My Breyer Stablemates: G1 Drafter and another Appaloosa

Finally, I decided to buy a Breyer. As a 1:32 scale collector, I thought I should have at least one Breyer Stablemate. I didn’t think I’d be particularly keen on them, as they looked too shiny and artificial for my taste. But after Taylor showed some comparison photos with Britains horses, I thought that they might not be too bad, so I carefully selected one that I thought I might like and wasn’t too expensive. Here it is, a dun standardbred (2010-16, sculpt from 1998):
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Wow, it’s stunning! Beautiful running action and great colours. Yes, it’s slightly shiny (more satin, really) and a bit stylized, but I have noticed that I often like my animal figures like Greek idealized sculptures of the human body, and perhaps I like shiny things too . I can’t keep my eyes off him!
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I have already ordered a “few” more Breyers. Hard to choose, there are so many!

Congrats

He is just a beauty!
And I'm sure that now you have started, it will be tricky to stop- so many stunning models t choose from, and more and more each year!
I love the pose, and the muscle detail, Breyer really do have a unique look which is just beautiful on a horse!

Curious, not only your name coincides, also your reaction to Stablemates.
When I got my first model, I assumed the risk, a shiny figure almost textureless is surely not my taste. I was absolutely wrong, I loved these little models more than anything and much more than a ceramics figure. The vitreous finish gives to it a kind of prestige touch, very classy and glassy. These figures feel like little jewels and their poses and designs are very captivating. Yor choice for a first model is really beautiful. These figures, are easy to break but I am sure you won't start a horse race.

You are right, Bonnie, it will be difficult to stop collecting Breyers. But I have to control myself ...

I didn't know you had Breyers, Rogério. Which ones do you have?

Yes, I wondered how fragile the hard plastic is. They are marketed for ages 4+, so they should be OK for me. Or perhaps not: when I was comparing the Breyer with the Britains thoroughbred (about equally large), I knocked the Britains off the table. Fortunately, it survived. The Britains figures can sometimes a bit wobbly (excuse), but the Breyer is rock solid, despite standing on only 3 legs. The standing front leg is bent inward a bit; I think this one done to make it more stable.

Funny that you mentioned races. When my brother and I were young, a very popular pastime for us was to run races with our animal figures. I am sure the Breyer standardbred would have won many races!

rogerpgvg wrote:

You are right, Bonnie, it will be difficult to stop collecting Breyers. But I have to control myself ...

I didn't know you had Breyers, Rogério. Which ones do you have?

Yes, I wondered how fragile the hard plastic is. They are marketed for ages 4+, so they should be OK for me. Or perhaps not: when I was comparing the Breyer with the Britains thoroughbred (about equally large), I knocked the Britains off the table. Fortunately, it survived. The Britains figures can sometimes a bit wobbly (excuse), but the Breyer is rock solid, despite standing on only 3 legs. The standing front leg is bent inward a bit; I think this one done to make it more stable.

Funny that you mentioned races. When my brother and I were young, a very popular pastime for us was to run races with our animal figures. I am sure the Breyer standardbred would have won many races!

Surely the standardbred would be a serious competitor.
I don't have many, I think just 4 horses, a donkey and a bull and I don't have the horses catalogued. I don't even know if I gave them. It sounds strange, I know. I am sure the Arabian mare G1 is one of them and I suppose the Andalusian G2. There's a Quarter or someting similar and my poor brain cannot remember more.

Congratulations!!! Breyers aren't everyone's taste but I think they make quite nice models. I had to switch to stablemates for cost and space, and there are so so many models themselves and then usually several colors for each! You won't "go hungry" for choice. Congrats on this beauty.

Lovely addition! wonderful first Breyer choice as well

Congrats on the 1st Breyer and glad I could help with your choice. .Like Paige has said there are lots of choices and lots of colours with Stablemates.I began collecting them due to space limitations!

That's one advantage of collecting 1:32 scale animals, they don't occupy so much space.

Today my second Breyer arrived. Not the second one I ordered, but despite not being a jumping horse, this one appears to have jumped the postal queue. I thought it would be nice to have a horse with rider and I found this palomino Paso Fino with cowgirl (2005-6, sculpt 1998):
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I have to admit that I didn't buy it so much for the horse, but I fell in love with the girl .
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The tack can be removed so that the horse can be displayed alone:
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The horse is is good, although not as exciting as the standardbred. Better with the cowgirl, but the horse does have a beautiful face:
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What a wonderful addition, and the horse has a lovely face!
So elegant and shiny, this model is a beauty!

Splendid pair cowgirl and palomino! Congrats once again.

I am not surprised if the horse I can't remember is a Paso Fino.
What does your wife think about your girl affair?

Good figure with nice colors.

Wow, Roger-UK, you picked two three wonderful little models

I have never seen any of them before, but then I am trying not to look at stablemates, because they are so tempting

Roger-P, you have some stablemates stabled here ! They are doing fine.
Somtimes they miraculously turn up on my shelf and stay there for a while, but they do want to go gome to Portugal when everything is back to normal again some day

Gratulation Roger-UK!
Wonderful horses und wonderful figure and wonderful idea to make the sattle moveable.
I have found three "old" horses from Breyer in my boxes. I think they have made many races and rumbling with the other horses. But they in good condition and when a horse get hurt you ca call the female doctor from Breyer.
The size of Breyer Stablemates are okay.
See the pictures Breyer Stablemates with 54 mm Horses and Hausser Horse.
Benno.
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Congratulations again

Lovely models, all of them, Babdo

And Dupond seems to have a good eye for nice horses

These are beautiful vintage models, your collection is a treasure trove of delights!

Great to see photos of the older Breyer models together with Elastolins! I have both on my desk right now.

Let me do a quick comparison with a Britains horse and rider. I like my Britains, but when I put the cowgirl next to a Britains rider, it becomes clearer why I love the cowgirl:
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The cowgirl has so much more detail. But don't worry, my wife has even more beautiful details .

This isn't the 1:32 scale topic, but you might notice that the Britains rider is smaller. Measured along the bends in her legs, she would be no more than 154 cm tall in real life. The cowgirl has a more average size of about 170 cm. The horses are more similar in size; here the Britains rider is sitting on an Arabian horse:
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The main size difference is that the Britains horse has a smaller neck.

Oh, and I was afraid to show this, because Rogério told me not to organise any races. But the Paso Fino has just won! I honestly don't know what happened, I didn't organise the race!
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Wonderful addition especially with the cowgirl.Here are my Standardbreds!
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Babdo-your white horse on the left in pic 2,I have but in different colours and they were sold here with Timpo sets.I painted the manes and white socks when I was younger!
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Oh, Taylor, you have the same-coloured standardbred! I already thought you might have a similar taste for Breyers, because I have bought several Breyers that are the same or very similar to those you showed me before (as you'll see once they arrive). Or do you have all Stablemates?

Roger, an interesting comparison could be the tools the Britains workers used compared with the tools the Breyer workers use. Also the quality of the materials. I don't see such a big difference in talent regarding the sculpts.
About riders' sizes, the old ladies of my family are in average around 16 cm smaller than the younger ones. It means 5 mm at 1:32 scale what is a lot for models of this size.
I suspect something went wrong with your race, a Paso Fino couldn't have any chance.

SUSANNE wrote:

Roger-P, you have some stablemates stabled here ! They are doing fine.
Somtimes they miraculously turn up on my shelf and stay there for a while, but they do want to go gome to Portugal when everything is back to normal again some day

They are in very good hands, Susanne! I am sure they are very hapy with you.

Very interesting comparisons, and your Breyers are beautiful altogether Taylor!

Roger wrote:

Roger, an interesting comparison could be the tools the Britains workers used compared with the tools the Breyer workers use. Also the quality of the materials. I don't see such a big difference in talent regarding the sculpts.

I know a bit about the Britains production process, but nothing about Breyer. The material is very different. Britains used PVC, whereas Breyer uses a harder plastic, perhaps cellulose acetate or something similar because some can have the acetate disease. The Breyers also have a much smoother surface. The Britains were hand painted. I noticed that some Breyer packaging also says they are hand painted, but I don’t know whether that is always or still the case. My impression is that the eyes are painted too precisely to be hand painted and for the body, they clearly use a spray-painting method.

The Britains models generally have good sculpts, but I have to say that I don’t like the horses that they made in the 70s and 80s so much (except for the heavy horses). Hard to put my finger on it, but they look slightly awkward. For example, I think the neck of the Arabian horse is too small. The Britains sculpts are intended to be realistic, whereas the Breyers are more stylised and idealised. But the Breyers capture the horse’s movement and body proportions better, so I feel that they are actually a better representation of a real horse.

But now … number three. Here we have a chestnut Appaloosa (2010-16, sculpt from 1998):
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I think it is a very beautiful sculpt. As the seller said, “it has a gorgeous flow as it corners in controlled trot with a lovely topline”, and I can’t express it any better. It is a bit hard to appreciate his left side fully when you look at him from above, because he looks down; easier to see it when you pick him up or in a photo.
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I was quite surprised about the colour, as it looked darker in the seller’s photos. I like the colour, but it is the same as the Paso Fino, which I also didn’t expect, because “Identify your Breyer” says that the Appaloosa is chestnut whereas the Paso Fino is palomino. I don’t know much about horse colours, but I think both are chestnut (or both palomino?). It would perhaps have been nice to have a bit more variation in colour, especially because most of the other horses that I have ordered also have different shades of brown. On the other hand, when I put him together with the Paso Fino, they are a great pair:
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