Proud, In Between, and Family Arab Mares

(From Breyer History Diva, 2009.)
Since the topic has come up over the weekend, let’s have a little primer on the differences between the Family Arabian Mare, the Old Mold/Proud Arabian Mare, and the elusive In-Between Mare.

As the recent auction of an Old Mold Appaloosa Mare illustrated, this is no quibbling point of trivia for history nerds: this is a case where ignorance could have devastating consequences.

How so?

You can hook yourself up with a pretty, minty Gray Appaloosa Family Mare for a twenty (and maybe get some change back for your trouble); an Old Mold Appaloosa Mare might set you back about 100 twenties, and if you’re lucky she might not need that much restoration to make her presentable.

And an In-Between Mare? Try 250 twenties - yes, even in THIS economy. (You could conceivably knock off a couple hundred if she were body quality. But it’s not likely.)

With a value spread like that, is it any wonder why some of us go ballistic when some collectors so casually confuse them?

The easiest, simplest, most foolproof method of telling them apart is the tail. The differences aren’t subtle, either, as my illustration shows: the Old Mold/Proud Arabian Mare’s tail attached to her leg at the hock; the In-Between Mare’s tail skirts her body and flips out at the tip; and the Family Mare’s tail is relatively straight and otherwise unattached to any other part of her anatomy.


(For the record, I do not own the Woodgrain IBM illustrated: it’s a picture from my reference files. If I had one, trust me, y’all would know!)

If you know nothing else about Breyer History or trivia, the one thing you should know is how to tell these three ladies apart: it literally could mean the difference between buying lunch for two, or making your house payment - for two months! (Or more, depending on your local housing market.)

Proud Arab Mare - Warping

(Breyer History Diva, 2009.)


The degree of bend on the newer Proud Arabian Mares varies from Paso-like paddling to near perpendicularity. Here's a slightly blurry but still legible front end shot of my J.C. Penney's XMAS SR Solid Bay with stripe, ca. 1983. I bought her from a very reputable collector, so I know there was no funny business involved:


I've gotten conflicting stories as to what was wrong or missing from the original Mare's mold when they decided to bring her back. Was it half the mold, part of the mold, or just the cooling boards? I don't know.

The most common explanation I received back in the day was that the cooling board fixtures were missing. These fixtures are essentially metal "braces" that freshly molded parts are placed in to minimize warping and twisting while the plastic is cooling. You can see pictures of some of these fixtures on page 9 of Marney Walerius's Breyer Models:


This bending occurs because Tenite is a semi-synthetic plastic, and is subject to even minor changes in the environment. The heat, the humidity, the quality of the plastic, the quantity of regrind in the plastic, what the mold operator had for dinner the night before can affect the degree of warpage.

Another potential source of the problem is the original source material: the large H-R Zara. As reported in Nancy Young's classic tome Breyer Molds & Models, some Zaras also experience the toeing out phenomenon. In reworking or recasting whatever parts were necessary from the H-R original, the flaw inherent in the Zara mold as it existed back in the early 1970s may have been passed on to her descendant, the Proud Arabian Mare.