Only Monday and Breyer has already brought out another sneak peek. To all Stablemates Club members, this is the last horse of the year, Cassidy. She is a silver black (swoon!) blanket appaloosa on the new mold for this year, that chubby little brood mare that looks a lot better in color than clay. Not surprisingly she had to be an appaloosa (goodness, Breyer, are you guys feeling the spots this year?) but I do love me a realistic looking appaloosa anyday, and she is highly detailed. She will be a permanent member of my herd for sure. ...and for those that have been questioning it the optional 7th horse for the Stablemates Club is Duke, the glossy vintage style dappled grey on the new Clydesdale mold. He will be available for purchase along with Cassidy in December. In addition to this sneak peek, we also got to see the first Stablemates Club horse for next year, Atticus. He is a dappled bay sabino drafter, also on the new Clydesdale Stallion mold, but with a modified mane and tail. I do like the loose mane and tail better than the bobs but he isn't making me want to join the club just yet. I thought about taking a break from the Stablemates Club next year to just focus on the Premier Club, but it'll depend upon what the rest of the releases look like. I wasn't sold on Klaus either when I first saw him last year, but with the Alby being the gambler's choice and the special 7th release, that was the deciding factor.
Yep, it's that time of the year again! The time for the next year sneak peeks! The first has been leaked out, the 2021 Classics Horse of the Year. I'm really surprised that this horse is a decorator (and not on a new mold) but the cool thing about him is that he is a benefit model with Breyer donating $1 to Covenant House from every purchase of this model. I haven't seen a benefit model in a while so I'm really liking that Breyer has started doing that again, especially during this time of the pandemic with so many people losing their jobs and housing. I will have him available for pre-order closer to the New Year. Next isn't necessarily a sneak peek but if you haven't browsed Breyer's website lately, they currently have all the Fairytale Friends Club sets available to everyone to order. They're asking $29.99 each which, in my opinion, is way overpriced. It's not really surprising that this club didn't renew for another year due to the lack of a detailed paint job on the stablemates and there isn't much of a mini whinnies fan base to pay that price for new mini whinnies molds. However, if there was a particular set that you liked and want to buy, be sure to check them out under "stablemates". Breyer has already opened up membership for next year, and the great news is that they are going to be renewing their Deluxe Collector Club membership (Breyer made it sound like it was only going to be for their anniversary year but it must have drawn so many people that they're going to do it again) and the stablemate they're including this time is another shrinky, this time of the expensive live auction Alborozo that sold for $22,000 at Breyerfest, except he's glossy. The stablemate is included FREE with the Deluxe membership. I'm definitely going to join the Deluxe club this time after teetering on it for the longest time and then deciding against it this year, but that vintage style palomino wasn't my cup of tea, to be honest. If you're not currently a CC member (either regular or deluxe) you must choose the $65 membership - or $70 membership for international members. The $35 membership does NOT include the stablemate. If you are already a CC member, choose either the $55 membership if you want the stablemate or the $25 membership if you don't want the stablemate. The final sneak peek I'd like to share with y'all, at least for now, is the spring Collector Club special run for 2021. He is a glossy dappled black Saddlebred on the Hamilton mold. If there was ever a traditional horse that looked like Black Beauty, it would be this one, what with his white star and rear left sock, like the Black Beauty in the movie. Let me remind everyone that this horse will be available as an optional purchase for Collector Club members only but he is not free with membership. He'll likely be between $65 to $75 to purchase when he is released, probably sometime in April 2021. I'm hoping Breyer will go back to their pre-ordering system to ensure there are enough for everyone instead of the free-for-all they did this year. I can barely contain my excitement for what Breyer has in store for us next year! Y'all think this year was good? Wait for 2021!
Valerio has finally been released to Stablemate Club members. This was the one I was most excited for, as I'm really hoping for the rose grey, although I'd be happy with any of them. Yes, even that purple people eater unicorn that looks like Alborozo decided to dress for Halloween. In case anyone forgot, here are the colors for Valerio: While I wait for my Valerio to arrive, I've just received my final shipment of 2020 holiday horses. Since brick-and-mortar stores get first choice of holiday items (aka physical stores where if you wanted to you could go to and purchase them yourself) the online dealers only get what's left. I was put on the waiting list for Yuletide Greetings and the new Mini Whinnies advent calendar but they unfortunately only had enough left over to fill my holiday horse order. The calendars were sold out, not surprisingly since they're a hot item right now. I did want to share with you guys in-hand pictures of the holiday horse, however. Though I've collected them all since I started purchasing holiday horses back in 2007 with the release of Wintersong, I have to say that this is the first holiday horse I've liked in a while. Although a plain bay, the color looks really nice on this mold. Breyer's bays are almost always well done because that's one of their most used colors so they've had a lot of time to perfect it and there's so many different shades amongst Yuletide Greetings that each one is slightly different, as you can see in the picture below: The majority are a light bay, although there were a couple in my shipment with darker shading. I always try to send my customers horses with good boxes unless I happen to get a shipment that was roughly handled by UPS in which I would have to sell them out of box. Luckily though only one of the Yuletide Greetings had a damaged box, and that's the one I decided to keep for my own collection. He is more of a medium shade. Here is what he looks like unboxed: I do love Ardennes, the breed that Yuletide Greetings is supposed to portray, and I love the Shannondell mold despite it being known to be tippy. I keep getting the question whether or not Yuletide Greetings is tippy, and honestly as I obviously can't take them all out of their boxes to check, I do want buyers to be aware. However, bending legs is an easy fix. All you have to do is figure out which leg is causing the issue, usually on this mold it's the second leg (foreleg on the right side) and take a hair dryer to heat up the leg to where it's pliable, then gently bend it back into the appropriate position. It's hard to damage a horse using this method and he'll stand like he should. He is a stunning specimen, even in the nude: I still have some Yuletide Greetings available on my eBay page if you've not obtained one yet. I can hand pick for you depending upon if you want a lighter one or a darker one if you'd like, just leave me a note with your preference (I only received a few dark ones so they are extremely limited).
I just started back to working full time outside the home a few months ago but the office I work at is starting to lose business again because of the worsening pandemic so selling Breyers may have to become my full time job again, like it did back in April when I was temporarily laid off. I hope to start a brick-and-mortar store within the next few years here in northeast Ohio so that I can also offer the flagship horses, as well as quite a large inventory of regular runs and holiday items each year (maybe even grow to offer my customs, Collector Club special runs and retired models) but we'll see how it goes. Wowza, this horse has me thankful I joined the Premier Club this year! I was excited for the Kylee Parks release, and it didn't disappoint! Remember the sneak peek of color we saw back during Breyerfest? Well, he is a silver bay splash and he has a BLUE EYE! His name is Troubadour. Take a look: I admit when I first saw this guy, my heart did a little gig. I thought for sure this was the Standardbred I've been yearning for with his thick neck and trotting pose, until I saw that Breyer's description said he's meant to be a Morgan. Actually, Standardbreds and Morgans are so closely related, it makes me wonder if they could possibly use him as a Standardbred mold in future? I would also like to introduce you to his mini me, Lyric. He has the same exact color pattern on the new Fjord mold. My only question about these two is how well they will stand. Trotting poses are almost always tipsy, but we'll see. I can't tell you how excited I am to see this pair in person! Finally, I'd like to take a moment to discuss the newly revealed Breyerfest 2021 information. For those of you who haven't had a chance to hop over to Breyer's website, they have put forth some revelations that I think will excite those of us who love colorful horses. As stated from the blog, "Appaloosas, brindles and pintos, oh my!" Yes, you've read that right. Brindles! I cannot tell y'all how much I've wanted to own a brindle Breyer. This takes me back to that brindle Emma they showed during Breyerfest. Could that have been a test model for the gambler's choice? I guess only time will tell.
Sassy sold out in a blink. She was literally sold out in only a matter of hours, and I think several reasons applied such as 1) she was glossy and anything glossy goes 2) her lower cost for what was a rather detailed model and 3) the high number of members in the club this year (I think the enticement of the Deluxe membership with the palomino FS had a lot to do with it) versus the limited number of models made. I was very fortunate to get her, especially as I was at work when she came out and was able to snag one. Had I waited to check until after I got off, she would have been gone. Here she is in all her glossy goodness: Just as a warning, she looks nothing like her stock photo. She is way more pink than the brown phototype, looking more like a strawberry roan than a chestnut varnish roan. A lot of people were complaining about flaws on her (I hate using this excuse but honestly I think COVID-19 is making Breyer have to crank out horses faster and thus they're letting a lot more flaws slip through than they normally would just so they can get them out on the market) though I seemed to have lucked out, as mine only had minor mold flaws like some visible seems on her back legs. I loved her detailed striped hooves though. One of my favorite features of Breyer's appaloosas is when they add mottling. Not all of their appaloosas have it but lately they've been adding it quite a bit. This girl has it on her nose and genitals, another feature which was hard to see in the single stock photo. She has fleabitten roaning around her belly, legs, cheekbones and neck. Kudos to Breyer on making such a pretty model at a reasonable price. Admittedly after Lucien was released last year totalling almost $100 with shipping, I was a bit nervous that the special runs were going to keep on climbing in price to the point where they would be almost as much as the lotteries. Going from $80 down to $65 was awfully generous of Breyer. They're playing a double edged sword. They could go back to the pre-order system for the spring CC SR rather than making it a free-for-all like they did with Carter so everyone could be guaranteed a model, though if they did that the horses won't be worth as much. A lot of previous pre-ordered models can be found on the second hand market close to original cost.
Honestly though, other than making more models, what else can Breyer do? Limiting the Collector Club memberships would be an idea. Limiting CC memberships to one per address would be kind of iffy since multiple collectors could live at the same address. Maybe limiting it to no more than five per address? It's an idea though I don't know if Breyer could do that with the Shopify platform. They did some things that I thought were impossible for Breyerfest, however, so who knows? I was correct in assuming that the varnish appaloosa was the fall Collector Club special run. What I wasn't expecting was the mold. Breyer has brought back Lonesome Glory, one of my favorite molds from back when I collected racehorses, not to mention Sassy was the name of a dog I used to own as a child. Needless to say I snagged her so fast I didn't even read that she was glossy until afterwards. She is limited one per Collector Club account. Here is a picture of her for those who haven't seen her yet. I'll post in-hand pictures once she arrives. So I promise to have the rest of my Halloween customs on eBay by next week. I've had a hectic weekend with Spectrum pre-orders coming in and now my holiday horses are on their way so I've been working on shipping all those out, then I'll focus on posting my customs. If anyone is interested in ordering Yuletide Greetings, I do have a few extra available. They have been posted on eBay already but you can also contact me directly to purchase... and I'd appreciate not having to pay eBay fees ;)
I just want to clarify before someone comments... Raia is a flagship horse, meaning you have to be a brick-and-mortar (physical) store in order to purchase her. Since I'm an online dealer only, I was not eligible to buy Raia directly from Breyer. I do, however, have a local dealer whom I have been buying Breyers from for years, long before I even became a dealership, so I was able to obtain Raia from there. However, I was limited to only purchasing ONE model so I'm unfortunately not able to purchase Raia for my own customers, and I truly do apologize for that. If you get the opportunity to buy Raia from a local dealer near you (dealers can get in trouble for selling flagship horses online) or on the second hand market in future, I hope this little review will help you decide. The horse I bought had minimal flaws and pretty crisp markings. I wasn't sure if I'd like her because she's a light bay, but she's actually pretty nice with subtle dappling and lots of chrome. The mold is on the smaller side but highly detailed. I used to own Smoke back in the day, and I regret selling her. I hope to find her again sometime. Next up is Spectrum. Now this horse I was able to order, as she's the fall decorator, and I was actually a bit disappointed in the quality of these. Almost all of them had flaws in some way. One had a chipped ear, several had boxes that had been sliced into with a blade, there were goobers under the gloss, fingerprints in the paint and one even had a string of gloss between the tip of her tail and rear. Again I'm not blaming Breyer, most likely they had to make these pretty quickly to make up for lost time due to COVID, but I did want to warn people who are super picky about models. If you can ignore the factory flaws, the paint job is very beautiful. I would have liked to see the color more evenly distributed, though. The red ran into the orange areas and the orange into the yellows, making her very orange-y over a good portion of her body. However, I did think it was kind of cool that her rear leg was split right down the middle with purple and blue. Her hooves looked like they were the typical pink color with good iridescence. Finally, I ended up purchasing two more Spooky Stablemates before they sold out. They've arrived and I'm incredibly grateful that I ended up with a complete set, especially after so many Slainte Surprise duplicates from Breyerfest. As there were only three horses to get and I purchased four, I did of course receive a duplicate in the form of mini Twilight Terror, so I'm going to sell him off. My only complaint is that I'd much prefer Breyer have not used the tippy Friesian mold for Night Mare, but it is what it is. I also received my traded mini Ichabod so I almost have the complete Spooky Stablemates series, minus Calavera, who I didn't really like anyways. I'm thrilled to see what releases Breyer comes up with for October, November with the Black Friday sales and especially December with all the holiday releases. We have the fifth release in the Stablemates Club due this month and the final Premier Club horse due next month. I will keep y'all posted with any new releases I find out about :)
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