them out starting tomorrow. Just an FYI they are chalky. They don't look it in the stock photos, but it could be possible that the older picture with the lighter color didn't pan out so they just repainted them the new grey color. This is usually what happens with modern day chalkies. I like the textured look myself. These are all currently sold out, as I only purchased a dozen this year, and unfortunately Breyer doesn't let us order more. We had to put in our orders for the holiday horse by April of each year to be guaranteed, otherwise you're put on the waiting list for extras, if any are available. There's still quite a few more Collector Club releases to save up for, and if you're in one of the specialty clubs, you still have quite a bit to look forward to. I'm in all three and hoping that all the releases aren't on top of each other, but I have a feeling they're going to be if I know Breyer.
Fall is in the air, although down here it doesn't feel like it. Almost hit 90 degrees today, but nevertheless, it is spooky season and this means that there's some exciting news for Breyer collectors! We have some new releases finally available after a long dry spell. Breyer announced that the Halloween store would open today at 1 PM EST (and because I'm in central time now I a half hour too late but thankfully was able to get what I wanted since I'd been saving for these for a couple months) and as of this posting everything is still available. Head over there to check it out. I will not be getting the Halloween horse this year, so if you want him, be sure to get him from Breyer during this sale. Here is the other side of Maelstorm: I'm loving the skeleton pirates on this guy and the creepy looking rotting pirate ship. Breyer did a good job with this one. I can't wait to see him in hand when my order comes. To all you pin collectors: they also have a mini pin of this guy. I bought the pin of Thriller last year before I decided to sell off my pin collection and I loved how he glowed in the dark. I'm sure Maelstorm would be even more wicked with more glow in the dark area than Thriller had. Also available, and another of my personal purchases, was the Classics Halloweenie, Tabitha, who I think with Eek from last year is probably one of the most Halloween related of all the Classics yet with her witchy design. They only show one side of her though so her other side is a complete mystery. She, too, glows in the dark. Everyone's favorite, the mini Halloween stablemates, are also available. I'm assuming these will sell out the quickest, and while I'm very tempted to put in another order for 2 more, because of my budget this month due to the upcoming auction, I'm limiting myself to two and crossing my fingers I don't get duplicates. I don't do trades after being burned once before, so if I do get duplicates, they will be available in my store. I will most likely look for the others I don't get on the second hand market later on. Finally, they are offering Skelly the plushie to you stuffed animal collectors. Stone horses will be offering a special Halloween DAH later today as well, so lots to look forward to! 'Tis the season of new releases! As for my own Halloween customs, I will be adding a few more stablemates to my website next week, then I'll start working on the big guys. I will have a Hocus Pocus (anyone excited for the upcoming movie?) themed Classic on American Dream, the third in my Horses of the Apocalypse series that I started a couple years back on Dundee, a Disney villan mural on Roemer for all you vintage fans, a couple Halloween designs on the new Nikolas mold, and last but not least I'm hoping to finish a Hallow-thanks-mas design on the traditional Show Jumper mold. I started it last year and been working on it on and off throughout the year. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of September. This guy is super detailed and cute!
I've been adding more ponies to my store each week through the entire month of September, so I appreciate those of you who purchased models from me, I truly do. The items in my store will continue to be available through Sunday, September 25th. We plan to go to the auction September 30th. Dealers received some Breyer news today... two new upcoming releases! The fall decorator named "Jewels" who is a metallic rainbow on the Fighting Stallion mold. I will be getting this boy but as with the holiday horse, I won't be doing pre-orders to avoid the fiasco of last year with Equidae. Speaking of which Snowbird is officially on the way and has been added to my store, so if you've not ordered him yet, be sure to snag him before he sells out. The other announced release is Kendall, the flagship limited edition on Bobby Jo. She is a gorgeous glossy flaxen chestnut. I'm not a flagship dealer so I unfortunately won't be getting her, but I will be searching for her myself to add to my conga once she's released.
After my post yesterday regarding the Tractor Supply models, I decided today to go on a search for said models. I had the day off and had all morning with nothing to do while I waited for the farrier to come out this evening so I drove to a few local Tractor Supply stores. All I found was Ashton, whom I needed for my Latigo conga, and the American Dream. I left the American Dream though since I'm on a budget this month. They had four available, and since he's just a plain bay, I don't see him selling out anytime soon. However, I did get Ashton, as they only had one of him. At the time of me writing this post, Ashton and Jolene are not available to purchase online, only Zeke, and the local stores here are saying that none are available in stores. I did want to review this guy however because of his unique color. He is NOT light grey as I originally wrote. I'm not even sure what it is but it's one I don't have in my collection. It's a soft buff color, like a super light palomino but with red tones in his mane versus being pure white. He *could* be dunalino since he has leg barring, but only on his front legs and no dorsal stripe so that's why his color is so confusing. He is chalky, meaning he has a white base coat rather than bare plastic, and he does have faint dappling on his neck. Overall, he's very pretty, but I'm stumped by his color. Any geneticists out there can help out?
Stablemate Club members just got word today that, not surprising, Jameson is going to be delayed until early October with the next release (most likely the gambler's choice) supposedly on schedule, but we'll see. Again, I'm not blaming Breyer but I do want to make a note - to go along with yesterday's post - that delays are still happening. Breyer could, however, help our impatience by giving us a hint as to the new SMCC mold... pretty please? I get asked all the time: when is my pre-ordered model coming? I answer back about the shipping delays, and then I'll get a snarky comment about how Breyer needs to bring production back to the US. Well, Stone is an American based company. If you look at Stone's website lately, you'll find that they have really been really upping their game as far as cranking out the horses this year. For years people complained that Stones were "too limited" or "only OOAKs" so they never got the chance to purchase much from the company directly. Last year, however, Stone responded by hiring on a few more artists and thus have added a lot more events to their yearly calendar than they used to. You go to their website and there are still many models still available in their store. They are trying to keep up with demand, the demand that customers have been craving for years, but at the same time it's backfiring in a sense to collectors. Their prices are slowly going up, and not by just a few dollars like Breyers does every year, but by a hundred dollars. There were absolutely no traditional sized models priced at $289.99 during Equilocity this year (the pricing that quite a few models sold for last Equilocity) as all of them were at least $369.99 or more. Why? Well, while they have more artists to make more models, all those new artists Stone hired on need a livable wage, therefore Stone has to increase pricing. All of you that are wishing for Breyer to come back to the US... think about it. If they did, we'd be paying lottery model pricing on everything. Do we really want that? Also, during the little more than a year I've been collecting Stones, I've noticed that their quality has been slipping a bit with the increase in models this year. Sound familiar? Breyer collectors complain about the same issue. The more product output, the more likely there will be flaws. Take my new DAH Bunny for example. This is the first model I've purchased from Stone this year that didn't include hair or a fingerprint imbedded in the paint, a tribute to that "get 'em out as quick as you can to satisfy our customers" mentality, so I appreciate that. This is actually my first Bunny from Stone - she usually sells out everytime I try to get her - but I scrambled for the Easter design and was excited to get one. What could be more fitting than a bunny design on a Bunny model? I really wanted her as a mare version of Georg and I wasn't disappointed. They look cute next to one another on the shelf. Bunny even has udders, similar to Breyer Susecion, who also became very popular as Breyer's only model with mare "bits" to this day. She may just be my new favorite mold. Paint wise, she turned out really good. My only regret is not picking a mold with a longer mane/tail for this particular pattern so that the rainbow color showed up better but that's my fault, not Stone's. Whether intentional or not, she has a darker pink dorsal stripe down her back. Speaking of Breyer, many are wondering when are we going to see the next releases? It seems that the Tractor Supply hype is leveling out. I have removed them from my website after having orders canceled on me when I tried to purchase them online and I still haven't found any at my local stores. They still have lawn and garden stuff out, and are still selling chicks, so it might not be until October/November. The holiday horse, Snowbird, has shown up at some Tractor Supply stores as well. Breyer has leaked out two different pictures of the holiday horse, a light grey with dappled legs and a darker shaded grey. While I was kind of hoping for the light grey, it appears the dark grey is the one seen popping up at Tractor Supply, although the shading amongst the grey has varied greatly with some being a lot lighter than others. Let's hope we hear some news from Breyer soon. Yes, these delays are tiring but understand that, as I said above, if Breyer came back to the US, prices would rise considerably. To keep prices low, I'm willing to wait for my promised models, whatever it takes, just so I can continue affording the hobby. There are a lot of Stones from Equilocity I'd love to purchase but can't because of the price. Our models will come, y'all, we just have to be patient.
Anyone see the new Breyer pins lately? These are only available online on Breyer's website, so if you'd like them, please head over there to purchase. They are NOT available to dealers. I'm trying hard to resist jumping on the pin bandwagon, but I must admit that several of these are super cute and hard to resist. If you have not seen them, you can check them out here: https://www.breyerhorses.com/collections/breyer-pins
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