While us Stablemate Club members are still waiting for our pony this month, Josiah from the Vintage Club has been released. This cute Wedgewood blue Belgian was my favorite release from the Vintage Club this year and I'm having a difficult time restraining myself from tracking one down on the second hand market, however with Breyerfest coming up so soon, I think I'm going to give him a pass. Since not many have shown up on the second hand market, it seems as if many others in the club are keeping them in their collections rather than flipping them, so I'm assuming the price of this guy is going to skyrocket rather than eventually go down, unlike most of the Vintage Club horses. Another recent release to Collector Club members is another test run. This test run has vintage appaloosa coloring on the Ruffian mold. There are some shiny spots but otherwise no other flaws to note. It will be given to one lucky person for the low price of $1000! Now before I get comments about how much the test runs are, remember that the one of a kind raffle models at Breyerfest go for a lot more, so the fact that this is a one of a kind makes this price a steal. I won't be entering because again I'm saving up for Breyerfest, but I thought I would mention this lovely lady for those who do want to enter. Breyer doesn't appear to be doing another year of the Fairytale Friends Club. Not surprisingly since they re-opened membership mid year, something which they've never done with other clubs before. The people that did take the plunge didn't seem too thrilled with the quality of them (and was what made me skeptical about joining the club) because, minus the glitter, the stablemates were too similar to the $3 unicorns from Walmart, and I don't think there are enough Mini Whinnies collectors to keep the club going another year. It was a good try, especially after numerous people requested a fantasy club, but they would have needed to do a little bit more... realistic horse colored unicorns, pegasus, more complicated decorator colors... something... in order for people to want to join the club. Glitter, unfortunately, doesn't cut it.
I own Seafoam and I found his coloring too similar to the new Unicorn Mystery blind bags series 3 blue Walking Thoroughbred. The Clydesdale mold is one of my favorite stablemates molds and I found the guy dirt cheap, though admittedly I wasn't too impressed with the glitter. I did find the Mini Whinnies Gypsy Vanner adorable and I miss the satin drawstring mini bags they used to include with the Stablemates Club. Some good news is that if they don't do another year of the Fairytale Friends Club, the value of the horses will probably increase with time. However, if I'm wrong and they do end up re-opening the Fairytale Friends Club again, I'll surely let y'all know! So Breyer has recently added a Celebration ticket option. These ticket holders will receive a Ballynoe Castle model and access to the store specials but no special runs. These tickets were taken with mixed feelings. There were people who thought this was taking away from the store specials since it would be more people who could buy them, however Breyer later made a video to rest assure that they ended up removing the rest of the 3 day tickets so that way they made sure to have enough special runs for everyone.
For adult 3 day ticket holders, they have mentioned some of the things added will be a $10 coupon on swag and coupons for horse farm tours, among other things. They also said warehouse finds will be available ONLY to adult ticket holders and will be available in the form of grab bags of various prices. Take that as you want, but frankly I'm not planning on taking the plunge and getting something I don't want. However, I'm a picky collector but it'll still be fun to see what everyone gets. Finally, they are limiting purchases from the store to one purchase per day per ticket. If you have a single day ticket, you'll only be allowed through the store on the day your ticket is for. Once you make a purchase, you are no longer allowed into the store again that day. Items will be restocked throughout the day so if what you want isn't available, try again later. Again, once you make a purchase, you will no longer have access to the store that day. For 3 day ticket holders, the store access resets the next day. You are only allowed to purchase one of each of the store specials per day. Both store specials and pop-up specials will be available in the store. Apparently there's going to be quite a few more pop-up store specials to be released (really Breyer... get on to it already!) so we still have more to look forward to. In the meantime, the final Fairytale Friends Club set is now available for purchase. Meet Sage and her mini me: Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Breyer is still pumping out horses while the rest of the country is shutting down. Here in Ohio schools are closed for the next few weeks, though they're saying expect possibly the rest of the year. I will be hiding in my house for the next few weeks homeschooling my kiddos and working on some customs that I've been putting off far too long to resell to help pay the bills while I'm out of work. I'm thinking of doing miniature animals on stablemates, similar to the Big Cat and Wild Animal series. Meanwhile, we have had a rarity: two back-to-back club releases, so members of both of those clubs can get combined shipping. Fairytale Friends "Sunchaser" and Vintage Club "Starlight" are available for purchase. By the way, Sunchaser looks 10x better in real life than the stock photo. He has more of a gold luster from the in-hand pics I've seen. I'm still underwhelmed by the Vintage Club model and am a bit shocked by how quickly the VC models are being released this year. It's no secret by now that the virus is affecting Breyer as a company since they've had to postpone stock for RRs so maybe they're trying to compensate with the club releases? I don't know, but we're due another SMCC model next month, and then the first Premier Club release (yay for Altynai!) in May.
People on social media are jumping the gun by worrying if Breyerfest will be cancelled or not due to coronavirus. Honestly, let's just take it one day at a time. July is still a ways off, and the virus is predicted to settle down during the warmer months before returning again in the fall, so I personally don't see Breyerfest being cancelled. Postponement is what many events are doing, like the Kentucky Derby, however so many people have already booked hotels (some non-refundable) that it's a lot of pressure for Breyer to still host the event on time. If Breyerfest IS cancelled rather than postponed, I don't see Breyer simply refunding tickets. This is a HUGE money maker for them so I'm sure if worst came to worst, they'd make it an online event somehow, maybe offering so many models during each time slot on their website just as they would at the event, and linking ticket times to accounts, sort of like they do with the lottery models when they make certain models available to certain accounts. They'll figure something out, I'm sure. Let's have some faith, eh? The unicorn addiction has me rolling my eyes by this point. By golly I'm going to start calling the company Breyer Unicorns if they don't start making more horses LOL. I've been saving up for the holiday mare and foal set, which can now be scratched off my list since they're unicorns. If the Santa Surprise horse is a unicorn again this year or if it's as pricey as the SS was last year, I'm probably going to use the money saved for that to join the Premier Club instead. Anyways, here is your latest unicorn lineup: First up are the Starry Skies Stablemates. They are limited to four per person and are a gambler's choice of four different designs. All have star patterns on their bodies and glow in the dark. Big Dipper is a green Clydesdale, Little Dipper is a blue Magnolia, Cassiopeia is a pink Warmblood Stallion and Cepheus is a purple Alborozo. Warning... rant ahead! Don't even get me started on the blind bags. Now I don't want to sound like one of THOSE people that complain about everything Breyer does (I LOVE Breyer as a company or else I wouldn't have this website) and I like gambler's choices every once in a while, but they are taking it a little too far. Seems this whole year almost everything has been a gambler's choice or blind bag. Ugh! I like surprises but not this many, Breyer, and I'm sure plenty of other collectors agree. Ok, rant over. On to the next horse... Zenith is the unicorn that they released today. She's a Classics model, not traditional. She reminds me of a sunset. She'd go great with the other Classics unicorns breyer has released as web exclusives in the past (meaning Zenith is only available on Breyerhorses.com) and honestly I used to collect Classics unicorns, but then there got to be so many that I chucked them a long time ago. I'm thinking about doing the same with the stablemates unicorns I have. There's just too many to collect that really it's getting a bit overwhelming. These unicorns are taking the place of Breyer's annual holiday mare and foal set. It seems like they're doing a flip flop between regular horses and unicorns. This year their names are Mira and Antares and they're on the Andalusian Mare/Foal molds. I love the realistic dappling on these two and the pearly sheen, but the mare isn't one of my favorite molds. I own Celeste and currently she is part of my "tipsy girls" shelf, along with Natasha on the Weather Girl mold. These molds remind me of the vintage Pacer with how they fall over so easily. By the way, when ARE we going to get a new Standardbred? That has been way overdue by now. I also wish Breyer would lay off the brown for these molds. Anybody with me when I say we need a nice dapple grey pair? The final release is not a web exclusive but a Fairytale Friends Club exclusive. This is Rose, the latest release, with her Mini Whinnies mini me. As a side note, I'd love to see realistic horse colors made on the unicorn molds for the FFC rather than just fantasy colors.
The anticipation has taken over. I have been going into my local Tractor Supply nearly everyday this week, waiting upon them to get in another truck with Stella and the blind bags on it. I was beginning to give up hope when today, right before work, I stopped in and saw that they had finally put them out! They had two Stellas. As I thought, I wasn't too impressed with her. I've never really been a fan of the "cartoon-y" look of Bluegrass Bandit with her plain face and narrow body but the color was the clincher. Stella was not coming home with me. I know lots of people like bays, and I admit that Breyer has been painting bays for so long that a lot of their bay horses look almost life-like, but she was just too plain for my liking. I would have preferred a little more white in her pinto coloring, then maybe. Now my Tractor Supply only had six Spirit blind bags out. I thought I didn't have much of a chance, and upon feeling the bags, I almost came home with the red roan Esperanza. Almost. I had to check again and lo and behold it wasn't the chaser. Finally, the last horse I felt had that similar outward sticking tail and I knew by feeling the mane that it was going to be the chase. I was right! The Spirit chaser with the Indian war paint had been on my grail list for some time now, and I'm so glad to own him! Made going back to work a bit more cheerful ;) I wanted to add that the new Fairytale Friends Club model, Seafoam, is out! I thought that Seafoam looked a lot like the Walmart Clydesdale from Unicorn Crazy series 2, minus the glittery mane and tail, until I saw him in real life pictures. He has a lot more silver coloring to him. That little Mini Whinnie though is something to adore. I'm still on the edge though whether I feel these guys are worth their price, especially since their coloring isn't much different than the $3 Walmart unciorns, minus the glittery mane and tail. Is it really worth paying that much extra for glitter? Finally I'd like to introduce Nadifa. She is the latest in the annual Wild Animal series, and I kind of like this one! Giraffes are one of my favorite zoo animals and I love the Lonesome Glory mold. It would have been especially cool if they gave her cloved hooves! Unfortunately I can't afford the $175 price tag tacked onto her at this time of the year. She is a raffle model limited to only 300 pieces.
Apparently the rumor was true. The pearly variations for the 2019 Breyerfest models were all limited to only 30 models, so if you happened to get one, consider yourself extremely lucky. In fact I'd hate to see how high those variations go for in a few years from now. The variations were liver chestnut Natasha, silver Pepper, pinto Rocket, pinto Diana, champagne Quill, blue Bucky, gala Banner and the leopard appaloosa Hero's Surprise.
Quill was 50/50 split between matte and glossy, making the count 825 matte and 825 glossy once you minus the 30 for the variation. The same with Diana, who was also a 50/50 split, putting the count at 885 braided mane & tail and 885 loose mane & tail without the variation. Ok, now that that's cleared up, let's continue on to the Hero's Surprise model. The breakdown for that was: Dark dapple grey: 1000 matte, 200 glossy Chestnut pinto: 850 matte, 200 glossy Dappled pearl (this is the name for the color Breyer officially gave but I believe they're referring to the horse collectors have been calling champagne or dun): 650 matte, 200 glossy Rose grey: 520 matte, 200 glossy Decorator: 400 glossy Pearly black leopard appaloosa: 30 matte So which one did you end up with? I can't believe I got the second most common on my first Breyerfest ever. I know, not a true rarity, but I thought for sure I'd end up with the most common color. Like I said the pinto was my favorite anyways so I wouldn't have it any other way :) Also I wanted to mention in this post rather than making a completely new post that the first model in the Fairytale Friends Club has been released! The deadline for the new Fairytale Friends Club is tomorrow. In order to join, you must be a Collector Club member. I've had several people ask if I plan to join, but honestly I'm on the fence about this club. I'm not really big on unicorns. I don't collect Mini Whinnies at all, nor Classics or Traditional unicorns, and although I do have several unicorns in my Stablemate collection, I'm very picky on colors. I don't want to get too into the unicorn world though because Breyer has been releasing unicorns left and right, and my budget is stretched thin as it is. I don't want to feel like I have to collect them all, if you know what I mean. So far the colors for the Fairytale Friends club that were shown look really good... almost tempting. If I had enough people interested in buying the Mini Whinnies from me on the second hand market, I would consider joining, but I have no idea how well these will do. I might wait until next year to see where this club goes... The second release in the Fairytales Friends Club is going to be Seafoam, a teal and silver colored unicorn on the Clydesdale mold. The mane and tail are glittery. His Mini Whinnies buddy is an adorable rearing Gypsy Vanner. The third release for 2019 is going to be Rose, the unicorn shown above on the Magnolia mold. She appears to be pink with silver, or possibly even light sky blue coloring. Again there is glitter in the mane and tail. The Mini Whinnie is cute and is made on a new Arabian mold. The last three releases, which aren't going to be released until 2020, are going to be a surprise.
Breyer posted a hint about a new, upcoming club available to Collector Club members called the "Fairytale Friends" club. They didn't give any details at first, saying that they would update later with more information, and today they finally opened up the club. In order to hold your spot, you have to pay a deposit of $30 by June 30th, same as we did with the Stablemates Club. The Fairytale Friends club, however, will run mid year to mid year instead of December to December. That means that you will have to pay the Collector Club annual fee of $25 twice to stay in the club. Honestly, I wasn't sure where Breyer would be going with this club. I thought it might be possible that they'd offer horses of different sizes and that the club would be kind of expensive. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised how low cost this club is going to be. They are going to be offering twelve models a year, six times a year. This means that every other month you will get a stablemates sized unicorn and a matching Mini Whinnies unicorn (yes, Mini Whinnies lovers... Breyer finally made a club for your size!) every other month for $20 plus shipping. What's even better is that drawstring bags are back. Yes, you read that right! I can't tell you how happy that makes me because ever since Breyer has started putting the Stablemates Club models in little window boxes, I've been having a hard time selling horses that aren't in their little window boxes. Which makes no sense because most people take their horses out of their original boxes (I once read someone say they collect horses, not boxes) and all the SM CC boxes look the same. The background never changes. So to have the drawstring bags back where you don't have to worry about this makes it so much easier. Dazzle and Sparkle are going to be the first releases, in pearly pink and gold. It appears as though the unicorns are all going to have glittery manes and tails. A lot of people in the CC were ranting about this, but I think that Breyer had to add something extra to separate the club models from regular run unicorns, and personally I don't think it's all that bad. My only issue is that the unicorns, from what I've seen, don't appear to be in much different of coloring than the regular runs. They are also going to be on molds Breyer commonly uses for unicorns... the Alborozo and the Clydesdale, as well as the new Walking Thoroughbred and Warmblood Stallion mold that they've already released as paintable unicorns this year. Breyer is keeping the last two sets a secret. Maybe a gambler's choice? Maybe a new mold? Who knows? What is known is that those new Mini Whinnies unicorns are adorable and it's about time that they started adding new molds to their Mini Whinnies line!
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