The vast majority of Stablemate models are reasonably common. Most were issued as long-lived regular runs or fairly large special runs through various holiday catalogs and retailers. But the rare ones? They tend to be *really* rare. I've covered a few on my blog like the 25th anniversary silver G1 Saddlebred and the gold G2 Clydesdales, so while I'm slowly putting together some more in depth posts, this feels like a good time to make a quick post about another elusive oddity, the gold G2 Scrambling Foal.
Unlike the aforementioned Saddlebreds and Clydesdales, this gold foal is painted rather than electroplated, but it seems to be just about as hard to find as its mini decorator predecessors. We know they were part of the Mystery Foal Surprise sets that were announced by Breyer for their 2013 mid-year line. The
sets featured a visible mare and stallion as well as a surprise foal
hidden behind a cardboard stall door as seen below. To the best of my knowledge, the gold foals turned up in this particular Tennessee Walker and Arabian paired set along with a "normal" palomino foal on the same mold.
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| Photo from eBay |
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| Photo from eBay |
Though the packaging doesn't
mention the possibility of a special foal, the description on Breyer's website at the time of the release said, "sometimes a
golden foal will appear!" And when collectors found the first few foals, it was expected that they would turn up with a reasonable amount of regularity, much like the chase pieces in blind bags these days. Very quickly however, it became clear that golden foals were far more rare than anticipated, and to my knowledge, very few have ever been found, probably around a dozen at most. (I'm sure there are more in the hands of non-collectors, landfills, etc, but they remain quite scarce in hobby circles.)
Which begs the question---was the scarcity deliberate? Or did something go wrong in production and the golden foals were cancelled? The text on Breyer's website, "sometimes a golden foal will appear," suggests to me that they were intended to be reasonably common. Otherwise, if only a small handful were intended to be released, I would have expected a word like "rarely" to be used and perhaps some hype from Breyer à la Willy Wonka's golden tickets. Breyer has never addressed the scarcity of the golden foals as far as I know, so they remain a bit of a mystery.
If a reader has heard the scoop on why these babies are so hard to find, please feel free to leave a comment below. I would love to know more!
