Continuing from my Squirrel & Hedgehog stamps, I have acquired another piece of merchandise relating to an old, violent, Communist cartoon. Black Cat Detective / 黑貓警長 (Pronounced Hei Mao Jing Cha) is a Chinese cartoon series started in 1984, based on manghwa (Chinese comics) from 1982. The cartoon centres around the titular anthropomorphic Black Cat Detective, who protects the forest from criminals, the main antagonist being The One-eared Mouse. The show promotes authority, law, and was made to make awareness of China's zero-tolerance on crime policy, even featuring an apparent show trial in one episode. The show is controversial in the West, like S&H, due to it's ideological symbolism and overt violence.

Many pieces of merchandise were made for the show, both for the original 1984 run of 5 episodes, and the 90s reboot, however, none of these items were ever exported outside of The People's Republic of China, making it extremely difficult to acquire them. I managed to buy this item from Austria. The gun features a red arrow and the text "Forest Security", the same symbol that appears on the feline police officers' uniforms and hats in the show. It is marked HF-901. The gun is based on another generic sparking pistol made in Shanghai around the same time. The text on the box makes no mention of Black Cat Detective / 黑貓警長, simply using the generic name "Spacegun", as well as an indication it was manufactured in Zhonguo / Shanghai (Zhonguo being an alternative name for Shanghai). The opposite side of the box has text in Chinese that says China Shanghai, and also features a mistake, in which Hei Mao Jing Cha's iconic white hat is printed black, unlike the other side (shown in the image). This toy likely dates to around 1984, despite looking like toys from other countries (such as Japan, USA and Germany) that had been made about 30 years before.