Funrise part II : the fun also rises

 To set the scene:

It is 1989, or possibly 1990. Young Me has come to town with my parents and - happy happy joy joy - not only do we go to the library, but to the bookstore as well. And that's not all, this bookstore has an upstairs toy department*! 

My allowance is practically burning a hole in my pocket as I climb the stairs, 

and there 

in front of me 

is 

the beautiful golden palomino stallion of my wildest dreams:

okay, so I may have hyped that up juuust a tad. But hey, I was 8 (or 9), horse crazy, and living in a non-Breyer country. 

And this was the coolest thing I'd ever seen, let alone been able to buy for myself, because these ticked every box on my personal list of what makes a toy awesome:

1) Horse. Well I mean obviously. But a toy brand that was all horses, and realisticish ones at that?
2) Collectibility (the entire series was pictured on the back of the packaging, so you could plan which to get next)
3) Learning! I was, and still am, the sort of person who hoards information. Those breed info cards... dammit, I still want them.
4) Price! One model cost just about exactly one week's allowance for a not particularly rich kid

After the Palomino came the Pinto, then the Lipizzan (who I named Lipstick. The good folks at Piber would not approve.), the Appaloosa, and the rest. 

not my original herd, but I think these were my first six.

                   

 As an adult collector it can be hard to say what made these so beloved. They certainly aren't masterpieces, artistically or conformationally, and it is very obvious that the sculptor (whoever they were) was working from 2D pictures without having much knowledge of equine anatomy. 

Still, there's an endearing sincerity to these models. Just the fact that they aren't your typical "Basic Horse Shape #1" painted different colours - something even bigger brands have gotten away with - but all individual sculpts, even the ones in identical poses. And they all have little flourishes - a wisp of mane, a turn of the head, a tail that isn't just a hanging sausage shape textured with parallel lines - which add personality and suggest that whoever made these actually cared about making the model and went beyond the bare minimum. 

A quick rundown of the first series' identifying features:

* - that bookstore is now a cafe, which is nice, but the toy department is now occupied by a shop that sells ugly posh clothes. boo.