Craft House Corporation kit horses

 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). 

 

 

 

Shetland Pony.  Looks a little plain around the head, but I've seen worse.  

The other three shown on the Pony's box are a Quarter Horse colt, POA, and a Unicorn.  

 

Oddly, the Arabian was fastened to the box with a flat-head screw (note: box knife blades are not acceptable screwdrivers, and now I need a new box knife).  The Pony was more problematic, we had to find a small socket wrench to take that screw out.  Why they used something that not everyone will have in the house, for a kit marketed (presumably) to the general non-mechanical public, is another question for the ages. 

Breyerfest preparation

 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.

Prince has arrived

 The Deluxe Collector Club SM finally arrived yesterday.  I got lucky, my box wasn't smashed like many of them were (seriously, Breyer, go back to those sturdy brown boxes, not these flimsy things). 

He's not as yellow as he looks in this picture, and I need to get a picture of him with my vintage palomino Fighting Stallions.  And the charcoal pairs, too. 

Incoming horses

 Well, I've got an unfulfilled order number on my Breyer account now - my Deluxe CC "Prince" will be here someday soon.  Still no updates on the Vintage Club SM, which I think is a gold Northern Dancer this year, meant to be a mini Secretariat.

Shelves and more shelves

 The stupid pandemic has put the squash on my usual weekly round of thrift stores and estate sales, but the local consignment auction is all online, and I've had a bit of luck there.  Last week, it was a trio of DVD/CD/media shelves (made by Sauder, circa 1996).  About 3.5 feet high, just under a foot wide, 6 inches deep.  Perfect for SMs, along with the Schleich/Safari/CollectA brigade.

These models are black inside, although at least one of mine is woodgrain interior.  Since the black turns them into a black hole, I lined them partially with white paper, from an end-roll of statement paper from Husband's work.  The shelves got a lining of assorted scrapbook paper in a variety of patterns.  (To paraphrase Adam Savage - This is the rainy day you were saving that thing for!).  

 

I didn't line both sides with paper, because the shelves are a tight fit and wedging them in makes the paper wrinkle.  So, white on the back and one side it is. And it does make a difference, as you can see.

At the spacing for SM sizes, I could fit at least two more shelves into each unit, but Sauder doesn't seem to sell replacement shelves, or at least won't tell me how much they cost without my providing a lot number that I don't have.  So, for now, I'm on the lookout for 1/2-inch plywood or board of some kind.  Michaels may have something close, but they seem to be closed temporarily at t he moment (probably because of the stupid pandemic). 

Jol, the second horse of this year

 The Christmas Day surprise this year was the Fjord in clearware - clear, red, or blue-green.  Not sure how blue-green fits the Christmas theme, pure green would be better, but that's okay.  I got online at the right time, and bought one, hoping for the blue-green to add to the Blue Horse Herd.  

 

Mine was delivered on Monday, and I got the blue-green I was hoping for.  Very pretty, and at least the glitter seems to be embedded in the plastic, instead of on top where it can shed everywhere.  

 

 

So, may I present Sermilik, named after a fjord in Greenland with a locally-famous blue iceberg, known as the "blue diamond." 

First horse of 2021

 The first horse (okay, first in-hand, not first paid-for) is here.  Columbia's three Walmarts each seemed to only get 2 boxes of the Series 3 unicorns, and I never found the purple Warmblood, so I paid $25 for one on Facebook.  And he arrived early, too!  The silver on one hoof is a little sloppy, but that's an easy fix if I want to touch it up - it's not like he'll be a show horse anyway.

Now he needs an appropriately grapey name.