Conte Collectibles ZUL-017 Zulu Casualties

"Thank you to those of  you who have written or phoned or spoken to me at toy shows during the past seven or so years and encouraged me to produce Zulu War figures.

This exquisite range of proud Zulu Warriors and stalwart British Colonial troops has been a 'long time in the making",  I have avoided producing this series--with the small exceptions of 2 beautiful Keith Rocco Zulu sets and a CCC release of some "Heroes of the Drift"--- for almost a decade due to the large number of other already existing Zulu War  figures available in the marketplace .
I've always felt the product available in the market was very nice and personally i was very fond of the Trophy of Wales sets, but collectors have simply not let the subject rest.  After the umpteenth time I heard 'but no one does the animation or hand  to hand stuff  or casualties like Conte does" I finally decided to make a few figures and address collector requests.

As usual, the few figures has become something of an avalanche of product as we've gotten a tad carried away.  Initially, I thought we might just 'fine-tune" our Zulu and 24th Foot poses from our injection molded plastic playset ranges but when I revisited these wonderful 'old' figures it was clear that we could certainly do much better now than we did back them. Hence, a whole new range of sculpts which (while still the same size as our earlier figures from 1999 ) really are the 'next generation' of Zulu product. There are so many exciting vignettes and potential 'scenes' and characters from the Zulu War that it really was difficult to select only a few sets to 'start with....

Sure, we needed Chard & Bromhead but we also needed Durnford & Melville & so on.  How could we do  Bourne but leave out  Hookie?  How could we show one Zulu regiment but not another?  How could we not show the "Saving The Colours" as we saw it happening or the proper come-uppance for the Quartermaster at Isandlwana (whether the stories of incompetence were true or not).  How could we revisit Rorke's Drift without  also visiting the  Horns of the Buffalo in action as the British camp at Isandlwana is being overrun???  It's seemed to me for a long time that others have often paid homage to the Brits somewhat at the expense of the Zulus and I felt a real effort was needed to pay proper tribute and respects to the Zulu Army and to not just cast them as 'extras' in what many see as a British story.

To me the Zulu War has always been a tale of cultures colliding,  an epic struggle of modern versus old, of change vs status quo, of the West using technology to change history  and of individual heroism on both sides.  The demise of the Zulu nation carries a certain sadness for me because as the story inevitably unfolds, human courage often is just not enough to overcome artillery, gatling guns, rockets, etc.......in short, the tale is heroic and gripping and tragic ...

While the Zulu were inevitably destined to lose the war, they sure made things 'interesting' and deserve to be presented in all their glory.  Robert' Ortiz's sculpts of the Zulus in particular are  stand-out magnificent --- I can't recall a toy soldier sculptor ever addressing human anatomy with such talent and understanding . This comment should  not detract from the British sculpts as I think he has set a new standard for British Colonial troops as well.

The amazing Ortiz was turned loose with my concepts and designs and as he began to work his usual magic, it became clear to me that we really needed to 'redo' everything including the standard poses because his new creations were so fantastic that the older Zulu figures of ours  looked a little (well ok alot) out of place.  As good as our stuff is from years ago, we can do so much more now.   I figured we best just do this thang the right way.

While we've redone the standard expected poses such as firing lines and casualties in an exemplary fashion, its with the character figures and the hand to hand combat  vignettes that I think  we are really going to be noticed.  As the first sets were sculpted I couldn't contain my enthusiasm for the amazing work that Robert was doing. It seemed that each new figure cried out for the next set to be sculpted...and so on....."

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