A new WIA horse - Vincenzo - now with Walkaround!

Exciting news for model horse collectors, a new addition to the WIA range of 1:18 horses, sculpted by Brigitte Eberl.

Like the others so far, Vincenzo been made in two colours, a pure white grey, and perlino.

Isn't he gorgeous!

Yes, absolutely stunning and interesting pose too!

Hmm, I think this is the first bowing horse we've ever had in plastic form? I've seen resins, and one-of-a-kind repositioned customs, but nothing original-finish from Breyer or the mainstream toy brands, WIA have given us plastic figure fans something really new and innovative here.

I did predict this breed might be their next introduction, cos we've had a draft, a warmblood and an arabian, I remember saying 'something Iberian', or a pony, would be covering another major type of horse breed. But I wouldn't have guessed the pose, or the beautiful perlino colour.

I love them

Especially the perlino ! I think it is the first perlino model I have seen
Perhaps the body is slightly too dark, but if the bay base-colour is very dark we could se them so dark.

For those who do not know what a perlino is, it is a bay "double-palomino" ( Cr Cr on the C-locus )

The Cr-gene does not dilute the black colour pigment eumelanine , but TWO Cr s does, however not as much as the red Pheomelanin.

Thus a bay is C C on the C-locus, a buckskin is a bay with C Cr on the C-locus, while a perlino , which has darker mane/tail, just as the bay does.
A palomino is chestnut with C Cr on the C-locus, and a chestnut with Cr Cr is a blue-eyed Cream ( BEC ) and all cream with blue eyes.

A black Cr Cr is all dark cream with blue eyes.


Here is a picture of my eautyful, BEC icey Albina with her new borne buckskin daughter Freya after a bay stallion

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Freya is beautiful! And Albina too.

A new WIA model is surely a good news. All the horses of this little series are absolutely fantastic.
I haven't bought yet my first WIA but I seriously intend to do it. I'd be tempted for an Andalusian once it is the breed of my region but whilst this pose is a genial idea for someone with a wide collection of horses, it is not the most tempting for me that only have a few. I also enjoy that one of them is perlino
The name Vincenzo should be based upon a real horse name, otherwise, I don't understand an Italian name for a Spanish breed. It should be Vicent instead.
I am glad this collection is receiving new models and now my hopes for a Lusitano are not that high.

SUSANNE wrote:

I love them

Especially the perlino ! I think it is the first perlino model I have seen

CollectA released their Akhal-Teke in perlino, but while they got the 'teke traits of metallic sheen and pinkish tint from the coat being so thin and fine, they didn't make the mane and tail much darker than the body colour, so Vincenzo is more accurate in that respect

Your mare and baby are beautiful!

Roger wrote:

The name Vincenzo should be based upon a real horse name, otherwise, I don't understand an Italian name for a Spanish breed. It should be Vicent instead.
I am glad this collection is receiving new models and now my hopes for a Lusitano are not that high.

Here is the original large-scale Vincenzo : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (all WIA models are mini versions of existing resins, rather than new sculpts specially for the brand)

It doesn't say why he has the Italian name, but confirms he was sculpted and released as an Andalusian/PRE. Although there's nothing stopping you calling the WIA a Lusitano instead? If you wanted to push him to change nationalities it would be a perfectly fitting swap - there's a lot more cream dilutes in the Portuguese breed anyway (til recent stud book changes, a lot of colours were banned from being registered PRE), so the perlino would be a more natural fit there - I might even allocate mine as Lusitano on purpose for that exact reason.

(Yes, I broke my own rule of not ordering from overseas to get myself some Vincenzos on the way this afternoon - he's just too pretty!)

George wrote:

Roger wrote:

The name Vincenzo should be based upon a real horse name, otherwise, I don't understand an Italian name for a Spanish breed. It should be Vicent instead.
I am glad this collection is receiving new models and now my hopes for a Lusitano are not that high.

Here is the original large-scale Vincenzo : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (all WIA models are mini versions of existing resins, rather than new sculpts specially for the brand)

It doesn't say why he has the Italian name, but confirms he was sculpted and released as an Andalusian/PRE. Although there's nothing stopping you calling the WIA a Lusitano instead? If you wanted to push him to change nationalities it would be a perfectly fitting swap - there's a lot more cream dilutes in the Portuguese breed anyway (til recent stud book changes, a lot of colours were banned from being registered PRE), so the perlino would be a more natural fit there - I might even allocate mine as Lusitano on purpose for that exact reason.

(Yes, I broke my own rule of not ordering from overseas to get myself some Vincenzos on the way this afternoon - he's just too pretty!)

Breaking rules, that's the rule. It is also not wrong to use an Italian name for a Spanish horse and you're right, easily an Andalusian can be used as a Lusitano, especially when the color is more common in the Portuguese breed. though, I can't tell it to anyone. Hahah, can you guess what's WIA releasing next? A pony?

The same day I posted this topic here to show the Vincenzo models to the forum, I also placed an order for my own collection, and today they've arrived safe and sound.
Normally, I put all my new arrivals on the General Additions board, but as these are such a new model release, and not a mainstream brand, I thought they'd be more useful here - in case anyone out there is looking for real, in-hand pictures of the models, and for future reference on STS, like the Walkaround topics.

So, introducing the two Vincenzo - take a bow, handsome boys!

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Let's have a look at the grey, first

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The mould really does look great in person, and these production models are every bit as good as the promotion photos showed, so I think WIA genuinely do photograph a model from the main run, rather than using the artist's proof paintwork to flatter the models, the way some companies do. If you like what you see in their official images, the horses you'll unwrap are really that good!

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The sculptor, Brigitte Eberl, is well-known and highly admired in the model horse world, having sculpted resins for years, and more recently doing sculpts for Breyer. Each WIA horse is a shrunk-down version of one of her resins (see my first post on this topic for the links), so you're getting something which was designed as an accurate and fully detailed large sculpture by one of the best in the business, for not much more than the price of a plastic toy horse from the likes of Schleich, CollectA, or Mojo. This means the models are very anatomically correct and extremely good at capturing the conformation and attitude of each breed.

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Rather than being plain matte white, the white-grey Vincenzo has a nice subtle amount of colour to him, as well as the obvious darker shading on his nose, there's hints of grey, cream, and silver, throughout his colour. He's also got streaks in his hooves - where white markings catch the hoof it grows pale, and although the markings are invisible on a fully greyed-out grey horse, the stripes in the hooves remain growing through for life. A lovely touch in the paintwork design, which not many people would've considered adding!

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His mane is really magnificent!

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I'm impressed with the amount of overlapping detail WIA have moulded here, it can't be easy to design the moulds to include all that hanging hair and complex limb positioning, but they make the extra effort - and it's well worth it!

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He's very steady on his feet, no need to worry about wobbling or tipping on the shelf. The figures were also packed in individual little boxes with plastic inserts to make sure the legs don't get warped or squashed in transit.

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And here is the perlino - I'm really not sure which of these two is the most gorgeous, they're both beautiful whether classic pale grey or glowing peachy perlino.

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The deep kneeling bow position is very unusual in the model world - we've had a few artist resins, and customs repositioned to a bowing pose over the years, but never released as an original finish plastic from any of the toy brands or Breyer/Stone, so it's something very novel, and refreshing. Apparently it's quite easy to teach a horse to bow using a treat held slightly further out of reach until they kneel to get it, but I've never managed with mine - she just waits til I stand back up with the treat then says her 'please?' noise cos she can't understand that she could just bend down and take it

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They've done a lovely job of the perlino colour, it could easily get too pinkish but the tone here is a dusty faced pale orange, with nicely done darker shading in the mane (and look along the crest of the neck, the join between smooth body coat and mane hair is added in with a fine hand-painted zig-zag join). The eyes are also blue, as they should be for this double-dilute colour.

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The WIA models are listed as 1:18 scale, this is roughly the same as CollectA and Mojo (both advertised as 1:20 for their horse models) though in reality I find WIA tend to fall a bit on the smaller side, when comparing breeds like-for-like - not enough of a difference that you couldn't use them in group set-ups for photoshoots or showing scenes, but enough to be worth mentioning in case anyone is super scale-conscious and wanting to work things out from measuring to the millimetre and referencing the real horses breed standards.

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These models are just so photogenic, so you get a lot of pictures

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The mane looks even better on the perlino than the grey, I think - the softness of the shading helps bring out the lovely detail and texture in the sculpt

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A very lovely parcel day!

They are absolutely fabulous

And your pictures are beauuuutyful, - with the lovely pavilion/bandstand in the background, each photo shows a story

Well, I had told myself I didn't need them, better send the money to Red Cross, but ( ) perhaps I can do both

It was a perfect idea to add your walk around here. It is not a topic about plenty releases but about a single model in two different colors. Your pictures and observations also give a special dignity to what is being presented. I am a huge enthusiast of WIA figures even if I haven't got a single one yet but I didn't know I liked these two so much!!! It doesn't matter how good are the official pictures, your presentation is a hundred times better and I am really impressed. I wonder how this figure will performe on Horse figure of the year.
I started this topic thinking my favorite was the Perlino, than I thought the grey was nicer and now I don't know which one I like better.
I also did not notice how beautifully sculpted are the hairy parts of this model, both mane and tail are masterpieces on their own. Thanks a lot George, horse figures deserve that members like you exist on foruns.

Really gorgeous horses! They are very handsome! I really love their unique pose, I think the grey version is my favorite

SUSANNE wrote:

And your pictures are beauuuutyful, - with the lovely pavilion/bandstand in the background, each photo shows a story

Thank you! I knew I wanted a different setting for these two, as it's not the kind of pose which suits a normal countryside or field fence photograph, it's a horse performing a trick so needed to look like some sort of public area, when I remembered I had that one I had to rummage through the pile to find it

Roger wrote:

Your pictures and observations also give a special dignity to what is being presented...It doesn't matter how good are the official pictures, your presentation is a hundred times better and I am really impressed.

I'm glad you enjoyed them! I'd been planning to post a helpful walkaround since the day I first posted their links, cos it seemed like I was going to be the first person here to get them, and it's not often that happens, so it was my chance to be useful and provide some 'real' photos and reviews, hahah (though I did wonder if anyone else ordered at the same time and quicker postage to other countries might mean they beat me to it )

Joliezac wrote:

Really gorgeous horses! They are very handsome! I really love their unique pose, I think the grey version is my favorite

I didn't realise I wanted a bowing horse model til I saw these on MPV's 'new' page, it really is such an unusual pose, and the handsome breed and great quality just make it even better.

WIA's Vincenzo model has been released in two new colours - but probably not the sort of colours you'd expect to see!

You can now buy him in transparent blue, or in transparent purple!

The 'clearware' phenomenon is something relatively recent in the model horse world, with a lot of companies like Breyer and Copperfox offering limited editions or decorator runs in wild transparent colours, sometimes with colour effects like rainbow shades, leaves, stripes, swirly patterns, and glitter incorporated into the plastic or applied over the top of it.
They seem to have taken off in a big way over the last few years, and while they're not personally my cup of tea at all (I like models to look as realistic as possible, so no decorators, glossies, or clearware appeal to me), I know they're incredibly popular as a sort of sub-set of collecting, with devoted fans who eagerly snap up the latest releases in all these varied new colours.
So it's perhaps not so surprising to me that WIA have branched out into something which might at first glance just seem a weird choice to anyone outside the model horse hobby

Also I noticed they're a few pounds cheaper than the painted runs, which makes me wish WIA would release all the existing moulds done in plain opaque white or grey plastic for custom painting - it would be a shame to grab these limited editions just to paint over them, depriving the clearware fans who'd want to buy them as they are!

They truly are magnificent models! As a horse collector I can imagine how happy you must have been when they were released! They look even more stunning in these photos, the lighting reminds me of evening sunlight which really brings out the best in these horses!

Thanks George, those new fashion horses are a fever now. I can't find an explanation why are they so pupular but naturally we all have different collecting taste. I can't complain since I have both painted versions as a fantastic gift from Susanne and curiously I was just enjoying them before seeing your last post.
I think this transparency or translucent thing works better for unicorns or so. They can also be used for jellyfish figures or some deep sea creatures.

The clearware horses have always been extremely nostalgic to me because of the vintage colored lucite animal figures, like these. I had quite a few of them, somehow, even though I never really liked them. And so in the same way, the clearware Breyers have always been something I don't particularly want or like the look of, but which also strike a deep chord of recognition. I guess I can see the appeal without actually feeling the appeal. They look like antique mall finds, which is also an aesthetic I appreciate without actually wanting to own.

I have just one - a green translucent Stablemate with a finish like frosted glass. At the time, I was collecting every release on the saddlebred mould, and although I've never been a decorator fan, I thought for the sake of £4 it would be fine to have one non-realistic colour to keep my conga complete. Plus the colour was luckily fairly tasteful compared to the neon ones and pink'n'glitter ones - a toned-down gentle shade like Lalique glass - as well as green being my favourite colour since childhood. So I picked her up from a trade stand at Burghley horse trials as a souvenir of the day as well as an addition for my collection. Honestly the only decorator I've bought on purpose

But I don't think I'd ever buy any more - I gave up on the 'complete conga' aims when collector clubs came along. I didn't mind paying about double price for occasional JAH/JCP special runs, but when it was six times the price AND club membership AND shipping AND customs fees...just nope, my congas can stop

The Vincenzo decorators might appeal to people doing a conga line of that mould, trying to complete it by getting every release, but I think they'd mostly be aimed at the people who just love collecting and showing their clearware - something from a sculptor who's much admired in the hobby, a bit different to whatever else is in the clearware/decorator show classes, and the prestige of being limited edition too.

I like Breyer Stablemates in clearware (especially glitter clearware), although I am not as big a fan of them in larger scales for some reason. I love the grey Vincenzo and am looking forward to buying one this year. Hopefully the next batch will come with WIA's new stands?

Roger wrote:

I wonder how this figure will perform on Horse figure of the year.

George wrote:

Roger wrote:

I wonder how this figure will perform on Horse figure of the year.