On the whole, I'd say it's a pretty impressive lot. There's nothing there that I need to add to my collection, but I do appreciate the fact that there's finally a bay Bristol for all those who have been lusting after him. The miniature horse set is cute with the little personalized jump, and the mule -- though not my kind of mule -- has a really complex pattern that Breyer should be applauded for attempting (and from the pictures, it looks like they did a good job). The portrait horse, Kentucky, has already been previewed on the Breyer website, so no news there. And the Hallowe'en horse is the sort of decorator I have not come around to liking yet, so no thrills there for me either. The translucent Stablemate unicorns are cute, though.
The new Classic rearing Mustang, "American Dream"
I am, however, most excited to see two new Classics horses joining the line-up. I've been very pleased over the past few years to see a new Classic mold joining the herd every year with the Horse of the Year series, and even happier that they're being rolled into the regular line-up right after their debuts. But this year has really brought us a bonanza of Classics with the new Arabian, and now a new Brabant and a new Mustang, all from different artists -- Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig, Mel Miller, and Maggie Bennett respectively.
Classic is my favourite Breyer scale, and despite the fact that I've only added two of the new molds (Liam, as Gato, and Bella in her original release) to my collection, and I don't anticipate adding any of this year's three newbies, I'm still so happy to see the expansion and refinement of Breyer's classic-scale horses.
"Dupree" (meaning "from the prairie") my Saddle Club Prancer and one of seven Duchesses in my Classic herd.
Over the years my own Classic collection has expanded and contracted as my collecting interests have changed. I used to have all of Breyer's pre-classic Classics (horses not originally promoted as being in classic-scale, like the Rearing Stallion, the Bucking Bronco, the Polo Pony, and Hobo) but I scaled that back to just the Rearing Stallion and the Bucking Bronco, letting the horses with the stands go. I also used to have all of Maureen Love's Hagen-Renaker mold Classic family sets, but ended up saving only the foals from the Quarter Horse and Arabian families. The Maureen Love Thoroughbreds have come and gone several times over in several incarnations -- today I have two of my original TBs (Silky Sullivan and Terrang) plus some more modern incarnations of Terrang (as Seabiscuit and Coeur de Lion) and Man O' War (as War Admiral).
Probably the oddest thing that has happened to my Classics collection, however, is my accidental "conga" line of Duchesses. I never had any intention of collecting multiple iterations of that mold, but I like it a lot and I've just found that I like a lot of the colours she's been released in. The result: accidental conga. Looking them over now I see that I have: the Trakehner family mare, the Model Horse Play and Activity Set horse, Wild Blue, the Western Horse and Rider Set horse, the Lisa and Prancer Gift Set horse, Mancha, and Cheyenne. That's seven of 28 releases (excluding the flockie) -- not a huge conga, but not a tiny number either.
I do really like the new mid-year rearing Mustang, so I might cave in and buy him at some point, but for now I'm pretty happy with my collection as it stands. I'm grateful to Breyer for continuing to tempt me, however. If nothing else, I am loving this Classic act.
No comments:
Post a Comment