Over 50 years ago toy horses were introduced to the nation. From that point onwards, these model toys have grown in popularity to rival other model toys such as cars and planes. During this time, toy horses became more than just a horse toy. There is a whole sub-culture built around collecting and maintaining these toys to a high standard similar to how one would collect valuable antiques. This is where a Toy Horse Stable comes into play to add to the collection and keep toy horses in mint condition.
During the 1970′s, Breyer published a hobby magazine for the growing community. This was soon followed by the first set of limited edition artist resins model horses in the 1980′s. By the 1990′s, the collectors’ hobby blossomed and continues to be very popular today. Limited edition artist resins are released now with very limited editions of a few hundred pieces, or in some cases only 50 pieces. These pieces usually sell out quickly. After these toy horses are sold out, they increase significantly in value in the collector’s market. Their accompanying paraphernalia such as toy horse stables also add to the value of the models.
In the late 90′s new companies entered the toy horse market. The Stone horse company introduce a range of highly detailed models which rivalled Breyer in their complexity. While Breyer caters to the huge toy market as well as the collector’s market, Stone focuses more on limited edition collectibles. Other brands also entered the market including Hagen-Renaker Horses. Today, Schleich and Safari also offer detailed, hand-painted model horses. However, Schleich and Safari are more popular as toys rather than collectibles, perhaps due to the smaller size of their 1:24 scale horses compared to the larger 1:9 scale for Breyer and Stone horses. Despite all the competitors, Breyer still dominates this market for both toy horses and collectibles.
Keeping the toy horses in toy horse stables has been the next logical step and these stables not only serve to protect and beautify the toy horses, they also add intrinsically to the value of the toy horses when kept and sold together. Toy horse stables can range from anywhere between $30 to over $100. What began as a horse toy has developed into a full-blown hobby and collector community with thousands of devoted hobbyists all over the world. Answers Youtube Amazon
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