2024 Collector Club Appreciation Event

 

The email from Breyer went out announcing the 2024 Collector Club Appreciation Event and the models which have been glossed for it. 

This year’s lineup consists of glossy versions of Battlefield Angel, Mojave, the Ideal Series Appaloosa, and Get Rowdy:

To get your free glossy (which ships randomly), Collector Club members need to spend $150 or more on products in the regular Breyer line. It is imperative to follow Breyer’s directions in order to receive the glossy model. You need to add the CC Appreciation model (#9317) to the cart along with the $150 of regular line merchandise, AND the code CLUBAPP24 needs to be added at checkout. If any of these items are missing, Breyer will not make any corrections to your order. Double check that all requirements are met before you actually order! The Collector Club Appreciation Event is slated to run starting April 8th from about 1:00 pm through 10:00 am on April 15, 2024 while supplies last. 

I have skipped the Collector Club Appreciation Event other years when the glossies offered weren’t of interest to me. As I like three out of the four glossies offered, I will most likely be participating in this year’s CC Appreciation event. The glossy I am not fond of is Battlefield Angel as I never warmed up to the mold. Glossy Mojave is my top favorite, followed by the Ideal Series Appaloosa and then Get Rowdy. I am surprised at how much I like the Appaloosa as I initially did not care for the Geronimo mold…and now I have five or six of them, lol. Let’s hope I can break away from work for a few minutes so that I can order!

*Photos are from Breyer’s website.

May 2024 Odds n’ Ends

 

The April Collector Club newsletter is out and about. The newsletters always come out at the end of the month and I was unable to get this post up before April ended. I was happy to see that the feature story this month focused on Bloaties! I have a few of them, some of which are natural bloaters and some which have been purposefully bloated. Need to do a post on those models soon. Quick mentions were made in the newsletter for the Spring releases, Gilded and Picante, and for Zayn, the Collector Club Classic/Freedom series gambler’s choice. 

April’s monthly giveaway model is Chadwick, a glossy palomino on the Emerson/standing thoroughbred mold. Chadwick was a Collector Club special run in 2022:

Of course we were shown a Sneak Peek square of a soon to be released model:

 Hmmmm…notice the black is slightly lighter in color on the left side, leading one to believe it may be a glossy model. Guess we shall simply have to wait and see! 

The Collector Club event, Spokes and Spurs, is being held in Oklahoma City, OK this weekend (May 3-5). Speaking of waiting and seeing, I am looking forward to viewing the photos of the special run models. 

Also occurring on Saturday (May 4th) is the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby. I have not followed racing in forever, and am hoping everyone stays safe and sound. I do like to look at the photo galleries of the women’s Derby hats, and this year we may see some exceptionally outlandish ones due to the anniversary. 

 

Breyer’s Marketing and Ecommerce team has a part time paid summer internship available. Details can be found here.

Breyer has also extended their VIP ticket purchases through May 12th. So if you were on the fence about purchasing VIP tickets, you have a little more time to decide. I suppose the VIP ticket sales were lagging.

I think that is all for now… if more tidbits crop up, we’ll see a part two for May!

*Photos are from Breyer’s email.

*Kentucky Derby logo from Churchill Downs.

The 2024 Collectors Club Classic/Freedom Series Gambler’s Choice

 

I was bouncing with joy when I saw the mold for this year’s Classic/Freedom gambler’s choice:

Meet Zayn, done on Maureen Love’s Arabian Stallion sculpture which will ship by random color. Originally sculpted for Hagen-Renaker, this stallion along with his mare and foal first appeared in Breyer’s lineup as a set in 1973:

Photo copyright Identify Your Breyer

The Classic Arabian Stallion mold was last used in 2015. Appearing as Julien (#712162), a bay tobiano, he was accompanied by Sophia, the Classic Arabian foal also painted as a bay tobiano. They were available as a Web Special and had a matte finish. The set was then available in a glossy finish for the 2016 Collector Club Appreciation Day event free with the purchase of $100 or more. The matching mare, Cosette, had been glossed as well and was part of the CCAD. The models were shipped randomly to participating collectors.

Zayn’s three color ways are as follows, starting with the chestnut rabicano:

The flea bitten grey with a bloody shoulder marking:

Lastly we have the glossy dappled red bay:

Zayn will be available to Collector Club members on a first come, first serve basis beginning April 25 with a limit of one Zayn model per Collector Club member.

*Photos of Zayn are from Breyer’s website.

2024 Vintage Club Second Release: Domingo

 

Not San Domingo, just Domingo:

This model turned out to be a surprise for me. Certainly not a bad surprise, but I wasn’t expecting another rendition of San Domingo. In the Vintage Club welcome letter, members were told that “other releases throughout the year will include a Marguerite Henry character,” so naturally there was speculation. Which of Marguerite Henry’s characters would we get? We have not seen any characters from The Little Fellow, Gaudenzia: Pride of the Palio, Five O’Clock Charlie, Born to Trot, or White Stallion of Lipizza. 

Speaking of White Stallion of Lipizza, I unrealistically hoped for a model of Maestoso Borina on the Adonis/Lipizzaner Stallion mold. I envisioned a heavily shaded alabaster Adonis, perhaps glossy, with Borina’s brands. That would differentiate a VC run from a regular run should Breyer release Adonis as a typical grey Lipizzaner. Certainly not a candidate for the VC Marguerite Henry character considering the mold was introduced in the 2023 Premier Club and is a Special Run model for Breyerfest this year. 

As far as Marguerite Henry characters made into Breyer models, here is a list, in no particular order:

Misty

Stormy

Sea Star 

The Phantom

Black Gold

Brighty

Misty’s Twilight 

Hobo

San Domingo

Sham

Lady Roxana

Justin Morgan

Brown Sunshine

Our First Pony (Shetland mare with two foals)

*Edited to add Lath, son of Sham and Lady Roxana. One of my wonderful readers let me know I had forgotten him. Lath was part of the Classic King of the Wind set.

Hopefully I haven’t forgotten any Marguerite Henry characters. I have omitted models that haven’t appeared in Marguerite Henry’s books, such as Phantom Wings. Although he was one of Misty’s foals, he never appeared as a character in her books. 

San Domingo isn’t the first Marguerite Henry character to have appeared more than once. Sham (# 410) was introduced in 1984 in the traditional line, with Lady Roxana (# 425) joining in 1986. Both characters resurfaced later in the King of the Wind Classic set. Sham returned again as a traditional model on the Huckleberry Bey mold, along with a copy of the book King of the Wind. Misty and Stormy, introduced into the traditional line during the 1970s, emerged as VC Stablemates in 2019:

Sorry, had to put a photo of them in as they are just so darn cute! In 2022 Misty made another appearance as a foal in the Phantom and Misty set. Moving back to San Domingo, he was introduced as a new sculpture in 1978, and graced the front cover of the collectors manual for that year:

Photo copyright Identify Your Breyer 

 

Photo copyright Identify Your Breyer

Photo copyright Identify Your Breyer

San Domingo made his second appearance on the semi-rearing mustang mold, accompanied by a paperback copy of San Domingo, the Medicine Hat Stallion from 2007-2008:

Photo copyright Identify Your Breyer 

Photo copyright Identify Your Breyer 

The VC version of San Domingo (referred to as ‘Domingo’) includes a paperback copy of the book. Mine should be arriving soon, so stay tuned to see the new Domingo and his traveling companion! 

*Photos of Domingo are from Breyer’s website.

2024 Stablemates Club Second Release: Wallowa

 

The SMC second release, Wallowa, is now available for members to order:

Wallowa (# B-CS-10033), designed by Lesli Kathman as a black varnish leopard Appaloosa, is presented on the SM Citation mold. Half of this run will be matte and the other half glossy. They ship randomly, so collectors won’t know which finish they received until they open the box. Here is the matte version of Wallowa:

The glossy version:

One thing that strikes me as odd is how elongated the model looks in Breyer’s photos. Perhaps it is just me. The ears look shorter and more rounded, but some of Breyer’s molds do lose definition over time. I am looking forward to getting him to see how he actually looks in hand. I am more of a matte finish fan, but I’m feeling neutral about which finish I get.

*Photos are from Breyer’s website. 

2024 Mother’s Day Plush

 

Yesterday Breyer unveiled the 2024 Mother’s Day Plush, which is comprised of a mare and foal:

Meet Queenie and Beanie (# B-PL-10008), a matching chestnut pair ready for Mother’s Day:

Beanie the baby is adorned with a bow, while mama Queenie wears a blanket:

Queenie and Beanie are the second plush mare and foal set to be released by Breyer. 2023 saw the first plush mare and foal set, Truffles and Bon Bon (# 8679), a set of Palomino Appaloosas:

Undoubtedly we shall be seeing more plush mare and foal sets every year!

*Photos are from Breyer’s website and email.

Spring 2024 Releases

 

Hark ye! Spring has arrived at Breyer, and two Spring releases have made their appearance. First up is the Brick and Mortar model, Picante. Described by Breyer as a bay roan Arabian/Quarter Horse cross, she is on the Trotting Arabian Mare (Weather Girl) mold and is limited to 2,500 pieces:

Remember this Sneak Peek square?

The reveal is for the Spring decorator and not my guess of the next Exotic Destinations model. Dubbed Gilded, the gold and blue colors are an homage to the earliest Breyer decorators. Gilded is on the Geronimo mold:

I have to admit I didn’t see that coming, lol. I don’t plan on getting Picante and Gilded is currently in the “Huh, unable to decide” category. The Geronimo mold is one of those unintentional congas for me, and one that keeps growing… 

A quick edit to this post - I found another picture of Picante and Gilded that I wanted to add:

*Photos are Breyer’s, gathered from various places.