My Year in Review 2024

It's that time of year when we reflect on the year that has passed and look ahead to what awaits us in the coming one! I always enjoy looking back on my collection and it is fun to look back on these posts year after year. My 2024 fell in to a few categories - you've seen my favorite new releases for the year and my 90s nostalgia purchases, so here are the rest of the highlights

Chalkies!

If I had to choose one thing to say I collect specifically it would be chalky models! I love the way they look, I love that they are part of Breyer history, and I love the challenge of trying to find them "in the wild." After many years of collecting them I have almost all of the relatively attainable ones, so it gets harder and harder each year to add to my collection (although I'm always hunting for "upgrades" too)

This year I was able to check a few off the list! I added this lovely palomino Classic Arabian Foal to the herd. The blister pack foals are surprisingly hard to find in chalky and I still need the black one in chalky (not to mention the grey and the alabaster if they exist in chalky). I also checked off another 1960s chalky, this year the bay running foal. I think he's either a wedgewood or gold charm underneath because no dapples shine through with a light but he is in absolutely immaculate condition, so not a hint of what color might be under there. He's also not a woodgrain because one of the socks is unpainted white, so whatever is under there also had white legs.

Also added to my collection this year was this Justin Morgan. I'm usually a little meh on the chalkies that have no white markings (and I'm still kicking myself that I didn't buy one with socks that came up for sale years ago) and I already had a chalky Justin Morgan in my collection for completeness, so I figured this duplicate would be for my room sales. Well he turned out to be much too nice! The shading on him is the nicest I have seen and does make the chalkiness stand out a bit better. Maybe my existing one will end up in the sales pile eventually, but he is also so different that for now they both stay.

I also enjoy "modern chalkies" especially the oddball ones, so I was excited to find this chalky Flash this year. I had seen one years ago at a show and hoped to find one ever since. He's not a full basecoat like the 70s models (his sock is still bare plastic) but you can see there was a white basecoat under the rest of his color by the way the bay color looks and the white halo around his star. He's not mint but I still love him!

Stickers

I have mostly focused on collecting the larger stickers. I love that they have the model name on them as well as the number. But I won't pass up a really nice condition or rare smaller sticker if I happen to find them and the price is right. But I am pretty picky on condition of the sticker for both the large and the small ones. This year I was able to add large sticker examples of the black appaloosa scratching foal (which completes my set of 3 sticker scratching foals!), the alabaster old timer, the clydesdale foal, and the buckskin QH Gelding (who is actually still in transit and so not pictured). For small stickers I picked up the appaloosa mustang who was discontinued the first year of the stickers, so he is a hard one to find.

Sock Variations and Things

For some reason 2024 was the year of the sock variation for me! I found this two sock Terrang who is slightly bloaty but still adorable and I didn't even notice this four sock Kelso was in the same lot until they arrived. I also picked up this super cool two sock dapple grey old timer and this one-ish sock dapple grey running foal

Other Vintage and Rarities

I was so excited to add the alabaster PAM gift set to my line up this year - I have had the bay and the dapple grey sets for many years but the alabaster proved very hard to find. When a friend had this set complete with the box and halter up for sale I knew I had to get her! They were available for a very limited time in 1972/73 and part of hobby legend because none other than Marney Walerius is said to have braided every halter herself!

I love Presentation models and looked for one for YEARS. I found two in the wild but both were missing their plaque. So many have fallen off over the years that finding one with the original nameplate still on is getting harder and harder to do. I was able to get a Yellow Mount a couple of years ago but I was glad to be able to get Man O War this year.

Technically I bought this guy at the tail end of last year but he arrived in early 2024 so he counts! This Stud Spider is a OOAK and was one of the Collectors Club test piece lottery models in 2018. I haven't been lucky enough to win one of those (no surprise with thousands of members!) but I had the chance to buy this one from the winner and I love his bright chestnut self.

I totally missed the entry for the Breyerfest open show this year (by mere minutes) but I think it was fate because I had already been considering taking a year off from it and doing the horsepark and other activities on Friday. I did buy a glossy Zorah Belle from a friend while I was there though and she's adorable in gloss!

The ONE year I regret not being in the vintage club was the year they did Nugget, the gambler's choice decorator Brighty. I was finally able to get my first one this year in a trade at BF and I just love him! One of my goals next year is to track down another color. It's not that they aren't ever for sale, I have just been reluctant to pay the going rate - I keep hoping they will come down but so far no signs of that at all and I should probably just start chipping away at it. At only 125 each (the club was still just 500 members back in 2021) they are selling at about what you would expect.

Stone Horses

I used to have a really extensive Stone collection. I was a big time collector of them from the early 2000s to the mid-2010s or so. I sold a lot of them and really focused down on just my top favorites on each mold and primarily guest artist pieces. My favorite being regular guest artist Caroline Boydston and I always look out for some of hers. I've been working on collecting one of each mold painted by Caroline.

Literally just this last week of the year I was able to add this gorgeous TB to the line-up - What could be better than a braided hunter in dapple grey!? I did not have a Boydston TB yet so I was so glad to get this guy.

In all the models I have sold I don't have many regrets - but one that I always did regret selling was my matte FCM Boaz. That had been my original choice as one of the Artisan Hall members and it was the combination with the fewest made - I was not sure I would be able to find one again, but sure enough I got lucky with the Bonnie Ellis estate auctions and I got one back!

One other nice thing about missing the Breyerfest show was that I was able to attend the Equilocity dinner for the first time in over 10 years. Especially since they were back at the Marriott this year! I signed up mostly because I adored the dinner model, this dun pebbles mule, but the food was great and I absolutely loved seeing all the Art of the Horse finalists and model reveals! I'm hoping to enter the contest myself this year. My name was not drawn early enough to get to purchase my top choices, but I was very happy to come home with the pebbles fjord and the ISH who was very much a last minute decision but ultimately such a beautiful paint job and story.

And so those are my highlights of 2024! It was a tough year for my personally but I love having this hobby as an escape. Every year when I look back on the models I was able to acquire I am so grateful!