Friday, August 01, 2014

Play Sets and Singles: Got to Be a Götz - Ponies and Dolls

Götz (or Goetz in the US) started as a small, family owned, German doll company in the 1950s. Originally made with paper mache, in 1957 the company began using rotational molding to produce vinyl dolls. They pioneered the mass-production of "designer" dolls with their product line by artist, Sasha Morgenthaler, in 1964. After establishing a factory in the US in the late 1980s, Götz became involved with the Pleasant Company, the producers of the American Girl Dolls.33 The company continues to be a major player in the designer doll world to this day.

Breyer produced models for both the Pleasant Company and Götz, but the runs produced for the former company were only of the larger scales, and thus of little interest to us here.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Look-Alikes: G1 Native Dancer

Compared to some of the other molds, Native Dancer's look-alikes are blissfully simple. There are really only two releases which might possibly cause a moment of confusion.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Variation Spotlight: G1 Quarter Horse Stallion #495092 & #711094

Sears Special Run
#495092 Stablemate Assortment IV
1992
&
JCPenney Special Run
#711094 12-Piece Stablemates Set
1994

There isn't too much to say about these guys. Breyer's splatter appaloosa technique results in a unique pattern every time, so every model produced for these two runs will be a variation. Let's just sit back and enjoy the spotty goodness.

Friday, July 04, 2014

Conga! G1 Native Dancer

The original ceramic Hagen-Renaker mold, #12 Mini Native Dancer6, was sculpted by Maureen Love Calvert, and leased from the company by Breyer for production in plastic. The Native Dancer mold was released in 1976 and was discontinued along with the other Generation One molds in 2005. During this time, Breyer released only four regular runs and eight special runs on this mold, making this the second least used G1 mold, just ahead of the G1 Quarter Horse Mare.