2022 Stablemate Club Reveal: Helios

Breyer has been busy sending out emails, and the optional SMC model, Helios, has been revealed:

Annnnnnnnnd it is a unicorn on the mini-Heart mold. He is a glossy black color shift pinto thing, and I absolutely love him. I’m kind of surprised that Breyer unicornified him so soon, but I’m happy that he is not wearing the unicorn-uniform. The horn sort of melts into his forelock, doesn’t it? Makes me wonder if we’ll be seeing him in another round of unicorn blind bags. I think the days of Walmart/Breyer blind bags may be done as I have been checking around and there has been no allotted space for Stablemates or Mini Whinnies of any kind since late summer. There is only a spot for the Classic/Freedom Series Unicorn boxes. I for one hope that the Stablemates return as it was nice to be able to get them locally. 

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

The Unicorn Chronicles: Going Solar

 

Solar panels, solar generators, solar cookers, solar tomatoes, solar unicorns… haha. Lots of solar things, but let us focus specifically on solar flares of the tomato and unicorn variety. 

A solar flare from our sun:

Cool, but that’s not the kind of solar flare we’re looking for. Let’s let’s try again:

A-ha! We’ve found the solar tomatoes. This is a variety of tomato called Solar Flare due to it possessing streaky sun-like hues. I have at least 34 varieties of tomato seeds, but I don’t have Solar Flare. Need to buy some Solar Flare seeds now. They are pretty tomatoes, but we still need to search for the correct solar flare. Oh look, found him! Here he is, Solar Flare (#712398) the solar unicorn:

Breyer did a good job on the colors with this guy. Mine doesn’t have golden hooves, but that’s fine. I was excited for Flare’s arrival and was not disappointed. It’s refreshing to have a unicorn that isn’t dressed in the typical unicorn uniform (white, purple, pink, or rainbow). Breyer has done a few out-of-uniform unicorns, such as the traditional mare and foal sets of Bellatrix and Spica, and Mira and Antares. Some of the Stablemate unicorn blind bags (such as the dark green walking TB and the raspberry Alby) strayed from typical unicorn colors as well. Lookout, here comes a Solar Flare!!!

Oh, and here are some photos of Solar Flare on a Home Depot bucket. You know, for… no reason.

Here are some photos of Solar Flare looking all posh and not hanging out on work buckets:

One of these days I will have to do a side by side of Solar Flare and Solaris, who is a similarly colored unicorn on the Walking Draft Horse mold. Solaris’ color resembles Solar Flare’s, but I think Flare’s color is richer and and has a heavier gold sheen to his coat. Solaris also has to dreaded glitter in his mane and tail, which Flare (thankfully) lacks. 

Forgotten: The Lipizzan Stallion

Breyer’s Classic/Freedom Series Lipizzan mold (#620) was introduced into the Breyer line in 1975. Depicted performing a classical dressage movement, the levade, this carefully balancing fellow is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, he lands on the list of the underused. Underused as a horse, that is. The Lipizzan Stallion has made appearances as a unicorn (white and black), various incarnations of Pegasus, and in a deco color. As a unicorn, dubbed Unicorn III, the black and white pearl unicorns were available in 1996 at Toys ‘R’ Us:

Here is my black pearl unicorn. I have no idea where the white pearl unicorn is hiding:

Wings were added in 1984 to create the first Breyer Pegasus:

This is the original 1984 release. He’s been through many moves, and has acquired some battle scars along the way. I remember seeing him for the first time (at Toys ‘R’ Us) and being amazed. News traveled quite slow back then, and I didn’t know he existed. Of course I bought him, and couldn’t wait to get home to unbox him. Such excitement back in the day, lol! To transform the Lipizzan Stallion into Pegasus, Breyer engineered a slot in his back to accommodate his new wings (did a bell ring? Bonus points if you caught the reference). The wings had tabs on the base to fit into the slot, and BOOM! a Pegasus was born:

Revisiting the topic of this mold being underused as a horse, he has never been in any other realistic horse color other than alabaster. He did wear deco colors (orangey-gold and shimmery) as Sagittarius for Breyer’s 2015 Zodiac Series, but yeah, a deco. I have always wanted to see him as one of the rare bay Lipizzaners, as well as in any of the other historical Lipizzan coat colors. Actually, I’d like to see him in any realistic horse color.  Here are some more photos:

*Photos of the gold labels for the white and black pearl unicorns are from the Identity Your Breyer website.*

The Unicorn Chronicles: Grape Soda and Purple Warmblood Unicorns

 

Love, love, love Faygo soda…whenever I go to Michigan I make sure I drink too much of it, lol.  No watered down flavors from Faygo! The grape soda reference belongs to the chase piece from Series Three of the Unicorn Crazy Surprise Blind Bags. This dark dappled darling is in a color not used before, and was nicknamed the ‘grape soda’ unicorn chase piece by some collectors:

The mane, tail, and legs are not black but a very dark brown. The dapples are a light purple instead of the usual white. This is a color Breyer needs to use again. I would love the Bubblebutt Belgian in this color, as well as the Shire Mare and the old Racehorse mold (#36). This SM mold has also made other appearances as a purple/sort of purple unicorn. She was included as part of a clearware unicorn set as a glittery purple unicorn:

She was also present in Series Two of the Unicorn Crazy Surprise Blind bags, as a dual toned lavender/turquoise unicorn:

 

Overall, she has appeared as a unicorn (in various colors) 10 times, and in realistic horse colors four times. Her latest release as a realistically painted horse will be in the 2021 Best of Breyerfest Stablemate set as Into the Woods. Here is the upcoming release:

Bet you didn’t know that if you grow Unicorn plants, you can pick your very own unicorns:

Of course, the seeds have a poor germination percentage, but if you are fortunate enough to get a Unicorn plant to grow, a unicorn bloom will emerge. Not all blooms produce a unicorn, but the chance is there.

*Clear purple/glitter unicorn photos from the Identify Your Breyer website*

*Series Two Unicorn Crazy Surprise unicorn photos from the Identify Your Breyer website*

*Into the Woods photo from Breyer’s website*

The Unicorn Chronicles: The Rainbow Connection

 

“Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lov———actually, you can find it on a shelf at Walmart. In a Breyer box, to be exact. This particular rainbow is Rainbow, a purple unicorn on the Classic Mason/American Saddlebred mold. There may be some confusion as there is a different model that has the same designation. That Rainbow is from the 2011 Weathergirl Treasure Hunt, and consisted of three different prize models offered for the completion of the hunt (the models were sent out randomly). The Treasure Hunt Rainbow was either a matte or glossy golden blanket pintaloosa, or a translucent rainbow Weather Girl. Guess which one was the most coveted?

Ding ding ding, you guessed correctly! The rainbow Rainbow Weathergirl was the one most hoped for. 

I was in that hoping-for-a-rainbow-Rainbow crowd too, and I received the matte pintaloosa. Don’t get me wrong, she’s very pretty, but a translucent rainbow Rainbow would have been awesome. Let us now return to the subject of unicorns, and to the matter of a unicorn named Rainbow. Here we go:

Here is a photo of him out of the box, but still attached to the package insert:

Rainbow is accompanied by a small sticker sheet, and a hang tag:

Notice the colors of Rainbow’s mane and tail. They are not typical bright rainbow colors, but a pastel mix of purple, blue, barely visible green, yellow, and peach. Oh, and generously covered with glitter. I can do without the glitter (on all models), but I quite like the colors chosen for the mane and tail. 

The back of Rainbow the Magical Unicorn’s box:

And we need to put in the blooper reel. Here is Rainbow being swept over by wind gusts:

Never fear, he was caught by my magical Breyer reflexes so he didn’t plummet off of the grill and onto the cement. Here is one last rainbow photo, taken in my side view mirror (at a really long light) a few years ago:

Be on the lookout for rainbows, it’s the season for them. I’ve already seen a few this year. 

*Photo from The Muppet Movie (1979)*

*Rainbow Weathergirl photo from Identify Your Breyer*