Original Finish Model Reviews #1 - Cracker Barrel Blind Bag Stablemates

  

 
Today I thought I'd try something new: a review of some of my newest original finish models.  This review is just my opinion and is based on what I have personally observed. Some of it is merely speculation, and it is entirely likely that some of my speculations are either partially or entirely wrong. I'd love to hear your thoughts, and if people seem to like this I might do some more of these reviews in the future.

Anyway, last week I heard there was a new set blind bag Stablemates that had been released. At Cracker Barrel of all places.

I decided to go looking for them. The G4 Arabian isn't my favorite mold, but blue is my favorite color and this one was a really nice blue.

There are a couple of Cracker Barrels not too far from where I live. Even so I wasn't expecting to have much luck. Anything Breyer-related tends to disappear really quickly around here and it took me over a month and driving around half the state to get a complete set of the Walmart blind bags.

But, as you have probably already guessed from the pictures in this post, I was successful in my quest. The first Cracker Barrel I went to had a big glass jar with twelve of the blind bags. I initially bought six, and got the G3 Stock Horse, a Peruvian Paso, two Mustangs, and two sorrel Arabians.

 

I was able to go back the next morning, and, surprised they were still there, bought the remaining six. I got another Paso, the pony, cantering warmblood, Thoroughbred, Tennessee Walking Horse, and, the one I was really after: the shiny blue Arabian, who had some really nice, almost purplish undertones that I hadn't been expecting.

Five of the nine horses in these blind bags are the same colors/molds as models in the blind bags released at Walmart a few months ago. Of course I started comparing them, and one of the first things I noticed was that the Cracker Barrel horses have a string of numbers/letters printed in silver on their bellies , something the Walmart models don't have:

This is the code on the blue Arabian. It's the same on all of my models from Cracker Barrel

The silver doesn't show up well on the Peruvian Pasos, but you can see it in the right light:

You can see the entire code on the Pasos in person, I just couldn't get it to show up in photos. 

Besides the silver code stamped on their bellies, the paint jobs on some of my Cracker Barrel models were noticeably different than my Walmart and/or regular run models.

Of course, with such a tiny sample size, I have no idea if these are actual differences between the runs, or just variations between the particular models I ended up with. I just thought the comparison shots were interesting enough that I'd share them here.

Horse on left is from Walmart, horse on right is from Cracker Barrel

My gray G3 Tennessee Walking horses are quite different. The model from Walmart has a relatively pale body color with much darker shading on the mare, tail, and lower legs, while the horse from Cracker Barrel has points that are only slightly darker than the rest of the body.

 



Horse on left is from Walmart, horse on right is from Cracker Barrel

The strawberry roan G3 Stock Horses are also markedly different. The Walmart horse had much heavier speckling and some almost grayish shading while the Cracker Barrel horse had light, fine speckling and a more orange-ish color.

 

First two on the left are regular runs, 3rd and 4th from the left are from Walmart, horse on the far right is from Cracker Barrel.

The blue roan G3 Pony is the only one for which I have the regular run, the Walmart run, and the Cracker Barrel run. I actually somehow ended up with two each of the regular and Walmart runs.

The differences between these are more noticeable in person. The Walmart and Cracker Barrel horses appear to have been painted with a pale gray undercoat, while the darker shading on the regular runs appears to have been painted directly over the white plastic.



Horse on left is a regular run, horse in center is from Walmart, horse on right is from Cracker Barrel

The regular run ponies also have more shading on their bodies, particularly on their necks, while the shading on the blind bag models is more restricted to their points, which, along with the pseudo-chalky undercoat, gives their paint jobs a harsher, more contrasty appearance. The regular run and Walmart horses have a combination of dark and light splatter roaning while the Cracker Barrel model only has the dark splatter roaning.



Leftmost three horses are from Walmart, horse on far right is from Cracker Barrel

I somehow ended up with three of the Walmart bay semi-leopard appaloosa G3 Cantering Warmbloods. They're all a bit different so I decided to just keep them all. Splatter appaloosas tend to be particularly variable, but I think my Cracker Barrel horse has a couple of noticeable differences aside from the belly stamp.



Horse on left is from Walmart, horse on right is from Cracker Barrel

First, the bay coloring, particularly on the face, is darker and more semi-glossy on the Cracker Barrel horse than any of the Walmart models.

Horse on left is from Walmart, horse on right is from Cracker Barrel

And second, the spotting technique used appears to be slightly different. The Cracker Barrel horse's spots are comparatively more sparse and more similar in size, as if they were applied in a single pass.

The Walmart models by comparison have more spots, and the spots can be split into two size groups: fine specks and larger spots more like those on the Cracker Barrel model. I speculate the spots on the Walmart models may have been applied in two passes.

(Please note that I really don't know how any of these were painted, I'm just guessing based on what the models look like. With these splatter appaloosas especially I suspect that I might be wrong.)

 

Horses on left and in center are from Walmart, horse on right is from Cracker Barrel

The chestnut G3 Thoroughbred probably shows the least difference between the Walmart and Cracker Barrel runs. There are some slight differences in shading, but all three of my horses are pretty much the same shade of orange-brown. The one from Cracker Barrel is a little more semi-glossy and the Walmart ones are a little more matte, but the difference really isn't all that noticeable.



Horse on left is from Walmart, horse on right is from Cracker Barrel

As you can sort of see in the second picture, the Cracker Barrel Thoroughbred is just a tiny bit more shiny than the one from Walmart.

You can also see some rubs on the Cracker Barrel horse's shoulder. Rubs seem to be a major issue for the blind bag models in general. 



Horse on left is a regular run, center and right horses are from Cracker Barrel

The black blanket appaloosa G3 Mustang wasn't included in the Walmart blind bags, but he was released as a regular run which I have. My regular run differs from the Cracker Barrel horses in that he has stenciled socks while the Cracker Barrel horses' stockings are just airbrushed.

One last thing I thought was interesting when comparing these models was that my greenish-gold Walmart Friesian has a thin coat of gloss while my blue Cracker Barrel Arabian doesn't. I wish they would have done them in the same finish, but they nevertheless still look pretty cool together:


I can't help wondering if we'll be seeing more of these metallic Stablemates with black points popping up in other blind bags in the future. It'd be really cool to have a whole rainbow of them on different molds, I just don't relish the thought of tracking them all down. I've been lucky that so far I've been at least semi close-ish to the areas where these have been released.

Hopefully you enjoyed this over-analysis of these model. If you have gotten any of these models I'd love to hear your thoughts on them, especially whether you think my comparisons hold up, or if there's just too much variations to be able to identify them based on the characteristics of their paint jobs.

I have been busy working in the studio as well, and will hopefully be posting some updates on that front soon.