Five figures have been announced for December 2026, including a Chase. The wave lands while the anime is airing its current arc, and Funko has not chosen the Straw Hats in combat poses: each release captures a habit, an obsession or a running gag. One of them settles a promise dating back to the early 2000s.
The Elbaf arc is the franchise's current focus
The timing is not some catalog coincidence.
Since April 5, 2026 and episode 1156, the anime has been adapting the Elbaf arc, in which the Straw Hats finally arrive in the land of the giants. The occasion also gave Toei a reason to change a rhythm that had been unchanged since October 1999: One Piece is moving away from continuous weekly broadcasting in favor of seasonal blocks, with twenty-four episodes planned for this season across the year.
In other words, the series changed the way it operates for this particular arc. That is the context in which these five figures are arriving, and two of them come directly from it.
Usopp in his Elbaf outfit, a promise from the year 2000 – POP #2567
This is the release that justifies the article, and its full official name says it plainly: Usopp (Elbaf Outfit).
You have to go back to the Little Garden arc, published in Japan in 2000, to understand why. Usopp meets Dorry and Brogy there, two giant warriors, and decides that one day he will become a brave man like them and travel to Elbaf. That was twenty-six years ago. Everything he has said since, every lie about being a fearless captain, grows out of that encounter.
Funko understands the reference and spells it out: “He's clearly obsessed with the Giants of Elbaf and wants to become one himself… if he could of course.” That final aside is cruel and perfectly in character.
This is therefore the first Usopp figure that does not simply show him as the crew's resident sniper, but at the place he promised himself he would one day reach. In a license where most releases amount to one more outfit, this one closes a twenty-six-year narrative loop.
Luffy wears a helmet, and the Chase is holding something else – POP #2569
The official name is Monkey D. Luffy with Helmet, tying him to the same giant-themed gear as Usopp.
But the real interest lies elsewhere. One box in six contains a Chase, noticeably larger than the standard version, in which Luffy is holding a golden key.
For anyone following the current arc, it is hard to see that object as a random accessory. A key plays a central role there: the one discovered in Aurust Castle, which can free Loki, the giant prince who has been chained in seastone for six years. Funko does not name the lock. In a wave entirely built around Elbaf, the connection makes itself.
Zoro sitting, Sanji swooning, Nami never walking
The other three releases step away from the current arc and focus on what has defined each character from the beginning.
- Roronoa Zoro – POP #2568: this release brings the Shelf Sitter line to the license, a format introduced in 2025 where the figure sits on a base designed to rest on the edge of a shelf. Funko pairs it with a wonderfully appropriate description: a swordsman “trying to find his crewmates.” For the most directionally challenged man on the Grand Line, a Zoro sitting somewhere waiting for everyone else is more accurate than another battle pose.
- Sanji – POP #2566: the official name is Sanji (Swooning), turning the series' most persistent running gag into a figure. Funko even warns the buyer that the cook “will be distracted by beautiful women along the way.”
- Nami on Tony Tony Chopper – POP #153: a fifteen-centimeter Pop! Rides Deluxe, and the only release in the wave to include two characters. Funko describes Nami taking the reins on Chopper's back while he is in Walk Point, exactly the kind of image the series has repeated since Drum: the navigator never walks when there is a reindeer available to carry her.
My take on this release
Usopp is the only essential piece in this wave, and I say that knowing it is not the one most people will buy.
Usopp is the most poorly served Straw Hat in the catalog. Luffy has been released dozens of times, Zoro nearly as many, while the sniper has spent years getting interchangeable figures that say nothing. This one tells a specific story, and that is exactly the criterion that should separate two releases from the same license: a secondary character at the right moment is more worthwhile than the hero for the fifteenth time.
Which brings me to Luffy. Objectively, he is the least necessary release in the wave — unless you pull the Chase. One more Luffy adds nothing to a shelf that already has three or four; the golden key, on the other hand, is the only object here that fans who followed Elbaf will still recognize ten years from now. One box in six. Whether that gamble sounds fun is up to you.
Zoro, however, I will defend. Shelf Sitter is usually a gimmick, often applied to characters it does not suit. Here it lands on the one crew member whose immobility is practically a character trait, between the naps and his chronic inability to find his way. It is the right figure for the right character.
The real problem with this wave lies elsewhere: it stops halfway. If Funko is launching Elbaf outfits, it needs all ten members of the crew, not one full outfit and four releases looking in other directions. Robin, Franky, Brook and Jinbe get nothing, and the sense of coherence hinted at here will only hold if a second wave follows. Pre-orders are open, with release scheduled for December 2026.
#funko #funkopop #onepiece #elbaf #usopp #monkeydluffy #roronoazoro #sanji #nami #tonytonychopper #chase #anime #manga
