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Ever since I was little, I've loved horses and have wanted everything to
do with them. I had regular riding lessons and collected absolutely anything
to do with horses. The only collectible that seemed to be missing was a
decent range of good-looking horse toys. I was in ecstasy when I found the
first ever Grand Champions I'd seen in Australia in a huge Toy Warehouse
in Bendigo in the mid 90's. I was about 10 years old. It seemed no other
horse toy had been made before (well, that deserved my attention), and certainly
not to the Grand Champions' standard. They looked so lifelike- since I couldn't
have the real thing, I wanted the next best thing! I loved all the little
details that they went to the trouble of doing, like, the 'GC' branding
on the rumps of the horses, the little bio cards that had each horses' name
and photo and also described the horses' personality and ancestry. There
were so many fun things to play with; the saddles (with unfastenable girths!)
with their saddle rugs, the bridles, the brushes, horse families with little
cute foals and not to mention all the awesome accessories that were soon
to come such as the English rider/saddles/stable and the western rider/saddles
and stable! And the horses were oh-so beautiful.
My horse-mad friend also collected Grand Champions but only ended up getting
a few. She had the ones I didn't have so when we played together, we'd have
them all. She also had the Western stable that I didn't have either so we'd
have the whole set. We'd make huge horse studs with the rider's house (a
doll's house), saddle racks and other wonderful things like toy dogs and
horse rugs made out of cloth and tissues.
Every spare scrap of money I could lay my hands on would be spent on the
wonderful Grand Champions which were soon filling the floor of my bedroom
(it was a giant paddock!). I would be on my best behaviour all of the time
so my dad would buy me a Grand Champion or two (and in those days things
were cheaper and money would go further) until I had almost all that were
in the shops. There's only a few I don't have from that time frame as well
as the western stable.
Suddenly, Grand Champions trickled out and could not be found anywhere and
the awesome Toy Warehouse in Bendigo shut down. I asked at other toy shops
what had happened to my beloved Grand Champions and they told me that the
entire line had been discontinued, because the company went bankrupt. I
was saddened by the abrupt end to my wonderful Grand Champions collecting
and lost interest for a few years and stored my GC's away.
I went 'off' toys for a while, then I met Shane. Because of his rampant
toy collecting, he encouraged me to try and find new Grand Champions and
display my GC's in my bedroom once again, so I did and once again became
interested in the latest horse toys. I knew I could not find any GC's anywhere
and was appalled at the crapiness of the horse toys around at the time.
I decided to look on the net for some groups and info on Grand Champions
and started emailing the company that had take over the production of GC's
(in the USA) to find out whether or not I could be finding any GC's in Australia
ever again. They told me that apparently, there was one GC out in Australia,
a stable set. I searched everywhere I saw it a few times, for $60. When
finally I had saved enough money, I couldn't find it anywhere. Then one
day, Shane found one in a mangulated box at a Harris Scarfe sale. I was
over the moon, it was cheaper because it was a sale and I told them I was
a collector and was dissatisfied with the condition of the box and got a
further discount!
Another day in late March 2002, on one of Shane and my regular toy hunts,
I found a suspicious looking horse toy. The horse was cheap and tacky but
it was the saddle and brush that caught my attention. They were EXACTLY
the same as the mid 90's Grand Champion saddles and brushes! They had even
copied the GC logo and design on the saddle. I knew this was all incredibly
illegal and breaching copyright rules so I once again emailed the Grand
Champion company, concerned, and told them all about it. They were very
interested and got me to buy the illegal rip offs and send them over to
them, via Fed Ex in exchange for a Grand Champion reward. I wanted to help,
regardless of the reward for me involved (I felt the strong need for justice!)
and eagerly sent off the rip offs, all expenses paid. We kept exchanging
emails and the fakes got to the USA fine, and they were in fact breaching
copyright laws.
The company thanked me dearly and told me my big reward was on its way.
Boy, was I in for a HUGE surprise! I'm so lucky and thankful! I received
an unbelievably sized box full of the latest Grand Champions, that hadn't
been released in Australia yet (and still aren't!)! They were even more
beautiful, even more detailed, even more colourful and came with even more
accessories, than I was used to with the 'old' ones. I fell in love once
again, instantly. Included in this GRAND box was a GRAND array of beautiful
GC's, of all scales... and best of all, a NEW HUGE scale PROTOTYPE! A prototype
that hadn't even gone into production yet, was in a mock-up box and that
NO ONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD OWNS! I was the first of the public to see
and own the brand new scale. (Shane informed me that having a prototype
is what every collector dreams of having and they are worth a lot!) I own
the coolest, most ultimate collector's item, now. ALL the Grand Champions
I received as a thankyou are beautiful, I love them all and my love and
faith has been re-born into the incredible Grand Champion world!
I haven't seen any Grand Champions in shops since early 2002, but I keep
getting assured that I will soon, and I can't wait to resume collecting
these wonderful toys! The sculpts, colours, details, breeds and everything
about them has been improved 100%, under the new management, they are very
impressive and magnificent!
LONG LIVE GRAND CHAMPS!
For an exact, detailed history of Grand Champions or to ID any Grand Champion
horse, visit this awesome site:
Whimsy's
Stable (Grand Champions ID site)
For other fantastic Grand Champion
collectors' websites, visit any of these:
Evergreen Stables
SugarBoom
Ranch
Verwandeln Stables
ATA Stables
Phoenix Stables
Sommersette Grove
Official Grand Champions
website
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Site design, graphics and layout
by Shane Heron. All images and text are the property of Shane Heron and
Lou Walters.
Do not use this sites content without permission. Any questions or comments?
Please contact us...
Shane... swh_dragon@hotmail.com
, Lou... loucifer_6969@hotmail.com
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