Hi everyone!
Whew, it's great to be back this week! I had fun traveling, but after almost a month of not having my computer, I can finally sit down and write a blog again.
As you may recall from previous blog posts, I was very against the idea of a Hamilton Surprise. I assumed it would be massively expensive, particularly since I only bought two tickets, and so I hoped it would be next year instead. Today, I want to talk about my experiences with navigating the Surprise announcement and subsequent weekend, as well as giving some overview of the great experiences I had with friends during the event - there are other specific bits about the experience that I've talked about elsewhere, so some things I might not go into a lot of detail about (or I might anyway, knowing me!)
Thursday, July 13th
I started my adventure not from my home base, but from my BF's parents whom we'd been visiting for our annual vacation (well, working vacation for me). I didn't want to subject my BF to the massive crowds of BreyerFest - we are both introverts, but I make an exception for BreyerFest of otherwise not attending really large events, there was no need to put him through that for 4 days too!
Instead, I was able to find a ride with my friends Kelly & Ken, who were passing by in the same direction and graciously made space for me to take part in their trip for a few hours. As is part of a theme for this year, I hadn't met them in person yet and I'm so glad I finally did! We arrived in Lexington around dinner time, and thankfully my room at the CHIN was very close to one of the outer doors, which made unloading the car pretty convenient. My roommate Sara (longtime friend from my region) had already been in town for a few days and had room sales going full swing! We had to wait a bit for an opportunity to close the door for a few minutes to allow my to unpack my sales and organize my bags. After I set up at home base, I headed out with my wares to add my flyers to the hallways and set up in my other sales space across the hotel, courtesy of my other local friends Robin & Shira.
Overall, I sold some of my Stable Snaps but I definitely didn't do as well as I could have - I learned a lot about how I can improve my marketing on site at the hotel, which I'm grateful for! I'm also really happy that everyone who came in knowing what they are, or took the time to look them over and realized what they are were so enthusiastic! Thank you for the support if you're reading! I would really like to try and get into the Swap Meet next year - I think that is the best avenue for that kind of product, so I have more opportunity to talk to people and demonstrate how they work. In addition to simplifying and making my ads more eye-catching!
I did wander a bit on Thursday night after doing my setup, I didn't really want to buy much not knowing what the Surprise was (good strategy!) but I wanted to see if I could find any Stablemates off my wish lists for cheap. I had a few successes there! It was nice to run into a few other folks that I know from back home, and meet a few others that I've only talked to online, even if we only chatted briefly! I stopped in the Artisan Gallery for a few minutes to say hi to folks, see the BCC entries, and the Breyer tables.
Thursday was not the night to stay up super late though, with the live show in the morning! Back in my main room, Sara and I closed up shop fairly early (compared to other nights) and tried to get at least a respectable amount of sleep.
Friday, July 14th
We woke up around 5 AM to get dressed, ready, and car packed quickly in order to make it over the KHP for 6 AM door opening - and as opposed to the last time I entered the show (2017), there were already LOTS of folks waiting to be let in! I was one of the first folks in the door back in 2017, haha. It was a great change of pace for me to have plenty of time to unpack! I did not enter the Collector Classes. I really enjoyed walking around and taking photos once those were all set up - definitely a highlight of the Open Show as always. Please enjoy this gallery below! I don't think I got photos of all entries, but this is a lot of them - Variety, Commonality, Stablemate, and Novice.
I also had the opportunity to meet my HOLY GRAIL at the show, Journey! It was so special to get photos, and even hold her for a minute. I'd never seen one in person before!
I mainly focused on Minis this year, with some Foals and two entries in Collectibility. The day started off slow, it did take a while for me to win anything, and this led to some increased anxiety on top of wondering what the Surprise was. Thankfully, I did end up doing very respectably - with a total of 20 ribbons and considering that I brought 60 models, that's so cool! I even managed 2 firsts and 2 seconds, but no glossy models for me this year. It'll happen someday! I did put my two lovely flockies at a disadvantage by having their boxes included - they had to enter the class for models with boxes instead of the actual flockies class (where I believe they would have done better), but it's a lesson learned for next time. One of the two did get 9th and that boxes class was very competitive, so still cool!
Around the time the flockies class was coming up, there were starting to be murmurs around about the Surprise and variations. I was trying to avoid knowing if possible, to keep my stress to one thing at a time, but of course I wasn't successful as all of this was broadcast over the speaker 😂 I also wanted to not focus on knowing what the variations were and failed at that too. Then other variation announcements started pouring in, which didn't really make things worse per se but added to the chaos of everything I needed to process and focus on. I think I went through the full stages of grief over the course of the day about the Surprise! By the end, I realized everything would be ok as long as I took things a little bit at a time.
The best part of the day was definitely the people! A bunch of my local friends were in attendance, and it was awesome to cheer them on in the callbacks - and of course many folks that I am friends with online but had never met too! I'm sure there were some people I didn't actually say hi to or interact with much and honestly I just didn't want to interrupt other conversations or concentration. Or I straight up thought they'd have no idea who I was and I actively avoid any situation I think will be awkward 😅 I tend to concentrate a lot when I'm at shows and if I look upset I'm usually not (maybe Friday morning was an exception haha) so I understand if anyone thought I'd be in a bad mood if they talked to me. I did have a lot of fun with my table-mate, unfortunately I don't recall her name (she was pulled off the wait list for the show fairly last minute, so she wasn't the person I thought I was sharing with earlier in the week) and I can't find a post she made on Modelholics that was apparently really popular and was talking about during the show. She was a fairly new shower so it was nice having someone to mentor and cheer on during the day besides just cheering for friends sitting further away!
My divisions wrapped up shortly after 4, so I actually had enough time to catch the shuttle over to the main area of the event and pick up my Special Runs from my AA & VIP tickets - Sara was showing in divisions that were still going when I left. I got regular versions of Speos and Peanutine, and two matte black pinto Surprises (my favorite of the colors). Based on the colors that were revealed, I decided at that time that I wanted to trade for my second favorite matte, the buckskin pinto and possibly track down my third favorite to buy (dapple gray). I also thought I might try to buy at least one glossy. Despite my initial concerns, the second hand prices were not horrible, so I started feeling a bit more optimistic.
After opening my models, I headed back to the live show to watch the end of the halter divisions (performance was still going when we left!) and grab some dinner at the Alltech concessions since they were gearing up for the evening equine performance. I made it in time to see some of the OOAK classes, which are always so cool to see, and the overall Collectibility division champs!
We headed back to the hotel, and even managed to score a spot fairly close to the room thanks to some nice folks who happened to be leaving. This was fantastic because while I didn't have much to carry, Sara had a few totes. I went on a quest first, to find a trade for my extra black pinto - and luckily my friend Carly had two buckskin pintos! With that complete, my next goal was to find a matte dapple gray for sale. I ended up with a really lovely example that I was happy to pay for handpicking the dapples and shading. I could have gone out again for more at that point, but Sara was planning to pick up her ticket models on Saturday and she was happy to sell me any variations that she didn't want to keep.
With sore feet put up to relax, it was time to rest up for Saturday!
Saturday, July 15th
The first full day out in the Park started with...lots of rain! Sara and I took our time in the morning, slept in more than Friday and had breakfast at the hotel since it wasn't too early. Also, while we were at breakfast, it started POURING! Thankfully the strategy of waiting out the storm meant that we could drive over in relative clarity. However, this also led to a reallyyyy far away parking spot when we arrived!
Our first order of business when we arrived was of course, shopping - after grabbing our badges at the CC tent of course! I picked up the rest of my VIP ticket items except Bravour (grabbed those at the end of the day), and Sara grabbed her first special runs. She had a bunch of wild card tickets that she strategically spaced out across the day - so she could make her next choices of who to go for based on each pull (basically treating it like the old ticket times). I'd end up buying her matte chestnut and matte sabino Surprises when we got back to the hotel in the evening (giving me a full set of mattes!) Scenes from the CC tent, below!
We also took a couple of trips through the two Breyer Stores to see if there were any cool specialty items and to pick up additional LE's. I was thrilled to handpick my HD Harkness and also grabbed a Delft and BreyerFest mug for my friend Christine back home. Before we left the tent store, Sara noticed there were grab bag boxes...of course we hadn't heard anything about them at that point, so we thought might as well grab some while they were still there (and each bought a different letter box so we could compare)! I got Box K which has Chardonnay, the Black Forest Draft, Franz, and Favrile from BFest 2022 and 2021. Not anything spectacular, but I did not have Chardonnay and the Classic Shire and I'll be donating the other 2 to the raffle for my show in a couple weeks.
After all the early shopping, we needed to make a trip to the car! Thankfully by that point, some folks had left, and we found an opportunity to move the car closer. This turned out to be a good time to go out to the car, because after our next round of shopping, the rain came back not too long after. We took shelter under the tent surrounded by the concessions trucks, up on the hill next to the activity tent. It got so intense that I even had to open my umbrella sideways to try and shield us from the rain!
The rain continued, but less so, and we took that opportunity to have some lunch. A little later, we took the shuttle over to Alltech to attend the plaque dedication ceremony at a nearby barn, for legendary hobbyists Marney Walerius and Linda Walter. Both whom have sadly passed on - Marney in 1992 and Linda within this last year. Both had incredible influence on the early years of the hobby and it was so wonderful and bittersweet to hear stories from the past told by folks who were there with them. Hobby history is so important (as I've covered in a past blog post) and Sara and I wanted to be there to pay respects to those folks who did so much for establishing our community, way back in the pre-internet days. As fun as shopping and socializing is, this was very important to make time for too. 💖
By the time we left the barn, the rain had cleared up and it was almost sunny again! Instead of taking the shuttle back, we walked back over to the main event area. There are always incredible and positive things that happen at BreyerFest every year, and I am so grateful to have some come my way - when we were at the barn, I realized I'd lost my Collector Club badge and ribbon at some point, likely on the way over. I had planned to go back to the CC tent and just get a new one, but while I was waiting for Sara to do another trip through the special run line, I noticed one of my friends had tagged me in a post to a FB group. Turns out, a group of attendees had found my badge (likely dropped off when I got off the shuttle) and wanted to find me to return it! I was able to meet up with them not too long after. What a cool experience and I'm again so grateful to those folks, they didn't have to go out of their way to look for me, but they did!
One of the later orders of business for the day was getting some dinner - we took the time to see the Celebration Park area to check out the selection of food trucks over there. Sara also picked up her volunteer model from the concourse booth and we looked at how the silent auction was going - some friends were working the booth so it was great to say hi! Due to how quickly the raffle tickets for Saturday sold out, neither one of us got to enter, which was fine, since Sara wanted to get a seat for the auction anyway. It was a good thing we headed over when we did, because there weren't many seats left! We found seats with some friends and settled in to wait for the festivities. Sara made a few good efforts, but we didn't get to bring any of the beautiful pieces back to our room. There was lots of discussion about lots that went surprisingly high or low (some of the high ones, we learned days later, had non-paying bidders online and some back up bidders got good deals. Yucky for Breyer and for the charities who lost out on money 😒😢)
Back at the hotel, I set out on a mission to buy one or both of my two favorite Surprise colors (the tobianos) in glossy! I also helped Sara find a trade for the glossy color she wanted (gray). Unfortunately, my antics prevented me from stopping by the social media meet, which I'd also missed in 2017 and had hoped to attend this year, but favorite molds come first! I had quite a time finding folks who were actually selling rather than trading colors, but I did find a black pinto glossy after several blocks of rooms explored (to all the folks whose rooms I went into and out of really quickly, often without saying anything, sorry if I looked weird for that! I realize I should have made a sign for my shirt noting what I was looking for!) By great luck, the glossy black pinto seller Lauren knew of a glossy buckskin pinto for sale closer to where my room was. I headed over there as quickly as I could, and secured that one as well (and I realized AFTER I left that I'd bought that model from one of my facebook friends and her mom, great job me 🙈)
I returned to my room, not many funds left in cash or PayPal, but very pleased to have obtained 7 of the 11 variations of the Surprise, and definitely sore! I planned on staying put for a bit - which was great, I took over for a sales shift while Sara went off to pursue a trade in a room where I'd found someone wanting to trade their glossy gray for the glossy color she had (successful!) We sold together for a while, and then I noticed that one of our friends Heather had posted a glossy Bravour for sale, which Sara was also looking for - so she went out again for a while to pursue that (also successful!)
After she returned, it was getting sort of late, but not super late yet, and foot traffic was slowing down a bit. I was told there was a party up in the room where Sara bought Bravour from (Heather & Jackie, aka Mares in Black). I had a drink with them last time in 2017, so I figured, the tradition should continue! As always, lots of silly fun, good drink (I did NOT try the test tube one that several other folks did) and even pizza which was much appreciated, it had been too long since dinner before the auction! To top off the night, I unboxed/unpackaged most of my haul back at the room before bed, so I could transfer them to the pouches I brought instead to save space. Sara would be leaving in the morning, so I wanted to do some packing and save time.
Sunday, July 16th
Sunday started with finishing up my packing, and breakfast. I parted ways with Sara after breakfast, and brought all of my stuff over to Robin & Shira's room for the day (they stayed until Monday). I rode into the Park with them once we were all ready to go! Thankfully, Sunday is always quieter so there wasn't a line to get in. I wasn't really planning to buy much on Sunday, but I went through the main store just in case there were any cool finds left - nothing I needed. I also visited the Hobby Tent to see those displays and say hi to Stacylynn. My main objective of the day was to meet up with and spend the day with Erin, Ricky, and service pup Willis - my BFF from back home attending her first BreyerFest! I eventually found them, and said hello to a few other folks along the way. Erin got a couple of cool items in the store! They'd arrived early to watch the mini horse chuck wagon races (I've heard those were neat to watch) and had also bought raffle tickets, and explored a bit already. We had so much fun painting Stablemates in the activity tent - I was very surprised to see two G2 molds in use! I thought those had been phased out for fun days/BreyerFest years ago - so of course I chose a TB.
Next, I brought them on a tour of some of the other parts of the event that they hadn't seen yet - including back to the hobby tent and saying hi to Terry and Stacylynn, picking up the extra Bravour I'd
stored there to gift to Erin 💗 We also walked through the concourse again (by the time I went over for raffle tickets, those were sold out again, haha) and explored Celebration Park. By that point, it started getting fairly hot out, so it was a great opportunity to take a break in the International Museum of the Horse. So many cool exhibits! After the museum, we poked around in the KHP gift shop and had lunch at the nearby restaurant. After lunch, we took another way around back to the Covered Arena and saw some more of the statues. Enjoy some scenes from the indoor portion of the day below!
After stopping to pick up our dried masterpieces, and watching the "horse who paints" demo behind the craft tent for a few minutes, it was time to head back to the arena to see if Erin & Ricky would be lucky raffle winners! But wait, there's a wild Robin heading towards us with brown bags in tow! The Wild Card SR line was open for anyone to buy more SR and no limit on how many 😮 This was after 4...Needless to say, I booked it over there as fast as possible and Erin, Ricky, and Willis went to get seats! Though I was missing 4 variations at this point, I decided to only buy 3. Considering I was missing glossies and the deco, I felt like gambling on 4 was too many and that my luck wouldn't be that great. Maybe I could partially trade a couple mattes for a glossy or something. So, I paid for my models and headed over to the trees next to the Covered Arena to see how I did.
First bag I opened...I see a sabino - cool! That one is very hard to tell, so I opened it further...wow it's a glossy!!! I've never pulled a glossy from the tent before (in person in 2017 or by pickup in 2022) so that's fantastic, plus it's a color I don't have in gloss! Second one is a chestnut, ok, that's awesome...open it...wait, it's also a glossy?? I was already feeling like this was worth it, but that solidified it. Another color I didn't have in gloss! The third model, hey it's a buckskin pinto - and glossy TOO! What is going on?? I already had this color, but I could totally trade this one for a glossy gray or deco. Maybe I could have turned around and went through again, but I think I assumed that they'd be gone if I went back and I'd already had so much luck, would it really still hold? I could have traded the buckskin immediately, but I wanted to compare him to the one I bought the night before as that one had a few small flaws.
I walked into the Arena floor to watch the raffle (first time having that angle & perspective, sweet!) knowing I hadn't bought any raffle tickets and not caring one bit in that moment, just hoping I could cheer for some friends! Sadly, no luck for Erin & Ricky or any of my close friends, but I did recognize a few names which was awesome.
We all re-grouped and headed back to the hotel, and met up with my BF who'd arrived after driving from his parents' place to pick me up on our way home. We all hung out for a bit, packing the car, introducing Erin & Ricky to room sales, and had lunch. Plus, I decided which glossy buckskin I wanted to keep. Unfortunately, no immediate trade offers from folks passing through the room, but I've since found a deal to trade him for a deco in a couple of weeks! It's crazy to me that after everything, I'll only need to buy one more - the glossy dapple gray.
What a great recap and congrats on getting so many Hamiltons for your conga!
ReplyDeleteThank you! :) It was great to see you and chat for a bit!
Delete