Traditional is the word here: Eight of the 11 new models I brought home were 1:9 scale. (One of the miscreant 3 was larger.) I admit this has been a year of largesse, if not excess! If seen in its complete form -- showing every model that I obtained at BreyerFest this year -- my traditional Loot picture shows a staggering array, greater than any that have gone before. Think of this shot as the
"total gross:"
One saddle, one china, two foals, two bulls, two blankets, two geldings, three halters, three boxed Trads, four Stablemates and four adult stallions. One Hartland, one Freeman-McFarlin (I think). One big-ticket item, bet you can't guess which -- !! And a great many dreams come true, including a glorious driving pair of bays. Total gross, 18 models.
But now consider the "net" version: 11 models. One of the boxes and three of the Stablemates are pickups for friends. One friend kindly let me have the blue SM.
The Saffron is a direct body-to-body transfer with another horse, meaning I left home with a Geronimo and came home with a Saffron.
He cannot be counted as new! Same name (Stargazer), same mold, same personality.
They do this sometimes. Thanks to Heather for effecting this trade. She wanted a tackmaking matte model and I wanted a colored glossy, so -- when both sides are happy -- ! He started his new phase by being my test-photo horse during NAN.
Now for the big-ticket item. This horse cost
considerably more than any of my others -- as much as six of them put together, more than three times my next most expensives.
But he was a pickup. He'd been in the vet's hands for a year. Remember?
The horse without his front legs, covered in scratches and rubs?
A carcass picked from a bodybox for five bucks. A terrible accident left for dead. You wouldn't recognize him now!! At long last he is restored to his former glory. I am deeply amazed at the artistry and hard work that went into this incredible restoration; Jenn said it was extreme and she didn't know how to go about it for the longest time. All cheers for this model vet who achieved the impossible:
He is much darker than Prince King, my earlier Regal red Arab; more so than these pix show. The splendor of the old 1967 Hartlands shows through. Well might they call them the Regal Series!!
I named him Maharajah... (last year was India...) ... as an equally kingly name, but it's barely regal enough. When my husband heard this story and saw this horse, he asked, "Do you have classes for repaired horses?" Stunned, I told him no. What a thought. But why not?? We have classes for everything else... Surely this is a growing division!!
Oh and the boxed Icabad? He's an 'investment' for later sale.
So now my
total net Loot shot looks like this:
A
little less greedy.
The two blankets were picked up in different places for different prices, but they should all be showing up in another Blanket Blog sometime soon. As my interest continues in this subject, I'm collecting other private individuals' work and not just Breyer blankets.
The saddle came from Russia although the seller could not tell me the maker's name. Subsequent research (thank you Heather again) is putting forth "Natalia Midnightline." I still need to verify this.
The Duende/Straight Bet is well named, as he is just about the
"straightest" model I own (Brasenose not with standing, hah!). I needed
the mold and I loved the color.
The little bluetail china was a no-brainer. For decades I've had one just like that, only with a green mane. The two together are irresistable:
Who says I don't collect chinas?? : )
The Brahma was also irresistable, also for a very old reason. My grandfather had given his wife one of these as an aniversary present. I'd seen it as a child and pestered Grandma until she gave it to me. In 1979 I'd traded it for a Decorator (a Florentine 5-Gaiter). You couldn't do that today, but I still wanted one.
And the buffalo is my BHR take for the year.
Everybody who saw this buffalo wanted to know about him. I grew tired of telling the complexities and simply snapped "He's a BHR repaint!" Or shorter still, "Not For Sale!!" The whole tale is amost mysterious in its twists... surely my best buffalo story. My buffalo conga again deserves its own post! For now here's a look at his off side:
Here he is with my earlier BHR piece, the light brown Buffalo. Brothers in Karen's collection, they are now reunited. What they have seen together...
Last but never least, Most desired and most gloried in, Named before I got him and thus a sure sign of besottedness! is my obsessed-over Icabad and his luckily-found driving pair partner, Loughnatousa. I'm not sure which one came first; probably the Copperfox, as Finnegan was released in 2015 and Rangoli happened in 2017. Morgen Kilbourn sculpted them both, and from the day I saw True North I'd been wondering what kind of a pair these two molds would make.
As often happens, my desire for a particular model grew so slowly that by the time I really wanted him he was long sold out. This was the case with Loughnatousa, or Superman Fabio as he is known. (Don't you love these horses with 5 names?! A.k.a. Irish Sport Horse.) Copperfox produced 250 of them, and 10 semi-glossies, in 2016. Having wanted one for years, I was blessed beyond all luck to stumble out of my CHIN room on Saturday night and find one within 15 minutes! I had looked so hard all week... I bargained her down and she then threw in 4 free books, making me feel like a monster of ingratitude.
That's not the most unusual part of the tale. In the halls I spoke with a near-stranger who stared at me when I mentioned Loughnatousa. "Loff-na-Toosa" I pronounced it, blithely ignoring the real
Lock-na-two-sa and completely not knowing it is a famous Irish studfarm. But she told me it was the name of a mythical tree, connected to healing and magic and..?!?
I ws thrilled and decided to keep that his name for now. Yet subsequent research has revealed no such thing. If anyone out there knows what this name really means I'd love to hear about it --- !
You may remember
Rangoli, last year's Raffle model at BreyerFest. He was a bay minimal-pinto on the True North. I've never seen the ballot-box so stuffed as was his. I myself spent $20 on tickets for him, twice and three times as much as I usually do. I wanted him so bad!! But of course the odds were astronomical. I've entered the Raffle so many times over the years... this year was my 27th BreyerFest... never won yet.
So I trotted out my best defense. I told BreyerHistoryDiva I'd just wait til they released him in bay and then I'd "etch my own!" Not like I've never done this...
wink, wink, Rinker... Imagine my astonishment when I saw Icabad Crane.
It was as though Breyer had read my comment.
I was so worried there wouldn't be any Icabads left. I balanced my Friday morning tent ticket with standing in line for the Pit (Breyer Store). It was a close call; remember the crowds!! No one could tell us how many models we were limited to. (The answer turned out to be "as many as you can carry, but only 1 Icabad per person.") When I finally got there I grabbed without really picking, grabbed two other horses, saw the dinosaurs and grabbed 4 of them. (The dinos were so wonderful there might be a future post on them!) Successful, I bolted for the car, then bolted some more, back to the in-a-different-place-than-before tent line. Said bolting really being trotting, as I was "training" for the 5K race too.
The Icabad's name came to me in a dream.
On Thursday afternoon, after photographing all 3 days of NAN, I collapsed on the bed in 610 and took a wee nap. In the dream the scene made sense: I was running through a great sunlit shallow sea, waters flowing away, with a great peaceful sense of flying along, of striding... But when I woke up I knew that name had come out of somewhere completely and totally Other.
Dry The Sea.
It's a habit of mine to get the Jaapi halters of the year, and 2018 was no exception. Jaapi (p.
yoppy) has consistently interpreted BreyerFest's themes. Off To The Races translated into the racing stables' colors for Brass Hat, Justify and American Pharaoh. I think they're neat. With so much loot, I need them.
Happy Collecting!
