FZ Art Studio

FZ Art Studio has given its catalogue to one story: the Three Kingdoms, the wars that ended the Han dynasty and the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms that turned them into legend. Its figures carry FZ catalogue numbers, and most arrive in lettered editions, A, B and sometimes C, so one general can be had in more than one form.

The studio is unusually generous to the officers. Alongside the warlords, Cao Cao among them, it has made the men who served them: Xiahou Dun, Dong Zhuo, Yu Jin, Yue Jin (in a version billed as Movie Ver.), the strategist Sima Yi and Cao Cao's giant bodyguard Xu Chu. The south is represented by Sun Jian, founder of the Wu line, and Shu by Liu Bei. A Zhang Liao made with HaoYu Toys shows the studio working with other makers on the same history.

That depth is the point. Collectors who already own the oath brothers and Lu Bu can use FZ Art Studio to fill in the rest of the court and the battlefield, the commanders who rarely get a figure of their own. Compare the armour with the die-cast work of 303 Toys, the other big name in this period: the two studios read the same generals in different materials and moods.

Armour is the test here. Lamellar plates should sit in layers and move with the body, the robes beneath should hang like heavy cloth, and the weapon should look like it belongs to that particular man. Check which lettered edition a listing is before you buy.