Collector's Corner: SLU's

During the NBA lockout, a blogger on Bucks.com did a story about his NBA Starting Lineups collection.  It got me reminiscing about the many totes in my parents basement filled with those loveable little plastic sports figures.  Former Cincinnati Bengals WR/P Pat McInally came up with the idea (which is why there is an 87, McInally's number, inside a football on the back of the packaging) to honor real life sports heroes instead of fictional movie or television characters.  Who needed Star Wars figures when you could have a mini BJ Surhoff to catch imaginary pop flys?

I built quite a collection in the 1990's.  I remember going to Evans Department Store in Two Rivers to get Starting Lineups.  The entire basement was the toy department and they always had the best selection.  My mom used to work at Wal-Mart for a while and often I got to go through the cases before they went out on the sales floor so I could cherry pick the ones I wanted.  I have a lot of football and baseball figures and quite a few hockey (a lot of goalies, they were always my favorite)  I've never been a huge NBA fan and the basketball ones seemed to be the hardest to find in NE Wisconsin so I don't have many of them, but I do have a Sidney Moncrief with the Bucks.

Starting Lineups, affectionately known as SLUs, were initially produced by Kenner (later Hasbro) and debuted in 1988 with a baseball series.  Former Appleton Foxes Harold Baines, Brian Downing, and Greg Walker were included in the series.  There were five Brewers in that initial set: Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, BJ Surhoff, Rob Deer, and Teddy Higuera.

You don't see many catchers hold their mask while waiting for a popup.  Two hands BJ!

Like any other kid, I opened up my SLUs for the first couple years and played with them.  Then in the early 90's people started to treat them not as a toy, but as a collectable.  I began keeping them in their packaging, which was very painful to do, but I was a collector at that point already and I wanted to maximize their value.  But man, did I want to open them.  In these early series, some players were available national, while others were only available regionally.  While most SLUs have lost the majority of their value, some of these rare regional ones still have some value.  That is why Surhoff and Deer typically go for twice as much as Molitor.

The 1988 football series has similar wacky values thanks to the scarcity of some players.  Some of the most expensive pieces are the usual stars you would expect like Jerry Rice, Tony Dorsett, and Dan Marino.  But then there are the not so big names that bring in big money like Marc Wilson, Steve Jordan, and Randy White.  All four of the Packers were regional, which is why my Ken Davis figure is worth nearly twice as much as my Randall Cunningham.  Brent Fullwood, Randy Wright, and Mark Lee round out the Packers contingent, with Wright being the most valuable.

After the first couple years, Kenner went away from making a large set (well over 100 figures in 1988 and 89) and started doing just a national set with around 30 or 40 players.  This meant less opportunities for players such as Glenn Braggs (1989) and Chris Bosio (1990) to be immortalized in tiny plastic form, but there were still some questionable selections through the years.

Kenner started to run out of ideas for poses as they did some of the same star players year after year.  Ever wonder what Brett Favre would look like in tight shorts and a mid-drift jersey?

If you notice on the bottom of the packaging, Kenner decided to limit SLUs to "Ages 4 to 104" instead of just 4 and up.  Chances of me living to 105 are slim to none, but if I am forced to sell my Starting Lineup collection on my 105th birthday, I'm going to be pissed.

In 1999, Kenner made a Classic Doubles (which had previously featured two teammates, typically) series of players in their Major League uniform and one of their Minor League uniforms.  Alex Rodiriguez appeared in his Appleton Foxes uniform to go along with his Mariners figure.

They evolved over the years from the standard 4 inch tall figure.  They made NBA players dunking on hoops.  They made jumbo ones, like this Bart Starr:

They expanded to include Olympic champions, including Jim Thorpe doing the hurdles:

They made Heisman Trophy winners in their collegiate uniforms with a mini Heisman included, such as Charles Woodson:

But my favorite innovation in Starting Lineup technology was the Freeze Frame One on One.  The hockey ones were the best, with two players on a chunk of ice (not real ice, but ice looking plastic).  If it was two skaters, you would get a piece of the boards.  If it was a skater and a goalie, you would get the net.  Here is Jaromir Jagr vs. Patrick Roy:

I had already stopped collecting in 2001 when the baseball series became the last Starting Lineups produced, but it was still a little saddening.  Once they stopped being produced, it didn't take long for the bottom to drop out of the collectors market.  For the most part, anything made in the 90's has very little value.  The Jim Thorpe is worth about a dollar, the one on one around three.  Some of the old ones have kept their value though, even as open pieces.  There are tons on eBay, which means there is quite a bit interest in them, but also a lot of people trying to unload them.  I still have hope that down the line, the market will somewhat rebound as boxes get wrecked, people throw the currently "worthless" figures away, and nostalgia begins to grow.  We'll see.  Otherwise, I'll just open them all up and play with them.