Wake Up Call

On Facebook recently, I discovered two model horse manufacturers that I'd never heard of before, but probably should have done.

I think I can be excused for overlooking the Lanard Royal Breeds Collector Series Horses.  Prior to these "Royal Breed" horses coming on the market, Lanard was best-known for making hairy Barbie-type horses, and many sets now being sold under the "Royal Breed" moniker continue to be horses of this type.  But four of them -- a Clydesdale, an Arabian, a Gypsy Vanner, and a Saddlebred -- have sculpted manes and tails and have in fact been sculpted by one of our hobby artists: Maggie Bennett.  And I would never have known had I not seen that Facebook post.

The other manufacturer I discovered has been in business for quite some time but apparently I haven't been paying attention.  It was only the other day when I saw a post showing the differences between two copies of their "Gustav" model that I became aware of WIA as a company and its connection to Brigitte Eberl as a sculptor.

In fact, I have not so far been able to find out very much about WIA, save that their products are made in China.  I don't know the exact timeline of their model horse releases, but I think I've narrowed down what they've made so far.

I would hazard a guess that their 1:9 scale offerings pre-date the tinier ones.  If so, the Sommer Prosser/Rebecca Turner adaptation of Prosser's "Windfall" resin as a WIA resin "Fair Lady" would be among the first of its issues, with Brigitte Eberl's adaptation of her own "Salome" resin coming out around the same time.  I'm dating them to around 2014-2016, but have no real proof to back me up.

Coming out about the same time are a set of Little Bit size horses -- the Isabell Werths special runs "Don Johnson", "El Santo", and "Bella Rose".  Of these, only Bella Rose is produced by WIA and is credited to Eberl.  Don Johnson and El Santo are Bullyland horses, but they each bear such a significant similarity to Eberl's sculptures of the same name that I'm fairly sure they are adapted from them.

I have a date of 2016 for the "Bella Rose" sculpture connected to information about its being a special edition of 2500 to benefit Christoffel Blindenmission (CBM), a Christian charity with a mission to improve the lives of disabled people in poverty-stricken regions of the world.

I don't know when "Gustav" came on the scene but he appears to be the latest Eberl to come from WIA and is available in two colours:  dark bay pangaré and black leopard appaloosa.

All of these latter models are available from modellpferdeversand.  I've never shopped there before as I've never felt the need to, but the pictures of "Gustav" I discovered on Facebook caused me to change my mind.

WIA horses "Gustav" and "Bella Rose"

I ended up ordering both "Gustav" and "Bella Rose" as I have always wanted a horse in a correct dressage halt.  Breyer has come antagonizing close to this many times -- with its Stablemate G3 Thoroughbred, its Stablemate "Django," the classic "Jet Run" and even the Traditional Western Horse and Pony (if they didn't have molded-on western tack), Halla, and the Nursing Mare -- but either the legs are all over the place or the head isn't in the right position.  "Bella Rose" has just the stance I was looking for.  I would love to have this horse in Traditional size.

All the WIA "Gustav"s I've seen (and I've now seem quite a few of them), differ from each other in their shading.  Mine is maybe not the best I've ever seen, but it's far from the worst.  He has lovely facial shading, and while his lighter belly has crept fairly high up his sides, I like it better than his having no pale belly at all.

So it's taken me a while to find out about these new (to me) plastic manufacturers, but now that I know about them I am definitely going to keep an eye out for them.  One can only sleep for so long before it's time to wake up to what's been going on all around.