Collection Spotlight: Rainbow Chase Mini Croi

For my collection spotlight this week, I pulled out one of my favorite Stablemate chase models - the rainbow Croi from the Chasing Rainbows unicorn blind bag set. The rainbow Croi is the rare chase to the pink chrome Warmblood Mare ultra rare (who I have yet to track down!)

The Chasing Rainbows unicorn blind bags were in production from 2021-2024. They were a regular run set, with six unicorns in the assortment, plus two chase models for a total of eight unicorns. While the ultra rare chase did not have their mold repeated in the assortment, this girl did. The Croi mold was used for a purple unicorn. We're not going to talk about how many purple unicorns ended up in my house in the search for this girl! 

I was lucky in getting this girl - my one of my local brick and mortar stores opened another location near me, and I attended the grand opening with a couple of hobby folks. I was able to comb through untouched boxes of blind bags and got not only this girl, but the silver chrome Vanner chase from the 70th Anniversary blind bags on the same day! 

My rainbow Croi shows under the name "Smol Gay Bean." At Rainbow Rave this year, my friend who ran my show string on my behalf while I was judging picked her out to enter the Call Me By Your Name fun class. Unfortunately, she did not win, but I still love her name! She is smol, she is gay, and she is shaped like a bean. It fits! 

Like Gold Baby, the rainbow Croi is a chase model that does well for me in collectability classes. Unlike the chase models for the Tractor Supply blind bags, the regular run chase models are often harder to find. Tractor Supply locations are widespread and easily accessible to hobbyists, so hitting up multiple locations to feel up bags is often easy. On the other hand, regular run blind bags end up at Breyer brick and mortar retailers, which are more spread out, or online only where there is no way of determining which ones you get. It's therefore more likely that regular run chase models end up in the hands of casual collectors or children, and scarcer to collectors. 

She also fits nicely in my annual Pride pony display - we love a rainbow pony for that reason! I'd also love to see Breyer use this gradient type rainbow color again, although maybe with a touch of red in there too.