Vintage Club Admirał & Wings

Vintage Club Admiral and Wings were indeed in the unannounced box that arrived from Breyer the other day. (I love the new Breyer shipping box!)

 I am so pleased with this set. They are beautiful!

As usual, they came in a vintage style box.

The Saddlebred Weanling is not a favorite mold of mine, but it does look nice in this color.

Replicating that wedgewood blue color has not been easy for Breyer since they brought it back,

but I think they've got it now.

The 5 Gaiter is one of my top five favorite molds and is stunning in wedgewood pinto.

I conga the mold and Admiral is #28 in that conga.

The two pair nicely, but they also have a friend.

Josiah, a 2020 Vintage Club release, also in wedgewood pinto. You can see that his blue is just a little different from Breyer's current wedgewood color. (I prefer the current iteration.)

These three are going to remain on the shelf together for a few days - I like looking at the three of them together. Then I'll put them back in with their mold group where they will stay.

There are two more Vintage Club pieces to look forward to this year. Inferno was beautifully done, too. 

I'm speculating now, but Inferno came with a book and a retro blanket while Admiral came with a buddy. Will Breyer continue this trend of packing in extras? It is their 75th anniversary year and much of what they have been producing has been above and beyond the normal.

I hope so. And I can't wait to see what is next in the line-up.

Hold Your Horses, Breyer's on a Roll!

Goo-ood night!!  BreyerMidwest ended Sunday and already Breyer is busy sending out notices of new models. Three this week already and it is only Wednesday as I write!

The second 2025 Vintage Club release, Admiral and Wings, was announced today, and my jaw literally dropped when I saw it. (Er rather, THEM.)

The 5 Gaiter is one of my top five favorite molds and one that  I conga - I have 27 of them. (Soon to be 28, hah!)

What a surprise to be getting two Traditionals this time. And I love their color - that wedgewood pinto is beautiful.

Breyer had this to say about them:

I am wondering what that "unique vintage packaging" will look like. I ordered my pair as soon as I got the email and I can hardly wait for the set to arrive. Thank you, Breyer!

Breyer released Mallorca, another Exotic Destinations Web Special, on Tuesday.

I like that mold and I like the color. A lot of folks will be entering to be drawn for him, so my chances aren't high, especially since I did win Prague, the last Exotic Destinations model offered. Winning two in a row seems unlikely to me, but you never know, right? Fingers crossed!

The 2025 Volunteer model was released last weekend at Breyer Midwest. 

Its name is Salud (with exclamation points on either side of the name.) Two colors were handed out; speculation is that a third color will be revealed at BreyerFest.

Black is my favorite horse color (and has been since Breyer first released charcoal Family Arabs) but I think I actually like the grey better.

Speaking of black horses...

Nistar Blazing Kansas LOM and his dam, GTF Blazing Ethel will be present at BreyerFest. Unlike many of the guest horses, models will be available for purchase. (I already have the set. Like I said, I like black horses.)

Whew! Breyer is really on a roll this week. Not that I mind - I am excited at the prospect of new models to add to my herd.

Four Pillars and a Pair of Wings - Darci C.

So, who is the pair of wings? The person who helped the hobby begin flying and on a much grander scale than ever before?

Darci C.

When Nancy Kelly and I were chatting about her new book and the people in it,  I expressed my thoughts that Ellen, Simi, Linda, and Marney were the four pillars of the hobby, our foundation. Nancy countered that there was yet another one, Darci C. - the originator of Haynet.

Nancy wrote (and I quote her with her permission),

I also recognized another unsung hero who didn't want any recognition at first. In chapter 8 you will see that Darci C. was the software engineer that first started Haynet, before there even was an internet. She got permission to host it on her work server. I wasn't sure how to find her after all these years, but when I contacted the company that still has that server name there was a fellow there that knew her and he put us in touch. She was great to work with, and helped me get the facts straight on the middle part of chapter 8's text. If the other four were the pillars of the hobby, Darci provided the wings for it to really take off!

Nancy's right. Darci brought the world together to a spot where we could chat daily, no SASE or long distance phone calls needed. Darci is the originator of Haynet, the blockbuster Yahoo group (originally founded on Darci's UNIX work server in 1990 as a mail list) that was the place where hobbyists could chat nearly instantaneously with one another about our beloved hobby.

Still in existence today, Haynet was the place to read about hobby happenings and for general model horse chat, sales lists, show listings, customizing, etc. Eventually there began to be spin-off special interest groups due to the sheer size of Haynet which made it difficult to find certain threads. (Technology was so different back then and much more cumbersome.)

This is a screen shot of the number of messages posted on Haynet per month per year up through 2015. The previous photo shows them to 2019. (Sorry for the poor quality screen shots.)

The rest is history - groups multiplied online in Yahoo groups, which led to bulletin boards, Fallen Leaves, Blab, and now Facebook. We are connected better than ever before thanks to Darci who gave us our hobby wings.

So there you have it - the four pillars and the pair of wings. Ellen and Simi started the gathering of collectors through snail mail and photo shows, Marney made live shows a vital aspect of the hobby, Linda was our voice, and Darci let us fly.

Thank you, ladies.