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 Stablemates Club First Release: Lanin (Off With Your Mane!)

 

Off with your head! Off with your mane! Off to the store! A mysterious disappearance, and chaos ahead (pun, hahahaha)!!!

Nothing like having the Queen of Hearts screaming about manes. Better than heads, right? Oh wait, in this hobby, that is certainly not unheard of…

Ahem, let’s get back to the first SMC release of 2024, our friend Lanin. Lanin (#B-CS-10004) is on the Mirado mold, and marks the third appearance of this mold in the SMC. He debuted in 2017 as Mirado, a grullo sabino. He next appeared in the SMC in 2019 as Fiero, a dappled chestnut in either a matte or glossy finish. And his latest inclusion in the SMC has him representing the Criollo breed as a black sabino with a naked neck- his mane has been roached (shaved off). As a quick reminder, this is how the mane originally looked:

And here is Lanin showing off his new haircut:

Photo from the Breyer website 

Photo from the Breyer website 

Now, who gave the “Off with his mane!” order? Turns out, it was not the Queen of Hearts pictured above, but a different Queen of Hearts, specifically this one, who also goes by the name Josie:

Not only did she give the order, looks like she carried out the mane clipping herself. Toting around that giant pair of scissors is making her look mighty suspicious. Come to think of it, she may have been responsible for another roached mane on another black sabino Criollo:

Photo copyright Identify Your Breyer

Hmmm, hmmm, and hmmm…maybe Josie knows something about my Lanin’s disappearance, lol. I ordered my Lanin and he did indeed arrive. I did look over him quickly to make sure there were no broken pieces or glaring flaws and then put him somewhere. I thought I put him in a box with other recent arrivals (Scorpion, Heath, Terran, and the Classic/Freedom Series Pintaloosa). However, when I went to retrieve him for photos to show off his pretty purple tones, he had vanished. I checked some SMC boxes thinking he somehow got mixed in with SMs from previous years, but he didn’t turn up. I am left scratching my head as to where he has gone off to. Stay tuned while we try to solve the Lost Lanin mystery!

*Cartoon Queen of Hearts photo from clipart-library.com