Playing catch up, 2024 wrap up, and 2025 plans

Reentry into work and life in general after a long holiday break is always a challenge, especially when your break was more of a working vacation. But that work involved playing with our model horse collections, so at least it was very enjoyable! Over the holidays, I visited my family in Georgia, and my sister Sarah and I put in some long hours organizing our giant herd. Much of it is boxed up at the moment---you know that last scene from Raiders of the Last Ark? It's kind of like that. We worked hard to put together an accurate inventory and photograph a number of our models for this blog. It's an ongoing project, but a fun one! 

Taking stock of the collection has led to some interesting surprises and discoveries. We already knew we had duplicates of a number of models---Sarah and I both have our own distinct herds, and because we have similar taste in models (vintage and weird), we often both have examples of the same rare models in our collections.

These perfectly matched Woodgrain Belgians came from
the same estate sale. Somebody had good taste!

We discovered we have three (and sometimes four or even more) of a number of models as well, the result of purchasing upgrades or finding bargains in antique malls over the last 30+ years or being unable to resist fun color variations (looks askance at seven all very different woodgrain Fighting Stallions). Doh! These duplicate models will hopefully make for excellent trade fodder down the road. We generally think of ourselves as black hole collectors (things go in but never go out), but realistically, we will have to let some models go (if only to exchange them for new ones, mwahaha). 

Part of the goal of our inventory work over the last year has been to find a few cherished models to put back out on display. My sister's favorite Pacer, the stunning 1984 Riegsecker's special run in dapple grey, had disappeared after being stashed in a random box several years ago in the wake of a small leak that had compromised his original storage box. Happily, while working our way through boxes and adding or correcting the labels on them, we found him!

I was also delighted to find one of my favorite models, the 1979 mail order special run dapple grey Clydesdale Mare. Naturally, she was literally in the very last box in a big stack of 40+ boxes that we knew she had to be in. My girl came from Marney Walerius' collection, so not only is she lovely, she's a treasured part of my herd.

We did find a few new shrinkies in the process, one of whom is destined to be the subject of a post here eventually, but for the most part, I think we've managed to eradicate most of those poor sad models from the herd. We did also find a couple of stripped chalkies that have begun to crack and shatter. It's so sad because they were so very cool. (We bought them stripped before we knew what could happen.)

Even the plastic on her legs is cracking and crumbling away

Now that we finally have a pretty solid handle on our Breyer collection inventory, we'll tackle our much smaller Hartland, Stone, and china herds in the coming year. Which segues more or less well into discussing that fun end of old year/beginning of the new year topic---what we did and what we hope to do going forward. 

An enjoyable trend on Facebook and Instagram in recent years has been for collectors to share their favorite acquisitions of the previous year. For me, 2024 was a very lean year---my disposable income was  mostly non-existent---but I was happily able to add a few really cool models to my collection for pretty bargain prices.

I'm delighted to finally own Gladys Brown Edwards' large metal parade horse sculpture made by Dodge. His one hind leg needs a repair and he's missing his reins, but I couldn't pass him up for $40. This is very likely the piece that inspired Mastercrafters, Hartland, and Breyer back in the late 1940s.

My Breyer Money Manager was another thrilling $40 find. I'm so happy to finally have this goofy bit of Breyer history in my collection.

At the beginning of the year, I paid off a Hartland holy grail that had been on long time payments with an amazingly kind friend, and it's just too awesome to not include. I have wanted a Hartland Champ clock for at least 20 years, but they're so hard to find. Two slipped through my fingers over the years, so I'm elated to finally have this very rare piece in my collection at long last.

My only big expenditure of the year was my Young Ferseyn from Hagen-Renaker Tennessee. I socked away money for him for months beforehand knowing I would never be able to afford him on the secondary market, and he arrived just in time for my birthday which was a really nice treat.

In terms of less tangible things, though I haven't been able to blog every week as I would like, I've been better about posting a couple of times a month at least, and I'm hoping to keep that momentum going in 2025. I have so much I want to write about! I have now had the opportunity to take a bunch of the photos I've been needing for planned posts, and with our new inventory system, my darling sister can easily find things to photograph for me when she visits my parents every few weeks if I need more.

The weather here in Chicago is of course ugly cold---in the single digits or teens lately with subzero windchills---which means it's much too cold to paint, primer, or spray fixative. I am anxious to get back to work on customs, but for the next few weeks, I'm going to take advantage of the crappy weather and get some writing and website work done. I am also hoping to get started on organizing and culling some of my Chicago herd, both OFs as well as bodies I'm just never going to get around to painting.

I have some plans to do a spring sale of customs, probably more minis, very likely with Jane Austen and bad Regency-pun names because what is spring without a good thunderstorm and Northanger Abbey? Or a pond-soaked Mr. Darcy pining for Lizzie Bennet's fine eyes?

This little mare may be part of that sale---she is clamoring to be finished, but I'm not sure I'll be able to part with her. I just love this mold so much! 

And speaking of irresistible sculptures by Maggie Jenner-Bennett, I think my only real OF acquisition goal for the coming year is to buy a Stone mule. I'd love to get one of the fun stripey ones like The Squad or Charade eventually. In the meantime, I have a trad mule body I acquired at Stone Horses Country Fair, and I should really decide on a color to paint it! Stripes? Unicorn horn? Realistic? Too many choices!

So anyway, hopefully 2025 will be a year of productivity, writing, and more organization. Losing myself in creative outlets is also going to be important for a number of reasons, and my sister (who is also an artist) and I have challenged each other to do something frivolous and artistic every week. Paid work doesn't count, just fun art for ourselves, whether it's sketching, cross stitching, sculpting, or painting customs for our own collections. I may share some of that here depending on how rusty my drawing skills are!

Breyer's 50th Anniversary Golden Clydesdales

If you've been following the news from Breyer lately, you'll know the coming year, their 75th anniversary, is going to be absolutely bonkers amazing. There are so many exciting models that have been sneak peeked for the various clubs---Breyer is really going all out to bankrupt me! With that in mind, I figure I'd better hurry up and write about the their 50th anniversary and the interesting models they released in 2000.

In the fall of 1999, my parents, sister, and I attended a Breyer event at a local toy store to promote Eclipse, a black Legionario that was the Fall Show Special for the year. Though it wasn't a particularly limited model in retrospect, it still drew a large crowd of local collectors. While we were there, my family was introduced to the Breyer rep for our region. We enjoyed chatting with him that day and discovered that he, like our dad, had an interest in model railroads.

The following year, my dad ran into the rep again at a hobby shop he frequents for model railroad magazines that also happens to carry Breyers. The rep mentioned that he had a couple of special models that he wanted to give to me and my sister. Even though we were both young, only in college and high school respectively at the time, he recognized that we were serious collectors and wanted the models to go to an appreciative home. He met with my dad and sister a few weeks later at a model railroad show (I was stuck at college and couldn't join them), and they were astonished to receive these beautiful gold electroplated G2 Clydesdales!

The rep told them that the models had been given to him at an annual meeting Breyer held for their sales reps and that not many had been made. Over the years, I've never heard anyone give a definitive number, but I've seen maybe 10 or so in the hands of collectors. They're quite scarce these days.

By 2000, all of the Stablemate models were being molded in ABS plastic, so unlike the silver G1 Saddlebreds, Breyer didn't have to mold them in a special kind of plastic before electroplating them. Like the Saddlebred, the Clydesdales have a hole drilled into their undersides which was used to suspend them in the electroplating bath.

The hole is just in front of the word Breyer

In addition to the rep models, Breyer marked the occasion of their 50th anniversary in 2000 with several regular run and special run offerings as well. The most interesting piece they offered as a regular run was Kathleen Moody's beautiful new standing Saddlebred sculpture standing over a clock. It was a fabulous homage to the Western Horse clocks that had begun it all for the company back in 1950.

At BreyerFest that summer, the volunteer model was a stunning glossy dapple grey Moody Saddlebred, and 15 of them were also offered on clocks as prizes for the live show. Several of the special runs were nice nods to Breyer's past as well, especially the silver and gold bolo ties (which technically may have been leftovers from BreyerFest 1998).

Breyer has teased some incredible models for next year, including a new clock for the Vintage Club. It wouldn't be a Breyer anniversary without one! This one features a Western Pony in a realistic dappled palomino color called Pioneer. The Vintage Club is sold out for 2025, but I know members will be excited by the other offerings yet to be revealed!
 

Photo from Breyer's Facebook page

Tha mi air bhioran! A plastic Highland Pony!

Photo shamelessly yoinked from Breyer's announcement

I mostly blog about vintage models here, but I can't help but squeal "tha mi air bhioran!" (Scots Gaelic for "I'm excited!")*  about this amazing new Premier Club reveal for 2025. Sculpted by Kelly Sealey with a soft creamy dappled dun coat designed by Tammi Palmarchuk, this new Highland Pony model dubbed Rowan is a dream come true. I adore the Native pony breeds of the UK and Ireland, and I have been hoping for a good plastic Highland Pony sculpture for literally decades. Even more exciting, Rowan will be available in two distinct variations---as a loose maned Highland Pony stallion or as a lighter-framed, braided and clean-legged sporty pony mare.

I had not planned to join the Premier Club next year---money is extremely tight---but I'm going to have to find a way to swing these ponies. I am an ardent Celtophile, and I have a soft spot for Highland Ponies in particular. Back when I was in college in the late 1990s at the University of Georgia, I was lucky enough to visit Bill Begg-Lorimer who imported the first breeding pair of Highland Ponies to the United States.

Quartz of Croila as a youngster with Bill

Nora of Croila and Bill

Sadly, Bill passed away a short time later, and his pony herd was dispersed. Quartz proved to be a well-regarded stallion here for over a decade before being exported back to Europe in 2013. (I don't know what became of Nora.) I'm sure both ponies have crossed the rainbow bridge to greener pastures by now, but they left a lasting impression on me.

Not being able to afford a real pony myself, I actively searched for an appropriate Highland Pony model instead. Unfortunately, at the time, there simply weren't many options. However, the summer after I met Quartz and Nora, I did find one of the few models actually sculpted as a Highland Pony, this handsome dun Beswick chap. I found him for sale in a room at BreyerFest, and I felt sure it was fate.

In the intervening 20+ years, Donna Chaney of Animal Artistry has produced a few lovely Highland Pony resins (and a few more that can pass as Highlands with a little work), but the hobby has lacked a widely available, mass-produced traditional scale pony of the appropriate type. Finally getting a proper plastic Highland plus a lovely sport pony alternate version to boot is such a terrific addition to the Breyer line. I can't wait to see them as regular runs in more fun colors, and I am itching to get my hands on extras to paint my own little herd of Highlands.

Now if only I had more shelf space!

 

 

 

* pronounced "ha me ay-r virrin"

Where does the time go?

How is it already December? Where does the time go? Why are there never enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I need or want to do?

"Tick tock!"say the Hartland clocks. "Time is ticking on!"

Every time I say that things at my Real Job are finally calming down, a new project pops up, and I get swamped. And that's a problem because I tend to do a lot of brainstorming and blog writing on breaks at work. Unfortunately, I'm often too tired at the end of the day to do much writing when I get home. Or my time at home, especially weekends, is usually spent painting and trying desperately to catch up on commissions for my incredibly patient friends and customers. This has all meant that I have fallen off the wagon of trying to write weekly-ish posts here. In my defense, I have a pretty solid excuse for the last month.

Oops

I am now almost a month out from my little hospital misadventure, and I'm fine. But I feel like it's taken me until today to catch up on all of the work I had to set aside while I recuperated for a week. Whew! The last three weeks have been *busy* and I am ready for a breather and a slower pace for the rest of the month.

I have at least been making notes to myself on subjects I want to cover and models I need to photograph when I visit my family for the holidays. These are just a few of the posts in my drafts folder. I am looking forward to getting back to work on these!

I also managed to finish up a few models to offer as Black Friday stocking stuffer sales. I don't talk about my own custom work here much, but I've mostly mothballed my studio blog (and even with good health insurance, hospitals stays are not free. Eep!) So these are all portraits of horses that BreyerFest attendees will recognize---racing legends and famous past residents of the Kentucky Horse Park Hall of Champions. Left to right, they are John Henry, Point Given, Cigar, and Funny Cide.

John Henry and Point Given are both still available if anyone reading this is interested. They are $110 ppd in the USA. Just drop me a line at mumtazmahal (at) gmail (dot) com or message me on Facebook.

John Henry

Point Given

I am planning a spring sale as well, probably more minis and maybe a few larger customs. I have a huge stash of Maureen Love molds that I need to get to work on. If only setting those Hartland clocks back a few hours would take me back in time like Hermione's time-turner. Or maybe I need to put them in a DeLorean and speed up to 88 mph?

Anyway, I'm always looking for more blog topics to tackle. Feel free to let me know what subjects you'd like like to read about next in the comments!

The mysterious 1960s Buckskin Running Mare and Foal

In the early 1990s, my family used to frequent a large monthly flea market in the Atlanta area. Over the years, many dealers began to recognize my mom because she was always looking for Breyers, and they would let her know whenever they had models to sell. We had a lot of holes in our collection at that time, and the models were usually cheap, so Mom would literally bring home grocery bags full of Breyers. It was awesome.

On one occasion, a dealer introduced my mom to a gentleman who was helping a friend of his sell off items from his late mother's estate. These included a rather large collection of Breyer and Hartland models from the 1950s and 1960s. There were a number of nice pieces including old glossies, woodgrains, and many horse and rider sets. Sadly, there were no decorators, but there were two pieces that made up for it, the rare and mysterious 1960s buckskin Running Mare and Foal.

At the time, we knew of one other collector who had found a mare and foal pair, and if I'm remembering right, that collector also knew of one other mare and foal as well. Interestingly, all three mares and at least two of the foals had been found in Georgia. Needless to say, we put in an offer for the collection and won it, and these special pieces have been in our collection ever since.

When Nancy Young's wonderful Breyer book came out a few years later, I was very interested to see if she knew anything about the buckskin Running Mare and Foal. Based on the other models from the collection, we knew our buckskins most likely dated to the 1960s. Nancy concurred---the models have the round Breyer Molding Company stamp that was added to most molds beginning in 1960 but they lack the USA stamp that was likewise added to most molds around 1970. Like us, she guessed that they were probably a small special run.

Like the #87 Buckskin Mustangs, some of the buckskin
Running Mares have a partial dorsal stripe. 

Very few examples of this set have been found in the intervening 30 years, and almost no information about them has come to light. But what little is known tells an interesting story. Around 15 years ago, a page from a catalog from a retailer called the Red Bird Sales Company turned up on eBay, and it sold for a small fortune. While it didn't picture the buckskin Running Mare and Foal set, it did list them as items available for order as though they were regular runs. 

Fascinatingly, the buckskin Running Mare is listed as model #122 and the buckskin Running Foal is listed as #132. These numbers fit perfectly into Breyer's numbering convention for the other regular run Running Mare and Foal sets listed in the 1963 dealer catalog, the year the molds first appeared in the catalog (as far as we know.)

Here is a close up of the text at the bottom. Note that the mare numbers skip from 121 to 123 and the foal numbers skip from 131 to 133. The buckskins belong in that gap, but why aren't they listed?

The Running Mare and Foal molds are not present in the 1960 dealer catalog or price list, but they do appear in the 1963 edition as pictured above. If catalogs were issued in 1961 and 1962, they have not yet come to light, but supplemental pages presumably meant to be added to the 1960 catalog are known. We also know Breyer regularly made models available for the holidays before they debuted in dealer catalogs the following year, so the Running Mare and Foal may have been released in late 1962. The Red Bird catalog page therefore can not date any earlier than late 1962, and based on the presence of the Hartland 7" Mare and Foal on the page, it can't date any later than 1964, the last year the Hartland set was produced according to Hartland historian and author Gail Fitch. Given the gap in the 1963 catalog where the buckskins ought to be, I suspect the earlier date must be correct.

Another piece of the puzzle came to light (publicly, anyway) last fall. The info booklet that came with the 2023 Vintage Club release Thunderbird included this snippet from another Red Bird Sales Company catalog page. It lists the Buckskin Running Mare and Foal as "discontinued" due to "manufacturers' changes." This corrections page likely dates to late 1962 or early 1963. 

Photo by Barrie Getz

The fact that Red Bird had Breyer's manufacturer numbers for the Running Mares and Foals, including the buckskins, suggests that a price list that included them once existed. If it should ever come to light, I would be most curious to see if it was dated. My guess if it was would be a date late in 1962 or early in 1963. The official Breyer dealer catalog for 1963 must date from a bit later in the year, hence the exclusion of the buckskins. Which of course leaves us with the question of why the buckskin run was canceled? Perhaps Breyer didn't receive many orders for them in the run up to Christmas 1962? Whatever the case, it seems that their release as a regular run was planned but ultimately scrapped before the 1963 dealer catalog went to the printer.

Since I don't own any of the Red Bird catalogs myself (nor even copies, alas), I was interested to recently learn from a fellow model horse history nerd who does have some of the catalog pages that the Red Bird Sales Company was located in Dunwoody, GA, a suburb of Atlanta about 10 minutes from my parents' house. The collection we bought that yielded the Buckskin Running Mare and Foal came from, you guessed it, Dunwoody. Undoubtedly, the original owner ordered her models from the Red Bird Sales Company. Given that several other buckskin Running Mares and Foals turned up in the Atlanta area, it makes me wonder if Red Bird was the main retailer, or perhaps even the only retailer, who ordered and received any of these models? It seems unlikely we'll ever know for sure, but the buckskin Running Mares and Foals remain elusive, suggesting that very few were ever produced and distributed. 

Blue Monday, er, Tuesday

Blue Monday is an expression that means, according to Merriam-Webster, "a Monday that is depressing or trying especially because of the return to work and routine after a weekend." I think we all feel that way returning to work, especially after a time change, whether we spring forward or fall back. An extra hour of sleep this past weekend was helpful, but not enough! (Blue Monday is incidentally also an excellent New Order song.) Today however is now Tuesday, and because I really love blue decorator models, this feels like a good excuse for a pretty pony picture post.

When Breyer offered their decorator line in 1963, the models sold poorly, so much so that they were discontinued after not much more than a year in production. Some were even painted over by the factory and resold in realistic colors. Collectors who remember seeing decorators in stores as kids have said they weren't interested in them because they weren't real horse colors. Decorators have become wildly collectible in the intervening decades because of their rarity, but I think also because most collectors now appreciate their beautiful fantasy paint jobs, too.

Having grown up with My Little Ponies and Fashion Star Fillies, unrealistic colors have never phased me, and I have a decided weakness for models painted in varying shades of blue. I love the traditional decorator colors of Wedgewood and Copenhagen, both the vintage originals...

1960s Wedgewood Running Foal and
Copenhagen Running Mare

...as well as modern takes on these colors.

2014 Web Special "Glacier"

2024 Stablemate Club Gambler's Choice "Miguel"

I also like models molded in blue plastic, both opaque...

Mostly stripped former battleship grey Donkey
molded in blue plastic

...and especially clearware! I don't have any pictures of Breyer clearware handy, so this lovely Nosco Buck is a good stand-in. (Breyer copied this mold for their Modernistic Buck.)

Sometimes, a nice blue paint job on a model can induce me to buy a mold I don't otherwise collect, like this Show Jumping Warmblood.

Washington, a current regular run

My blue horse addiction isn't limited to just Breyers---I have Hartlands, too. This blue 9" Polo Pony and blue 11" Quarter Horse were both made in 1967 only. I'm not sure if their limited production was due to lack of popularity for the color or possible financial struggles for Hartland (the company was sold a few years later).

I have dabbled in blue Stone horses as well. While I sold most of the ones I had to pay bills a few years ago, this stunning Morgan is a keeper---I love all of the shifting metallic shades of blue, turquoise, and green.

Believe it or not, I even have a few blue ceramic horses. This turquoisey-blue Hagen-Renaker Retro was a colorful re-release of the Black Bisque Horse mold. He was offered in a run of 1000 pieces in 4 colors from 2005-2021, but the run did not sell out so only a few hundred were made. This turquoise example is #2 from the run.

I'm not sure if this lovely old Rosenthal piece was meant to be dappled blue rather than dappled grey, but he's a delightful piece regardless.

I'm casually on the hunt for more blue horses. I still need the 2021 holiday blue Croi Damsha Sprice Drop, and even though I don't collect the mold, I kind of love the 2020 holiday blue clearware Icelandic Pony. It's like blue kryptonite. Eventually, I also hope to add Peplum, the rare turquoise 2018 event Foalzilla, and the 2021 BreyerFest blue Ansel variation to my collection, but both of those will have to wait while I (try to) save up money.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to more affordable fixes of blue horse dopamine, like this gorgeous silvery blue-ish clearware piece due out next year for Breyer's 75th anniversary. Rural King has a sneak peek on their website. It is stunning!

Mink mold + clearware + pretty color =

Weird Finds: Halloween Edition!

As much as I love Halloween, I don't really collect much in the way of holiday themed models. Horses with scenes painted on them are not generally my thing. But I do however love weird and obscure collectibles, and with the wind gusting and dead leaves skittering across the ground here, this seems like the perfect opportunity to blog about a mysterious, spoooooky oddity. That's right, a test run Breyer creepy kitten in black with terrifying green eyes!

Be not afraid though! This sweet kitty is a lucky black cat---I'm sure any collector would love to have her cross their path! She is a test run from the 1990s when many oddball models escaped from the New Jersey Breyer factory. Security back then (and also especially in the Chicago factory years) was pretty lax, and a number of models went home with Breyer employees or were sneakily liberated from Breyer dumpsters. Some of these oddities subsequently turned up in New Jersey flea markets or on eBay. Naturally, they are highly prized by collectors---my sister and I are thrilled to be the caretakers of this goofy kitten!

Wishing you all a Happy Halloween and Spooky Samhain! If a black cat crosses your path tonight, be sure you pet it!