I started paying attention to Stone again in Sept 23 when the collection of a hobbyist from my area went onto consignment with a nice lady whose shop is less than an hour from me. I appreciate that local collectors have had the opportunity to keep the models in our community and have some remembrance of our friend (passed at the beginning of 2023). She had a major working relationship with Stone so a bunch of the models I’ve brought home from the sale have supplemented my Stone collection. First photo is of the Large/Traditional scale Stones I added in 2024: the appaloosa ISH came from that collection sale, the chestnut ISH I won in a local show’s raffle (!!), the Trotting Draft I won in the NAN raffle, the Iberian I received for judging at the EQ show (HUGE honor to have been asked! I will always be grateful), I participated in the Eras sale and received a Matte No Fears, and the Palouse is an OOAK from Equilocity. Prior to 2023 I hadn’t added any Stones to my collection in years. The new prices were above what I could afford in my college/grad career & first couple years of working, and I also just wasn’t buying a ton of secondary market models after around the mid 2010’s or so. Like many others, I celebrated Erin’s achievement in becoming the leader of Stone! And very cool to see the rest of the leadership board revealed in December - lots of well known and trustworthy folks. While Peter grew up with the foundation of plastic models as we know them today and has that historical perspective, there’s just something special about the business in the hands of folks who come from the collecting side and understand the perspective of their community.

The medium sized models who joined my herd in 2024 are Glossy Bow Tie (from the local collection sale), Pebbles Draft Horchata (matte) from the Mini Loyalty Club, and Miss Maple (matte) from the Little Horse Show sale in September. Though the club is not continuing in 2025, I am grateful to have been a part of it. Out of the 4 groups, I chose Pebbles three times. Peachy the Mule is home now, but she arrived just last week so she wasn’t part of my year-end photo sessions. I also have Raspberry the Arabian still in progress from the December group and hope to meet her maybe next month. I do hope that if the club returns someday that I can participate again. I appreciated the offering of a photo show (Little Horse Show) on the Only Model Horse Photo Shows platform! While I have participated in PonyBytes in the capacity of staff for Breyer a few times, I’ve found myself more drawn to entering shows myself on OMHPS. I love that we have multiple options for this portion of the hobby outside of FB and defunct platforms of old. My mini herd for Stone is still fairly small, but I was pleased to win a few placings including one first!

Here are the Chips who joined me in 2024! A matte Four Corners of the Globe Draft (apparently an exclusive to Europe, USA got the glossy sets) from the local collection sale, Ranger the Mustang in satin from the Mini Loyalty Club, and three purchases from Equilocity - He’s Just Ken (super cool holographic pink!) the Mustang & Sublime the Andalusian who are both runs, and Nostalgia the Morgan an OOAK (he’s the one who did the best for me in the photo show too!)

Here are the newest arrivals, first for 2025 - Peachy the Pebbles Mule as mentioned above from the Mini Loyalty Club; satin finish customized version, and Snow Angel the Large Mule who is an OOAK from the Holiday Sale (kept matte).

This shelf photo includes my Pebbles and larger collection as of 2024, except Miss Maple. I was thrilled to add several molds I haven’t owned before last year (Iberian, Remington, Palouse, Trotting Draft, Pebbles Mule, Chips Mustang). And Large Mule has already been ticked off the list for 2025!

These two pics show my older Chips from 2023 and prior (and another inclusion of one of my weanlings). In fact, the one with only Chips in it is the herd prior to September 2023 since the other photo was taken right after the first time I attended the local collection sale.

This year, I am most interested in adding a few more new-to-me molds:

• Bunny Draft
• Santa Fe Morgan
• Chips Cutting Horse
• Chips Friesian The Chip Cutter I may even focus more specifically on pinto because as you can tell, I have plenty of QH and a few Appaloosa but really only 2 Paint and one is a blue-black so he’s more of a deco.

I’ve been in the SMC since the beginning, and this upcoming year looks like it will not disappoint! Tiny Zara? Awesome! New Tiny Othello? Fabulous! (Even though he is very similar to Churchill so that impacts my thoughts on him being included in a Best of BF SM set anytime soon.) G1 Silky? Love seeing him come back! G3 Paso? Love that he’s the finish split, though I don’t have a preference and will be happy with either one. G3 TWH? This is such a nice pattern! G4 QH? Oddly enough the gambler is my least favorite mold-wise, but there are some nice colors and I will be happy with one of them to keep my SMC collection complete. Darwin as a Pegasus? Incredible! I am really happy to see a Pegasus with molded on wings (a first for Breyer in any scale).

I also joined the DCC again, it’s another one I’ve always chosen since it’s been available. I did think about buying another membership briefly to get a second of the 4 Deco Mustang colors, but without a Gambler SMC mold that I conga and not being in the other more expensive clubs it didn’t make sense.

I seriously thought about the PC - so far I’ve only joined in 2023. Even considering all of the reveals, which I think is awesome, and I do like the models especially the mule, I decided I was more scared of the unknown VC which I don’t have first hand access to, BreyerFest, and other unknowns like web specials - I decided to pass. (The prospect of Hamilton wearing the 4 Deco colors does not seem like an impossibility to me, in particular for the VC…and runs of 250 secondhand threaten to take a lot of my annual budget. Being a conga mold I’d prioritize him over other things.)

Thank you for jumping in and getting this off the ground for us! 🥳

Personally I don’t think it’s that important unless it’s an unusual color for a breed, or the color (including many “Breyer colors”) can look ambiguous due to the execution of the paint job or how it shows up in a photo. (Not everyone has the skill or resources to properly balance a photo in angle, lighting, color, etc. without using a lot of editing, and most shows these days do not want any more than minimal edits. So, a color description could be helpful to properly present a model for someone who is still skill building for example.)

Might adding a color tag or description be helpful as a matter of accessibility for folks who may have challenges with vision? To my awareness there are some conditions that could impact how well someone can visually distinguish some things and not others, for example. Unless a show site has a sophisticated tool for image captions there may be some things that need to be done as part of the text description in order to make viewing the images more friendly.

Ah, I see I replied to the wrong thread for this - my apologies! 😅

I don’t mind prices being a bit higher, as long as the classlist is decently sized. For a smaller intimate show, particularly if at someone’s home or very cozy venue (think like less than 15 people attending including show staff) I might be curious if the price was high (what factors led to this? Awards, judges, etc?) But certainly, as a host myself, I’m familiar enough with the difficulties that I am more favorable towards costs than people who may not be familiar with what goes into hosting.

Travel is definitely important too, most shows I’ve attended in the last few years have been within reasonable distance to either go home in the evening or stay with a relative. The catch for me is, usually if a show is worth driving far enough to stay over, and especially if it’s a two day show; I need to take a minimum of a half-day off work, up to 2 full days, and that can be difficult to plan far enough ahead for. (This is why I’ve never attended the Syracuse NY-area Pumpkins & Ponies, despite being a well-renowned show in my region and it offering desirable divisions for me.)

I would say that a class list is really the largest driver for me in terms of interest (as long as a show is within my typical travel range including an overnight stay). I’m not going to push myself too hard for a standard class list that I’ve been to many times over the years and most likely, will show up in one of the more local options anyway. Personally what excites me the most lately include:

• OFP collectibility based shows that are well split out and include a wide variety of levels (from common to rare and different brands isolated, etc.)
• OFP Mini shows that either have a deeper classlist/further split to be ok with double judging, or have separate collectibility that doesn’t just feel tacked on. But, I’d also appreciate a Mini Breed based show if it was more extensive than what we usually see or offered additional split categories by brand, scale etc.
• Any show offering OFP that presents new or unusual ways of organizing classes (Color-based independent of collectibility, double-judged but Collectibility is the primary category instead of secondary, splitting Breyers up by decade of mold release to encourage “not old but not new” molds/models to have an opportunity, schooling shows [instructing by doing with a small group], anything innovative!) I don’t dislike showing artisan or breakables but I have fewer of those categories in my collection, so I really only enter those if I’m traveling for a show with OFP as my main focus, I’m judging something, or the show is hyper-local to me (within an hour’s drive).

Pardon the old photo. This little H-R was one of my first models, which earned the “stay on the shelf” designation and not to play with. My parents bought her for me at a little gift shop in the village my dad’s family had a beach house in, which no longer exists (the shop). I can’t recall if this one was first, or a chestnut H-R walking adult on a base from the modern miniatures, but they both pre-date my knowledge of/involvement with Breyers by a few years.

What is the cutoff for “vintage” era here? I think my oldest in my collection are probably early 00’s. :)

So far, I have not done any “destination shows” outside of BFL/NAN, unless you count regional championships (we have in the past had a number of folks from out of region attend, but the show format has also varied and in most recent editions, has been heavily weighted to champ classes for already qualified horses). I would consider this type of show to be defined by:

• Either a very large, all encompassing show offering lots of divisions (i.e. NAN, BFL, EQ) or one that is large because it offers a deep dive into a certain category (All breakables, All performance, etc. - Jennifer Show counts here)
• The show is held at an appropriately sized venue that either offers onsite stay or a very close by host hotel (bonus points if it’s close enough to an airport that folks flying in have an easy time navigating there)
• At least a few of the judges are recruited from out of region and are hand selected as experts in their topic
• Awards/stakes of the show feel higher caliber whether through how fancy they are or they may be of particular interest to entrants (such as Anise resin, partnerships with artists or brands, etc.)
• Whether through class list format or other show activities/structure, the event strives to be innovative enough to draw wide attention
• There may be a secondary event paired along with the show, such a swap meet or workshop which offers participants added value
• Show holder(s) make a targeted effort to market their event towards other regions and do so far enough in advance
• Ideally, for those traveling with family or taking a road trip to get there, I’d expect a decent amount of non-hobby amusement in the vicinity

I’m not really in a position to do a lot of travel outside of my region or the directly adjacent areas, at least not in terms of having the flexibility of planning for a big trip, for the time being. But I do enjoy the idea of destination shows and with only a few major hobby events during the year, adding a few more opportunities for folks with the means and time to travel and see friends is always great!