Making the minis

I was invited to a birthday party for one of my elementary school classmates. We were friendly, but not really friends, and I had no idea what to give her. After a lot of consideration, I went with what was clearly the best possible gift for anyone: a Breyer horse. She was surprised when she opened it. Not because it was a Breyer - my horse girl proclivities were well known - but because it did not need assembling. She'd thought model horses were like model cars. She assumed they came in kits, and you had to build them yourself.

1980 Breyer promotional material

The MiniVerse Make It Mini Animals both are and are not kits.

The animals themselves are like Breyer horses. No assembly is required.

That said, I did have to add eyes and a mouth line to the snake. He looked unfinished without them.

The accessories is where the kit part comes into play.

Some of projects require no more than removing the animal from its carrying case...

and assembling its environment.

Heh.

Of course, I always feel compelled to take things a little further.

Although the props are fine as is, they do look better - and a lot less plasticky - with a little bit of paint.

These are fun, easy projects. 

Well, mostly....

Neither Angelo nor I have had any luck with the fish.

RIP Guppy. You are a bad kids' craft.

If anyone has managed to make the fish look good, please share your secrets! And don't forget, I'll be choosing the winner of the Bag of Fish/Capybara raffle tomorrow. Please leave a comment if you want to try one of these make it crafts for yourself.