Get Creative When Running Out of Space

 

A chronic issue plaguing many a collector is the familiar conundrum of not having enough space to accommodate models. Oftentimes we shove Stablemates under, in front of, and in back of Traditional and Classic models so they need not be packed away. Here are two semi-loaded Stablemate shelves, which can still be rearranged to sardine-pack more SMs on them:

Plenty of room for future additions! The other bookcase, however, has reached capacity. The SMs share the space with a few non-model items. Today I wanted to add a SM to one of the shelves, but in doing so I needed to displace one SM to add one. But surely, surely I could add that one last SM to the shelf…

I tried. I shuffled and reshuffled, but was unsuccessful. It looked like a non-HSO (horse shaped object) would have to get evicted. Oh, wait, lightbulb Eureka time! I picked up the mini-me Spirit of Hallowed Eve and combined him into a thematic composition (oh, doesn’t that sound fancy and important):

I plopped him on top of a candleholder which happens to be skull. I think that the purple of Avant Garde lends itself nicely to that corner, splashing color among the grey/silver of the crowd. Yay for cramming one more SM onto that shelf! 

2022 Vintage Club Reveal: Sandman

 

Yesterday on the Vintage Club blog Breyer revealed the second model of the 2022 Vintage Club! It is on the Smoky mold, and he is named Sandman. Collectors had been tipped off, so to speak, that Smoky would likely be featured in the VC this year by the line drawing of him next to the VC logo:

This morning the official email announcing him came out:

As a quick reminder, Breyer had not revealed any of the 2022 VC models with the exception of Cooper, who was the first release and the poster child for 2022 VC sign ups. VC members haven’t a clue as to what the remaining models for the 2022 VC are (two more models, the bonus model, and the VC Stablemate). 

Sandman is a glossy red dun overo and features a dorsal stripe and leg barring. I think Sandman looks great with this snazzy paint job (I wish we had a photo of his other side). Sandman is scheduled to be released later this month. 

*Photos of Sandman are from Breyer’s website and email.*

Mane Beauty Stying Head: Daybreak, Plus a Micro Makeover

 

I have acquired another of the Mane Beauty Godfather Busts, Daybreak:

The back of the box:

The freed head, with and without the included accessories:

For some reason, the mane was super staticky and individual strands of hair were flying everywhere, making it difficult to mane-tame. Here is Daybreak with her mane undone:

She has a glitzy shimmer to her, unlike the other two heads that I have. The shimmer in the shade:

The shimmer in the sun:

I recently ran down the clearance section at Walmart, which was quite full of stuff for the first time in nearly two years. I found these marked at half off, so I had to buy them to try on the styling heads:

I’ve never heard of Aqua Lashes before, so we got to test them out on Daybreak:

I trimmed the lashes down to fit the curvature of her eyes, and had to wrestle one of them on. Dipping the lashes into warm water activates the adhesive, and the first lash cooperated nicely, but the second one… oh glory. The adhesive smeared all over, sticking to my fingers but not to the plastic. The lashes then clumped together from the adhesive globs. I finally kinda sorta got the lash straightened out enough to not look as terrible as it had during the wrestling match. Here is one eye prior to getting an Aqua Lash:

Here we have the addition of an Aqua Lash:

Now the progression from no lashes to full lashes:

And Daybreak has a complete set of Aqua Lashes:

 

The Aqua Lashes worked out quite well for the mico-makeover, I think. I must return to Walmart to see if they still have Aqua Lashes in the clearance section so that I can get a set for each Godfather bust. I still need Blaze (the bay) and Stardust (the unicorn) Godfather busts, but I’ll pick up lashes for them if possible. I am also trying to think of a new name for Daybreak and for Dapple (the Tractor Supply Exclusive Godfather bust), but haven’t come up with anything I particularly like, which means I must keep thinking…

Birds of a Feather Series Sixth Release: Robin and Nestling (#712441)

 

Oh that email that Breyer sent out yesterday! I squawked in an unintentional bird-like manner upon seeing this in my inbox:

I think it is safe to say that probably no one had guessed the Running Mare as the Sneak Peek Square from the February 2022 CC Newsletter, and especially not the accompaniment of the Running Foal. Speaking of running, let’s get our Birds of a Feather Series friends in for a visit:

Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!!!! Hahahaha, that still shot never gets old to me. Running Mare, Running Foal, running from murderous birds, running to Breyer’s website to enter…lots of running going on. I am thrilled to see these old molds in use (the Running Mare was introduced in 1961 and the Running Foal was introduced in 1963); with their fresh paint jobs and gloss, they look like they could had been Vintage Club offerings. The Running Mare and Running Foal have already appeared in the Vintage Club as Salt and Pepper (2012), so it is unlikely that we’ll see them used in the VC for a long time, if ever.

I really like the name Nestling as it is unusual. Robins are associated with the arrival of spring, and in keeping with the bird theme (and time of release) I’m glad Breyer chose an original yet bird themed name for the Running Foal. Nestling certainly has springtime connotations, but it doesn’t spill completely out of the bird theme and directly into a spring theme. They could have chosen a spring name, like Flower, lol. Now onto the informational part: Robin and Nestling are bay pintos (with Robin being a bit brighter than Nestling) in a glossy finish. They are available to Collectors Club members via lottery draw, with entries closing on 3/13/22. Limited to 500 sets, they are priced at $185.00 plus shipping and handling. I am certainly entering for a chance at this set. Best of luck to all who are wanting to add this pair to their collections! 

*Photos of Robin and Nestling are from Breyer’s email, Twitter, and website.*

*Movie still from The Birds (1963).*

Vintage Club Kingfisher Cooper!

 

Smack me with a mackerel and call me shocked- Kingfisher Cooper showed up Tuesday evening! He had been showing label created for days but there was no movement from the warehouse, so I wasn’t expecting him. I then checked the Honeybears’ tracking and it actually had updated at some point late Tuesday afternoon, showing a delivery date for the next day (Wednesday March 9th). I had someone order a Honeybear for me, plus I was able to order one while at work. Get the smackin’ mackerel out for another round of being shocked- both of the Honeybears were delivered on Wednesday. They too were in the label created realm since the day they were ordered. I am not understanding how these packages are leaving the warehouse with no updates to their whereabouts as UPS is supposed to scan the packages in over the course of the journey. Interestingly, this only seems to happen with Breyer. We had a few items being shipped to us from different merchants, and they all started out with label created. Once the parcels are in the possession of UPS, they are scanned in at the various arrival points so that, you know, they can be tracked… okay, enough of that. On to Kingfisher Cooper!!!

The first thing I noticed is that he is base coated, which kind of surprised me (a good surprise!). I was expecting the black leopard spots to be slapped onto the bare plastic. In the past Breyer had advertised that certain Vintage Club models would be base coated, but they weren’t. Farah and Leopold come to mind. In fact, here is Leopoldo’s ordering page from 2019. I circled the part about the chalky basecoat:

And whoo hoo hoo hoo hoo, yes indeedy the Kingfisher stamp is present on my model as you’ve guessed due to my referring to him as Kingfisher Cooper. It seems that the entire run may have the Kingfisher stamp as so far I haven’t heard of any reports of the stamp being absent. Of course, not all of the Coopers have made it to their new homes yet, so who knows what may surface. This brings up another point about the stamping; if the actual Kingfisher from the Birds of a Feather Series is a run of 500 as Cardinal was, didn’t anyone at the factory notice that they were stamping an additional 250 horses? I suppose they weren’t keeping track; probably just a ‘stamp this bunch of horses’ situation. My Kingfisher Cooper’s stamp has a few areas where it looks like the ink was running out, and the Kingfisher line drawing is missing it’s head since it was stamped over one of the black spots:

Muhuhuhuhuhuhu, move over, Headless Horseman! The Headless Kingfisher is out to take your place! *Ahem* Here is another photo of a tackless Kingfisher Cooper with his trappings at his feet: 

And here he is, channeling the APH from the original Brenda Breyer Gift Set. I left the reins dangling as it was super windy and they wouldn’t stay put (I also didn’t feel like knotting them):

Oh, and a somewhat above-ish shot to show the fuzziness of the bareback pad:

Overall, Kingfisher Cooper gets two thumbs up from me (yup, a total ripoff of the Siskel and Elbert phrase). He is a delightful take on a vintage set (sans Brenda Breyer) and is exactly what you’d expect from the Vintage Club. And we cannot forget about his iconic tail:

I hope the rest of this year’s VC offerings are as appealing as Cooper has been. Breyer still has not revealed the rest of the 2022 VC line up. The Honeybears will be featured in an upcoming blog post. 

*Photo of the description page from VC Leopold (2019) is from Breyer’s website.*

Egg-cellent! P’eggy the Easter Plush

 

Hopping into emails yesterday was the announcement of P’eggy, Breyer’s Easter plush:

Unfortunately, P’eggy has flown the coop as her page shows her to already be out of stock, however we shall talk about her anyway. P’eggy (#8489) is a plush pony disguised as a festive Easter egg. Her head and legs are the springtime yellow of new baby chicks, and her mane, tail, hooves and inner ears remind me of the pink marshmallow Peeps! candy available in ample supply this time of year. Oh look, here are some P’eggy colored Peeps!, or is it the other way around?

*Photos of P’eggy are from Breyer’s email and website.*

*Photo of the Peeps candy is from Pinterest.*

March Miscellaneous Odds n’ Ends

 

At the top of the miscellaneous list is a hobbyist-discovered blooper regarding Cooper, the Vintage Club release on the Appaloosa Performance Horse. Someone received their Cooper, and he bears an unveiled Birds of a Feather Series Kingfisher belly stamp. The stamp says Kingfisher 2022 and has a Kingfisher bird outline. Since that initial finding, other Kingfisher Coopers have surfaced, which has led to speculation about how many Kingfisher Coopers there are. Has the entire 750 piece run been misstamped, or just a portion of the run? I received a shipping notice from Breyer for Cooper, but the tracking is still showing label created (and no movement). I am really hoping I get a Kingfisher Cooper - I find it to be a neat blunder. I will not be posting the photos of the Kingfisher Coopers as I do not know to whom they belong and thus cannot ask permission to use their photos. Anyway, the Kingfisher Mysteries continue with a Sneak Peek Square which was published in the February 2022 Collectors Club Newsletter:

So, is this Sneak Peek Square of an upcoming Birds of a Feather model, or something else? Most Kingfishers tend to be brightly colored, although there are some with a less vivid appearance (here is a fun uninteresting fact: kookaburras are part of the tree Kingfisher family). This model may still be part of the Birds of a Feather series, but it may not be Kingfisher. It’s just a simple wait and see situation to discover if there are any more belly stamp blunders. There probably won’t be, but speculation can be entertaining. I know I would be highly amused with more wrong stamps on wrong tummies. Turning now to the rest of the content of the February 2022 Collectors Club Newsletter, the main feature was about custom barns (I haven’t read it yet), reminders that the Winter Coloring Contest and February Photo Contest entries were due on February 28th, the Sneak Peak Square, the monthly giveaway (Ideal Series Palomino), and a reminder about the changes for Breyerfest 2022 (which I shall mention in a moment). Absent again was the feature on collectors in the hobby, which is actually my favorite part of the entire newsletter. I can’t remember if there was one in the January edition, but it was wasn’t in the 2021 November or December newsletters either. Hopefully the collector stories will make a comeback soon.

 Okay, at this point everyone and their Grandmother’s dog’s cousin’s goldfish’s pet cricket has heard about the upcoming changes for Breyerfest 2022. Due to the lengthy discussions that have been ongoing on social media about the changes, I have decided to not write extensively about them, but will give the highlights: 

• There are three types of in person Breyerfest tickets, the VIP, All-Access, and General Admission. Only the VIP and All-Access tickets are eligible for the Special Run models. The General Admission ticket comes with a random Event Stablemate and the ability to purchase Limited Edition models.
•  VIP ticket holders will purchase their tickets, choose and pay for their SR and LE models (two from each model group) when they check out.
• All-Access ticket holders will purchase their tickets online, and at a later date Breyer will send electronic preference forms for AA tickets holders, where they will rank their SR model preferences in order of most desirable. Remember that you may not get your top model choices with this method. Yes, this also eliminates AA ticket holders the ability to make last minute changes at Breyerfest, such as seeing the Surprise model and then deciding to buy a different SR instead. Breyer is encouraging participants to buy the models selected for them even if they don’t like them and then trade for the models they do want. 
• All-Access ticket holders will need to pay for their SR models in advance. They do not need to pay for their models at the time of the ticket purchase as the VIP ticket holders do, but will need to pay for them before Breyerfest once ticket sales are done (sales for all tickets end on May 2, 2022 or while supplies last) and the preference lists have been generated. Note that if you do not like the models selected for you, you are not obligated to buy them.
• All-Access ticket holders will have two ticket books, whereas VIPs will have one ticket book mailed to them which includes everything needed for Breyerfest. AA ticket holders will have one ticket book mailed to them which will contain the admission wristbands, redemption tickets for the Celebration model, parking pass if purchased, and the evening show. However, the redemption tickets for the Special Run models need to be picked up at Breyerfest. Not understanding why Breyer chose to split the AA into two ticket books; since they are already mailing stuff to AA ticket holders, why not include everything? It seems like it would be simpler to do so, instead of having people pick up their SR tickets at the KHP. After all, before the elimination of the hourly time slots the SR tickets were mailed to the purchasers…
• General Admission ticket holders will get a randomly selected Event Stablemate and will have the ability to purchase the Limited Edition models.
• There are two types of online only tickets. There is the Online Traditional Access and the Online Stablemate Access. No Breyerfest SRs are included with either of these, but the ability to purchase the Limited Editions is.
• The Online Traditional Access ticket includes the Celebration model, whereas the Online Stablemate Access ticket includes one randomly selected Event Stablemate model.
• No free shipping this year for online Breyerfest purchases.

I probably have forgotten to put in other information, but that’s it in a nutshell. And what a nutshell it is! I probably won’t be able to make it to Breyerfest, but I did check this morning and VIP tickets are still available for purchase. I have not decided if I should find a pickup person or just purchase on the secondary market…decisions, decisions. My number one want is the LE Rhenish Draft, who I can obtain with either of the online ticket options. I love the Candy Cubs, and do want them, but I need to make a decision. *Twiddles thumbs while thinks about BF SRs*

As for The Land of Milk and Honey, or rather, The Land of Honeybear, Breyer did an excellent job managing the quantities of this guy. He did not sell out in under 12 minutes, and has been available for days. As of this posting I do not think Honeybear has sold out, so there was an abundance of them made. Happily it seems everyone who wanted one was able to buy one directly from Breyer. That is how the Collectors Club Web Specials should be - available to all members. Regarding the lottery draw web specials, I feel that due to the growth the CC has seen over the last few years, I am in favor of increasing the lottery draw run numbers to match the growth (which I know isn’t the most popular of opinions). I think a few micro runs sprinkled in throughout the year would be nice too.

Hmmmmmm, oh yeah. I never received a COA with my PC Hawkeye and Firefly, and I still don’t have it, which means I have to follow up and keep bugging Breyer for it. I have also just realized that Breyer owes me an Arctic Grandeur as well. A couple of weeks ago I finally got the five unicorn Mini Whinnie blind bags I ordered in October 2021:

Duplicates galore, y’all:

Hahahahaha, I got a slight variation in that one of the blue MWs is a bit darker than the others, though it is kind of hard to see in the photos:

This one has a nice, rich, jewel purple color. I prefer this to a misty watercolor purple blush:

I think that about wraps up this odds n’ ends post. I have been feeling a little better, but am still spending more time than usual sleeping/resting. I am hoping to be able to update this blog more frequently and get back on a regular schedule. Until next time!

*Sneak Peek Square photo is from Breyer’s February 2022 Collectors Club Newsletter.*

*Breyerfest Big Announcement photo is from Breyer’s website.*

*Honeybear photo is from Breyer’s website and the image has been reversed by me.*