Look at them up there: Metallica! In all their glory! Who wouldn't want to have those little plastic big-headed Metallica guys sitting on their shelves? The people behind Funko Pop, those collections of plastic big-headed pop-culture figures, are currently for some reason celebrating Metallica's 2023 albumn 72 Seasons with the release of a set of four Metallica figurines. If you look at the little plastic (vinyl?) Metallica guys up above, they look pretty accurate to present-day Metallica, right?
The Funko Pop people have captured Kirk Hammett's majestic salt-and-pepper hair, James Hetfield's vaguely accusatory "are you aliiiive?" point-at-the-crowd move, and the fact that Lars Ulrich is a gold chain guy. They didn't fuck up and accidentally put Jason Newsted back in the band or anything. The Metallica Funko Pop error referenced in the headline of this blog post actually isn't visible in the photo above. Instead, it's the way that the set was packaged for some fans.
Is it a little more obvious now? Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and South Park character Jimmy Valmer, to the best of my knowledge, are not the same guy. They are, in fact, quite different, and it would be slightly exhausting to link all the things that they don't have in common.
A fan named Caden McBride posted that image of his Robert Trujillo Funko Pop on Facebook on Facebook earlier this week. According to posters on a Metallica fan Facebook group, the packaging fuckup is just for Robert Trujillo; we don't get Lars Ulrich as Mr. Hanky or anything. It hasn't happened for all the Robert Trujillo figurines, but it did happen more than once. On that Cade McBride post, another user comments, "I just had that happen yesterday! I honestly thought it was funny. Amazon let me keep it and I have a replacement coming soon. (Hopefully correctly packaged.)"
Those 72 Seasons Metallica Funko Pops were announced last year, and they recently started shipping. They're not the first Funkos of the band. Metallica also had a Funko Pop release in 2018, as well as a special edition Master Of Puppets Tour one in 2022.
There have been Metallica/South Park crossover moments in the past, too. The band was depicted protesting illegal downloading in a 2003 episode of the show, and James Hetfield sang uncredited backing vocals on the song "Hell Isn't Good," from the 1999 cinematic classic South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
In other news, Metallica recently expanded their upcoming residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. They're now planning to play 24 shows. On their site, they say, "At this point in time, we will not be adding additional shows, but we are hoping to offer more in the future."
