Vintage Club Tuxedo

 Second Post of the Day

As I've prepped for Thanksgiving this week, I've opened a few horses that I've received and then set aside without unboxing.

One of those was the Vintage Club special run release, Tuxedo.

Just as the original Stretch Morgan did, Tuxedo comes in three variations.

I already have all three versions of the Stretch Morgan in my collection and didn't think I preferred one Tuxedo variation over the other. But as time went on and I waited for mine to arrive, I found myself really wanting the original bald faced with heavy shading, just like my very first Stretch Morgan had. (His name is Shannon and he is a beloved and early carpet herd member.)

I ended up with the star & socks version of Tuxedo. He's lovely and I am most definitely not disappointed!

Tuxedo went back into his box and then into my office closet; I'll pull him out again when Thanksgiving is over and I have a little more time to free him from the box and make his tag.

Here is a look at the enclosure that came with him.

Because I was collecting during the chalky era, I have a fair amount of models made with grey plastic. It's fun to pull one out and realize it's one of those. Here are two of mine:

My grey plastic, solid black, oil crisis Stretch Morgan

and my grey plastic elephant with his blue ribbon. (I did a recent blog post on him.)

It's always fun to go through my collection, flip a model over, and see that grey on the bottom of their feet. With Breyer models, you never know which quirks or unusual-alities they may have. 

A Double Blue Ribbon Day

I remember getting a new Breyer as a child and peeling off the blue ribbon sticker that used to come with Breyer's early pieces. I'd play with those blue ribbons just as much as I played with the models they accompanied. And now all those blue ribbons are gone. I did not save a single one.

Once in a while I purchase a vintage piece just because it still has its blue ribbon sticker, so when this elephant was listed on an online sales site, I snagged it. 

Along with having its sticker, the price was good and the piece was in great shape.

But when I actually had the elephant in hand and could take a good look at it, I could tell right away that it was different from my other elephants.

It was a grayer color, but then color variations among Breyer are very normal. Was it a chalky? The paint did not feel thick, but just in case, I shone a flashlight through it. The light was blocked. Excitedly, I shone the light through the other two elephants, just to compare, and it shone through as expected.

So, the elephant blocked light like a chalky would, but it did not have the thick base coat of paint under its grey coloring. I then flipped it on its side to check its feet.

There was my answer - the feet were a solid grey color - the elephant had been made with grey plastic. This happened during the oil crisis of the early 1970s when Breyer had difficulty getting the right materials to manufacture models.

You can see the difference between its feet and my other two elephants. (They have drain board patterns on their feet which is also pretty cool.) And if you look at its tusks, you can see that they are unpainted grey plastic while the other two have white tusks.

Super thrilled to have gotten the double bonus of a blue ribbon sticker and grey plastic to add to my vintage collection!