Breyerfest 'Dani' - Danash's Northern Tempest

When, back in July, I compiled a Breyerfest Special blog post to show all the Breyerfest horses I've collected over the years, I was sitting on an exciting secret!

I'd already secured a pre-sale reservation from another collector who was taking part in this year's online Breyerfest. By paying up front, I could relax and not worry about whether I'd ever get the horse I wanted most from this year's exclusive releases : one was earmarked to be mine, however long it took for them to arrive after the event.

Over the last couple of weeks, Breyerfest models have started to appear on UK Ebay, so I knew I wouldn't have too much longer to wait, and today was the day : I got back from my real horses to find a parcel hidden carefully behind the bins. So which horse was it, who'd earnt a place at the top of my wishlist?

Yes, she may 'only' be the Celebration Model, but what a Celebration Model she is! Let's have a look at her out of the box...

I think they've done a fantastic job with her, the detailed spot masking is a bit more complex than they tend to give us for regular runs, so she's got a bit of a 'wow' effect when you see and handle her. She does look more bay than her official publicity photo, which was quite light, roany and speckled - but perhaps that's just variation between individuals, and I got a darker one.

As I said when I got regular run Catch Me, this mould is a lovely big chunky warmblood horse. The real Danash's Northern Tempest, known as Dani, is a friesian/appaloosa cross, but I've decided to have mine as a knabstrupper. Unless it's a horse or pony I know personally, I'd rather go for a pure breed compatible with the mould/colour combination, than stick faithfully to the breeding of the real horses behind the portrait models, especially if it'd mean adding yet more partbreds and crosses to my herd!

The other side, showing off more of that fantastic detailed pattern - doesn't it suit the mould so well! I've got her up on the mantelpiece and keep glancing up for another look, she's a really striking model which will stand out on my shelves.

I haven't come up with a name for her yet, I was thinking of going on the 'Tempest' theme and calling her Miranda after the female lead in Shakespeare's play, but I already have two model horse Mirandas (not deliberately - I named one myself, then bought the second from a friend!), so I'm still thinking.

Just a couple more shots from unusual angles - when a paintjob is this detailed, I always want to take extra photos to show it from every direction!

I'd seen a few people saying there were a lot of quality issues with the Dani models, with smudged or broken-up spots where the masking was badly applied, but I checked mine all over and can only find the smallest area of slight blur on one spot, on her stifle on the non-display side, and even that is so faint I wouldn't have noticed it without close scrutiny.

There were a couple of places where the masking hadn't fully peeled away, but it's a matter of seconds to rub those off with a thumb and reveal the intended pattern, and you'd never know the factory missed a bit.

Well worth the wait, and I'm really glad I got that early buy secured back at the beginning of the summer - I can only imagine how stressful it would've been waiting and hoping that I'd get chance to grab one on UK Ebay when they started to appear over here. As it happens, there have been quite a few, and at reasonable prices - being the Celebration Model, she's the commonest of all releases this year - so if you have Dani on your wishlist too, keep looking, and good luck!

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 :)