The Rearing Stallion Mystery

When I took a closer look at my new Breyerfest 2013 "Nocona" Rearing Stallion, I noticed to my surprise that he has the "B stamp" on one hind leg.

If you look closely you can spot the B stamp on "Nocona"

I had always thought that the B stamp was removed from all the Breyers that got it during the 1970s oil crisis years.  At this time Breyer was experimenting with different kinds of plastics and, the theory goes, the B stamp was added to horses made with the new batch to prevent them accidentally being reground with old batches of plastics should they fail to work out.

However, after having done a little research (primarily on the Breyer History Diva's blog page), I discovered that the Rearing Stallion is notorious for not having had his B stamp removed. 

You've got wonder why.  The Rearing Stallion has been released in approximately 17 new colours and patterns since the 1970s.  You can see the B stamp on the rear right hock of this one from 2005, the Pisces horse from 2015, and the portrait of Cloud in the current Cloud's Legend set.  I've no doubt it appears on others as well, I just don't have access to any pictures of them.

However, when it became necessary for Breyer to remove the U.S.A. stamp from their horses when production was shifted to China, the Rearing Stallion duly lost his U.S.A.  My 2013 "Nocona" doesn't have one.  He has the old round Breyer Molding Co. stamp and the peculiar B stamp, and that's it.

The round Breyer Molding Co. stamp, no U.S.A.

Again, I find myself wondering why Breyer wouldn't remove the B stamp at the same time they removed the U.S.A. stamp.  True, they're on opposite legs, but it seems like it would be simple enough to modify both halves of the mold at once.  Of course, I don't actually know very much about the injection molding process or the maintenance of the molds themselves, so there might be a perfectly obvious reason for doing one leg and not the other that I'm simply not seeing here.

It's difficult to see, but the B stamp is there inside the circle.

The result, of course, is that you can't rely on the presence of a B stamp to accurately date your Rearing Stallions the way you can with those models who had the B stamp removed at the end of the B stamp era.

This is the essence of the Rearing Stallion Mystery -- why him?  Is his B stamp just too difficult to remove?  Are there other molds out there who never lost their B stamp either?  If so, what, if anything, do they have in common?

"Nocona" is a shaded grey and not black, which accounts for the light belly.

I don't suppose I'll ever know if it was something to do with the mold that resulted in the Rearing Stallion keeping his B stamp, but more research should reveal whether or not there are other models also still carrying the B stamp out there.  Do any of my readers know of any?  Let me know in the comments below.  Thanks!