When I first clapped eyes on the new 2019 regular run horses coming from Breyer, the ones I coveted the most were the Best of British Thoroughbred and Hackney foals. I've been avoiding the "Gilen" foal for years as he just looks too tipsy to me, but I thought that making the "Lipizzaner" foal into a Hackney horse foal was a stroke of genius. That foal really does look like a Hackney to me, and it's not very often that we see them portrayed in the foal stage. So despite my reservations about Gilen, the Best of British foals catapulted to the top of my "must have" list.
Recently, I got an opportunity to purchase them at a discounted price -- it took no more than that to twist my rubber arm. I put in my order and home they came.
Billy Boy and Georgie Girl -- my two newest foals
Unfortunately, I was immediately disappointed by my little Hackney girl. You see, somewhere between the factory floor and the toy shop shelf, my little Hackney lost part of her left ear. It's perfectly painted over so it wasn't a shipping break -- it was just a factory imperfection that somehow escaped quality control.
And that's the major disadvantage of shopping via mail order as opposed to shopping in person. I used to get teased about the amount of time I would spend comparing new-in-box (NIB) models on the rare occasions that I had an opportunity to shop for them in person, but all that scrutiny was meant to avoid factory flaws and therefore disappointment.
It's not such a big deal now that I no longer show my models, but still, when I really like a mold I'd like to have the best example I can find on my shelf. With mail order shopping, except in the rare case of a few retailers who specialize in reaching the hobbyist crowd, what you're sent is what you get. And I got a flawed model.
Ironically, the "Gilen" Thoroughbred foal is perfect, although he was not the one who sold me on the set.
Irish Thoroughbred foal a.k.a. "Billy Boy"
In fact, I was actually surprised at how much I wanted this set, given that I'm not particularly enamoured of a lot of sculptor Brigitte Eberl's foals. I like cute foals, and Brigitte tends to prefer gangling, gawky youngsters. Admittedly, every young horse passes through this stage, but it's not my favourite stage of horse development. And while Brigitte is certainly capable of sculpting cute (I adore her Classic Haflinger pony foal, for instance), a lot of her foals are, in my opinion, just plain homely -- like the Roman-nosed Breyer Traditional Andalusian foal.
The Lipizzaner/Hackney foal has a bit of a Roman nose too, but it's not quite as pronounced as the Andalusian's. In theory, I should be able to take a flattering picture of my little girl -- except that she's missing the tip of an ear.
Hackney horse foal a.k.a. "Georgie Girl"
This sort of factory flaw has actually plagued me before when buying Breyers. Both my Ichilay Indian Pony and my Steel Dust Proud Arab Mare (both long since sold) came to me with partial eartips, both painted over at the factory. Properly sculpted, equine eartips are a work of art, but they are apparently a detail that Breyer does not overly concern itself with. However, with Breyer's new crop of sculptors, the artistry of ears is getting better. Where Chris Hess might have contented himself with a slight indent, a sculptor like Kristina Lucas Francis traces all the sweeping lines of the expressive equine ear. Breyer's horses are constantly improving in terms of realism -- and that's something I'm happy to support.
In the meantime, I'm still fairly happy with my two new babies, despite the initial disappointment. No, they're not perfect, but they still knock the socks off Breyer's old Family and Running Foals. And they're mine.
Never mind the missing eartip, little Hackney foal. I got you, babe.
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