Hi everyone!
My 2022 BreyerFest loot from pickups - 1 VIP, 1 AA
I think at this point, it's just normal for me to be gone for an entire month! Thank you to everyone for bearing with me regarding the lack of schedule and structure. :)
First and foremost! The 1-year anniversary of this blog has passed recently and I am honestly very proud of myself for sticking with this project for this long, albeit not as regular or organized as I'd ideally like to have.
Life has been very chaotic in the last few months, which is mostly good, but has definitely taken away any kind of "routine" I'd gotten into with posting. I think I mentioned in a previous post that my BF and I moved apartments - I am still working on getting my "auxiliary" hobby space set up, but the horses are all out (that are living here), which is nice. My previous job ended at the beginning of June, and I had almost 2 months "vacation" while my new job was processing paperwork. This was nice, since I got to enjoy our vacation to see my BF's parents without having to work or worry about taking time off, and I was able to enjoy BreyerFest week without interruption.
So far, my new job is going pretty well, it's back to a field I briefly worked in in 2019. I don't see it as being a forever career choice, but I'm grateful for the income and the experience, especially while I'm still relatively new to the job market in general and getting my student loans paid off.
Mental health wise, I've had some realizations over the past few months that have led to me talking to my therapist about a potential additional diagnosis, which I hope to pursue further this fall. It's incredibly validating to finally feel like I might have more explanation for some things I've experienced in my life that I never believed my current diagnoses fully explained.
Recently, my BF and I launched a project we've been working on in the background for a couple of years! We are thrilled at the positive reception it is getting so far :) We are doing a slow roll-out so that we don't end up swamped with more orders than we can handle, as I've watched that happen to other hobby/hobby adjacent businesses over the years. I've only shared it a few places so far, so if you're reading this within a short time of publishing, you're still getting an early look! Information can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/amanda-breyer-horse-survey-hub/stable-snaps
The Stable Snap products in action!
Speaking of projects...I'm still working on the Favorites Survey results! It definitely was not in my plans to have it stretch out this far, but there have been a lot of unexpected things come up this year that made my schedule different than in the past. (I'm also stubbornly inputting all the results manually, one at a time...I *could* do it a faster way but my brain just absolutely loves watching the results change as more responses are added. Fascinating! I will try and remind myself to do it the "short" way next year, though...)
I also had a highly successful fun poll post-BreyerFest regarding the Surprise! Participants ended up accounting for roughly 16% of the total 7500 piece run - and ended up being pretty accurate in terms of guessing which ones were the rarest and most common!
Initial Virtual BreyerFest haul!
I recently attended a two-day show in my region, purely as a spectator/assistant, which is something I haven't done in a long time! It was nice to feel more laid back about the event and have more time to spend chatting with friends. I'm looking forward to the swap meet this weekend, where I'll be selling a small number of models from my own collection, continuing to offer the bulk of my cousin's collection, and have the new Stable Snaps available for folks to test out and buy trial packs.
I'm also excited about a number of models that will be coming my way, both from the Swap Meet and a BreyerFest weekend resin pre-order! I did tell a lot of people, but if you missed it - I will have a MAREZILLA coming once she's ready from the caster! This is totally out of character for me, as I'm mainly an OFP Breyer gal these days, and I've certainly spent the last few years grumbling about space. But I have a spot in mind for her! She likely won't be painted for a long time - while she was very affordable in my opinion, for the size that she is (close to 1/5- 1/4 scale!), a paintjob on that size canvas will definitely NOT be so affordable. Besides, since it's such a unique size, I'm waiting to see which hobby artists are willing to take on a project like that - and I'd prefer to keep her close to home and support one of my locals, if possible.
Another package that should be on its way this week is the BreyerFest second chance sale order (at least, I hope it'll arrive before the weekend). I got a Rapunzel and a second Marzipan (I did originally "have" a bay off my ticket at the Park, but I liked the palomino better and wanted to make sure I got that version, so Bay #1 was traded). If I do get another palomino, I'll want to be able to bring him with me on Saturday to see if anyone's willing to swap for a bay...or other things, if I can't find a bay.
The Breyer Stablemate Club release for August (most likely the G1 Draft) is historically due to be available soon (Raider was released on this day last year). I'm kind of hoping they do hold off until next week though...the later he is, the more likely I can save him to purchase with the Classic Gambler Johann, who was stated to be coming late August/early September per Breyer at BFest.
The Tractor Supply planogram has been leaked again, I won't share it here just in case...the images are not excellent quality anyway...there's always that weird 2-D look to the boxes. However, the lineup does look promising this year! Including:
- "Jolene" Dunalino Lady Phase
- "Ashton" Light Gray (dapples? not sure) Latigo
- "Zebe"? Black Overo Pinto Zippo Pine Bar
- "Blue" Unknown dark color Geronimo? as a FFA benefit (Blown up on my laptop, it does look like there might be a mural? It looked like glare on my phone)
- New Classic Stallion & Foal set - American Dream Mustang & most likely AQH Foal
- New Classic Family Set - Harper in chestnut? Plus unidentified Chestnut Pinto Adult (probably Black Stallion) and Black/black pinto foal (probably the Trotting Foal or the Morgan Foal? But doesn't quite look like them)
TSC will also have Phantom & Misty (which is AWESOME, I still don't have them yet and TSC is often my go-to for my wish list to give to family), Snowbird and the holiday line, the two Classic Decos (Keep the Peace and Cora), Chocolatey, Horse & Unicorn Mystery Family Stablemate Sets (not new ones it seems), Styling Heads, and a Breyer Farms barn. In addition, the newest blind bags, with Gold Magnolia and Blue Pinto G4 Draft as the chase pieces, have already been arriving at TSC in some areas of the country. I will *try* and be more patient than last year! I do hope they'll be in a little sooner though, last year they arrived at the beginning of October (blind bags and Sayen, Wilder and Cirrus were *much* later). I'm honestly just happy though that both chase pieces are different from the other molds in the lineup, so no headaches trying to buy extra ones to make sure I'm not leaving a chase piece behind. And at $6 per bag this year, that is a huge difference. I do also believe that like last year's set, this series will end up as Regular Runs next year. So, a little less pressure to find the chase! I thankfully don't collect the G4 Draft, so if I find any those will be up for trade for other Chases I'm missing. Both me and my local hobby bestie conga Magnolia though, so I'll be looking for both of us if she doesn't get lucky right away (she's actually really lucky with chase pieces!)
As far as the swap meet goes, at the moment I'm committed to buying a Starlet and an Out of the Blue for my congas, so hopefully I can sell a few of my items to offset that a bit! Considering that I didn't attend BreyerFest in person, I'll call this weekend my "room shopping", haha! I try not to arrange too much ahead of these events, so that I can be flexible with my options in the moment, but for some things it's easier than making sure I'm the fastest person to someone's table. I've been really focused on my Bobby Jo and Traditional Croi congas in the last 2 years, and these are two of the last "decently affordable" options that I have left.
Once I have Starlet, the only other Croi that's reasonably affordable for me, that I definitely want is the Glossy Sable Island Pony. I don't have the original Croi, but if I do look for one I'll be highly picky about her color & dapples. I also only have one of the Spice Drops currently (my favorite color, purple), but I'm not sure if I'll add any others. Maybe the blue one, if anything (that was my second favorite). The rest - Victoria, Glossy Banks Vanilla, and Coal - are currently outside the scope of what I'd consider affordable without more time payments than I'd be comfortable making.
As for Bobby Jo, I'm actually closer to being done with her. Beyond Out of the Blue, the original PC release and Glossy Pepto are on my radar as potential next targets (it was sooo hard to resist the one that was at the last show...but I knew I had the swap meet coming up). The only other 2 that I don't have are Sonorah (maybe reasonable someday) and All Out (I basically classify her along with the OOAK, aka impossible).
Hard to believe this was my Croi conga a little less than a year ago!
Another event that I'm looking forward to is the two-day Fall Pony Finals live, on my birthday weekend in October! It will be fun to finally show in Breed again (I haven't entered a show with a Breed division since TRXC 2019!) October is going to be very hectic, with this event, birthdays for my BF and I, one of my cousins getting married, and Halloween!
I hope you all are well and you have pony-related things to look forward to! Take care, friends!
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