1985 Topps Rocky IV 40th Anniversary: Unwrapping a Christmas Classic

Celebrating 40 Years of Topps Rocky IV

For many, Christmas traditions extend beyond just decorating trees, making cookies, and exchanging gifts. It’s also a day for watching seasonal movies, with some being a bit less traditional than others. For 40 years now, one film in particular has held that position — and no, we don’t mean Die Hard.

The fight of the century took place on this day — the matchup between Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). But you don’t need a streaming service to relive the bout. It’s recaptured in its entirety in the classic 1985 Topps Rocky IV trading card set.

The second set from the iconic boxing franchise, following the 1979 Topps Rocky II set, these Rocky IV cards are more coveted today than when originally released. The movie remains an enduring part of popular culture. It was even refashioned in more recent years in a special edit by Sylvester Stallone. That recut was released for one day in 2021, and then again in November 2025 for two days of special screenings, 40 years on from the film’s original release

Capturing an Iconic Fight

There are 66 cards and 11 stickers in the Rocky IV base set. Most of the cards deal with the iconic fight, drawn just as much from the superhero and villain clashes of comics books as it was from the boxing ring. That elevated vibe is captured on the card wrappers, some of which feature a cartoon Balboa, and the rest depicting a cartoon Drago.

The card fronts feature stills from the movie, and each back has a thumbnail photo of both Balboa and Drago. The back copy describes the card front in dramatic fashion, describing the combatants as “mighty behemoths” and detailing their “incredible blows.”

Collecting 1985 Topps Rocky IV

Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) makes his last appearance in the series in Rocky IV, and he’s depicted here in his fatal boat against Drago. The card titled “Dynamic Punch” reads, “Drago’s blows are among the toughest ever endured by Apollo Creed. Again and again, the former heavyweight champ is pummeled by the Russian.” Creed also appears one of the 11 stickers, with muscles glistening and giving a thumbs-up. Each sticker is depicted inside the margins of a boxing glove. 

Graded autos featuring the principals and sealed boxes have both sold for hundreds of dollars. There are 36 packs in a box, each with nine cards and one sticker. On-card autos are all aftermarket, as none were included originally with the product. 

Absent from the set is Brigitte Nielsen, who plays Drago’s wife and married Sylvester Stallone in real life, though they divorced a couple years later. Stallone’s recut of the film removed many of Nielsen’s scenes, with some critics arguing that choice made it clearer that Drago knew even before the fight that he was basically alone and being used by the Soviet Union.

Also absent from the set is Rocky’s wife Adrian (Talia Shire). Paulie has one card, but it doesn’t involve his most memorable (infamous?) scene in the movie, where he’s given a robot named Sico as a present by his brother-in-law. In his recut, Stallone removed the robot scene, which opens the original edit after the wrap-around ending from Rocky III.

Fans do get some secondary characters in the 1985 Topps set, including cornerman Duke Evers (Tony Burton) and Drago trainer Igor Rimsky (George Rogan). Today, 40 years on, the Topps Rocky IV set remains a classic tie-in to one of the decade’s most iconic films, sporting the undeniable style shared by other famous 1980s Topps movie cards.

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