Breyer 2021 Chocolatey

Another fairly new release to introduce today, one of 2021's regular runs - Chocolatey the Appaloosa stallion. I bought him second-hand but he's in perfect as-new condition, not a mark on him except all the spots and freckles that are meant to be there.

The same mould as the liver chestnut mare I posted a few months ago, only this time the mould's been adapted to a stallion, and the mane and tail are different, too - hers were the windswept longer version, his mane is neatly banded and trimmed, and his tail's straight rather than flicking/flowing.

He's a portrait model of a real horse, and I think they've done a really good job of matching him - just look at this shot and you'll see what I mean. 

The only difference is that you can see some spotting of darker brown on his gingery colour, most noticeable on the shoulder, which hasn't been copied onto the model - but it's probably quite hard for the company to do masked spots over a base colour rather than on the plain white plastic, and I can see why they wouldn't want to spend the time and expense of having somebody hand paint those one-by-one!

He's a very handsome boy, I remember writing in my 2021 review that I'd probably get him because he's a good colour on a sculpt I didn't have yet, and although he didn't get to be the first in that mould for my collection after all (unless you count the mane/tail/stallion 'edits'), he's still very welcome!

I like the way his entire blanket marking has nice crisp and intricate edges; years ago Breyer would do their blanket appaloosas using an airbrushed coat colour but leaving the rump unpainted, and the overall effect was a bit blurry and unfinished-looking. This more modern masked style means they can have a lot more detail and shape which follows the hair pattern, and is a really good match for the real horse.

There is an unfortunate seam mark where the mane and neck meet, this is probably due to the interchangeable mane styles this mould's got, slightly neater prepping before painting would've helped smooth the join. I suspect some individuals are better than others, as with most of these moulds with more than one hairstyle option. 

But he looks fine from the other side, which is his 'good' side for photography and display anyway, and because I won't be taking my Breyers out to shows, it's looking good on the shelf and in photos which matter most for me.

And look, eye colour again! I still haven't worked out what qualifies some horses for this added detail when the majority of regular runs have plain black glossy eyes with no iris painted in.