~ Horse Country ~


My grulla mare, happily re-haired!
There is hope for HC horses after all!

In 2003, Alpha International promised big changes for our wondeful Grand Champion toyline. Rumours about "Horse Country" began to emerge, a new type of horse that was aimed not at only girls, but everyone. It's very true that in latter years, the GC horses had become decidedly girly, with pretty tack and ribbons, and those mauve-coloured boxes. Certainlly no little boy would be caught dead with that! But what was a boy who loved horses supposed to do? And Alpha's answer?
Horse Country.

These are the horses. Sold in bold red boxes with a dessert scean sprawled across, they are decidedly a different kind of horse. For one thing, they're supposed to be wild horses. To the point, they have short manes and tails. Why this is supposed to make them look wild is still under much debate (wild horses usually have long, uncut manes and tails) but my guess was to make them look more feral. And do they? No, no really. In fact, they look.... well, silly.

The only notable part of the new HC horses is thier colouring - there are some wonderfully detailed roans with a whole lot of flecking! The shading is awsome with many subtle tones of colour. Now if only the rest of the horse were as mentionable...

The Stallions

These new stallions are perhapse the strangest things of all. For one thing, they feature new molds - but don't get excited. These horses are awful - not only are they in gangly and unsual poses, the sculpting is terribly inferior to previous horses; the animals are anatomically incorrect with thier knock-knees and gaunt faces. All I can hope is that these terrible new models DO NOT turn up in our beloved GC line!

Now these stallions look pretty fammiliar.... besides the fact that two of them are actually MARES, they are quite typical GC Horses. I really have only one question - who has ever heard of a WILD CLYDESDALE?! Anyone? no? *shakes head* Good greif.

And these are them. Not to mince words, they are probably the most horredous sight to come out of GC. Considerably worse then even the old Cleveland Bay stallion pose, these horses are mal-formed and akward; they look worse then *fakies*. The only stallion here I wouldn't mind seeing in person is the rearing roan; while he looks more like he's preforming circus tricks (no horse rears like that naturally) his colour is lovely. On the other side of the spectrum, that paint horse is work of lunacy.

Mares and Foals ~

The Mares, in comparison to the stallions, are nothing too scary. They're familiar faces we've seen before, only in new colours, and with that ratty new hair-do. But I suppose after seeing the stallion molds, roached hair isn't the worst possible thing; after all, you can rehair them!

The grey mare and foal actually come with bi-coloured manes. One side is black, and the other is white. It's a neat effect, and we understand what they were going for, but I would still like to have seen the colour distributed a little more evenly.

Mini Horse Sets ~

Not to be outdone, Horse Country also has Mini and Micro horses in their lineup! While the mircos are simply re-releases of earilier years, the mini sets are unique, at least in that each and everyone has that nappy HC hair cut!

Above, new family sets; below, new activity sets. What hair!

If you have better pictures of the HC Horses and would like to add them to the gallery, please give me a shout! Thanks so much toKristin for the pictures of her grey mustang family.

You can buy Horse Country Horses Online from Birdsong Collectables!

Or check out Blue Paradise Stables for further hilariously scathing accounts of HC horrors...

Questions? Comments? Email Me!

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