I remember when these first came out in 1988 . I was at my local Target store and I laughed at them because the figures (mainly of the athlete's facial features---although the uniforms certianly looked authentic) didn't look realistic at all and I thought actually the card that came with the figure might be worth more.
But these things exploded in popularity--and not just with kids, but for collectors of all ages and even I got caught up with buying them (although mainly I got them to sell to collectors) and I remember once going to a local baseball card shop which had older figures locked up in a glass case and were worth a decent amount of money and Kenner kept coming out with more and more figures and some of them when they were released were hard to get--one example being when Hideo Nomo was released.
I talked to a collector at a Toys R Us and he said he highly doubted a Hideo Nomo would ever make it to the shelves as employees would undoubtedly buy them and sell them for a higher price to collectors.
The market has cooled off considerably for these figures as people seemed to lose interest in them and you can find alot of places selling Starting Lineup and i recently went into that same baseball card shop where the figures were locked up in a glass case and the case of SLU figures is now found in the bargain bin roughly going only for $5 or less.
Although some of the rarer or older SLU figures are still worth a great deal of money, and can fetch up to 800$. And a note for those who aren't familar with these figures, if you ever do get one or buy one, don't remove the figure from its plastic wrapping as that is where its most valuable!
But there was a charm to SLU figures, and perhaps because they didn't look realistic in terms of athletes facial figures--was a part of that charm--perhaps it brought back memories for older collectors of other toys such as GI Joe and Star Wars action figures, although it should be noted Kenner did release a SLU "Stadium Stars" series which were bigger figurines of athletes and they looked much more realistic as there was more detail on the athletes face and actually did resemble the athlete like today's Todd McFarlane series does, although this was a limited series and Kenner stuck to making the smaller less realistic looking figures, and I myself have a Cal Ripken Stadium Stars figure unfortunately the box got damaged but the figurine itself is still in good shape.
I mostly sell my SLU figures now online but still am intersted in buying some to own my own
collection and SLU did pave the way for the afore mentioned Todd McFarlane sports picks series which are far more realistic looking, while other sports action figures have also been released and certainly had its set its mark on the toy/sports memrobilia industry and perhaps its not out of the question will decide to reproduce SLU sets again but I think it would be in their interest to make the figures in the "Stadium Stars" size with the detailed athlete features so they can compete with the Todd McFarlane series.
