Another double post today because of so much happening. With Breyerfest just around the corner, everything is going to happen quickly. Now that we're nearing the end of the month, the June newsletter is here for Collector Club members. The giveaway is one of my favorites of the year, a complete set of Lancelots. Lancelot was a Collector Club gambler's choice Classics sized model. Breyer started this a few years ago with Calvin but haven't made one yet this year, unless it just hasn't arrived yet like the club models we're all still waiting on. I loved all three of these guys, although I ended up with the blue, whom I still have. The sneak peek was another glossy with a quote from Breyer saying they're on a glossy bay streak. I'd say so, as we've seen lots of them this year from the glossy CCA Orren Mixer paint to Robin and Nestling to Hope the Horse of the Year. Who will this be? So what happened with all the releases we were promised this month? Most likely the ship that was supposed to bring them didn't arrive yet. Although we still have a week before July officially starts, many of us are still waiting on either the Premier or Vintage Club models. Why are the Stablemate Club models still arriving on time but not the bigger guys? Well, the simple answer is that you can fit more stablemates on a boat. Most likely the Vintage Club will be next (unless they're having issues with the flocking) because it's a mold they used before. With the Premier Club model, they have to break the mold and weed out any issues before they can even paint them, so it's a lot more time consuming. The good news is, I'm hopeful we'll see the Arabian mare before Breyerfest because this was shown in the Breyerfest program: Dirndl is apparently on the new Arabian mold. While I thought about wearing a dirndl to Breyerfest to kind of set the mood, I think I'm going to pass. The things are tight as all get out and imagine trying to pull it off when you get to your hotel after Breyerfest when it's clinging to you from sweating like a hog? No thanks. The other model, Lederhosen, is definitely a model I need in my collection. He looks like a Rocky Mountain horse, a common horse here in Kentucky, and that color is just realistically lush! I'd love to see it on a Collector Club model that is available to everyone.
With the fourth of July coming up soon, Stone horses released a new surprise DAH pattern with fireworks similar to Times Square that Breyer made for Breyerfest 2007. However, Stone has added blue interference and glow in the dark paint. If you want one, he's currently on their website for $254.99 in limited molds. Be sure to check him out! I got my first selections from my Breyerfest tickets, and although I have not yet received all my tickets (bear with me pickup people) I'm very happy with my first selections so far. If you haven't received an invoice yet, don't fret... it's most likely because I'm waiting for the rest of the tickets to come. If you do receive an invoice, then your model selections are guaranteed, and then I will label your order as processing until I pick it up from Breyerfest. Those who are worried about getting duplicates after multiple people posted on Facebook about this, it seems like the majority of the problem is centered on the individual lists, so as long as you did the master list, you should be fine. I can't stress the master list enough if you don't want duplicates, y'all. For those of you who aren't on social media, this is what the ticket books look like: They have some basic FAQ in the front, a map of the Kentucky Horse Park, your model tickets, show tickets and wrist bands to get in the park. The wrist bands look like this. These were for four All Access tickets. I like this new adjustable style over the old paper style anyday. I will have a few of these available if you have extra children you want to bring or non-collectors with you but don't want to buy another ticket for, as well as additional tickets for the Celebration of the Horse show. Order soon because I will have to mail them to you, and Breyerfest is literally just a few weeks away! I'm going to post this a final time so that everyone is up in the know that doesn't visit my blog regularly:
Breyerfest pickup people: Keep an eye on your email! I will be sending you all invoices to complete your purchase for your selected model(s) to your original payment method. If you receive an invoice, that means your model is guaranteed. A date will be set on your invoice which you need to complete your purchase by. If your purchase is not completed by that date, your deposit will be forfeited and I will move on to the waiting list. This is why it is very important to keep an eye on your email, and your SPAM folder as well just in case. Shipping will be billed to you the Monday after Breyerfest when I can weigh your package. Although I will verify your address before shipping, if your address has changed and you have not reported it to me by now, please do so ASAP. If by chance I happen to be short a certain model I will give pre-paid pickup people first choice of the leftovers. If you don't like any of the other models, I'll refund your deposit. Wait list people: Keep an eye on your email as well. I will be resorting to the wait list once I tally up how many extra models I've ended up with. You will have 24 hours to let me know if you still want the model(s) that you choose from the wait list back in February when I had the wait list form on my website. Models must be paid for in full, minus shipping which will be billed to you the Monday after Breyerfest when I can weigh the package, and prices will be on my Breyerfest Pickup page. If you do not receive an email from me, it means that I did not have enough extras of the model(s) you had chosen. Likewise, if you don't respond to me within 24 hours that you still want said model, I will move on to the next person on the wait list. All extra models that haven't been sold either via pre-paid pickup or the wait list will be listed for sale on my website in my Model Horse Store at an announced date/time. Please keep an eye on my blog if you missed out on pickups or the wait list back in February for my second chance sale. Apparently the issues that plagued Breyer last week have not yet been fully resolved because they sent out an email today for their winter decorator (available via lottery draw) and shortly after I entered I saw on their website that entries had temporarily been suspended due to technical issues. They said they are planning to update as soon as they can, so I'm expecting a change in the dates on the entry form to make up for it depending how long it takes to sort out their computer issues. Not sure what's going on over there. Anyways, the winter decorator is Zugspitze on the beloved Georg mold, the main reason why I entered for him. He is one of the molds I'm going to continue to conga once I phase out my collection. They thankfully raised the number made to 450 to compensate for the growing number of Collector Club members and upped the price to $225 plus shipping. Pretty steep considering the larger amount when most of the lottery models were only 175 to 350 in number and cost less. Then again everything is going up. I just got hit with the news from my hay delivery guy that our hay will be going up $50 for a month supply. Not happy, but sadly just the way things are right now. I actually don't have a silver filigree anything in my collection, believe it or not. I had a silver filigree Misty at one time (Time to Party) from Breyerfest 2014 but ended up selling her and later regretted it, although admittedly I think Georg was made for this color. His large body just makes him look like a snow covered mountain. It says he is supposed to portray the Wetterstein Mountains in Germany. Breyer is already going all out with the German Breyerfest theme, apparently. Speaking of Prost! Breyer released ticket information today as well. There are going to be five different tickets in total. Three in-person tickets and two virtual tickets. Social media has been in a tizzy today in regards to the special runs being kept solely for in-person Breyerfest ticket holders, but honestly guys I'm not surprised. Breyerfest has always been an in-person event prior to the pandemic and Breyer probably lost out on a lot of money in shipping last year with everything getting delayed and needing to be shipped separately. Plus, unless you were international, Breyer didn't even charge shipping for anything. We need to be thankful they even had Breyerfest at all! At least now the special run models will still be a limited number. Ok, so now that that's off my chest, the three in-person tickets are: VIP, All Access (previous 3 Day) and General Admission (previous Single Day) tickets. They are the exact same as last year except you will be at the KHP rather than on your computer. The two new online tickets are Traditional Access and Stablemate Access. With Traditional you will get the celebration horse plus any store models you wish to purchase. Again NO SPECIAL RUNS WITH THIS TICKET. With Stablemate instead of the celebration horse you'll get a stablemate and any store models you wish to purchase. Both virtual tickets get all three days of online access. Here is Breyer's breakdown of cost and what is included with each ticket: Now that ticket information has been announced, I know many of you are wondering about pickups, especially my customers out West who are unable to attend in person. So I'm still going to continue to do pickups on everything except the surprise models, however I will be offering them a bit differently this year from last year. Last year, I went ahead and had everyone pay in full up front. This year, I'm going to offer a few with a small deposit due upon reveal of the model (most likely January/February) and the rest due a week before Breyerfest and shipping due the week after Breyerfest. So I will bill you to whatever payment method you used for the deposit around the beginning of July for the rest of the payment for the model and then again the Monday after Breyerfest for shipping.
Please be aware since the event is in person, it is possible there could be cancellations since an in person Breyerfest is relying upon the luck of the draw and not a computer. For this reason I try to keep the initial orders small, but I will refund you as soon as I know that you won't be getting your model(s). Since all models were sold out last year, I'm also going to also be making a backup waiting list once the initial orders sell out in case I end up with more models than I sold. These will NOT require a deposit and if there are any extras payment in full will be due the Monday after Breyerfest weekend. As is usual, I will be sure to check over each model before they are sent for any major flaws. I will explain how this will all work out through my website shortly after the first of the year. If you would like the celebration horse and nothing else, and don't really care about the virtual material, I am offering the celebration horse, Nikolas, for sale in my store right now until sell out. Breyer said we'd get our first 2022 Breyerfest model reveal by the end of this month, and they delivered! Meet Nikolas, a German Riding Pony owned by the same owner as Jazzman, the Morgan also portrayed by Breyer as a regular run. Nikolas gets a new mold for next year, sculpted by the same artist of the first Premier Club release of 2022, Brigitte Eberl. It is very fitting that they used a German artist to sculpt a German breed, in my opinion, since after all the theme is Prost! This is the fifth time a new sculpture has debuted as a celebration model: Rejoice, Alborozo, Roxy and the Marchador were the others. So what do y'all think of this guy? What other breeds could he be used for? I could definitely see him as a Connemara Pony in future because a lot of people considered the Connemara Mare (Croi) mold far too showy so this guy would be a good replacement, and I'm sure if they ever needed to make a Connemara Mare they could make "alterations" to the gender like they did with so many other molds. However, how do you guys feel about a pony mold being used as the celebration horse? Looking at the picture above, he looks pretty leggy, but looking at the picture of Jamie holding him below, he looks rather small. Tell me in the comments! While I was hopeful that Georg would be used for Breyerfest next year since he should be as a German Rhendish draft mold, however with him being used as a Collector Club special run, I'm beginning to feel a bit less hopeful. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean he won't be used, but it's not too common for models used the same year for something else (aka regular runs, limited editions and special runs) that they also are used for Breyerfest. Again, not impossible, just typical. Also, since he was already used as a special run in 2020, it hasn't been that long since he was a part of Breyerfest. Still, I'm crossing my fingers we'll see Georg in the lineup. One can never have enough Georg models.
Who else are we likely to see in the lineup? While it's far too early for speculation since the first model reveals likely won't be until after the first of the year, I personally would also like to see Idocus make a comeback. He looked really good on Wapiti, who is currently the only model I have on this mold. I would like to see a Black Forest horse finally made on a Breyer. We had Markus who was a Black Forest cross as a flagship release years ago. I think Goffert would fit the bill perfectly, but I know he's kind of a yesterday's news mold by now. The Aegidienberger could be made on the Icelandic mold since the two breeds are both known for the tolt gait. Of course they may not even stick to German breeds, but rather random horses named after German traditions, like with the India and Brazil themes. We'll just have to wait and see what the creative minds at Breyer come up with for us! I know a lot of you have been waiting to see the variations posted here on my blog, and today Breyer finally put out not only the photos of the rest of the variations, but the numbers as well. The 50/50 splits were the bay/buckskin variation of Pech Merle at 950 pieces each, the Marwari/Barb variation of Tassili at 1000 pieces each and the matte/glossy splits of Seurat at 1000 pieces each. For the other variations there were only 200 pieces each, making my holographic Uffington the rarest model in my collection to date. The other rarities were the gold bull, the color shifting Gran Cavallo, the metallic blue Ansel and the gold Pollock. Also I want to remind Stablemates Club members that the next release, Raider, is available. He is a beautiful liver chestnut frame overo topped in high gloss. If you are not in the club but would like to purchase him, I am offering mine here on my website since I don't collect the vintage molds. We should also be seeing the second Premier Club release this month, the beloved matte/glossy split, Astrid. As to the mid years about 50% of my orders have been shipped so far. If you're still waiting on yours, it will be shipped either tomorrow or Friday at the latest, so hang tight! They'll be on their way soon :)
After receiving three BF shipments last week in a total of seven boxes, my dealer order due to arrive any day now and two BF shipments this week, I think I owe the UPS man some cookies or even just some cold water with this heat wave we're having right now. As an employee of a shipping service myself, I completely understand how hard these guys work. I just watched a co-worker collapse from exhaustion last week, so let's give these guys some slack for all that they do to make us equine crazies happy. Today I received my surprise models, which made my long work week a bit better. Of three surprises, I amazingly only got one duplicate: the matte palomino pintaloosa. Since I've already shown the pintaloosa in a previous post, I want to give a huge shoutout to Breyer for giving me three different colors in one order. This is what we want to see as collectors, and is definitely a big step up from last year where, of the five I received, I only ended up with two colors. I was able to trade off a matte red roan pinto Giselle for a matte silver black, and thankfully that same trade partner has the champagne this year which she agreed to trade for my buckskin Pech Merle, so I only have the red roan to track down. The sabino was my second favorite amongst all the colors when I saw pictures on social media, but after seeing him in hand, I'm actually having a hard time deciding between him or the pintaloosa, who was my original favorite. I think his color is super realistic and very flashy. It doesn't bother me one bit that he was the most common color. I'm a sucker for all things roan. When Breyer showed the lineup for the special runs, you'll remember me writing a post about "where were all the roans?" Well, apparently they were in the surprises. Should've figured, and Dundee being a stock-type horse looks great in roan. Guess who else I got? The rainbow... and not just any rainbow but Breyer had the audacity to give me the glossy. If anyone wants to make an offer, shoot me a message! I may be tempted to sell him if I could get current internet prices, as I could definitely use the money to help pay for my real horse's surgery at the end of this month. If not I may possibly keep him as trade fodder down the road for something rare that I like even more. There's even a chance I'll forget about him and he'll just slowly become part of my permanent collection, never to leave my shelf. I'm not even sure what I think of him. He's unique, that's for sure, but looks out of place in my realistic collection. I do love his dazzling blue eyes as well as that color shifting blue paint, and that darker green is definitely prettier than Pollock's lime green. He's got a few minor flaws, like a piece of tape stuck on his leg, and some overspray, but overall he's pretty nice. I still have Gran Cavallo, Ansel and Seurat on the way, due to arrive Tuesday. These will be the last orders for my personal collection. I'm crossing my fingers for the Gran Cavallo variant because I love that color shifting blue and purple. I only have one traditional with that color... Mirror Image back from the JAH days. As for Ansel, I like both variations so it doesn't matter, but with Seurat I'm hoping for the matte. He's one of those ones that I like better in the matte from the pictures I've seen. Change my mind yet again, Breyer, I dare ya!
I'm super happy to announce that some of the mid years are indeed coming! After letting me know that they were expecting a container to arrive on Wednesday, it'd been crickets on my end, until today when I happily received the phone call I've been anxiously waiting on for over a month now. They probably won't arrive until later next week but at least we know that they're coming. ***Please note that this isn't my full order. I'm still waiting on Marc of Charm and Tiz the Law which are estimated to ship later this month. This order was only Thriller (the Halloween horse) and Omega Fahim so those orders will be fulfilled first. I will begin sending tracking numbers as soon as I get a shipping notification from Breyer next week.*** Admittedly I wiped some sweat from my brow because I've had more cancellations with this order than I have ever had before. I'm just a small business, mostly doing this as a hobby, so refunds hit me hard. Once you consider the price I pay for the models from Breyer, selling fees, ink and paper to print labels, tape and the fact that I have to buy specialized boxes to fit most of the models I barely end up making $10 a profit off each model so I truly do appreciate all of you who support me. In other news... My first special runs landed today! I received a surprise and Uffington. These two were meant to be for my personal collection but... I ended up with the variation of Uffington which, if you read my last post, was the one I wanted LEAST. Until... that is... I saw him in person. DARN YOU, BREYER! I didn't know he had a rainbow iridescence to him. I thought he was solid black. Actually, he's not even black. He's more of a steely grey. The pictures I've seen didn't really bring out his shimmer well but hopefully you can see it in the pictures below: Breyer really irks me when they do these variations because I fall in love with the variations and now I have to track down the original version too. Since we don't know as of yet if the variations are micro runs or a 50/50 split, I'm reluctant to sell this beauty. He's mine. MINE! MIIIIIINNNNNEEEE!!! (*insert evil laugh*) This... unique color on Uffington is something I've never seen before and I'm curious to know what Breyer officially calls it when they announce the run numbers. I'm going to call him Deputy Glitters for now, after a racehorse that was in the 2006 Kentucky Derby and whom, I think, fits this dude really well. Now for the first of my surprise models. I ended up with the palomino pintaloosa, which was the one I was hoping for the most. I love his splatter dapple spots which, to me, look like Breyer attempted a similar design with the Weather Girl from the benefit auction. Of course he was matte because I'm never lucky enough to score a glossy with the surprise models (last year was my first year doing so but probably only because they upped the numbers) which is perfectly fine with me since I'm more of a matte collector anyways when it comes to realistic horse colors, and this is the most realistic mass produced pintaloosa they've made yet in my opinion. Keep up the good work, Breyer! Keep in mind that some of you may have some variations coming your way soon yourselves but please note that I will not be posting pre-ordered horses on my website so that those who ordered will be surprised with whatever they get. Only horses for my personal collection will be shown. Unfortunately I only did a few pre-orders this year and didn't anticipate variations so I cannot take recommendations, or I'm sure most of you would ask me for the variations. My Pollock might be for sale if I end up with the gold variation. I like the rainbow with gold spots 100x better so be sure to check in on my blog next week if you're interested to see which I end up with.
Breyer sent an email out today saying that 60% of their Breyerfest orders have now been shipped out. I'm one of the masses still waiting on my special runs. I did receive something new today in the form of the Best of Breyerfest stablemate set, which are all very lovely. Minimal flaws on them. My only complaint is that the dapples on the grey and buckskin are hardly visible, not like the Django of last year who had visible dappling, but again I blame the pandemic and having to rush to get the models finished. We have to remember that Breyer didn't have to do Breyerfest at all, but they did so we could have our beautiful ponies. Other than that the set makes a lovely addition to my ever growing stablemate collection. Locksley is a stunning little guy. Some of you may hate them but personally I'm a sucker for Breyer's roans, and the bay roan color looks good on him. His white markings are crisp. I'm not a fan of Breyer's vintage style splatter spots but I understand that they were also on the traditional horse Grim is a mini me of. However the sooty palomino color with a soft pearly sheen and slight silvering in the mane/tail is gorgeous! Pendragon has me written all over him. His flashy color and the fact that I conga this mold is enough. His markings are crisp and I love his cat tracks. Her pearly steel grey color is very nice. Again I just wish she had more visible dappling. Reminds me of a mini Hero's Welcome surprise. Thumbelina is adorable despite lacking dappling. I don't like how Breyer gave her a dorsal stripe though since she's supposed to be buckskin. The dorsal stripe technically makes her dun, and dun is over made on this mold. ***Spoiler alert for those of you who don't want to know about the special runs***
The variations of all the special runs are now officially known! They are: *Uffington - dark grey holographic *Pech Merle - buckskin appaloosa with same appaloosa pattern as original *Seurat - matte/glossy *Tassili - Marwari and non-Marwari *Gran Cavallo - color shifting purple interference with same pinto pattern as original *Ansel - metallic blue with same pinto pattern as original *Pollock - gold pintaloosa with rainbow spots *Knossos - gold with same pinto pattern as original I'm really hoping to get the original version of Uffington, but as far as the others go, I'd be fine with any of the variations. I wonder how limited the rainbow variations will be? Should be any day now that the special runs start showing up. I have yet another package due to arrive tomorrow (after just receiving the last of my Danis today with my Best of Breyerfest stablemates) so I think it'll finally start happening! I know it's way too early to start speculating for Breyerfest 2022 but I foresee three molds being used: Georg because he's a German Rhendish drafter, Idocus (most likely the mane/tail split) and Carina and Selene as the mare/foal set. Lipizzaners are from Vienna so it just makes sense, and we are due for a mare/foal set next year! Would they do it after making Julep and Pim already? As we've found out from this year, anything is possible, but if not them then there's a good chance that the new mare and foal set for the Premier Club will be a German breed. I do see Carina still being used whether she will be with her foal or not, and possibly as the surprise like Giselle was. We'll come back to this topic early next year :) So I called up Breyer today and the container ship they were waiting on still hasn't shown up yet but they did say that it was due to arrive any day now and that they're hoping it'll show by the end of the week. I'm sure that Breyer is just as tired of waiting as we are and the employees will probably do cartwheels once the truck finally arrives. I know I will be. The wheels are turning y'all and we're closer than we've ever been to getting those mid years, just hang in there a bit longer! It was nice of Breyer to leave up the Breyerfest website through mid August instead of taking it down at the end of July. As for Breyerfest models all I've received so far was Dani and a Kaleidoscope. I do have a pretty big shipment coming in tomorrow though admittedly it's probably just more Danis. I will be packaging up a good majority of them over the weekend to ship out Monday so keep an eye out for tracking if you pre-ordered her from me. I still have a couple left from cancelled orders if anyone is interested. Kaleidoscope has beautiful shimmery color. They really knocked it out of the park with him. My only complaint is that the hooves are atrociously painted with a lot of overspray. I'm not complaining though - I still love him and he's my favorite on the mold so far - but I do want to give a heads up that some LSQ collectors may want to lower their standards a bit for the Breyerfest models because they were mass produced during a pandemic and the artists were probably in a hurry to get as many done as they could to get them out the door in a short time frame. Nonetheless, I think he is stunning, and the spots on the one I received are uniform with an equal amount of all the colors. Most of the ones I saw had too much blue. He didn't come in a collectible box by the way, just wrapped in bubble wrap and a plastic baggie. WARNING!!!! SPOILERS AHEAD...
Breyer certainly did "pull out the stops" when people discovered that Breyer made variations of each model, just as they did in 2019. So far that we know, all the surprises came in their typical matte/glossy splits, Seurat was also a matte/glossy split (which I'm really hoping to get matte because I prefer sooty palominos in matte), Tassili is the mane/tail split between the original Marwari mold and the modified long mane/tail resculpt, Ansel came in a blue decorator with the same markings as the blue roan and Pech Merle came in a metallic golden buckskin with the same markings as his bay counterpart. This is all we know of so far and I'll surely update this post once I find out the rest because, since most of the models came in variations from the few we've seen so far, one can speculate that all of the special runs will have variations. Now I did have a customer ask me what happens if I get a variation I don't want from my pre-ordered models? There are lots of groups on Facebook that do specifically model horse trades, or if you don't do social media, putting an ad on Model Horse Sale Pages is another option that often yields good results. I'm sure somebody will want to trade you for your variation, especially if the variations are very limited like in 2019. While I'd love to know if you end up with any of the special variations (so feel free to let me know) unfortunately I will not give refunds if you get the color you don't like. This certainly has been a weird year. First things first, the July Collector Club newsletter was sent out today, and they had an in-hand photo of Astrid in both matte and glossy. Seeing them side-by-side, I still prefer the glossy, as the color really pops on her. According to the newsletter, she will be released next month (August) so hopefully there won't be a delay like there was with Fireheart. Although they showed them in the live feed at Breyerfest, it was just a quick preview, so it's nice to see a still photo. I can't wait to see the mare and foal set as the final Premier Club release this year! Speaking of Breyerfest, my 12 lb package ended up being Dani, as I was suspecting due to the low weight. It was only two Danis and I noticed that a transaction for two All Access tickets I bought in February is now marked fulfilled so I'm assuming they're sending the Danis based on each transaction, not necessarily how many tickets you purchased altogether. The only other thing that shows as fulfilled on my account so far is a Kaleidoscope and it's not supposed to arrive until Wednesday of next week. The models are coming y'all but it may take a while for them all to be sent out. Thank you to everyone who pre-ordered for having patience. I do have some extra Danis available for those interested, as I did have a couple people cancel last minute. They are posted in my Model Horse Store.
If you have not read my previous post about the 7 Arts Surprise mold, well, stop reading now because I'm going to reveal the mold and colors. So again, as with my previous post I'm going to give a break so you don't accidentally find out something you don't want to just yet. ...stop reading now if you don't want any spoilers... ...seriously stop reading... Ok, so those that know Dundee is for sure the surprise model (picture proof was posted today) I promised to announce the colors once I found out. So far there are five that we know about. Whether there is seven or not we should find out soon. There is at least a roan sabino, a palomino pintaloosa, a flaxen chestnut roan (looks like Peptoboonsmal with a lighter mane/tail), a classic champagne phantom face and surprisingly with Pollock in the lineup there was a rainbow decorator in the form of a rainbow leopard appaloosa. We thought that since Breyer made Pollock there was no way the surprise would also include a rainbow, but there it is. Breyer pulled out all the stops in more ways than one this year. I don't have any pictures I can use yet but I will definitely update once I receive my surprises with the colors I ended up with. I'm hoping to eventually collect the entire set once the Breyerfest hype has died down a bit. |
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