Three figures have been announced for December 2026, and they are the very first ones dedicated to the series. Three women, not a single man, which says a lot about what people remember. And one of the three boxes hides a Chase, tied to the character behind the clearest memory viewers from 1994 still have of Melrose Place.
Seven seasons, 226 episodes and one West Hollywood apartment building
For those who were not there, and those who have forgotten.
Melrose Place was created by Darren Star and aired on Fox from July 8, 1992 to May 24, 1999, across seven seasons and 226 episodes. It was the second installment in the Beverly Hills 90210 franchise, and in fact aired right after it on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Aaron Spelling produced. The setting revolved around one place: a small apartment complex built around a swimming pool in West Hollywood, with exterior shots filmed at a real building on Greenwood Place in Los Angeles.
The original pitch was almost wholesome. Young adults starting their careers, living next door to one another, meeting by the pool and talking about their days. It did not work. At the time, the show ranked ninety-fourth in U.S. ratings.
What worked was the pivot. Melrose Place abandoned slice-of-life storytelling and embraced full soap opera, with blackmail, fake deaths, sabotaged weddings, partner swaps and professional revenge. And the symbol of that transformation has a name.
One current detail for anyone still following the franchise: a revival has been in development since spring 2024, with Heather Locklear, Laura Leighton and Daphne Zuniga attached. Two of those three actresses are precisely the ones Funko is turning into figures here.
Amanda Woodward saved the show – POP #1939
Heather Locklear arrived midway through the first season, supposedly for just a few episodes.
She became a regular from the first episode of season two onward, while still being credited for seven years as a “Special Guest Star,” one of the most famous quirks of TV credits from that era. The show climbed from ninety-fourth to fiftieth in the ratings. Its peak came on May 18, 1994 with the season-two finale: 19.3 million viewers.
Amanda is an executive at the D&D advertising agency, Alison Parker's boss, and later the owner of the apartment building. In other words, she is both the boss at work and the landlord at home: there is nowhere to escape her. A damaged childhood, flawless armor, a gift for manipulation and, occasionally, real generosity.
The character outgrew the show. Entertainment Weekly ranked her among the hundred greatest characters of the previous twenty years, and Rolling Stone placed her twentieth on its list of the forty greatest TV villains.
Sydney Andrews, chaos in human form – POP #1941
Laura Leighton plays Jane Mancini's younger sister, who first shows up during season one for a visit and returns in season two to support her. What follows is less sisterly.
Sydney seduces Jane's husband, then blackmails him into marrying her. She plots that same Michael's death with Kimberly Shaw. She starts a rival agency to D&D just to get at Amanda. She survives bankruptcy, prison and everyone else's manipulation, and eventually, in season five, is hit by a car during her own wedding reception.
She was the character the writers used to set fire to the story whenever a plot started losing steam, and that is exactly why people remember her.
Kimberly Shaw, and the night of April 27, 1994 – POP #1940
Marcia Cross joined the series in episode eleven of the first season as a doctor. Nothing suggested what would come next.
Kimberly and Michael are involved in a serious car accident. He is injured, she falls into a coma, and her mother takes her away before eventually telling Michael she died from her injuries. The matter seems closed.
Then comes episode 28 of season two, “The Bitch Is Back,” aired on April 27, 1994. Kimberly reappears at Michael's place in the middle of the night, explains that she spent months in a coma and that her mother lied to keep him away. Then, without warning, she removes her wig. Underneath: patches of shaved scalp and a huge scar along the side of her head.
That is the scene. Not just one memorable scene among many: the exact moment when the show decides to fully embrace its excess, and invents a device television has copied ever since. Thirty years later, people still talk about that reveal as the greatest wig removal in TV history.
Kimberly did not stop there. A year later, she plants four incendiary bombs in the apartment complex, and the season-three finale, “The Big Bang,” aired on May 22, 1995, ends on that act. The explosion itself was not shown immediately: the Oklahoma City bombing had taken place in April, and the network waited until the beginning of season four to air the footage.
And the Chase? Funko has not yet revealed the details of the variant. But for this specific character, there is only one serious candidate. A Chase exists to reveal what the standard version hides, and Kimberly Shaw's entire iconography comes down to one thing hidden beneath a wig. One box in six, for the single reveal fans of the show will recognize without explanation.
My take on this release
This wave does not really call for choosing between the three, and that is refreshing for once.
If you watched Melrose Place, the three belong together. They do not complement one another like a trio of friends, but like a triangle: Amanda controls the building and the agency, Sydney creates chaos everywhere she goes, Kimberly blows up whatever is left. Separately, they are three women from the 1990s. Together, they are the show.
If you never watched it, on the other hand, there is not much here for you, and that is perfectly fine. These figures are not trying to convert anyone; they are aimed at people who already knew who Amanda Woodward was before opening this page.
As for the Chase, take it for what it is: a bonus for the lucky ones. One box in six is not something worth organizing your whole purchase around, and the standard Kimberly still belongs perfectly well in the display. But if you happen to pull it, you will have on your shelf one of the clearest television memories of an entire generation.
Three first-ever figures for a show that has waited thirty years for them, with a franchise revival in development: the timing is good. Pre-orders are open, with release scheduled for December.
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