2020 CollectA model horses

One of my favourite ranges of model horses at the moment is the selection from CollectA (yes, I should've been putting the capital A - that's how they type it on their own site), who also produce a lot of dinosaur and prehistoric models. Those are touted as museum quality, accurate to the best current scientific knowledge, and the sculpting certainly has a realism and authenticity that a lot of toy-type brands can't match. Their modern wildlife range also stands up well against all the competitors, and happily, the same can be said for their equines, an area where some companies are severely let down - I genuinely think they have the best sculpting out there for the mid-scale toy horse market, and the colours are greatly improved from the early basic paintjobs.

I'd got a bit behind in my CollectA collecting this year, having gone for some body-quality ones to repaint rather than catching up on brand new original finish releases, so it was more than overdue to have a little shopping spree and bring some of the 2020 models into my herd.
Oh, and incase you're looking for stockist recommendations, I got this batch and the last from BigJigs Toys, Redworldmodels have also always been good for me (specifically via ebay for more choice and multibuy special offers) and I like Chestnut Ridge of course, though the CollectA range is currently more limited there, you can pick from real photos of each individual model to get the paintjob you like best.

Thanks to a blip in my laptop's form autofill leaving my house number blank in the address, the parcel ended up going back to the shop, but on second attempt it got here safe and sound - the moral of this dull story is always check the info rather than trusting autofill if you're a buyer, and always put a return address on the box if you're the one sending!

First out of the box, the bay roan Dutch draft mare, who I've named Marta. She's a lovely great big chunk of a horse, like all the CollectA drafters I've had so far they're properly scaled to stand at true heavy horse height, and don't skimp on width, either! 

I've thought this mare looked an exciting must-have ever since the first promo photo was revealed, and she doesn't disappoint in the slightest - the only thing I'd have had any different is that the ends of her forelock and the flipped lock of mane aren't sprayed black with the rest of it, but some dark-haired horses do sunbleach blonder at the tips anyway, so I'll give that one a pass!

Next from the box, the Exmoor stallion, who I've named Golden Gorse (after the author of the famous 'Moorland Mousie' books about exmoor ponies, who used that as her pen name). He's nicer in-hand than the promo photo suggested, small and sweet, and it's good to have a real exmoor for the range. I always thought their dartmoor pony made a decent one if repainted mealy bay, and that sculpt does seem to have a bit more stallion-y presence and spirit compared to this placid-looking chap, but I like his windblown mane and could just imagine him out on the moor, glancing up from his nibbling to check out something which caught his eye.

Here's the Marwari stallion, another breed I'm glad to see added to the CollectA range - the lineup is starting to read like a horse breed book, with significant gaps getting filled all the time to bring it from the basic, popular horses to a more comprehensive set of breeds. I've named mine Nihar, meaning fog, because it was a foggy morning when he arrived, and it suits his colour, too!

Now, I know I said they have the best sculpting around, but there is a down side with some of the more recent moulds : the legs are getting distinctly chunky. It doesn't affect the draft breeds, and isn't so noticeable on the pony breeds, but on a very light horse like the marwari here, they're left kind of out of proportion - scroll back up and cover the top half of his picture with your hand, and those look like cob or heavy warmblood legs, not the lean, wiry legs of a fine-boned light breed. 

I've seen photos of the forthcoming 2021 releases, and the same applies there - when you're giving konik or mongolian ponies stocky little legs, that's perfectly fine, but when even your hackney horses have thick legs, they're not really typey any more! 

The only possible reason I can think is that this change to chunkiness came after Breyer bought the distribution rights for CollectA horses in the USA, and started calling them Corral Pals - could they now have some influence in suggesting how they'd like them? Stablemates suddenly got much thicker legs around G3 era, making them more solid and less fragile for the kiddie market, and I'm wondering if maybe CollectA were asked for chunkier legged horses less likely to break in play, now they're being sold through Breyer as part of their line.

But, I'm really quite forgiving, despite having a tendancy to find fault in my reviews on here I'll willingly praise what's being done right, too, and even with chunky legs regardless of breed, the models are still head and shoulders above the market leader Schleich, once my go-to brand for the toy-plastics section of my collection. While Schleich have gone off the boil for many adult model horse fans, replacing realistic anatomy with excessive braids, bunches, bows, and ribbons, CollectA are still producing sensible, good-looking horses I'm happy to own, and will continue to collect and recommend eagerly!

Back to my box of new arrivals, here's the Nonius, or Nóniusz in Hungarian; again the slightly out of proportion legs are in evidence, but don't detract too much from his overall look. The long roman nose is spot on for some of the real Nonius horses I've seen, and he's got a great expression, alert and lively.

I couldn't decide which was his best side, so you get a couple of bonus images for this chap; his near side and the angled one recreating his promo photo. 

When looking up real Nonius horse naming traditions, I found something unusual - every male descendent was officially named Nonius as well, leading to a lot of roman numerals in the stud book and pedigrees! However, many are given a sort of identifying individual name on the end, so I'm calling mine Nonius Az Első (meaning 'the first', as he's the first of his breed in my herd)

As well as some of the newest models, it was about time I started filling gaps in my CollectA herd and catching up with older releases I'd missed. 2019 only introduced two new horses, this American Cream Draft stallion, and the Russian Don mare, who I'll get next time.

He's one of those rather annoying models who looks nice and handsome in-hand, then a bit awkward and ungainly in photographs, I just couldn't get a shot which flattered him before I lost the daylight! The colouring on mine is much nicer than some I've seen, with a warmer more golden tone, not the dead blue-grey paint the earlier ones seem to have got - on reflection I reckon it's quite a good thing I bought a later one rather than jumping in quickly and grabbing one of the first batch!

And finally, a really old release who I just somehow never got round to adding to any earlier order - this is the Hanoverian stallion.

I repeatedly put off getting him because I couldn't make up my mind between the two colours on offer, but it's such a nice sharp and detailed sculpt which captures the breed well, I didn't want to risk leaving it too late and missing out on owning either if the mould got retired or replaced by a new one - I think the bay had the nicer face of the two, that was my only deciding factor in the end!