Several Surprises

First Post of the Day

I'm making slow progress on restocking my inventory of 18th century clothing for Kalamazoo. Unfortunately, yesterday I was so busy, I didn't even get into the sewing room. (More on that busyness in a future blog post.)

I'd mentioned that the fabric I was stitching up into a men's trade shirt had elephants block printed on it. Here is a close-up of one of the elephants that encircles the hems of the shirt and the sleeves.

What I didn't know is that it is called a war elephant. The white circles on his legs represent bells that would be put on elephants preparing to go to war, and you can see other tack on him, too: a headdress, a blanket, and a bejeweled breast collar.

I'm not especially fond of the war aspect, but it is period correct and does represent a historical fact of war in India in the 18th century.

In other news, Breyer announced another BreyerFest Special Run, a mare and foal pair.

The Cantering Mustang Mare and Mustang Foal molds are being used for Good Times (mare) and Great Friends (foal). They will be available to VIP and All Access ticket holders only. (The names this year seem to be following a similar pattern to those from last year and aren't my cuppa coke.)

Around Halloween, I began researching Breyer's glowing models for a blog series I'd been planning. I had been using the flashlight app on my phone to look for signs of glowing, but decided I needed something bigger and faster. (And which used less battery.)

I did a search of Amazon and ordered this UV light which was highly rated and listed for a good price. 

Remember those models I ordered in the warehouse sale? (Cassidy and the Missouri Fox Trotter Stablemates were two of them.)

 

I had also ordered Nor'easter. I don't collect Classics (much) but his color was so pretty, I decided to get him.

See what I mean? I love that glossy metallic teal blue with pearly white and silver accents. 

A friend had told me that her Nor'easter glowed in the dark, so of course I put mine under the new UV flashlight. 

Yep! So did mine! 

I made a mental note after that to check any model that might I get that was produced after 2003. That's when Merry Widow, the third horse in Breyer's Halloween Horses series, was introduced with the first markings that glowed in the dark.

Were there models made from glowing plastic prior to that? I haven't found any yet but I am still doing research. More to come on that topic.

I checked all my new warehouse sale horses and discovered that this UV light shows some things other than just glowing green plastic. These were things I wasn't happy to see.

Stay 'tooned.