Generation One stablemates

I finally had to come over to the Breyer area. Breyer has been my collecting bread and butter since I was a toddler, my fate as a collector sealed with the gift of the Little Bits unicorn when I was young enough to immediately jab the horn through my car seat fabric upon opening. She remains, in my opinion, one of the best renditions of a unicorn I have found in plastic. There is more of the tapestry unicorn here, while in every other incarnation Breyer has done, it is only a horse with a horn (it's gotten even worse in recent years - at least historically they put beards on them).
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But, I'm not here to show off my Little Bits, which are all packed up, including the unicorn.
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*sad closet full of boxed up Breyers noises*

I've just recently started focusing my collection on G1 stablemates, the molds used from 1975-2009 (and sporadically since then). I have seen some stablemate love in this board, so it seemed like a good place to share MY stablemate love! They really are a wonderful size. I've never been able to decide which I like more, the Traditional or the Stablemate.

I'm sure none of this will be new to you all or anything, so it's not like I'm giving a review of these molds that have been around since 1975! Just my opinions, and in my opinion, the first generation of stablemates doesn't have a bad mold in the lot (there are sixteen total). Each is a little masterpiece. There is something elegant and subtle to all of them. They feel more like paintings to me than the newer molds, something classic and regal to them. Maureen Love is one of my favorite Breyer artists, in general, and she sculpted all of these.

I've increased my G1 collection immensely in the past year, and haven't had anywhere to show them off! So this is sort of a new aquisitions thread, but more a vintage stablemate appreciation thread.

Swaps is my favorite stablemate mold. The proportions and the stance, the curve of the neck, the delicate face, I just think he's lovely.
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And this one in particular is my favorite of the Swaps-es that I have. This shot doesn't do his blood-red chestnut color justice.
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My second favorite is the thoroughbred mare. She doesn't scream "thoroughbred" to me, more like an old pasture friend, maybe broodmare is what they were going for?
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And of course there's the gentle drafter, unspecified breed, full of dignity. Definitely a collector favorite!
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Also a big fan of Native Dancer and his big ears, and I never had any until I got these two just recently. Unfortunately the appaloosa arrived with a broken leg, but acetone did the trick, as long as I am gentle with it.
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The morgan mare, a spunky lady who really champions solid colors.
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And her counterpart, the morgan stallion, who is very handsome and knows it, if his posture and strut mean anything.
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Look at the beautiful sculpture work on the mane!
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The quarter horse stallion, a plucky and stalwart creature who really suits the appaloosa spots he's often sporting.
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I'm not really a fan of a lot of Breyer's gaited breed representations, but this little guy has too much class to ignore. He doesn't look nearly as awkward as the traditional five-gaiter (sorry, Chris Hess) and instead having him balanced on the tips of his hooves gives him a better sense of swift motion. He is graceful where the traditional 5-gaiter and TWH are clunkier.
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Little Seabiscuit, the underdog! Not the most dramatic racing mold Breyer has ever created, but I am not usually a collector of the more dramatic molds. I like this one's dogged determination, which suits the inspiration.
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Also my only example of a "shrinkie" and thank heavens a healthy one.
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Silky Sullivan is a little bit awkwardly proportioned, perhaps, but I think he still has a certain refinement to him that hides it well. I have no idea why they painted the poor pinto's nose bright red. Perhaps he has a career in sled-pulling.
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Citation, with his kind face. Again, a mold without drama, and I think that's part of his charm.
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The noble arabian stallion, comparable to Swaps for alert expressions, just looking a little more worried about it.
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The arabian stallion has the distinction of having the world's worst effort at "roan" - if you can believe that's what they call this.  
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And last but not least, in my collection anyway, is the sassy arabian mare with her partially pinned ears and tucked head. She always looked ready to give a cow-kick to me, if pushed.
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I still don't have a quarter horse mare represented, but someday!

Here's the whole crowd as they are currently displayed (I am so short on space, I have to use every inch of the walls!)
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Thanks for "listening" to me gush about these little guys! If you have any, I'd love to see them! There are still so many colors I don't have yet, and clearly, I am out of room.


EDIT: I nearly forgot to mention to two G1 foals, standing and lying - but mine are also all packed right now! But they deserve to be recognized as well, because not only are they full of delicate detail, they are much more stable than many of the newer stablemate foals!

Oh, what a lovely little G1 collection! I agree the moulds have a lovely old-fashioned artistic quality to them, the poses especially but the faces too. The newer moulds may have sharper detail but the old ones have such charm.
Sadly they're not very common over here, as a collector who only started in the G2 era I've had very little opportunity to buy them new, and they're so sought after the second-hand ones on ebay usually go well over and above my reasonable price range.

Here's my modest herd...

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Kingfisher Creek, the Seabiscuit from the Stablemates set

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Pumpkin, who was Seabiscuit's stable companion, from the same set

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Red Kite, from the 'Ponies and Drafters' British breeds set

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San Antonio, who I won! He was the prize in a minis-only photo show.

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Here's one of the foal moulds you mentioned, mine's called Daffodil

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And this is the other one, named Lila - she was in the hospital play set I think, I know I got her second hand with the matching mare.

And customised ones :

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It seemed a shame to sacrifice a vintage arab mare as a custom body, but this was for a very special project - she's a portrait of my own first horse, Rosie, and no other mould had the makings of a perfect match. The real pony was arab x welsh cob, so she had all the temperament of the arabian side, plus a typical colour with fleabites and de-pigmentation speckles on her muzzle and round her eyes, combined with a thick fluffy winter coat, and feathered heels.

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Askari, the arab stallion. He came to me with two broken legs and terrible paint scuffs, so I didn't feel as bad repainting him, cos he wouldn't have looked nice enough just repaired.

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Bluebell, a suffolk on the drafter mould, which luckily came up in that recent Ponies and Drafts release so I was able to get a new one and not feel bad about repainting it!

I only owned a single G1 figure. It was the Arab mare but I can't find a picture of mine. I love all these models to be fair and one thing I noticed about the G1 model is that it was heavier than all others I had from other Stablemate generations. Thanks to you both for opening and illustrating this topic with so nice pictures and models. I also agree about the unicorn, Jill!

Great selection of G1 models.I have a few of these as well but growing up they were not easy to get so hence my very small collection!

All stablemates sculpted by Maureen Love are so beautiful! I Love them! You're so lucky to have so many

I wish I could find some for my collection too. Sadly, they are not easy to find in my country. I have one Arabian mare and one draft horse from this series. I have a few of the Classic sized molds by Maureen Love but I think stablemates are even more charming.

Thank you, everyone!

Ah, it is a shame they are not more available internationally! They are even pricey here, but I have been lucky to find reasonably priced lots, to save on shipping and get quite a few at once. But still at $8-$16 a piece for the cheap ones . . . that is one reason shifting to collecting the tiny club earth creatures has been important!

George, those are lovely! I'm not immediately familiar with any of those original finishes (I am still learning all my G1 stablemates, I accidentally bought a few duplicates because they can be a little tricky to tell apart!). I love your customs, especially that arabian mare. That mane flip and the fetlock feathers are such nice additions, really give her personality and individuality. But most of all I love the detail in the speckles on the muzzle and around the eye. Such a steady hand to do such tiny details!

Wonderful to see so many G1s. The drafter and Arabian stallion are my favourites. I know that the breed isn't specified by Breyer, but what breed do horse experts think the drafter might be?

I am new to collecting Breyers and only got a few G1s. Hopefully I can find some more in the future, but as already mentioned, they are quite hard to find outside the US.

George, great photo of Seabiscuit with the white horse in the background (Westbury horse, I think).

These are all such beauties. Great collection and thanks for posting them! I love all these oldies. Especially the old style unicorn.

Thanks, both! :)

rogerpgvg wrote:

Wonderful to see so many G1s. The drafter and Arabian stallion are my favourites. I know that the breed isn't specified by Breyer, but what breed do horse experts think the drafter might be?

I think George nailed it with his suffolk punch custom, really!

Jill wrote:

But most of all I love the detail in the speckles on the muzzle and around the eye. Such a steady hand to do such tiny details!

I've done a classic-scale Rosie as well, and if anything it was MORE difficult working bigger, cos there's room for n=more detail and getting every speckle in the right place rather than just roughly in the right areas

rogerpgvg wrote:

I know that the breed isn't specified by Breyer, but what breed do horse experts think the drafter might be?

With the lack of feathering on the legs, it could be any one of several mainland-european heavy breeds - Percheron, Brabant, Boulonnais, Breton, etc. But with Breyer being an American company, with a natural bias toward breeds found there, I'd suggest they had the Belgian draft in mind, since those are so massively popular in the states.

And yes, that's the Westbury horse on the hill, I used a page from a scenery calendar for the backdrop. I haven't been to see that white horse in person, only to the Uffington one.

What an amazing collection of soooo many models- I can see why you love them so much because they're all so so beautiful! As with all Breyers I love all the active poses, and perfect sculpts- and the glossy colours! They certainly are among the most stunning models to have in a collection!

Thanks, Bonnie!

I'm discovering that taking pictures of all these small models helps me appreciate their details even more.

George wrote:

I've done a classic-scale Rosie as well, and if anything it was MORE difficult working bigger, cos there's room for n=more detail and getting every speckle in the right place rather than just roughly in the right areas

Sounds like a perfectionist's quandary!

Jill wrote:

I finally had to come over to the Breyer area. Breyer has been my collecting bread and butter since I was a toddler, my fate as a collector sealed with the gift of the Little Bits unicorn when I was young enough to immediately jab the horn through my car seat fabric upon opening. She remains, in my opinion, one of the best renditions of a unicorn I have found in plastic. There is more of the tapestry unicorn here, while in every other incarnation Breyer has done, it is only a horse with a horn (it's gotten even worse in recent years - at least historically they put beards on them).
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But, I'm not here to show off my Little Bits, which are all packed up, including the unicorn.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
*sad closet full of boxed up Breyers noises*

I've just recently started focusing my collection on G1 stablemates, the molds used from 1975-2009 (and sporadically since then). I have seen some stablemate love in this board, so it seemed like a good place to share MY stablemate love! They really are a wonderful size. I've never been able to decide which I like more, the Traditional or the Stablemate.

I'm sure none of this will be new to you all or anything, so it's not like I'm giving a review of these molds that have been around since 1975! Just my opinions, and in my opinion, the first generation of stablemates doesn't have a bad mold in the lot (there are sixteen total). Each is a little masterpiece. There is something elegant and subtle to all of them. They feel more like paintings to me than the newer molds, something classic and regal to them. Maureen Love is one of my favorite Breyer artists, in general, and she sculpted all of these.

I've increased my G1 collection immensely in the past year, and haven't had anywhere to show them off! So this is sort of a new aquisitions thread, but more a vintage stablemate appreciation thread.

Swaps is my favorite stablemate mold. The proportions and the stance, the curve of the neck, the delicate face, I just think he's lovely.

About unicorns... I agree. Nowadays, unicorns representations are becoming worse and worse, further and further from what it was in the first place (unicorns legend comes from tibetan goats having their horns artificially joined at a very early age; this is why the very first unicorns representations shown rather small creatures resembling goats more than horses). The Wheel of Dharma, in Tibet, show the real thing (of course) and medieval representations clearly show artiodactyl creatures with a beard. Today, unicorns are depicted as ridiculous horses with rainbow colors and sometimes wings. Nothing to do with the source. Terrible. Really terrible.

Personally, I agree, the goat-type (or the more Asian dragon-like depiction, or the Middle-Eastern elephant/rhino/giant angry mule type) are all more interesting to me than the Modern Unicorn. I do, however, acknowledge its place in the vernacular of unicorn lore. The typical White Horse with a Horn is . . . I'm just not compelled by it. The more unnatural color and horse-qualities added, the less I like it. If it's a horse with a beard and cloven hooves and maybe even a "lion" tail, I'll take it. If it's a Standard Horse with a horn, but creatively done, in a realistic or otherwise well considered coat color, I'll take that, too. I know many people DO love the newer incarnations, like Breyer's, and I'm glad someone does. It's just not me (though Little Me loved almost all unicorns, no matter). I can't handle the gaited rainbow one they released in Wal-Mart, I'm sorry to anyone who love it.    

I do wish there was a line of more historically traditional unicorns, OR even just DIFFERENT unicorns. New and creative interpretations. Sculpts that recognize that the Unicorn as a concept does not have the same origin as the Horse, and they only overlapped for a time. Maybe there are and I just don't know them! I did see one, somewhere on this board, the Schleich Forest Unicorn I think - that was nice! That I think was an aberration in the right direction for me. And I think the Ice Unicorn, too? Both are not a STYLE I am much into personally, but the fact that it has a dog-like nose is interesting to me. It's not historical, but it's got the spirit of "this is an exotic animal no one has really seen and we don't really know exactly what it is but we're going to describe it in a lot of different ways and you're going to do your best to figure it out."  

. . . sorry, that was a tangent, all to say - I get it. But also, to each their own!

I also collect My Little Pony, so like . . . I would be a huge hypocrite to speak too harshly about rainbow unicorns.  [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Maybe you'd like this one? (except for the price, it was a one-off paintjob)
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Gwaine has the Forest Unicorns, I agree not something I want particularly- not and never really was into unis- but done with imagination and courage.

That company has a qilin/kirin family also. My mom has the original family, will have to try and take a pic of them. I do have the baby here, it's modeling for me,

Windstone has made some of my favorite mass-produced unicorn creatures (and that one is really lovely! That sculpt is gorgeous). Even her "white horse with a gold horn" approach is really nicely done, and I can't complain about it at all. Goes to show you that any idea can be done well, even one not usually done well by others! But I love her more traditional and her more exotic approaches especially (especially the qilin).

Jill wrote:

If it's a Standard Horse with a horn, but creatively done, in a realistic or otherwise well considered coat color, I'll take that, too

That's what I did, I was so frustrated Breyer had never done a horse-coloured unicorn without pearl or pastel or metallic or glitter or rainbows, I painted my own. I think I probably showed you last time the topic came up on here, but for the others here's the post where I rationalise my choices in avoiding of the decorator unicorn and painting a 'real' one

I have indeed admired it in the past, but I shall admire it again - I think it's a great rendition and great reasoning for painting it that way!

Jill wrote:

I've just recently started focusing my collection on G1 stablemates, the molds used from 1975-2009 (and sporadically since then). I have seen some stablemate love in this board, so it seemed like a good place to share MY stablemate love! They really are a wonderful size. I've never been able to decide which I like more, the Traditional or the Stablemate.

I'm sure none of this will be new to you all or anything, so it's not like I'm giving a review of these molds that have been around since 1975! Just my opinions, and in my opinion, the first generation of stablemates doesn't have a bad mold in the lot (there are sixteen total). Each is a little masterpiece. There is something elegant and subtle to all of them. They feel more like paintings to me than the newer molds, something classic and regal to them. Maureen Love is one of my favorite Breyer artists, in general, and she sculpted all of these.

I've increased my G1 collection immensely in the past year, and haven't had anywhere to show them off! So this is sort of a new aquisitions thread, but more a vintage stablemate appreciation thread.

Thanks for "listening" to me gush about these little guys! If you have any, I'd love to see them! There are still so many colors I don't have yet, and clearly, I am out of room.

EDIT: I nearly forgot to mention to two G1 foals, standing and lying - but mine are also all packed right now! But they deserve to be recognized as well, because not only are they full of delicate detail, they are much more stable than many of the newer stablemate foals!

In case you didn't know this - ALL of the G1 SMs were molds leased from Hagen-Renaker.  Breyer leased only 16 of the HR mini horses, but you can see some of them here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and on the 2 pages following.  The race horses are on this page: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (They're towards the bottom).  The SMs proved to be so popular, each generation was sculpted by Breyer artists.  Chris Hess had nothing to do with the SMs and Maureen Love never worked for Breyer.

Jennypurr wrote:

In case you didn't know this - ALL of the G1 SMs were molds leased from Hagen-Renaker.  Breyer leased only 16 of the HR mini horses, but you can see some of them here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and on the 2 pages following.  The race horses are on this page: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (They're towards the bottom).  The SMs proved to be so popular, each generation was sculpted by Breyer artists.  Chris Hess had nothing to do with the SMs and Maureen Love never worked for Breyer.

Thank you! I don't have a super well versed grasp on Breyer history or the legal ins and outs of all the leases molds, but I did know these were HK originally and that Love was their sculptor, but I am not very familiar with HK in general as I have never collected them. The originals are really beautiful! I didn't mean to imply Hess was the sculptor. I only compared to his 5-gaitor because it was comparable in pose, but vastly different in style.

Thanks for showing the Hagen Renakers, I hadn't seen the originals before. They are very beautiful. I prefer their painting to most of the Breyers, even though I like the Breyers a lot too.

Jill wrote:

Jennypurr wrote:

In case you didn't know this - ALL of the G1 SMs were molds leased from Hagen-Renaker.  Breyer leased only 16 of the HR mini horses, but you can see some of them here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and on the 2 pages following.  The race horses are on this page: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (They're towards the bottom).  The SMs proved to be so popular, each generation was sculpted by Breyer artists.  Chris Hess had nothing to do with the SMs and Maureen Love never worked for Breyer.

Thank you! I don't have a super well versed grasp on Breyer history or the legal ins and outs of all the leases molds, but I did know these were HK originally and that Love was their sculptor, but I am not very familiar with HK in general as I have never collected them. The originals are really beautiful! I didn't mean to imply Hess was the sculptor. I only compared to his 5-gaitor because it was comparable in pose, but vastly different in style.

I don't know all the in-and-outs of the Breyer/Hagen Renaker (HR) deal, but I do recall after a number of years, HR said Breyer had to stop using those molds.

The truth about 5-gaiter molds is that, if the sculptor wants to show an American Saddlebred racking, then the different molds will look very similar.  It's the nature of the gait!  If you look at this one: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] this one: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] this one: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] this one: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] this one: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and this one: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] you'll see they're all doing much the same gait.  Only the speed of the gait is different.

Jennypurr wrote:

The truth about 5-gaiter molds is that, if the sculptor wants to show an American Saddlebred racking, then the different molds will look very similar.  It's the nature of the gait!

Yes, of course! I just like Love's the best, I suppose is a good way to say it. I don't generally care for racking models, but hers is, to me, very appealing.

Jill wrote:

Jennypurr wrote:

The truth about 5-gaiter molds is that, if the sculptor wants to show an American Saddlebred racking, then the different molds will look very similar.  It's the nature of the gait!

Yes, of course! I just like Love's the best, I suppose is a good way to say it. I don't generally care for racking models, but hers is, to me, very appealing.

Have you seen the larger racking Saddlebreds sculpted by Maureen Love for Hagen Renaker?  They're both called Honora, just two different sizes.  The large one is about the size of a Breyer Classic while the smaller Honora is a little taller than the Breyer LB/PP.  You can see both here (you'll have to scroll down a bit): [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Those are really beautiful as well! I still prefer the little one, but her sculptures are just exquisite.