Black 13 Park

Black 13 Park is the work of a designer known as John (畢鈞瑞), who does the illustration and the figure prototypes himself, and its figures look like nothing else in sixth scale. The main story is Black Laborary, set in an invented Second World War in which a secret research unit grafts animal heads onto soldiers. The units are organised by animal under army, air force and navy commands, and the figures carry names to match: Longhorn Reindeer, the Beetle Brothers, the Crab Brothers, the Octopus Brothers, a Night Ghost Commando.

The pseudo-science is the hook; the paint is why people stay. Hobby writers single out the animal head sculpts in particular, painted to a standard closer to a statue than an action figure. Production is small and releases have often gone out as limited group buys, so a missed figure usually comes back only on the secondary market.

The brand marked its third anniversary with the Shark Brothers, a collaboration sold in Taiwan as a retailer exclusive. Later lines moved into heavy armour: Heavy Armor Special Assault, Heavy Armor Defense and Ground Suppression, and the Cinder Burning series, with soldiers such as Adrian and Heracles. A one-off called Today's Fishing Ambition puts Nobunaga on a fishing trip, which tells you the studio has a sense of humour about all this.

Everything here is Original: no licences, no likenesses, no film to match against. That makes Black 13 Park a good maker to know for collectors who want a shelf nobody else has, and a useful counterpoint to the real-world uniforms on the Military shelves.