Vintage Club Inferno

Take a look at this new shipping box! Normally I don't save the outer shippers but this one is just too cool to recycle. 

I also really wanted to call Breyer and ask if they'd turn this into fabric so all the hobby sewists could have some, but I think that market is pretty small. Hah! Still, a girl can dream, right?

Inside that fabulous shipper was my Vintage Club Inferno packed in another nice box.

 A very heavy box, much heavier than the usual Breyer box.

I'd forgotten that a book was also part of this Vintage Club offering. This will be passed onto a Pony Pal.

Inferno is really, really nice.

The dapples are subtle and remind me of the dapples the horses at the barn get during high summer.

The Black Stallion mold is not a favorite of mine - I sold all of mine except for the two Hyksos.

My first one was gotten in 1991, the year it was produced, and it turned out to be a variation and is mentioned in Nancy Young's book. I got the second one a few years ago because I wanted an example of the regular run Hyksos, too.

The book wasn't the only extra that Breyer tucked into the box.

A retro blanket that harks back to Breyer's early attempts at tack!

Mine is staying in its plastic wrapper - I'm not risking having that color transfer onto Inferno. (Always be cautious around red fabrics. Some will bleed onto other things.)

Photo of Inferno and blanket from Breyer's web site.

As always, there was an informative double-sided insert included, too.

I know Andrea Gurdon used to write these for Breyer; anyone know who is doing it now? 

The 2025 Vintage Club is off to a great start and there is a lot to look forward to - a stallion and foal pair, Pioneer, and more.  

Can't wait! 

Barns, Blankets, & BreyerFest

The white work table by my desk is finally clear! Well, except for things I am sorting through for the Kalamazoo Living History Show. But the Stablemates are either packed away or on display at last.

All the carpet herd pieces and old customs have been carefully wrapped and put back in the box that had had the case of 70th Anniversary Stablemates.

Wanting to safely display the Indian Ponies led to all of this sorting,

and they, along with the filly Two Socks, are displayed on a shelf right behind my desk chair. I can just swivel to see!

I definitely wanted to display my Donovans, Vintage Club Stablemates, Fighting Stallions, key chains, and decorators.

I started with the Breyer Barn, and filled it with models that fit. Not all do. That barn is very limited in the pieces it can hold unless you start angling them (like you do with Breyer's Traditional shelf eaters.) But angling them also makes them more prone to tipping over, and I don't want to do that anymore - hence the Stablemate Racks I bought.

The longer models are all in the Stablemate Racks in front of the barn. I thought I would need to buy more of the holders, but I actually have a spare set. Having said that, the 75th Anniversary Limited Edition Brilliance Gift Set is due to arrive soon - that's four more to find places for.

Cut (the Donovan) will be put with his conga, but the other three are too long. Hmmmm. I'll need to decide if I want to use the extra rack or maybe even put them in the barn at angles after all. Stay 'tooned on that!

Speaking of new releases, the last BreyerFest model announced was indeed the crystal.

This is Standing Ovation on a miniaturized Moody American Saddlebred (which is celebrating its 25th year.)

It's a Limited Edition and available to all ticket holders. Standing Ovation is definitely on my list to buy!

Breyer wasn't done announcing models, though. The first Vintage Club piece dropped!

In a nod to Walter Farley, Chris Hess' sculpture The Black Stallion was used to create Inferno. Not only is a copy of Walter Farley's book The Black Stallion's Blood Bay Colt included,

but a red blanket that is "a fun throwback to some of Breyer's earliest forays into realistic tack." One of my "collections within a collection" is Breyer's blankets, and I am super excited about Inferno's blanket!

This blanket from my collection and shown on Stud Spider is the one that they are recreating. It also came in

blue, 

and red. (The red and blue blanket pictures are screenshots from Identify Your Breyer.)

A word of caution from a sewist who knows fabrics: If the blanket is NOT lined, put something under it or remove it from the model. Red can be an unstable color in fabrics and can transfer onto other things. It doesn't need to get wet to do so, either. 

2022 Vintage Club Cooper also came with tack - a red bareback pad. It was separately wrapped in plastic and it has stayed in the wrapper for the same reason.

Hopefully the blanket will come separately wrapped like Cooper's and not on the model. If that's the case, I'll leave it in its wrapper. But if it is on Inferno, even if it's lined, I'm taking it off. Red transfer is dismaying when it happens and I'm not chancing it. 

The Horsie Mama Horsey Super Bowl II is only eight days away! And the prizes have begun to arrive. Stay 'tooned!