Sunday 19 July 2020

Breyerfest Not-the-Surprise-Horse Surprise

As you will know if you been following my virtual Breyerfest saga so far, I did not purchase a 3-day ticket this year so I was not eligible to purchase the Surprise horse.

That being the case, the Breyerfest horses I am expecting (the 4-pack of Single Day Stablemates, the little green "Éire," and the Best of BreyerFest Stablemate Set) are all known to me.  I've seen pictures of all the models and I know what they're supposed to look like.

And still, somehow, Breyer managed to surprise me all the same.

You see, even though I'd already seen some of the 4-pack Stablemates in other people's posts and blogs, and even though my fellow Canadians with 3-day tickets were receiving their Celebration Horses this week, I didn't expect my 4-pack to arrive any time soon.  This was because I'd fallen into the habit of checking my order status every day and as of Friday morning all three orders were marked "unfulfilled."  That didn't bother me all that much -- I knew they'd get around to me eventually.

However, I was thrown for a loop on Friday afternoon when a Purolator courier suddenly appeared at my door with a small box in hand.  Sure enough, as the label on the side of the box proclaimed, it was my 4-pack of Single Day Stablemates (SMs).
I checked my account again on Friday evening and, sure enough, all three orders were still marked "unfulfilled."  So now I have absolutely no idea when my other orders will arrive.  I kind of expected that they'd issue a postage refund for one of them (as they promised to do for international buyers) before shipping them, but now I don't know what to expect.  I've always said it, but I have yet to truly absorb the fact that with Breyer the only thing you can expect is the unexpected.

Anyway, I am over-the-moon with my four new SMs.  I already have two of the molds in other finishes -- I have "Jersey" as the original SM Collector Club pinto and "Skye" as the original Premier Club SM pinto.  Now, however, I have them both in nice new solid colours.
As for "Orkney" and "Arran," I used to have a couple of the G2 Clydesdales but sold them all except for the porcelain, who may or may not also be for sale.  I do not currently have another mini-Croi like "Arran," but I have committed to purchasing half of the new 70th anniversary mystery SM box, so I expect to get another solid mini-Croi by early to mid-August.

The packaging of this year's Single Day Stablemates is particularly charming.  Amazingly enough, the patterns on each bag appear to be based on actual tartans representing the isles that inspired the SM names.  None of the tartans are ancient, but this is particularly impressive in the case of Jersey, which only registered a tartan relatively recently for the Jersey Pipe Band and so is difficult to find in most tartan databases.

Isle of Orkney Tartan (2000)

                        
                        Arran District Tartan (1982)

                    Isle of Skye Tartan (1992)                              



                        Jersey Pipe Band Tartan (2011)


(Sorry about the odd formatting  -- Blogger and I are having a bit of a disagreement.

The flash on my photos washes out the colours a little bit, but I think you can still see that the bag patterns are the same as the registered tartans.

Anyway, once you get beyond the packaging the models themselves come out to play.

I was really looking forward to receiving "Skye," and he is everything I hoped for -- such a luscious chocolate colour.
But I think I may like "Jersey" even more.  He really surprised me when I saw how handsome he is in his glossy golden sorrel coat.  I just can't stop looking at him.
"Orkney," who I suspected would be my least favourite, does in fact hold that position, but he's better than I thought he might be.  There's something about his glossy white mane that made me suspect for a moment that he'd had hair extensions.  He hasn't, but the paint job does accentuate the mane very nicely.
And lastly there's "Arran" (or "Aaran" as the typo on her bag would have it).  She's a bit larger than I anticipated, but is a very complex mold for a Stablemate and the matte finish does suit her.  I'm not as crazy about her as some others are, but she's going to look great on the shelf.
All in all, quite a lovely surprise for a rainy Friday afternoon.

2 comments:

  1. Oooooo---I'm with you in your assessment of this year's Breyerfest SM's!They are wonderful!
    I'm not crazy about "Orkney" or "Aaran" either! (I was going to list my reasons--but then thought about it! Like you said once, "To each their own"! )
    The only thing I wish they had done for "Skye" --just this once--would have been -change the gender! In this luscious color, "he" does *not* masculine enough (to me, anyways) to be a stallion! Fortunatedly, he's not "well endowed", so I'm going "pretend" that that's a milk bag instead! "She" makes me this of a Paso Fino--and I've already dubbed mine "Godiva"!
    If Breyer really wants to keep "knocking it out of the park", I hope for their next SM release, they release the performance horses--like "Lady Phase", "True North", Hamilton, and "Roxy", etc. etc. Shall I go on??

    Like you, I *love* my "Jersey" boy!! I've already got my conga started! Now we just need a dapple grey, black, buckskin, roan, appaloosa--etc., etc!!

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    1. I love the name "Godiva" -- reminds me of that rich chocolate colour!

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