General Information

Updated August 24, 2010
919-957-3700:


YOU may talk o' gin an' beer When you're quartered safe out 'ere, An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it; But if it comes to slaughter You will do your work on water, 5 An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it. Now in Injia's sunny clime, Where I used to spend my time A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen, Of all them black-faced crew 10 The finest man I knew Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din. It was "Din! Din! Din! You limping lump o' brick-dust, Gunga Din! Hi! slippy hitherao! 15 Water, get it! Panee lao! You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din!" The uniform 'e wore Was nothin' much before, An' rather less than 'arf o' that be'ind, 20 For a twisty piece o' rag An' a goatskin water-bag Was all the field-equipment 'e could find. When the sweatin' troop-train lay In a sidin' through the day, 25 Where the 'eat would make your bloomin' eyebrows crawl, We shouted "Harry By!" Till our throats were bricky-dry, Then we wopped 'im 'cause 'e couldn't serve us all.	It was "Din! Din! Din! 30 You 'eathen, where the mischief 'ave you been? You put some juldee in it, Or I'll marrow you this minute, If you don't fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!" 'E would dot an' carry one 35 Till the longest day was done, An' 'e didn't seem to know the use o' fear. If we charged or broke or cut, You could bet your bloomin' nut, 'E'd be waitin' fifty paces right flank rear. 40 With 'is mussick on 'is back, 'E would skip with our attack, An' watch us till the bugles made "Retire." An' for all 'is dirty 'ide, 'E was white, clear white, inside 45 When 'e went to tend the wounded under fire! It was "Din! Din! Din!" With the bullets kickin' dust-spots on the green. When the cartridges ran out, You could 'ear the front-files shout: 50 "Hi! ammunition-mules an' Gunga Din!" I sha'n't forgit the night When I dropped be'ind the fight With a bullet where my belt-plate should 'a' been. I was chokin' mad with thirst, 55 An' the man that spied me first Was our good old grinnin', gruntin' Gunga Din.	'E lifted up my 'ead, An' 'e plugged me where I bled, An' 'e guv me 'arf-a-pint o' water?green; 60 It was crawlin' an' it stunk, But of all the drinks I've drunk, I'm gratefullest to one from Gunga Din. It was "Din! Din! Din! 'Ere's a beggar with a bullet through 'is spleen; 65 'E's chawin' up the ground an' 'e's kickin' all around: For Gawd's sake, git the water, Gunga Din!" 'E carried me away To where a dooli lay, An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean. 70 'E put me safe inside, An' just before 'e died: "I 'ope you liked your drink," sez Gunga Din. So I'll meet 'im later on In the place where 'e is gone? 75 Where it's always double drill and no canteen; 'E'll be squattin' on the coals Givin' drink to pore damned souls, An' I'll get a swig in Hell from Gunga Din! Din! Din! Din! 80 You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din! Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you, By the livin' Gawd that made you, You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

EIGHT (8) NEW CIVIL WAR ZOUAVES SETS HAVE ARRIVED

LARGE PRODUCTION RUNS OF 8 OF OUR NEW ZOUAVE SETS HAVE ARRIVED IN NORTH CAROLINA.
WITH ANY LUCK WE SHOULD HAVE THESE IN OUR HANDS BY WEDNESDAY AND BEGIN SHIPPING ASAP. THESE INCLUDE 4 NEVER BEFORE AVAILABLE SETS & RESTOCKS OF ZOUAVES 002/003/004 & 005 WHICH SOLD OUT IMMEDIATELY WHEN WE RECEIVED THE FIRST BATCH.

IF YOU'VE PLACED A PREORDER, WE WILL BE CONTACTING YOU FOR YOUR CHARGE CARD 'GO AHEAD'.

Click to order

Private Winkie would like to announce that a bunch of additional never before seen Highlander poses will be posted very soon on the NW Frontier Page--including Gunga Din , mounted officer, regimental colour bearer, an all new wounded set, charging highlanders and more.... (in case you are wondering, The Wee Willie Winkie figure is an old one by Danbury Mint)

PLASTIC SALE

Tar Damage Water Damage

Bad News, Good News........

As these pics show, we've been experiencing some real problems at the warehouse... roof leaks...more roof leaks.... and then our landlord applied the wrong 'tar' to the roof which unfortunately turns to liquid when the temperature hits 85 or higher...since its been over 90 degrees for the past month you can only begin to imagine.......sigh....

We have had thousands of thin strings of tar dripping slowly down into the warehouse landing all over.......the result being we've had a real mess, needing to cover everything ...and are now being forced to move boxes to storage units so that we can avoid further damage.

The good news is that we'd rather sell some of these these sets now rather than having to move them to storage then back to a warehouse....the result:

50% off ALL Plastic Bagged or Boxed Figure Sets
(Blistercarded sets such as WW2 GIs, Alamo Mexican Army & Spartans NOT included in the sale)

Minimum Order $50.00. Shipping additional. Discount will be taken /applied before we charge your card. It will not automatically be applied during the 'shopping cart' process.

COLLECTOR CLUB PRE-ORDER
CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

You Have Been In Afghanistan I Presume?
CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER
So begins the timeless story of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson....and so begins the tale of our new range. Now that we have successful Zulu War, Civil War Zouaves & Rome At War ranges well underway--with Medieval Highlanders, Religious, Wild West and Collector Club series gathering steam , we've decided it's time to unveil one of my pet projects that has been gnawing at me for years.

The North-West Frontier has always been a land of mystery, intrigue & conflict...with the conflict unfortunately continuing today. Nightly news reports speak of Kabul, Kandahar, the Khyber and Afridi, Wazi and Pathan Tribes just as Victorian newspapers did more than a century ago.

We've decided that it's high time that the Afghan Wars during the period of 1879 -1900 cry out to be recreated in military miniature form. While Gordon Highlanders are pictured above, keep a close eye on the site as we unveil Bengal Lancers, Afghans, Sikh Infantry, the Last Stand of the 66th Berkshires at Maiwand, Gurkhas, Russian Advisers, British Adventurers, and the even the Regimental Beastie delivering water...

Films such as Gunga Din, Lives of A Bengal Lancer, Man Who Would Be King, Kim, Charge of The Light Brigade, Wee Willie Winkie, Drums, Far Pavilions, King of the Khyber Rifles, etc. have all fueled the imagination for decades along with television efforts like 77th Bengal Lancers . At long last, I'm doing something to rectify this situation.

Look for our range to have buildings, terrain, a suspension bridge(gotta have one of those!), snake pits, Pathan watchtower, mountain guns, Thuggees(the original Thugs), Highlanders Charging, V.C. winners, the Queen's Own Corp of Guides defending the Residency at Kabul to the last , "Bobbie"-a highly decorated canine and more.

Peachy & Daniel will be made proud.

While some of our sculpts for this range are updated versions of figures which we made for some "Scotland the Brave' play sets years ago, the bulk of this endeavor consists of brand new sculpts by wizard Robert Ortiz who continues to translate my designs more ably than any other sculptor .
An example of where we are going can be seen in the the set pictured above wherein a Bengal Lancer is about to finish off a a running tribal leader. The second foot figure has already had his fate sealed by a 2nd Lancer who has already ridden past.

Yes the likeness is intentional. Maybe the Lancer will get a reward?

What Can I Say?

Joe Baker continues to amaze with his diorama showmanship and photographic excellence. Here he is pictured in his 'director's chair' planning his next series of masterpieces. What a treat it was for me to watch him at work--absolutely a delight to see him work his magic.

Dozens of additional North-West Frontier photos will be appearing on his blog here on our site in the very near future. I can't wait to see what he does with Afghans lurking in the rocks with their jezail rifles taking aim on a British column..... or Highlanders storming the Heights?


	You didn't think Mr. Baker was only playing with Afghan War scenarios, did you? Look for some new Civil War beauties as well---ALL ON THE #1 BLOG IN THE TOY SOLDIER WORLD

We've added music to our site--please adjust your volume up or down depending upon your feelings regarding the skirl of the pipes. The pipe major is playing "Cock O' The North" today". This amazing sculpt will be available in our Collector Club later in 2010.The piper sculpt & photo pictured here is of Piper Findlater who won the V.C. for continuing to play & remaining unprotected and 'in the open' despite having been shot in both legs.

Civil War Plastic Sale
Museum of the Confederacy Charitable Donation
~~July 1st- 21st~~

EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND UNTIL AUGUST 10^th

During the next 3 weeks, we shall have four (4) of our unpainted plastic American Civil War sets 'on sale' at special prices designed to induce you to make a purchase. Better still, from each purchase we will be making a cash donation to the world famous Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond , Virginia. This amazing museum is home to some of the greatest & most treasured artifacts from the Confederate States of America including uniforms & personal equipment of Robert E. Lee. Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart and other luminaries. The museum also is home to the greatest collection of Confederate Battle Flags. We felt it was time to raise some money for the museum and are making some offers you can't refuse which hopefully will make it easy for you to contribute. The deals are so good even our Yankee friends will want to help out!

Click Here For Additional Information

EMAIL BLASTS/ Are You On The Email List?

We have now sent out our first full email blast to all on our mailing list detailing information/prices /specials regarding the 9 new sets which are arriving here this week. Unfortunately, several hundred addresses on our list did NOT receive the blast because (a) your address had errrors or needs updating, (b)your system rejected us as a sender or (c) your computer or server treated our email as 'spam"!!! We apologize if you didn't receive the 'blast' but there's nothing we can do--YOU need to clear us and/or supply a new email address.
Our blasts will come from either viceroyz@aol.com or einar1eye@aol.com so please approve/clear both of these addresses so we can communicate with you!!

Attention Collectors:
Our phone lines are now open daily from 9:30 AM until 5 PM Carolina Time Monday thru Friday. Please call us at 919-957-3700

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to inquire or place an order.

We Are Under Construction

We are making some major changes to the Conteco web site and ask for your patience and understanding whilst we make a few(actually, a bunch of) improvements.

Warning
ALL photos, images & text featuring toy soldiers are the copyrighted property of Conte Collectibles and/or Legends of the Silver Screen Ltd., and may NOT be used in any form without our express approval.

Use of our photos and/or images and logos on ebay or other internet sites for the purpose of internet sales is expressly prohibited.

Requests for usage of photos will be considered on a case by case basis.

About Our Site

We are deleting all sorts of items which have made the site cumbersome & at the same time adding a number of features which hopefully will make your visit more enjoyable.
New "tabs' are being added for such things as (a) toy soldier shows, (b) News (c) specials, (d)the Collector's Club, (e) Links we like and so forth. We also will be gradually updating & editing all existing sections to eliminate old news & make it easier for you to find what you are looking for. We also are looking into the addition of sound & video.

We've already updated the Q & A section and are working on several others as you will see.
This revamping will be a gradual process which will take months.

Presently, the site has this informational section and a second site which is the Conte 'online shopping" site. We will probably combine everything into one site rather than the 2 which currently exist as I've never understood why we have both.

At the top of this page we've added a 'last updated' heading which will show you when we've made any changes. Thanks for your understanding & patience.
Hail Einar

Coming Next

During August we are scheduled to receive 5 brand new Zulu War sets: 005/008/009/010/011

COLLECTOR PHOTOS

(Photos above are by Joe Korpar of some really terrific handpainting he 's done with our poseable plastic Spartans)

Both metal and plastic set-ups are welcome. Painted, unpainted, whatever we don't care...if you are having fun then we want to see it and share it with other Conte buffs. Need to mix in a few figures by other manufacturers? No problem. As long as the majority of figures are our designs we will consider it.

The amazing Rorke's Drift set up pictured above is by Rick Gardner from Canada. Mr. Gardner used 106 plastic Conte troops and hand painted them all.(spending close to 400 hours in the process!!)He tells us this masterpiece will be on display at a figure show in Gettysburg on July 15-16.

Thanks to these gentlemen for getting this started for us. Be on the lookout for some terrific Zulu metal set-ups by Joe Quintini of Maine....really awesome stuff!

Diorama, photo and sentiment courtesy Mr. Quintini--we couldn't agree more!!

These guys will be available June 22nd! Click on the picture to go to the Pre-Order Page

Take Advantage of Our New Pre-Order Page in the Conte Online Store. Click Here to See the Sets now Available for Pre-Order.

So many collectors asked me to design a 'flying Zulu' similar to our groundbreaking flying Spartan that I did my best to come up with one.....there will be a wall section available for placement behind the Zulu so that it will appear that he has leapt off of a wall....actually, I got carried away and there are several companion hand to hand sets which all combine to make a larger hand to hand vignette as loads of Zulus are coming over a wall!!!!

The "flying Barbarian" is the first set from an entirely new range of Romans vs. Germanic warriors battling in the snow. Our first Conte "Winter Games Collection"???

Reaction to these two sets has been so overwhelming.

Click on the Arab Chief to see RC's 2010 forecast

Oh My Beloved
You Men of the Desert
You Brave Collectors of Toy Soldiers
You Leaders of Miniature Warriors
It Is Time To Arise From Your Couch or Lazy Boy
And To Prove Your Worth & Devotion To Our Hobby

Join With Me At The Conte Collectibles Tables
At The Hackensack , New Jersey Toy Soldier Show
THIS SUNDAY, November 1st !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mon Petite Legionnaires... You Sweet Hommes sans nom

We know you are working so hard on the dig to locate Iskander
such hard work--tres difficile, n'est ce pas? Nine years the search has gone on but you have found nothing.....nothing

You must be tres fatigue? All the digging...the sand..always more sand...and all of this especially after your disappointment in being unable to find what you are hoping to collect at the various toy soldier souks..... must be very disappointing?

Why don't you brave & courageous monsieurs come to the Casbah where we poor villagers of Conteville might amuse you with our humble offerings-- perhaps I can dance for you and tell you tales of the Lost Tomb----- if that is what you seek ,,,,,, we know you've been waiting for some excitement and a return to the joi de la collecte......

Je pourrais vous amener a ce que vous cherchez !!! But do not tell the Capitaine...s'il te vous plait......
He must not know that you are speaking to me or my friends.......