Doppelgänger

 Ophelia is in the house! And she is lovely.

Her shipping box has been sitting on a table since Indy Blooms; I finally opened it yesterday.

Did you know you can peel those 75th anniversary stickers off the box?

I'm not sure how long it will last, but I put the one from Ophelia's box on my computer. Looks good there!

I like the Bluegrass Bandit mold and Ophelia is in what Breyer is calling a dun color.

It looks nice on her,

but it also quite familiar. Perhaps a subtle nod to Breyer's 75th anniversary? I began pulling models off the shelf to compare.

The color is very, very similar to the 1963 Five Gaiter in sorrel with a charcoal mane.

I have five or six in this color so I started putting them next to her one by one, looking for the closest match. (This is Sham, my first 5 Gaiter and from my carpet herd.)

The three pieces with eye whites are the earliest of the run and their color is soooo close.

But it was the first one pictured and then this last one that led me to believe that Breyer had brought the color back. It's just so close to be an accident.

I may be wrong; I may be right. That honestly doesn't concern me. But seeing that old-time color pop up on a 2025 model?

Regardless of the rhyme or reason behind it, that made my day.

My Guess - The Winnowing Out Process

After posting my guess for the Mystery Surprise Horse last year, I made some changes to that guess. This year, I'm not making any changes, but I am making a correction* and I am sharing my thought process and how I winnowed out a whole lot of possible, even deserving, models.

I'd mentioned that I had walked around and taken a look at my shelves, looking for possibilities. These are the models that I considered but did not make it onto any of yesterday's lists:

Family Arabian Stallion 

Family Arabian Mare 

Family Arabian Foal 

Man O' War

5 Gaiter

Pacer

Sham

Proud Arabian Stallion

Proud Arabian Foal

Grazing Mare

Grazing Foal

Misty

Shetland Pony

Big Ben

Cantering Welsh Pony

Saddlebred Weanling

Gem Twist

Hanoverian

Jumping Horse

Donkey

Brighty

Wixom

Stud Spider

Stock Horse Stallion

Stock Horse Mare

Smoky

Sherman Morgan

John Henry

Quarter Horse Yearling

Quarter Horse Gelding

Missouri Fox Trotter

Secretariat

Scratching Foal

Lying Foal

Roy

El Pastor

Hackney

From that list of 37 molds, almost half were eliminated immediately due to popularity, conformation issues, and other things:

Family Arabian Stallion 

Family Arabian Mare 

Family Arabian Foal 

Pacer

Grazing Mare (a personal favorite)

Grazing Foal

Gem Twist

Jumping Horse

Stock Horse Stallion

Stock Horse Mare

Smoky

Sherman Morgan

Quarter Horse Yearling

Quarter Horse Gelding (iconic, but not very popular)

Secretariat

Roy

El Pastor

Hackney

*Silver (I'd forgotten that he was appearing as the special run, To the Ties that Bind Us so he would've been eliminated, too)

That left these models on the list of possibilities:

Man O' War

5 Gaiter

Sham

Proud Arabian Stallion

Proud Arabian Foal

Misty

Shetland Pony

Big Ben

Cantering Welsh Pony

Hanoverian

Donkey

Brighty

Wixom

Stud Spider

John Henry

Missouri Fox Trotter

Scratching Foal

Lying Foal

The price point on the Mystery Surprise Horse is high and in my opinion, using a smaller mold would make many hobbyists unhappy, so these molds were eliminated from my list. 

Proud Arabian Foal

Misty (an iconic mold and deserving to be used)

Shetland Pony

Donkey

Brighty

Scratching Foal

Lying Foal

Cantering Welsh Pony (very borderline in the too-small category)

Leaving these models still in contention:

Man O' War

5 Gaiter

Sham

Proud Arabian Stallion

Big Ben

Hanoverian

Wixom

Stud Spider

John Henry

Missouri Fox Trotter (another personal favorite)

There were still some on the list that I felt were highly unlikely, either because they'd been used recently or didn't have hobbyists' hearts as much as others. I removed those, and the Final Four of the "left on the shelves" were:

Man o' War

5 Gaiter

Proud Arabian Stallion

Big Ben

All have their fans, but I am looking for the iconic, something that truly represents Breyer over the course of 75 years. And just as it did yesterday, one model jumped out at me and fit that well. 

The 5 Gaiter

My much loved carpet herd Sham and one of my most favorite molds. In fact, the 5 Gaiter mold is the third largest conga in my collection at 28 pieces.

The mold was introduced in 1962 and was produced in the Big Four decorator colors and in woodgrain.

It's also one of the few molds that received the very early gold tenite sticker.

Early glossy palomino (a member of Leslie's carpet herd), alabaster with black eyes, and alabaster with red eyes.

I love this mold so much. (Liz found this piece at BreyerFest 2023 and brought it home for me. Thanks, Liz!)

So, why didn't I put it on the list of possibilities for this year's Mystery Surprise Horse?

It was just used in April for the Vintage Club pairing of Admiral and Wings.

Plus, the Five Gaiter has already been released in all of the Big Four decorator colors and I think there is a strong chance that those deco colors will be used for the Mystery Surprise Horse.

That was enough to take it out of contention for me. (Photo used with permission.)

I'm standing by the Proud Arabian Mare as the Mystery Surprise Horse for 2025 with the Fighting Stallion as a strong possibility. But if it's not one of them, there are several others that would also make me happy.

Now, we just have to stay 'tooned until July!

Pretty Color Variations

I group my models by molds and then within their molds, by color. Sometimes that results in a "paint chip" effect like you can see in this picture.

Liz knew I was looking for a black eyed alabaster 5 Gaiter, so when she spied one for sale in Simone's collection at BreyerFest this summer, she snagged it for me. I love the effect on my shelf as the color transitions from a bright white alabaster to a creamier color, and then carmel palomino.(That palomino has been in the collection since it was released. No orange color ever. Always this lovely shade of carmel.)

By the same token, neither of my alabaster Semi Rearing Stallions has yellowed like Simone's 5 Gaiter has. (Red eyed on left, black eyed in right.) I was not the original owner of either of them, so I am unable to trace their history before they came into my collection.

While I think the creamy color is pretty, I would like to whiten this piece up. Our windows are the kind that block the rays of the sun, so I would have to take the Five Gaiter outside and put it in the direct sunlight. I always hesitate about that. What if the model bloats? What if all that gorgeous pinking fades because I did not protect it well enough? Or the wind blows it over and it gets scuffed?

I rarely whiten a model because of those concerns, and so this boy keeps sitting on my shelf in paint chip position. (Hmmm, Paint Chip would be a good name for him...)

And now a smile!

It's always fun coming across a photo where the people are wearing clothing that you made!

I made Jean's shortgown (left) and Whitney's bedgown (right.) They are Feast volunteers at one of the food booths. (Picture used with permission.)

I've Waited Decades!

 Thanks to Liz Cory, a model I have searched for for DECADES is now in my collection.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had two friends coming through town who I would be meeting for lunch.

Those friends were Liz and Sam Cory. 

They were on their way home from a family camping trip, and Liz was bringing me something she'd found at BreyerFest for me.

A vintage alabaster 5 Gaiter with black eyes! I have the red eyed version, but I did not have the black eyed one.

I had literally been looking for this piece for several decades and I had not found one that was in good shape and for the right price.

As an added bonus, this model came from my friend Simone Smiljanic's collection! She and I became friends in 1970 and were still corresponding frequently when Simone passed away in October, 2021. Needless to say, I am thrilled to add a piece of hers to my own collection.

I'd like to come up with a name that pays homage to both Liz and Simone. Any suggestions? Please put them in the comments!

Liz and Sam, it was so good to see you and to get a moment to have lunch and catch up. And thank you so much for finding my new 5 Gaiter. I am absolutely thrilled to have him!

Variations: Woodgrain 5 Gaiters

One of my top five favorite molds is the 5 Gaiter. (The other four are the Semi-Rearing Mustang, the Indian Pony, the Grazing Mare, and the Stretch Morgan.) An early sculpt by Chris Hess, the 5 Gaiter has a shorter head and less narrow nose than later Hess sculptures do, and I love his fiery action and the waves in his mane.

I have two 5 Gaiters in woodgrain, an old color from the early 1960s.

This early piece is the full tassel version - the end of the top tassel was "nipped" off of later pieces in the mold. (Sometimes the full tassels would break off, too.)

Named "Lucky Find," he has a rich  medium woodgrain color. (You can see the end of the tassel poking out over the edge of his mane.)

 A little bit of drain board patterning can be seen on his near front hoof bottom. See that grayish spot covering much of the bottom of his off hind hoof? That is some pooled paint with a little bit of particulate in it (probably some wood bits from the drying shelf.)

Woodgrains often have a belly spot where the paint pooled while drying. (You can better see that rough particulate matter on the hoof in this photo.)

"Timber" is the name of my second woodgrain 5 Gaiter. What I really love about him is that he still has his original gold tenite sticker! These stickers predate the blue ribbon stickers and are scarce and difficult to find.

He, too, is a full tassel version (you can see it in this photo) and has a nice, rich coloring. Timber is just a smidge darker than Lucky Find.

A little bit of drain board patterning can be seen and there is some roughness that indicates he, too, stuck to the shelf a bit while drying. You can also see his belly spot.

They're pretty comparable when looking at them from the top. But when I examined them side by side, you can clearly see that their socks vary - one model is a short sock version, while the other is a long sock.

 Timber on the left, Lucky Find on the right.

 The length of socks is consistent on all four legs.

Timber's are significantly shorter than Lucky Find's.

 Their stars vary, too. Timber's is crisply outlined and a bright white

while Lucky Find's is soft looking with blurred edges. (The edges bring to mind the halo spots found on some Breyers.)

These two boys are pushing sixty years old (produced 1961 - 1963) and are nice examples from Breyer's early years of production as well as the beauty of the early woodgrains.