Stablemates Club Release and Sneak Peek Square

 

The second release of the 2021 SMC is Hendrik-a glossy chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail on the Django mold. I have ordered but haven’t received my Hendriks yet, but from Breyer’s photos his mane and tail look to be very pale yellow-like banana cream pie. I’ve seen a few in hand pictures, and some do look banana-y while others look more ivory. I hope that my Hendriks’ manes and tails aren’t so banana-y. If they are, that won’t stop me from liking the Hendriks. Breyer has already done a Berries Ponies Series, but they could also do a hand pie series of Stablemates. While berries are great in their own right, berry pies are a whole different category. I mean, it’s pie, y’all. And there is no need to stick to strictly fruit pies. This imaginary Scrumptious Series could include:

Strawberry pie-strawberry roan

Blueberry pie-blue roan

Buttermilk pie-buttermilk dun

Pecan pie-golden chestnut 

Mince pie-liver chestnut

Mud pie-nondescript brown

Breyer also showed us a new sneak peek square in their March newsletter, with promises that we will be seeing the full reveal sometime in April. I haven’t a clue who it may be, but I’m thinking it may be the Collector’s Club Classic Web Special offering. It may or may not be a gambler’s choice-it probably will be due to the popularity of it. Past Classic gambler’s choices have included Callahan, Nayati, Scotty, Calvin, and Lancelot. Couer de Lion was offered in a single color, but I would have loved to have seen him in other colors. Really fond of those Maureen Love TB molds-they are so refined and elegant. Back on topic now; here’s the sneak peek square:

Hopefully we won’t have to wait until the end of the month for the reveal! 

*Hendrik photos from the Breyer website*

*Banana cream pie photo from free stock images*

*Sneak Peek Square photo from Breyer’s CC March newsletter*

Breyer Down Under

 

A new Breyer special event centering around Australia, called True Blue, is scheduled to take place virtually May 21-22, 2021. Breyer figured they may as well do a virtual ‘overseas event’ since we will likely never see a Breyer event held outside of the United States. The True Blue event will be limited to 200 participants, who will be chosen via lottery as usual. Breyer has planned virtual farm tours, workshops with Australian artists, and of course the Breyer Boutique. It is limited to one purchase per Collector’s Club member. CC members may enter from April 2nd through April 6th. I don’t know if I am going to bother to enter, especially since I’ve never entered for an event before. Thing is, I’m not sure if I will fancy any of the special models offered for this event. For some of the past special events, there weren’t any models I would have purchased as they didn’t really interest me. On the flip side of that, other special events had multiple models I would have loved to purchase. The True Blue event models (a traditional and a Stablemate which are included with the ticket) are Bondi and Roo. Bondi is a glossy light dapple grey on the Valegro mold, while Roo looks to be a mulberry/rosy/whatever Breyer calls the color on the Mirado SM mold. 

Here is Bondi:

And here is Roo (nice Winnie the Pooh ripoff; fun fact, I am friends with someone related to the late Christopher Robin Milne, upon whom the character Christopher Robin was based).

I really like both of the event models, and I have a short time to enter before entries close. I may take the chance to enter, but with my current bad luck with Breyer lottery drawings, I don’t think I would be drawn, but who knows. What to do, what to do...or as Winnie the Pooh would say, “Think, think, think...”

*All True Blue photos are from Breyer’s website *

This Past Week, Short and Sweet

 Sorry everyone but I have been running waaaaaaaaaay behind and was unable to get stuff onto the blog last week. I royally wrecked my back, which threw a massive monkey wrench into...well everything. Doing much better on the back front (see what I did there?) and I am in catch up mode. I will be getting last week’s stuff up this week, plus this week’s stuff. In local news, the Texas Bluebonnets are in full bloom, as well as some other wildflowers. I don’t know what flower this is, but when growing en masse they look quite lovely on their own and mixed with the bluebonnets. Here is a photo I snapped yesterday of the mystery wildflower:

In keeping with the short and sweet title, off I go now-but expect catch-up posts throughout the week.  Have a great week, everyone!

2021 Vintage Club Second Release: Nonoma

I keep staring at that blue eye-love the eyeliner around it! Here’s a photo of a real blue eyed horse with eyeliner. 

Lolololol, y’all remember in the post before the last one the discussion on the Foundation Stallion #869 Lakota Pony having five variations of symbols? Nonoma, the VC FS release, will have four variations:

So, Nonoma will be the third VC model to have a Gambler’s Choice this year. Interestingly, it seems one version will have no symbols. Breyer’s blurb seems to be indicating there will be a total of five versions of Nonoma. In addition to the symbol free one, it states that “symbols, if present, will vary in this release! Four different variations.”  

Here is Breyer’s full body promo picture of Nonoma:

The inspiration for Nonoma’s pinto pattern is from the #175 chestnut tobiano Indian Pony. She was produced with warpaint from 1970-1973, and produced without warpaint from 1973-1976. Breyer choosing to have warpaint/no warpaint versions of Nonoma is a nice nod to #175’s run.

Cannot wait to see what I get, and what all of the variations will be. I won’t be ordering Nonoma instantly as I think the second release of the Stablemates Club is due to be released soon. Hopefully I can order them together and have a dual pony day!

*Nonoma photos from Breyer’s website*

*Blue eyed horse with eyeliner photo from Pinterest*

*Breyer Indian Pony #175 from Identify Your Breyer website*

Nostalgia Corner: A Childhood Horse

Somewhere back in the midsts of time (the 1970s, haha!), one of my cousins gave me a horse she was no longer interested in keeping. It wasn’t a Breyer, but nonetheless I was thrilled to have it. It was a plastic, pseudo-woodgrain finish grazing mare. She bears no marking from a manufacturer, so her origin is unknown. I played with that mare often and she was the pony who tagged along with my Breyer Classics. I paired her with her own stallion-a stylized horse carved from wood with a removable tail. He was named Boomerang due to that tail, even though it didn’t really look like a boomerang at all. Eventually one of the mare’s legs snapped off, but I couldn’t discard her. I may still have her somewhere, and I am pretty sure that I have my old friend Boomerang tucked away. 

While zipping through eBay listings, I spied an old familiar shape which gave me pause. I scrolled back up to see my old grazing pony mare’s twin. I put her on my watch list, and a short time later received one of those automated seller discounts for showing interest in the item. I bought her, and she arrived a few days later. This particular mare is a bit darker than my original, who was a few shades lighter. I never thought I’d ever see one like her again, and interestingly she came from Michigan. I believe that my cousin acquired hers in Michigan or Wisconsin. 

She’s an endearing little mare, even though her eyes and ears are roughly the same size and shape, her legs lack definition, and her woodgrain coat has streaks and drips. She reminds me of the pony you spot in an old pasture while driving down a country road. Not the fancy show pony with the picture perfect conformation and flashy coat, but the ubiquitous country pony everyone wants to hug. 

Here’s the little mare:

She even has the same strange line across her front left leg by the elbow. I thought someone was trying to destroy the leg on my original:

Close up of her same shaped eyes and ears:

A few more pictures from various angles:

Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!! More Birds and 2021 Vintage Club Reveals!

 Here we go again:

Scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, 1963. Or people running to their computers to enter for Goldfinch.

Breyer has released the second model in their Birds of a Feather series.  It is Goldfinch, a shaded glossy buckskin on the ever popular Silver mold, limited to 380 pieces. The opportunity to purchase a Goldfinch will be via lottery as usual, with one entry per Collector’s Club account instead of daily entries. I would usually enter once anyway as I’d get busy and forget to enter every day. This time Breyer is also requiring entrants to list their home address in addition to their name and Collector’s Club email. I glanced over the conditions of sale but didn’t see any limitations on how many winners per household Breyer will allow. I know there have been instances where collectors have won the same Web Special on multiple accounts. It has happened, but it is rare. Perhaps Breyer will now be checking addresses to help spread the winners around.

I quite like Goldfinch’s promo pictures. The chocolately brown on his legs and the grey/brown mane and tail meld better with the light coat than a straight black. It looks like there may be black tips on the mane and tail, but it is hard to tell from the photo. Either way, it is a gradual darkening and not a stark, demarcated color change. Good luck to all who are entering!

The Grapevine has stated that some members of the Vintage Club have received their official welcome letter, and it included info on the 2021 models. I haven’t received my VC letter yet, but here is the rest of the 2021 VC lineup:

-The Foundation Stallion done as an Indian Pony

-Brighty as the Gambler’s Choice

-Terrang painted a glossy bay and plopped on a Presentation base

-The optional model is a mare and foal set (Marabella and Amber) 

-The bonus Stablemate will be Yellow Mount on the miniaturized Smart Chic Olena mold

I am intrigued by the FS done as an IP. Does that mean an actual color done on the IP, or is it a general statement? People are guessing the FS will be in vintage IP colors, but he’s been done in buckskin twice as Fugir Cacador and as Buried Treasure. He also appeared as a bay blanket Appaloosa in the 1993 JC Penny Wild Horses of America set, which resembles the #174 IP. The FS turned up in alabaster as a Special Run in 1985. Here’s my guy whom I purchased from Horses International decades ago:

The FS has previously been used as First Nations horses-seven times! He was seen as the #710 American Indian Pony, a red roan-ish color. Next he was released in white with cream shading as a Lakota Pony (#869). There were *five* versions of 869; each version had different symbols painted on, predominantly in blue. Some of the models had minimal red symbols on them. In 2010 he appeared as Thunderbolt, a grey Appaloosa bearing symbols in red and blue (and possibly black). Since Thunderbolt was in grabbing distance, here are photos of him:

Maybe we’ll see an IP #175 chestnut tobiano on the FS as we did with 2014’s VC Kiowa? Or maybe Breyer will trick us by putting a more modern IP paint job on a vintage mold. Excited to find out!

Brighty is the Gambler’s Choice which was slightly surprising, but I am happy. I was trying to guess which model would be the GC, and I never thought of Brighty. 

Terrang on a Presentation base is going to be interesting. It makes a lot of sense to use a Classic instead of a Traditional for this, but I’m really curious to see how big the base is going to be and if the horse will be removable. I’m betting it will be removable, and am wondering if the base will be rectangular like the vintage ones. Maybe it will be given a modern spin by being an oval like the bases used for the Ethereal Series or for Cherokee, a black semi-leopard done on the Cody/Ranch Horse mold.

The optional purchase mare and foal set will be done in glossy charcoal. I’m not sure how popular Marabella and Amber are these days, but being a mommy/baby set plus glossy charcoal may make them quite desirable.   

The Bonus SM Yellow Mount is a GC..two GCs for the VC this year! Early models of the traditional Yellow Mount had a white spot present on the off foreleg which disappeared during his seventeen year run (1970-1987). The SM GC will have the foreleg spot present or absent. A tiny difference, and I don’t care which one I get honestly. I’m trying to picture Yellow Mount on the SCO mold, but cannot quite get there. 

That’s all folks, and hopefully we’ll get some photos of the VC offerings at some point...

*Movie still from The Birds, 1963*

*Goldfinch photos taken from Breyer’s website*

New Horse Alert: Meet One of the Lafayettes

At long last, after relentlessly stalking Breyer’s website in anticipation of Lafayette’s release and purchasing two of him, they arrived one week ago. Not bothering to read the info on Lafayette’s page when he was released, I went for two in the event a collector I knew who really wanted one would get one at cost if he sold out. Happily, Breyer accommodated everyone in the Collector’s Club with the backorder option. Lafayettes for all! Hurray! Certainly not the inky black beauty of Breyer’s promotional pictures, the silver basecoat glows from beneath the black topcoat and the silver shines...like silver where there is no black topcoat. I absolutely love how these guys look, minus the weird crappling. Well okay, even with the weird crappling I love this color. What I would love to see is this color on Georg, but dapple free. I unwrapped one Laffy but have kept the bubble wrapping on Laffy #2’s head and tail. Both of my Laffys (Laffies?) look to be about the same color wise, but Laffy #2’s right side has more prominent crapples. Neither one has the heavy gloss you expect on a glossy, but rather a thin gloss coat. Overall, I’m very happy with the Lafayettes, and hope that someday we will get a solid, thickly glossed coal black on this mold. Something like the Coal Christmas Zebra:

I tried to take some outdoor photos of Laffy #1 (Laffy #2 has been shoved back in his box). However, the wind was super wild and kept blowing him down. He tumbled over twice and landed in the grass. I should have just stuck him in the flower bed. The mud would have held him still, haha. Here he is outdoors in full sun standing on an upside down Home Depot bucket (‘cause we’re all about professionalism here):

Here are some more outdoor pictures on the shaded porch, taken on the oh-so-classy grill. And if you look carefully, on the left side in the first picture you can see a tiny Lafayette reflecting in the glass:

Notice in the photos below how much of the silver basecoat is showing on his chest and neck when compared with his head, especially in the third photo. I had to anchor him with one hand as the wind just would not let up. I was lucky to get his left and right sides (see above) before the wind went wild again.

I also took a few indoor photos:

The silver seen here is the basecoat, not straight up glare:

This is a color I would love to see Breyer use again, but without the dapples. I prefer the models to be dapple free, as more often than not the dapples end up looking weird. 

*Coal Christmas Zebra photos from Breyer’s website.*