Some Interesting Bay Running Mares

The Breyer running mare in Bay is one of the most ubiquitous and iconic Breyer models. She was produced from 1961 to 1987, a run of 26 years, putting her (and her foal) among the longest running regular runs. She is a fun and generally inexpensive vintage model to collect variations of if, like me, you enjoy hunting down vintage models. The running mare was one of my favorites as a kid because of her sweet face and fun pose.

The earliest models fit right in with the early 60s era style of painting: deeper color, nice shading on the high points, big bald faces, and eye-whites. Many models of the 60s were glossy and although the running mare and foal sets were matte, many of these early ones do have a semi-gloss shine and even some verging on glossy.

My early example is semi-glossy with eye-whites. Early catalogs called her chestnut and she is almost the shade of early five gaiter sorrel, but definitely with black mane and tail and black hooves.

Later in to the 1960s they still maintained the nice shading of the era but lost the eye-whites and switched to the very matte and redder bay that was common for this model for the rest of the run. The practiced eye will still recognize this as a 1960s model by the paint job, but you can always tell by looking at the mold stamp - models from before 1970 do not have "USA" printed under the round Breyer stamp on the inner right hind leg.

I bought this one from one of the Bonnie Ellis estate auctions thinking she might have been a chalky painted over decorator. She is definitely from that era and it was hard to tell in photos so I thought I'd take the gamble. She was not, but she is a really nice early model.

This one is my actual chalky-bay-over-copenhagen mare - you can see they are pretty similar but actually in person it is quite clear to see the difference the white basecoat makes and how her color pops.

If you hold her up to a light source you can see the decorator underneath

I recently bought this 1970s example thinking she might be chalky. Alas, she is not, but she does seem to be that slightly denser white plastic from the era that is the "almost chalky plastic." This color is more typica of the 70s era - a flatter solid brown color (although this one has an odd sort of lighter front half) and more of a blaze than a bald face. She doesn't have the big pink nose of the 60s. She also has the "USA" stamp underneath the round Breyer stamp.

So far I still don't even know if the 1970s chalky bay running mare even exists. I've been searching for one (or even evidence of one) for as long as I've been collecting chalkies. It's funny because the bay running foal is easily in the top five of most common 1970s chalky models if not the top three most common. But the mare? Might not even exist.

Fellow chalky hunters will probably see what I saw here - My new one on the left and the other non-chalky on the right. You can maybe see the slightly denser looking plastic with that "almost chalky" look to her vs the typical bare plastic. She's the closest I've come to finding a chalky one.

But then there is my other bay chalky running mare! She was originally purchased in the Breyer Store "NPOD" in 2019 and somehow had ended up in Breyer's hands after coming from the collection of the mold maker. I purchased her second hand and originally thought she was my missing link, my elusive chalky-era chalky. Although still not truly "from the wild" since she came from an employee/Breyer I thought she still might be proof of their existence. The seller even included a white 70s era picture box with her.

However upon closer inspection - she looks very much like a 1980s paint job. The color, the face, and the clean edge of the black hooves all look more 80s - which sort of makes sense having come from Breyer because they generally did not retain anything from before the Reeves purchase in the mid-80s. Then there is the dead giveaway which is that she has the 1980s smooshed right eye. Something happened to the mold in the early 80s and first the right eye was flattened, then the entire side of her face was smooshed and she lost the cheekbone too. The eye was retooled and somewhat corrected in 1994 so I would guess this mare is from the mid 80s - maybe the very mold maker who had her is to blame for this, ha.

Smooshed chalky mare and 70s mare

I'm thrilled to have her in my chalky collection - and her story makes her even more special - but it means I'm still on the hunt for a 70s chalky era bay running mare! Do you have one or know of one? I'd love to hear about it.