The Foal Count: Mini Whinnies

 Let's talk babies!  

Baby dogs! Wasn't Tammo a cute puppy?

Today we will look at Mini Whinnies. But first, while researching for this blog post, I found a major error on Breyer's website.

Take a look at the heading for the Mini Whinnies part of their website.

The text underneath is the Stablemates text!

See what I mean?

I've sent screenshots to a friend at Breyer. While it's not a huge error, it is a commercial site and the sales information is incorrect. I would think that Breyer would want that fixed. ***

The Mini Whinnies line originated with a company called Creata. Longtime hobbyist Candace Liddy sculpted 1:64 scale mini horses for them, and those molds were then bought by Breyer in 2005. Mini Whinnies are Breyer's smallest horses. 

In 2019 Breyer began introducing new molds and, just as it has with its Stablemates line, it has also begun shrinking down other and much larger Breyer molds to add to the line.

It makes me smile that Wixom, one of Breyer's most massive Traditional molds, is now among their tiniest molds, too.

As is Firebird, 

Calliope,

the Rearing Mustang, and others whom have all made their way into the Mini Whinnies line. I think they look really nice and much more refined than the original Creata pieces. 

At this writing, there are 48 different Mini Whinnies molds, and only six of them are foals. I have no information as to who sculpted the newer ones. (I'm referring to those that are not shrunken Breyer molds).

In fact, Eleda Towle, owner of Triple Mountain Model Horses and Identify Your Breyer, writes on IYB that not all the new molds are named and so for ease of identification, she has given them names.

Let's look at the foals in order of the most used molds.

1) Prancing Foal (16)

2) TIE Grazing Foal (13)

2) TIE Romping Foal (13)

3) Sitting Foal (9)

I think the head of this foal looks very, very similar to that of the Prancing Foal.

4) Draft Foal (6)

5) Playful Foal (4)

Originally I'd planned to stop The Foal Count series after the Stablemates post. I am glad that I did not as I've learned a lot by digging into the Mini Whinnies.

Now I am wondering if any of the other Breyer  lines might have anything interesting in them, too.

Stay 'tooned!

*** Update: Breyer fixed the website in less than an hour after I sent them screenshots of the incorrect one.

A New Advent Calendar

(I've got an 8:00 AM follow up appointment this morning for a procedure I had two weeks ago. If I can, I will publish a second blog post finishing the Feast posts. If it's not up by 11:00, it will drop tomorrow.)

I love advent calendars. We had two of them when our kids were growing up.

Six kids for two calendars? That meant taking turns every day. We rotated through all the kids every three days and it worked out fine.

So, when Breyer began producing their advent calendars using Mini Whinnies as the prizes behind the doors, I was all over that. I didn't (and don't) collect Mini Whinnies, but I could not resist having a new horsey advent calendar. I even bought the unicorn version and I really dislike unicorns!

Earlier this year Breyer announced that there would be a Twelve Days of Christmas advent calendar. As soon as dealers were taking orders, I ordered mine. It arrived a few days ago.

I haven't opened the box yet as I did not want to spoil any possible surprises, but I did put a note on my calendar to begin opening doors on December 12.

Retro colors of woodgrain, charcoal, and splatter grey are being used and it sounds as though the Appaloosa Performance Horse, Fighting Stallion, and Starlight will be behind a door. The last piece is a gambler's choice of five Breyer vintage decorator colors. 

I'm wondering about that - gold charm, florentine, wedgewood, and copenhagen are the original vintage decorator colors. Is the fifth a charcoal? Some collectors lump that in as a decorator color. Maybe silver filigree? To me, that's a more recent color and not vintage. Woodgrain was already listed and shown, so I think that can be eliminated.

Guess I'll find out Christmas Eve!

Stay 'tooned!

The Rest of the Minis Identified

Two of the remaining three mini horses were easy peasy to identify - they were what I'd been calling the entire batch that Catherine had given me - Breyer Mini Whinnies.

And nice little ones at that - the standing one had been displayed on a shelf in my sewing room because I liked it so much.

I knew these two were not Winner's Circle/Creatas - their body plastic was much harder and not nearly as rubbery as the others were. (Although the legs were more pliable and similar to the Winner's Circles'.) 

The two Mini Whinnies were not too difficult to identify - I simply went to Identify Your Breyer and began scrolling through the Mini Whinnies. I discovered that what I have is the Mini Whinny Cutting Stock Mare (the leopard Appaloosa) and the Standing QH Stallion in Appaloosa. 

Both pieces are from the Happy Appys set #7152 and were produced in 2012-2013. (Which means that Catherine could not have given these to me and that they snuck into my collection in a way that I do not remember.)

The final piece required some digging to figure it out. That and eyes that are FAR better than mine.

He was rubbery like the Winner's Circle pieces, but he was out of scale to them - and this was a foal; the adult horses would be even bigger.

There was some sort of name raised on its underside and that is where I struggled. I simply could not read it. I used a flashlight to improve the lighting, I did a pencil rubbing over it on a piece of paper, I used my glasses, I took my glasses off, and I even took photo after photo of it, trying to enlarge it so I could read that word.

Finally, I was able to catch the first letter, an E. Ertl! It had to be an Ertl! So I began Googling Ertl Foal.

One popped up on eBay that was identical to mine, but I still wanted more evidence that this was an Ertl as well as information on when it had been produced.

Another internet ad that I came across listed a date and number for it, if it could be believed. 

The foal and stallion (a Lady Phase look alike) were in their original box, so I felt confident that I had current information along with a correct identification. And, with the set dated at 1995, I am pretty sure this foal was also from Catherine.

Looking at those Mini Whinnies, both the ones in hand as well as those on IYB, has piqued my interest in them a bit. They are inexpensive and I'd just purchased some for the snow globes I made with the grands at Christmas. Plus, I do need some for a project I am working on (and will share at a later time) so there will be a few more coming here.

But, I do not collect Mini Whinnies.  (Famous last words, right?)

Some Old Minis Identified

Back in the 1990s, a student gifted me with a bag of little horses from her  collection. I hesitated to take them - I didn't collect tiny non-Breyer horses (Hagen Renaker miniatures excepted) and I certainly did not want to take so many pieces from her collection.

I can still see Catherine's face - she was so earnest in wanting me to accept her gift. And so I did. 

They've been kept tucked away every since with other minis that I have acquired over time. 

Once in a while I pull them out for props or something, but generally those minis have been put away for over twenty-five years. 

I assumed they were Creatas, Winner's Circle, or Breyer Mini Winnies, but it wasn't until Corky Visminas posted this sales notice on Facebook that I decided to pull them out and ID what they were. (Screenshots of Corky Visminas' sales notices from Facebook.)

I was pleasantly surprised. Corky had posted pictures of Winner's Circle sets she was selling that were new in box, and I was able to identify some of mine from that.

Winner's Circle, Series 1, 1996, Appaloosa set.

Winner's Circle, Series 1, 1996 American Saddlebred set.

Winner's Circle, Series 1, Thoroughbred set.

That took care of the bulk of the unknown minis, but three were still unknown.

Two mini Appaloosas whose plastic felt much harder than the Winner's Circle pieces,

and a larger, non 1:32 scale foal that felt rubbery and had an unreadable stamp under its belly.

It was time to pull out the reference books and Google and see what I had.

Stay 'tooned!

A Model Horse Goldilocks Dilemma

My first Mini Whinnies were a gift from a student way back in 2001 when they were being produced by Creata and called Winners Choice Micro Horses. (Go here for an interesting web site with lots of information on Winners Choice.)

I've kept those tiny horses tucked away in a little container for years. (That lying horse on the front left came with them but is by another company.)

My favorite one is the Appaloosa who is surprisingly detailed considering his size and age.

I didn't get any more Mini Whinnies until this past Christmas when I bought Breyer's advent calendar. While that was fun, that was the end of buying teeny tinies - I thought.

But just as Goldilocks had to try things out in the Bears' home until she found something that was just right, so it is with Little Lynn and Circus Girl and their teeny tiny model horses.

Little Lynn and Circus Girl "need" some new additions to their collection as the Mini Whinnies are too big and out of scale.

I started looking at railroading miniatures and found this nice HO scale set on eBay. They were more in scale with the dolls, but they weren't just right. Then, I discovered yet another scale in railroading miniatures - N scale.

N scale is really tiny - here are some pieces laid out on my sewing cutting mat; for perspective, those marks on the mat are one inch squares. Will the N scale ponies be just right?

I actually found these N scale horses accidentally - I was looking for HO scale ones and they popped up during my search.

The HO scale and the N scale pieces are identical except for size. 

The HO scale horses and riders out of packaging and laid against the measuring grid. See how much bigger they are on the grid squares?

When you put the two sets together, you can really see the difference in size. Aren't they cool?

This next photo with the Creata/Mini Whinnies added in makes me think of Breyer's scales replicated in 1:9 scale - traditional, classic, and stablemate.

The Mini Whinnies look positively gargantuan compared to the HO and N scale horses!

Circus Girl and Little Lynn now have lots of new models to enjoy but which ones will they decide are just right?

It's a bit of a dilemma, but the gals are discussing it and I am sure they will figure it out.

Breyer's 2020 Advent Calendar

Didn't buy Breyer's advent calendar this year and wishing you knew what each day's surprise was? I'll share mine as we count down to Christmas!The advent calendar is full of Mini Whinnies (I do not collect Mini Whinnies, I do not collect Mini Whinnies...)with the actual calendar itself sliding in and out from between the sides of the outer cover. The front side of the advent calendar looks like the outer box but has numbered boxes with perforated sides - to open them, you simply press gently on the perforations.The flip side is the cover photo without the Mini Whinnies. 

December 1 - fencing for the Mini Whinnies!

December 2 - a stablehand!

I'll be revealing the daily surprise as we count down to Christmas, so stay 'tooned!