2022 Breyer Stablemates

I've finally managed to find the rest of the 2022 single carded Stablemates. These were a batch of 2021 mid-year models for the USA, but only got a full global release with this year's regular runs - and it's been really hard to catch them all in stock in the UK ever since!

A slightly pearly finish, which as you know is not my usual cup of tea at all, but this one I couldn't resist : the colour is one of my favourites, on a mould I love - a beautiful mulberry grey mini Alborozo. A few years ago I painted one this colour, so it's amusing to have a matching original finish model!

I've named him Ferrando, a Medieval variation of the name Fernando. I bought two of these, so I'd have a spare to repaint, and I'm very glad I did give myself that chance to choose the best to keep, because the other one has a horrible overspray in the paint application - his ginger hair overlaps almost all the way up his neck to his ears, and he's got a ginger bum-cheek too!

This palomino pinto was probably my least favourite from the promotional photos, but is actually much nicer in hand. They're saying he's a Paint Horse on the packaging, but the mould looks much more like a partbred-TB riding horse type than a stock breed, so I've allocated mine as an Irish Sport Horse.

I've given him the name Firebrand, after one of the military horses leading the Queen's funeral procession, as he arrived that day.

This is the relatively new Morgan mould, and the first attainable release after club and exclusive runs only. A pity it's a plain un-shaded colour, but Morgans do come in black so there's nothing wrong with that.

Although I am pleased to have one in my collection at last, I'm not a huge fan of the mould - it looks very pulled-in to an unnaturally short outline, which might look less odd if you had it tacked up and ridden in a scene photo/class, but does look strange for a horse running loose!

Stormcloud, named not just for his colour, but the fact I grabbed these photos in a brief snippet of sunshine between two very low dark looming clouds!

Again Breyer allocated a breed which doesn't suit the mould, calling this one a Mustang despite it's draft horse legs! I've switched mine to being a US draft cross, these chunky lightly-feathered crossbreds are a fairly common type for leisure riders who want a casual easy-tempered and hardy family horse, much like the traditional cobs of the UK.

Along with the Alborozo, this was the release I was most eager to catch, and I had to be patient as those sold out very fast every time, so I think other people agreed with my taste in horses!

A lovely shade of dun on the gorgeous little 'Django' mould, which was sculpted as a Friesian, but they keep releasing him in non-Friesian colours and never got round to black yet - I think I'm going to have to paint one myself.

I think the colour does look nice on him though, and they do call the model 'Friesian Cross' on the packaging so at least they're being nicely accurate there. I've just added mine to my website as a Friesian x Saddlebred, a cross which can be known as a Georgian Grande, along with the bay in the same mould which I got a while ago. My older one is called Duststorm, so I've called the new dun Firestorm so they match.

I already had the Appaloosa Sporthorse, I managed to catch him earlier in the year and added him as an extra to come along with some blind bags to paint, but here's his picture again just to round this post out with the complete set.

WIA Erren, Bella Rose, and some Bullyland specials

This month, I had a little parcel from the Modellpferdeversand shop in Germany - because they have to come so far and go through extra handling, shipping is £10 per box, which is quite pricey compared to more local postage, so I tend to wait til there's something I really, really want, and then add enough other things to the order to make it worthwhile!

The 'must-have' model this time was the first WIA model to be sculpted by Morgen Kilbourn, a Criollo stallion called Erren.

A very dramatic mould, an action pose with a lot of action in it!

In person, he looks just as good as expected - after nothing but excellent paintjobs, I've come to trust WIA to provide promo images which match well to the models in hand. I ordered two, so I could repaint the spare, and it was honestly difficult to decide which one to keep for my collection, neither had any flaws which spoilt the finish, and the paint application between the two was consistent on shading and markings. They're identical twins, with none of the variation between individuals we'd expect in the more mass-produced models like Breyer or Schleich.

He fits well with the other plastic 1:18 WIA horses so far - despite being a different sculptor their art styles aren't vastly different, so you won't have any jarring contrast in finish if you display them together.

Just one colour this time, rather than WIA's usual choice of two - this is because he's being described as a portrait model. But from what I can gather in the translated text and a review of the book online, the horse features in an adventure story about a princess, so he's a fictional one, rather than portrait in the usual sense of 'copied from a real horse'.

It's still possible they'll re-use the sculpt to release in another colour in future, but for now he's been allocated to this character. Luckily, he was written as a very nice colour, with some flashy markings too!

The mane is maybe the only thing that's make me think he looks a bit atypical for the breed, cos working and showring Criollos are usually clipped off short along the neckline, leaving just a tuft at each end, and their tails are cut choppy and square at the bottom - you don't usually see them with that much hair, where it's pretty standard to have luxuriant flowing manes and tails on Iberian breed sculpts.

Maybe an individual from one of the old feral herds, or kept free ranging for breeding and only rounded up occasionally, that's what he could be. Similarly I could see it working ok as a mustang, or any of the other US-based Spanish Colonial Horse breeds, if people wanted different breed allocations.

Now, what else came along in the parcel? Some mini versions of real dressage horses!

Rider Isabell Werth has an ongoing collaboration with the model horse world, allowing MPV to work with sculptor Brigitte Eberl and two German manufacturing companies, to create and sell limited edition figures of her competition stars.

I don't really follow dressage (the only horse sport I watch in person is Eventing, so those are the horses and riders whose careers I know), but it's always nice to see real horses being immortalised in miniature, and it doesn't matter that I haven't seen them in action. I'll have to look up some videos of their biggest winning performances on Youtube later!

The first two are made by Bullyland, a soft plastic and quite light. I don't have very many Bully horses, they aren't sold in the UK and I haven't liked many enough to add them to my MPV orders - a lot of them have moulded on tack so they're better for children's play than adult collectors. But these special editions are much better - possibly cos they've brought in one of the best sculptors in the world to create something which fits in with the rest of the range, but is inevitably that little bit better, too.

First, Don Johnson, known at home as Jonny. Another active pose, but this times a recognisable dressage movement; he's doing a pirouette, where horses take their weight on the back legs and turn a circle as small as possible - keeping on the spot is the ideal.

Jonny is a Hanoverian, quite a commonly made breed but a handsome one, so I don't mind at all having one more for my herd!

 

He's got a really nice face, I don't know whether the sculptor went to meet the real horses and do some sketching from life, or whether she worked from photos only, but this one seems to have a lot of personality worked in, he looks such a sweet and lively horse.

With his certificate - they don't have years on, but he was released in 2011, as a run of 2500.

El Santo, known as Ernie, is a Rhinelander horse. Another breed I'm much less familiar with - you can see the model is much more heavy-set, with chunky legs and a large solid head. But he's the same brand and sculptor as the previous model, so this is more likely a deliberate choice to match a heavier type of horse, than the plastic having to be thicker for solidity, or the artist's style.

He looks very gentle and honest, his markings aren't so bright and detailed as the WIA models but you can still see realism in there - with the off-centre star and snip, and some black ermine spots inside his socks, it shows that they're copied from a real horse, rather than simple symmetrical made-up markings.

And with his certificate - another run of 2500, he was released in 2012. I'm really glad they still have some of these older horses left, it's taken me all this time to get round to buying them but I'm pleased that I finally did!

And finally, another WIA model, the Westphalian mare Bella Rose. My first of this breed, I've had to make her a page all to herself on my website.

Bella Rose has a more stationary pose than Erren or the two bays, but it's a very balanced and composed halt, rather than just casually standing there - like the beginning and end of a dressage test, with the horse collected and square.

Her markings are nice, with differing hoof colour to match the socks, and the paint is smooth and solid so they have a good crisp effect. They're currently being sold only as 'B goods', which I assume to mean a sort of 'seconds' quality model, but I struggle to see what's wrong with this one, she looks neatly painted and without any damage.

A limited edition of 2500, but released back in 2016 so I bet a lot of them have already sold - that's probably why there's only 'B' ones left in stock now. But I'm perfectly happy with the one I've got!

Four very nice horses, who came quite a distance to join my herd, and are very welcome additions.

Actually, it was a parcel of five - as I said, there was an extra 'Erren' set aside for custom painting, but he'll have to wait til another post for his introduction.

CollectA 2022 horses - the first batch

The long-awaited CollectA 2022 releases are being sent out to stockists in two batches, the first just arrived in the UK last month, the others are estimated around December, but I couldn't wait til then to buy them all in one go, so I picked up the four from this summer batch, and will have a second boxful later on.

The Yakutian Stallion is only new sculpt and new breed in these first's half-of-the-year releases, so he gets to be featured first!

He's really rather adorable! I know these ponies are very hardy and hard-working, not leading pampered lives in the slightest, but this sculpt just makes him look so cuddly!

That's not a bad thing, and it certainly doesn't even approach the amount of cuteness inflicted on Schleich models to the frustration of many adult collectors - his sweet face doesn't have exaggerated features or anything which contradicts realism.

Over the last few years, much has been said about CollectA's relatively recent chunky-legs problem; I'm as disappointed in that as anyone, but on pony and draft breeds it doesn't look obvious or incorrect, the Yakut gets away with the leg proportions in a way the light, leggy, fine breeds cannot - the likes of the Marwari, Saddlebred, or Hackney look wrong, but this small chunky breed looks perfectly ok.

The Yakut sculpt touches on all their distinctive traits, the kind of thing which always gets a mention in the books or websites listing horse breeds, namely their short compact but strong build, the abundant mane and tail, and the shaggy thick coat which grows four inches long in winter - they live outdoors all year round, in the far north (see the red area in this map) and are easily one of the most hardy horse breeds in the world. This one seems to be sculpted in his summer coat, with only the legs and beard remaining shaggy, but it's clearly a nod to that famous characteristic of the breed.

I'm not sure why they chose a plainish grey, when there's a lot of very pretty dun shades which are more common, but greys do exist so I've no problem with the decision, it's not an error so much as a wondering why they didn't go for something more interesting!

But he's nicely painted, with shading and an off-white tone with a little hint of warmth to it (pure white tends to look blueish in models, and gives the impression the animal is overly cleaned, like a show pony just been scrubbed with soap and not allowed to roll while it dried off! )

All in all, a really nice rendition of a breed which isn't as well known as many, but well worth having. And incidentally, the first to be added to my collection - I've considered doing customs before but never dared tackle sculpting the fluff!

This is, as I'm sure all CollectA horse fans will recognise, an older mould re-released in a brand new colour for 2022. We've already had it in chestnut blanket spotted, black blanket spotted, and buckskin blanket spotted, so this is the first time we've seen the spots spread forward onto the rest of the horse!

Being an older sculpt, this one doesn't suffer from the too-thick limbs, but there was a chunk of folded cardboard pushed between the legs for shipping, and looking at some of my angles here, I should probably have left the legs to settle before doing my photoshoot, as they're a little bit splayed!

Any displaced limbs (or tails or ears) on CollectA models can easily be adjusted by immersing in just-boiled hot water if they don't quite stand right, but in this case it was just the packaging which pushed his hooves too wide apart, and by the following day he was standing flat-footed and straight-limbed without any intervention on my part.

Just look at all those spots! They look to be hand-painted rather than printed on or masked off, though it could be some sort of stencilling process I'm not familiar with, so it's possible the models will vary a little from individual to individual, I'll be curious to see more photos as other collectors buy this release, to check how alike they all are!

Although we'd already had one black based Appaloosa pattern, this update isn't really redundant or unnecessary, I think it is a step up in realism compared to the initial 2010 release (on the left here)

Another re-release in a new paintjob, this time a mould which hasn't had a new colour since 2010. The Hanoverian is one of the most popular of CollectA's horse sculpts, and it's easy to see why, with such great sharp accurate anatomy and good conformation for the breed. So it's no surprise that collectors have been customising this one for years, as the old colours were very plain and not very nicely done compared to more recent releases from the brand. So it was about time he got a handsome new makeover!

The colour suits the mould well, and is perfectly good for the breed, as well as being remarkably well done for a mass produced toy-type model. The shading is nicely sprayed, then the dappling printed over the top - a lot like the spots added to big cat models, so you can be sure each one will have the same good design, placement, and application of the dappling, rather than relying on factory artists to dot them on by hand. While it's not quite on the level of the WIA dappled grey Arabians, it's better than anything CollectA (or Schleich, Papo, Mojo or Bullyland) have ever offered before, and that's great!

The white markings are also crisply applied, rather than quick/lazy fuzzy fade-out edges, which is something I and many other model horse collectors, count as the sign of a quality paintjob - even Breyer don't bother on many Classic and Stablemates releases any more, so it's good to see CollectA going the opposite way and making sure they add better markings than they did in the early days.

Another lovely touch is the eye detail - you can't see in my pictures but he's got metallic golden brown eyes painted in, with horizontal oval pupils just as they should be.

The other side, showing the placement of dappling is symmetrical and planned, not random patches put on anyhow. 

The only negative is the hoof painting, the back ones are in the right place but a little bit messy, but the front ones are painted far too far up, onto the fetlocks - perhaps others were done with more care and I got an unlucky one, but it is a fault and will probably affect show quality if you're considering photo or live showing with your models. If you happen to live in a country/area where CollectA are stocked in actual physical shops, that's something to look out for when hand-picking your purchases.

Now, the new Arabian...

When the promotional pictures of this one came out, I was really concerned they might be a 'too good to be true' thing, and show a one-off custom artist's proof paintjob then the factory models would be plain and lacking in comparison. But I am pleased to announce that they're just as good as the images we were being tempted with!

I just love the way the mane is done, with the graduated shading combined with crisp hand-painted ends. The blond tips are painted on over the body colour, then the brown shading is sprayed into the mane and tail afterwards, leaving a lovely effect which you don't ever usually see in factory produced models. Her colour is very deep and vibrant, and set off beautifully with the flaxen mane and white markings which make her look flashy and eye-catching - just the sort of thing real Arabian breeders want for the show ring!

A very elegant horse, with a good pose which is typical for the breed but also very pretty - I can see animal toy collectors who aren't even really horse fans taking to this one, as it's got a lot of visual appeal whether you know much about the Arabian breed or not.

As with the Appaloosa and Hanoverian, this is one of CollectA's older moulds, from 2011 this time, so she has fine and crisply sculpted well-detailed legs, essential for her to look true to breed type. The Arabian is one breed which really wouldn't work in their more recent style with smooth plump legs and less prominent joints, so I'm glad they brought back the original instead of bringing out a new 'matching' stallion.

I think this colour is an improvement on the original 'Golden Chestnut', released back in 2010. Different enough that collectors might want both (as this very photograph proves!), but providing a much nicer modernised paintjob for anybody selecting just one.

Funnily enough, I was planning to repaint my damaged body-box mare almost this colour, now I have to rethink and pick something else!

And finally, take a look at the wonderful eyes! It's a shame they're not a feature for all 2022 releases, the Yakut and Appaloosa don't have eye colours, and we'll have to wait and see whether they appear on the Noriker, Saddlebred, Orlov Trotter, and Paint horse at the end of the year.