Stablemate Stalemate

I finally got the fulfillment of my Stablemate Collectors' Club pieces the other day -- just a week or so before Christmas.

I was really pleased with both" Priscilla" and "Corbin" (as I knew I would be) but what I was really looking forward to, after months and months of waiting, was finding out which colour of the Gambler's Choice "Iris" I would receive.

Alas, it was the decorator -- not the colour I liked least but not the colour I desired most either.

I really am trying to get better about decorators.  After years of hating them, I'm trying hard to find it within my heart to welcome them into my herd.  Some of the colours are, after all, really quite attractive and as long as I remember that that's just what these horse-shaped objects are supposed to be -- attractive and, um, decorative -- I can usually warm up to them.

That's what I'm trying to do with my "Iris."  Her colour really is quite fascinating.  It's one of those colours that change depending on the light she's standing in and the angle at which you look at her.

Breyer has described her colouration as being inspired by "Mojave turquoise ... with a gold basecoat layered with purple, blue and interference gold."  She doesn't remind me of turquoise as much as someone like Bisbee does, but I'm guessing the "purple, blue and interference gold" account for the colour shifts I'm seeing.

Because I can't break myself of the obsession of finding breeds for my horses, I've had to go into the worlds of mythology to find breeds for all the new decorator horses that are invading my shelves.  My "Iris," who I'm calling "Dazzle" is being designated as a Gnome pony -- since her gem colours suggesting mining and working underground, which is within the purview of gnomes in many stories.

Of course, now that my 2019 year of membership in the Stablemate Collectors' Club is completed, it's time to start contemplating whether or not I will join up again in 2020.  In fact, I have very little time left in which to decide, and Breyer is not making it very easy.

After the first two previews -- of the appaloosa rearing Lipizzaner "Klaus" and the glossy bay G1 Arabian "Sultan" -- I was pretty much convinced that I was going to be back in the club for another year.  Then they revealed "Chroma" -- a kind of rainbow-coloured clearware on the newer Cob mold, and I find myself stuck in a sort of stablemate stalemate, not knowing whether to go ahead and re-sign with the Club, or fall back and resign from it.

You see, this year was the first year I've been in the club where there wasn't a mandatory decorator purchase -- and I ended up with a decorator anyway.  It might have been possible to be part of the 2018 Club and get away without purchasing a decorator as well, but I wasn't a member that year and in 2016 and 2017 when I was a member, a mandatory decorator was included in the line-up ("Ricochet" in 2016 and "Allegiance" in 2017).  Do I really want to be forced to do that again?  Particularly since there's another way to get a rearing Lipizzaner, in black, in the new Stablemate gift set.

I just don't know.  I'm stymied, and that's the long and the short of it.  "Chroma" is pretty in that odd way that decorators can be, but I still resent the idea of having to buy him.  On the other hand, I already like him better than "Allegiance," which wasn't perhaps the right decorator for Breyer to foist on International members -- stars and stripes don't really do anything for us.  What to do?  What to do?  What to do?

Well, whatever it is, I'll have to do it soon or the choice will be taken out of my hands entirely.  So making some sort of decision will be both my last resolution of 2019, and my first resolution of 2020.

Wish me luck!

A Breyer Christmas Carol

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,

Right down Santa Claus Lane.

Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeer 

Pullin' on the reins.

Bells are ringing, children singing,

All is merry and bright.

So hang your stockings and say your prayers

 'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight.

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus,

Right down Santa Claus Lane.

He's got a bag that's filled with toys 

 

For boys and girls again.

Hear those sleigh bells jingle jangle, 

Oh what a beautiful sight!

So jump in bed, cover up your head, 

'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight.

 *All images courtesy of Identify Your Breyer

'Tis the Season

According to my calendar, this weekend marks the winter solstice with the shortest day and the longest night of the year (and I'm sick of the snow already).  So here's another Breyer-inspired song in the spirit of the season:

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?

In the lane, snow is glistening

A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight,

Walking in a winter wonderland.

Gone away is the bluebird,

Here to stay is a new bird

He sings a love song as we go along,

Walking in a winter wonderland.

In the meadow we can build a snowman,

Then pretend that he is Parson Brown

He'll say: Are you married? We'll say: No man,

But you can do the job while you're in town.

Later on, we'll conspire,

As we dream by the fire

To face unafraid the plans that we've made,

Walking in a winter wonderland.

 

*As usual, all images are courtesy of Identify Your Breyer.

Boots and Bonbons

A few weeks ago, on Black Friday, Anne Field, of Field of Dolls Studio, hosted an online doll and accessories sale on her studio Facebook page.  I read about her plans leading up to the sale on her blog, "Because Everybody Needs Dolls" (listed as one of my favourite blogs on the right) and wanted to do something to support her efforts.  Unfortunately, due to an ill-timed nap, I totally missed the sale which ran, I think, just over an hour.

Fortunately, Anne still had a few unsold items left over the next day.  And although I no longer live show, I really wanted to show my support by buying a couple of her pieces.  Looking over the leftovers, I settled on a bag of miniature candy treats (for my Hallowe'en pony's bucket) and a set of yellow fetlock boots.

I may never really use the fetlock boots, but I thought they'd be handy if I ever wanted to play dress-up with one of my horses.  I'll also have them available to lend if one of my friends would like to borrow them for live or photo showing.

The boots themselves aren't really shown to best advantage on my Brighty (or Hickory Hills Wall Street) but he was handy so that's why he got to model them for this post.  Brighty has really skinny legs, though, which leaves me with a little too much strap when tightening the boots around the fetlock.  I'm sure they'll look better on a larger horse.  

What I can say about these boots, though, is that they're remarkably easy to put on.  Somehow Anne has managed to pre-bend them in such a way that they really grip the leg securely and will pretty much stay where you put them all by themselves, before you even start to do up any straps.  I can see how this would be a big bonus for a performance shower -- there's nothing more stressful during a live show than fighting with one's tack.

As for the candy bars -- I'm not sure how she gets such tiny little labels made; I'd never have the patience to work with such fiddly little bits of paper.  Although super-tiny, the labels are legible; my Hallowe'en pony can now look forward to two packages of M&Ms, some Raisinets, and and some Hershey's Kisses in his loot bucket.  So cute!

I've only ever participated in one Facebook sale before Anne's -- in 2014 I watched one of Stone Horses' online sales and ended up buying a test Foolish Pride weanling (unfortunately not marked as a test anywhere but on her documentation).  I wish I had been awake enough to participate in the same way during Anne's sale -- it looks like it was a lot of fun.  I was very impressed with all the work she'd done ahead of time to prepare for the sale; she even labelled all her dolls and tack with backwards numbers so that they'd show up correctly when reversed on camera.

According to her blog, Anne is planning to do another similar sale in March.  It's too early to say if I'll be able to tune in again at that point, but it certainly gives me something to look forward to and I wish her the best of luck.

Everybody loves a sale, and having the ability to get in on one long distance, in real time, without the hassle of pre-registering and bidding (as in online auctions) is one of the perks of living in our brave new digital world.

Collector Club Craziness

Well, what an interesting couple of days we had this week in Breyer-land!

I knew going into this week that the Breyer Collector Club Appreciation (CCA) Day would be coming up soon but, as I think I mentioned before, the last time I tried to cash in on one of those I somehow missed the mark.

Also, given that I've already purchased more models than I had really intended to this year, I was prepared to let this year's CCA Day pass me by.  But of course, I did want to know what glossies they had on offer.

As expected, by the time I checked out Breyer's CCA Day offerings last Wednesday they were all gone.  But I did note which models they'd offered to gloss (for the record, it was Seamus, Latigo Dun It, Verdades, Thunder, and Enzo) and I didn't feel too bad about missing any of them, except perhaps Enzo, who I think looks lovely in gloss.

What I did not expect was that there would be a second CCA Day announced by Breyer this past Friday and set to run all weekend long.  Apparently, the first CCA Day offerings were all grabbed up so swiftly that even the folks at Breyer were astonished, so they decided to open the store to Collector Club members once again.  I can think of a number of reasons why they might have wanted to do this, not the least of which is that Breyer will now have an idea of just how many Collector Club members might go for a CCA Day special, so they can tweak their offerings accordingly next year if they want to.

This time around they aren't telling what all the glossy models might be, although they did drop three names: King, LV Integrity, and Khalid.  Since they need time to gloss all the models they're going to give away, the new glossies won't be available until May 2020.

Can you imagine this guy as a glossy?

Intriguingly, Breyer has pre-valued these models at $150 U.S. each.  I find it interesting that Breyer valued these models on what the secondary market might pay for one, as opposed to giving them a value like that of any comparable Traditional scale model that just happens to be glossy.

Given the number of days included in the current CCA "Day" offer, I suspect there will be a lot more of the second-string glossies out "in the wild" next June than glossies from the original CCA Day, so that $150 estimated value may not stand up for very long.

Or this one?

This thought did not stop me, though, from suddenly wanting to get in on a good thing.  You see, I rather like LV Integrity, Khalid, and King, and I don't have any one of them.  Assuming that there will be five new glossies offered, the odds are already 3 out of 5 in my favour.

Or this?

So despite my previous protestations, I simply could not resist Breyer's "everyone gets a glossy" come-on.  There truly aren't a lot of horses that I need to add to my stable at this time of year, so I filled up my cart with a bunch of Breyer swag -- some pony pouches, a coffee mug, a calendar, etc.  I did add one horse ornament (the Fjord) and one painting kit (the SM Warmbloods and foal), but other than those two my order was entirely non-collectible "stuff."

It's not clear whether the swag will be coming my way before or after the May 2020 shipping date mentioned.  Either way, I can wait -- only the calendar would really be out of date if I had to wait until mid-May for my shipment.  Besides, the extra time will enable me to sit in a corner and think about what I've done.

So sorry Santa, I've been a bad girl.  I had angelic intentions, but, alas, the devil made me do it once again.

*All images courtesy of Identify Your Breyer

Tally Ho!

Copperfox is on its way back.

The British model horse manufacturer, started up by a Kickstarter campaign in 2014, only to close its doors in 2018, is back in business again.

According to an email I received recently, Copperfox 2.0 is getting ready to launch.

From the start, the primary goal of Copperfox Model Horses has been to pay tribute to a wide variety of British breeds, particularly those under-represented in the herds of other model horse manufacturers.  Copperfox's initial offerings included a Connemara Pony, a Welsh Cob (Sec. D), and an Exmoor Pony.  Later, these founding three were joined by an Irish Sport Horse.

The full Copperfox story with all its ups and downs can be found on the Copperfox home page here.

In short, it tells us that Copperfox has been sold to new owners in the United States who will be manufacturing models both in the UK and the USA (it's not entirely clear whether or not completely different models are to be offered to each market).  Copperfox 2.0 promises to "honor and follow the original mission" of Copperfox so that "British breeds will continue to be the largest parts of the lineup."  They do  not, you will note, promise that their line-up will consist only of British breeds.

As before, the new Copperfox intends to release its models in both plastic and resin, with the addition of a line of miniature versions of their larger sculptures in Stablemate (Coppercub) and Micro Mini (Copperkit) scales -- something other model horse manufacturers like Breyer and Hartland have also gone into in a big way.

The final two molds produced in resin by the old Copperfox -- the Shire "Sir Winston" and the Shetland or Partbred Pony "Scamp" are apparently first in line for release.  The Copperfox Facebook site features plenty of previews of Winston in particular, as well as some tantalizing sneak peaks of the minis -- some in decorator colours.

"Katydid" my lone Copperfox model

During the heyday of Copperfox 1.0, I only purchased two Copperfox models -- Trifle, on the Exmoor Pony mold, and Henrietta, also on the Exmoor Pony mold.  Both were seconds, which brought their price down to something I didn't feel guilty about paying.  I had intended to keep them both, but after I got them I just couldn't warm up to Henrietta.  The flaws on them both were minuscule, and irrelevant to me since I no longer attend live shows.  But I didn't like Henrietta's stark pinto pattern, and so was happy to sell her on to someone who would love her more.  That left me with only one Copperfox -- the Exmoor I named "Katydid."

I do love "Katydid."  She's appealingly homely and humble in appearance, and certainly unlike anything Breyer, Stone, or Hartland has ever produced (although her colour gradient does remind me quite a bit of Breyer's Georg).

I love most of the other Copperfox sculptures too -- especially the Connemara and the Sport Horse.  But I have resisted buying them because they look like such excellent performance horses to me, and a good performance horse is pretty much wasted in my stable these days.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the horses that will be coming out of Copperfox in the future and glad to see that, as Hartland has done time and time again, they've found a way back from the brink of extinction.

Let's hope it's a long time before they've "gone to ground" again.

Horse-Shaped Fun

Normally, when a model horse collector talks about an "HSO" sighting, they're talking about a kind of model horse that sort of looks like it was meant to portray a real animal, but that has certain conformation, biomechanic, and/or coloration flaws that exclude it from becoming a part of one's show herd.  Horse-shaped objects (HSOs) attract us because of their whimsical nature, not because they are good representations of horses.

Just the other day, though, I bought an HSO for myself that isn't really even vaguely horse-shaped.  It is certainly whimsical, though.

What happened was that I got an email in my inbox from a comic book distributor I'd had prior dealings with.  They were having a Black Friday sale.  I hadn't been on their website for quite a while, so I clicked the link and took a look.  And that's where I found a Funko Pop! Quick Draw McGraw figurine on sale, and I simply could not resist bringing him home.

Quick Draw McGraw and his Zorro-like alter-ego, El Kabong, were among my favourite television cartoon characters when I was small.  The team of Quick Draw and his donkey sidekick Baba Looey pushed all my buttons -- they were cute, they were cartoons, they were equids.  What more could a kid want?

I was in seventh heaven when my local television station (one of three that we had access to during my childhood) added Quick Draw to their "Hanna-Barbera Hour" (or possibly half-hour: I don't recall the actual name of the program).  Other cartoons featured in daily rotation on that program included Yakky Doodle Duck; Huckleberry Hound; Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo; Pixie, Dixie and Mr. Jinks; and Snagglepuss -- all early additions to Hanna-Barbera's stable of animated characters and all childhood favorites.

Hanna-Barbera was something of a powerhouse of an animation studio, particularly during the 1960s when their cartoons began taking over TV.  At that time I also watched "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show," Walter Lantz's "Woody Woodpecker Show" (which I seem to recall airing only sporadically), some CanCon (Canadian content) cartoons like "Rockect Robin Hood" and "Spider-Man", and, for one brief season a show that included both "Shazzan" and "Luno," two other cartoons that I absolutely loved ("Shazzan" for its flying camel and "Luno" for its flying horse).  But despite all these contenders for my affection, my greatest love was always reserved for Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey.  Among other things, I once had a group of View-Master reels devoted to their adventures and I still have a 45 rpm record immortalizing El Kabong.

This video, called "The Good, the Bad, and the EL KABONG" probably tells you all you need to know about Quick Draw in about five minutes.

The Funko Pop! figurines honour just a few Hanna-Barbera characters in their line-up:  the back of Quick Draw's box mentions Ricochet Rabbit, Squiddley Diddley, and Penelope Pitstop, and I've never seen any of those cartoons, although I do remember once reading a comic book with Ricochet Rabbit in it.  I do believe they've expanded their line a little bit since Quick Draw debuted around December 2015 -- I've seen such characters as the Jetson's Dog Astro, Atom Ant, Touché Turtle, Top Cat, Lippy the Lion, Snagglepuss and even El Kabong and a very tempting Baba Looey for sale on eBay.

Collectible in their own right, Funko Pop! figurines win over most of their customers with cute versions of much more current pop culture heroes, like the Marvel Avengers, Star Wars characters, Walt Disney characters, the Harry Potter gang and the like.  Until I actually removed Quick Draw from his package, I thought these characters were all bobbleheads, but actually the Pop! line is a simple plastic figurine line -- Funko produces its bobbleheads under the name Wacky Wobblers.

According to Wikipedia, the large head of the Funko Pop! characters mimics a Japanese style of animation known as "chibi."  Chibi-style characters typically have small bodies and limbs and oversized heads to make them appear childlike.

Being a collector, I can certainly see the collectible appeal of these Funko figurines.  I'm already thinking that I need a Baba Looey to go with Quick Draw.  After all, I once dressed up a Breyer Traveller and Brighty and as the animated pair for a live show costume class.  But even though Funko also offers a line of My Little Pony (MLP) figures (including a Dr. Who-MLP mash-up named "Dr. Hooves") as well as such characters as Donkey from Shrek and Bullseye from Toy Story 2, I do not really need any more HSOs in my life.

It sure is fun to think about them, though, and bring back those memories of being mesmerized by the 'toons on our old black and white TV back when my choices of animated entertainment were limited to three numbers on a well-worn dial.