Models I Got for Christmas

 Hey again! Time for my first "real" post on this blog. I wanted to start off simple, so here's the horses I got for Christmas.

Sadly, my mom declined to get me any models for Christmas, just on account of me running low on shelf space...but that didn't stop me from buying some for myself (or my friends from being generous)! Let's start from the top and go in order, because the last horse I received has the best story.

First up is the WIA release of Birdie & Boone in buckskin roan and palomino. These were the first models I purchased for the holiday season and were my early present. These guys are LITERALLY stunning. Jake Heaps is an amazing sculptor and I was SO HAPPY when I found out these two were coming out in plastic! I remember seeing them back when they were first released as resins and going crazy because I generally can't afford resins (unless they're micros/charms/second quality) and I wanted them so badly. I absolutely love mustangs, and the more rough and tumble they look, the better! Birdie is literally my ideal mustang, and Boone is so small and delicate I'm so afraid I'll break him every time I pick him up, but he's adorable. Another thing you'll learn about me as time goes on is that I'm a roan freak, and Birdie's color on this release is absolutely stunning--not to mention, she's a dilute roan! It's just a feast for the eyes. There's also a pinto Birdie/buckskin Boone from WIA on these sculpts, but I'm not as crazy about them as I am these...so perhaps I'll save up and get them to customize!

Secondly we have a Breyer Classic Mustang Mare in old style chestnut pinto. I'll admit, I'm not the best with money...but when I saw this girl for sale on Facebook for a steal, I decided to jump, and call her part of my Christmas presents. She's definitely been well loved and is not in the best condition, but I've wanted a Love mustang mare for quite a while, and she seems harder to come by in the colors that appeal to me the most. I just think she's so cute! I decided to name her Blossom.

Third up is Arapaho on the Phar Lap mold. This one was a doozy...Arapaho has been a grail of mine for literal years, but I've never been in the position to spend upwards to $40-$60 dollars on him. So when he came up in a Facebook sales post for about $15, I knew I had to get him. The catch? His tail was broken. Recently I had fixed a broken leg on a G1 Stablemate using the acetone method so I thought, no problem, I've got this. And then when I received him, acetone proceeded not to work! It ended up being okay though, because it gave me a chance to try out the baking soda + superglue method, which worked like a charm, and from his left side, you can hardly see the break. His right side was less lucky, because there's a pretty big chunk of plastic missing from the base of his tail...good thing I'm not picky at all. Despite his break and being rubbed and scuffed, I had my grail, and I love him! Except there were two variations of Arapaho released: a very speckled one and a not so speckled one. You can see that this is the not so speckled one, and my actual grail is the very speckled one. I'm thinking he needs a brother...one day.

And last but not least, I received A Class Act, a 1998 Fall Show Special on the Five Gaiter mold, as my final Christmas horse. The story here is simple but sweet...my friend Bree and I had gone to the mall theater to see Avatar: Fire and Ash and afterwards I wanted to go into this store that's directly outside the theater, inside of the mall, because I had seen Breyers in there--in particular, this Five Gaiter. Like I said, I'm bad with money (working on that for New Years!), and I after haggling the price a little bit I decided to splurge on him for $33. But when I went to pay, my card declined...and it turns out I had only $32 in my PayPal account. While I was standing there, dejected, Bree suddenly stepped up and bought the Five Gaiter for me and said, Merry Christmas! I honestly don't know what I've done in my life to have such awesome, kind, generous friends, but I love these people a ton and they clearly love me. For obvious reasons this Five Gaiter is my favorite to date and in my conga. As you can probably tell, I love vintage molds a lot, and the Five Gaiter is slowly making his way to the top of my list.

And that's it for my Christmas horses! I think soon I'll make a post about the BreyerFest reveals so far and my opinions, as well as some art updates, and of course NaMo registration is coming up so I'll be posting about that too and revealing my selfie with Huso. I'm also still getting used to this platform and planning out some series I'd like to start, like conga highlights and whatnot. Anyways, see you later!

Well hello...

Hello there! Welcome to my blog. My name is Shelby, and I am a bonafide horse girl. The only thing I'm missing in my life is a real horse...so I compensate by collecting little plastic ones!

I'm mainly a Breyer collector, but I also enjoy the occasional Hartland, CollectA, Papo, Schleich, etc, and rarely, ceramics. I also collect G1 My Little Pony. I also am a major collector of many other things...many, many other things, but that would be too much to put on this blog (which I predict will become more and more unfocused over time with my discombobulated self, lol). I'm also an artist, and I like to repaint all manner of toy horses and horse shaped objects, as well as draw and craft. 

I have also been an avid photo shower since 2019. I started out doing small shows on Instagram and Facebook, before the founding of the OMHPS website, which is where I now primarily show (although I do participate in some monthly Facebook shows as well as IPABRA shows on SmugMug). I would love to participate in a live show, but at the moment I have no transport or funds to attend one. I'm also pretty scared to pack up my models!

And finally, I participate in the pedigree assignment part of this hobby. I'll have a link to my sire/dam listing on this blog!

I've seen some other hobbyists making their own blogs here on Blogspot and I thought, hey, I should do that too! So here it is. I will warn you that activity may become sparse here at times due to life circumstances, and also my interest in the hobby fluctuating and going dormant for a while, but I will try my best to update when I have something I want to share.

So what's on the menu? Well, for one, NaMoPaiMo (National Model Painting Month)! Due to some pretty tragic events in my family, I have not participated in the last 2 or 3 years, but things have calmed down now and I'm determined to get back on the wagon. My victim for this February will be a Huso AR micro mini, distributed by Dan Van's Customs/Hold Your Horses WI.

Just look at this precious guy! I got him as a Christmas present in 2024 and unfortunately, due to the aforementioned tragedies, he has sat collecting dust on my shelf since then. But I love painting resins, and I love painting micros the most, so now that things are calmer and I'm in a better place, I've decided that not only is it time to paint Huso, it's also time to make my return to NaMo. I think I'll post up my old NaMo horses here as a comparison as well, when the time comes. But for now, I painstakingly count down the days till registration!

I also have several other customs in the works, including one in a small racehorse project I've put together for myself, and I'll try to post updates about them here too. G1 Stablemates, Mini Whinnies, Hartlands, Hartland knockoffs, ARs...whew!

Anyways, welcome to my blog, and Happy New Year. I hope you like it here!