Potpourri

So, the wonderful Breyer History Diva blog supplied me with a list of this year's Breyerfest Special Runs (as in, those that are attainable--not raffle horses, or auction horses!) and where I usually find myself wanting one or two, this year, I want FOUR.  I either need to buy 2 tickets, or be prepared to spend on the secondary market.

What's tickling my fancy?

Under the Sea, a clear blue plastic Bluegrass Bandit.  I have a disturbing love for blue horses, and the translucent ones.  I do not think I care a whit about the mermaids.

Jasmine, the Weather Girl.  I am going to conga the crap out of this mold, I can feel it.  I'm already looking for a nice, simple repaint on one.

Hansel and Gretel, a mom and foal pair of Black Forest ponies by Birgitte Eberl.  In Classic scale.

Spun Gold, an as yet unnamed mold in 3 unnamed "Gambler's Choice" colors.  I missed out on the last Gambler's Choice at BFest and I sort of regret that, as I love the idea.  If its a Mesteno, I will reconsider this.

Going to be a rough year in Kentucky for me, thank goodness I won't have the madness of NAN before me, with the tempting treats in the tack and props area that crop up in NAN years.

In other news, I have been working on catalogging my colletion for a while now, and have FINALLY gotten to the point where I have a hard count on the OF Breyer plastic end of the world:

Traditional scale: 386
Classic scale: 66
Little Bits: 25
Stablemates 88

Total: 565 !!!  I had no idea it was THAT many--I've been putting the number of horses in my collection around 7-800 for several years now.  Looks like that needs to be adjusted UP.  Wonder if I've broken 4 digits yet??

Now onto the Stones, OF china, customs, Artist-resins (painted and not), tack, props....oh and getting it all photographed and uploaded to the Collecting Blog. But at least the Plastic Breyers are all tucked in their own spredsheets.

Finally, last weekend, Dave and I cleaned the basement.  During this, I found many amusing photographs (like those vet school pictures from 1993)  Here's one I wanted to share:

This would have been taken at the fall version of the Kaatskill Classic, 1994.  My first overall championship, earned by my Misty's Twilight "Freudian Slip."  This was my killer show horse in those days, when I was still a hardcore OF performance shower.  The CM overall was won by Rick Clark, but I forget that particular horse--its a custom he did.  Rick did these neat horses that he painted in car paints. It was damn near impossible to rub that paint.  I have one that is a bright red Running Black Beauty--I mean, he is candy apple red.  Does anyone know what's become of Rick?

Collection Contemplation

I am feeling a little blue about the live show universe at the moment, for a couple reasons that I can't discuss right now.  I am planning a trip to BOYCC and that now appears to be in jeopardy for reasons I am less than thrilled with, and in general, the attitude out there has just not been great.  So, I thought that maybe its time for a post that goes back to why I love this hobby so much I am willing to get involved with it at its ickiest national levels.

I have a large OF Breyer collection.  It is not, despite my husband's belief, the largest group of OF Breyers ever.  I doubt its even top 50 in the northeast.  Its not chock full of old goodies, but I do have every horse from my childhood collection, and happily for them, I took to thinking of them as a collection in my early teens, so many are in nice shape.  In the early 80's I was already starting to try and organize them in notebooks or on index cards, tracking both their Collectible Object Qualities and their Horse In My Imagination ones.  I was still under 100 horses at this point, even counting the non Breyer models that I had (have).

Back in those days, I lived in north Jersey and buying horses involved a trip to the Rockaway Mall.  There were 2 toy stores in the mall, KayBee Toys, who  kept an example of each horse in stock unboxed on a shelf so you could pick them up and look them over before selecting a new in box horse.  They would sell the shelf example if that was the last one they had (how I got my #62 Saddlebred Weanling, the first horse I purchased knowing it was already discontinued.)  There was also Michael's Things For Fun, a more sedate toy store than KayBee.  They had a quarter of an aisle dedicated to Breyers, tan and brown picture boxes facing forward, and a good selection to pick over.  There was also a Child World close by, and this was my Breyer Horse Nirvana--in my memory, there was a WALL of Breyers, floor to ceiling!  Every model ever!  I feel like I spent hours standing in front of that wall trying to decide between horses.  The one battle I recall was agonizing over a Bay Shetland Pony and a Honey Sorrel Shire...and I still do not have a single Shire in my collection!!

On the day I am thinking about now though, I was unable to convince my mother that I needed a trip to Child World, and KayBee was picked over, so I was in Michael's pondering what to get, and on this fine fall afternoon circa 1983, I decided to lay my hard earned five bucks on a dapple grey Proud Arabian Stallion.  It took a long time for me to arrive on this choice, and selected the sealed box carefully.  I was not allowed to open my horses until I got in the car, and I remember sitting in the front seat of our grey Cordova, breaking open the plastic sealing the box and taking the lid off....and seeing a horse that did not look like the tall grey horse on the picture box.

WHAT!

I was SERIOUSLY taken aback by what was before my eyes.  This horse had a black mane, tail and legs.  The picture on the box DID NOT.  What sort of nonsense was this.  I was disappointed for a while, but eventually this horse, who ended up with the name Roger Moore (there was a serious James Bond thing going on at home, and the horses got some unfortunate names via osmosis) became a favorite.

When I began to meet with other hobbyists, I learned that my PAS was something unusual.  I took him to my first real live show ever in 1991, and a complete stranger walked up to me as I unboxed my show horses and offered me a hundred dollars for him.  Which, at the time, was an insane sum to me for a plastic horse. I said no. Several times.  Stranger told me to let her know if I changed my mind.  Still haven't.

I still take him out time to time--he's got very nice haloed/peacock spots that do not show up in that photo.  And as wonked out as he is anatomically (he really looks more like a giraffe than a horse)  he still holds a place in my heart, and he is still "herd leader" in my imagination.