My Breyer collection

Thank you guys! It's been fun getting back into the "lore" of Breyer, it's been so so long since I've been a regular collector.

S is a very long list so I'm cutting it in half, here is Part I of Traditional size S!

"Saddlebred Weanling" - dark chestnut

The first of the mold, nameless. I love this mold, which is kind of weird, considering how the "showier" light gaited breeds aren't typically my thing. But much like Aristocrat and the Stretch Morgan, this one's stance and confirmation do it for me. She's a weanling so she is small, a very young horse poised for a halter competition since she wouldn't be ridden at this age. This model was sold 1973-1980, and I got mine in the antique lot. The one I remember seeing in catalogues when I was young was Kentukiana and I also really like her, but I actually prefer this one, so that worked out well.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"San Domingo" - Oxydol

The original paint job on this model represented the horse from the novel The Medicine Hat Stallion named San Domingo, and mine represents a real horse named Oxydol who was a rodeo horse, but not the bucking variety. His owner I think was a "rodeo clown" which are the entertainment between and during the bull/bronco riding, so Oxydol was trained in all kinds of tricks. He's named after a laundry detergent, I think thanks to his "bleached out" appaloosa pattern, haha. I picked Oxydol out at the store as the second horse for my little doll Justin. Oxydol was the pack horse and Rugged Lark was the saddle horse. I like this mold a lot, I think it has a very pleasant and willing character to it. Which is interesting since if I remember correctly, the character of San Domingo was not a peaceful animal.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Scratching Foal" - black blanket appaloosa

Honestly one of my favorite vintage foal molds, even though it is an awful mold for play. I didn't get one until I was an adult anyway, so that worked out! This one is often paired with the vintage lying foal, much like Amber and Ashley are paired together, so each color often has a matching twin in that mold. I think the overall shape and balance of this figure is really nice, even though it does have a pretty big boxy head. This color was released 1970-1986 and was given to me as a gift from my thrift shopping friend!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Semi-Rearing Mustang" - Rarin' to Go and Diablo

This is one of my favorite molds and includes my absolute favorite Breyer. Rarin' to Go was my number one holiest of grail since 1994 when he was released. I have no idea why I never got him then - possibly I just never saw him in stores when I was able to go, or my parents didn't know he was top pick, or maybe my love for him actually grew as I aged and remembered him more than it was back then. Regardless, the only time I saw him in real life when I was young was when I was nine and we took a long trip out to the western US. We were driving through South Dakota and if you are a native to the US, if you've heard anything about South Dakota, it's Wall Drug. Wall Drug is a variety shop that started as just a little stop to get water in basically the middle of nowhere and has grown into a huge tourist attraction. Well, while we were visiting, I found an antique mall type area that had a WALL of Breyer horses (as I remember it, at least). They were all open, with little white price tags on their neck. I had no money at all to spend on them and they probably weren't cheap anyway, but I remember seeing on a shelf above my head Rarin' to Go sitting there, being as unreachable as always! He became kind of mythic for me after that. I never did see him again, and I didn't search for him online (along with any other Breyers I had wanted as a kid) until 2021. There still weren't many of them, for whatever reason he doesn't pop up much. Either people like him and keep him or he's just a regular run that not many people bother to list, or I just miss him maybe. I found one for $55 and was sad because I couldn't afford that, but THEN, just randomly and not in response to my ISO, he popped up in my feed for $9!! Now he was in ROUGH shape, he was being sold as a "body," but honestly I didn't mind at all. His dings and rubs made it obvious someone loved and played with him like I would have if I'd ever gotten him as a kid. So this worn out old boy is finally home! He has to count as my favorite Breyer, just because of the legend I built up around him in my own head and heart.

Diablo was the name of the mold in all its colors in its earliest releases. The gray appaloosa was a gift along with the two fighting stallion from my friend who inherited them from her mother. He was sold in 1961-1966. He's beautiful and I treasure him! I really hope to add more of this mold, this is one I would conga if I had the money, but it is VERY popular. Most are quite pricey, and even the regular runs are on the higher end of cheap for a Breyer. So, I'm grateful for these two beautiful boys.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Sham" - palomino, Sham, and Seth

This was one of my favorite molds as a kid, though I am less invested in it now. I loved those dramatic arabians, though! Still, Sham is high on the list of molds I love despite no longer being one of the very top. The initial release was Sham himself, representative of the real Godolphin Arabian and also the character from King of the Wind. The palomino was released 1989-1991 and was a gift to me from a different friend who found him in a thrift shop. He was my first Sham mold, but unfortunately his hind leg is very warped. He does still stand thankfully, but my many failed attempts to straighten bent legs has made me nervous to ever try it on him.

Sham is the red bay and I got him from Kelly. He's so much prettier even than I thought he would be! I love his shade of bay. He was released 1984-1988, and this particular model was one of the earlier ones released with a "wheat ear" sculpted onto his chest. In the story, this was a certain pattern of hair growth considered a bad omen. The detail was removed in late 1984, however, because buyers thought it was a factory error. I think it's really cool to have one of those first ones.

Seth the "red roan" (but actually more like a red fleabit) was a PetSmart special run in 1997. I bought mine secondhand a couple years later at Breyerfest still in the box, which was unwise, because then I felt bad about whether or not I should open him for the next 24 years. I just had him under my bed, never on display, because I didn't want to regret opening him. Well!! Just last week I finally decided, set the boy free, it's not like I'm going to sell him anyway and he deserves to be seen. So he is fresh out of the box! And I'm glad I did, because he IS beautiful, and the three of them look amazing together, and now I get to actually see him.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Sherman Morgan" - Carpe Diem and Prancing Morgan

I just have a soft spot for all the vintage morgan molds. I love this one too! So sassy! This one had some mythical qualities to it for me as a kid as well because I remember hearing that the mold was damaged and they weren't making anymore. I thought that made the ones that existed like invaluable treasure and worth loads, which isn't exactly true since they were produced in large numbers before the mold was damaged, but it sounded very dramatic to little me. And they actually did release the mold again. The tail was damaged, and they resculpted it. I have to admit, I love the new tail (seen here on Carpe Diem, the first to be released with it). Carpe Diem is obviously a decorator color, meant to represent the sunrise. He was sold in 2000 as the "Millennium Horse." I think it's a lovely decorator paint job, especially since it's kind of metallic and opalescent. He was my first unrealistic colored Breyer.

The black model was another one found by my friend, and unfortunately he was missing his front hoof. He can still stand as you see, but it looks quite uncomfortable. I love this mold and would love to have more examples of it someday, maybe even a version of this guy with all his feet, ha!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Shetland Pony" - My First Pony playset

This little lady was actually sold with two foals, to represent the characters from the novel My First Pony, but they are technically classic-sized molds and so I will feature them later! I remember picking this set out with the rational I often used which was "quantity over quality." There were three horses and one of them even came with a halter, so obviously my first pick! And they are really cute, so it wasn't a bad choice, I just laugh at my reasoning for things now. They were sold 1987-1996 and were long time members of my carpet herd. I always thought the spot on the mother's shoulder looked a little bit like a poorly drawn South America.  
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

So great to see all the lovely Breyers and the stories that go with them!Rarin to go- I had when I was younger but sadly I traded him on and am regretting it now!The pinto Shetland is still a goal of mine as I have always admired this model.The scratching Appaloosa is a joy as well!!

Thank you! The shetland pony is a very cute mold, I do hope you can add her to your collection. :)

Traditional size S part 2!

"Smoky" - Shenandoah

A Collector's Edition release in the fist half of the year of 1997, another example of that very yellow buckskin color that I don't love. This mold is interesting to me because it was created first to represent Smoky, the fictional horse from the book Smoky the Cow Horse and was sculpted directly from one of the illustrations in the novel (see below). I didn't realize that until reading through the book later on and recognizing the pose. I picked out Shenandoah as a kid because he was the same color as Korinth the foal. Rather than a parent, though, I made him the "big brother" because of his "wildness" (clearly I had ideas about my own older brother ). So they never did have a mother or father but at least they had each other, haha. This mold doesn't stand very well, though it is a very fun and dramatic mold. I'd like to have the original Smoky someday because I love the book.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Standing Thoroughbred" - Eclipse

This is one of my favorite newer molds from Breyer. I didn't think I would like it until I saw it in person, but it's quite elegant and well proportioned. Eclipse was the Tractor Supply special run in 2020, and I probably wouldn't have gotten him despite it being a lovely mold if it had been Breyer's standard flat black. The blue metallic interface really makes it for me, even though I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. It's not dramatic enough to be a decorator color I think, just enough to give his coat a blue-black shine. He's really beautiful! I'd love to have more on this mold, especially the original Emerson, but unfortunately most are very limited, expensive runs so far.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Stock Horse Foal" - Bay appaloosa and Gray appaloosa

Both of them were gifts from my thrift-shopping friend. The gray was available 1983-1986 and the bay in 1992-1994, and I believe both have matching Stock Horse Stallions and Mares. This mold is very rigid! He looks very alert and stiff. I think he's quite cute, though, and I especially like the gray color.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Stock Horse Stallion" - Bay and Rebel

The Stock Horse family represents the breed type that is typically used to work with livestock, but doesn't represent any specific breed. The bay was released 1981-1988 and was part of the large antique mall lot. Rebel was a Christmas gift in 2001 or 2002. I do like this mold, it's not my most favorite but it has charm and pluck. It's a "notoriously tippy" mold though, and I actually like the mare (which I do not have) better in general. I do really love Rebel's color. Roans I am always partial to, and the high white apron face looks especially interesting and unique. This mold was given a new, longer tail later on.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Stud Spider" - Smooth Copper

This mold was created as a portrait of a real horse of the same name. Smooth Copper, however, was not a real horse. He was released 1997-1998 and I picked him out as a mother to Cricket, even though the mold is male. I really love Smooth Copper's color, it's such a nice shaded bay with lots of detail. He also has bi-color eyes so rather than solid black they are brown with a pupil. Unfortunately, the pupils are kind of vertical, unlike an actual horse, so it makes him look a little alien, haha. The mold is not specifically one I am much into (I honestly have trouble telling it from Lady Phase at first glance), but I do love this color, so I consider him a great representative for the collection.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I have just one more set of traditional horses, so here's the last of those! Because this is serving as a great place to catalogue what I have in storage, I'll include my other sizes and animals as well, eventually.

Traditional size T-W

"Tennessee Walking Horse" - Sorrel and High Flyer

This mold is a complexity for me because I don't like it, but it has a lot of nostalgic pull. I do not care for the way real TWHs are treated in the traditional show ring, and that is unfortunately reflected in this mold. The large front hooves of this mold are very subtly representative of "stacked" shoes used to exaggerate the gait of show horses. This among other methods of getting the very high and dramatic step are controversial. Outside of that, I also just don't care for this really exaggerated gait aesthetically, I don't think it looks nice or natural. TWHs are naturally gaited horses, but this mold doesn't reflect exactly what you would see on a horse out in the field on its own. On the other hand, I grew up in Tennessee next to a TWH farm and I made many friends with those horses over the fence, so I do have a soft spot for the breed, which is rarely represented in anything but this show stance. One of my very first Breyer horses was a gift from my parents in this mold. It was a red bay I no longer have because I played with it until it was broken to pieces. It's a male mold, but I decided it was a girl and I named her Cinnamon and she was the mother to one of my other firsts, the palomino FAF. Later on, High Flyer, the pinto here, was released in 1995 and for some reason I just really liked him, despite not liking this pose or being a huge tobiano fan. Maybe there was personality in his face I liked. In any case, I picked him out in particular. And then the sorrel was a special run through World Champion Horse Equipment in 1997 my parents got for me. He's such a beautiful color, I really wish he was on a different mold! (He also suffers from the cat-eye paint job Smooth Copper has.) So I like these boys from a nostalgic point of view but have no real desire to add any more (though I would like to replace good old Cinnamon, for memory's sake).
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Thoroughbred Mare (and suckling foal)" - Medicine Hat and Pinto

I didn't set them up this way in the photo, but the foal is designed to be nursing from the mare. I've never thought there was anything particularly thoroughbred about these two, but then, I've never had them in a color other than pinto. I do like them very much. The "medicine hat" pair was released in 1994-1997 and depicts an extreme white phase of tobiano called "medicine hat" because of the cap of color over the ears, and usually on the chest as well (the mare is the true medicine hat here). The Medicine Hat Stallion is a famous book featuring San Domingo, but these two are not any horse in particular. I named them Princess (mother) and Popcorn (foal) and they were active parts of my carpet herd. Princess was shy and nervous (thanks to her slightly turned back ears) and Popcorn was curious and playful (because her stretched out neck, when not suckling, made her look like she was looking intently at things). I got them as a Christmas gift, one I distinctly remember opening. The bay pintos my friends had when I was young and I always admired them, but didn't get any of my own until I found the antique lot. These were a Sears special run in 1982-1983.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Trakehner" - bay

The first on the mold, no name given by Breyer, representing the warmblood breed and including a sculpted brand which was later removed from the mold. He was part of the antique lot, and I do not have a lot to say about him except that this is a surprisingly large mold. It's much taller than many other traditionals. I like it well enough, it's nice having him in my vintage crowd. Handsome!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Western Prancer" - Vigilante

One of the old molds with sculpted bridle, attached reins, and plastic saddle that went out of fashion and are primarily "throw backs" these days and not regular runs. I don't care much for the permanent tack, but I do love this little pony's face and conformation, which is why I ended up getting Vigilante in 1996. He's also a beautiful shaded black with lots of red browns in the color, something I wish Breyer did more often.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The suckling foals look as if they are very curious when they are not suckling. Very interesting uncommon pose. The accompanying mares also look very good. Smoky is great to, I like the pose and the colour too.

Another superb line up of beautiful Breyers and it's nice to see some models that I have!
The Thoroughbred I have as the flat black in a riding set
The medicine hat mare and foal I have and also the stock horse foal but in a different colour.

Thank you both!

On to the end of my Traditional collection, the Non-horse Traditionals. I wish I had more, but they are hard to get ahold of these days. Breyer of course made wildlife, but I have only some domestic bovids. They made many breeds of cattle, but here are mine:

"Cow" - Holstein and Guernsey

Who doesn't love the cow? She's just lovely, very kind and sweet face, very detailed, just a nice gal. My holstein was part of the large antique lot and the guernsey was a gift from my thrift shopping friend. The guernsey has a broken horn. Both ran from 1972-1973. I don't have long memories for these two since I got both of them as an adult, but I love having them and hope to add more cows someday.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Spanish Fighting Bull" - dark grey

I have talked at length about this guy in other posts, but his story is pretty great. I always liked him as a kid, but he was expensive even then. Not too long ago, I had a dream that I owned him. It was so convincing, I wasn't sure I didn't when I woke up! I did realize of course that I didn't have him, so I reached out recently to a Breyer sales group just to see what he was going for. It was out of my price range still, but someone offered me theirs at only the cost of shipping. A really amazing gift! I'm very excited to have him here, he's a truly impressive model and has a great deal of presence. He's also very large!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Texas Longhorn" - light brown

Another really impressive and beautiful sculpture. This boy was another gift from my friend, which is one reason he is in the condition he is -- he came from a thrift shop. But what an incredible find, really! And with both horns still in place! This color is probably the most common, released 1961-1989. There are some really beautiful colors released on this model, I'd love to add more someday.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Beautiful models:cheers: .I love the cattle by Breyer.Sadly I only have 3 models including the Texas Longhorn but would love to add the cows to my collection one day.

Very beautiful models!

Breyer made great cows and bulls at this scale. I wish they made more in Stablemate scale, as I like cattle as much as horses.

Thank you all!

rogerpgvg wrote:

Breyer made great cows and bulls at this scale. I wish they made more in Stablemate scale, as I like cattle as much as horses.

Oh, it would be amazing if they used the technology for scaling down traditionals to stablemates for the non-horse animals! Not just the cattle, but stablemate sized moose, elk, bison, big horn sheep, mountain goats, deer, bears . . . I know it would be a hit, especially with non-Breyer collectors.

Jill wrote:

Thank you all!

rogerpgvg wrote:

Breyer made great cows and bulls at this scale. I wish they made more in Stablemate scale, as I like cattle as much as horses.

Oh, it would be amazing if they used the technology for scaling down traditionals to stablemates for the non-horse animals! Not just the cattle, but stablemate sized moose, elk, bison, big horn sheep, mountain goats, deer, bears . . . I know it would be a hit, especially with non-Breyer collectors.

Thirded here. 

Jill, I haven't had time to sit and read through your amazing topic here as of yet but the bits I have skimmed are superb! Wonderful collection of Breyers.

No worries, Paige, thank you! It will be here forever for you to browse if you feel like it.

I have pictures of the Classic and Little Bits sizes to add someday, but this week I unpacked my Stablemates to start cataloguing them and learned a sad truth . . . 5+ years in a box with other models, even really well packaged ones kept in temperature controlled areas, is enough to gradually warp thin pieces like legs. I have a number of warped Stablemate legs now. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] So I'm doing research into repair, and in the meantime, everyone had to be moved to a shelf, displacing my Play Visions for now. So silver lining, I get to see all my Stablemates again, but alas, only to protect them from further damage . . . .

Oh shoot! I am sorry to hear that about your stablemates. I hope they can be remedied.

That's bad news. I don't have enough space to display all my Stablemates at the same time, so they are usually in boxes. I avoid putting many on top of each other, but I don't know whether that helps. I have bent back a few warped legs by putting them in hot (I think 70 C or so) water. This seems to work better with G1s than later Stablemates.

If they could make wildlife animals in Stablemate size, that would be great. They did a few, like an eagle and a wolf, though unfortunately they are too large to be really 1:32 scale.

rogerpgvg wrote:

That's bad news. I don't have enough space to display all my Stablemates at the same time, so they are usually in boxes. I avoid putting many on top of each other, but I don't know whether that helps.

It was recommended to me to store them upright and standing so there is no horizontal pressure on the legs. Even very light pressure is enough over years to warp it, so not lying them on their sides stacked in a box. That second layer becomes hard then, of course, because nesting them standing on top of the first layer often puts legs between heads and that kind of thing, so I don't know what the perfect long term storage is . . . 1 layer boxes I guess, haha.

Quote :

I have bent back a few warped legs by putting them in hot (I think 70 C or so) water. This seems to work better with G1s than later Stablemates.

I've tried hot water with larger models several times with no luck at all (and messed up paint jobs), so I am hesitant to try again. I have been told to look into how to use a hair dryer for it, so I might give that a shot.

I hope you'll manage to bend the warped legs back. Probably worth trying different methods with a broken model first. As an experiment, I put boiling water in a tray and then put a broken model in it, which didn't seem to affect the paint, but I'll be more careful next time after what you said.

Most of my Stablemates are second hand and don't have warped legs. It seems unlikely that they were all stored very carefully before they were sold. When they are on a shelf, the weight of the whole horse is on their legs, so you'd expect that the legs might warp too. Is it possible that it was hot just for a short time where you stored them? I guess even if the temperature is very high just once, that might be enough to cause warping.

rogerpgvg wrote:

I hope you'll manage to bend the warped legs back. Probably worth trying different methods with a broken model first. As an experiment, I put boiling water in a tray and then put a broken model in it, which didn't seem to affect the paint, but I'll be more careful next time after what you said.

Other people have luck, I'm not sure why I never did! I even tried the trick of putting the horse in a plastic bag before submerging the leg and still managed to discolor the paint. I probably had it too hot maybe? I'm not sure, I also couldn't ever get them to bend back into place, so I have decided to go other directions. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Quote :

Most of my Stablemates are second hand and don't have warped legs. It seems unlikely that they were all stored very carefully before they were sold. When they are on a shelf, the weight of the whole horse is on their legs, so you'd expect that the legs might warp too. Is it possible that it was hot just for a short time where you stored them? I guess even if the temperature is very high just once, that might be enough to cause warping.

Shelf sitting is not enough pressure over time to cause a warp, it's apparently the consistent, long term pressure of being packed against something putting a little more pressure than usual against it. Not enough to warp it quickly, but keep in mind some of these horses have been packed up for almost 10 years I think. The temperature was also a concern of mine because even though it is a climate controlled room, it was once an attic, and the exterior walls are not super well insulted, so there is a fluctuation in temperature more extreme than a standard house. That may have contributed as well. However, multiple collectors confirmed with me that some of their horses had the same problem after long term stays in boxes packed with other models, so I think it's just a matter of some of these got unlucky and were packed at just the wrong angle to their neighbors. I won't say it was a really large percentage--probably less than 10 models total had legs I thought looked less straight than before, or who didn't stand when they once did. But it was enough to make me think something was going on other than only a bad memory of the condition I had packed them up in.

Here is one of the casualties. The palomino is compared to the correct leg on the pinto, and the irony is that the palomino is now a more stable figure than the pinto.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

That indeed looks slightly warped, though it doesn't look too bad either. The Belgian is indeed infamous for falling over. One new one (straight out of the box) kept falling over so I had to warp the leg for it to stand up. The legs of that one were actually very stiff so it wasn't easy to do with hot water.

I'm one of the people who swear by hot water, let me write down exactly how I do it incase there's something I'm doing which is different enough to make it always work* and never damage them. Honestly, in around 15 years of doing this to Breyer/Stone original finish models, I've never once had any paintwork discolour or come off or crack.

*there was one Stablemate it would NOT work on no matter how hot the water or how hard I forced him, but he was a clearware one from the suncatcher painting set so presumably made of a very different plastic than the normal white kind.


Okay, here's how I do it.

Boil the kettle, and have a glass egg cup or small drinking glass ready. Obviously, the bigger your horse the bigger a container you'll need! For Stablemates and other small models, I prefer to use the egg cups for the simple reason that mine are hen-shaped so the sticky-out beak and tail mean I don't have my fingers so close to the hot water and can hold them without feeling it, but the clear glass is important so if you have ceramic non-see-through egg cups, go with a drinking glass instead.

Fill it almost to the brim with water as SOON as the kettle boils, and put the horse in immediately.

You're not dunking the whole thing, just getting the problem leg into the water. I like to put them straddling the edge of the glass, so the good limb is outside it and you're not accidentally softening one which didn't need to be adjusted - this positioning also makes it a lot easier to apply pressure to the inside edge of the leg if you're bending it outwards.

Hold it still, with the leg not touching the sides of the cup, for around ten or fifteen seconds, and then test the softness by gently pushing the hoof against the side - you should feel it yielding with very little pressure - if you're having to force it, it's not soft enough yet, leave it in the water for a bit longer.

Occasionally, like on a bigger model with thicker legs, it still won't feel soft enough - in those cases, I re-boil the kettle, and replace the water just to make sure it's as hot as possible. It should never take more than a minute submerged to be soft enough to work with.

Sometimes, if the bend is higher up the leg, or a long steady curve of warping rather than an acute angle like the one in your photo above, you need to go for deeper water so the horse is submerged right up to the elbow/hip. This is more common on the softer plastics like CollectA, especially second hand ones which've been stored in a jumble.

As soon as the model feels soft enough that it yields to pressure, you can start to bend by pushing it more firmly against the side of the cup.
This is where the need for a transparent glass or egg cup comes in - you can SEE what you're doing through the glass, and judge exactly how far to bend the leg without taking it out of the water. Not keeping the heat up while actually bending the plastic might be the issue people are having, as soon as you take it out it starts to set.

Try not to bend by touching only the hoof against the side, otherwise you might end up with the leg still wrong but the foot turned the other way! You can kind of control exactly which part of the leg is touching the glass by altering the angle you're holding the horse at, tilting it more on it's side will apply pressure at the foot, more upright and you can bring the side of the limb into contact.

It's fine to pull it out of the water for a second or so, just to check you're dead level from the front, and dunk it back in again if not, but if you spend too long adjusting and checking, your water will cool, so boil it again if you're not happy yet and want to bend the leg a bit more - cooling water won't work so well.

Normally I check the foot's perfectly level and the model can stand without a wobble by putting it feet-down on the worktop for a moment, but then pick it up again so there's no pressure on the leg while it finishes cooling. You can run it under a cold tap to accelerate the cooling process, but I don't tend to bother for SMs, they cool off pretty quickly cos the plastic's so thin.

If I'm doing more than one leg on the same model, I let the first one to cool before going back in (with freshly boiled water) to start the next one. Occasionally this means the first leg will need a slight tweak to get the model standing without a wobble (mainly the notoriously tippy moulds like the Traditional scale 'Weathergirl'!), but I've never had any problem with using the hot water twice like that - the first time doesn't leave them brittle or harder to bend or anything, it's been fine to heat and push them a second time to make any necessary adjustment.

Just to be safe, I tend to leave any softer models (CollectA, WIA, Mojo etc) which have had limb adjustments laying down for a while, even overnight, rather than standing them straight up on their feet again, so there's no pressure til the plastic is fully hardened.

Here's the most extreme bent leg I've ever corrected with hot water - poor thing packaged with this bad a twist, I just HAD to buy it to see what I could do, thinking if it was just too far to move with hot water bending, I could always snap it off and reattach it straight! But the hot water technique worked, and now she's standing happily on my shelf.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thank you so much for the detailed step by step, George! I'll give it a try with one of the body models I keep mutilating in practice to see if I can get it. I can see why I probably haven't been able to move the legs--I was taking them out of the water, so they must have been setting too fast. But I still don't understand the paint discoloration. It has happened on Misty, the moose, and a vintage classic I tried it on. Then I got worried and didn't try it anymore, haha. It's almost like it leaves a film over the paint, because if I sit there with a fingernail, I can actually kind of scratch off the pale discoloration (also risking the paint underneath).

Thanks a lot, George! Re-bending the leg using the pot with hot water rather than taking it out is very clever, I hadn't thought of that. I'll try it next time.

Strange that your models discoloured, Jill. I don't have enough experience with Breyers to know why, but it's interesting that none of them were Stablemates.

Jill, might it have something to do with the chemical makeup of your water I wonder? It just sounds kind of like hard water depositing.

pipsxlch wrote:

Jill, might it have something to do with the chemical makeup of your water I wonder? It just sounds kind of like hard water depositing.

I hadn't thought of that, maybe! I don't think we have hard water, but maybe just enough of something? I still haven't tried again. Someday!

Here are my Classic sized models (1:12). Very nice models, but my least favorite size, for reasons I couldn't articulate. Within them, however, are some really beautiful molds. The Maureen Love sculptures (from Hagen-Renaker again) and the mustangs by Rowland Cheney are ones I would like to collect more of in the future, when I have, somehow, a large amount of space. Otherwise, I tend to have these only as "extras" found at thrift shops, or nostalgic from my childhood. I am presenting them here in sets rather than per mold, because Classics seem to be sold in sets often and most of mine are part of one. And in no particular order, except maybe my favorites first.

"Black Beauty, His Family and Friends"

My favorite Classics set, due to nostalgia! This is a representation of four characters from the book Black Beauty: Black Beauty, Ginger, Duchess, and Merrylegs. It was released 1980-1993. I got this gift set when I was very young, and I played with it very rough. Lots of legs got broken, so my parents wrote to Breyer and told them how they hadn't expected the legs to break so easily. Breyer then sent a replacement set! Which is amazing, but I proceeded to break those legs as well, and my parents gave up.   I had them for years and years, though. Ginger was the first to be lost, and I remember my childhood Ginger with a kind of mythic longing. Merrylegs was very ironic, because ALL his legs were broken off. Duchess had a pegleg made out of masking tape, and Black Beauty himself had one front and one back leg. Eventually, my mother threw all of them out (fair, I guess). So as an adult, the very first childhood horses I replaced was this set. I love them just as much now as then--like having old friends back again.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Messenger Series"

These sets were sculpted by Rowland Cheney and were based on paintings by the same artist. It was intended to represent a horse, Mesteño, from the population known as Kiger mustangs in different stages of his life. There are five sets in the series, and I have two of them. Someday, I will hopefully have all of them. I think they are really beautiful and I think it is a really interesting series and breed. I like that it is a story as well as a representation of the rare breed. I have Mesteño himself ("The Messenger") and Mesteño as a foal and his mother ("The Dawning"). I always treated them like a family, though, when I was little, rather than the foal being the younger version of the stallion.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Spirit Kiger Mustang Family"

These I actually found at a thrift shop, rather than buying them outright, but as they are in these same molds I do like them. Breyer was a major partner of the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and there were many models produced in all sizes to represent the characters. The traditional size were done in the style of the cartoon, which I didn't care for, but the smaller ones were done on realistic molds. I guess Spirit was supposed to be a Kiger mustang, even though the wild horses in the movie did not represent the breed well!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"America's Wild Mustangs"

This was a Wal-Mart exclusive series that utilized a lot of molds, but especially the Kiger mustang molds, which makes me very fond of them! I don't have many, but again, someday I probably will have more. They were often released with wildlife as well, such as the 1:12 cougar and wolf I am sure you all are familiar with. I have the cougar that came with the rearing roan, but he'll be featured later with my non-horses.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Mustang Family"

A Maureen Love sculpt set. I just love these old guys! Really some of my favorite Breyer sculpts. To me they look like figures from a painting. Now, the paint job on this family is . . . okay. The paint mare in particular is a little unusual with her big round spots, but they have so much charm it is easy to forgive. They were released 1970-1990 and so are very common. Mine were gifts from my thrift-shop friend, and to me, they are more of those "quintessentially Breyer" figures--which is ironic since they are not Breyer original sculpts.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Quarter Horse Family"

These are not actually part of the same set, but are sculpts that belong together, though I am missing the mare and have two stallions. They are from two or three different family sets. More Maureen Love sculpts, so elegant and very finely shaped. The foal came from Kelly and the other two . . . I can't say. Probably from my thrift-shopping friend, she found a lot of Breyers of this size. As I said, I love the Maureen Love figures, so I love having these.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Arabian Family"

Again, more Maureen Love! These are a complete set, mare, stallion, and foal plus an extra mare. I can't quite find the other mare on Identify Your Breyer. I think she is just a version of the same with a different number of socks. Figures from this era in very long runs often have variations of that nature. This set was just known as Arabian Family and I know I had the mare as a child, but I am not sure about the stallion and foal. They may have shown up later . . . the second mare I got from an antique store when I was young. I found two horses and could only afford one. I once again made the kind of choice I usually did--I picked the one I already had, just because it was in "better condition" rather than get the model new to my collection (and my old mare was in fine condition!). I don't understand the logic I had then, haha. They are both lovely, though, so all's well that ends well.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"My First Pony" - foals

These are just the babies that go with the Shetland mare pictured earlier. She is technically traditional sized while the foals are from the Classic series, but they make great pony foals.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


"Drinkers of the Wind"

Missing the stallion, though I did have him for a while, he was just missing a leg and so I "customized" him when I was younger. These guys have a strange story. My friend in middle school knew I had a Breyer she liked, and so she offered to trade me these three for that one (the stallion was broken at the time, and all three were in very banged up condition). My horse was a rarer model, and a gift from my parents, but in my head (back to that incredible logic), three is better than one, so I made the trade. My mother was so sad not because she thought I was being disrespectful or anything but because she felt my friend had intentionally bullied me into the trade. She is probably right--I was easy to bully and convince of something, and she was something a pushy person. Water under the bridge now, though. I still have the mare and foal and they have a home with me, even with sort of strange memories attached to them.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


The rest of the herd!

These are the rest of what I have in the size, bits of other sets or individual horses, all either picked up at thrift shops, gifted to me from other people who found them at thrift shops, or one of them I got from Kelly (the lovely dark chestnut in the Black Beauty mold)!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]