Hagen-Renaker was founded in 1945 in Culver City, CA, before later moving to sites in Monrovia, San Dimas, and San Marcos. They began by molding and selling cute functional ware like dishes, but they quickly realized that small animal figurines were far better sellers. Of particular interest to model horse collectors, Hagen-Renaker hired local artist Maureen Love in 1951, first as a decorator, and when her immense talent was recognized, as a designer and sculptor. Maureen's first horse sculptures for HR were issued in 1953.
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| A notation from the Hagen-Renaker mold book dated July 1953 next to the entries for Maureen's first DW horses, the Morgan family (Heather, Thunder, Clover, Scamper, and Roughneck) |
Breyer meanwhile began as a plastic molding company in Chicago in 1943.
They made a variety of car, airplane, and radio parts for the government
during World War II, and they then branched out to simple toys like
checkers and money managers in the later 1940s. In 1950, Breyer began
molding the Western Horse (and a clock base) for the Mastercrafters
Clock and Radio Company, also in Chicago. They soon began to sell the
horse free-standing as well before expanding their line to include other
horses and animals. The majority of the models produced by Breyer
before 1958 were copied from other manufacturers like Hartland, Boehm,
Rosenthal, and Grand Wood Carving.
The sometimes fraught relationship between Hagen-Renaker and Breyer began in the mid-1950s. In Fall 1956, Hagen-Renaker began the roll-out of their large Arabian family, Zara, Zilla, and Amir. The foal Zilla was the first piece available in Fall 1956, Zara the mare followed in Spring 1957, and Amir the stallion came last in Fall 1957.
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| Left to right: HR Amir, Zilla, and Zara |
By late 1957 or for sure by 1958, Breyer had begun molding very close copies of Zara and Zilla that we now know as the Proud Arabian Mare and Foal. The most notable differences are that the Hagen-Renaker mare and foal have slightly turned heads while the Breyer pair face straight ahead. There are also other more subtle differences in positioning, size, and detail that I hope these pictures show.
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| Breyer PAM on the left, HR Zara on the right |
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| Differences in body and tail width, slight position changes, etc |
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| Zara's whole body is slightly curved |
Just like the PAM and Zara, the PAF is essentially a simplified version of Zilla.
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| Breyer PAF on the left, HR Zilla on the right |
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| Just as with the mares, Zilla is more complex while the PAF is straight and simple |
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The matching
stallion, now known as the Family Arabian Stallion, was not pictured in
the 1958 Breyer catalog and probably was not released until late that year or
in early 1959. Interestingly, the Family Arabian Stallion was much less closely copied from the Hagen-Renaker Amir than the PAM and PAF were from their Hagen-Renaker counterparts. (Which is honestly a shame because Amir is such a knock out, but I digress.) As you can see, the FAS is somewhat of a mirror image of Amir, at least in terms of his legs, and he is decidedly less finely detailed. He is much more a Chris Hess original and less a Maureen Love copy than the mare and foal are.
It does make you wonder why the FAS is so different. If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that Hess had an example of the Hagen-Renaker Large Zara and Zilla on hand to work from, so he was able to study them closely for the purpose of copying them. I would also surmise that Hess did not have access to a Large Amir and perhaps was working only from a photo of the piece.
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| HR Amir on the left, Breyer FAS on the right (notice the reversed raised legs) |
Whatever the case, by 1959, Hagen-Renaker was fighting a growing tide of imported as well as domestic knock offs of their designs, and they unsurprisingly sued Breyer for copyright infringement in mid to late 1959. The court determined that the PAM and PAF were close enough copies of Zara and Zilla that Breyer was ordered to cease production of those molds. The FAS on the other hand, was deemed not similar enough, and production of that mold was allowed to continue. (Breyer then created the Family Arabian Mare and Foal (after the hiccup that was the In Between Mare) to replace the PAM and PAF in their line in 1960.)
The 1960s were initially a boom time for Breyer, and their plastic horse and animal line grew exponentially. With only a few exceptions, Breyer seemed to have learned their lesson, and most of their new models were original sculptures by Chris Hess, not copies of other companies' works.
Hagen-Renaker in contrast faced a serious sales slump that almost put the company out of business in 1960. Cheap imported copies of their figures made in Japan were flooding the market, and the company was forced to lay off all but a handful of employees. They limped along on a skeleton crew until business began to pick back up in the mid-1960s.
The Large Arabian family was issued sporadically in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, but production of all three molds ended for a number of years after Spring 1968. Around this same time, Sam Stone, the owner of Breyer and father of Peter Stone, was considering closing down their horse and animal molding division of Breyer as not profitable. Peter begged his dad to reconsider and began traveling the country to promote the line. [1]
In 1971, Breyer heeded collector demand for a more modern Arabian stallion sculpture and released the instantly popular Proud Arabian Stallion mold. When collector and hobby consultant Marney Walerius reminded Peter Stone of the existence of the Proud Arabian Mare and Foal molds, Breyer opened negotiations to arrange a licensing agreement with Hagen-Renaker to reissue the molds as companions to their new stallion. [2] The PAM and PAF remained in steady production until the early 2000s when Breyer's licensing agreement for them (as well as all of the Classic and Stablemate scale Maureen Love molds) seems to have ceased, and all of the Love molds dropped out of production for roughly 10 years starting in 2005. The only exceptions were a handful of one of a kind models painted for BreyerFest auctions, the 2008 Velvet Rope Event micro run PAM "Celebrity," and a 2009 Fun Foals micro run palomino appaloosa PAF. (I'll write more on this Love mold hiatus as it relates to the smaller scales in subsequent posts.)
The reason may be that around this same time, Hagen-Renaker began reissuing a number of Maureen's Designer's Workshop horses again, including Zara, Zilla, and Amir. Though that said, all three horses were also made at the San Marcos factory in the 1980s while Breyer was also making their plastic versions, so that may or may not have any bearing. Whatever the case, after about 10 years, the Love molds did return to the Breyer line up, including the PAM and PAF. Interestingly, most have been fairly limited releases like BreyerFest special runs, web specials, and Vintage or Stablemate club releases. In fact, I think the 2025 silver dapple bay Classic Arabian Mare release "Ariana" is the first Love mold to be widely available in brick and mortar stores in about 20 years.
Most excitingly, a new chapter in the Hagen-Renaker and Breyer relationship opened in 2025 with the release of the Stablemate Club model "Madonna." She's a scaled down scan of Hagen-Renaker's Large Zara mold (not the Proud Arabian Mare!), making it the first new Maureen Love sculpture to be introduced to the Breyer line up in 50 years. I can't wait to see more colors on this mold!
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| Left to right: Breyer Proud Arabian Mare, Madonna, and Hagen-Renaker Large Zara |
This new relationship between Hagen-Renaker and Breyer gives me hope that we might someday see new mini versions of other Hagen-Renaker molds issued in plastic. A matching mini Zilla and Amir would be so exciting! Maybe we can even dream of new Classic scale models based on Designer's Workshop molds Breyer rejected for leases in the 1970s. I would lose my mind for accessible, repaintable, plastic versions of Hagen-Renaker's Comella and Vanguard. But more on that in the next post!
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Works Cited:
1) Young, Nancy Atkinson. Breyer Molds and Models: Horses, Riders, and Animals 1950-1997. (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 1999), pg. 5.
2) Walerius, Marney J. Breyer Models: Reference and Insurance Guide. (Barrington, IL: Self published, 1991), pg. 5.
