The Huge Popularity of Zulu War Figures (1 Viewer)

[maddadicus]

The movie, Zulu definately got me interested in the war.. I just cannot get enough of the different firing formations, used in the movie and when you combine those with my favorite scene, the singing of the Welsh hymn in tandem with the Zulus war song, cumilating in the climatic charge and rank apon rank of scarlet ,firing in sequence.......Whats not to love about this movie..I also like the small skirmish nature, for wargaming this conflict. Michael

 

[The Military Workshop]

Ozdigger,
Looks like I missed out on some of this thread ! You will have to update me next time we meet.
Being a Zulu War fan and a dealer myself if given the choice to sell 10 ZW Redcoats and 10 Zulus I would expect better sales of them than the top selling 10 WWII German and 10 Allied figures or top ten Brit Naps or French.
You just have to look at the massed rank ZW diroramas by other Forum members to see the huge appeal.
It is simply an iconic movie.
Regards
Brett

 

[HAWKEYE]

Maddadicus, you hit it right on the head, the movie was great, i saw it at the woods theater in downtown chicago when i was 7. The uniforms, the chants, the scenery the characters. What a movie. I have probably scene it 25-30 times. Now my daughters enjoy it. As for the popularity of the figures, its because guys like me are old enough to have the extra money to spend and there are lots of guys like me out there hitting the market. As far as zulu vs the alamo, well the british survived and the zulus gave them a chivalrous farewell.

 

[Harrytheheid]

For the life of me, I have no idea what you guys see in this "Zulu War" stuff!
Mike

Just caught up with this one - pretty funny.

Cheers
H

 

[OzDigger]

Ozdigger,
Looks like I missed out on some of this thread ! You will have to update me next time we meet.
Being a Zulu War fan and a dealer myself if given the choice to sell 10 ZW Redcoats and 10 Zulus I would expect better sales of them than the top selling 10 WWII German and 10 Allied figures or top ten Brit Naps or French.
You just have to look at the massed rank ZW diroramas by other Forum members to see the huge appeal.
It is simply an iconic movie.
Regards
Brett

Brett, looks like I missed out on this post. I will be in your area Friday morning and intend to call in to see what paintings you have that would suit behind my bar.

And of course we can thrash out that AZW v WWII issue, once and for all. Please remember to bring your Martini Henry as I'll have my MG 42 with me.

PS - your floor tiles look a bit porous so don't forget to put some tarps down like in Underbelly last night

 

[kilted vampire]

The movie, Zulu definately got me interested in the war.. I just cannot get enough of the different firing formations, used in the movie and when you combine those with my favorite scene, the singing of the Welsh hymn in tandem with the Zulus war song, cumilating in the climatic charge and rank apon rank of scarlet ,firing in sequence.......Whats not to love about this movie..I also like the small skirmish nature, for wargaming this conflict. Michael

Michael I love this movie too. I watch it frequently until the advent of dvds. Now I just lost the other one Zulu Dawn.. The figures keep coming out and lately they have been great. Just look at the new Britains and CS figures. If Conte ever gets moved look out. Great stuff. Maybe it is the romance of this epic battle? The reason for the thread is why is it popular? It just appeals to me at a basic level. I even make these figures. I do have one Osprey book on the subject, but I am wracking the brain box as to why

 

[Currahee Chris]

My uncle Jeff showed my the Zulu range of movies when I was a teenager. The show "Warriors" on the history channel profiled the Zulu's and, to a lesser extent, the battle at Islandwana and the show was excellent.

I think all the companies out there have done a wonderful job with their Zulu collections. Unfortunately though, I see the interest in this period as a generational thing (speaking for the US and in my opinion). I think this period of history will slowly fade away in interest over the next 20-30 years. I think if we were to poll the average American what was the battle of Islandwana about that 1 in 5,000 could probably give you a good answer. Heck, even I didn't know it took place in 1879 till I rolled onto this forum.

 

[lancer]

I think Currahee Chris is right about the popularity and the current generations. I also think he is optimistic that as many as 1 in 5000 could answer about Isandlwana. Maybe they may know what or where a Zulu is but I would doubt that anywhere near that many know anything about the war. The teaching of history is dying in our mid-grade and high schools. I'm not sure 1 in 5000 could even answer about WW2 in an intelligent manner. I'm just a pessimist, I guess. -- lancer

 

[Carnahan]

I think Currahee Chris is right about the popularity and the current generations. I also think he is optimistic that as many as 1 in 5000 could answer about Isandlwana. Maybe they may know what or where a Zulu is but I would doubt that anywhere near that many know anything about the war. The teaching of history is dying in our mid-grade and high schools. I'm not sure 1 in 5000 could even answer about WW2 in an intelligent manner. I'm just a pessimist, I guess. -- lancer

You're not a pessimist - you're a realist.

 

[skeeterbuck]

I think Currahee Chris is right about the popularity and the current generations. I also think he is optimistic that as many as 1 in 5000 could answer about Isandlwana. Maybe they may know what or where a Zulu is but I would doubt that anywhere near that many know anything about the war. The teaching of history is dying in our mid-grade and high schools. I'm not sure 1 in 5000 could even answer about WW2 in an intelligent manner. I'm just a pessimist, I guess. -- lancer

Have you ever seen where they ask USA COLLEGE students about the years when the American Civil War was fought? None of them ever seem to know and this is history about their OWN country. There's no way their going to know anything about another countries history. Now that's a pessimist!