Ahead of the 45th anniversary of Rocky next month, Funko Pops have revealed the new additions to its collectable range of figures, based on the characters from the 1976 Oscar-winning movie, which brought Sylvester Stallone’s boxer to screens for the first time. Over the years,Rocky has gone on to inspire numerous movies, and, along with First Blood, secured Stallone his place in movie history. The movie went on to have six sequels in its own right, and created the spin-off franchise Creed, which saw Michael B. Jordan playing the son of Rocky’s original opponent, Apollo Creed.
Of course, Funko have been around for a long while now, and they have already released versions of Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed a long while ago, as well as the boxing champ’s other well known adversaries, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago. Having released figures for almost every major film franchise you can imagine, and some that people would possibly want to forget, this does not mean that there are still many more movies out there waiting for their turn in the Funko spotlight. However, so far those original Rocky figures have been the only ones created around any of Stallone’s many iconic roles - yes its true, even his Judge Dredd didn’t manage to get one, and he is the law. For fans of the action hero though, this new range of figures is going to be just the ticket to please all the Slysters out there.
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The 45th anniversary lineup from Funko includes a battered and bruised Rocky in his signature white and red shorts and Apollo Creed in star-spangled red, white and blue trunks. There are also two additional Rocky variants. The first is Rocky with his champion’s belt, in a recreated image from Rocky III, and the other is Rocky wearing a red headband holding a chicken, which references the scene in the movie when trainer Mickey uses a chicken round-up session as part of his training.
While the anniversary of Rocky seems like the perfect time for Funko to release these new Rocky figures, it is surprising that they have not ventured into the franchise more in the past, or even into Stallone’s long list of “Funkable” movie characters, especially his other early hit Rambo, or even he more recent Expendables lead. Who knows, if this wave of Rocky anniversary figures deliver a knockout sales blow, then we could see more big-headed Stallone collectables making their way to shelves in the future.
The figures from this set excluding the chicken carrying Rocky are all available now for pre-order, with the final figure being exclusively available through the Funko shop soon. Rocky fans have a number of other things to look forward to, with Creed III coming November next year, although this time without Sylvester Stallone appearing on-screen, and he is also releasing a new re-cut definitive version of Rocky IV next month, which will have a one night only theatrical release before arriving on digital, Blu-ray and DVD.
