Because the plural of Atticus must be Attici, right?
Anyway, UPS finally delivered everything, and as suspected, the Attici were shipped separately, in their tiny flimsy boxes, while the Pocket Boxes that were intended to bump them up to a larger box were shipped in bubble mailers. They did put two PBs in one mailer, though, so one of the tracking numbers must have been an oops.
The curiosity about this is killing me. One of the packages will hopefully be delivered today, so maybe that will shed a little light on things.
So far: 2 orders, 3 items in each (1 SM, 2 Pocket Box bags), and a variety of tracking numbers depending on where I look. For order #1, on my account, the Breyer page lists one tracking number, the shipping email lists two numbers. For order #2, on Daniel's account, Breyer lists one number, the shipping email lists three. Then, the UPS MyChoice account page lists 4 numbers - which are the same as the ones from Breyer, minus one. And right now, one package from #1 is out for delivery, two (one from each order) are in Earth City and will be here tomorrow, and the fourth, from #1, is still "ready for UPS" aka still in the warehouse.
Which kind of sounds like Order #2 is really one package (assuming that "ready" package was a phantom number), and #1 is in two packages. Which means they split things, thus negating my plan for the Pocket Boxes to bump things up to a bigger box. And also that they probably lost money on that $5.95 shipping charge, after considering the cost of both packages and the shipping cost for each.
Julius is here finally, and looks amazing.
His journey was interesting. First delivery date was Friday the 12th. So I shoveled a path for the UPS driver. By 9:00, UPS admitted he wouldn't make it. New date - the 16th. On the morning of the 15th, he was out for delivery. But then it snowed, so he got bumped back to the 16th. Musical delivery dates.
And the adventures continue. Last week, I paid for both SMC Atticuses (Attici?), and two Pocket Box ridealongs on each order. Yesterday, I got the shipping notices and tracking numbers. Five tracking numbers altogether. Right now, three will be delivered tomorrow, one the day after that, and one is "check back later" status. I'm thinking one order is in 3 boxes/envelopes, and if Breyer's shipper really shipped a Stablemate and 2 Pocket Boxes in three separate packages, then (a) they really need to have a talk with the shipper and (b) they lost a lot of money on that $5.95 shipping fee.
Won an auction last night for a group of Hagen-Renakers. No horses, but there are a Mama and Papa Penguin, three Eskimos (Inuit, now, I think), and a trio of Polar Bears.
They're in pretty good shape overall. Some crazing, Mama Penguin has a chip out of her beak, and one of the Cubs has a tiny chip on his nose.
$44 for the whole lot, so $4.50 average each.
While buying extra posterboard (because you need an emergency supply of posterboard and foamcore when there's a high-school student), I found neat things for photography purposes. Along with plain solid-color posterboard, there are patterns. I found a fluffy cloud posterboard, and one with a space pattern.
The space one is going to be great for unicorns and things, I think. The handy thing about the space sheet is that it's got a nebula on one end, while the other end is less variegated. So, especially for SMs, rotating it 180 degrees will make it almost like another background.
Full sheet of space
Pavel and Ivanova with one side of the space sheet.
Unicorn with the other end of the space sheet.
Cassidy with the sky sheet
Breyer put Julius up for purchase this morning, so he's on the way with a paint-your-own-Walking TB Unicorn as a travel partner. I kind of wish they'd shown the rest of the VC horses before I rejoined. I decided to renew the VC because of this mold, and then they add a regular-run Georg to the 2021 lineup. Oh well, I'm sure the other VCs for the year will be great too. And I do like that old splatter roan.
I went down a memory rabbit-hole a while back, regarding the Craft House Corporation's "Woodlike Collector Carvings" horses. Back in junior or senior high, I had the Quarter Horse kit (probably bought at Walmart in Eldon), and was painting it for the art class that year. Can't remember if I ever finished it or where it is now, but hopefully it'll turn up in the basement.
These kits were a partially hollow horse made of some kind of plastic. They came with an instruction sheet, paintbrush, bit of sponge for texturing, and a set of paints and one color of wood stain, in case you wanted to make them look like a sculpture. According to the box, they're a "reproduction of a wood carving by the nationally known wildlife sculptor Ed Dietz" - Googling for Ed Dietz is still ongoing.
The Quarter Horse box mentioned three other molds: Arabian, Thoroughbred, and Clydesdale, if memory serves. I happened to find and buy an Arabian kit on eBay a month or so ago, and set up a search email for any others.
The Arabian, with molded-on halter. Looks not bad.
I usually get notices of the duck decoy and bird kits from the same series, but last week another horse finally popped up on eBay. And, surprise, it was not one of the four I already knew about. This one is a Shetland Pony (not the refined type, either).
Breyerfest is coming up, and is all-virtual again this year. Pandemics suck. I entered for the VIP ticket drawing every day, but no luck. The leftover VIP tickets, plus All Access and General Admission tickets, went on sale at noon today. I had a VIP in my cart, but the checkout button was glitching and I didn't remember the trick. So, All Access it is. Then I bought the 4-pack of single-day SMs, since they're available. Gotta have the Fighting Stallion and that purple Fjord.
Overall, I think the All Access will be adequate. Sure, the VIP lets you pre-purchase the 2 SRs you want, instead of going for the random draw. But I'm in a spot where I like all of the SRs, but there's not one that I've gotta have, life or death, can't live without it. So this way, I save some money, and will likely get two horses that I like. And the LEs (aka store specials) are open issue this year (well, most of them are), so there won't be the rush for those either.
But I still need to make a ranked list of the SRs for the random drawing. I think Ansel is going to be #1, then Knossos the bull and Uffington, then Pech Merle, Gran Cavallo, and Seurat. I'm waffling on Polluck, and I'm not sure where the surprise horse will go. Tassili is my least favorite.
For the LEs, Josie is interesting but I'm not sure how that paint job will work out. I really want Favrile, probably Apollo, maybe Rheverence, no interest in the crystal, and I'm also waffling on the SM set. I like the Darwin and Warmblood, neutral on the Paso and Pony, and don't really like the Stargazing QH mold.
