Many moons ago it seems Breyer posted this sneaky sneak peak of a sort of rainbow coloured model on their website. Well it was a pretty good sneaky sneak because they never actually revealed it.
Anyway on Monday news dropped about the Breyer Spring releases and I nearly fell off my chair. Take a look at Crystalline:
Now sadly Covid-19 means that it is unlikely that the UK will ever get this model in stock. It is already sold out at most USA dealers and we won't be getting anymore Breyer stock until at least September (maybe later). So sadly I think you're going to have to head abroad for this one. I will definitely be doing so!
Now Winx may be more positive. It's already been added as part of the standard UK line, so there may be a long wait but it's more likely than not that we will get her in:
Nice to see the Emerson mould being produced a decent solid racehorse colour!
Forgive the basic question, but what ARE Spring releases? We've had Mid-years for ages and I get that, and I understand how we get a little batch of Fall releases over the last few years, but as each new year's models generally come out IN spring anyway, I don't really get what they're doing here - holding one or two back a few weeks? Some of the 2020s haven't even reached any UK shops yet, I'm waiting on Stingray and she's not been in stock anywhere. So I don't know what the difference is between a 2020 regular run which didn't come into stock with the others, and a Spring release which, uh, didn't come into stock with the others. I'm not whining, just confused!
ReplyDeleteFirstly - Stingray won't be available in the UK unless a retailer gets him in specially. If they have ordered him in specially they will not get him until the next Breyer delivery which isn't until late September.
DeleteSecondly Spring releases have been around for a while, there have been a few Easter specials (such as Frolic a little decorator foal from several years ago). It used to be that you only got one set of releases per year, then you got mid-years and then some extra for Autumn and now some for Spring. I suspect it's more a way for Breyer to spread out production and orders.
Ohh, I had no idea Stingray wasn't a normal standard item here too. I knew about the September thing, unavoidable bad luck this year with everything the way it is, I just didn't know they'd made some regular runs not regular for the UK. Oh well, my wishlist just got a bit cheaper this year then, if there's no more trads on it!
DeleteIt isn't that Breyer don't make them regular for the UK it is that the distributor chooses not to buy them. If the distributor doesn't buy them then we have to order them in as specials. If we are too late ordering them (such as with Cyrstalline) we won't get any because they've already sold out. The distributor only allows you to order once Breyer have announced products publicly, which is far too late, because of repeated leaks of confidential information in the UK. So for example, if we were allowed to order our 2020 ranges in early December as we used to be able to before the leaking we would get the non-standard products in February and be more likely to get stock. However, now because of leaking we can't order non-standard items until February, which means we don't get them until April at the earliest, by which time many items are sold out, or the first batch is, which is why we have to wait so long to get certain items.
DeleteThanks so much for explaining, I really appreciate it. It must be a massive frustration and disappointment for you being a retailer as well as a model hobbyist. As a collector without any contacts or dealer/retailer info, it's just impossible to know what I can and can't expect to buy.
DeleteI know this year is chaotic anyway cos there's bigger and more important things going on than shipping plastic horses around, for all we love them they're a tiny drop in the ocean of the world's problems right now, so it feels kind of petty to be writing sad messages about Breyers. But it does kind of make me feel hopeless about collecting OFs the way I used to, no point liking and wanting them or putting them on a wishlist if we don't know which releases will turn out to be specials, it's hard to get genuinely excited about a horse when the distributors have added this much doubt and delay in buying them, if you get what I mean. It was always so great to fall in love with a model in the catalogue photo, decide on the spot that you want it, and look forward to it being released, and the satisfaction thrill of ordering one. Now, look at the catalogue photos, like one, have no idea if you can have it, have to wait and see, months later find out you're not getting it cos someone else took that decision away from you, maybe you can have one later but it might never show. Doubt knocks the excitement out of it.
I'm sure I'll still BUY my OF's, I won't stop loving the ones I can get, it's just a bit miserable that being a collector has become less fun than it used to be just cos someone couldn't resist leaking what they'd been told not to.
Thanks for putting up with my ignorance over what's going on, you've made it all so much clearer and I apologise for having a bit of a long-winded ramble about how much of a shame this is when you know it all too well yourself!