Stop Sending HEARSES to People!

 

Begin humming Chopin’s Funeral March to set the mood.

A somewhat unusual start to a blog post, and it’s not even close to Halloween. The week before last I skittered into the Post Office to mail a horse out for a trade. This is the model I traded:

Cheery, beautifully painted Vermeer, whose paint job really *is* awesome, but I just can’t warm up to the mold. I tried to like him, and I know he is a Friesian Sporthorse, but I prefer the baroque style Friesians. I had intended to sell him, but an opportunity came up so his tail was traded. Annnnnnyway, Vermeer was going outside of the US, which means completing customs forms. Not a big deal, and I took my time writing everything very neat so there would be no problems reading anything on the form. I declared one plastic horse, and thought good, nice and easy. I get up to the PO clerk, and hand her the form and box. She brings the customs form about an inch from her face, slowly reading it. Ummmmm, okaaaaaay. Suddenly she loudly screeches, “A HEARSE?! ONE PLASTIC HEARSE?!” Naturally, everyone stops to stare, the murmur of the PO patrons dies down into silence, and the facial expressions of the clerk and customer next to me were hilarious. Of course, I was wearing all black as usual so that added to the moment. I told her no, not a hearse, but a horse. One plastic horse. She examines the form again and then declares, “It’s right here! One plastic horse.” Hahahahaha, yes, that’s exactly what I wrote on the customs form, one plastic horse. Funnily enough, I had always wanted to make a hearse to hitch my Breyers to from the time I was a child. But making a horse drawn vehicle of any sort is a daunting undertaking (catch the pun?), but perhaps this should be the year that I seriously think about attempting it. I know I’ve seen a picture of a model horse drawn hearse, so it’s definitely been done, and probably a few times over. Hmmmmmm…….

Oh yeah, back to the trade. This is the model I traded Vermeer for:

A Cardinal! I cannot express how happy I am with this trade. As I wasn’t drawn for Cardinal, I had pretty much put him in the ‘probably will never own’ category, and then an opportunity presented itself. If I had a Tigger tail I’d be bouncing all over the universe. Uninteresting fact: I had a friend in high school who was related to the real Christopher Robin (the only child of Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne).

My Cardinal is quite talented; he can balance on two legs while on top of the classy grill:

One thing I think Breyer should have done differently is the color of the tummy stamp. The yellow is too light and I think a black tummy stamp would have been a better option:

I am so, so grateful to the hobbyist with whom I traded. This is the second time I have traded for a model that went into the ‘will probably never own’ category. Funnily enough, that trade was for a draft as well. In 2009, BreyerWest had a SR model on the Clydesdale Mare mold called Del Mar. She is a glossy dark dapple bay, and was limited to 300 pieces. I conga her, and I really wanted a Del Mar. However, she was hard to get. The ones that did show up for sale were priced too high for my liking (hahaha, nowadays we wouldn’t even blink at her asking prices back then). One day I was looking at ads on MH$P and found a want to trade ad… someone wanted to trade their Del Mar for Gala, a BF SR on the Five Gaiter mold which is a clearware blue mottled-tortoise shell decorator. I did not know the hobbyist, but she had all green lights regarding transactions, so I contacted her about trading, and it was a go. I sent out my Gala and she sent out Del Mar, and I was not disappointed when Del Mar arrived. I was so happy to have been able to trade for her. Now I am fortunate to have had two trades that yielded drafters I wanted!

*Historic photo of the hearse which carried Abraham Lincoln’s body.*

*Tigger and Winnie the Pooh still shot from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.*