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

Three gems more! I particulary love the thoroughbred!

As I said on the Breyer 2023 reviews topic, British collectors recently received the bad news that this year's models wouldn't be coming in June as expected - the company which used to import and distribute them emailed all the sellers to say their orders were cancelled and no stock was coming.
It's possible another import company will take on the brand in future, but right now all UK Breyer fans are left with the choice of patiently waiting in hope they eventually end up on the market here again, or ordering in from overseas.

I decided that I just couldn't wait and risk missing out on the must-have model from this year's releases, the one I absolutely HAD to add to my collection after many years of being a fan of the breed, and much excitement back when they announced we were getting a regular run on this gorgeous new mould! And if I was ordering that horse, it was the ideal time to get some WIA models I'd had on my wishlist too, and then I may as well put the 2023 Stablemates on the order as well, cos they might never reach this country directly either (or be as elusive and fleetingly in stock as the last batch were!), so in the end I had a nice big parcel on the way from Germany.

If anyone else in the UK is considering buying from overseas during this time of Breyer drought and uncertainty, I can happily recommend Modellpferdeversand as an option. They're amazingly quick and efficient, I've been buying my WIA models from there for a while now and in my experience parcels arrive almost as quickly as ones bought from companies over here (maybe one day longer, for the extra sorting and travel which happens between the ports)
There's no customs and import fees like we get hit with if buying from the USA, and postage is €11, dropping to just €5 if you spend over a certain amount, so it's not excessive.
The site works in English, and Paypal automatically converts currency for you when you go through the checkout, so no need to worry about how to pay in Euros.
And be aware that the prices you see on the website will CHANGE after you log in - something to do with VAT tax rates, we pay less per model than other countries. For example, my Traditional scale buy is marked up at €49.65 on the site, but drops to €41.72 if I log in with my UK-addressed account.

Ok, so international buying option thoroughly covered, here's what was in my parcel!

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A NORWEGIAN FJORD! Hurrah! As I said, I wanted this one so badly from the moment I saw it, out of all this year's new models this was the one which jumped out, and I'm so glad to have managed to get hold of her.

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She's a portrait model of a real mare, Sweetwater's Zorah Belle, who's been successful at sport driving in the USA. The photo on the box shows her with a clipped off coat, but the model hasn't been given the paler body and 'edge' lines where the clip ends, so this must be her natural unclipped summer-coated look. I've called mine Harecroft Astrilde, after a Norse goddess (using an alternate variation of the name, because Breyer used the more common 'Astrid' for another Fjord release!)

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Her colour's nicely chosen, not too bright and orangey, but not too pale and wishy-washy either, and the dark points are done well, with the black down the middle of the mane and a straight neat dorsal stripe, the shading on her legs is especially subtle, and the black nostrils faded gently into a pale nose are just right!

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Breyer packaged her facing this way in the box, but I prefer how she looks from the other side - a combination of the leg position looking more balanced, and the ear being visible rather than swamped in her forelock!

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She's a nice sculpt, a good representation of the modern breed, which is slightly lighter and more like a native riding pony type, than the small-draft-horse ancestry they come from.

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I wonder what other colour Fjords we might see in future, I doubt we'll ever have a regular run grey dun (grulla) because they used that for a Breyerfest special, and that only leaves a couple of other shades even found in the breed. Perhaps they'll just use the alternate untrimmed mane version of the mould to bring out other breeds on this sculpt.

Here's the next bit of the parcel, two WIA horses...

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You can see more pictures in my post on the WIA section of the forum, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Now, on to the Stablemates!

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This is the Darley mould, sculpted as an Arabian but so much the American show-ring type, with the long-limbed action both high-stepping AND stretched, that it doesn't resemble the old-world Arabian as I know it. So I show all mine as the National Show Horse breed, created as a cross between the Arabian and the Saddlebred for exhibitors who wanted something part way between the two, flamboyant movement combined with Arabian posture and prettiness. I think this mould does a great job of that!
This is my third Darley, and the first one to have serious balance problems. He just did not stand up, straight out if the packaging, and even after the hot water treatment he's leaning very much to one side - I had to tilt the fake grass base at quite an angle to keep him upright for a photo, and now he's standing with a thick coin under his front foot to level him up on the shelf.
The black paintjob is plain but the perfect point between matte and glossy, so it looks like the sheen on a clean and healthy horse coat, rather than too plasticky. I wish the sock had masking rather than that fade-out (leaving it off entirely would've been more realistic than such a blurry edge!) but the face marking is nice enough.

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Next out of the box was this Quarter Horse on the mini Smart Chic Olena mould. And guess what - he didn't stand up either. The standing front leg is shorter than the others, meaning he dramatically lurches to one side every time you try to let go of him. Great, that's two out of the packaging, and two out of two don't stand up?! Where is Breyer's quality control these days? I couldn't do much with the hot water, pushing the foreleg slightly outwards while trying to adjust the horse's stance and balance by bending the opposite hindleg up bit to lift that foot and let him lean back in the right direction, but even after all that I still had to use a tilted base board, a small bit of grit from the path under his front foot, AND take my photo really quickly before a breath of breeze had him falling on his face for the hundredth time, hah. Like the black horse before him, he's currently got a coin under his foot, and is going to have to keep it when he moves to his final display position on the shelf later on.
Aside from his inability to stand up, the model is actually really nice - a light and bright colour with plenty of variation in shade given by the thickness of paint application, and chestnut is perfect for the breed. The mould is named after real stallion Smart Chic Olena, and many of his offspring and later descendants are the same colour, I've met some of them at a stud over here, and every one was chestnut in one shade or another!

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Now, one which stands just fine on her own four feet! It's quite funny cos this mould has been released in solid chestnut, chestnut roan, and now a chestnut based appaloosa with roaning, so it's like they add a little bit more detail each time they want a regular run colour
The spots are done by hand, with deliberate placement rather than random paint-spatter, and while this means they look less like, well, spattered paint, they do look amusing from above, where you can clearly see the painter had got a method going - four symmetrical and evenly spaced big spots, then a series of equally symmetrical and evenly spaced small ones to fit around them. From the side, it doesn't look so mathematical
One of the older moulds in this batch, the Stock Horse Mare dates back to when Stablemates were still in 'generations', she's a G3 sculpt, which were all done by the same artist (who also did the very best era of Safari horses!), and have distinctive chiselled faces as well as chunky legs with big joints and feet. A little too chunky for the Appaloosa breed, so I show my spotted ones on this mould as Colorado Ranger Horse instead.

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Annnd another one whose sculpt doesn't match his official breed, but at least he does stand up This one's sold as a Clydesdale, but they're a tall, rangy and rather narrow heavy horse, quite athletic and leggy for a draft, not bulky little balls of muscle like this chap! I remember discussing the exact same model in rogerpgvg's post when he bought one, and I think my eventual best guesses for a more accurate breed were the Breton (which is more famously chestnut, but does come in bay), and the Rhenish German Coldblood, which is suddenly a popular breed allocation in the hobby thanks to Breyer bringing one out for Breyerfest the other year! I haven't decided which yet, so I don't know if I need to name him in German or French

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This one stands up! And looks like the breed it's meant to be! Hurrah! The colour's nicely done, a deep and rich shade of palomino with the true white mane and tail done with neat masking. I especially like the fine zig zag at the end of the mane where the edge has to interpret where the sculpted detail blends into the coat, but does it without looking blocky or misaligned. The shading on the face is also nicely done, sometimes palominos don't get given the dark noses they need to reflect the fact they have dark skin which shows wherever the coat is very fine.

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The final single horse in this year's batch, the mustang, in grey pinto. The little flash of white is quite small, I'd maybe have preferred to see a bit more across the body or neck of the horse just for the sake of being more striking to look at, but he's not at all bad, a perfectly good colour for the breed, and the sculpt is dramatic and energetic - and yes, it stands up! I've tweaked his breed from just 'Mustang' to Spanish Mustang, because this mould was originally released as an Andalusian, so even in a mustang colour, it carries all the conformation of the Spanish ancestors and can join my herd (website page ) of that breed instead.

As well as the individual horses packed on cards, this year saw the release of another 4-piece set. This time, rather than being grouped by breed type or colour/pattern, the theme is 'Poetry in Motion', which is a bit vague - I suppose the link is that all the moulds are moving rather than standing?

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One of my favourites, despite not normally being overly keen on the mould (all that mane and tail is a bit too much for my taste!), the colour just works here. Morgans can be roan, and I like the application of the white spray, so fine it captures the speckly look you see if you inspect a roan coat up close, but from a distance it blends into smooth pale colour. They also remembered to leave the darker head, and if you look at the very end of his nose, he's got a hint of more gingery shading there, like a lot of bays have in real life.

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Here's a sculpt which wasn't released as any official breed - she's known as the Running Mare! In this set, she's described as a Mustang, which...is ok, I suppose? It's a very middling sort of mould, no strong conformational traits in any direction, quite shallow through the body with barely any withers, and a small angular rump. I've got one other, which I allocated as a Brumby, another feral breed without selective breeding to improve type or maintain good conformation, so I'll put this one as a Brumby as well, just so I'm keeping two of a mould together rather than cos I think she can't stay what she was sold as

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Another one I was keen to get, this was my deciding factor on whether or not I really needed that set on my order! As I said on the previous page, I've been collecting this G2 Warmblood mould specifically for a really long time now, so any regular runs jump out as something I really ought to tick off the wishlist, even though I know I can't get EVERY release on a mould these days, with too many inaccessible exclusives out there.
This stallion is the colour known as dunskin, what happens when a buckskin horse also gets the dun gene. A lovely creamy pale shade, with frosting along the mane and at the top of the tail, and barring on the legs - an impressive level of detail to bother with for a regular run! Sold as an American Warmblood, where there's a lot more variety in the colours than the majority of older European warmbloods, so I'm happy with keeping that as his breed allocation.

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The final one from the Poetry In Motion set, and it's the Stablemates portrait of Valegro in grey. We've already had the mould in fleabitten grey with dark points, fairly recently, so I'm surprised they've gone for another so soon, but then they've also done him in dark bay more than once, so I don't think they worry too much about repeating colours! These are supposed to be dapples, but I always think they look more like heavy Tetrarch/Chubari spotting!
He's got a handsome head, and (apart from the tiny feet!) it's a nice well observed little mould, capturing the dressage movement where the horse trots as close to on-the-spot as possible - you can see the concentration on his face!

By this point I was pretty close to reaching the half price postage point, so I thought ok, I'll add another little horse, and had a look back through the Stablemates section, thinking I'd probably put in a duplicate of one of the 2023 singles, whichever I've painted least of already. But in amongst them was a 2021 model I didn't have, one of the blind bag releases which I'm pretty sure was only sold in the USA? I can't find that info on Identify Your Breyer, but as a US-based site they probably wouldn't realise that not all countries got all those Stablemates, and didn't know it was a thing which needed noting!

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Here he is, one more of those missing G2 Warmbloods to tick off! I don't know if he was ever sold as a certain breed, or even whether his colour's intended as a very light bay or a golden buckskin, but either way he's a handsome addition, and I'm pleased I spotted him when I was compiling my order!

But I looked across at the total, and oh, it was still a tiny bit below the cut-off point for half price postage - for the sake of spending about 30p more, I'd save myself €5, so I HAD to go back and choose one : it was practically a free horse! I decided to stick on one of the 'Handful of Horses' blind bags, I still haven't managed to get the Icelandic from that set, so there was a one in six chance I'd end up with the one I wanted, and if not then I'd be happy enough with a duplicate to repaint.
So I left that til last, when unpacking my parcel, a random surprise which would either be the Icelandic, or one for the body box...right?
Wrong - as soon as I split the packet I knew I'd got something totally different after all, the silver foil inside was reflecting BRIGHT blue, and out came the one-in-96 'chase' piece
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I don't actively collect decorators, but I do find it amusing when the cool colours come to me by chance - especially as this was such a last minute 'oh I'll have a blind bag' moment just to push the order up by a few pence, I very nearly didn't ever own this horse, and now I do, so I'm quite happy for him to have a shelf space, and can appreciate him for the perfectly mad and visually striking little thing that he is! The metallic blue is very vibrant and more my taste than neon pink or multicolour or see-through-and-glittery, I think in general the 'filigree' pattern is one of the most tasteful designs used for decorator releases. And the other one I got from a previous set of blind bags was similar (the copper filigree Django) so at least he'll have someone to stand with on display!

Yay, what a great box! So glad you were able to get the fjord especially, I can't wait to get mine. I've been saving up to get her but she's out of stock for now I think . . . She looks great! Personally hope they do all the fjord colors eventually, since there's so few. Would love to see red dun especially.  

The dunskin warmblood is really nice, I have no plans to buy the box set but seeing them in person is compelling. I just don't care for the little running mare at all, unfortunately. Will have to keep an eye out for them second hand. I like the rearing mustang/Andalusian, too--I think the modest white spotting is kind of nice, a minimal pattern isn't Breyer's usual approach to paints.

And congrats on that chase piece! I love the old original decorator colors, even in their new incarnations.

Superb additions!!

Impressive parcel from Germany! I enjoy seeing all the new Stablemates. Lots of good ones. I usually like it when a horse has 3 colours like the Clydesdale - it brings colour to my collection. Smart Chic Olena looks good too, much better than I expected. Perhaps I should have bought it when I order from MPV. The two Warmbloods look quite similar; both have great colours. I don't know whether I am right but the Running Mare looks like a juvenile horse to me. I have a bias towards running animals and I like the mare too. While the chase piece isn't my taste, I'd be chuffed to find it in a blind bag!

I remember your excitment about that Fjord and here it is in its full glory. It is really wonderful! :)
I also enjoy so much the dark draft from your previous post, good job finding a breed to fit the mold.

A Julip arrival for my little herd of hand-made rubber ponies

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This boy isn't brand new, he was ordered in 2009 by a friend of mine. Without even knowing, we'd both ordered Haflinger specials at the same time - mine was a mare and foal pair, hers was a stallion. When they arrived we realised what had happened, and that our two horses must've been painted side by side in the same batch while the right paint colour was in the spray gun. So we always said they were the same family, with my friend's horse being the father of my mare's foal. When thinning out her herd, she thought of me, and asked if I'd like to buy him. Of course, I said yes, not only is he a colour I like from one of the better eras of Julip painting (second only to the current style), but having him come here would unite the family which had been made together then split to different homes!

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Here they are together, don't they make a lovely little family group!

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And the new arrival again, he comes with the name Raziel given by his first owner (from a comedy novel she enjoyed, rather than a serious religious context!)

I also had another parcel from MPV in Germany - you might've guessed that from my WIA Mawari post! But that wasn't the only thing in the box, the UK import problem isn't resolved yet, so I'm still relying on them for my Breyer purchases at the moment. Somewhat ironically, we never used to get mid-year releases sent over til the following spring anyway, so ordering this one from mainland Europe means it arrives actually IN the summer it was released, which never would've happened when Breyers were sold here

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This handsome stallion is Mojave, the mid-year model on the fairly recent Fireheart mould. The first time this sculpt has been sold as a regular run, so I'm really happy that the first one I could actually buy is such a good colour!
Sometimes it happens that they go for such a bland or unappealing paintjob that I decide against my first chance to own a new mould, and have to wait years til it comes round again in the regular run line. And some moulds never do - we've still only had ONE regular run of Bluegrass Bandit way back in 2008, the original Justadream arabian mare with her head up (2009) hasn't been used again - only the head-down version with that moulding error which gave her double shoulders - Valentine (2010) hasn't been seen in the regular runs even though her foal Heartbreaker has been used twice since, we only ever had the one Marwari in palomino back in 2012, Valegro has only been 2015's actual Valegro, and the Vanner has only come back as a Unicorn since his single regular run ten years ago. Although perhaps that last one shouldn't count in this list as he's STILL available after all this time, so rather than being a mould which showed up once then got forgotten, it's more like the release which just never went away and they haven't changed him yet
So as you can see, sometimes it's a reeaallly long wait for another chance to buy a regular run on any one mould, meaning I'm always extra-happy when they do bring out a GREAT coat colour the first time round

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And isn't it a great colour! His masking is all very neatly done, with super-crisp edges and no blurry bits where the spray got under the edges or the colour smudged. I know a lot of people have found quality control mistakes in pinto and spotted colours, but this boy doesn't have a flaw anywhere on all that intricately shaped white patterning.

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The colour seems to really suit the sculpt, too, he's a mustang but not a portrait of any one individual horse. So many Breyers are done as portraits now, it's quite a surprise when they issue one which is just a made-up example of a breed, but I don't think it detracts from him at all that he doesn't have a life-story to tell, and wasn't chosen for achievements or fame. Those details are nice to know, but not necessary to enjoy the model on the shelf, he succeeds in being impressive purely on the aesthetic appeal of a dramatic mould and colour combo!

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With the sun at a different angle, you can see how his coat is very slightly metallic, not overly gold and plasticky looking, but just the sort of sheen a chestnut will often have on a summer coat.

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Here's his markings on the other side, just as flashy in either direction! You can hardly tell in the photos, but he has a brown eye on this side, and a blue eye on the other, which was a nice choice for them to make when not having to copy a real face - the extra effort in each paintjob to carefully add in the brown and blue paint isn't something they normally do for the cheaper runs.

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I haven't managed to think of a good name for him yet, his original name refers to the desert in California and Nevada so maybe a mountain/river or wild plant/bird from that area would be good, I need to go through some lists and see if anything jumps out as a name-like word

Soon I'll have another Breyer 2023 release to share here, cos it's my birthday tomorrow and my mum went halves to buy me a mare and foal set (she says she is paying specifically for the mare half, as she's the mum and I'm her 'foal' ), they travelled over in the same MPV box to save on postage but I have to be good and not open or photograph them til the right day

Both are lovely George, but that mustang is gorgeous! I might have to actually spring for a traditional now...

Congratulations on your new models!
Oh, Mojave is gorgeous!
I love chestnut overos and then with differently coloured eyes! Simply stunning. I have to say that Breyer has outdone themselves with their second half regular runs this year. Both Mojave and Full Moon Rising have rather complex patterns which is rarely seen. If I could afford traditionals I would have gotten both for my collection but I can't...
Hmm mare and foal set... Maybe Ebony Shines and Charlize? I will be looking forward for your reveal!
Technically Brishen had a new regular run release last year with Sjoerd on his Iberian mould version but I guess that that doesn't count...
So shocked that Bluegrass Bandit is the only regular run on this mould. From what I've seen she is rather popular and the only "modern" Tennessee Walker mould they have. Strange that they didn't find another Tennessee Walker to make a portrait of it on her.
That Julep is very cute! Great that the family is now united.

George wrote:

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I wonder what other colour Fjords we might see in future, I doubt we'll ever have a regular run grey dun (grulla) because they used that for a Breyerfest special, and that only leaves a couple of other shades even found in the breed. Perhaps they'll just use the alternate untrimmed mane version of the mould to bring out other breeds on this sculpt.

Here's the next bit of the parcel, two WIA horses...

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You can see more pictures in my post on the WIA section of the forum, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

George wrote:

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Here they are together, don't they make a lovely little family group!




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Happy Birthday George! and great to hear your mum bought the mare and you the foal for your brithday
that was a fun story!
I look forward to seeing them.

Congratulations on your many wonderful new herd members!
The WIAs above look like they are straight out of an 18th century painting, with those big flashy eyes and thin faces and high held heads with backward facing ears! Wonderful models.

And the fjord horse is a real beauty too.

The Julips are just so cute and that's a wonderful story that you now have the family all together. These really are delightful little models with big soft looking eyes and amazing fun hooves I love them!

Great to see the mustang as well, with such a beautiful sheen to his coat. I love that metallic sheen as well and the colour is gorgeous. And with a blue and a brown eye, that's a nice touch.
Maybe you could just call him Nevada??
google says - NEVADA: From the Spanish word meaning “snow-clad,” “snowy land,” or “snowy”
and perhaps his broken white 'snowy' coat could resemble that? like the snow patches along a mountain top or mountain side?

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Both are lovely George, but that mustang is gorgeous! I might have to actually spring for a traditional now...

He really is, and he's huge too! I never see the moulds in person til after I've bought them cos they're not in shops where I can go and browse and make choices, and check out what new releases really look like as so many US collectors do, so I was surprised just how chunky and massive he felt in hand, not just height but things like his stocky legs and large head, he's a real chunk of a mustang!

Katy Leven wrote:

Congratulations on your new models!
Oh, Mojave is gorgeous!
I love chestnut overos and then with differently coloured eyes! Simply stunning. I have to say that Breyer has outdone themselves with their second half regular runs this year. Both Mojave and Full Moon Rising have rather complex patterns which is rarely seen. If I could afford traditionals I would have gotten both for my collection but I can't...
Hmm mare and foal set... Maybe Ebony Shines and Charlize? I will be looking forward for your reveal!
Technically Brishen had a new regular run release last year with Sjoerd on his Iberian mould version but I guess that that doesn't count...
So shocked that Bluegrass Bandit is the only regular run on this mould. From what I've seen she is rather popular and the only "modern" Tennessee Walker mould they have. Strange that they didn't find another Tennessee Walker to make a portrait of it on her.
That Julep is very cute! Great that the family is now united.

Yeah, he's got almost special-run level of attention to detail, with his eye colours and his good markings. I'm not so sure about the Full Moon Rising model, she's nice looking but not really a good match for the real horse? At least in the few pictures I've seen online of the actual production models, they haven't roaned or speckled her body colour much at all, leaving the masked pattern as a very stark contrast between bay and white. The real one is so scrambled and jumbled, I think it would've been a much better match if they'd added a lot more white paint spatter, or even some masking-spatter over the top of the template (if you remember Danaway Tango the sabino Welsh cob, something like him - a masked outline to keep the main solid-white patches the same shape on every model, then random spatter applied too so each one came out with a slightly different but equally speckly effect - here's one at the right angle to see how his white bits are done!)

Well guessed! I'm now going through the pictures but I took wayyyyy too many of them cos it's fun posing the mare and foal together

And yeah, it really is weird about Bluegrass Bandit, we've seen the mould used as various special runs so it's not like it got broken or lost, they just haven't brought out any more. Maybe we just have to wait a bit longer, I'd laugh of my little list of long-time-since-we-saw-them moulds ended up among next year's releases

sunny wrote:

Happy Birthday George!

The Julips are just so cute and that's a wonderful story that you now have the family all together. These really are delightful little models with big soft looking eyes and amazing fun hooves I love them!

Great to see the mustang as well, with such a beautiful sheen to his coat. I love that metallic sheen as well and the colour is gorgeous. And with a blue and a brown eye, that's a nice touch.
Maybe you could just call him Nevada??
google says - NEVADA: From the Spanish word meaning “snow-clad,” “snowy land,” or “snowy”
and perhaps his broken white 'snowy' coat could resemble that? like the snow patches along a mountain top or mountain side?

Thanks!

Julips really are so sweet, they're not the most realistic models in the world but they have a cuteness and charm which is all their own, I almost think of them as a separate collection, there's model horses and then there's Julips and they're something special!

Nevada is a great name for a Spanish-origin horse with snowy markings... but I already used it! My existing Nevada is a Stablemate custom, so they wouldn't get muddled up, but I don't like to re-use names (apart from when they're different species, I think I have a couple of dogs which share names with ponies )

Ok, I got my photos taken and sorted, here's my birthday horses (though as I said, my mum did donate half towards it and claim the mare as the part she's bought for me, so the little one doesn't quite count as a present )

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This beautifully relaxed-looking mare is Ebony Shines, a former reining champion Quarter Horse who left the competition ring to become a broodmare. I like how soft she's been sculpted, a little muscle but not so deeply defined and crisp as they'd depict on a fit working horse, a nicely observed choice which tells us this mould was always intended to be released as part of a set - she's designed as a mum, rather than the usual way round where a foal is paired up with an existing mare of the same breed.
I also like the position of her head, low down in a chilled-out pose which almost looks like the beginning of an afternoon shade-nap when she's posed alone - give her a minute's quiet and she'll probably pop one foot up. And although I love a good dynamic action pose, I'm also really fond of models which are just horses being horses, not all models need to be captured in athletic motion or else posed square and alert like a stud advert, and it's really sweet to imagine this mare with a placid temperament and lazy life.

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Much like with Mojave, I inspected the masking and found no problems on my model - sometimes a mane sculpted flat to the neck will end up awkwardly mis-aligned, so the masked outline doesn't follow the 3D edges of the hair, but hers seems just about right. If I was being super picky, there's perhaps a tiny line of gold along the edge of the forelock, but it's such a fine margin it barely shows, and doesn't detract from her pretty face in the slightest. Her paint has a similar level of metallic sheen to his, too, just enough that it's there but looks natural and not too golden.

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Here's one of the nicest features on the entire model - her interesting nose! The stripe divides at the end and goes around her nostril, and the little bit of pinking they've given her is perfect.

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The near side, which unusually feels like the non-display side with this sculpt! I think it's cos there's a very slight asymmetry in the pose of her head, even though she's facing more or less straight forward, she's got her attention a little to one side (note the turned ear in her headshot), so here she's looking away from us even though her neck isn't physically turned!

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And now for the foal. The totally adorable, characterful little foal!
Everything from the flicked-up tail to the twitched-back ear is beautifully done, a real moment of movement captured. I especially love that they didn't just paint her as an identical clone of her mother, with a coat of the same colour paint - the foal is totally matte with no metallic effect, and slightly paler in tone, just the way a real foal's first coat will have a different texture, and shed out to the adult colour and sheen a few months later.

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The markings are copied from a real foal this mare had in 2021, and I think the amount of white here makes her look even better than if they'd chosen one which had four dark feet like mum, a good contrast when they're stood together.

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And the other side, her tail looks a bit funny from this angle but over all she's a very appealing little sculpt, and as a stock breed she's very versatile, this one could be re-used as a Paint or Appaloosa too.

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Of course, the very best thing about a mare and foal set is posing them together, and I had a lot of fun arranging them for this little photoshoot, taking way more pictures than I needed, then being unable to decide which were the best! So I think the easiest thing to do here is just drop all the pictures in behind a spoiler tag so the thread isn't over-run with too many images, and you can see the lot - just click below to open it

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Happy Birthday George!

Oh these two look so sweet together! Firefly is such a cute filly mould (I now that Identify your Breyer has the mare as Firefly but I have heard a woman talking about that the names should be the other way around and that makes so much more sense!).
You are right with Fool Moon Rising. That technique would be probably better to achieve a higher accuracy.
Llanarth True Brighton is such a cute mould! Such a pity that he is rather unpopular and not used too much.
It's always interesting to see what older moulds Breyer will use for the new releases.

George wrote:

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The near side, which unusually feels like the non-display side with this sculpt! I think it's cos there's a very slight asymmetry in the pose of her head, even though she's facing more or less straight forward, she's got her attention a little to one side (note the turned ear in her headshot), so here she's looking away from us even though her neck isn't physically turned!

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Congratulations on such a pretty duo! Excellent choices! The colours and markings and pink nose is beautiful.
I LOVE the pose of this mare and how relaxed she is. And I do prefer her left hand side.
(I'm not into the Breyer manes and tails, so maybe that's why I like this side)

The foal is so gorgeous! Love everything about her, the big wide curious eyes whilst mum is just relaxing and letting her foal explore the big world (from under her chin )

I chose 2 pics from your spoiler that I love the most. It's always nice when I see zebras in the wild acting this way with their new babies, so this reminds me of them :)


and funny thing George, when you said you have your collection of horses and then you have your Julips - I think that's how I feel about my flocks and articulated figures compared to my realistic ones. What a lovely way to put it! Thank you

Happy Birthday! What a lovely birthday present. Congrats on all these new arrivals. The Julip is wonderful, and even though it isn't the new arrival, the Julip foal is absolutely adorable! Beautiful color for all of them, you're right. And Mojave is very impressive. I was very tempted but ultimately refrained in light of picking up more vintage critters, but I'm glad they put so much work into a regular run. I like the mare and foal molds as well. Really loved their first special run release (Firefly? And . . .? Can't remember, haha), but of course, I cannot consider getting those. It's nice to see them all in your wonderful photography, too, you're good at capturing a lifelike look to them.

I hope you enjoyed your birthday!
I really love that mare with the beautiful foal. It was a joy to watch all these extra pictures.

These two are adorable. That little foal's flipped tail! They are splendid, and happy birthday!

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J'adore

Congrats!!!the mare and foal are stunning!!!

I've got two second hand Breyer buys to introduce this month, both special runs

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This handsome horse was a Brick And Mortar special run - meaning you could only buy him from stockists with physical shops, not online shops and not internationally. 2500 were made, which sounds like a huge amount, but maybe not when you consider that's spread across somewhere as big as the USA, and a lot more types of shop carry Breyer over there, too, not just specialist toy and model sellers like we're used to using in Europe.

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His mould is an interesting one, originally sculpted as the Marwari but that limited the amount of releases Breyer could use it for without repeating the same breed more often than they'd like, so they reworked him as this adapted version with the curled ears replaced with standard ones, and a longer thicker mane and tail too. Now he can be different breeds too (although personally I'd love to see another regular run Marwari - I mean, it's been ten whole years since the only one we ever had!)

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This 2019 release of the normal-ears version was sold as a Barb stallion. Barb as in Berber, the original North African breed, not the US breed also known as the Spanish Barb. Their ancestry is truly ancient, unlike a lot of the created European breeds which only date back a century or two, but interestingly they're very varied for such an old breed, with some Barbs having noticeable similarity to the PRE in the body type and head shape, some looking more like a light-framed leggy Arabian cross, and some looking much more coarse and heavy. So while this model doesn't immediately jump out as a typical Barb, due to the long lean limbs and thin upright neck, he's not massively outside the realms of possibility either, so I'm content to leave him as his allocated breed when filing his picture on my collection website.

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Here's his other side, cos he's got nice sabino markings on his coat and I thought I better get a photo of this one too!


The second purchase was also a bargain special run, but I bought him more from sympathy than for his rarity or price!
Sometimes when I'm browsing Ebay for Breyers, I'll spot rather intriguing listings. Horses which sold once already, will pop back up later, either from the same seller or someone different, at a much reduced price. Sometimes the reason is right there in the description, 'relisted due to non-paying bidder' or 'paintwork damaged in the post, selling as someone might be able to fix him up'. But sometimes the listing's photo speaks for itself - first time round this horse looked perfectly fine, on his relisted page there was an obvious new problem : he had no tail!
I investigated a little more through the feedback pages, and it turns out the seller had shipped him in totally inappropriate packing, he'd arrived broken, and been sent back when Paypal stepped in to give the buyer a refund. Now back up for sale, listed cheaply as a body with the tail included, I decided to take the risk to save the horse - too handsome and unusual to just become a custom body and lose his original identity!

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Here he is on the day he arrived, the tail is all in one piece and the break is clean and crisp, and aside from the obvious he's in decent condition, just a couple of rubs on ears and tail tips. He's also missing the little plastic disc which attaches to one foot and helps him stand upright, but they're such ridiculously brittle fragile things it's not at all uncommon for this mould to have lost the base even if the model's been carefully looked after, those things are a design flaw from day one

First task was to reattach the tail, it's a surprisingly heavy chunk of solid plastic so I wasn't sure if superglue alone was going to be up to the task, but it was worth a try cos the alternative of using a drill to hollow out a hole in both halves then filling the space with a wire pin and milliput was a LOT of work! And luckily, the glue worked on the second attempt, after dropping apart when I didn't hold it together long enough first time. Second try was more determined, I held it very firmly in place with both hands for a good five minutes, then when it seemed firm enough to let go, wedged the horse head-down between two cushions so gravity was helping while the glue had even more time to become fully solid right through

Once the tail was back on, it was time to disguise the join. Because the plastic is white inside and the horse is a fairly dark colour, the repair showed as a hairline crack, but by mixing a colour-matched paint and carefully rubbing it into the tiny space, so the original paint isn't covered but the giveaway white line was. I also touched up the tiny rubs to the end of the tail and the tops of the ears, so now he looks almost good as new :)

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Can you spot the join? I can, just, but only cos I know it's there and look closely - on the shelf he'll look just fine!

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And here he is! He's a Breyerfest special run, from 2001 - the days when you could only attend the event in person, with no online alternative way to buy the models. Atlantis Bey was a son of Huckleberry Bey, the very horse this mould was sculpted as. So he got to be made in the same mould as his father - but it's also a really good match for the horse himself, see this real photo here. He's slightly metallic, but not in the plasticky, unrealistic way I always complain about when they make models too silvery or pearlised, this is much more like the real-life coppery sheen so many chestnuts do have.

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It might look as if he stands up just fine without his base, but there's a little trickery involved here - there's actually a wooden kebab stick propping him up in both these photos! With the grass base slightly tilted, the model naturally wants to tip toward the backdrop, so his own weight presses the pointy end of the stick into the fake grass, which grips it, and he stays balanced. The secret is to place the prop in line with the upright front leg, so it's totally hidden from view - check out the shadow when you're setting up, too, sometimes that will give away that there's something weird going on behind the model, but as you can see here the shadow of the prop is absorbed into the outline shadow of the horse himself.
Unfortunately it does limit the camera angles you can use, so there's less pictures of this one. But I'm really pleased to have added him to my collection, and to have mended him after his misfortune!

What I can spot are beautiful horse figures and pictures! Great job with the last one and I didn't know about these subtle changes on the Marwari model to turn it into something different. This is a batch of very interesting horse breeds.

Congratulations and wonderful work! I especially enjoy reading about techniques to fix things like stuffing them down in couch cushions as I have done this also.