Monokerophobia (fear of unicorns -- I kid you not)

It hasn't been easy, but I've been avoiding Breyer unicorns as much as I possibly can.

As I think I've mentioned before, I don't really approve of the "horse-with-a-horn" type unicorns with which Breyer has been flooding the market.  To me, unicorns are a different kind of beast, and the best of them have beards, hairy fetlocks, and cloven hooves.  Some even have elongated asses' tails as opposed to horse tails.

Breyer's only unicorn to pass my personal unicorn test was the Little Bit unicorn (1984) who had a big fluffy horse tail but otherwise all the characteristics I was looking for in a unicorn.  Some of Breyer's earliest unicorns, like the Running Stallion (1982) and the Lying Foal (1985), also had token beards, but aside from that they still look basically like horses.

The only unicorns I have bought since I purchased my Little Bit in 1990, have been a trio of Stablemate (SM) unicorns.  The first two were from the first series of Horse Crazy Unicorn blind bags released -- a lavender mini Alborozo and a peachy mini Magnolia.  I lucked out getting these two; they were the two I most wanted as, at that time, these molds had not yet appeared as regular horses in regular horse colours.  Getting the ones I really wanted on my first try allowed me to ignore all the rest.

There was a similar motivation driving my purchase of a Unicorn Paint and Play Warmblood.  I did not have one of these molds in a regular horse colour -- in fact, it only appeared as a horse for the first time as a Breyerfest Single Day SM in 2019.  Today I have the opportunity to get one in one of the horse and foal sets, but the chance of getting it is one in four as these are also blind boxes.

Anyway, I did have a thought about de-horning my Paint and Play unicorn, but found that I didn't have the right tools to do that, so I opted to paint her as a unicorn as my 2020 NaMoPaiMo "horse."

"Sarafina" now known as "Skyfire"

And now there's Sarafina -- the classic size unicorn on the Morab mare that came in my 2020 Collector Club Grab Bag.  I never, ever would have considered buying this unicorn on my own, but now that I have her I figure I lucked out as far as Breyer's newest unicorns go.  I don't think I would have been able to find shelf room for any of the Traditional size unicorns, and I really haven't liked any of the ones I've seen.

The classic Morab mare is a mold I have only recently fallen in love with.  I never paid much attention to her before I judged one in an online photo show that was being shown as a Morgan mare.  Suddenly, she made sense to me.  I guess I'd never really seen the Arab in her, but as an old style Morgan mare she looked really, really good.  It was the first time I'd noticed the twitch of her ear, her carefully painted chestnuts, and her well-balanced stance.  She looked like a pleasure to ride.

Needless to say, I didn't already have a Morab mold in my collection prior to receiving Sarafina.  She's been used as a unicorn once or twice before -- in the Glitter and Gem set and as the pink unicorn Aurora -- but I don't think either pink or palomino does anything for this mold and the foal from the set would drive me crazy with his huge horn.  No, if I have to have one of Breyer's new unicorns, I think Sarafina is the one for me.  The Identify Your Breyer database lists her as being a Wal-Mart (U.S.) exclusive, but I'm not sure if that's correct since she was also available on Breyer's website.  Perhaps she started out as a special and was then shipped to all retailers?  I can't say I've followed the fortunes of Breyer's unicorns enough to be sure.

Glammed up with glitter

Although Sarafina is still essentially a horse with a horn, Breyer does give a nod to the otherworldliness of the unicorn by adding sparkles to her mane and tail.  This is also what they've been doing with the SM and Micro Fairytale Friends unicorns, although the glitter is quite overwhelming on these smaller models.  Sarafina's glitter is not too overpowering, and is strangely attractive in its own way.

So you got me, Breyer.  I have added my first ever "large" unicorn to my herd.  Let's just not make a habit of this, okay?