When the 2021 releases were originally revealed, the one Traditional scale horse I most wanted to get was the pinto Icelandic, Sporður frá Bergi.
Despite being really keen to add him to my collection, I ought to just explain why I ended up waiting a while : back when the new year's models first reached our UK stockists, I'd had a lot of new arrivals in quick succession, and didn't really want to pile more spending immediately on top of what I'd just done!
So I thought I'd leave the 2021s for a bit - after all, they were regular runs, likely to be around for ages and not out of stock, right?
Well, keeping things reliably in stock this year has proved challenging for Breyer retailers worldwide, but especially in this country, when our supply was already slow and patchy - a lot of the time once something's gone, it could be months and months til the possibility of any more coming over, and maybe not even then.
Last week, when I checked my two favourite places to buy Breyers, the first had no Icelandic at all, while the other was down to just a single one left! So I decided it was probably wise to grab that one, and not risk missing out on him if he sold out now, then never came back into stock here before being retired, as has happened with some Breyer releases of the past - even in the years before covid existed and the global shipping problems took hold.
He arrived last week and had his photoshoot in one of the brief spells of sunshine, so here he is!
I really love him, I've already got Svali frá Tjörn (the sooty buckskin regular run) and Elska (the dappled grey special run) on this mould, so I knew in advance to expect it to be so small and chunky and endearing, but there's just something about holding these pony-sized moulds in-hand; they're a tiny heavy-set little chunk with a cute sparky face, much like real Icelandic horses!
His official name is Sporður frá Bergi (try to pronounce the ð as th like in 'the', it's not a d like most places selling him have typed it!), but I've named mine Ratatoskr, after the squirrel messenger from Norse mythology; I think it suits him perfectly!
There's a lot of action in that tölt pose, sculpted at the perfect moment in the stride, the one that would be the best shot when taking pictures of the real thing - the highest point of the forelegs and the furthest stretch of the hindlegs. The flying mane and tail help emphasise that this is a very fast-moving gait, a smooth running walk at the speed of a very brisk trot. If you've never seen Icelandics in action it's well worth a look on Youtube.
It's one of those moulds which looks ok from either direction, because he's moving on a straight line so his head isn't turned away whichever way you face him, but for me this is always the 'other side' because I think the leg position displays better when he's running to our left.
If possible he looks even sweeter from the front! With those big eyes and compact proportions they're a lot like native pony breeds, but Icelandics are always called horses, not ponies.
The coat colour makes him look more flashy than the fairly plain and dark paintwork we saw on the first regular run release, and I always rather like it when they're based on a real horse, cos the markings have that quirky individuality of being copied from something nature created, rather than designed by a human hand. I especially like the two-tone nose!
A horse I'm really glad to have for my collection, and would happily recommend to anyone else who likes models in the bigger scales, or the Icelandic breed.
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