At some point, I was banished to the front of the store while they went shopping. Eventually, I had to go to the bathroom. Since my sister wasn't born yet, the girls section of the store seemed to be the natural place to cut through in order to get to the restroom located at the back of the store without running into my parents.
I made a left turn only to run into my dad with his hands full of today's featured toy- Starting Lineup!
Made by Kenner, Starting Lineup were action figures based on real athletes. Figures I remember getting for Christmases 1989-1991 include Jose Canseco, Art Monk and Patrick Ewing. Oh, and how can I forget my all-time favorite athlete, Bo Jackson!
The toy line lasted from 1988-2001. While the toys were awesomely sculpted, they really weren't traditional action figures. Since the athletes were posed in dramatic action poses, they lacked articulation. The head would turn and the arms would too. You might get their torsos to twist but the legs were fused. But if you didn't turn the bodies parts the right way, they looked really weird.
Starting Lineup toys were less for play and more for display. More and more, you'd find collector adults buying these figures instead of kids. Complete with a collectible trading card, these were the thing of beauty.
Today while some of these are quite collectible, a majority of these figures are a dime a dozen. That's because in the early 90s, the collector's market for sports collectibles bubble finally burst. Over-production was the death nail of just about anything with an athlete on it that only things with little runs and certificates of authenticity had any value. As Starting Lineup had neither, triple digit prices crashed almost overnight.
Oh- before I forget- to end my story with my dad. When we ran into each other, we both had this frightened look on our faces. I could tell that his arms were full of Starting Lineup figures. Once the shock wore off, we both made simultaneous U-turns. To this day, I still don't remember if I ever made it to the bathroom that night or not.
To close out today's Advent, I want to share with you a very special moment from my youth. I followed everything about Bo Jackson, like staying up to watch Bo win the Heisman or his epic All-Star game performance in 1989 to his tragic hip injury in 1991. EVERYTHING!
So as my gift for you today, here's my favorite at the 1985 Bob Hope Christmas Special in his prime!
Enjoy!
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