Breyer Web Special: Pace Yourself

Collectors are reporting that their Pace Yourself models are arriving, and boy there's a lot of talk about this model!  People love to snark, but I think it's obvious that despite the usual complaints (Breyer puts out too many dapples; the dapples look weird; the model is tippy) this was a successful run of unusually expensive models at a very tight financial time.  What more could Breyer ask for?

Breyer's Web Specials are a Secret Squirrel sale which happens occasionally.  If you are subscribed to their Just About Horses magazine, and they have your email address on file, then you may be lucky enough to get a Web Special announcement email.  (Or maybe not!  I'm not sure if it's that not everyone is sent the email, or if it's just that not everyone receives the email.  At any rate, I read several complaints from people saying they didn't get it.)

The email in this case instructed people to phone into Breyer's customer service to order the model between 2PM and 5PM Eastern Time on one particular date.  Phone orders only, and such a short window!  I wonder if their lines were swamped?

This order specified only one model per household, presumably in an attempt to ensure that everyone had a chance to buy one.  With such a limited run - only 200 made - I appreciate Breyer's attempts to mediate between the eBay buyers and the real collectors.  

These procedures seem like a direct response to the Silver Snow "situation."  In December of 2008 Breyer issued a web special for a model named Silver Snow, with a run that was also limited to only 200 models.  Resellers snapped up Silver Snow in droves, and quickly turned them around for a substantial profit.  

Pace Yourself is also priced at $135, and is sure to be a solid collector's item.  Using the classic Chris Hess Pacer model, Pace Yourself is a dapple gray with primitive stripes on his legs, three white socks, and an amazing gloss coating.  The original email describes it as "a rich coat of gloss for that porcelain look reminiscent of the 1960s," and it is absolutely right.  The gloss coating is really remarkable!

I had a bay Pacer when I was a kid.  He originally came with a sulky and a doll, but these accoutrements were quickly lost.  Then he proceeded to fall over every time someone looked at him cross-wise.  At one point I had to resort to fixing him in place by sticking his hooves in big blobs of modeling clay!  

People are reporting that their Pace Yourself models seem much better balanced than the original Pacer.  Thank goodness for that, but I wonder how Breyer managed it?  And why they didn't re-balance any of the original models?  My Pacer finally took a tumble onto a surface so hard that he lost a leg, wouldn't stand, and I think my mother threw him away.  I wish the new Pace Yourself models well, and I'll keep my fingers crossed that they never meet such an undignified fate!