The popular Round 5 UFC collectibles took another step forward with today’s release of images of the new “Versus” line, described as “pairs of distinctly new figures highlighting battle scenes from great UFC matchups.”

The first set is from historic UFC bouts between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva (UFC 92), 2008; Forrest Griffin and Jackson (“The Ultimate Fighter 7”), 2008; Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar (UFC 100), 2008; and Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell (UFC 66), 2006.

As seen in the images, the Versus figurines come with an Octagon section display.  They are expected to be available at Toys”R”Us across North America this fall, and at other retailers later in the year.

Many of these fighters have been given the Round 5 treatment before in earlier series.  But, like new baseball cards or other representative collectibles, fans like to have the most up-to-date versions, and this new series adds the twist of commemorating classic matches.

I’d like to see MacFarlane or one of the others with the MLB license create pairs like this for Bobby Thomson-Ralph Branca, Mookie Wilson-Bill Buckner, Bucky Dent-Mike Torres and the many other “two-packs” that could be done.