All things Conte (1 Viewer)

[kilted vampire]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

This topic comes up from time to time, doesn't it?

It kinda do, don't it?

 

[Uthred]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

Uthred, I will give you the biggest compliment I can I agree with you! That being said it will be nice when new product hits the shelves. I have emailed RC to join us here on the forum. So far he has not made a reply.

THANK YOU!!!!!

Cheers...

Uthred

 

[Shannon Reuss]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

Originally Posted by theBaron:
This topic comes up from time to time, doesn't it?

It does indeed. But the current thread is an excellent (and rare unfortunately) example of people having a calm, repectful, rational, baggage-free discussion even though they have opposite points of view and I commend you all for it. Very refreshing to say the least.
Best regards,

 

[Spitfrnd]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

This topic comes up from time to time, doesn't it?

Yes that says two things to me: a lot of folks like them; a lot of folks are still waiting for them.

 

[gk5717]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

OK fellas I will plead ignorance when it comes to Contes Spartans. That period of time does not interest me and I never really checked them out.
I never even bought his plastic Spartans which in my mind with the articulation are fantastic.
My metal background with Conte goes to his WW2 line, needless to say WW2 is my favorite collecting era.
I held off buying his first metal WW2 figures for years however a few years back he proclaims this new line of WW2 metal that is comeing.
So what do I do being the completst that I am, I scramble and buy all his old WW2 sets.
Well the new ones arrive, I get a few and don,t like the painting, too dark, and actually look like they were produced by a different company..
Get a couple of more sets, again don,t like the painting and finally decide this is stupid buying sets I don,t like.
Then I heard all the complaints from Civil War collectors about the size problem and Contes denial that they were larger.
Finally sold all my Conte metal on ebay probablly for a fourth of what I paid and mostly to international buyers.
I still will contend, forget the Spartans, that Contes metal is still no where near K&C.
Hail Ragnar!
Gary

 

[Uthred]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

Originally Posted by theBaron:
This topic comes up from time to time, doesn't it?

It does indeed. But the current thread is an excellent (and rare unfortunately) example of people having a calm, repectful, rational, baggage-free discussion even though they have opposite points of view and I commend you all for it. Very refreshing to say the least.
Best regards,

Thank you, Shannon!

This is the best toy soldier forum around and we are all responsible at keeping it like that.

Cheers...

Uthred

 

[damian]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

His ACW stuff (Eyeball to eyeball, the Troiani sets) were second to none. I think Ken was heavily involved there. His Rogers Rangers were also superb.
I thought his Spartans a bit too muscular, but that hand to hand set with teh one figure totally airborne was something else. I liked his BOSS as he did something that no-one else has achieved that is create a mini vingette of Omaha beach.
I agree that waiting for Conte is liek waiting for Goddard.
However I do wish him well and hope he does eventually deliver some of those AZW sets he has been promising since Sept 2007.

 

[Uthred]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

OK fellas I will plead ignorance when it comes to Contes Spartans. That period of time does not interest me and I never really checked them out.
I never even bought his plastic Spartans which in my mind with the articulation are fantastic.
My metal background with Conte goes to his WW2 line, needless to say WW2 is my favorite collecting era.
I held off buying his first metal WW2 figures for years however a few years back he proclaims this new line of WW2 metal that is comeing.
So what do I do being the completst that I am, I scramble and buy all his old WW2 sets.
Well the new ones arrive, I get a few and don,t like the painting, too dark, and actually look like they were produced by a different company..
Get a couple of more sets, again don,t like the painting and finally decide this is stupid buying sets I don,t like.
Then I heard all the complaints from Civil War collectors about the size problem and Contes denial that they were larger.
Finally sold all my Conte metal on ebay probablly for a fourth of what I paid and mostly to international buyers.
I still will contend, forget the Spartans, that Contes metal is still no where near K&C.
Hail Ragnar!
Gary

I don't collect the Spartans either, Gary.

To be honest with you I have one of them here, this fellow:

I bought him because he looks like Steve Reeves in the role of Hercules, not because he is anything like the rest of the range. Even without collecting them, however, there's no denying the Spartans are the best toy soldiers ever made. That's why I can't forget them.


Cheers...

Uthred

 

[Spitfrnd]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

His ACW stuff (Eyeball to eyeball, the Troiani sets) were second to none. I think Ken was heavily involved there. His Rogers Rangers were also superb.
I thought his Spartans a bit too muscular, but that hand to hand set with teh one figure totally airborne was something else. I liked his BOSS as he did something that no-one else has achieved that is create a mini vingette of Omaha beach.
I agree that waiting for Conte is liek waiting for Goddard.
However I do wish him well and hope he does eventually deliver some of those AZW sets he has been promising since Sept 2007.

Hear, hear. On the Spartan muscles, I have said enough here before mate but suffice it to say that maybe they are, maybe they aren't but if they are then I would paraphrase the Duke's line "well they d**n sure ought to have been that way". In any event, they are still stunning. T'was them that sucked me into this little activity actually.

 

[damian]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

Hear, hear. On the Spartan muscles, I have said enough here before mate but suffice it to say that maybe they are, maybe they aren't but if they are then I would paraphrase the Duke's line "well they d**n sure ought to have been that way". In any event, they are still stunning. T'was them that sucked me into this little activity actually.

That hand to hand set with the Spartan completely airborne is still something to behold.

 

[Warrior]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

With regards to Conte; I've never seen a buzz as big as the one he created at OTSN back in 1997 (?), when he rolled out the first of his playsets and figures. Never forget looking out the hotel window Sunday morning at around 5:00am as I prepared to move my stock downstairs and I saw a huge truck back up to the loading dock and the tailgate of the truck dropped and out tumbled a raftload of Zulu playsets.

His playsets and plastic figures set the hobby on it's ear; noone before or since has made playsets as nice as his, specifically his terrain features sculpted by Ken Osen. The figures were superb, also done by Ken, THE best plastic figures these eyes have ever seen.

Once Ken left, things seemed to slow down a bit, the playsets did not crank out as quickly as in the past and the figures, although still very nice, just were not the same. Production issues, specifically restocks and new releases have slowed things down in recent times, I hope the move gets him squared away and he gets back to producing wonderful figures and accessories for all of you Conte fans.

And as a side note, Richard the person has always been very, very good to me and other dealers; friendly, courteous, considerate and giving of his time and of information. He's gone out of his way on more than one occasion to make sure I recieved product in a timely fashion, so kudos to him for that....................

 

[thebritfarmer]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

With regards to Conte; I've never seen a buzz as big as the one he created at OTSN back in 1997 (?), when he rolled out the first of his playsets and figures. Never forget looking out the hotel window Sunday morning at around 5:00am as I prepared to move my stock downstairs and I saw a huge truck back up to the loading dock and the tailgate of the truck dropped and out tumbled a raftload of Zulu playsets.

His playsets and plastic figures set the hobby on it's ear; noone before or since has made playsets as nice as his, specifically his terrain features sculpted by Ken Osen. The figures were superb, also done by Ken, THE best plastic figures these eyes have ever seen.

Once Ken left, things seemed to slow down a bit, the playsets did not crank out as quickly as in the past and the figures, although still very nice, just were not the same. Production issues, specifically restocks and new releases have slowed things down in recent times, I hope the move gets him squared away and he gets back to producing wonderful figures and accessories for all of you Conte fans.

And as a side note, Richard the person has always been very, very good to me and other dealers; friendly, courteous, considerate and giving of his time and of information. He's gone out of his way on more than one occasion to make sure I recieved product in a timely fashion, so kudos to him for that....................

According to Mr Conte (on ebay) Ken has no connection with any of the Zulu figures. He made that quite clear on one of his listings for a plastic member of the 24th foot.

 

[UKReb]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

This thread is Deja Vu for at least the third or maybe fourth time on this forum which I suppose is indicative of the fact that a number of us just love RC's body of work-can't say the description exactly fits the man himself as others on the thread have already noted.

I too-like Uthred & Bill- blame Conte for seriously getting me involved in this hobby of ours-the animation of their figures when I first viewed them all those years ago just blew me away and an added bonus at the time was that they mixed and matched perfectly with the early-somewhat stilted- Britain figures. Together I began to build quite an ACW collection-until of course his dreadful SoS size mismatch which he had great difficulty in admitting- in fact I don't think he ever did.

Like most of you I now accept that I may or may not see any new figures from Conte again but I don't lose any sleep over it. I hope he does come back into the arena again as in my opinion he turned the toy soldier business on it's head and continually raised the bar with practically every series he brought out. However, he may find that a little more difficult to achieve today due to a number of companies excellent product available today that were just nowhere on the horizon in the mid 90's. And that just maybe the reason for the delay-ensuring that his product at least matches if not betters the competition-if that is the case- I think we all know that is not going to be easy for him.

Finally I do not fully understand his business plan- following the grand fanfare of moving the Conte warehouse and I am assuming that meant a large amount of stock because it appeared to take forever- but instead of using what old stock he had to replenish outstanding orders from Conte dealers (those few that were left) he now sells it solely on e-bay?
That my forum friends I find very very odd

Reb

 

[The Lt.]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

According to Mr Conte (on ebay) Ken has no connection with any of the Zulu figures. He made that quite clear on one of his listings for a plastic member of the 24th foot.

Scott I'm sure The Warrior will correct me if I'm wrong he was refering to the WWII playsets that Ken was very involved with an not the ZUlu War Playsets which launch Conte back then........The Lt.

 

[Spitfrnd]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

That hand to hand set with the Spartan completely airborne is still something to behold.

Indeed, makes me wish I had bought more than one.

 

[eborris]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

I have a philosophy about this subject, if a super model passed gas would ask her to leave your bed and go home? I think not.

 

[APACHEJOL]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

This thread is Deja Vu for at least the third or maybe fourth time on this forum which I suppose is indicative of the fact that a number of us just love RC's body of work-can't say the description exactly fits the man himself as others on the thread have already noted.

I too-like Uthred & Bill- blame Conte for seriously getting me involved in this hobby of ours-the animation of their figures when I first viewed them all those years ago just blew me away and an added bonus at the time was that they mixed and matched perfectly with the early-somewhat stilted- Britain figures. Together I began to build quite an ACW collection-until of course his dreadful SoS size mismatch which he had great difficulty in admitting- in fact I don't think he ever did.

Like most of you I now accept that I may or may not see any new figures from Conte again but I don't lose any sleep over it. I hope he does come back into the arena again as in my opinion he turned the toy soldier business on it's head and continually raised the bar with practically every series he brought out. However, he may find that a little more difficult to achieve today due to a number of companies excellent product available today that were just nowhere on the horizon in the mid 90's. And that just maybe the reason for the delay-ensuring that his product at least matches if not betters the competition-if that is the case- I think we all know that is not going to be easy for him.

Finally I do not fully understand his business plan- following the grand fanfare of moving the Conte warehouse and I am assuming that meant a large amount of stock because it appeared to take forever- but instead of using what old stock he had to replenish outstanding orders from Conte dealers (those few that were left) he now sells it solely on e-bay?
That my forum friends I find very very odd

Reb

I agree very much with you post! I for one cant afford all that I want. There is so much quality good stuff out there. Hes really gonna have to make some excellent product to compete in a tough economic enviroment. We will see?

 

[Spitfrnd]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

I have a philosophy about this subject, if a super model passed gas would ask her to leave your bed and go home? I think not.

LOL and MAO

 

[Uthred]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

This thread is Deja Vu for at least the third or maybe fourth time on this forum which I suppose is indicative of the fact that a number of us just love RC's body of work-can't say the description exactly fits the man himself as others on the thread have already noted.

I too-like Uthred & Bill- blame Conte for seriously getting me involved in this hobby of ours-the animation of their figures when I first viewed them all those years ago just blew me away and an added bonus at the time was that they mixed and matched perfectly with the early-somewhat stilted- Britain figures. Together I began to build quite an ACW collection-until of course his dreadful SoS size mismatch which he had great difficulty in admitting- in fact I don't think he ever did.

Like most of you I now accept that I may or may not see any new figures from Conte again but I don't lose any sleep over it. I hope he does come back into the arena again as in my opinion he turned the toy soldier business on it's head and continually raised the bar with practically every series he brought out. However, he may find that a little more difficult to achieve today due to a number of companies excellent product available today that were just nowhere on the horizon in the mid 90's. And that just maybe the reason for the delay-ensuring that his product at least matches if not betters the competition-if that is the case- I think we all know that is not going to be easy for him.

Finally I do not fully understand his business plan- following the grand fanfare of moving the Conte warehouse and I am assuming that meant a large amount of stock because it appeared to take forever- but instead of using what old stock he had to replenish outstanding orders from Conte dealers (those few that were left) he now sells it solely on e-bay?
That my forum friends I find very very odd

Reb

Reb,

Richard Conte has pushed the envelope of toy soldier development further and further. I am sure I'm not the only one around here who sees it. I don't think he's going to have a hard time, at least not any harder than before, to continue to amaze us with his toy soldiers. The pictures of the Zulus and zouaves on the website prove my point.

You may find it hard to understand why he sells on ebay, well, I don't. Selling through ebay he's taken the middle man out, he's going to sell straight to the collector, avoiding all the dealers' issues. I guess it's a risky move, but one no other company, except for Conte Collectibles, could have done. Richard Conte likes risky moves. Remeber what plastic playsets looked like untill he got out a plethora of playsets? His playsets include the Dark Ages, WW2, The Alamo, Zulu War, ACW, French Foreign Legion, The Northwest Frontier, etc... who, if not Conte could have released dozens of new plastic playsets, in about 10 years? Wasn't it extremely risky?

It's so easy to criticize the man, my friend, but what I really want to see is someone following his steps and making better toy soldiers than he did! That would be the day...

Cheers...

Uthred

 

[Uthred]

Re: Seriously - Is CONTE Still in Business ?

I have a philosophy about this subject, if a super model passed gas would ask her to leave your bed and go home? I think not.

A very sound philosophy.


Cheers....

Uthred