It's Friday, I'm a Judge! Traditional Collectability #4

It's time for another Friday judging clinic! This week is a Traditional collectability class. 

As always, my personal judging history and credentials can be found on my About Me page. 

It has to be said - I love my decorators. I love horses in fun, unnatural colors. I love unicorns and other fantasy models. They're just fun, and I love fun. Not to mention, they are usually solely judged on my favorite thing - collectability! Or, at least they should be. I've attended the occasional show where the judge disregards the collectability information provided and places the models on color/workmanship. It can be frustrating when you've brought your rarities for them to get overlooked. I think it's important to remember that in most OF shows, the default criteria for the decorator and fantasy classes is usually collectability. Decorator/fantasy collectability is judged on the same criteria as realistic model collectability - age, rarity, desirability, and condition. Let's look at our class. 

Horse A: Pollock - BreyerFest Special Run - 2021 - Gold variation - 200 made

Horse B: Under the Sea - BreyerFest Special Run - 2011 - 1,100 made

Horse C: Gabriel - Breyer Christmas Day Gamblers Web Special - 2022 - Purple colorway - 500 made

Think about what to look for in a collectability entry - who is the rarest? Who is the oldest? Who is the most desirable? When you have your placings, mine can be found under the jump. ↓ 

The Placings:

🥇1st: Horse A - Pollock

There is an easy first place pin the the class today, and that is the gold variation Pollock. At 200 pieces, he's the most rare horse in the class. Both variations of Pollock were and continue to be popular - the rainbow pintaloosa coat design is especially unique in Breyer history, and Valegro is a sought-after mold. On the basis of his rarity and desirability, gold Pollock is first and it's really not even close. 

🥈2nd: Horse B - Under the Sea

Second place is a little trickier, but I pinned Under The Sea. There are more made of her than Gabriel, it's true. That being said, she's a little harder to find due to her age - she's about fifteen years old, so most of these girls have been dispersed into collections and aren't as easy to find on the market. Bluegrass Bandit is a fairly popular mold, with several die-hard fans. Under the Sea is also more unique in the Breyer lineup as a clearware due to the mermaid designs - most clearware do not have patterns incorporated. Finally, she pays homage to one of the most popular Disney movies (The Little Mermaid) through her name, so you have crossover appeal with Disney fans. While these factors aren't enough to compete with the run number on gold Pollock, it's enough to place her second in this class. 

🥉3rd: Horse C - Gabriel

Gabriel is the third place pin. While numbers-wise he's rarer than Under The Sea, he's significantly newer and less popular than her. The German Riding Pony has fans, but Bluegrass Bandit is more popular. The Gabriel run was additionally very simple - they're all one solid color, which reads as boring to some collectors. Finally, because of how relatively new the run is, they're fairly easy to find on the secondhand market, and the prices are affordable (and for some colors, well under the initial price from Breyer). At this point in time, Gabriel is the least collectible of the three models. 

How did you place this class? Why did you place the class this way? Did it align with my placings? Remember, we don't have to agree with how the class is placed so long as you can articulate why you placed the class that way!