Back in the day, most Breyer model horses were basecoat chalky, meaning that a layer of white coating was put on before the paint was applied. This "primer" often would show only on white areas (like facial markings, socks and spots) or when the horse got a rub, especially on the hooves where rubbing was most common. While these vintage chalkies were pretty common back then, now they're worth slightly more than a non-chalky counterpart. I only own a handful of chalkies, all modern chalkies. Some of them, like Fabio and the Lillian/Molly set through the Vintage Club whom are in my collection, were intentional chalkies, meaning Breyer purposely made them all that way. Basically this means that their white markings are basecoat white and not bare plastic, so they won't yellow like pintos with bare plastic white areas. Since these guys were made purposely to be chalky, their prices are the same for all models... in other words, someone else's Fabio is worth the same as my Fabio should I go to sell him. I'm not, this is just an example. Now on the other hand, if there were chalkies thrown into a group of mostly non-chalky models, that would be a different story. One example of intentional chalkies was the Indian Pony, a buckskin with appaloosa markings made as a regular run on the Appaloosa Performance Horse mold. I believe it was every 1 in 6 were chalky with white basecoated markings, much richer shading and Indian war paint markings. These soared off the shelves and are still highly collectible, often selling over $100 even today. In 2015 Tractor Supply introduced a little palomino named Jesse... I wrote about him in my TSC Exclusives post last week, and I got a couple emails asking what did I mean by the chalky variation. Even today, most people don't know how to tell a chalky horse from a non-chalky horse. Whether this was an intention variation made by Breyer or possibly even repaints of leftovers on the mold, there were a few chalky variations going around when he was first released to TSC stores. After those first ones sold out, they were replaced by the regular, non-chalky colored specimens. Not every TSC store got in chalkies though... my own store didn't. I went around to several others and they didn't either. Try as I might, I just could not find the chalky variation, so I eventually sold the one I did have and just went without for a few years. Fast forward to this year, 2021, when a Jesse popped up on Mercari. I looked at it's pictures and could tell immediately from the darkness of the shading that this was a chalky. The seller didn't know that, as she said she was selling her daughter's collection so she knew nothing about them. I offered her $50 more than her asking price but she refused to take it, saying that they were sentimental and just wanted him to go to a good home. So chalky Jesse came to live with me for only $50 and I promised her he'd be here to stay. Just look at the shading on this boy! It definitely pops! Also note that his mane is colored versus the lighter mane on the original posted above. The boldness of the coloring is a huge giveaway. However, not everyone would be able to tell based off just that alone. The biggest way to tell if a horse is chalky or not is by looking at the white markings. A basecoat chalky horse will have painted on white markings, however the chalky that people refer to with Jesse is having a basecoat under the coat but the markings are still bare plastic. You can see in the pictures below around his blaze and sock it looks kind of crusty, as if it has been etched. Those are his layers showing through, that's his basecoat outline. This is the easiest way to tell if a horse is chalky or not, especially if it's new in box. Apparently regular run Hwin was another that came in chalky and non-chalky specimens. The chalky specimens were ironically also found at Tractor Supply, believe it or not. Maybe the factory that makes the Tractor Supply exclusives really does get leftover regular runs that didn't sell and give them a newly repainted coat? As with Jesse, my local TSC store didn't get in any chalky Hwins so I settled with the regular. She's still a stunner but it is nice always finding the rarer version, like when I found a glossy GG Valentine and Heartbreaker the first year they came out. Never was so ecstatic in my life. There was also the issue with some people finding glow in the dark Stellas at TSC but, of course, my local TSC store never gets in anything good. I did find the chase from the Spirit series 2 blind bags there one year though so I guess I shouldn't say never.
I hope this helps you understand a bit more about how to tell a chalky versus a non-chalky. Comments are closed.
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