Nonoma - Still Some Mystery

 The second offering of the 2021 Vintage Club has arrived and Breyer has made this one's release really intriguing.

First, they did not release photos of the club's models when members renewed or joined last year. That piqued a lot of interest and the club sold out quickly.

Then, Breyer gave collectors a clue as to one of the offerings with the stamp on Julius's belly. Every year the club belly stamp is of one of that year's models, so we knew that the Foundation Stallion (Azteca) would be coming as one of the releases.

What he would look like, though, was a mystery, and in my opinion, Breyer scored on this one. Nonoma is beautiful!

Breyer's description of him on their web site continued the surprise aspect: Nonoma is dressed in a new modern grullo variation inspired by the brown pinto paint job made famous by the original Breyer Indian Pony.  SURPRISE!! Native American warpaint symbols, if present, will vary in this release! Four different variations.

Notice that "if present" in the text? That means that some Nonomas will not have any warpaint at all. Now the question hobbyists are asking is, does this mean there are four warpaint variations and one non-warpaint for a total of five different Nonomas? Or are there three warpaint variations and one without? I lean toward the first because the club is limited to 500 people, and that would easily divide into 100 of each of the five variations.

At this point, I have only seen four variations and that includes the one with no warpaint. I was lucky and got the one with all the markings. (The variations that have surfaced are no markings, nose and neck, eye and flank, and all five.) 

The Foundation Stallion was done as a Lakota Pony in 1992. There were four different options available, but a fifth is listed on Identify Your Breyer. Was it a variation by mistake? Or was it an actual part of the release?

I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a fifth variation that some collector will discover, maybe even like the chase pieces in the blind bags.

Sometimes with Breyer you never know, and that is okay with me. In the meantime, I am really pleased with my Nonoma and am looking forward to the next offering.