The Elephant(s) in the Room

It was quite the model mail week here! These elephants are in the category of so rare that I never thought I would find them and then I got both in the same week! I still can't believe that is even real. From what we know the pink and blue elephants were likely only made in 1958 because they are listed on the 1958 price list but not included in the catalog, and in fact that is the only place they have ever been listed that I am aware of.

If you were following the story of the pink one on Facebook, he was a remarkable antique store find - the kind where if I found it I would probably faint for a moment. He is in basically mint condition with the original box stamped with 92 Pink Elephant! He was then listed in the Rare Model Sales group where I was lucky enough to win the final bid.

The blue one also turned up in the wild in an estate sale and was then listed on eBay where I also was the lucky winner. He's a little bit yellowed which makes him look a bit more green and which is somewhat common for the blue elephants that are known. I don't know if sun will help or make it worse - they are both molded from colored plastic and not painted and also don't appear to have any topcoat so the yellowing is likely on the surface itself. I may very cautiously, and while very closely monitoring, try a little bit of sun to see if it has an effect.

The pink one is amazingly vibrant and looks like it probably spent most of it's life in the box. In fact the box is the real find here. In keeping with the valuation theme of this blog - the pink elephant and box sold for $4000 while the blue elephant solo ended at $481.37. Condition definitely plays a part in that but the box is the real differentiator.

I also ran across this unusual Classic Mustang Foal. Unusual classic mustangs are becoming a theme for me this year! She looks very much like the Fine Horse Family foal except that she is more of a bay with black points and has grey hooves, where the Fine Horse Family foal is a chestnut with pink hooves. Some people also suggested maybe she's the appaloosa family foal without spots, but that foal has three socks and also pink hooves.

So I don't know if she's an oops or a variation or a test but she's cool and different! She was in a random stuff auction on Hi-Bid with some other normal 90s and 00s foals, so there was no helpful information to be deduced from what she was with.

Rounding out the week I also picked up this gorgeous two-sock bay Proud Arabian Mare. The hind sock version is uncommon and I mostly just really loved the color on this one. She needs a little bit of cleaning and resto work but I'd love to see if I can get her in show condition. Just like the glossy one from yesterday I like the offside better, but she's really pretty all around.

So that's pretty much my Breyerfest budget blown! I typically do well with room sales though so I can usually count on that to help with my own room shopping. For many years I held off on online shopping for the first half of the year to save for BF but then didn't find anything that I liked better than the things I had passed up. Now I have learned to just go with what comes and no regrets! Particularly if I follow my internal gauge of "If I walked in to a CHIN room or antique store and saw this model at this price, would I buy it on the spot"