Breyer Catch Me

Each year, I look forward to seeing the photos of upcoming regular run models from Breyer.
Why the regular runs? Surely they're the least exciting?
Much as I enjoy seeing all the lovely colours and new moulds which come through the various collector clubs, premier collection, breyerfest runs, store and web and show specials, they're very much a spectator sport for me, as the costs are just too much to even contemplate once we factor in the price, the exchange rate, the shipping, and the customs fee.
Occasionally I manage to pick up the cheaper kind of limited edition (Breyerfest celebration models, and bricks-and-mortar/flagship-store specials) on UK Ebay, for around regular run price a couple of years down the line, so there are a few in my collection, but the chances of getting my hands on any particular horse are so slim I never get my hopes up.
So the regular runs are the most exciting to see, as those are the ones I can actually decide to buy - I imagine it a bit like having a catalogue in your hands, but only being able to order from one or two pages : all the rest of it's for other people!

When the regular run promo photos first hit the internet, there's usually one horse which jumps out at me as the 'must have' of the group, the one I absolutely can't resist ordering as soon as they're available here, to be sure of getting before it sells out - and this year's was a gorgeous grey warmblood gelding called Catch Me.

This is a mould I hadn't seen in person until opening up the box this week, and wow, is it a big handsome chunk of horse! I hadn't been expecting it so large, but it makes perfect sense, it is a warmblood and a lot of them are pretty huge in real life, so the model needs that hefty size to be in scale. He's too big for all my photographic backgrounds, so I had to dig out the old print-of-a-painting one just to fit him in front of something without the edges showing!

It's always a pleasant feeling adding a new mould to my shelves, I'm not sure why because I'll happily conga lots of colours on the same mould (I'm up to about 40 of certain SMs!) but there's a real satisfaction in the first arrival of a new sculpt, having it in your hands for the first time after seeing only photos, admiring all the details, and seeing how it looks from different angles.

As for Catch Me himself, I really like him. Grey suits the mould extremely well, and I'm glad they didn't go for a plainer bay or chestnut for the first regular run release. The real horse isn't one I'm familiar with (I only follow eventing and UK racing) but he has a lovely face marking, with the little pink nose and lip, all crisply masked. The dapples are soft and subtle, with a gentle fade-in, fade-out look to them, at least on mine - model paintwork can vary a great deal depending on the hands behind the spray gun that day, and if you ever get chance to look through four or five of the same horse on a trade stand, you'll see some are lighter, some darker, some with more contrasting shading, some heavily dappled, and some faintly so. So not all Catch Me will be identical to my one here, and I'd be curious to look up how wide the variation is, in a few months' time when more 'real' photos are out there.

A lovely head, and a nice dynamic action pose without being over the top dramatic like a horse having a hissy fit (Banks Vanilla, Empres, skewbald 'vanner' : I'm looking at you three!), this gelding looks a perfect gentleman - I can imagine him as a reliable hunter or hack, a sensible ride in the show ring, or even an eventer with good manners.

I've named him Mariner's Moon, his pale silvery grey colour just seemed to suggest something moon themed, and I've had that name idea on my scribbled list for some time, waiting for a horse to come along and suit it :)