Handpicking Pt 1: BreyerFest LEs

One of my favorite parts of collecting is handpicking! I love the thrill of the hunt and in the same way I love looking for rare or interesting vintage models, I love trying to find the perfect example (for me) of new models. I've always been an avid OF Plastic live shower too, and I love trying to find a model that will stand out in a sea of others on the table. Showing at Breyerfest live takes that to a whole different level where you might have 50+ of the exact same run on the table and you want yours to stand out.

Normally this is really only something you can do with regular runs. For most special runs, you get what you get, whether that is in the Breyerfest special run line and you are handed an opaque package or you are blindly ordering from the Breyer website. Even for models that are in store, like Tractor Supply Co special runs, you still might only have at most 3 to choose from. That doesn't stop me from hunting the secondary market if I'm not entirely happy with the one I got, but it's a long and slow process because many of the ones listed for sale are also because the original owner didn't love it. The very best copies don't often come up for sale and if they do they might be pretty spendy. I'm much more likely to "settle" when it comes to my special runs.

That brings me to one of my favorite parts of Breyerfest - handpicking in person! Especially the limited editions - a rare opportunity to be able to choose your special run from among many. In the early days they used to sell out so fast that you also had to pretty much just grab one and hope, but more recently Breyer has really upped the production numbers so you can very leisurely look through hundreds of models to find the one you like best. I love it!

It is fun going through them with other hobbyists too. Everybody has their "thing" that they look for. For some people it's the quality of the dapples. Others are very picky about paint flaws or finish issues. Some look specifically for a nice face and eye. My main thing is crisp and accurate masking. Not to mention nice color and shading! Most of us are looking for that to some degree, but even there some people like a lighter model and some like a darker one. Some may want to find a semi-gloss and others might like a very matte one.

I wanted to share with you some of my favorites!

Last year I looked through a TON of Chipper models to find this one. I knew I would be picky about the masking so I wanted to look closely at them. This one also stood out to me because of his lighter coloring and nice shading. Many of them were solidly black and white so I really liked the depth of color this one has.

In 2022 I learned a valuable lesson about VIP tickets - and that was, don't select a limited edition you're going to want to hand pick. I knew I definitely wanted Chablis so I ordered him with my VIP ticket, but then when it came time to pick him up the VIP booth only had out three to pick from... meanwhile there were hundreds stacked next door at the Breyer store. So I took my average one and then ended up buying two more at the Breyer store! Now I stick with stuff I don't want to handpick like the crystal.

I loved this darker semi-gloss one with very subtle dapples. He stood out among the sea of them when I looked at the wall of models.

But then later - I forget if it was the next day after they put more out or just in the other store - I also found this one. He's on the other end of the spectrum, much lighter, matter, and has very prominent dapples. They looks a little weird here the way the light is reflecting, but I thought they looked quite nice. So I ended up with my third one for the weekend. I sold the third one but took a loss on him and vowed never again with the VIP.

Another one I was really happy to find was this Icabad Crane in 2018. This was the year leisurely handpicking of LEs really became an option - the run numbers nearly doubled between 2017 and 2018. As someone who usually does the live show, before 2018 it was often slim pickings by the time I got to the store on Saturday, if there were even any left at all, so I remember having a great time looking through all the Icabad Crane models. They all had really nice color and shading but I particularly liked this one - and (again with the masking) the ermine spots are in the right place and not floating somewhere in the socks or down in the hoof area. That's one of my personal pet peeves!

For 2025 I'm not particularly enamored with any of the LEs - but even that can change when I see the wall of them in person and that ONE just jumps out at me. Check this space to see what I end up bringing home XD