Questionable Creative Ventures

we be picture hosting clinky china ponies tonight

Little plastic knockoff of the Breyer Fighting Stallion. He’s smaller than the original, so must have been resculpted from scratch to make a new mold. Aside from the heavy seams, I actually like him a lot. Came in as by-catch with a body lot. 

Completed the doll set for this project. That’s a Lori black equestrian doll and a Paradise Kids boy rodeo doll. Talk about unicorns in the horse toy world! The boy’s proportions are wacky but the limbs are nicely jointed and his accessories are detailed, down to removable silver plastic spurs. The girl is adorable but isn’t jointed or poseable like most horse-associated figure dolls. Diversity in the “plastic model horses” segment of childrens’ toys is really rough. Breyer comes up with a black doll and a boy doll once in a blue moon but hasn’t had anything in 1:12 size in ages. They did two nice Native American girl dolls though, that are still buyable on the used market. Lori doll is 6 inch, correct scale, but incorrect figure proportions and jointing, and Paradise Kids has great clothing and figure, and no diversity to speak of plus a lackluster head sculpt. Empire had blond girl dolls but I don’t think they ever made anything noteworthy on the diversity side. I don’t know if Blue Ribbon or the other now-defunct 1:12 scale plastic horse makers did anything good with dolls. 

Self-indulgent detail work, really leaning into that brush texture! If all you have is a paintbrush, then you use a paintbrush. Working nose to tail, so his front quarter is done, his middle half is in progress and his rump is just blocky base colors. 

Trying to ID this bycatch plastic pony that came in with a closet lot purchase a while back. She’s a Breyer “running mare” shape but wrong size and material. Can’t ID her as a Hartland either. 

A bunch of my old breyer bodies weren’t suitable for this project due to missing pieces, and I didn’t want to give a kid something that was going to shed a leg in a few years, so I picked up a couple body lots on eBay. They were only a few bucks each even with shipping, so good deal! 

Lookit I’m painting babies. 

Little Native American Breyer doll came in today! Now I got three ladies with all their cloths and accessories. I’m giving this kiddo a diverse horse lineup, I can give her a diverse rider set as well. Breyer, Grand Champion and... Marchon? I can’t remember what brand the right-hand one in the turtleneck is. They all go together pretty cute though and are made to be used with model horses. Still hoping to pick up a boy doll and a black doll, but they are super rare at this scale in the model horse toy lineup. Breyer made one a while back and I should have just eaten the cost and grabbed the one I saw on eBay... didn’t realize how rare they were at the time! 

Had a fun moment today when I realized the Native Diver I’d been stripping was actually a factory repaint of a dapple grey JC Penny box set racehorse! 

Ok favorite part so far is painting manes and tails and white ticking. Never thought that’d be the case but there is something very satisfying about painting with a good fine brush and the right thinness of watered-down white acrylic. Need to go back over some markings but I get now why the hobby is 85% wild sabinos by volume! 

Got a good herd all sanded and primed, and am learning more about working with apoxie! That’s a Rugged Lark, getting a nice big forelock to distract from that wonky head sculpt. He also got an ear job via the dremmel.