2024 Mid-Year Releases

 

The mid-year releases have finally been set free! A unicorn set and two portrait models are supposed to be available in late June. First up, the unicorn set:

Hurray, unicorns that aren’t pastel or in the unicorn uniform (white-grey)! Presented as golden chestnuts, Cyrus and Solana are a must have for me. Cyrus is on the Duende mold with Solana appearing on the Lipizzaner foal mold. I am super excited about these two!

The first portrait model is Quietway Spinabbey who is owned by Guy McLean. Depicted on the Latigo/Loping Quarter Horse mold, Spinabbey sports a roached mane. Quietway Spinabbey will be joining Guy to perform at Breyerfest this year.

The next portrait model is of Salvino, who has won two Olympic silver medals. This interpretation of Salvino is on the Totilas mold, and it is his second portrait model from Breyer. Salvino’s first portrait model was a 200 piece run made for the 2022 Collector Club event, Ponies and Palm Trees. Salvino was the Event model and was portrayed on the Keltic Salinero mold:

While I am loving all of the solid colors on the mid-years, the unicorns are the only release I plan on getting. I don’t really conga the other two molds, but the colors may make me change my mind…

*Photos are from Breyer’s website.

The Unicorn Chronicles: Diadem and Alcor

 

Please note: This is one of those blog entries which was supposed to have been posted much, much earlier. And there are more drafts which I intend work on and post before the year ends because they belong to the model horse going-ons of 2021. Without further yakking, off we go!

The giveaway tail from the Sneak Peek in September Collectors Club Newsletter was Susecion (let’s all be fake surprised, lol). She had been unicornified, along with Le Fire, into unicorns named Diadem and Alcor (# 712394):

I like Alcor’s black coat which has purple, blue, and gold shimmers, but I wish that Breyer had given Diadem a different coat color. I would have much preferred for her to have had the holographic pewter color that was used for the Breyerfest Uffington variation, and given a moon-themed name. Something unicorn-y like Crescent Dream, Lunar Wind, or Moondust (okay, I admit I am VERY bad at coming up with names). Or in keeping with unicorn names starting with the letter s (notably the Classic/Freedom Series) the name Selena would have fit right in with Sarafina, Serendipity, Sugar, Skyler, Solaris, and Solar Flare. An ancient Greek moon goddess, Selene predates those Olympian gods and goddesses as she was a Titan. Her brother was Helios, the sun god. A sun and moon unicorn pair would be magnificent, but unlikely. Oh, and no glitter on the unicorns. I like glitter, but not on unicorns. Definitely not on unicorns. Here is the pewter variation Uffington color I wish Diadem was:

Wouldn’t Diadem have looked smashing in that color with Alcor? Oh well, maybe we’ll get a unicorn in that color someday. I shall keep hoping, lol! Here are some photos of mama and baby together:

Photos of Diadem:

Photos of Alcor; it was a bit hard to photograph the multicolored shimmers:

*Photo of Diadem and Alcor against the purple-pink background is from Breyer’s website.*

*Photo of pewter variation Uffington is from Breyer’s website.*

The Unicorn Chronicles: Groovy, This is Out of Sight!

 

New unicorns have been spotted, and they are far out, man! First up is Keep the Peace, on the Classic/Freedom Series mold Fairfax. He has a lot of pink, with some blue and green on his shoulders and barrel. He has a tie dye starburst on his haunch with a huge peace sign layered on top of it. I assume the mega peace sign is present on both sides, but I could have done with the peace sign being reduced significantly. The peace sign makes me think of him as ‘billboard butt.’ The gold is not overdone, there doesn’t seem to be any glitter (yay!), and I think I spy pearliness. Still, Keepie is one I plan to buy. I am still deciding on the ‘90s Throwup (aka ‘90s Throwback) model. I decide I don’t want him, then I change mind to buy him, then change my mind not to… I think if I am having this difficult a time making a decision, he’s clearly not knocked my socks off so no need to get one. Let’s leave the ‘90s and teleport further back to the ‘60s:  

Four tie dye unicorns called the Unicorn Swirl Gift Set have popped up as well. They are each swirled with two colors, and the blue/green Warmblood Mare looks like a tie dye T-shirt I used to have (decades ago): 

It is my understanding that these colorful critters are supposed to be 2022 releases, so they are currently unavailable for order. I’m sure some dealers will be offering preorders on them, but I’m just going to wait for them to be available next year. Really looking forward to see what else is going to be added for 2022.

The Unicorn Chronicles: Fuzzy Scratchy Smoky

Flock of chickens?

 Flock of Seagulls?

Okay, so how about flocked Breyers, specifically flocked unicorns? That is precisely what we have for this feature. Before the unicorn resurgence/craze of the past few years, unicorns and other mythical creatures enjoyed popularity last century (weird but oddly fun to type), especially in the 1980s. Now that’s not to say unicorns were confined to only one decade. After all, The Last Unicorn, written by Peter S. Beagle was published in 1968. However, the 1980s were filled with plenty of fantasy/fantasy adventure movies, and although most did not feature unicorns, strong fantasy themes helped cultivate an interest in them. Some 1980s fantasy films in no particular order:

Ladyhawke 

The Dark Crystal

Labyrinth 

The Princess Bride

The NeverEnding Story 

Willow

Clash of the Titans (Pegasus!!!)

Two of the most popular films featuring unicorns were Legend (1985) and The Last Unicorn (1982). Legend is the tale of a forest boy who betrays the unicorns by bringing his girlfriend to see them, resulting in one of the unicorns falling prey to dark forces. Just before all the trouble starts:

Forest boy and his friends must restore life to the unicorn and save the girlfriend, who has been captured by the ubiquitous Dark-Lord-Demon-Dude-Bro (who wishes to marry her, naturally) . Here is the Dark-Lord-Demon-Dude-Bro, played by Tim Curry:

Maybe it’s just me, but I think that Watusi cattle have better horns than Dark-Lord-Demon-Dude-Bro. Hey, D.L.D.D.B.? Seems the Watusi have shown you up big time…

Ahem, back to unicorns. The other unicorn centered film is an animated adaptation of the book The Last Unicorn. A Unicorn, believing she may be the last in existence, embarks on an odyssey to find other unicorns in the world. She encounters many entertaining characters throughout the journey and gains traveling companions during her quest. She is accidentally turned into a human by a rookie wizard in an effort to save her from the Red Bull (who collects the unicorns and chases them into the sea). Oh, cattle again? Sure, why not. Red Bull:

Wait, wait, not that Red Bull. This Red Bull:

The tables turn on Barbecue Boy:

The Unicorn and her companions discover a miserable king is behind the disappearance of the world’s unicorns. They take up work in his castle to unraveled how they can free the unicorns, who are being held as prisoners in the sea. Being in a human body begins to distort the Unicorn’s mind, causing her to begin to forget her purpose. The Unicorn-now-human starts to fall in love with a prince (eyeroll) but ultimately reclaims her unicorn form. She fights the Red Bull and frees the unicorn prisoners, and forces the Red Bull into the sea. Upon the release of the unicorns, the king’s derelict castle crumbles like a cookie, finishing him. The prince and the Unicorn’s companions go off to start new lives. The Unicorn goes back to her forest after undertaking this grand adventure, and continues her life as before. I’ve wanted a Red Bull on the Spanish Fighting Bull mold for years, and maybe one century I may get around to customizing one…

This leads up to our featured unicorn, the fuzzy scratchy Smoky. I named him that due to the obvious: flocking, scratchy mohair, and the Smoky mold. 

The Smoky unicorn flockie appeared in 1984, and was available through JC Penney and the Bentley Sales Company. White flocking was used for the body, while the mane, tail, and scruffy beard are composed of a medium grey, scratchy, mohair-ish material. Unfortunately, the eyes are big black blobs, and it looks like someone colored the eyes in with a Sharpie which bled into the flocking surrounding the eye orbit. The stark red comma in the nostrils looks like blood; a pink shade would have worked better. There is a small gap between the base of the horn and the forehead, exposing a bit of the peg which attaches the horn to the head. I wonder if the horn had come loose and someone attempted to reattach it. It was like that when I bought him, which was in the late 1980s. 

The next year (1985) Smoky was joined by another flocked unicorn, which was done on the Running Stallion mold. Offered through the JCPenney Holiday Catalog, the Running Stallion Unicorn broke the traditional color scheme of white unicorns by being offered in blue flocking. He also lacked the mohair mane and tail, which was replaced with a softer, more manageable doll-like hair which could be brushed (a brush was included with him). As a side note, a flocked blue and white winged Pegasus was also offered by JC Penney at the same time on the Classic/Freedom Lipizzan mold. Here are the beautiful blue Running Stallion Unicorns, which had blue or brown glass eyes:

I believe the Smokies and the Running Stallions were the only traditional flocked unicorns produced. The bulk of Breyer flockies were made in the 1980s; in 2001, flockies made a brief return for Breyerfest with some Stablemates and a Jack Russel. 

 

Ding!Ding!Ding!!! Bonus points if you noticed the similarities between the photos of the flock of chickens and the 1980s band Flock of Seagulls!

The Unicorn Chronicles: Myth, Fantasy, Fable, and Food Part 1

Not the strictest definition of chronicles as there are no historical events in chronological order, but I suppose we can use the secondary definition of chronicles, which is being a record. The Unicorn Chronicles shall be a record of my unicorn models, musings, and whatnot; essentially everything unicorn. Or we can just use the word chronicles as it flows with the word unicorns. The Unicorn Chronicles. Yes, that will do unless I think of something better. 

The wild popularity of unicorns over the past few years has given unicorn lovers an avalanche of unicorn, well everything. Food especially, as there are cakes, cupcakes, popcorn, muddy buddies, candy bark, ice cream, donuts, you name it. Everything can and has been unicornized. The ubiquitous unicorn cake is available at every grocery store bakery, waiting to be bought for a unicorn fan. 

Some cakes try to outdo the simplistic ones (see above) by adding full eyes and rudimentary limbs:

Actually, I think it looks more like a pig on a plate than a unicorn. Last weekend I went to Starbucks for the first time in about three years. In addition to trying a Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino, I decided to be extravagant and get a cake pop. The drive through speaker was a bit crackly as I was asked what flavor of cake pop I wanted (couldn’t see the edge of the board as the bushes needed to be trimmed). My options were chocolate, birthday cake, and unicorn. Unicorns have a flavor? I was going to ask where they went unicorn hunting to get unicorn for their cake pops, and if they put unicorn meat in their breakfast sandwiches, but decided not to. I went with chocolate as I don’t have any taste for unicorn meat. 

As hobbyists are well aware, Breyer plunged into the unicorn craze. And why not? All they needed to do was adhere a horn onto any mold of theirs and voila, unicorn magic! The recent unicorn craze presented a golden opportunity for Breyer; while unicorn popularity has had its blips in the past, it has never reached the heights of the past few years. Stay tuned for more fun in the Unicorn Chronicles!