Incoming Stablemates

 The next horse in the Stablemate Club is on the way - a glossy bay G1 Arabian Stallion called Sultan.  I'm doing a slight experiment with mine - ordered one alone, one with a ride-along - to see if my idea that ride-alongs slow things down in the shipping warehouse might be right.  

And Tractor Supply had the paint-your-own suncatcher SMs on sale, so I ordered 5 for in-store pickup.  Ended up with 3 Magnolias, a Warmblood, and a Walking TB. 

The Breyerfest Horses

 The Breyerfest haul arrived last month sometime (don't ask when, I'd have to look).  I ended up with:

1. Ballynoe Castle - the bay Show Jumper
2. 4-piece Single Day SMs
1. Jersey
2. Skye
3. Orkney
4. Aaran (which I think is misspelled)
3. Thorn - glossy
4. Brigid and Beltane
5. Glossy Benelli (not here yet)
6. Benelli
7. Eire
8. another Eire
9. 5-piece SM set
1. Warmblood (with horridly overlarge dapples and massive overspray)
2. Django
3. G2 Arabian
4. G2 TB
5. Rivet   

 

Conditionwise, everything looks great except a couple of the SR Stablemates with painting issues.  Oh well.  

 

 

Virtual Breyerfest 2020, Day 3

 Ooops, forgot to write this last month.  Ah well.  Day 3, as I recall, was mostly watching the seminars and how-to videos, and the Icelandic Horse documentary.  I'm glad I had the chance to "attend" Breyerfest, even if it was online and not real-world. 

Virtual Breyerfest, Day 2

Day 2 - another day of hitting Refresh many times.  But now that we found out that restocking happens every 2 hours, on the half-hour (ish), that leaves 90 minutes for doing other things. 

Saturday was a day of 5 orders.  Got a glossy Benelli, in case I couldn't get a matte one, then managed the SM set at 1130, matte Benelli at 3:30, a second Eire a bit after Benelli, and then used my Swag coupon on the green t-shirt. That finishes my shopping.  I was going to get a grab bag, but the only ones I ever saw in stock were a $200 warehouse (way out of my price range), and the SM Lovers bag, which was $100 (also out of my range).  Since I got the glossy Benelli, that sort of makes me feel better about skipping the grab bags, and honestly, my grab bag luck is very hit or miss. 

Spent the rest of the day watching videos.  Watched the RCMP Musical Ride, and a lot of the tutorial videos.  Can't remember all of them, but did watch most of the all of the seminars other than Reckless - Hobby History, Learning to Collect, : t Jenn Danza's repair video with how to make a one-shot mold out of silicon and baby  powder, Leah Patton's mule video.  For the tutorials and workshops, it's been he cataloging and history of collecting, Celtic Battlecorns, the mari lwyd, breed documentation, and a few others.

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

When it rains, it pours

Or, the flood of new horses. 

First, Breyer announces the mid-year releases, which include Apparition (a blue-purple glow-in-the-dark Halloween horse) and the 70th Anniversary shrinky-dink SMs.  I pre-ordered and paid for an Apparition at Becky's, and then went "damn the torpedos" and added a whole case of the SMs.  With any luck, I'll get one of the chase pieces, but even if I don't, I'll have neat minis of the Fighting Stallion, Fox Trotter, and all the others.  The mini charcoal Fighting Stallion will be awesome, if it looks anything like the large one.  Same for the pinto Indian Pony, the woodgrain Clydesdale, and most of the others.  They're doing two chase pieces this time - 1 in every 4th case, and a super-chase in every 12th, I think.  I'm betting one is an Alborozo, because they put mini Alby everywhere, and I think the other one might be the FAS or Western Horse, since those are the reliable old standards.  I just hope if it's a FAS, they don't go lemon-yellow on him.  But a mini Western Horse would be amazing.

Then they sent the email about the Vintage Club horse being ready to order.  This one is the Wedgewood pinto Belgian, Josiah.  I held out for a few days on ordering, since this week last year is when I paid for one of the SM Club horses last year.  And my patience was rewarded, because the email for Chroma, the clearware SMC horse, came a few days later.  So, combined shipping on one account. 



And now I must avoid eBay, because Breyerfest is next week, and while my Single Day SMs and ticket are paid for, the SRs and store specials aren't.  And I have a list.  Which will probably get cut down a lot after I see the prices on the store specials, but it won't go down to $0, I'm sure.



 

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.