POP! Rocks – Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead

Series: POP! Rocks

Company: Funko

Year: 2016

Lemmy Kilmister was a genuine rock icon who drank hard, took obscene amounts of drugs and who even Ozzy “I snorted a line of ants in front of Mötley Crüe” Osbourne couldn’t keep up with. He worked as a roadie for Jimi Hendrix, played in Hawkwind, appeared on The Young Ones, had ridiculously huge facial warts and perhaps most impressively, stayed a relevant force in music until he was 70. He was a much-loved and admired figure across rock, punk and metal – and remains so, but he shuffled off this mortal coil late in 2015.

Now in spite of my admiration for the man, I’ll freely confess that I am not the world’s foremost expert on Motörhead. I’m a very Greatest Hits kind of fan – Ace of Spades, Killed By Death, Bomber, Hellraiser – among many others, are all great hard rock/metal songs. But you’ll need to look elsewhere for indepth assessments of their albums. Today, we’re going to take a look at Funko’s tribute to the man.

It’s a pretty faithful to his look – a warts and all rendition, one might even say. Pardon me for a moment while I pat myself on the back for that one. Ahem. But yeah, he’s dressed in pretty standard Lemmy gear – long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up, Motörhead t-shirt beneath. Iron Crosses on his cowboy boots (somewhat controversially, Lemmy was a big collector of WWII and Nazi paraphernalia, though did not share their ideology). An Ace of Spades tattoo is visible on his left arm (not pictured) and his right arm has some kind of eagle design – apparently it was done by the Kat Von D!

Paintwork isn’t perfect, but it’s better than the Funko average. The tampoing of the tattoos and t-shirt design are particularly nice, and a good sign that Funko has stepped their game up there too.  This is important, because details like his Rickenbacker bass would look terrible if Funko hadn’t stepped up their game since their early days.   

So overall? This is a good POP. Metal fans the world over owe Lemmy a huge debt, whether directly or via the bands he’s influenced. It’s a weird way of paying tribute, granted – but a fun one nonetheless. And now that Funko’s released Ozzy and Lemmy, there’s a few more metal legend POPs I’d like to see them release – starting with Ronnie James Dio. If Funko could get onto that, that’d be great.

Motörhead actually appeared on the Hellraiser III soundtrack, so there's a nice bit of crossover for you.