Jill's (growing) Collection [update 4.30.24]

I agree, those little gestures from friends are always wonderful regardless of what they really find.
Congratulations for getting the special Breyer and don't forget to make a toad expression next time you find a mirror. I have 3 variations of the bat-eared fox, both Play Visions versions and the Yujin.

Very unique additions. Congratulations

Good to see another Swaps and a Silky Sullivan too. Both have great colours. And it's difficult to ever get too many PVs, even if you already have the same one.

Thank you all! It's true that extra PV figures is not a problem.

Roger wrote:

I have 3 variations of the bat-eared fox, both Play Visions versions and the Yujin.

I hope to find the actual PV variation I thought this was someday!

I had some fun luck this month! For the first time in a long time I went visiting some antique malls and actually found some things! I had the itch to see if there were any Breyers out there, even though there almost never is, but I guess the call was real because I found quite a few! In the spirit of antique shops, they were not cheap, but the thrill of finding things "in the wild" means I often will buy them anyway, even if I would not have paid the same price online (or wasn't even looking for that figure in particular anyway). It's so much fun to find them in person! Not that looking online isn't also fun, and certainly a hunt-and-find thrill of its own in places like ebay, but something about the surprise of something showing up at random in a physical location really gets me to hand over my money, even if it's not quite as effective as online shopping where you have choices. I had to leave a few that were just way overpriced, but I actually found a couple that were reasonable or even quite nicely priced.

The cartoonish horse is Spirit from the movie Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron, and so is a blend of realistic horse anatomy and cartoon style from the movie. I never was much interested in getting one and since he usually sells for $50-$300 (depending on condition), I wasn't too worried about it. But this guy in really good condition was $40, so I decided to take him home. He looks nice on his own section of shelf, where he doesn't clash with the usual Breyer style.

The donkey is Brighty, a mold I have wanted for a long time, so even though he was your average ebay price, I went ahead and got him. He cleaned up very well! He was mislabeled as a "chalky" which would have made his price extremely good, but I don't think the seller knew much about Breyer and was going off a photo of a chalky Brighty and assumed they had the same thing. And the silver bay Roemer was an ebay purchase. I had intended to get one from Breyer, but found this guy being resold because he arrived with some rubs for less than half the cost at Breyer, so I jumped on that chance.
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Also at the antique mall was a Breyer cougar for a good price, so even though he is a duplicate for me, I bought him. He's available for trade/sale, if anyone is interested. I also found the Bachman Dogs of the World collie, which I didn't know what it was at the time and was just charmed by its detailed sculpt and hand painted quality. Someone put a lot of effort into it. Her ears are chipped, but she's beautiful all the same.

The stablemate Andalusian is just from the Breyer website. He was my "fill in the gap to free shipping" purchase for a different horse, who hasn't even shipped yet, ironically. And the teeny little horse is another Kid Kore figure, part of the ever expanding mystery of how many are there.
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In the world of exciting online finds, more Play Visions have joined the family! I am most excited about the tamandua and the tapir, but all the rest are also great additions.
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And last but not least, also found at an antique mall, a few not-quite-animal-figure qualifiers that I was pretty stoked to find at $5 a piece. I have the yellow one already, but again, that "found in the wild" bug gets you and you can't leave them behind, haha.
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Congratulations for your new treasures

Congratulation Jill, the tapir and tamandua are really awesome find and the Collie is incredible

Jill wrote:

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How wonderful to have these exciting new members of your collection Jill!
I love these 3 above. I think they look really tasteful and fit in well together in your photo, positioned nicely in a happy group with the donkey in the middle.
Both the horses heads are the perfect angle, and their feet and bodies are open and welcoming to the donkey.

The flock little ponies are very nice! and the crab as well

The tamandua is the highlight of this batch and I'm so glad one of these joined my collection recently thanks to a forum friend.

I love Brighty, such a great unique pose. And the Stallion of Cimarron isn't too cartoony at all. The sculpt is quite realistic and I like the simplified painting style. Wonderful to see the PV tapir and tamandua. Are they rarer than the usual PV? The tamandua stands out for its colours, but I'd love to find the tapir one day. Does the PV giraffe stand up? I had two but their legs were too rubbery and flexible to stand up.

Thank you all!

rogerpgvg wrote:

Wonderful to see the PV tapir and tamandua. Are they rarer than the usual PV?

Honestly, I don't know. I just really like them, and this is the first time I have come across either, but I have also only been hunting for PV for a couple of years. In the bounty of WhiteLightningWolf and Cody having so many to sell more recently, I have no real sense of how difficult any specific one is to find.

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Does the PV giraffe stand up? I had two but their legs were too rubbery and flexible to stand up.

It does not! Agreed, the legs are much too thin and flexible for support. He has to rely on his neighbors for help.

Jill wrote:

Thank you all!  

rogerpgvg wrote:

Wonderful to see the PV tapir and tamandua. Are they rarer than the usual PV?

Honestly, I don't know.   I just really like them, and this is the first time I have come across either, but I have also only been hunting for PV for a couple of years. In the bounty of WhiteLightningWolf and Cody having so many to sell more recently, I have no real sense of how difficult any specific one is to find.

They're relatively rare, especially when compared to the sharks, starfish, mustelids and sets like those. However, they're not as rare as the aardvark, pangolin, jackal, etc.

Gosh, so many great new things! I have the Spirit and Rain moulds, that was a big part of my childhood. The newer series isn't my cup of tea at all but there is a few figures I kept from the stablemate releases... Anyway, congrats on all! The PV, that collie, lots of great things.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Gosh, so many great new things! I have the Spirit and Rain moulds, that was a big part of my childhood. The newer series isn't my cup of tea at all but there is a few figures I kept from the stablemate releases... Anyway, congrats on all! The PV, that collie, lots of great things.

Thanks! Yeah, the old movie was fun. Also has a great soundtrack.

This is not further additions, BUT I finally got a shelf for my Play Visions (and Kid Kore horses, and some books that didn't fit on my other shelf)! I took a long weekend this week and was able to get to some projects I'd put off for a long time, and one of those was figuring out how to exhibit my Play Visions, which I hated just having in a box because they are one of my favorite collections. I found this not super high quality shelf that was therefore affordable, which was perfect, plus I got some acrylic risers and it came out pretty good! Still not perfect, I need some more and better risers for the top and need to figure out what or if I should do with the empty space at the top of each cubby. I'm also already out of room again, haha, but I think there will be ways to squish things together as more figures find their way here. I also want to put a white background behind the whole thing. For some reason it only came with four white squares and not one for each cubby . . .

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Oh Jill, THIS was my favorite part I think (besides getting new models) of collecting. Organizing, curating, and maintaining a display was very therapeutic thing for me. Congrats! It looks absolutely fantastic!

You could buy a thicker variety of posterboard for the backing. Most have a shiny glossy side and then a matte side, so whichever may match the original backing. I hate that those cubicle thinga don't come with a real full backing...

As for risers and other display options there are a few things you could try. One "creative" idea that may work is buying a couple of these nail polish acrylic shelves that will fit the width of the cubicles and use something like these Command Hook Outdoor Clear Strips to attach them. The PVs shouldn't be too heavy, but you want something to stick too. BUT there are a few options to try out to utilize that extra space.

SUPERB PV collection!!!

Beautiful collection with interesting animals.

So many PV treasures

PV lori

So wonderful to see your new display and what an amazing collection of PV you have built up- so impressive!!

Thank you all!

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Oh Jill, THIS was my favorite part I think (besides getting new models) of collecting. Organizing, curating, and maintaining a display was very therapeutic thing for me. Congrats! It looks absolutely fantastic!

It really is I think equally as fun as getting a figure is enjoying the experience of HAVING it. Especially since they've been stored awhile, it was really nice to see all these again--almost like getting new ones, since I had forgetting some of what I had. Every now and them I think rearranging and rotating helps me appreciate what I have.

Quote :

You could buy a thicker variety of posterboard for the backing. Most have a shiny glossy side and then a matte side, so whichever may match the original backing. I hate that those cubicle thinga don't come with a real full backing...

As for risers and other display options there are a few things you could try. One "creative" idea that may work is buying a couple of these nail polish acrylic shelves that will fit the width of the cubicles and use something like these Command Hook Outdoor Clear Strips to attach them. The PVs shouldn't be too heavy, but you want something to stick too. BUT there are a few options to try out to utilize that extra space.

These are great ideas, thank you!!

Nice display. I am thinking of getting smaller display cabinets (right now everything is in tall Ikea Billy cabinets) for partitioning off parts of the collection.

bmathison1972 wrote:

Nice display. I am thinking of getting smaller display cabinets (right now everything is in tall Ikea Billy cabinets) for partitioning off parts of the collection.

These were quite cheap at Target, if that's an option for you! They are by no means really nice quality, but they work great for what I'm using them for.

Here's who joined the family in July--a pretty exciting month, and quite heavy on the horses!

First, three traditional sized Breyers! Far more than the average month sees!    The horse with the hat is Old Timer, a mold I have long admired but never owned. He is pretty unique, with his molded on harness and removable hat. Extremely charming, and this one was offered to me at a very good price because he is quite yellowed and marked up, but the fact that he still has his hat is quite impressive. He's been named Old Possum, after T.S. Eliot's book (which you can see him standing beside). The fjord mare I have talked about elsewhere, she is new for this year and a relatively new mold. This is the first regular run release. The saddlebred weanling is Burnt Sienna who I just happened upon at a price I couldn't turn down. She's a beautiful color in a mold I really enjoy. And the pink horse is not a Breyer of course, that's Swift Wind from She-Ra. Found him for 25 cents at the thrift shop and couldn't leave him behind. I had him when I was a little and he was lost to time.
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Also found many of the new Yowies as a lot on ebay. They are really cute! The puggle is absolutely the star of the show. The frog fish and sea turtle are also really cool, and I really like the crocodile except that his snout insists on being droopy. Also found the Play Visions iguana for my Amazon set, and two RAE aardvarks, who I picked up just because they are really cool. No intention of collecting RAE at this point.
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It was a great month for Kid Kore horses. So much so, that it inspired me to finally organize the information I had and make a website. It's a small website because it's just a way to keep track of what I know, since it's basically impossible to sort these guys easily. I am quite proud of it, though, even though it's basic and has kind of shoddy photography.
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I enjoy a lot your new way od displaying and the new elements you're using to do it.

Thank you! I decided to get a second cubby shelf to go next to the first one. We'll see how long it takes to fill that one up.

August additions were many and exciting! First up was a very exciting package from Rogerpgvg mainly consisting of a huge boost to my UK Yowie population. The UK Yowies are a really appealing series to me. Their slightly stylized but not cartoon-ish features that make them look almost like little clay figures has so much charm to it, I almost like them more than their more realistic American counterparts. I especially think the baboon and lemur are neat looking models, though the marsupial mole might be my favorite.  

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Also in the package were the K&M/Yujin painted dog, cheetah, and cobra and the Playspaces hyena. These were some big wants for me, especially the painted dog and hyena! I think this painted dog is my favorite of the figures I know representing the species. Roger also very kindly included the little Nayab badger, armadillo, and quoll from my wish list. Many thanks for the chance to get all of these little guys!!

The Play Visions red fox and palm civet were ebay finds, and the red fox was especially exciting since I have been looking for him to complete my "wild dogs" set for a while.  

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And the rest of my month, and I think probably a sizable portion of next month, are Breyers. It's funny how the Breyer collecting feels so different than the others for me. I have gone heavily back into Breyers lately and it feels like a flipped script. Where with things like the Play Visions and Kid Kore horses and a lot of the other little guys I look for, finding them is the hard part. If I can find them, I can *usually* afford them, even the pricier Play Visions. The trick is finding them! Lots of sifting through lots, etc. With the Breyers, exactly the opposite. I can almost always find what I am looking for (I am never after the super rare ones, really), but the trick if finding one I can afford and comparing prices and shipping, etc. It's a little more like shopping than searching. That's why they feel so different, like stretching different collecting muscles. Breyer is also more about nostalgia for me, while finding the play visions and kid kore, etc. is mostly all new to me and about creating complete sets. Interesting and fun to go between the two.

So, lots of Breyer buying lately!

These are from this year's Tractor Supply blind bags. I have never been a member of a Breyer group before this year, and I have learned so much about the releases, haha. This one apparently reused a lot of horses from earlier released single runs and sets, which upset a lot of people but was nice for people like me who missed them the first time around. The black paso fino is one of the two chase pieces. Breyer calls them "rare" and "ultra rare" but apparently never says which is which. Usually they are decorators in non realistic colors, but this year both are fairly plain realistic colors. I like them both and hope to find the other eventually. I thought the appaloosa would be one I didn't want, but now that I see him in person, I really like him!

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My MOST exciting Breyer finds of the month, though, were all the Swaps that finish my conga. I did not expect to finish it so quickly all at once. I have been looking for these for about two years, and the last seven I needed all turned up in the last month or so. The two on the bottom are the same horse, "open tail Swaps" which just references the opening between the tail and the body. These are the oldest version of Swaps, before the mold was damaged, causing the hole to fill in. The most recent version of the mold once again has an opening there, but it is created using a dremel after the fact rather than created by the mold. I wanted both open and closed tail swaps in my conga, and I found two from the same seller. Rather than choose between them, I took both. :) They look pretty different, especially in the colors of the face. The Swaps mold, as I have mentioned in my Breyer thread, is about my favorite and the only conga I intend to complete. For now, it's done! We'll see if they go on to release any high end special runs or OOAKs I can afford in the future, haha.

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One of my stablemate packages also included these guys, just some more G1s I was looking for. The white draft horse is one I have been looking to replace since I painted mine in high school. The drafters can be expensive, so it was really nice to find one under $20. The buckskin in the center is a really special model because she was a surprise gift from the seller! I don't know exactly what inspired her to give this figure to me. I have bought from her once before, in fact the only other in this mold I own I bought from her, but we don't know each other otherwise. I had made a post about this mold asking about its rarity, so perhaps she knew I was hoping to get another someday and had this one available. She is not in good condition, but honestly, with this mold, she still could have sold for $15-$20 or more easily, I think. Especially because she was made in Mexico and has that stamped on her stomach, a harder to find version of this mold. The quarter horse mare (originally an Iberian stallion when it was Hagen-Renaker, hence the very stallion-like posture) is the rarest G1 mold because the mold was damaged and only a few colors were ever produced from it. They have since done repairs to it and released her again in the Stablemate Club, but so far only that one. I think it's one of the coolest molds, so I am excited to have two!

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