Questions and Answers

Dear Fellow Collector,

We've decided to bring back the "Frequently Asked Questions" section of our website as a means of providing answers and to assure that accurate information is reaching you.

At the OTSN show in Chicago  we learned what sorts of questions are on collectors' minds and also were really surprised at some of the unusual rumors and misinformation which apparently are floating around.

We hope that you'll send your burning questions in and I will attempt to answer them as best I can .  We'll post some of those which seem to be of a general interest nature. You can either phone , fax or email these to the office----email or fax are recommended so that no error occurs in relaying your question in its entirety.  We will only respond to questions which are accompanied by the identification of the sender and which are 'appropriate'. 

For years I have tried to answer all questions which come in and actually receive personal emails from collectors every day. Time limitations usually force me to give brief answers but I try.......

I look forward to hearing from you.

RC

Below is a interview with RC with a focus on Plastic figures done by a British Magazine.

Question 1     What made you get into plastic figures - was it the fulfillment of a childhood dream?
Answer 1     I have always been a big fan of plastic figures.  Like many, Marx playsets formed the backbone of much of my childhood 'playtime" (loved the Boonesboro, the Vikings, the Robin Hood & the Ben Hur ranges). My earliest memories are of playing with plastic with my Grandfather. I also loved Timpo figures---particularly their Romans, Crusaders and Vikings and much later in life was thrilled to be involved, close-up in watching John Jeffries create his fantastic Accurate Figures range.  As a child I day dreamed of the plastic armies I would love to command but I had absolutely no inkling that I could or would ever make even a single solitary soldier  let alone create such a large history of growth as a plastics maker.  I always hoped that  the big companies like Britains) would make the soldiers which all plastics buffs 'needed' but unfortunately most of the so-called industry leaders seemed to have little time or attention for their plastics fans.......in the late 90's I found myself unemployed and believed I perhaps should try to see what I could do on the plastics side since none of the manufacturers 'out there' were making the sorts of figures which I wanted.........Unfortunately, Accurate had ceased operations and no one else seemed to  care about producing highly detailed injection molded figures.....what else could I do but get involved...???


Question 2a     Did you have a 'Game Plan' when you started, about which periods etc you were going to do, or was it just serendipity?
Answer 2a    

I most definitely had my own ideas as to what I wanted to play with, what I wanted to enjoy, and we have pretty much been following my 'list' as we've progressed. Having said that, I should point out that this 'whole thang' has been a learning process for me  and I've intentionally delayed making certain figures or periods so as to allow us the time & ability to improve or enhance our ability to make great figures. Said another way, I wanted to bust out from the  somewhat two dimensional  world which plastics had become.......I wanted to eliminate ugly 'blockout" (the plastic  which appears in spaces where it shouldn't be ) and to increase the number of 'undercuts" (like the underside of the 'skirts' on our Normans) I constantly was asking why other manufacturers weren't  improving their figures and wondering why steps weren't being taken to 'advance'  plastic soldiers concurrent with changes in available technology.
It always bothered me that 'plastics fans" had to be happy with less lifelike animation than metal collectors and I really wanted to see if I could take a whack at righting this wrong.
I was resolved to 'look into' these matters and to see if I could push the envelope.......

Most don't know that I worked 1/3 of my time in Great Britain from 1981 until the late 90's running the Priory Hospital In Roehampton and building a chain of private hospitals throughout the UK and that many an otherwise  lonely weekend was spent touring museums, castles, battle sites...all the while deepening my enthusiasm and love for Britain and much of Europe. I'm sure that many of these tourist visits fueled my re-emerging interest in toy soldiers which had become somewhat dormant in the 80's......

Vikings, 24th Foot/Zulus, French Foreign Legion, Alamo and the rest were all amongst my favorites so we got into those early on.  Others such as Rogers Rangers I stayed away from as i didn't want to harm the sales of folks already addressing these periods. Others such as Romans and Spartans I delayed doing as I realized that the technology of making life-like poses with weighty shields was literally going to require a balancing act.......it took me a while to become comfortable with 'how' we were going to make realistic and wildly animated  figures  which required multiple separately molded parts............that said, I think  our factory has done us proud and that we are now ready to take on any subject matter which strikes our fancy. While I'm very proud of our earliest figures, I wish  (to paraphrase Rod Stewart & The Faces) I knew then what I know now.........wait til you see the Spartans in plastic.....

Question 2b     You are famous for the Movie 'tie-ins' for your figure ranges, an inspired idea - how did that come about? Do you have to pay for the link?
Answer 2b    
The whole movie tie-in wasn't  as inspired as your question would kindly suggest.  The better question might properly be 'how come most of the leading plastics manufacvturers  were not already doing film 'tie-ins'???  Said differently, our forays into this area only seem inspired due to the absolute lack of endeavor into this realm by others before us.....???
After all,  while action figures, video games, model kits, etc. ALL seem to thrive upon licensed tie-ins the toy soldier world has been lacking..............

The reason it all 'came about" is that I wanted to not only make toy soldiers but also wanted to 'pay my respects' to the great films and stars who had provided not only great entertainment for us and who became great inspirations & role models for us.  It struck me as seriously wrong that folks such as Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Gary Cooper, Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins et al had never been available to us as 'toys' whilst just about every movie today spawns a new batch of tie-ins.  I  also hoped that by creating sets  attached to movies that we might also attract some new viewers to some of these great older films. I always believed that if one child could see Spartacus for the first time and if he could be as affected as I  was by the message when I was a child, that my efforts could be deemed a success.

Yes, one has to pay for licensing tie-ins--usually both the studio and the stars want and receive a piece of the revenues.  This has been interesting to me as well as extremely frustrating at times----as I feel like I've been allowed to 'peek behind the curtain at Oz" --sometimes not liking what I've seen in the way of egos and greed in Hollywood.  Gentlemen like Kirk Douglas and Mel Gibson as well as Bela Lugosi Jr.  stand out as wonderful to deal with.  Some stars, agents & studios 'get' what we're trying to do whilst others only see dollar signs........

All in all, I feel very good about saying 'thanks' via our efforts to some of these cinematic greats.  I've genreally turned down studio deals in the past several years as the approval process can be extremely time consuming and often maddening.  One silly , giggly junior exec at MGM takes the cake for having disapproved 5 sculpts of Mr. Douglas in The Vikings BECAUSE SHE 'DID NOT LIKE THE  HAWK INDUCED SCAR ON DEAR EINAR'S FACE--although she admitted to (a) never having seen the film, (b) did not know who he or his son Michael were(!!!). When I tried to explain that Mr. Douglas had approved the sculpts, she responded "who is Mr. Douglas?"........./. She wouldn't approve the scar and I refused to compromise my integrity......


Question 3     Have things moved along pretty much as you expected, or are you somewhere quite different to where you had envisaged?
Answer 3     Yes & No.  I never realized that we would be received as wonderfully as we have been by our fellow collectors. I knew that I personally wanted & needed 'these figures" but I was unsure how many others were 'out there' with the same unfulfilled childhood dreams and toy soldier 'wants'.  I never expected we would grow so rapidly or become such a force in both the plastics and the painted metal world.  Originally, I hoped to make a few things, test my creative 'side' and see what happened. I never envisioned having such a large collector support base. I never imagined having folks so eager for our next release and so cross with me whenever we've experienced delays.......

I was also floored by the friendliness which collectors have shown to myself and my ever tolerant wife Nancy.  I never expected I would make friends with so many nice people -all over the world---and all because of toy soldiers!!  I've found in these collectors a kindred spirit which keeps me highly motivated as I now know that I am doing this for all of us....and not just me. I feel that if I had lived down the street from these collectors when we were kids that we would have probably become lifelong friends.....better late than never.....

I hoped that we could make some nice plastic figures and contribute to my favorite hobby; I am still shocked by the acclaim which people have all too kindly showered upon us.

My biggest problem and #1 disappointment is that we've grown so much that I no longer take ALL of the phone calls and  can no longer give every collector the personal time & attention which I'd like to give them.  There are only so many hours in any day and I never seem to have enough of them....

Question 4     What's is the 'production' process, from idea to figures in boxes ready for sale?
Answer 4    

I design each & every figure or building and terrain piece. I also design the packaging and brochures and yes I'll admit to coming up with the sometimes campy or tawdry set names/titles.  These are the highlights of the 'job' for me and I try to create figures which are as realistic as possible while also attempting to make them as 'playworthy" as possible.  I try to visualize how the figures will interact with one another and their surroundings.

In a "rush" I can get a figure sculpted and copied within a week and generally back from the factory in saleable form in 3 months if it is pewter and usually 6 months if it is injection molded plastic.  A simple plastic figure could conceivably be readied in 3 months if it were 2 dimensional in nature (which I refuse to do) and a crude spin cast resin figure could probably be achieved in 2 to 3 weeks or sooner (which I also do not do).

We are a relatively small enterprise in the world of manufacturing and we are often at the mercy of factories and sometimes don't receive the attention or priority status which I'd like......

Question 5     Sculpting - who does it? Do you have a regular person or team?
Answer 5    
We utilize the skills of a number of different sculptors. Right now we have 2 guys working full time on figures and a couple of others who work part-time as we need them , another works on terrain only and yet another   is doing vehicles and such.
I should also mention the tremendous skills of Joe Baker who sets up and photos our battle dioramas and runs our web site......he's been a wonderful help.  In the sculpting area, there are too many skilled artists to mention but I will single out Robert Ortiz who is simply the best and currently does all of my favorite and/or most difficult poses. Alot of sculptors in the industry are great but Robert manages to understand & to translate my designs and desires more vividly than anyone else to date.  To top it off, he is a great guy and wonderful family man and a good friend. He makes it fun to come to work every day!!!(as do the others in their own way)

Question 6     The plastic you use - its different from many other makers - why this particular composition?
Answer 6    
The answer to your question would seem to depend upon which figures you are referring to. The plastic we've used for our recent GI's, Alamo Mexicans and ACW is different than that used  on our Normans, Vikings, Arabs, Foreign Legion, Saxons, Alamo defenders, WW2 Brits & Germans & US Airborne, 24th Foot, Zulus, etc....

I know that  alot of people raved about how much they liked the waxy feel and look to the one type of plastic but we also had a fair amoutnt of question regarding the flexibility of bayonets and spear points and such----it seemed 85% loved it while 15% hated the 'bendy' part........

The most recent plastic (as with the GI's) everyone seems to like as it is a bit more rigid than the earlier stuff.......I think the 15% who were unhappy with the flex of the early plastic now love the new blend...but it seems  15% of the original 85% who loved typed #1  don't like the new mix as well as it isn't as easy to cut up and convert......etc.......

Seems we can't please everyone at the same time although we are trying !!!!

Yes, I think we are the only ones using the blends we use & yes it appears different from other manufacturers.  The plastic we use costs us approximately 5 times more than the standard plastic used by most folks.  The molds themselves cost thousands of dollars more per figure  ......... I know this as I've had figures quoted both ways. Why use the more expensive blend??? Simple: we can get better detail , more undercuts and have virtually eliminated  ugly and avoidable 'blockout" by using the higher priced plastic.

I think it's worth paying more to get a better end product.

Question 7     Your last release was  a huge number of US WWII GIs  - why  so many for the period?
Answer 7    
We've always  released a large number of poses with every new range. Our Thermopylae range looks likely to debut with at least 30 new injection molded poses.  Our Alamo Mexican Army made its first appearance with 15 distinct poses but with alternate 'hats' we actually released 30 different figures. The Beau Geste playset as I recall had over 20 poses, we've released 28 WW2 Germans.....  and so on.....

I'm  a great believer that a 'critical mass' needs to be achieved in order to make a range really 'playable'.  Speaking as a collector, I never liked it when other companies would release 4 poses or 6 poses if we were lucky.  Many companies even would release 4 poses such as 24th foot and then delay 6 months or longer to unveil Zulus.........in my opinion this does a real disservice to the collector who is being asked to spend alot of hard earned cash to buy into these products.  I recall always being disappointed that a release of 4 figures was more disappointing than it was exciting......mfrs. did it of course to force buyers to effectively buy 4 of every pose whether they wanted to or not(16 figure sets with 4 poses).  Six figure ranges like Britains detail were better but the problem with any gunpowderers was that once you had the standard kneeling & standing firing plus standing. loading and then the requisite officer and flagbearer you were up to 5 poses and just when things should have become exciting the range came to an abrupt end..........my entire purpose has always been to do our best and to try to improve our hobby and to give collectors that which they have been deprived of in the past.  Releasing 4 or 6 poses just doesn't do it for me. 

I'd rather make an era or  a range lifelike or believable than to scatter our efforts across a host of topics.  The GIs are the key element of our Omaha Beach playsets and  my heartfelt decision was that if we were going to do Omaha Beach 'right' we needed to give our all......even though it was a huge financial pill to swallow at one time...after all, the real heroes of Omaha deserved our best effort........they gave their all and for me to wimp out just to be able to turn a quicker profit seemed horribly wrong. Said another way, I was out to honor those who fought & died in Normandy rather than do what made sense from a business point of view. To do less  was to do a real disservice ........I think most collectors realize the efforts which go into making our product special.

Question 8     How do you go about deciding what figures to do next?
Answer 8      This one is simple.  I make what I want to play with ...with the caveat that I've been forced to delay some key projects like the Spartans until I was satisfied that we had the sculpting and mold-making capabilities to recreate these warriors in all of their glory without having to make major concessions in what the final product would look like.

I also try to do  something for each group of collectors.. Medieval Collectors for example have quite alot to choose from in our catalog of product. Before I release more Medieval (and oh yes it is coming) I wanted to really address Ancient Greece.  Right now loads of collectors are clamoring for more Alamo and ACW fans are driving me crazy with requests for artillery and cavalry and WW2 buffs want more Germans...... All of this is coming but I have a tendency to add to each range in a big way rather than making small additions to a bunch of different ranges. And let's not forget that I personally need hordes of Barbarians and Roman Legions to appear in my basement.


Question 9     Can you tell us what's coming out next?
Answer 9    I'm assuming you only want to know about plastics.  Up next are Spartans & Immortals followed by scores of new Vikings, Saxons and Monks in 3 different playsets.  Additional ACW plus major additions to Alamo are also in the hopper and I think it fair to say that now that we've worked the bugs out of the molding process for ancients that it is inevitable that the greatest Roman Army ever in plastic is on the horizon. Our castle system is also on the way and I'd sure like to see the Men Of Sherwood rise again...and that can only mean more Normans...and so it goes.

Our first cavalry sets are in the works which I've been wanting to do for a long time....I think  we've worked out the engineering of horses to my satisfaction. I'm also chomping at the bit to revisit our Zulu range and Foreign Legion range with our newfound molding abilities.....and Colonial America is due for our attention.....

I'm also working on a couple of really large pieces which I've wanted for  decades.....I think collectors will be really surprised & pleased with these.....and no I'm not saying what they are..


Question 10     What about your future plans - can you tell us a little about them, without giving too much away?
Answer 10     I think I've just answered much of this in the preceding question. My plans are to continue doing what we are doing...playsets, new plastic figures and of course 50 or so painted pewter sets per year plus really unique terrain pieces and buildings.

Technically I'm interested in cavalry, interchangeable heads, weapons and body parts, more painted plastic and  always, always trying to make each new set an improvement upon the prior ones.  I'd like to get more and more kids into our hobby and I'm hoping we can do a bit more of this in the plastics area in particular.........other than that, I am hoping to hit more toy shows so I can meet more collectors.

I want to continue to honor my historical heroes and , in the process, hopefully keep moving the quality and scope of offerings to my fellow plastics nuts moving in a positive and challenging direction.

Question 11     What has been you best selling plastic figure range - and why do you think is?
Answer 11      All of them have done very well.  American Civil War has been the biggest .......this is one range which has clearly jumped outside of the traditional toy soldier channels and is sold across the USA in museums, battlefield shops and so forth.  Having said that, I'm constantly amazed that even our Normans & Saxons & Vikings are perennial sellers......

Thanks for this opportunity!!!  Hail Ragnar!!  Cheers RC


Back to the regular Q and A section...

Why don't you answer more questions on the various toy soldier 'forums' on the web?  I often see you on some forums answering questions but not others......???  Ever thought of settting up your own Conte forum???

Forums are a bit of a conundrum .  I think it is great that they exist and find them a wonderful way for collectors to share information. At their best, i personally enjoy them. Having said that, I have been sorely disappointed by the manner in which several of them have been horribly 'misused' by their owners/operators in what we should call 'mischievious" ways or otherwise turned into a quagmire by 'planted' , biased comments.    Even the fair and objective sites are sometimes
hijacked' by individuals who do their best to ruin the experience for others.

First the negative:

Just in the past year we've seen one forum constantly become a "Conte bashing" site where we are regularly criticized and often  personally defamed...usually by the same select few individuals who have an 'ax to grind with us'.  Specifically, one former dealer who was 'cut-off' by us and barred from carrying our product went on a personal crusade to attack me personally, my staff and our product on all sorts of bogus and made-up grounds. It seemed that no matter what soldiers we released he had some horrible complaint.

The funny part was that this 'dealer" was still sneaking and buying our product for his own collection and enjoyment through one of our many dealers and/or using a relative to place orders at Conteco's office for him!!!!!!  He couldn't live without our toys and kept buying them ---while at the same time-- warning other collectors not to buy
our product!!!!!

Another well known forum owned by a toy soldier dealer perpetually recommends & lauds the efforts of most other manufacturers while never having a kind word for our efforts.  One would have to figure that even the most curmudgeonly toy soldier collector might sooner or later find at least 1 item of ours which they halfway liked.....??? Not these guys.  Not surprisingly, these folks  regularly seem to have topics or threads 'pushing' or highly recommending product which they DO sell. I've been told by several people that this particular forum actually 'plants' its own supposed collector comments supporting the views of the owners of the 'store'......by doing so they try to make it look like their own views are supported by independent collectors........when all that's really going on is a sort of 'shill' operation where the whole thing is 'dummied up" to increase sales of what they do sell and to drive collectors away from competing product like ours!!!! (the web manager for this particular forum REGULARLY BUYS Conte product and has often directly complimented me at toy shows regarding the excellence of our work yet somehow the web page he runs for the dealer NEVER says a kind word........go figure........

In several cases we even found that several 'posters'--who tried to appear as mere collectors--were actually working in cahoots, supporting a planned series of criticisms.  Both of these individuals have actually been shown to  be guys who work for one of our  manufacturing competitors!!!!!!! 

One other forum is 'amusing 'in that the dealer who owns it  tells collectors on his forum that the best (and his personal favorite) plastic figures are the various reissued soldiers from the 1960's/70's and that he recommends that people buy & collect those......(in preference to  new product like our acclaimed plastic GI's & other great new work by other manufacturers).......even though these old figures are quite nice, could he be serious ?? or is the fact that he has approximately 10 times greater a profit margin on these old reissues than he has on the new items (like Conte) possibly affecting his opinion??????   I think we know the answer........

Yet another forum is operated by a dealer who also makes a few sets of his own figures every year; not surprisingly, he highly recommends his own product as the 'best'---all the while using a different name for the product line apparently trying to make things appear as though his own product is just some product from a 3rd party...........

Collectors are very smart & I trust they can usually see through this sort of stuff. Pictures are worth a thousand words (or  more) when it comes to toy soldiers....

Apparently our soldiers are good enough to cause some in the industry to take their worries and jealousies to extreme & immoral lengths...(don't get me started on the one  competing company which intentionally sent viruses to us eleven times (Yes 11 times) aimed at destroying our computer system!!!  I can't say more as this is still a criminal case being monitored by the FCC or the current efforts by a competitor to spread rumors that we are going out of business.....!!!!! Amazing  yet very sad stuff...........

I'm having too much fun making the toys we all have always wanted to continually get embroiled in this ...and it seems that on several of these  forums folks are always hoping to 'bait me' into responding.  I usually only respond when the legal line has been crossed and liars need to be addressed.  The last 3 times I've had to take action to police these forums, our detractors have removed their posts & folded their tents and disappeared 'into the night".  One guy regulalry reappears under the guise of new screen names!!!!!

The Positive:

I take all of the nonsense referred to above as 'back-handed flattery'. If our product wasn't good, we would not be a target .........

I 'd like to actively take part in all of these forums but I unfortunately just do not have the time due to my designing all of our sculptures, color schemes, packaging and such plus the usual stuff associated with operating our company. I usually become involved when fellow collectors who support our efforts alert me to wrongdoing.

Toy soldiers is above all a hobby and it should be fun for all of us.  The intrigue which goes on has really mystified me...but again, it speaks well of our offerings that others fear them and find the need to engage in all manner of 'activities' to try and negatively influence others.

Several of the forums are excellent and seem to be objectively & fairly run having 'moderators' who take it upon themselves to make sure that unfair bashing and personal attacks are not allowed.  The good forums require posters to register and prove their real identity before being allowed to post...this simple act has eliminated the ability of guys to appear under false names and with no accountability.   The forums which are "pure" and not tied to the sale of product are usually the most objective--and I am certainly not criticizing all dealer run forums here as many are excellent.

For plastic collectors there is an excellent forum run by pjrmarx devoted to Marx and modern plastics. While we've taken some criticism there from time to time, I think they do an excellent job in avoiding the forum being hijacked. Their website is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarxPlaysets/

Collectors should let us know of other forums which are fair, objective, not financially motivated and we'll post their links here from time to time......

Now, as to  whether we have ever thought of operating our own forum, the answer is YES, we've discussed it.  We have not 'done it' since  (a) it would seem very 'self-serving for us to do so, (b) we've always answered personal inquiries from individual collectors since the day I started Conteco thereby effectively running a personal forum, (c) there is not enough time for us to do everything else we are doing so adding a forum to our daily tasks is hard to envision, (d) we've started doing these Q & A's so that common questions can be addressed for all who might be interested.

Now if you send me a followup response, I could post it and we'd have our first web forum!!!!!

Hi
>
> I am not sure if you are Richard Conte but I have seen your address on his
> website so I presume you are close to him. I have collected Conte for
> years. I think his stuff is innovative and pushes the boundaries. I have
> the BOSS sets and the Rogrs Rangers sets as well as all of last years WWII
> stuff. I think it is great. I am not into ACW so that is why I wont get
> the SoS stuff. I will get the Viking raid stuff to go with my Viking Long
> Boat. When can we realistically expect these sets. We know we usually have
> to wait a while but it is usually worth the wait
> Regards

This is a question which was sent to Joe Baker, intended for me from one of the forums. I've commented about forums elsewhere in Q & A. Anyone wishing us to answer a question is best advised to email us at writetous@conteco.com or to phone the office as I rarely have time to get involved with the forums & several I refuse to deal with .  We only answer questions accompanied by names/details of the caller....meaning  identify yourself with name/address/email address etc. and we'll try to respond. We do not respond to anonymous questions.

Anyhow, in answer to the question, 20 of the Valhalla Awaits sets are at the factory. I should have samples to approve for all sets by mid June.  The production run will follow......we could have the first wave of sets this Summer with the rest following hopefully in time for general sale at OTSN.

The incredible demand for our Spartans really taxed our factory's abilities to meet our demand early in 07 but they(we) are 'catching up" now.  An additional 5 Medieval sets are going to the factory this week.

PLASTIC collectors should be able to see virtually ALL of the pewter poses this Fall in 3 different Viking Raid playsets.

There are a bunch of items for this range which are sculpted but which we haven't pictured yet..... Thanks for writing and for the kind words!!!..next time please come directly to us..if I had your email address I would have directly sent this reponse to ya...Best regards....always love to hear from fellow Viking fans!

 

5/18/07

Why don't you 'preview' or show more of your figures which are in development?

I actually think we do show most of our product in varying stages of development. I think we preview more toy soldiers than most companies do as I feel it important that our collectors be involved in what we are doing.

As much as I would like to show every set which is in the planning stages , one of my biggest problems with previewing new sets is that once we show something new, many collectors become very impatient or unhappy with us if they can't buy it right away.  Occasionally a few collectors even get angry as they want the new sets so badly for a birthday or holiday present...and feel we've failed them somehow by not delivering product to the marketplace quickly enough.

Another reason I sometimes delay 'showing'  new toy soldiers is that other companies often try to steal or copy our ideas.....just recently it has been pointed out to me that another manufacturer actually copied one of our somewhat unique Viking poses(about to climb on to a ladder) and used it as the basis for a new figure of their own.  Since the owner of the other company actually studied the pose in question when we had it on display at a toy show, I hate to admit that there is probably some  real truth to the comments made to me. I've studied pictures of the competing product and all I can say is that we were either copied or there has been an amazing coincidence.

Being an American based company  using American sculptors, master painters and such is something which I am proud of but there are some disadvantages......some other companies who are located in Asia can replicate & rush new product much more quickly than we can for all sorts of reasons...........events like the one mentioned make me reluctantly feel that I need to 'hide' some of our newest designs until they are close to being released.

Several inquiries along the same lines have come in in recent days: What is your opinion on the movie "300"?  Will you be doing any figures with costumes as in the film?(the writer added that 'he hoped not"!!). Why didn't you get the license to do figures from the film? Etc.

--The movie:  I loved it.  Was at the 12 noon showing the day it opened. Going to see it again this week.  Great stuff. You all should go see it and support historical films even if they are a bit on the  outlandish side (for the few who don't know the film is closely modeled on a comic book series from
1998/99--I loved the comic too and highly recommend it to any who enjoy comics)

This is not an epic in the sense of a Braveheart or a Zulu or The 300 Spartans.. It is a film adaptation of the comic book.....filmed against a 'blue screen' with backgrounds added in.  You will either love the 'look' and feel of the movie or walk away wondering why it wasn't done like the films of old.
Again, I loved it and am thrilled that anyone was willing to make a film about Leonidas and Thermopylae.

--We didn't even try to obtain the license for product based upon the movie as it is  grossly inaccurate when it comes to costuming, the "Pass" itself, the events depicted (come on did we need Rhinos charging the Spartan line?), etc. I thought the Immortals wearing silver masks (ala "Destro" out of GI Joe) was ludicrous..and the Spartans running around in speedo 'loin cloths' and no chest armor was ridiculous.......lots of these decisions seem to be cost savings adherence to the comic book

In the film, Xerxes looked like some androgenous  weirdo out of "Stargate" and his executioner with the 'flipper ' hands really was beyond inexplicable, Ephialtes with an exaggerated 'hump' which would make the one from Notre Dame weep...etc........the Spartans wear red capes into combat..etc....

While the movie worked (I think largely due to the overall imagery , ---stirring music---fast pace---stirring dialogue --often right out of Herodotus- and a very respectable Leonidas) and the overall context and message of Thermopylae was brilliantly achieved......I prefer our take on the 'look' of the Spartans....ditto for our Immortals.

We will be releasing --as we stated last Fall-- some limited runs of Spartans in capes......NOTHING else will be similar with any of our "AG" range......to the film. When it comes to costuming, the overall look of Fox's "300 Spartans" is the winner hands down.  You should see both films.

Alamo Issues

A Whole Bunch Of Calls/Emails from Plastic Collectors in the Past 10 Days asking when we will be finishing our Alamo Compound?  Apparently, another toy seller has released or shown photos of a the 'rear' of the Alamo Chapel and is telling or implying to collectors it is the perfect way to  finish the Conte  Alamo.  Several collectors have  expressly stated that this other company is telling folks that Conte has no intention of completing our Alamo, and that this is the only way they are going to be able to finish their Alamo...........hmmmmmmm...........others have informed us that they think the new rear of the Chapel is highly historically inaccurate and wanted my opinion, etc.............one has sent me photos of the new piece. One collector asked me how it felt to be like a leading  car company where other businesses made a living by manufacturing and selling after market parts or accessories to 'go with Conte product"......another asked whether I thought the high price being charged for  unpainted and lightly detailed  building without any new figures or playset box was too high.....and so on.....

First let me begin by saying that (a) any attempt at sculpting, designing or producing the Alamo Chapel is a daunting task, and (b) that I do NOT like to comment about other companies and my opinion of their product.  Deciding whether to make a toy vs. a historically accurate model is always a sub-issue of costs vs. playability......and in this regard every manufacturer must make his own decisions as to what is right.../..

I deem collectors intelligent & well read enough to know whether  any given product is worth buying or adding to their collections.  I also think each collector must make his own cost benefit decisions as to whether something is fairly priced.   In this regard, I am proud that we have developed a reputation for designing & producing historically accurate  and amazingly well sculpted product...all at a fair price.

I've also repeatedly said that anyone who makes toy soldiers or is doing a good thing and is to be encouraged in his efforts!!

I wasn't even going to publish my answers to these questions as some might wrongly view my responses as being implicitly negative with regard to the product of another....however , when I heard for the second time that false rumors  were being spread with regard to "Conte's Alamo intentions" I felt the need to publish this  Q & A.

---Conte will --WILL--WILL be producing & selling the back portion of our Alamo Chapel.  We've hoped to have this unveiled at OTSN this Fall along with all sorts of new figures including Mexican assault teams, artillery, casualties, etc.......and specific figures designed to recreate the historical action which went on in the Chapel playset such as Mrs D  & baby.., the Doc, wounded, women, etc.........

.....our usual hallmarks of historical accuracy will be maintained (like we achieved with our Chapel facade which was based rock by rock upon an 1840's period engraving made by an army engineer who sketched the actual Alamo ruins rather than some random stone pattern made up by the toy sculptor )  The quality of our buildings and terrain pieces is well known and is recently exemplified by the recent WW2 landing craft and beach obstacles as well as the new siege tower, battering ram, catapult, javelin thrower , Saxon Church and medieval "Cog" (ship) from the Viking Raid series....our ongoing attention to detail and sculpting prowess is well displayed here......the Chapel is being done by the same guy who did many of these pieces.

While it is extremely flattering to me that other companies apparently do want to make 'parts' to 'go with' Conte product......I think it important collectors know the facts when it comes to what Conte will be producing........

---In my opinion, those of you who have been collecting Conte Alamo playsets are well advised to be patient.......

Hope this helps.....and yes, the North Wall is also on the way......plus more Texians and some cavalry and some hand to hand.......

 

Dear Mr. Conte:  I've been one of your fans from the beginning, having purchased somewhere around 25 of your plastic playsets, along with innumerable supplemental plastic figures.  I even purchased the first five of your D-Day playsets, even though I'm normally not interested in WWII themes.  I know now that you're pretty busy with your Omaha Beach playsets, followed by your "Viking Raid", but I'm anxiously looking forward to PLASTIC SPARTANS.  I search your website multiple times each week hoping to find updated information, but all we ever get is an occasional mention.  Here are my questions:   1) When might we realistically expect to see plastic Spartans offered for sale?  2) Will they be in the form of a playset, or just the figures themselves?  (either way is fine with me, but I think your playsets are always pretty neat creations)
 
     I want these figures so bad it's starting to hurt.  Any information you can provide on this subject would be greatly appreciated.  

Answer:

Glad you love the Spartans(so do I) ; they feature some of the best sculpting , animation & implied action I have ever seen in the toy soldier world. We are  very very proud of these.....

I have intentionally kept 'mention' of Spartans/Persians to a minimum on the web site .  In the very near future we will be unveiling a slew of Persian Immortal sculpts which I believe will satisfy even the most discriminating Thermopylae buff.  The 'look' of the Immortals is based upon descriptions from Herodotus  with a slight nod towards our childhood memories.  These  figures are also more menacing and more armored than the 'pajama clad' costumes often seen in books and the toy soldier world. Our Immortals are prepared for war--not ceremonial duties in the palace.........

12 different sets of Spartans in painted  fine pewter ARE currently for sale...while we've been having a tough time keeping up with demand, we expect large restocks to occur throughout the next 60 days.  Currently, I think we have about 6 of these sets in stock...

As to PLASTIC Spartans, these WILL be released during 2007 barring an act of God . Over 20 poses of  Greeks are well into the injection mold-making process and Persian Immortals are following closely in their stead. The plan is to release Spartans and Persians in a series of playsets .  Most injection molded figures will be available separately on blistercards.

Sculpts of 'character' figures including Leonidas(several different poses) ,Dieneces,  Xerxes, Hydarnes and others  as well as numerous 'hand to hand' sets , terrain pieces and accessories are also coming.  (Some of these character figures and hand to hand might  be made in either single color pewter or colored polyurethane ). It is probable that these  limited run poses will only be available in the playsets or in painted fine pewter form .

We will also be releasing other Greeks(non Spartans) who played a heroic role at Thermopylae including Phocians and especially Thespians as I deem it important to recognize the other Greeks who fought , stayed and died.  The majority who evacuated the pass and left the Spartans & Thespians  to their fate will NOT be so honored.

The mold-making process on these  Ancient figures is even more complex than our WW2 GI's or Alamo Mexican Army,  both of which  have set a new standard for us in the plastic market due to the shields, weapons, helmets and such.  Engineering has taken alot of time as we have made allowance for the reuse of 'parts' on other Greeks, Trojans, & Macedonians and multiple variations of similar  Spartan & Persian poses.

While I am reluctant to quote any release dates, I am confident that these  sets are coming to floor wars all over the world this year.

I hope this helps......pictures should be on the website in the near future.  Thanks so much for you support......

Nov 3, 2006

Dear Mr. Conte Can you tell me if there are any plans
to do ACW US/CSA marines and sailors-boarding parties etc?  I do not
 believe that any other figure manufacturers do these and I believe they
would make a welcome addition to any ACW collection.  Also can you tell me
 if there will ever be the officer figure (Shaw) available to go with the
54th Massachusetts and maybe a flagbearer, again I think that would
complete another unique collectable part for any ACW collection

We have a bunch of ACW sets planned or underway. The first to arrive will be the 16 Sons of the South sets looking really good for  first deliveries in time for the Holidays. Samples from the  production sets are supposed to be on my desk on 11/6 from the factory.

After that we have about 15 Union sets plus another 10 or so hand to hand sets and some 'personalities'.. We also  have several incredible and very dramatic sets based upon the Keith Rocco paintings of Save the Colors and  Victory or Death!

I agree totally that ACW naval combat would be an awesome choice..... and yes, you should expect to see Shaw and additions to our 54th Mass. range as well as some great terrain pieces. I plan 2007 to be a period of major attention for our ACW range.  We will be retiring alot of our 'older' sets and filling the shelves with new..... Hope this answers your questions.

October 30.2006

Questions/Comments = Just wondering if in the "near or far" future, there
 are any plans for the Pacific-theatre of WW2?  In particular....the TARAWA
battle that occurred Nov. 20-23, 1943.  This particular-battle has
 fascinated me for years and no toy-manufacturers make much for the Pacific
War.  CONTE' could do wonderful-things for a series like this!!!
THANKS VERY MUCH........

Yes, The Marines and battles of the Pacific War are definitely 'on our list' and we intend to cover this period at some time in the future.  Tarawa is an excellent choice and is a subject our sculptors are chomping at the bit to get into (as am I). I also really like early Pacific War themes such as Wake Island, Bataan and so on.... We did do one Marine as a Collectors Club figure several years back & have more of these in stock from time to time. We are huge fans of the Marines and the service these brave men & woman have afforded  our country for over 200 years. Semper Fi........

I'm not sure from your question whether you are a plastics or a fine pewter collector--but when we 'do it' we'll come out with figures for both types of collector. A number of other projects are in line ahead of these guys so please be patient...our recent unveiling of our Omaha Beach landing craft have convinced me we can sculpt and produce the vehicles necessary to recreating the various Pacific landings......

In  the meantime, Toy Soldiers of San Diego has just come out with some  nice plastic poses of US & Japanese troops. (ask for Nick or Deanna--the owners) Marx "Japanese" plastic were nice when we I was a kid & and I think 'reissues" of most of these poses may be available from plastics dealers. There were also some Britains Deetail Japanese and US available in the 1970's/1980's---I heard that Britains might be reissuing some of these sets.  Also, I have no idea how hard they are to find but Airfix or Matchbox had some great Japanese figures out back in the 70's and I think reissued from time to time in the past 20 years. All of these might be worth searching out....

  In metal, King & Country has had some nice figures( Iwo Jima theme) available for quite a while; I think they have just come out with some new additions to their range. As always, K & C's work is very nice and lots of dealers carry their product.  So, depending upon your collecting interests you ought to take a look at some of these sets made by others....and enjoy these until we can do the Pacific 'our way'....... I know a few collectors who are planning to buy our  Bloody Omaha sets and to use these 'as Marines" for now..... Hope this helps. Thanks for writing.

Have you ever considered producing or licensing your figures in 25 mm or 1/72nd scale ? (We are asked this alot)

I would love to see our product available in these other sizes for wargamers.....absolutely yes!!

I have no immediate plans to manufacture these myself as every dollar goes into making more 1/32 scale product but I'd be glad to talk to other companies about using our poses ...so the answer is yes---we are open to it.

Who do you use for your models?? Are any of your figures based upon real life persons??

This gets asked now & then in different contexts.  All of our historical personalities are based upon the actual historical personalities as best as we can do.  Wherever possible we utilize actual  photos of the person.  This is of course tough to do when you are talking medieval and ancient guys.  In these cases we try to find historical descriptions if at all possible or look at artwork  made as close as possible to the person's actual life. (often there are bronzes or busts or even mosaics).

Harald Hardrada (the Last Viking set) was a great example where we were not able to find any good pictures of him but were able to find several extraordinarily nice accounts of his size and look.  The rest was conjecture on my part and trying to  guess how he might have aged and 'looked' just before his demise at Stamford Bridge.   I  always smile when collectors or dealers tell me that he is unusually 'big' or 'out of scale' to the rest of our Viking line........this is because he was documented as being  6' 6" tall in an era when anyone over 5' 10" would have been considered huge.  We had to make him big..........(during the famous meeting between Hardrada & Godwinson the Saxon King offers the Viking King  'and for this one,  more than 6 good feet of English earth"(for his grave!)

I design virtually all poses and 'looks' and how it happens is different with every sculptor; with Robert Ortiz I can simply describe a face and it s features saying something like ' I want him to look 40ish with large aquiline nose, a mouth like so and so, a neck like 'refrigerator Perry" and he needs to appear angry--like he's 'seeing red" and  wants to kill something. And  give him long hair  that looks greasy dirty,  ragged looking teeth", and a sparse beard..... and lo & behold he will nail it.  Sometimes a given figure may have features from 5 or more different pictures /persons.  Alot of other sculptors will use "Airfix" "multipose' heads and/or product from other manufacturers (Presier/elastolin has alot of bodies which sculptors can buy and cut up) but the problem is alot of the sculpts  end up looking similar.  One sculptor we had used to always tried to reuse Robert Ortiz heads/faces on his own sculpts.......getting 'likenesses' right in this scale of sculpting is nearly impossible and Robert and Jim Rogers are two of the guys who have been able to achieve success very regularly. With most sculptors I will give an actual photo of a human and then make changes...

A sub-question often asked is about who did we model the various female sculptures after? (LOL , strange but true, this even came up at the recent OTSN show).  I  intentionally modeled the one pirate woman firing a  flintlock pistol and wearing tall boots after my wife Nancy and have never heard the end of it!!   Back when this set was new, collectors used to ask her to autograph the box of Pirate woman even though she constantly denies any similarity.  I can't recall how the story leaked out..the Barbarian Queen was modeled on my Granny in her youthful days around 1915 mixed with an image from one of those dinosaur epics (come to think of it, how come Marx never had cave women like this in the prehistoric playsets? I'd still own mine if they had....)......she was slightly more amused than my wife and was proud of her strong Germanic & Nordic heritage.
The She Wolf was based upon the 'attitude' of  my 8th grade math teacher( a real martinet with a Nazi  like presence in the classroom ) plus some thoughts Robert Ortiiz harbored and so on..the lady shooting the Woodland Indian in the Rangers series was loosely based upon a young Catherine Zeta Jones.....and so on

There are 3 or 4 new Saxon woman coming soon in the Viking Raid series and I am thinking Ann-Margret and Elke Sommers deserve a nod. (after all they are both Scandinavian so I know we are 99% genetically on track).......there is also a rather large, big boned (did I say 'large'?) lady chasing a Viking  which is on the  way--- who is  more like Ethel Merman crossed  with the Incredible Hulk all in a large big hair wig that is actually quite formidable. (at least thats the working image/instruction I am giving to Mr. Ortiz; I hope this assignment does not cause him undue stress...)

....as to common comments/criticisms that our women are not accurately representative of  real women, all I can say is I don't know what you mean as these seem like real people to us...but remember... we've lived in Las Vegas.....

October 26, 2006

Will any of the figures in the pewter BOSS (Bloody Omaha Signature Series) WW2 sets have life vests??

In the first four sets, definitely not.  As we add more sets to the landing diorama we might sculpt some poses which have brassards, life vests and such. More likely, we'll show some discarded items on the beach.

We intentionally left these off of the first 20 poses as we expect that alot of collectors will take the figures 'off' of the terrain bases & will use these guys in other scenarios or locations such as city street  fighting, hedgerows, etc. You'll also notice we did not do much to make these figures 'wet'.....as many would have been, coming out of the water.  We decided we should stick with a more general all-purpose look and assumed that any obssessed collector who wants  pant legs wet can always decide to customize our efforts to his own liking.

It is often a difficult decision as to which 'moment in time' should be depicted by a particular sculpture.  Using these  guys as an example, should they be shown at the moment the gate came down or just as they are leaving their LCVPs(meaning in the water) or running up the beach  or 'taking cover' or at the sea wall ?????  All scenarios would have been interesting to depict but we unfortunately had to select one  instant and then had to try to capture all of the action and carnage which were underway during those first horrible minutes on Omaha. We tried to select the moment which would be of i terest to the overwhelming majority of collectors.

I can tell you that I plan to revisit matters and actually do a set which shows guys in the water...and troops massing at the sea wall....but that's for the future.......

October 24, 2006

When will the beautiful new ACW sets be available?? I read on one of the  'forums" that Robert Ortiz was still sculpting these at OTSN???

These 33 stunning figures & 2 horses (that is the word we hear most often) will hopefully be available in limited quantities just in time for Christmas.

These  have been designated for 15 different new SOS sets plus one new CCC (Collector Club) figure. Details & prices will be posted soon.

The factory promised me on 10/20 that we will have at least the first 100 sets each for each of these SOS ( Sons of the South) sets in time for the Holidays. We are hoping to have a few more..... Additional 'batches' will keep rolling in thereafter. Inasmuch as these 16 sets and the incoming 4 painted pewter sets  from our WW2 Bloody Omaha Signature Series (BOSS sets) appear to be attracting loads of kind comments, we suggest you call or write to place yourself on the 'preorder list' asap as we will most likely sell through this first 100 sets before they even arrive in the warehouse.....

As to the comment that Robert was 'sculpting these at OTSN', this must be a misstatement since what we had at OTSN were copies of the paint masters. The only thing which Robert 'was sculpting' at the show were several Vikings.........I do recall him having to glue a paint master back together that someone accidentally broke....?

October 23, 2006

Have Heard Rumors A Viking Playset Might Arrive For Christmas 2006? Any Truth?

In response to  plastic collectors asking for something new to go under the Christmas tree (aren't our 2 Omaha sets or the playsets made by other companies enough?) we are doing our best to get the first of the Viking Raid playsets ready.

This late in the season nothing can be certain but we are trying...really trying... as we know how important that playset is to all of us plastic collectors around the Holidays....

The ships are leaving the factory and heading this way as of this Wednesday I am told.(10/25) so the timing really will depend upon the figures arriving.  This late there is a risk we won't have all of the figures in time but we are doing what we can.

This set will consist of the Viking Ship with 29 resin crew members plus--as it looks right now-- another  10 exclusive figures plus 40 plastic Vikings/Normans/Saxons.

In terms of new poses, I believe there are 14 different poses of rowers, the new helmsman, plus a Viking leading off a Saxon woman, a Viking lighting a hay stack alight, the 'shopping' Viking (free sheep included), Viking and Monk in  action by Celtic Cross,  Viking throwing ax at woman tied to wheel,  a monk attacking and a Viking in action. 25 poses which have never been in a playset before!

Several of the figures described will also have small terrain bases. The ship and  stand are the same handpainted model which is available to painted metal collectors.

The Viking Raid will continue in 07 with the Saxon Church, siege towers, scaling ladders, battering ram, castle walls, catapult, ballista, loads of figures and accessories.

Price looking to be $299 per set, Limited Edition of 250 sets will be made. (plus the sets I make for my staging of the Viking siege of Paris...). The office will be glad to put your name on a reserve list if you are interested.

Whatever Happened To The "Interior Castle Parts" For The War Lord Tower?

Curious how this question pops up from time to time. Especially since the War Lord Tower was introduced as our first play set back in the late 90's.  Apparently there are some strong (and occasionally angry ) collector feelings about this one. I'm not sure how often people really are concerned about this or whether it is largely showing up on web forums and chats due to our 'detractors' bringing this up as a failed 'promise' on our part..however it is viewed it is one of our 'failed projects'.

For those who don't  remember , The War Lord is one of my favorite movies starring Charlton Heston,  Richard Boone and Guy Stockwell, which is all about Normans defending a  medieval tower against attacks by Frisians (Viking 'light' as one collector called them.). We made a replica of the tower* and sold this in a play set which was also  bought by many fine pewter collectors to use with painted metal. (One of our collectors even turned his tower, in a very innovative twist, into a headquarters for SS plastic troops!).  We 'licensed' from a movie studio the right to replicate the tower and included packaging which had photos or scenes from the movie.

We originally hoped to sell & actually had sculpts and prototypes made of a circular staircase, some interior archways, doorways, walls, etc............BUT NEVER SOLD THESE . Why?

Three reasons: 1) the movie studio did not initially approve our manufacturing and selling these, causing close to a year and 1/2 delay; (2) when they finally approved it--after a personnel change-- our license was up for 'renewal' and they wanted us to pay a huge licensing fee, upfront plus a % of all sales; (3) the cost of the licensing fee alone would have averaged over $100 to $200 per set of interior parts before ANY of our sculpting or production & sales costs. To even breakeven on the COSTS of this set we would have been forced to charge almost $200  to $300 per set of parts--which was ridiculous.....and I doubt any collector would have paid this.....

Since we only had about 50 collectors  who had signed up to buy these sets out of the many hundreds of collectors who had bought the playset, it was very clear that we could not produce the sets...and unfortunately, most of the pieces were assiduously copied from structures portrayed in the film meaning we needed the licensing approval.

Compounding matters, we had already produced about 50 sets of parts in a yellow color resin (don't ask me  why they weren't made in a gray stone-like color as I never received a good answer from our sales manager....or head sculptor)...these were all delivered to our sculptor in the Mid-West...and while  he claims he sent them to the Las Vegas office, they were never received there and no tracking record could be found!!  Approximately 10 sets which were in my possession are now perhaps among the most rare and expensive 'flops' in our history. Five or 6 of these sets were sent to various factories in an attempt to garner bids---NO ONE wanted to produce such small quantities ...... I have one  set on my large work table where it sits as a painful reminder of one of those great ideas that never made it to the marketplace! I have never set it up inside my tower or played with it as I've always felt that if collectors couldn't enjoy it, that I shouldn't either.

If anyone ever sees these showing up on ebay please let me know as they are undoubtedly the missing sets........

That's the bad news! Now for the good news: we are heavily involved in the development of our Viking Raid series for both metal & plastic collectors and a castle interior is 'in the works'...

* There actually were at least 3  different towers used in the filming of the movie. A Small Model which I think was only about 15 " tall , the roof top  of the tower used for closeup  battle scenes and the actual huge  tower which sat on the movie studio lot for at least 25 years after filming was completed.  Interestingly, the interior placement of windows and arrow slits did NOT coincide  with or match the exterior placement of such items, which made getting an accurate sculpt nigh impossible. Contrary to popular collector understanding, Ken Osen did NOT sculpt the tower...it was done by a guy in Hollywoood who made miniatures for films!

September 27, 2006

Were The Bloody Omaha Playsets #1 and #2 Released at the OTSN show Sept. 20-24? When will shipping begin for those folks who were not at the show?

Yes, we had both sets on display and for sale starting on the 22nd.  Unfortunately, the beautiful  playset box with full 6 sided color artwork did not arrive in time so collectors who took the sets from the show will be mailed the playset boxes as soon as they arrive in the warehouse.

A sample of the box was on display and elicited collector comments that it was the most impressive playset box we have ever done.  (This one 'opens' from the front in a fashion similar to the D-Day landing craft gates!!)

A bizarre rumor has been reported to me that one collector who was at the show is making false claims that the sets were not there!!!! ...this just goes to show how crazy this hobby can be. (LOL).

We expect the gorgeous boxes to arrive soon and will begin packing and shipping these beasts as soon as we can.

Are GI Blistercards Available Separately For Sale Now?

No.  We have only received enough cards for use with playsets as of 9/28. The large container with thousands of blistercards is hoped to arrive late October .

At OTSN several collectors told me how much they loved the figures and the playset but that they could not afford the playsets for various reasons.  Their stories of financial woes got the best of me as I understand the problems paying the bills and raising families in America today. As a result, I agreed to sell some of the playset figures and my personal samples as it was more important to me to make collectors happy than to be playing with the samples  myself...

We currently only have the first advance shipment of figures which should allow us to fill orders for the first 100 or so of each playset. As soon as I know we have adequate supplies on hand to meet playset demand I will begin releasing blistercards to dealers and collectors.

Will Dealers Be Offering The Same Specials As Conte On Bloody Omaha Playsets #1 and #2? Why do you limit these specials to the first customers?

I don't know.  This will be up to the dealers themselves. We can't afford to give the dealers all the special items for free as dealers generally make more $$ on any given set we make than we do.
The dealers are encouraged to make the same specials available to you and we usually offer to sell to them the special items at low prices so that they may match what we are offering. In any event , the specials will soon disappear as we are rapidly approaching the cut-off point.

We offer specials for those plastic playset collectors which are pretty fantastic as  our way of saying 'thank you' to those of you who have been with us from the beginning of this crazy labor of love and who immediately support our new releases in the playset world.  It costs over $180,000 to cover the mold, sculpting and production run costs for sets like Bloody Omaha and all of this has to be paid upfront, far in advance of our being able to sell the first set.

By offering specials on the new playsets we can be pretty certain that folks will buy early thereby giving us some much needed cash flow so that we can continue on with the next plastic project.

What are your metal figures made of? Are they 'lead free'

I am proud to say that all of our metal figures are made of 'fine pewter' which is legally deemed to be lead free.  While fine pewter costs more than various white metal alloys used by many other manufacturers, I have always felt that collectors deserve the best and that we should NOT make beautiful sculpts and then cheapen them by using less than optimal materials in the production process. When safety concerns arise we always attempt to err on the side of being safe.

Interestingly, the W. Britains company recently began telling folks that they were one of the only companies using lead free materials and implied that collectors should only buy from them as product made by other companies might not be safe or otherwise might deteriorate.  This kind of self-serving comment  has been lambasted in the British toy soldier press and does a disservice to companies like Conte who have always been at the forefront of safety & quality concerns. To our knowledge, several of the large toy soldier producers use 'fine pewter' and any broad brush implication that Britains is unique in this regard is just plain wrong.

While we applaud Britains making collectors aware of the lead issue,  they failed to mention that one of their employees--when working for me-- was fully aware that Conte only uses "lead free" fine pewter. For many years our figures were , in fact, made at the same factory as Britains matte finish product!! We are glad to see this gentleman perpetuating Conte quality practices at Britains......

Our suggestion is to ask when unsure as to whether a particular  toy soldier is lead free.....and be wary...as many are not.

What are your favorite movies?

It's funny how often I get asked this but most toy soldier collectors also seem to be 'bound' by a common interest in movies as well and for some reason collectors often inquire.....this question is better left for a Leonard Maltin or Roger Ebert.....

The list is too long to cover them all and I will limit my list to war and action adventure genres as I could go on all week if we started talking westerns, comedies and dramas......I'm sure I am forgetting something

#1 The Vikings with Kirk Douglas
#2 Spartacus with Mr. Douglas again
After this it gets really tough as there are so many....
I really like Zulu, Beau Geste, The Longest Day, The War Lord,  El Cid,  Adventures of Robin Hood, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, Northwest Passage, the Basil Rathbone/Tyrone power Mark of Zorro, most of the various Alamo movies,  Captain Blood,  The Four Feathers(1939 version)......Khartoum, Lawrence of Arabia, Sands of Iwo Jima, Sgt. York, etc.....the tv movie Rough Riders,  Man Who Would Be King , The Crimson Pirate,  Wake Island, Guns of Navarone......Patton......Gettysburg...Braveheart....Ivanhoe......Henry V...Kingdom of Heaven...Gladiator....Lives of A Bengal Lancer...Gunga Din.....The Patriot..The Wind & The Lion...Great Escape..etc...

For battle scenes I also love  March or Die, a Foreign Legion film which many have not seen as it bombed at the box office and Waterloo which also never did well with ticket buyers and Zulu Dawn ...all three have spectacular battle scenes with not much else to enjoy.

Despite sheer 'campiness' I also must admit to liking the less than stellar The Long Ships and the 300 Spartans   (the latter having music which can almost make one run from the room) as well as Hercules Unchained, Jason & the Argonauts and the 1950's version of Helen of Troy.

For 'sets' and production values one needs to give Cleopatra special consideration despite the Taylor -Burton controversy. The ships and the sets and costumes are spectacular.

I am always surprised by how few folks have ever seen The War Lord and was very pleased that we were able to supply almost 1000 videos (now out of print) to collectors so they could enjoy.......many seeing the film for the very first time.

Send us your favorites in 1 to 10 order and we'll post a reader's poll result at some time in the future.....

Are you related to the actor Richard Conte?

I was asked this at least 5 times  while at OTSN this past week.

Apparently this rumor has been floating around since I made my first plastic toy soldier.

I am told (by my grandfather) that I am apparently a distant cousin (something like a 6th or 7th) to this distinguished star of the 30's thru 60's. I never had the opportunity to meet him but am constantly asked if we are related.

Interestingly, his name apparently was Nicholas and his middle name was Richard. In some of his very early speaking parts he is billed as "Nicky' and then a few years later he is "Nicholas"......by the time he does "13 Rue Madeleine' with James Cagney he has adopted Richard which he uses to the end.  Most youngsters will not know his fine body of cinematic work including A Walk in The Sun and some great film noir and may not even recognize the name.  When I mention Don Barzini in The Godfather and his being gunned down on the steps of a church, everyone instantly remembers him although this is very near the end of an illustrious career. Others will remember him from the original Ocean's Eleven or Sinatras "Tony Rome' films.

Having the same name has led to a couple of interesting & fortuitous meetings which I enjoyed very much. 1) while still a teenager I was pulled away from a  Caesars Palace slot machine and was  told to stay out of the casino. As I had just seen the fantastic Ann Margaret's stage show that same evening, I picked up a house phone and asked for her dressing room fully expecting to get nowhere. To my surprise someone answered and asked who was calling....I told them Richard Conte and before I knew  it A-M's husband Roger Smith ( a famous TV star in the 60's with 77 Sunset Strip) got on the phone and said "Hi ya Dick...how  have u been...it's been a while since I saw you at the party at Frank's house" clearly thinking he had the movie star on the phone.  After explaining the error, he had a good laugh and asked what I wanted......thinking as quickly as I could I told him how I had just seen the show, was then bounced from the casino and was hoping I could meet them both... Mr. Smith was kind enough to invite me back to the dressing rooms  and both he and A-M were great and had a good laugh over the name confusion.....for years they sent me Christmas cards which were always a treat....I especially treasure the one of A-M wearing nothing but a white fur coat while seductively sitting on one of her motorcycles!!!

(2)Another time, I was Frank Sinatra's 'guest' at one of his concerts in Lake Tahoe ......the maitre 'd  asked me when I arrived at his booth 'where is your Dad?"......it never occurred to me that he meant the actor!!!  I said he was home thinking he knew my real Dad who often visited this hotel...he then proceeded to take me & my date down to the very front row, center table right next to the stage..I tried to tip him and he refused the $$$ saying 'you are Mr. Sinatras guest!!!! Everything is on him!!!"
I still recall Mr. S looking down at me while singing Send In The Clowns and wondering who the heck I was........

What is Conteco's most rare figure?

There are 4 which instantly come to mind although there might be others.  These are all plastic and were never actually sold to anyone although the molds were made and some figures were actually run.  These might be worth something on ebay some day...... as I doubt we will ever go back and do a major production run with these.

These are (1) a plastic Greek/Spartan done in tan plastic, (2) a Revolutionary War Britiish figure done in red plastic, (3) a Rev War Continental done in blue plastic & (4) a ACW Union figure standing firing a rifle. I seem to recall a handful of each also being run in the green/gray color which we've used for WW2 Germans.

#2  and #3, the Rev-War poses,  were intended for the never to be made plastic playset based upon the film "The Patriot'. We ran several hundred samples of these two figures and passed them out at the NY Toy Fair (huge toy show ) along with promotional materials for our Patriot pewter range.  Both figures had engineering problems with plug-in arms which the factory never fully corrected. These were experimental in many ways as one in particular had both hands plug in whilst also holding a musket......compounding the problem was the fact that no one at Toy Fair really seemed interested in buying  UNpainted plastic figures. In fact, most of the 'buyers' at the show tended to be women or persons too young to even remember Marx playsets or the heyday of unpainted plastic figures.

To top matters off, the movie studio from whom we had licensed the rights to the film breached its promise to include promotional sales materials inside every DVD and VHS--which we were heavily counting on...and then the movie did poorly at the box office.........etc.......by the time we found a new factory which could do painted plastic figures, the 'buzz' over the movie had died ......I remain hopeful that we will be able to release Rev War plastic figures at some point...even if we do, I doubt whether these 2 will see the light of day as in the interim our sculpting and mold-making capabilities have vastly improved.

I really like Mel Gibson and loved the film despite all the criticisms of historical inaccuracies. Unfortunately, the Patriot plastic project is one of those close-to-the-heart projects of mine that  'got away' due to circumstances beyond our control.
(Sadly, based on our lawyer's advice, we also had to cancel our plans for a "Mask of Zorro" playset  when we got into the disagreement with the studio over their breach of  promises to help promote our "Patriot" product. By that time we already had 11 sculpts done including a fantastic Zorro standing on top of 2 galloping horses......ahhh...it pains me to think that this one also never happened--especially since I had to pay for the sculpts!!)

#4, the Union pose, was beautiful but shelved when we made the decision to do painted plastic ACW and had to switch factories. A really nice well-molded figure done by Ken Osen.

#1, the Ancient Greek, never was released as I was somewhat unhappy with how the figure turned out.  I envisioned our Spartans as muscle bound professional warriors who had trained every day for over 30 years before arriving at Thermopylae.....unfortunately the fine Ken Osen sculpt seemed a tad too anemic and two dimensional after some inevitable 'shrinkage' associated with the mold process. This figure is unlikely to be produced as we now have a  spectacular new range of Spartans & Immortals sculpted by Robert Ortiz which are featured on our web site.  As nice as this old sculpt is, I don't think he would fit in all that well and might look out of place next to the incredible new guys. And yes, we do plan to release plastic Spartans similar to our pewter poses at some future date.

Is it true you make alot of soldiers for you own personal use which you never offer to collectors? Is there a battalion of secret army men which you have but do not make available to fellow collectors?

This is another of those weird toy soldier legends which crops up from time to time. The answer is an emphatic "No".....every pose I design is intended to be sold to fellow collectors.

The costs of sculpting at the level we are able to achieve is very expensive and it would be absolute craziness to think that I could afford to make sculpts aimed at my own secret personal use.....total fantasy on the part of those who started this rumor. Makes me laugh.....

Besides, I started this company as a frustrated fellow collector who longed for certain poses & themes which manufacturers were unfortunately not making.  My goals were to make the toys we ALL wanted and to promote children's interest in our hobby and in history...not to create some secret , jealously guarded private collection. I want to share our creations with as many collectors as we can possibly reach. On a few occasions we have had sets of figures sampled or prototyped by one of the factories but have never released these sets to the public for sale--perhaps it is rumor of these figures that has fueled the overall rumor??

My policy remains that anything I can play with I want you to also be able to play with or collect.

Folks at OTSN asked me about a new Viking sculpt  which was there which has a beautiful shield which features the Great Snake from our Conteco logo.  Our recent "Laird of Conteville" medieval set also featured a fur nobleman swinging a sword who wears our crest on his chest........and I must admit that an entire troop of archers and men-at-arms wearing our 'livery' is very appealing to me, While I conceivably might do such a thing in the future, I am uncertain how many collectors might want a bunch of Normans or Crusaders wearing our colors as opposed to more accurate historical heraldry...if this every actually  happens  I'll most certainly give every collector the chance to enjoy this silliness as well.

What is the story of the Conte logo?

I get complimented on our two variations quite often and invariably get asked where it's from .........

Quite simply it is based upon the design on the Viking ship featured in the movie The Vikings and was loosely based upon some actual historical designs.  It can be seen in some early frames of the movie as Ragnar(Ernest Borgnine) returns home from a Viking  raid on England.  As everyone knows, The Vikings is my favorite all-time film and Kirk Douglas my #1 child-hood hero.

When starting the company, I asked Mr. Douglas for permission to adopt the 'great snake ' design as part of our logo.(even though it very likely was in the public domain anyway).  Very kindly, he agreed and I think was  somewhat amused by the request. The very first piece of stationery and my first business card with the logo were sent to Mr. Douglas in a thank you letter.

The service marked logo has actually appeared in 2 variations: first, on the sail of a Viking ship rendering and secondly on the recently seen medieval shield as a crest.
The logo is my silent way of paying tribute to Mr. Douglas each and every day and thanking him for the profound influence which he has had upon my 'formative years'.The message he tried to teach with Spartacus is with me each & every day.

  Because of The Vikings and Spartacus I have had a lifelong interest in ancient and medieval periods; Vikings to this day remain one of my favorite 'periods' as can be seen by the teaser photos of our upcoming Viking raid series of figures, siege equipment and buildings.

Somewhere down the line I hope to make a 3rd Viking ship model which features our logo on its sail......

Some collectors might recall our use of a third variation wherein we put a 'skull & crossbones" on the sail of the Viking ship logo for our best selling Pirate series of pewter figurines.

Is there really a Conteville?

Seems that this comes up quite frequently. Many collectors know my love for Normans & Vikings. Many also know that we often mention Conteville......most apparently think I've either  gotten into a strong tankard of ale or have just plain lost it when they read and hear this stuff. The fact is that a real village does exist in Normandy with a population of about 80 humans and maybe 250 cows.

While small now, this village had important connotations in the middle ages as William the Conqueror's mother lived there and reportedly gave birth to his 2 brothers, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and Robert, Count of Mortain.  It actually exists and is not too far from the city of Caen in the heart of Normandy.

While nothing is certain and beyond reproach, my family  claims some origins in a mounted knight or man-at-arms referred to as Ralph (Rolf) de Conteville (of Conteville) who purportedly served at Hastings and was rewarded with Saxon lands for his role....... as is widely understood, many in those times did not have a last name and simply adopted the place name where they were from as a means of identification. There is some mention of him receiving lands in southern England in the Domesday book.

Normans, Vikings and the Crusades are my favorite parts of medieval history.....if you ever go to Normandy I can give you some directions....the town is so small that there is no mayor or post office or store.....and no I didn't see anyone who looked like me or the relatives!!  Please , no jokes about the farm animals......