For all the 499 other Vintage Club members who didn't see the email update yet... here ya go! Finally some updates from Breyer! My Yellow Mount and Dawn and Dusk set will be available for sale here on my website for anyone interested. They will be posted at 8 PM EST tonight. For those of you who are unicorn lovers, meet Solar Flare, the annual web special Classics unicorn. Typically I don't like this mold (imo it looks like a fish) but this color goes well with it, almost to the point that if I hadn't promised myself NO UNICORNS I would be adding him to my collection in a heartbeat. Although this wasn't Breyer's intention, I think he looks like a goldfish :) Anyone with All Access tickets from Breyerfest who put in their name for the second chance sale keep an eye on your emails in the next day or so. Breyer will be pulling names for the opportunity to purchase Breyerfest leftovers. I didn't put in my name again since I already had my chance to dip into the leftover stash with my VIP ticket, but I just wanted to remind those who did so you don't miss your opportunity. Also, today was the last day for current Vintage Club members to sign up for the 2022 Vintage Club. Tomorrow it will be open to everyone. If you're interested in joining, keep an eye out for the email because, as a forewarning, this club is extremely hard to get into, being so limited.
To finish out the week, we got the reveal of the new mold of 2022 for the Stablemates Club, and he is a stunner! He is a chestnut rabicano portrayed after Brigitte Eberl's resin Arabian stallion, Sharif. This is a beautifully realistic paint job. His name is Twist and he's due to debut in December with the optional 7th Stablemates Club purchase, the foal set Leti and Addie. The foals were shown last year, but in case you forgot who they were, I will show their pictures below. I will have an extra Twist and a set of the foals available for pre-order to those who are not in the club. Both will be glossy. We're still waiting to see the first Premier Club model for 2022 as well as the lineup for the 2022 Stablemates Club. If I remember correctly though, the Stablemates Club model is usually revealed in the JAH annual magazine that every Collector Club member gets about November-ish.
It's not even Friday yet and Breyer is still revealing new horses. Today it came in the form of the third Premier Club horse of 2021, the much anticipated mare and foal set. Based on social media accounts, she seems to be well received, and I hate to be the Debbie downer here but I was really hoping for a different breed. I know a lot of people were wishing for a drafter set, but with the release of two draft horses in the previous two years, I figured it probably wouldn't be, however I do want to express a bit of disappointment in yet another stock horse. On the other hand, I guess they do go well with Dundee (albeit him being a gelding but we'll pretend) and her color is exceptional. It's about time we see a roan in the Premier Club lineup, and although the foal is supposed to be a chestnut, there is a bit of roaning there too. Their names are Firefly and Hawkeye which I think is fitting for a watchful mare over her frolicking foal. This announcement of the third release also came with another apology letter from Breyer for Astrid, which I will post below if you want to read their exact words, but basically they said we should be expecting Astrid shortly, and they're aiming to have the mare/foal pair released in December so, all told, the clubs should be finished by the end of the year instead of overlapping into 2022 like we were all worried about. Finally, some communication! I'm hoping that they'll be announcing news of the Vintage Club horses soon as well. We still have Nugget, the gambler's choice to be released, and the charcoal mare/foal set (whose names I can't recall at the moment) that were the optional purchase for the Vintage Club this year. I'm also expecting the first releases of both the Premier Club and Stablemates Club for 2022 to be unveiled soon. Come back frequently for more updates! This is the busiest time of the year!
I have a few announcements today. First things first, Stablemates Club members, the gambler's choice, Dahlia, is available for purchase now. Dahlia consists of four beautiful colorways: dappled red chestnut splash pinto, glossy black pintaloosa, amber champagne and ocean blue. The only one I'm not interested in is the glossy pintaloosa, so if I end up with her, she'll most likely be for sale. I do have two coming, one from each of my Collector Club accounts so it's also possible I may get duplicates in which case the duplicate will also be for sale. I'll update once they're here. My second chance sale box arrived today. I hadn't intended on getting Favrile with his shrimp-like markings, but since the majority of my largest congas now include a rainbow decorator, and with EEK just being released on the same mold, I figured I kind of needed him. I love the mold so much that he's actually the only Classics mold I currently conga. I also received Rhev and have put him with Abdul, the only other I have on the mold. While deciding if I'm going to keep him or my glossy when he arrives in December (provided they arrive on time) of course the matte version had to be flawless... I can't find a single blemish on him. He didn't have as deep of shading on his face as some of the other specimens I'd seen, but he's still beautiful nonetheless. After putting in my VIP 2nd chance sale purchase, I almost immediately regretted choosing the surprise. I was originally after Uffington or Pollock for a customer, but of course those had to be part of the ones completely sold out, so my next obvious choice was the surprise. Thinking back though I really should've bought a Tassili since I had a 50/50 chance of getting the long mane/tail version whereas I only had a 1/5 chance of getting the roan or champagne surprise. Then I opened the box containing my surprise today... and he was the champagne! All doubts immediately melted when I realized that I now had - almost - the entire set. Granted he's not perfect, as he has a lot of pencil-like marks in the white areas of his legs and face, but having a champagne is better than no champagne. Plus I'm giving Breyer the benefit of the doubt that these models were made during a pandemic when, as we've all experienced first hand, quality isn't best right now. I'm still missing the roan but I'm planning on tracking him down on the second hand market. I'm still in shock. This is honestly the first time I've ever had a complete Breyerfest surprise conga and it had to be on my favorite mold! I'm half tempted to play the lottery now... For All Access ticket holders Breyer has just announced that they will be offering the remaining Breyerfest leftovers on Wednesday, October 13th at 11:30 AM. It will be via lottery draw since there are so few models remaining. The only models left is the surprise, Tassili, Gran Cavallo and Pech Merle. Entries for the lottery are accepted through October 10th and those who get access to the store will be notified on October 12th. As with VIP ticket holders, you are limited to only one model. While on social media, I did see a fellow dealer post about the shipping issues with Breyer, and I thought it should be relayed to my customers as well. I agree that Breyer should be being a lot more transparent about what's going on with the world. That email about Lafayette was a start, but they need to also get on the ball about Astrid, Nugget and the rest of the club models, not to mention their regular runs as well. Go on their website and see for yourself how many are on backorder. They literally have hardly anything in stock. Where all these Equidaes are coming from, I have no idea, especially since Breyer usually sends what they have in stock to their dealers first and extras are sold via their website. This year everything has been backwards. I do want to warn though that the shipping issues will most likely persist into the new year, and I do beg for your patience, especially when pre-orders start going up for the 2022 regular runs. I've been an eBay seller since 2008 (long before I became a Breyer dealer I would buy Breyer collections to resell on eBay) and am known for my quick shipping. Once I actually have the products in, they are usually out the door to their buyers within 24-48 hours. If I don't have the products... well... you can be sure I'll be hounding Breyer every week until they get tired of me asking and send it to me lol. Shipping estimates are typically posted on my contact page, and any changes to those estimates are shown here on my blog.
Just as an update on the TSC Sayen model... they have changed it to a bay on the TSC website so apparently it was a mistake on Breyer's part to send them the wrong stock photo. The TSC model Sayen is for sure a bay, not a chestnut. I have contacted TSC directly to confirm this. It does make me wonder though if that chestnut is a future release that leaked, possibly a regular run for 2022? We should be finding out soon when the 2022 regular run models are revealed. Still no news about the gambler's choice for this year's Vintage Club, nor about the last two models for the Premier Club for this year, but Breyer has the audacity to show us this beauty for the 2022 Vintage Club whose name is Cooper. It seems like Breyer is putting the cart in front of the horse here, quite literally, because we're all on edge wondering if we'll even have this year's models before 2022 even starts! The communication gap really needs to be bridged... While I was kind of expecting the Vintage Club to open early this year due to finding out that the 2022 Collector Club was already available for membership, I was not expecting it this early. According to records last year, I didn't pay for my membership until November 4th. Of course, this year was my first year in the Vintage Club just because I needed Julius for my Georg collection, and so I paid a bit later than current members, but still earlier than usual. I guess Breyer not having much to sell right now is the blame for it. They've also increased memberships for the Vintage Club to 750 members rather than 500 so there should be quite a few memberships available to those who want to try to get in.
I actually don't have a single model on this mold, but that paint job is phenomenal! I always love me an older vintage mold with a modern paint job. I prefer it a lot better than vice versa. I'm also a sucker for leopard appaloosas, having quite a few in my personal collection. This horse reminds me a lot of Bilberry from the Berry Ponies Series last year. Has almost the exact same paint job. Considering that I tried for him and lost him, Cooper would make a good replacement, and yes he does come with the bareback pad and bridle shown. Since I'm not a tack collector, I will most likely be putting that up for sale upon his release. Since this is the 10th anniversary of the Vintage Club, Breyer said that there will be a lot more in store this year than what they're revealing. Anniversary years are always a treat so I'm making sure I don't miss this year. Current members have until October 11th to rejoin before it opens to everyone on October 12th (no exact time given). The cost to join is $100 with it being split up between 4 models so while the total cost of each model is $135, however since $25 for each model is used from the deposit, you only actually pay $110 upon each model's release. The Stablemate Club was actually started four years after the Premier and Vintage Club, so we still have a few years yet to wait but I'm sure they'll do something special for that as well. Unfortunately the start of October comes with more delays. We all knew it was coming. This is sadly just the state of the world right now, and I'm expecting this to be the norm for a while from here on out. While I know some of you are against pre-orders and are waiting for items to be in stock before purchasing, there has been such a shortage in supply that us dealers are selling out of everything almost as soon as we get it in due to not being able to purchase as much stock as we typically could. I have sold out of almost everything I've bought this year, minus Obsidian. I have about a half dozen left of him, but everything else had to be sent out the door almost as soon as I get it in because the waiting list is so long. I already have orders backed up until December, so the sooner you put in your order, the sooner it'll get to you. So this was the email sent out to Lafayette purchasers: not surprisingly he has been delayed until December. I did end up rejoining the Collector Club for 2022 and as soon as I joined I received a welcome letter to my inbox (most likely to save on shipping and materials Breyer won't be sending paper letters this year) which stated a few things I'd like to share. In addition to the usual six lottery draw models, they said that they're preparing an "extra special year" for the 10th anniversary of the Premier and Vintage Clubs, which I'm hoping more will be shared within the next couple weeks.
Interestingly they said they're preparing for a VIP Collector Event available through lottery draw (not really excited for this since my chances of getting pulled for yet another VIP special is low) with "unforgettable equine experiences" and limited edition models available through the Breyer Boutique. They promised that more information would be revealed by the end of this year, although the actual event won't take place until 2022. Don't quote me on this but I'm thinking this is going to be taking the place of the Collector Club Appreciation event since, at this point with what little stock Breyer is going to have by December, I don't see that happening this year. |
Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|