Most of the SOS figures were quite a bit larger than prior Conte offerings indeed. With that being said though, some of the figures were much closer to the scale we expected than others. Some of the figures were Confederate variations or earlier Conte figures from past lines. Like the wounded officer (CCC28), laying on the ground w/ his sword drawn....this same pose was used in the Roger's Rangers series and again in the Alamo series, thus the figure is smaller because the base sculpt is smaller. And the wounded flagbearer (from SOS002) is a Confed. variation of an earlier Conte Union soldier, and accordingly, this particular pose is smaller than most if not all of the new sculpts that were presented in the SOS series. While some of the SOS figures actually do mix in acceptably height-wise, IMHO, w/ Conte's earlier sets (like the running soldier w/ an eye patch or the soldier thrusting is bayonette equiped rifle forward both from SOS008), the soldiers are very thick and "well fed", as are some of their weapons. I hope I'm not adding more confusion to this equation and I'm not trying to bash Conte; I'm just trying to clarrify for Basil Duke because I own several Conte SOS figure sets, and the prior sets to those as well. But here's an interesting point: many of the SOS figures are casaulties and are therefore slumped over, or in some fallen state. This also makes them very mixable w/ the smaller scale of the earlier sets, especially if you have an eye for perspective and can position the figures w/ the size differential relationship in mind. (Of course, if you're not showcasing and intermingling the two "eras" together, than there is really no issue at all.) One last thing.....now from what I have heard from RC, the size issue has been cleared up for his new and yet to be released Zouaves. However, I have a concern because my favorite figure from the SOS range is SOS006, the rebel running yelling w/ flag and pistol, and he is of the "well-fed" variety. The concern is that a variation of this exact figure is showing up in the new Zouave range previews as Z009, the advancing flagbearer. So who knows? Only time will tell, and I mean that quite literally. With all that being said, I can say there is one SOS set that you really can't go wrong with, and that is SOS002, the command casaulty set. This is the only multi-piece SOS set, IMHO, that features all three figures in acceptable proportion when considering earlier Conte sets. This set really captures one's imagination, and features the absolutely unmatched dramatic action sculpting prowess of Robert Ortiz. His work and ability to capture implied, intense motion and emotion is jaw-dropping. One last thing, when RC first released the SOS sets, he said on his website that these new figures featured "enhanced painting". I found this statement to not reflect reality, and, to my dismay, I found that the painting of these figures exhibited quite the contrary. But the talents of one Mr. Ortiz make these sets hard to bypass; just take a peak at SOS007....canister! When this came out, it seemed like most everybody was jumping for it. I hope this helps a little. Let me know if I can help further, and enjoy your collection
.
Joe
