General Additions thread - Catching up on all I missed, pt1

Beautiful, congrats!

Thanks everyone! It really is a great sculpt, captures the poise and movement without going over the top into cartoonishness. I wasn't keen on the tail when I first saw one in this mould, but it's much better in person, and looks like it's flowing and flicking in the wind rather than curling for no reason
I know it's likely to be quite a long wait til the next regular run, but I'm already looking forward to seeing this one released in more colours in future. If I could comfortably paint big models, I'd be planning a pinto!

He looks very pretty in this shade of chestnut! Congratulations on getting such a lovely model to your collection!
I think Jennifer Scott sculpted the prototype, is that correct? I love her works

Yes, I remember seeing her name on this one's IdentifyYourBreyer page. I'm glad the company's varying their sculptors a bit more lately, there's been quite a few first-mould-by-a-new-artist introductions to the range in recent years, and I love that variety of art style it brings.

Another fairly new release to introduce today, one of 2021's regular runs - I bought him second-hand but he's in perfect as-new condition, not a mark on him except all the spots and freckles that are meant to be there

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The same mould as the liver chestnut mare I posted a few pages back, only this time the mould's been adapted to a stallion, and the mane and tail are different, too - hers were the windswept longer version, his mane is neatly banded and trimmed, and his tail's straight rather than flicking/flowing.

He's a portrait model of a real horse, and I think they've done a really good job of matching him - just look at this real shot and you'll see what I mean.
The only difference is that you can see some spotting of darker brown on his gingery colour, most noticeable on the shoulder, which hasn't been copied onto the model - but it's probably quite hard for the company to do masked spots over a base colour rather than on the plain white plastic, and I can see why they wouldn't want to spend the time and expense of having somebody hand paint those one-by-one!

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He's a very handsome boy, I remember writing in my review last year that I'd probably get him because he's a good colour on a sculpt I didn't have yet, and although he didn't get to be the first in that mould for my collection after all (unless you count the mane/tail/stallion 'edits'), he's still very welcome!

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I like the way his entire blanket marking has nice crisp and intricate edges; years ago Breyer would do their blanket appaloosas using an airbrushed coat colour but leaving the rump unpainted, and the overall effect was a bit blurry and unfinished-looking. This more modern masked style means they can have a lot more detail and shape which follows the hair pattern, and is a really good match for the real horse.

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There is an unfortunate seam mark where the mane and neck meet, this is probably due to the interchangeable mane styles this mould's got, slightly neater prepping before painting would've helped smooth the join. I suspect some individuals are better than others, as with most of these moulds with more than one hairstyle option.

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But he looks fine from the other side, which is his 'good' side for photography and display anyway, and because I won't be taking my Breyers out to shows, it's looking good on the shelf and in photos which matter most for me

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And look, eye colour again! I still haven't worked out what qualifies some horses for this added detail when the majority of regular runs have plain black glossy eyes with no iris painted in

Beautiful 

When you mention it is a portrait model I believe you're refering to the mould too. If I overlap the real horse picture with your model's picture, they are exactly alike, proportions, etc. That's what I like on Breyer large models, they can give very realistic proportions to the figures. Who sculpted something so perfect to the real animal? I think the biggest difference is the tail, quite weird actually but this is something that doesn't have an exact shape to match.

The mould pre-dates this colour by quite a long way, it's just a really great match and pure chance they have a photo of the real stallion in the exact same moment of the same gait! I just checked IdentifyYourBreyer for the year and it was sculpted specially as a portrait for the first release back in 2009 - there's a bit about the real mare, her rider, and the sculptor, here (from the Breyer packaging)

  what a beauty!

George wrote:

The mould pre-dates this colour by quite a long way, it's just a really great match and pure chance they have a photo of the real stallion in the exact same moment of the same gait! I just checked IdentifyYourBreyer for the year and it was sculpted specially as a portrait for the first release back in 2009 - there's a bit about the real mare, her rider, and the sculptor, here (from the Breyer packaging)

It was made after an American Quarter horse but I think the gait and color are not the only things that really makes those look alike. I think the sculpt is quite similar too.

A little parcel of second-hand Schleich this morning!

I've always thought they did a better job with ponies than horses - the compact, cute sculpting style is a better fit with breeds which are, well, compact and cute So quite a proportion of my Schleich herd are ponies, foals, and also donkeys which work nicely in their style.
Today's parcel adds a few more to the smaller end of the breed spectrum - starting with one of the tiniest breeds of all, the Falabella.

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These two are both custom repaints, by someone I know - although I bought them from somebody else, so they've had at least one home in between since they were painted.

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I really like this little mould, I've got the original spotted release from way back when it was new (TAW link : here) - in fact, I'm pretty sure that was my first ever Schleich model. It looks really good in one-off colours as well as the familiar original finish paintwork; this fiery golden shade stands out very bright and pretty!

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I don't know what real Falabellas are like to know, but this one looks so cheeky, like it could easily be as much trouble as any Shetland pony

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And the second one of the pair, in silver dapple - he looks a little bit more innocent, despite being the same sculpt - it must be the way their faces are painted!

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You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours...

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After this Falabella stallion, Schleich released a mare of the same breed, I got her free when I bought some other models once! Today's parcel included a repaint on the same mould, this time by the seller they came from

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As well as the repaints, I'm now the proud owner of some original finish Shetland ponies.

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This is another surprisingly good quality sculpt, it catches the shetlandy build and character rather nicely, and I think I like it more than their older trotting one, which is something unusual for me - in general, I find the newer sculpts get less accurate and appealing, but here they've improved the face a lot, and not lost track of proportions or angles in the body.

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Now, there ARE braids in the mane, which I know can be a 100% hard NO for a lot of collectors, and in general I'm totally with you on the groaning about putting stupid bows and frills on everything - but these honestly aren't too bad.
Look at them again - they're simple three-strand plaits with neat elastic bands on the end. The exact kind of plait people would put in ponies' manes, if they were a plaiting kind of person. I've had my shetland nine years and never seen need to plait her, but I know some people do it, for various reasons. I've seen the owners I know using a row of plaits to keep a mane tamed and clean before a show or drive, and I've seen kids putting these sorts of plaits in their pet ponies just for fun.
It's not the ridiculously over-the-top impractical kind of looped and criss-crossed and beaded and bowed braiding Schleich like to inflict on horse figures, this time; it's reasonable, realistic plaits like ponies might put up with from their owners in real life, heh

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The other side. I'm not entirely sure what colour they're aiming at here, it doesn't really match any of the true options for a creamy coloured coat :
Perlino is a cream body with darker mane and tail, but usually has darker legs too and would have pink skin not grey on the nose.
Cremello would have legs the same shade as the body colour, but the mane & tail would be white and the nose would be pink.
Pale palomino would have the grey nose, but also a blonde or white mane and tail, never darker than the body.
I think I'll just have to put 'cream' in her caption on my website, and pretend it doesn't bug me that my other models have accurate colour info and this one has a vague descriptive term instead

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The foal that comes with her is a very sweet little thing, it's got that fluffy teddybear look of small ponies in their first fluffy baby coats

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The seller said both the cream pony and the chestnut foal came from one of the advent calendar sets, and a quick google image search confirms them in photos of the Horse Club one from 2017.

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This liver chestnut was from a Pony Agility set - here on Schleich's own website.

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Again, the braids really don't aggravate me too much, and the green elastics on this one are a little bit nicer than the pink ones!

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Her colour is much more possible, a simple dark chestnut with a slightly lighter mane, she looks too shiny in this low outdoor light but inside she's fine and less plasticky

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I can't seem to find either these mares on Toy Animal Wiki, I've had a good hunt around but only found the foal - it must be the same as in one of the other sets, it's pictured here.
But neither the mare or foal are mentioned in the advent calendars section. Searching the word 'agility' only brings up releases with dogs not ponies.
And neither of the adults are on the Shetland Pony breed page?

Would you like plain background pic of the adults if they're really not there and it's not just me being bad at finding stuff which is listed?

As a final post-script, three new bunnies, which are made by Julip not Schleich, and didn't come from Ebay, but they arrived today too so they can share a post rather than having to reply to myself later on just so they're not left out of my General Additions thread

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Adorable new ponies! I think that they definately work with Schleich's "cute" style. The only Schleich "horses" I have are the miniature Shetland pony family, and I think they are wonderful.

Congrats! I love those rabbits too

I'd definitely be up for more of the shetlands, this mould in more colours but also the others now I've got restarted on them (I already have the older trotting ones). The mini family are pretty sweet, too, you're right.
Luckily a lot of Schleich get sold when kids outgrow them, and they're THE popular brand which is stocked in pretty much every high street toyshop over here, so they're much easier to find second hand than most brands.

Oh most definately. Other brands are nearly impossible to find once a figure retires.. Luckily Schleich is everywhere and you can really get great deals in lots.

Lovely additions,the little rabbits are great!

I also acquired a Schleich Shetland pony recently. I still don't know if I show in my Next Level topic or if I open a topic about my little collection of trivial horse figures.
Especially when I see some of these models presented with so beautiful pics.
I like that Falabella version, its mane is so beautiful that it looks brushable.
I think the best way to find a horse on TAW is through the breed page and if you don't see yours there, we surely would love to have a picture of each model missing to update TAW.

The rabbits are so simple but so much fun, I've had the company paint little portrait ones of the real bunnies I've owned in the past but these three are just second hand buys and were made as random colours rather than copied from anyone's pet photos in the first place, so I'll have to invent some names for them as they're not anybunny real

I owe you two Shetland photos on a blank backdrop then, Roger! I'll take them next time we see the sun here, I had a CollectA parcel arrive today so I wanted to get pictures of those, too, but it's been solid cloud and tomorrow's predicted windy, so it might be a few days before I can have another photography session to catch up

These Shetlands are delightful! I'm not surprised that Schleich have made lots, their cute looks work well with their style!

I bet they're really popular with the Schleich target audience of kids, as well as collectors, too. I think most pony-mad children dream of having a shetland pony when they're small enough, then upgrade their wished-for size as they grow!
But who wouldn't want shetland ponies! All the fun of having a horse, but tiny. I bought myself the real thing when I was 30, back when I was having a terrible time in life, I needed something to make it worth getting up every day for - and I tell you, every day is better when it starts with hugging a shetland pony.

George wrote:

I bet they're really popular with the Schleich target audience of kids, as well as collectors, too. I think most pony-mad children dream of having a shetland pony when they're small enough, then upgrade their wished-for size as they grow!
But who wouldn't want shetland ponies! All the fun of having a horse, but tiny. I bought myself the real thing when I was 30, back when I was having a terrible time in life, I needed something to make it worth getting up every day for - and I tell you, every day is better when it starts with hugging a shetland pony.

Definitely, I would love to have a Shetland Pony!

George wrote:

I owe you two Shetland photos on a blank backdrop then, Roger! I'll take them next time we see the sun here, I had a CollectA parcel arrive today so I wanted to get pictures of those, too, but it's been solid cloud and tomorrow's predicted windy, so it might be a few days before I can have another photography session to catch up

No hurries, George! Take all the time you need.

George wrote:

I bought myself the real thing when I was 30, back when I was having a terrible time in life, I needed something to make it worth getting up every day for - and I tell you, every day is better when it starts with hugging a shetland pony.

This is such a beautiful comment, George! I even feel a little happier after reading it.:)

Bonnie wrote:

Definitely, I would love to have a Shetland Pony!

Do they bark?

When Breyer first showed the photos of their portrait model for the famous racehorse Winx, I admit I was disappointed. Though I don't follow Australian racing, so I wasn't a particular fan of hers, I've seen photos of the real Winx, and she has beautiful colouring. See here - there's various shades of rich brown through her coat, and even some dappling if you see her here without her saddle on, where the model in the promotional photo looked a uniform mahogany red-brown, with shading only applied in the grooves of the muscles, and where her legs darken to black. I was disappointed enough that at the time I said I probably wouldn't ever buy her, unless at some point a cheap second hand one came up and they hadn't released the mould in a better colour by then.

But at various points through the year, I saw collectors' real photos of the Winx models, and they were much better than Breyer's original shot - more depth shading, lighter patches on the flank, and a richness to the finish which made the colour look vibrant despite being dark. And I began to slowly change my mind, looking at the prices from various retailers I knew, checking out how many were in stock, perhaps I needed to hurry or regret it?
And yet I still held off, because perhaps they were varied, with different batches having the paint handled in a more subtle and skillful way than others, and I didn't want to make up my mind on the fact I'd seen good paintjobs, then get a flat dull one and be disappointed. I even bid for one on Ebay, but dropped out once the price got quite a bit higher than I knew I could order a brand new example

Last week, I saw one more 'real' photo of an actual model, and gave in to temptation - I just had to risk it, and order myself a Winx : I'd regret it if she sold out once retailers concentrate on the 2022 models coming in, and I never did get chance to own one. The worst that could happen is owning a truly beautiful, elegant, and realistic sculpt, but in a bit of a boring colour, and that's no hardship or waste of money at all!

This morning, my parcel arrived, and while the cat 'helped' me with the box, I got to see her for the first time...

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And she's lovely! Phew I got one of the nicely painted ones, with a dark but deeply painted colour, almost black in places with really warm glowing highlights which show through in natural places. Sure, not quite so shaded and bright as the real horse, but as I said, I never followed her career from here anyway (we tend to see just UK and Ireland racing on free tv, and I don't have any of the subscription stuff for international sport), so although I can appreciate and admire her fantastic racing record (37 wins, the last 33 of which were in a row), I've no huge attachment to the real mare to need an accurate portrait.

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Trying to catch a big enough bit of sun was tricky, this one's brighter but the shadows on her aren't so flattering.

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I think the mould looks even more striking in this dark, sleek, shiny colour than it does in the pale matte dun I have already. It draws attention to the detail and contour in the sculpt, the way the light catches.

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Breyer tend to do a lot more action-posed moulds these days, so it's a change to have a placid, relaxed-looking horse just standing there.

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The other side looks just as handsome when you're handling the model, but with her head turned slightly away it's not so flattering for photos.

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A really fine example of the lean, racing-fit Thoroughbred breed - how I'd love this to be the next mould they scale down to add to the Stablemates range, then I could paint more racehorse portraits of my own!

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I haven't thought of a name for her yet, but because racing people just love a clever name bringing together something from each parent, I'm going to go through the Thoroughbreds page of my website and find some classy-sounding combination between two of my existing models

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Hello! Look at those lovely long ears

Wonderful model!

Wow, Winx truly is as stunning as the real horse! Incredible colouring and so elegant, I love this model!