Two Breyer Traditionals

Two second-hand Traditional scale Breyer models to introduce this time! 

First here's Jasper, a special run only sold in Tractor Supply Company stores in the USA.

These special run models aren't tiny limited editions like some, but they are hard to get hold of in the UK where we don't have TSC - your only option if you really, really want one is to buy from a US-based seller who's found the models in-store and listed them for sale, willing to post internationally, and then of course us British buyers have to pay import and handling fees on top of the price and shipping.

So understandably, they sell for a lot more over here on the second hand market than they do on the 'right' side of the Atlantic, where you can just nip to a physical shop and buy one!

I first saw this horse sell on Ebay a little while ago, for £80 which was too much for me, so I just admired the pictures but left him alone. Then last week he popped up again, from a different seller, but now at just £30. He'd been carelessly packed and got damaged in transit, with white paint marks on him, and some of his own paint scuffed and scratched. The recipient was rightly disappointed, didn't want to keep him in that state, so put him back on Ebay with his damage carefully described and photographed.

Now, at a much more affordable price (regular runs are currently £45-60 here), I looked again, and decided I could deal with the marks on him - I'm so used to custom painting, surely I'd be able to colour-match the paint, and apply it well enough that if he didn't look 100% immaculate, then at least he'd look mended and handsome again.

And he does!

You can barely see where the marks were; on this side there was a scuff across just above where his elbow would be, on both knees and one fetlock there were flecks of base plastic showing through the black, both ear tips were rubbed, and on his other side, a few very obvious scrapes between the hock and the bum.

Now you'd really struggle to spot any of the repairs, I'm really pleased with how easy he was to mend - all apart from the elbow scuff which was deep enough to scratch the plastic as well as the paint, so although the colour is replaced, if you tilt him to the light there's a rough mark which doesn't shine. But he's fine on display, I can't see the 'scar' in any of these pictures taken at the normal kinds of angles you look at a horse, it's only when you turn him upside down and hunt for the flaw that you'd find it.

I think he's really handsome, the mould is a good one with a fine noble head and a powerful, elegant pose, he makes a good Spanish Mustang.

His official name was Jasper, but I've gone with Whirlwind, cos I've got a rearing Spanish Mustang in bay sabino called Wayward Wind, and I like family name themes! Although Whirlwind suits him, being suitable undomesticated for a feral horse, unfortunately I don't have any wilderness-landscape backgrounds big enough for this scale, so he has to pose in front of this bit of English countryside complete with fence line and distant fluffy sheep!

The other side - I even zoomed in on the full size image of this before I resized it, and can't make out the repairs anywhere on his hindquarters, so I'm really glad I decided to go for it and hope I could repair him.

The seller had put in the description that he could be used as a custom body, and at that price he could've been a bargain for someone to repaint, but I think with him being a special run it would've been a shame to change him entirely, at least this way he gets to stay himself in his own colour, and I get a rarer model for my collection than I could have afforded otherwise.

A solid colour like bay can seem a bit boring, especially when compared to the pinto Picasso which is the only regular run on this mould so far, and got to be such a gorgeous flashy pattern copied from the real horse. But when they make a bay this rich and well shaded, with the nicely designed white markings (love the little wibbly edges on the ones on his face!), it's anything but plain and dull.

The other second-hand addition to my herd this month was a little grey pony which was sold with no name on release, so I've called him Platinum Jubilee after the long weekend's national celebrations. I imagine if he was a real pony with that long-winded name, it'd get shortened to PJ or Joobs by whatever children were riding him!

He's a 2009 regular run, and originally came with a blue nylon halter.

I don't mind that he's lost it, though; I make a point of never leaving any headcollars on plastic models on the shelf incase it marks their faces - I've seen older horses with coloured stains from the dye, or 'tan lines' where the plastic has yellowed each side of the strap but not under it. So it's safer not to use tack on display (the only ones I keep tacked up are my Household Cavalry set, and a custom diorama of a George Stubbs painting, as the accessories and rider are an integral part of each scene, and it doesn't matter if they get any marks under the tack as it'll never be removed.)

This mould was sculpted as a Morgan, which we normally think of as a horse-sized breed. But he's a portrait of one individual, Flash, who was only 14.1hh, and was used in Pony Club training and competition in the USA. And the fact he's pony-sized is why I liked him so much, and had to add him to my collection : my first horse was a grey pony, Arab cross Welsh C, so I've always had a soft spot for a little pale grey.

The only thing I'm not so keen on with his paintjob design is the grey face : usually the dark skin showing on the head, even in a fine summer coat, will be mostly on the muzzle and around the eyes, not spreading right up the front of the face too.

That was why I didn't buy him first time round, even though I was already collecting in 2009 I remember not liking the dark head, but this example does look a lot less black than some I've seen, it's a softer shading so detracts less from the overall realism.

Just seeing him brings a hefty dose of nostalgia for the old model horse forums - I knew a couple of people who owned this release from new!

He's got beautifully subtle dappling, on his sides and a little on his neck, faint and very gently applied - some Breyer dappling around that era got derided as 'fishscales' by collectors, as it looked very harshly drawn in as semi-circles or overlapping circular blobs, but I think they've done a nice job here.

There's one more second-hand model soon to be joining my herd (the 2022 releases still haven't reached this country yet - I think I'm rehoming so many older horses to make up for not being able to get hold of any new ones!) but he's still in transit so he'll have to have a post to himself later on.

Breyer's Tractor Supply Co Jesse

Another Traditional Breyer to share this week, this one was a special run for the Tractor Supply Company in the USA. Breyer make two or three of these exclusives for the company each year, to be sold only in their stores and not anywhere else or online - they must have some sort of promotional deal between them.

As with all the special runs produced for just one chain (Target, Walmart, JCPenney, probably more I can't think of right now!), it's unfortunate for all of us who live in countries which don't HAVE those shops, cos very few of them ever end up second hand on Ebay over here, and so I haven't got many in my collection.

They're not expensive higher-quality or super-rare releases where they're originally sold, but because the postage and customs import fees to have them sent over would double or triple the cost of the model, they end up way too pricey for me to buy in from the States, and I just keep an eye on UK Ebay and see what crops up. Sometimes, you can catch a bargain and get one of these rarer horses for normal regular run price, or even if you're lucky, cheaper.
That's exactly what happened with this one - he cost me about £5 less than a standard regular run is priced in my country!

I think he's a real stunner, I love the delicate shade of pale palomino with a hint of ashy sootiness in the cool tone and the greyer legs. My own pony goes this colour in winter, so I liked Jesse as soon as I first saw the promo pics, though I never thought I'd get chance to get hold of him here.

Sold as a palomino Quarter Horse, Jesse is a gelding on the 'gaming stock horse' mould - my other in this action sculpt is a mare, so the mould has two versions, letting Breyer make any portrait models match the sex of the real horse. It's a nice athletic build, quite lean but strong, which suits the pose perfectly - he looks like a barrel racer or fit working horse, rather than the plump and muscly show-QH types.

He comes with a good steady base, sculpted to look like a sand arena surface complete with hoofprints, and very strong metal pegs embedded in the hind legs which slot into it firmly, so there's nothing to crack or snap like those horrible clear disc bases used for Huck, Salinero, and Totilas. But when I take my photos I always hide the bases, by pushing the pegs through the 'grass' paper - the very last photo on this post has the base visible, if you want to see.

I've named him Steal My Sunshine, partly cos QHs often have snappy pop-culture names (it's a song title and lyric from one of those one-hit-wonder bands of the 1990s), but also because it's SO hard to catch a bit of sunshine in my garden at this time of year - between the shade of shed, wall, neighbour's roof, and trees, there's about fifteen minutes of daylight which tracks across one side of the lawn and the hedge, so model photography is a great challenge of timing and balancing tricks!

Another mould which looks great from either direction, the sculpt just doesn't have a bad side! I've got him facing this way on my mantelpiece at the moment, and when time comes to find him a shelf gap in the other room with the rest of my collection, it won't matter at all if he fits somewhere facing the other way instead.

All in all, a new addition I'm really pleased to add to my line-up of Breyer quarter horses!

Now, there is one thing I'd like to point out, which doesn't reflect badly on this release, but rather, another on the same mould.
One of the 2020 regular runs was the mare Stingray, who unlike Jesse, is a portrait of a real horse. The thing is, he's much, much closer to getting the colour right, than her own model was!
This is the real Stingray. She's very pale and golden, not at all reddish. It's perhaps even more noticeable in this comparison shot Breyer themselves used in the promotional material and her box packaging.

Here's my Jesse and Stingray together. The pale sooty palomino on the left would've looked perfect for Stingray, if they'd copied her distinctive markings and brand onto that paintjob it would've been a brilliant lookalike.

As it is, I list my own Stingray as a totally different colour (silver bay, to explain the red coat, brownish points, and grey mane and tail), and think she's probably one of Breyer's worst colour-matching fails in recent years. A nice model, yes; a very striking colour on a dynamic and appealing mould, but definitely not like the real horse.