Vintage Hagen-Renaker Miniature Horses, Part One

It's not uncommon to hear model horse collectors wish that they could travel back in time to find their favorite figurines when they were new. For me, finding vintage Hagen-Renaker horse figurines at second-hand physical locations like antique stores, estate sales, thrift stores, and yard sales is the next best thing to time travel. (To encourage other people to seek out used model horses in physical locations, some other collectors and I started the Model Horse Liberation Front group on Facebook a few years ago.)

Recently, I purchased a fairly large collection of Hagen-Renaker figurines, mostly miniatures, that I was told originally came from the estate of a former H-R employee. The figurines had been in storage for several years.  I was pleased to see several H-R miniatures horses in the lot.  Here are some of them. All were designed by Maureen Love.  Some of them need a bit more cleaning before they're ready to join the herd on my shelves!


A-458 American Saddlebred, Style One, white colorway, first issued Spring 1959.

Also in the lot was an unfinished brown mini ASB.  His missing legs were not part of the lot I purchased, unfortunately. You can see the portions that had not been painted before he was rejected as a "factory second," particularly in the first photo with a finished piece.

This is the A-314 Head-Up Pony, without harness, issued Fall 1956-Spring 1957.

And the A-267 Circus Pony, head down, with harness, issued Fall 1956-Spring 1957.

I really like the little matte A-323 Western Horse, issued in Spring 1957.  This example has a black and white striped saddle blanket, as opposed to the regular blue blanket for this piece.  Note his hand-painted eye, nostril, and mouth detail.

He looks a bit more yellow with the camera flash on.

I think this is the nicest example I've ever owned of the A-457 Thoroughbred, first issued in Fall 1958. I believe he is an older version of this design, since he lacks the facial markings for "Swaps." 

And he has lovely expressive eyes.

There were a couple of other vintage miniature Hagen-Renaker horses in the lot, but I'll save them for a future post.

Periodical Promotion of Plastic Ponies: 1960s Breyer Newspaper Ads

Local businesses that sold Breyer horses during the 1960s, like toy stores and variety stores, sometimes took out local newspaper advertisements.  Here are some examples.  (Note the prices!)

Henderson's Variety Store took out a multi-page ad
in the Lockhart, Texas Post-Register, on 4 June 1964. 
Breyers were prominently featured.

The "Discount Department" of the AFCO store
took out this ad in the Santa Maria, California Times, 24 June 1964.

The Family Arabian Stallion was featured
in this Davis Paint store ad
in the Ottawa, Kansas Herald, 12 December 1963.

O'Brien's, in the 27 August 1962 edition
of the Sayre, Pennsylvania Evening Times,
was quite poetic in their promotion
of the after-dinner purchase of a model horse or two.