A good tip and a lucky day

 I got a tip from a hobby friend of mine, thanks to Facebook Messenger and a local flea mall that posts pictures online.  I got off work early today and had enough time to drive out there before school pickup time, so I took a little drive.  My friend has a good eye and she was right - she spotted a Special Run in one of the booth photos - the Classic Secretariat, on the Terrang Mold, from Hobby Center Toys in 1988.  The price was a whopping $15, so I grabbed him right away.  Missing a bit of an ear tip, and a few rubs, but the original run was only 1,000.  

While I was there and had some time, I walked around the rest of the antique mall.  Most of it, anyway.  I saw a lot of overpriced (in my opinion) Breyers, including some Family Arabian Foals ($29 each) and some Classic Arabian and Quarter Horse families that I'm pretty sure were there last time I was - which was about 3 years minimum.  I did find a pair of vintage Breyers that I decided to buy - the Western Horse and Fury, both in old brown pinto, with their saddles.  The Western Horse even has the older O-link reins. 

Champion, the Vintage Club horse

 Champion was delivered yesterday.  He's going to be a tricky one to get a good picture of, between the gloss and the very dark bay color.  

I ordered 4 blind bags along with him, hoping for the chase pieces, but nope.  One orangey-yellow Prince Charming, and three Walking Arabians (2 orangey-peach, one blue).  

The two Tobias SM Club horses are on the way. 

Oops - post gap

 My plans to post more often seem to have gotten lost.  At least for a while. 

Back on track:  I ordered the third Vintage Club horse today, along with four blind bags from the newest series.  I still haven't found the chase horses from the Anniversary bags or the newest Rainbow unicorn bags.  I waited a few days to order this one, waiting to see if the next SM Club horse was released, but this  morning I decided I shouldn't wait any longer.  Missing the deadline means I lose my deposit and the rest of the horses this year. 

This will be my first Presentation style horse.  I hope mine looks as good as the one in the picture, he's gorgeous.

Good grief, Reeves, slow down!

 

Another flood month of Breyers.  Late last month was the Halloween horses, where I got a trio of Mini Poltergeists and one Mini Nightmare, plus Ratsputin and the plushy.

 

Then I stopped at Becky's Breyers for Yuletide and a couple of Anniversary SMs that weren't the chase pieces.  I messed up really badly with the Smart Chic, thinking it was an Indian Pony. 

 Traded one of the Mini Poltergeists for Mini Twilight Terror.  

Then the 5th SM club horse, times 2.  And today they released the optional Vintage Club horse, Barrington, the new jumper in classic Cantering Welsh Pony chestnut, and a non-black Carltonlima Emma as a Christmas pony in palomino with a cute blanket.  

 

 

 Sigh.  I hate to think what that all adds up to.  I thought about the Yuletide enamel pin, but changed my mind.  

 

One of the Stablemate Club horses arrived today, the other will be here tomorrow.  First one is the blue and purple pinto unicorn, which was third on my ranking.  Depending on which one I get tomorrow, I may try and trade for the pinto or Appaloosa.  Or maybe not.  

 

Virtual Breyerfest Day 1

Well, Day 1 of Virtual Breyerfest was exciting and frustrating.  As expected, there were technical problems.  The SR Tent times were running about 3 hours behind, so my 3:00 ET slot ended up being available sometime between 4:30 and 6 (when I got back from the grocery pickup run).  For the Tent horses, I ended up with Brighid and Beltane, the new mare and foal set, and Thorn, the appaloosa Trakehner who's a 50/50 split between matte and glossy.  I think both of those were high on my preferences.  I like the old Trak mold, and while I would love a Georg, I have some worries that Breyer will be able to pull off the resist dappling and mottling well.  Can't wait to see who the Slainte Surprise mold is. 

Just before I left, I finally managed to refresh the Fling store and find some things in stock.  Shock!  First was an attempt to get Greenman, Eire, and Benelli - Benelli sold out while Paypal was processing, but I still got my green ponies.  Then when I went back to the store, Benelli was still in my cart, and the SM set and Mackenzie the plush were in stock, so I tried another purchase.  That ended up with only Mackenzie still available.  But, that's 3 of the 5 I wanted taken care of, with two days left to shop.  And, since Breyer's holding everything to combine shipping, it doesn't matter if I have to buy one thing at a time. 

Still trying to get Benelli and the SM set (even though I'd be reselling at least the Arabian), but Breyer's offering pre-orders of glossy Benelli, Cheesecake, and Topgun as an apology for the technical glitches.  So, I could just get a glossy Benelli and stop trying to score a matte one. 

For the rest of Breyerfest, I watched some videos.  There's a video of last year's performace of the RCMP Musical Ride.  Watched part of it last night, and am in awe of their ability to do all that riding at a sitting trot, with a double-bridle's worth of reins in one hand.  Some of them were smiling pretty hard, too.  Seeing the Ride in person is on my bucket list.

Then there are all the workshop and how-to videos.  So far, I've watched 2 on Arabian halter making, one on paint matching for touchups, and one on making braided reins.  the color matching was helpful, but I really need to know if there's a way to match the hooves without an airbrush.  The black Stretch Morgan is having hoof issues, thanks to someone with glitter nail polish somewhere in his past. 

Shopping haul so far

• Brighid & Beltane
• Thorn
• Eire
• Greenman
• Mackenzie

Naytuksi

Latest of the web specials, Nayati.  Once again, my luck held, and I got the two I wanted - the dunalino and Appaloosa, both glossy.  They're gorgeous.  I'm loving the dunalino especially.  These need Star Wars names, since they arrived on the 5th, which is close enough to May the 4th. 

 

The dunalino has some wide masking on  his mane, but it seems to be not too obvious. 

Appy is gorgeous too, but has a few flaws.  Mostly that they skimped when glossing his hind legs, but there's also a tiny rub on one knee (in the red, so it's obvious), a strange flaw on his nose, and then I think the gloss in his nostrils bubbled a little because they look pale and milky inside. 

But overally, they look great.  

New Unicorns, and Fairfax

The local Breyer dealer got some of the new 2020 horses two weeks ago.  I meant to go last week and pick up a few, but we had weather.  So I was going to go Wednesday of this week, until I saw the forecast (more weather on Wednesday).  Instead, I went today.  Came home with Fairfax, the new Classic Morgan, and the 3 new Unicorn SM mystery foal sets.  I also want High Tide and the anniversary Saddlebred and Fighting Stallion, but didn't get those today.  Becky didn't get many High Tides, the one Saddlebred had iffy masking, and the Fighter, as it turns out, has overspray speckles around the pinto spots, which I don't care for, so I'll wait for a more subtle one. 

But.  Fairfax is a really nice mold, he reminds me of the UVM Yesteryear resin.  The ones I saw today had iffy paint work on the mane, but I bought the best of the three anyway.  Can't wait to see some of the customs that people do.  More affordable than another Yesteryear.  The new unicorns are good, and at least a few more molds have been 'corned - the cantering WB and Prancing Morgan.  The new foals are great - I like the cantering one the best.  The other one (prancing?) is nice too, but the front legs look too long in comparison to the hind legs. 

And I paid for both Klauses and Trailblazer, so hopefully they'll be here soon. 

Estate Sale (August 2)

One of the local estate-sale companies posted some pics with Breyers for a recent sale, so of course I went.  Hauled the not-a-morning-person kiddo out to go with me.  Another local collector wasn't going, but asked me to pick up a couple for her if the prices were right.  And they were. 

I picked up the black wolf, cougar, Custom kit horse, and Spirit for Tracy.  Wolf and Cougar were a screaming deal at $2 each.

The Duchess, Frolic Foal, and SMs are mine.  Most of what the owner had was from the Wild Mustangs Walmart sets, so lots of Mesteno series molds, which I'm not a fan of.  I didn't have the Duchess, though, and she's almost mint.  The SMs were the real score for me, especially this one.

Only $1, he was only released for a couple of years with the Horse Crazy card game.  Missing half his off-side ear, but still fine for photo showing, if I watch the angles. 

Lancelot, Teton, and Gwenevere

Well, no email from Breyer, so I guess I didn't get picked for the Teton list. That's okay. The "Check Engine Soon" light in my car came on today. It's a 20-year-old car, so I expect this will be a not-cheap trip to the mechanic.


 The Lancelots arrived - I ordered one with a pair of blind-bag SMs, and found two helpful Blabbers to order for me. Ended up with 2 blue, one Appy (my order), a palomino mini-Magnolia, and the funky gold-peach Andalusian. Already worked a swap to get a palomino, which should be here on Friday.

 These blues are gorgeous, and I don't just say that because I have a thing for blue horses.  There are gold/green undertones on the flanks, the masking is really good overall, and the color is NICE.  The star is shaped like a conch shell - they were going with an ocean theme, I guess.

 Appy Lancelot is also darn nice.  The spots are all masked, I'm pretty sure - they're all very uniformly placed in the pictures I've seen. 

 After Gwenevere and another blind-bag SM turned up in a bubble mailer (Seriously, Breyer??!!) I sent them an email about the unacceptability of mailing SMs like that.  Especially $20 SR Stablemates.  They offered, I thought, to replace the mini box, since mine got kind of smushed.  Turns out that they sent a whole other Gwenevere, in the usual super-sturdy brown mailer.  So now I have two Gwens.  New Gwen, I think, is one of the ones with the straighter head/neck, but it's hard to tell from some angles.  She does seem to be less stable than Old Gwen. 

Breyer goings-on

First of all, my Gwenevere from the Stablemate Club finally arrived - a day before I got the shipping notice from Breyer.  Ha.

I'm in an Endgame mood, so I think her name may be Time Heist 3000.  She is gorgeous, a sooty caramelly-toned palomino, with pearly mane and tail.  And the mold seems to have held up (better than the Morgan Stallion and his sausage leg, or the QH mare with muzzle issues).  Mine does have a flattish spot on her tail, which I think she came with - I did drop her, but I don't think that would make a flat spot.

And yesterday, Breyer released the newest Collector's Club Gambler's Choice - Lancelot, on the Love Man o' War mold, in palomino, blue, or Appaloosa.  I've only got one Club account now, but I found two Blabbers to order for me.  Hopefully my Scotty and Calvin luck will happen again and I won't have to swap.

I wish I could figure out how to put pictures side-by-side on Blogspot. 

Callahans

Three Callahans arrived.  The ride-along SMs meant boxes in good shape, unlike some of the pictures I've been seeing of the white boxes used for mailing.  Oy vey.

I got one silver filigree and a pair of silver dapple bays, so I'll be trying to swap one for the palomino. 

Oh Breyer

Beryer, Breyer, Breyer.

I know I'm not saving up for BreyerFest, and I'm not even having anyone pick up horses for me this year, but jeez.  Between the Vintage Club, SM Club, the VC "bonus" horse Tanner, getting picked for a Rialto, and good grief all the Web Specials, my willpower has taken a beating.  Because I got two Fletchers - one glossy, one matte - and Starlet, and got a gorgeous sockless Koh-i-noor before they sold out, and now Callahan is when I found out that the third Collectors account that I thought had expired?  Hadn't expired.  So next Thursday I'll be getting 3 Callahans. 

I was just on Identify Your Breyer checking on the Shire mold releases.  Only the A Shire has been a RR so far, and possibly the wagon and pair would be considered a RR.  Everything else has been limited runs, although I've been lucky enough to get a Frosty, Flurry, and Triton. 

I really need to just stop reading any emails from Breyer.  My bank account would thank me.

The first horses of 2018

I intend to be more careful in adding to the herd this year.  Too many other things that need to be focused on (especially financially).

But, it didn't take long to add a few horses.  I went to Walmart this week, after BrickSeek said that the local store had Skyler the unicorn.  BrickSEek was right, and I came home with Skyler and a couple of the SM and Mini Whinnie mystery bags.  I did a good job feeling up the bags - came home with the mystery Mini along with a chestnut, and the mystery green-gold Friesian, plus the appaloosa warmblood and grey TWH.  

 The Fresian is glossy, and had a stronger odor than the other two when I opened him.  I'm guessing it's the gloss.  He's better now.

The chestnut has a wonky leg and won't stand at the moment.  And I really need to figure out which way Silver is supposed to attach to the stand.  Right now he's got a Superman vibe going on.

Again with the tiny boxes

This box just arrived.  It has a whole Classic Mustang Family inside.  The box measures 9.5 x 10.5 x 4 inches.  This may be a better packing job than the box that came earlier this week, but not by much. 

Okay, yes, better packing job, but only because no heads or tails were sticking out of the bubble wrap. 

So, introducing: the original Classic Mustang Family.  I've got one other family, one of the Christmas SRs, I think with a buckskin stallion.

 

I never realized how little effort Breyer put into the paint job on this girl.  Her whole underside is blank white, no facial shading, just random overspray. 

Stallion had a bad day in the molding room - someone didn't match his face halves up very well, and from a certain angle he looks very odd. 

Overall, for their age, I got a good deal.