Collections within My Collection: Woodgrains

One of my earliest Breyers was a woodgrain and a gift from my dad.

I'd just gotten braces and Dad, knowing that my mouth was hurting and that I didn't feel well, surprised me when he got home from work that afternoon, handing me this Running Foal and suggesting I name him "Needles" after the famous racehorse and because dentists use needles. 

(Sometimes I think the term "dad joke" was coined because of my father. One of his jokes is still being perpetuated in our family and resides with the grands' generation now.)

 I last pulled all my woodies out five years ago. I knew I had accumulated quite a few, but when they are scattered throughout a collection that is housed in four rooms of the house, it's easy to lose track of what you have.

 

These were all my Breyers at the time plus a 1997 Equilocity Breakfast Stone Drafter.

Opinion of the Jolly Cholly varies as to whether he is a woodgrain or just a brown model, but there are hobby references that state that he was listed as a woodgrain when advertised by Breyer when he was first produced. Personally, I've always considered him a woodgrain piece.

I'd inadvertently left out my other Stone woodgrain, the Ideal Stock Horse, that was produced 1999-2000. Isn't that mold beautiful in that colorway and gloss?

And more recently, Breyer released Woodstock and her Stablemate counterpart, Mini Woodstock, in 2022 as part of the Vintage Club. 

Hartland also produced what they called "woodcuts" in the early days of its company. 

 Walnut woodcut TWH, Mustang, and Three Gaiter Saddlebred.

 Cherry woodcut TWH and mustangs. (I think this is my favorite woodcut color.)

Ebony woodcut TWH, Mustang, and rare Thoroughbred Mare and Foal. The ebony woodcut Mare and Foal are very hard to find and highly collectible. (These two are from Leslie's carpet herd. She gave me her models in the 1980s.)

Trust Liz to find things out of the ordinary.

A Red Mill Arabian "Abu" is now in my woodgrain collection.

He was a gift from her at a Happy Trails show. I'd heard of Red Mill, but never seen one in-hand prior to that. Thanks, Liz!

The group shot could stand some updating, but with the exception of the Woodstocks and the Stone Ideal Stock Horse, they all are here.

I don't actively seek for woodgrains anymore, but I would love to find a woodgrain Stretch Morgan. I have hopes of finding one some day.

But in the meantime, I have plenty of woodies to enjoy!

Coming Out of the Woodwork

Recently hobbyist Amanda Reed did another one of her hobby surveys. Amanda does a nice job of posting them to multiple hobby sites so that people can participate and the results are always interesting to see.

This survey was about the vintage Breyer woodgrains that are in hobbyists' collections. With Amanda's kind permission, here is the graph of the results.

As you can see, she received 277 responses. Some of those may be the same person posting twice - when Amanda realized that you could only respond that you had one of a mold, she invited hobbyists to take it again and add in their multiples. For example, since I have two woodgrain 5 Gaiters and two woodgrain Family Arabian Foals, I took the survey twice so that I could add the second 5 Gaiter and FAF to the survey's results.

While most of the results were no surprise (the Family Arabs and the Fighter) one or two others were, at least to me. The number of Walking Herefords (with horns) was one of them as was the Boxer. But that's what makes polls like these fun.

I decided it might be fun to pull out all my woodgrains and gather them for a group photo. (Disclaimer: it was very early in the morning and the light was bad, but you can still get an idea of what I have.)

With the exception of the Jolly Cholly, I added all these woodgrains to the survey. (There has been debate about whether or not the Jolly Cholly is a woodgrain. Some hobby references state that he was advertised by Breyer as such when first produced.)

 Since the survey was for vintage Breyers, non vintage Breyer woodgrains were not included. I have the Moody Saddlebred (far right) and Andalusian keychain (center front) in woodgrain plus a 1997 Equilocity Breakfast Stone Drafter (far left.)

Then I decided to pull out my Hartland woodcuts and do a true woodgrain group photo - might as well since I took the time to clear off the craft table to take the original photo!

 Walnut woodcut TWH, Mustang, and Three Gaiter Saddlebred.

 Cherry woodcut TWH and mustangs. (I think this is my favorite woodcut color.)

 Ebony woodcut TWH, Mustang, and rare Thoroughbred Mare and Foal.

I count this Red Mill Arabian "Abu" in my woodgrain collection, too.

He was a gift from Liz Cory at last year's Happy Trails show.

Out of all the woodgrains that I don't have yet, my most wanted is the Morgan. It's one of my favorite molds and I have hopes of finding one someday.

In the meantime, I have plenty of "woody" horses to enjoy!

Friday Night Arrivals

What fun it was to have people come in Friday night and do some set up and chatting!  Liz Cory was the first to arrive, and she brought me a gift.

 A mint in box Red Mill Arabian that she'd found at an antique shop! I have only seen one or two Red Mills, and they were foals; I had no idea that they did pieces this nice!

Pat Reed came up from Indianapolis and got set up. That glossy charcoal FAM is deep black but its eyes were never painted - it's really cool to look at. And the florentine Five Gaiter is more coppery than gold, and it isn't tarnish. It's so unusual.

Michelle Evans came with Pat. She is having some work done on her home so many of her models are boxed up and in storage, but she saved out a few for the show.

Steff Bodamer and her fabulous collection of Fighting Stallions came - just look at those four glossy grey ones, all variations. (And she brought a stick horse. See it under the table?)

One of the classes is for paper promotional materials, and Yvonne Rott brought an enormous binder of materials.

 This one has the earliest Breyer address, the one on West Lake Street. Lake Street and Maplewood (the address most collectors know) intersect where the factory is, and there are actually two buildings there - one that faces Lake and the other that faces Maplewood. Why Breyer changed addresses from the Lake one to the Maplewood one is something I want to research.

Liz is taking one end of this table while Yvonne and her daughter, Jamie, are taking the other. I see two more stick horses!

Liz hadn't just brought me a gift, she brought a whole lot of donations for me to use. Thanks to her generosity, I think we will draw names for door prizes!

The calm before the (model) storm.

Three more entrants have yet to arrive and I cannot wait to see my living room fill up with plastic ponies.