Factory weirdnesses

I'm so very good to say this, as my collection isn't huge, but I already know I have one model that is different from what all his clones are. My Cortes lacks eye whites!

How common are this kind of flaws in Breyers, overall? Is it nice or irritating to find out if your model seemingly is one of these? (I know some collectors don't accept even small flaws in their horses. This alone will do a difference in each collection.)

I personally like my C a lot. Partly because he was one of the two first Breyer trads I actually bought from internet; the first EVER was my PAM who was a flea market treasure.

I've noticed that sometimes Breyer should have some variety in the expressions of their horses, as the "looking forward" is not an option all the time, really. Often horses try to look more to the side or backward than forward.

For me, flawed models are really unique, as long as it's not about something like a paint drop escaped to wrong area - like with my Babyflo who has sand brown drop on her forelock. It definitely doesn't belong in there, so it's a factory mistake.

Anyway, I seem to be the rescuer of all failed models generally, according to how well the failed models end up with me. It's not a bad thing as long as the issue isn't too big or clear or disturbing.

I also have a random hobby of purposely finding and buying flawed models, as long as they fit my taste. Bent legs are not nice, I hate that as a thing, but interesting errors like paint flaws and mistakes are nice to find. I've done that with Schleich now, and I own a couple falabellas and a eyeless pony mare.

The falabellas I bought at 2017 as I was buying victims for a customizing tutorial I was doing with beginners in mind. I found what I needed, but my eye stuck to a difference among the row: one falabella was painted differently than the others, while being meant to be the same color! I have no idea how soon I could see the same thing again, so I had to buy both normal and the weird one and one normal for customizing.

The 'average' falabella pony. Creamy-ish color, no much contrast between the coat and mane & tail.

The strange one. He's much more yellow compared to the average guy. Hooves are very dark as well.

As you compare these two, you may notice how different not only the colors are, but also the spots. Especially the backside spots look like they're not meant to belong to one and same pony (good).

Their difference is this clear both through photos as seen with eyes.

I could definitely like to get information of why this kind of paint differences do happen in a batch that is sold at same time. At least I can try recognizing different painters by that, but it still feels weird.

The pony mares I bought at January 2019. As always, I was again looking for potential art victims, and saw that actually that pony mold wasn't so badly sculpted as most of Schleichs are. I was fine with having one OF in my shelf next to future CMs. As I checked which of the ponies was most flawless, I noticed that one of them had no eyes painted! It was a zombie! I bought it and one okay conditioned normal pony, but nothing for customizing, since I already had choosed one horse for that and Schleichs are too expensive to buy a lot at once.

The zombie pony.

While factory errors can be interesting, they also are gold for a artist who is interested to find out how some products are made. It's clear that Schleich loves airbrushing as a technique, just to use a brush after it. Though this isn't a difficult one to guess by those ponies. I rather continue to wonder why and how that kind of flawed model sneaked through the process and ended up in the store, and after it in my collection. Where was this mare made? How did it end up in Finland, let alone in my town? How was I in that store buying her at the right time? Schleichs are quite mass-produced stuff so this is a interesting coincidence. The shelf wasn't even overpopulated of the horses.

I don't see this kind of things very often. Maybe that is thanks to strict quality control, which focuses on keeping the models safe for little kids, I guess. Paint flaws definitely are not a safety risk, so they sometimes end up in the shops.