Vintage Club - Quinn

I managed to forget to renew my SM Club membership, but I did join the Vintage Club again.  The Classic QH Family were what definitely sucked me back in. 

Quinn is the second horse for the year (and it's only March!), after the Clydesdale mare and foal.  They did an amazing job on the masking, I could only find one fuzzy area on mine so far. 

The vintage carrying-case box is also lovely.  I don't have many of those, so I'm liking that option for this year.

Mid MO Model Maniacs 2017

Shock of shocks - two live shows in less than a year.  I didn't buy anything (forgot to grab cash before we left), but that only really hurt when I was looking at the Copperfox Ambassador's display and that grey Percival is yummy.  Finnegan is nice in person, can't really see the supposed hoof issue.  The Exmoor still doesn't do anything for me, and I'm iffy on the Connemara so far. 

Different judges, so the Paso that got Reserve last fall got nothing this time.  But the other Paso got a Reserve. 

My only resin, a buckskin Yesteryear, NAN'd again, but no ribbon this time.

I did get a Reserve Light Breed with a CollectA Morgan - the ribbon may have cost more than he did. 

Vintage Club ideas

Ideas and thoughs for future Vintage Club models:

• Semi-rearing Mustang in a shaded bay or glossy palomino to match the Fighting Stallion
• Black spatter-blanket Running Mare and Foal to match the Running Stallion (and Laying Foal and Scratching Foal) - yes, I know similar ones exists, but they are scarce, and the foal, at least, has 4 white socks)
• Glossy charcoal Running Mare and Foal, to go with the Running Stallion
• Mustang/Diablo in glossy palomino to match the Fighting Stallion - since they did the FS in Mustang buckskin
• Lady Phase in the glossy palomino or alabaster - but only if they work on her forehead
• Murphy's glossy grey appy on just about anything, because I love that color
• Some color on the App Performance Horse - maybe the QHG bay appy color, or smoke, or glossy palomino
• I would say the old Racehorse in any vintage color, but the mold is such a different style from all the rest that it doesn't really fit in.

Amazing once-a-year luck

Last Friday, I had my big once-a-year estate sale luck.

Seriously - I'm on the mailing lists for both estate sale organizers in town, search Craigslist regularly, and have decided that I live in a No Breyer Or Other Horse-shaped Object Zone.  Sort of the reverse of a black hole.  But, about once a year, the luck changes.

Last week, the estate sale organizer announcement had 2 sales, and one mentioned Breyers.  Actually, I knew before I read the announcement, because one of the pictures on Facebook had the clearly-visible hind leg of a Breyer Racehorse, next to a silverplate wine bucket.  Then there were a couple of other pictures with Breyers and even, shock of shocks, Hartlands.  (Which are also rare around here, even though the company was headquartered about two hours from here for a while.)  There was a Fury, Fighting Stallions, Family Arabians, and woodcut Hartlands, among others.  I was really after the black Fury and Racehorse, and Hartlands.

So, the sale started at 8, on the other side of town, which mean dealing with the lousy morning traffic.  And, I managed to lose the checkbook on Wednesday, leading to panic.  I rounded up all the cash in the house, and kicked the rest of the family off to work/school early on Friday.  Got to the sale around 15 minutes after it opened and was the first Breyer buyer.  There were a few things that weren't in the pictures - like an alabaster Old Timer and a grey appy Diablo.  The Breyers were in great condition, and the newest ones there were a bay Running Mare and Bay Jumper.  The rest were all from the 60s, mostly glossy, and not played with a lot.  There was a woman there shopping for her horse-mad granddaughter, who asked my advice.  I recommended the bay Running Mare, she's sweet and a classic.

I ended up with three woodcut Hartlands, the Diablo, a charcoal Fighting Stallion, and the Racehorse.  Not sure why I passed on the Fury, except that I'd just gotten an email from an auction, and I'd won a lot with a Fury and a palomino FAF.  That used most of my cash.  Then I drove over to the pool where the kid takes lessons, and found the checkbook.  Yay!!  So I drove back to the sale and got Fury, the glossy palomino Fighting Stallion, and a cheap bedsheet to use for sewing projects.

And then I came home and said Wow.

Went back the next day for half-price, but the rest of the Breyers were gone.  I kind of wish I'd gotten the alabaster FAS, he was glossy and had a ribbon sticker.  Oh well.

And then I realized that I'd gotten an appy Diablo on eBay over the summer.  This one is much nicer, though, not as yellowed.  And, of course, the Fighting Stallions are both the 3rd copies of each, and now I've got 2 Furys.  But the Hartlands aren't dupes - there are a cherry and ebony 3-gaiter, and an ebony Tennessee Walker to go with the cherry one I already had, but they're different mane versions.

The Fury even has a price tag on his belly, $1.49. 

The Stablemate Club

Breyer's latest horse for the SMC is up, and I paid for mine today.

I'm really hoping for the bay Appaloosa - he looks a bit like my Rubicano.

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. 

Stablemates

I am a sucker for the Stablemates, especially the G1 molds, and most extra-especially the G1 Morgans, which are copied from Hagen-Renaker molds.  I was browsing on eBay last week and came across a lot of 3 SMs, all old G1 molds.  One was the Morgan stallion, and although the pics weren't great, I could tell that it was an older Morgan, before the mold deteriorated and the foreleg went kind of sausage-y.  Plus, it was a really old Morgan, the alabaster mistake that was only done for a year or so - it was supposed to be the alabaster Arabian.  So, t here was a Buy It Now option that was fairly reasonable, and I was almost late for the afternoon school run because I was buying these. 

The third is the Thoroughbred Mare in the old bay. 

They aren't pristine - Morgan is yellowed, the others have rubs, and the Arabian has a weird ear, and the back of his near hind didn't get painted at all somehow.  But the Morgan will probably look better with some sun time, and the price was reasonable enough. 

I also got the next SM Club horse, Sylvester. 

This one came out much better  than some others.  None of the mold flaws that Primrose had, and this gloss doesn't have the bubbles that my alabaster rearing SM had on his face, poor guy.