Hi all! Today's topic is the failed Breyer Club, Fairytale Friends. I'll discuss the brief history of this club, and the reasons I believe it ultimately didn't continue.
In summer 2019, Breyer made an announcement about an upcoming club involving Unicorn stablemates, and TINY mini whinnies versions of several larger Breyer molds. And glitter!
The first set in the club, "Dazzle", with two of the later releases in the background. One of Breyer's promo pictures.
There was some initial excitement about this club, because of Alborozo and these new Minis. The deposit for the club was $30, with $20 to be paid at the time of each purchase. This was only $5 more than the Stablemate Club, which made sense because of the added mini whinnies model.
Another promo of this pair, with 3 other sets in the background. Moonbeam is the only set that was not seen in any of these initial promotional pictures.
Many of us played the guessing game of trying to determine which mini molds were seen in the background of the above promo pictures! All of them are adapted from Breyer Gallery molds except for the rearing draft. One of the good things about this club was the soft preview of most of the following releases.
One of the odd things about the FFC was that it was a summer to summer club instead of starting at the end of the year like all the other clubs. Perhaps this was a small factor in the lack of popularity as time went on, but I believe other things had a bigger impact.
There are a couple of larger detractors of the club that changed how people felt as time went on, including:
1. Not everyone is a fan of glitter, and the kind used for this club easily flakes off and gets everywhere- as opposed to the glitter used on many other releases which is sealed.
2. The new mini molds, which started out as an exclusive novelty, were released in blind bags starting in late fall 2019/winter 2020.
3. While Dazzle is a bit more unique, most of the other colors used are just slightly fancier versions of colors Breyer had used on other releases (or were similar enough to make the comparison). A lot of people felt the price tag was not justified.
4. Seafoam was the second release in the club. At this point, the poor G2 Clydesdale was in the midst of a frenzy of unicorn releases. He is not terribly popular to begin with, so the fatigue came quickly when he started having those rapid fire uses.
5. Unicorns in general were starting to feel overused to many Breyer collectors, though they have still been trending strongly with the general public two years later.
6. The pandemic, an undercurrent of everything since March 2020, may have forced some people to cut back on extra purchases halfway through the club, and if they didn't feel a strong attachment to the club, it would be an easy drop. There was not a strong demand for most of the FFC models on the secondary market, so people may have viewed just plain quitting to be a better choice.
I believe that Breyer thought there would be a stronger interest from the younger subset of the hobby, perhaps. Parents buying them for their unicorn crazy tweens as a special treat, maybe? The price point, however, may have been more in line with what adult collectors would be willing to spend for themselves on a club. Therefore, I believe there was a mismatch between the marketing and who could afford the club. In any case, the FFC did not continue with another year in the summer of 2020.
So, how could Breyer have made the club last longer?
1. "Fairytale Friends" in itself made for a rather narrow creative window. However, I think the club would have been wildly successful if they were able to do Pegasus and/or Pegacorn models instead of the Unicorn models we'd already been seeing for over a year.
2. A greater variety of color schemes would have been helpful! Deeper jewel tones, neon, realistic-color unicorns, patterns- anything aside from metallic/pearl pastels.
3. Using the club to introduce new "unicorn-ized" versions of Stablemate molds that are used in the club exclusively first. Same thing they should have done with the Minis!
4. If the club is meant to be targeted at a younger audience, keep the designs simple but lower the price point so parents can justify it. $10-$15 per horse/set MAX. Otherwise, make the designs more complex/higher brow so that collectors will justify the price point.
Since the ending of the FFC, Breyer has been attempting to move the leftover stock. First, they were open to the Collector's Club, and later, the general public as an online exclusive. Today, during Breyer's Black Friday sale over a year later, all of the models are still available, at a $10 discount (previously, they were selling for $30/pair, $5 more than club members paid initially per set. Now, they are selling for the cost that members paid after the deposit.
I'm wondering how similar this situation is to the Decorators of the 1960's...both were commercial flops. I doubt that Breyer would repaint these guys, especially due to the glitter, but I do wonder if there will be a similar spike in interest in these guys down the road. I don't think they'd ever command thousands, especially being Stablemates, but I do think a renewed interest in them may happen later on. If you have the extra cash, and you don't mind tossing them in a closet for years, it may end up being worth your while someday. After all, just like the decorators, we have no idea how many of them are really out there. Breyer never mentioned enrollment numbers for the club.
One of the photos I took of my Dazzle set when they arrived, showing the difference in color from other unicorns in my collection at the time.
My personal feelings about the club:
I did enjoy it, I like glitter and I'm always happy to get new horses on molds I conga. I've even kept the Moonbeam and Sage stablemates, despite not collecting those molds. I like having one stellar representative of molds I otherwise don't collect, which I'll get in a set, a club, or otherwise not on it's own. The Minis are cute as well. I have acquired some of these adapted molds here and there in addition to the club models, but I don't care as much for the older Creata molds. Despite how much I liked the club though, I was relieved when it didn't continue. I was at a point finances wise where I wanted to be very careful not to overspend (as many of us were in summer 2020). I think I would have kept going with the club if it had stayed, only because I knew it wasn't terribly popular and thus it would be difficult to get anything I wanted for congas on the secondary market.
Seafoams at arrival, also compared to a similar color unicorn. I've used the pencil trick to try and get some of the minis' legs to un-warp so they can stand.
The Sunchaser pair and friends. I never order Stablemates alone in order to ensure the boxes aren't crushed.
Rose set arrival!
Sage set and travel companion, Fairfax.
I looked, but from what I can tell I did not take a "welcome" photo of the Moonbeam pair, which is a bit unusual for me. They are here in my collection, though!
What are your feelings about the FFC? Are you glad you joined, if you did? Do you have any different thoughts than me about how the sentiment towards them may change in the future?
Thank you for stopping by! :)
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