My Breyer Stablemates: G1 Drafter and another Appaloosa

rogerpgvg wrote:

It shows off the typical Friesian gait (or what is the proper horse term?) very nicely.

The gait here is a trot, same as most breeds, but Friesians have a very high-stepping elevated trot with a flashy action for the knee and shoulder in particular.

rogerpgvg wrote:

“Identify your Breyer” says that it is bay, but it is a kind of grey bay, quite an interesting colour.

This looks to me like a young horse in the early stages of greying out from a bay base coat. To start with, they often have a very even mix of white hairs in with the brown ones, with the uneven dapples and blotches only coming through year by year.
Here's an example picked from the internet, a young racehorse who would've been plain dark bay as a foal, seen here at the stage before dappling develops.

The normal old fashioned name for any greying bay (or brown or chestnut) horse is 'rose grey', just to differentiate between this brownish tint and a true black-based grey, but often it's defined more specifically as 'bay going grey' in the model world, as people lean more toward pinning down accurate genetics than going with common usage.

Really nice last few updates! I love that red roan cow and this silver bay horse you have.

Thank you all for your nice comments and the information about the trotting and the colour. Database updated again . I hope you don't mind that I show you each new Breyer separately. A disadvantage of getting so many models at the same time is that I don't take as much time to enjoy each when I open the package. By showing the photos here one by one, I can take some more time to enjoy them a second time.

The Friesian also came with a running thoroughbred. It's a sculpt of which I already have a few, but I like it and this one in palomino is very attractive:
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This colour was produced in 2016 and 2017 (sculpt from 1998). Unlike some of the more recent Stablemates, this palomino is not a metallic golden palomino, but a more modest shade. Less striking, but I think more beautiful.
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This has to be one of my favourites so far! I love golden animals (Probably because of a love of golden retrievers! ) and this thoroughbred has such an elegant, beautiful pose!)

Nobody will mind that you post daily. For my personal taste it is more fun and those that can't follow daily, always have the chance of commenting after a group of them.
These golden colors makes me think that I've never heard of a Breyer Stablemate Akhal-Teke, probably they never did it. Those are the real golden horses.
Interesting head, looks very geometrical.

Yesterday I was also thinking that it is surprising that there is no Stablemate Akhal-Teke.

More gold to come, Lilias!

Sorry to trespass in your thread, but I use this one as an Akhal-Teke (the mould is sculpted as a racing-fit thoroughbred, but in this metallic golden colour he's the closest we've got to 'teke-ishness )

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Back to your non-shiny version of the same colour, I've always thought that's one of the nicest palominos they've ever painted, a perfect colour mixture not too orange or too yellow or too brown, and it's got so much rich shading, cleverly done just with how thickly the paint was applied. Really nice addition.
I'm also enjoying seeing them one at a time, and anything that helps you enjoy and appreciate each model more can only be a good thing :)

That one may indeed be an option as an Akhal-Teke. Thanks for showing it. 

The two last ones that came with the Friesian, a prancing Morgan and a loping Quarter Horse. The Morgan is nice enough, but it isn't one of my most favourite moulds and it doesn't have particularly outstanding colours. It was made between 2003 and 2006 (sculpt from 1998).
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Breyer usually produces a particular sculpt in a particular colour for only one or two years, so it is quite rare to get real doubles that have the same sculpt and colour. This loping Quarter Horse is my first:
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I previously got it as part of a Mystery Foal Surprise with a reining horse and catering foal (made between 2015 and 2017).

When I had a chance to buy Breyers in the US, I thought I’d try to find Generation 1 models, because they are hard to get in the UK. This didn’t quite work out, because it was hard to find them for a reasonable price and I discovered lots of other models for less money that I wanted more. However, I got three G1 Arabian mares:
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This sculpt is one of the best G1s in my opinion. I like how her ears are turned back, as if someone has just told her off for being naughty.

The first mare is in smoke grey, or at least that’s what Identify my Breyer tells me. The original sculpt is from 1975 (as all G1 sculpts are, I think); this colour version was made from 1995 until 1998.
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The second Arabian is also greyish; Identify my Breyer says she is blue roan (1996). Horse colours are so complicated! The small spots make this colour version more striking.
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Finally, my favourite, the wonderful red roan from 1998.
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In a close-up, you can see she has small dots too:
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More beauties, I love the red roan too and the quarter horse!

Yes, the quarter horse has a golden shine 

I like all colors. Probably blue roan is my favorite. This Arabian mould is a classic amongst Stablemates.

Great additions and love the roans!

That mold was always a favorite of mine also. I always saw her as pregnant, and the foal just kicked- though she isn't as fat as my mom's mares got!

Those mares are just perfect and gorgeous!

pipsxlch wrote:

That mold was always a favorite of mine also. I always saw her as pregnant, and the foal just kicked- though she isn't as fat as my mom's mares got!

That's an interesting idea - quite possible! Thanks a lot everyone.

I wanted to show you a photo with one of each of my G1s, but the battery of my camera ran out yesterday. Here they are:
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Ah, I love the arabian mare, she just looks so mareish, it's brilliant. Congratulations on getting hold of three lovely colours, I wish they'd used her in more single releases towards the end, so they were easier to find. But really, I'm hoping she might make a comeback one day - the G1 drafter got used in a recent regular run set so possibly there's been a development on the rights to these moulds.

G1 Seabiscuit was also recently produced (for the Stablemates Collectors’ Club), so there is hope that Breyer will make some more G1s in the future. It was thought that Breyer no longer had the rights to produce G1s, but it seems like they have either bought them for some moulds or perhaps they are no longer copyrighted because they are so old. Stupidly, I didn’t buy the G1 drafter when it was readily available as part of the “Best of British” set because I didn’t like the Shetland pony. I am hoping it will come up second hand at some point.
 
When I was looking around on US Ebay, I found all eight 70^th anniversary horses for a good price and could not resist. They are smaller, Stablemate-size versions of previously introduced Breyer Traditional moulds. All except one were first introduced as Stablemates in their 70^th anniversary year (2020), so they are all new sculpts in my collection. George showed this set in his additions topic a few weeks ago and it’s worth having a look at the wonderful photos there: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
 
It seems like Breyer tried to give as much variety to these models as they could, with many different poses, breeds, colours and paint finishes. Naturally, this means that I like some models better than others, but it’s good to have all 70^th anniversary models to see the range of different Stablemates Breyer makes.
 
Let’s start with the most spectacular, craziest horse I have in my collection, the Gypsy Vanner:
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This is the only sculpt in the 70^th anniversary set that isn’t new, as it was introduced in 2017 (the colours are new of course).
 
Do I like it? Well, on my wild days I do, but on other days, I am not quite so sure. It’s certainly very eye catching on my shelf and I don’t think they could have given it any better colours. But the pose may be a bit over the top, too wild for my calmer days. I have to say though, the more I see it, the more I like it; it’s a unique model that has a lot of interest, so I can keep looking at it. Curious what other people think of it.
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Nice again

It's Fabio in equine form!

Actually, it is a fun mold; nothing static about it! More than a bit over the top, but that's its charm.

I like that sculpt. :) Congrats on that too!

I really like the sculpt, I spend a lot of time around these cobs and it reminds me of a playful young stallion showing off in the field - they rear and jump and fling the front legs about a lot, especially when they're playing up to girls they can see but not reach! I've shouted out a joking 'oh stop it, she's not even looking' many times
A lot of stud websites do a loose-in-the-field photoshoot and use the shots in these sorts of poses to advertise their stallions, as the flying mane and feathered legs look really dramatic and photogenic. So to me it's a really typical attitude for the breed to be seen or pictured in, even if the colour's more of a rare one than the usual black'n'white or skewbald.

Thank you! Good to see that everybody likes the Gypsy Vanner and great to hear that it's a natural pose.

The next 70^th anniversary horse, the Clydesdale Stallion, has a much calmer presence. Breyer has chosen to give it a wood-grain effect. I’d have preferred it in a normal, more realistic bay, but it’s a well-done sculpt showing a common horse pose.
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The Clydesdale is smaller than the Gypsy Vanner, not the way it usually is, I believe. I wish Breyer paid some more attention to the relative sizes of their horses, size is an important characteristic of horse breeds.
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Unusual choice this chess piece. Even if Gypsy vanners can be of almost all sizes, I believe they're never larger than Clydesdales. Different sculptors, different generations, it is easy that a figure does not fit precisely the desired size.

Breyer can't be let off the hook so easily . The 70^th anniversary Stablemates are all resized Traditional sculpts. When they resized them, they might as well have paid attention to their relative sizes.
 
The chess piece is indeed an unusual choice; I think Breyer just tried to show off what they could do with their anniversary pieces. While the Clydesdale has a woodgrain effect, the next one has a porcelain effect. It’s the “Fighting Stallion”. I don’t collect porcelain and it’s too glossy for my taste, but it's a nice model (I like rearing horses) and I like the colours too. I am looking forward to the year that Breyer uses this mould with a less glossy finish.
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I wonder what breed Breyer had in mind for this horse. The pose is a bit similar to the Lippizaner, except that the Lippizaner is performing whereas the glossy stallion is fighting.
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