Top 10 Funko Pops that should be made (looking back)

By Mark Rodriguez

Ah, Funko Pops.... definitely the Beanie Babies of the current generation. There are Pops of almost every pop culture character or series out there, and if they're not, there eventually will be. Dragonball Z, Overwatch, WWE, Five Nights at Freddy's, My Hero Academia, Rick and Morty, almost anything you can think of, as well as tons of Batman, Deadpool, and Harley Quinn variants. I mean, they're about to release Pops based on Married with Children for Al Bundy's sake. Unlike Beanie Babies though, I kinda can't see an end in sight for Funko Pops. People are probably eager to pre-order the Pops that will be based on the next Avengers movie.

My collection at the time.... and this is before I got the Infinity War figures, Marvel VS Capcom and Toys R Us exclusive Ryu and Ken Street Fighter figures.

Back in 2016 I made an article on the characters I felt deserved a Funko Pop. At the time these Pops didn't exist and nowadays, some do while some still don't, so it'll be interesting to see what I thought back then and what did happen two years later. Let's take a look.

10. The Juggernaut- 

Cain Marko, Xavier's half brother, and the Juggernaut, bitch! One of the most powerful villains for the X-Men where once he starts moving almost nothing on Earth can stop him. How did this guy not get a Pop?


Now-

Yep, the actually did eventually release a Juggernaut Pop. To be fair though, I kinda want a Juggernaut variant based on his design from Deadpool 2.

9- Sabretooth

I'm getting the X-Men characters out of the way first but if they have Wolverine Pops, then why hasn't there been one made of his arch nemesis? Victor Creed has been giving hell to ol' James Howlett for the longest time in comics, cartoons and the movies.  Sabertooth would be a totally awesome Pop.

Now-  

 Yep.. they eventually released a Sabretooth Funko pop too.



 8. X-23

 Last one, I swear, or this will sound more like top 10 X-Men characters I want as Pops. But yeah, Laura Kinney is a bad-ass and is currently the new Wolverine after Logan's death. Yeah, they got Old Man Logan running around now, but Laura is the official young Wolverine now. They should make a Pop of her in her regular outfit and a bonus variant in her current Wolverine outfit.

Now-

 Ok, so they did release X-23 when she became the female Wolverine, but not her black outfit from before. Wolverine has come back to life, so I'm not 100% sure what this means for Old Man Logan. Speaking of which, I'm surprised they haven't made a Pop of Laura, which is basically X-23 in the Logan movie. For some reason, ALL of the X-Men movies have been ignored by the Funko line. However they have made Pops of Deadpool movie characters, namely Negasonic Teenage Warhead and the movie version of Colossus.

7. Razor Ramon 

 Say hello to The Bad Guy. So far the WWE Pops had characters from the 80's like Andre, Macho Man and the Ultimate Warrior, as well as the more modern day guys like John Cena and Kevin Owens, but how about we go into the early 90's and bring out Razor Ramon? Plus you can make a nWo variant while you're at it. I would have also listed Fin Balor, but I feel he's bound to get a Pop eventually. I hope they go back to the 90's and bring on The Bad Guy as well.

Now- 

 Yep, they not only made a Razor Ramon Pop, but I own it. They released the regular version and the nWo version. Oddly enough, even though there is a nWo Razor Ramon and Hollywood Hogan, they haven't released an nWo version of Kevin Nash, or Diesel or anything. Maybe someday they can release a Hall, Nash and Hogan nWo 3-pack or something, now that Hogan is somewhat back in WWE's good graces.

And yeah, they did eventually release Fin Balor as well, both normal version and Demon version.

6. The Mask

 Still no Mask Pop. I feel if the Crow, another popular underground independent comic character got a Funko Pop, bring on Big Head as well. If they're daring, maybe make a variant based on the darker and crazy-violent comic book version. And while we're at it, bring out Spawn too.


Now-

Hmmm, finally got one that still hasn't gotten a Funko Pop. I don't know why they never made one, unless they can't locate the owners for the rights. Funko relies a lot on nostalgia, so even though no one really demanded Pops of Big Trouble in Little China, I'm sure people would buy a Pop of The Mask. So far there hasn't been a Funko Pop based on Spawn either.


5. Terry Bogard

 The star of Fatal Fury that continues to pop up in King of Fighters games. We got Street Fighter Pops, so the ball is in your court SNK. Maybe since KOF 14 is coming out they can take advantage of the awareness of the brand. Maybe a pre-order Terry Pop with the game, like Uncharted did with the Nathan Drake Pop? With Mai Shiranui appearing in Dead or Alive 5, she might get a Pop too. The only downside is I'm afraid they would end up being Japan exclusive as well...

Now- 

Still no dice. Sure, Mai did cameo in Dead or Alive, and Terry is about to cameo in Fighter EX Layer... but those 2 games are not having Funko Pops any time soon. This is a bit surprising considering how big KOF is in Japan and Funko does have a Funko Pop Asia line. I'm even surprised the Asian line got Street Fighter first when Street Fighter should have been a no-brainer. Sadly, if we ever see a KOF line, it might be one of the Funko Pop Asia lines that will never make it to the states.

4. Sailor V (Sailor Venus variant)

 Before Minako Aino became Sailor Venus, she had her own series as a solo superhero named Sailor V. When the idea caught on, the creator of the series decided to go with a whole team of Sailor Soldiers, and to keep Minako as one of them.

They did release Sailor Moon Pops, and one variant was Sailor Moon in a different pose with Luna wearing the bandage she had on the first time she met Usagi, but what a missed opportunity to have a Hot Topic exclusive Sailor V variant. Let's hope that if they do release the rest of the Sailor Soldiers someone catches on and brings out Sailor V too.

 Now-

They eventually did release a Sailor V pop, though it was a New York Comic Con 2017 exclusive, so it wouldn't have been to easy to get a hold of unless you got lucky. Sometimes though, Hot Topic sells con exclusives so you might find some without actually going to New York for the con.


3. Light Yagami

 Still no Death Note Pops... I'd really love one of Light Yagami, the guy who became corrupted by a killer notebook and took his sense of justice way too far. You can release Light with the school uniform and then a variant of him during the Mello and Near saga.

Now-

 They eventually did release a Death Note line, and yes I did get the Light Yagami and L pops. The line only came with Light, L and Ryuk, as well as a Hot Topic exclusive L with cake in his signature sitting pose. Oddly enough, no Pops of Misa Amane. I hope they release a second wave with Misa, Near, Mello, Mikami and Light wearing the dark suit during his stint as L.

2. The Spoiler

 Stephanie Brown, once a Robin and a Batgirl, DC erased her from existence with the New 52. They currently brought her back as the Spoiler, which was how she was originally introduced, but they might still leave her history as Robin and Batgirl out. I put her on the list because we already have Robin and Nightwing, and I'm sure sooner or later we'll get the Red Hood and Damian Wayne, but Spoiler seems to be more of a rarity which is why I put her on the list. Maybe they can release the Cassandra Cain Batgirl too.

Now- 

No Spoiler Pop, but wow, this was a real longshot. While sometimes we might get comic characters like Power Girl and classic comic versions of Cyborg and Nightwing, most of the DC line get pops if they appear in tv shows and movies. I'd say maybe if she was in an Injustice game, but that series didn't get Pop either. It's tough for Spoiler and I don't hold too much hope for Cassandra Cain. Still no sign of Damian either but I soon he will get a Pop eventually. So far the only version of Jason Todd is the Arkham Knight from the namesake game.

1. Lara Croft

 Dude, you mean to tell me they have Pops of Tracer, Nathan Drake and Kratos, but not LARA CROFT? Oh she's more than popular enough to warrant a spot on the Funko gallery, and they've really missed out on tons of variants since she always looks and dresses so differently in each new game. Maybe the next sequel can come with a pre-order Lara Croft Pop? For some reason I have the nagging feeling that if Funko Pops were around during the Playstation One era, Lara would have gotten one after her second game, and maybe another one after the live action movies.

Now-  

Lara finally got two Funko Pops, one based on her classic style and another based on her most recent reboot. Maybe with the upcoming Shadow of the Tomb Raider game, she can get another Pop or two.

And so-

That wraps up our list. What characters do you feel should be made into Funko Pops that aren't around yet? There are still a few more Pops I'd like to see other than Terry Bogard, Spoiler and the Mask. Now that Namco did release Tekken pops, maybe with the upcoming release of SoulCalibur 6, they can finally release Pops based on that game. Street Fighter has Pops but maybe they can release a second wave with some of the newer 4 and 5 characters and Final Fight ones. I guess we'll wait and see what other characters will get Funko Pops as I pre-order my Al Bundy Pop.

This guy definitely needs a Funko Pop. It'll be Cool! Cooler! Coolest!

 

And speaking of anime and Dragonball Z... are they really not gonna milk Dragonball Fighter Z some more and release an Android 21 Pop? You can release 2 versions of them, human and Majin.