My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#114 1990 Starting Lineup Michael Jordan

Why I Like It: It's Michael Jordan's 2nd piece as due to licensing issues the 89 set consists of 5 players. Just like most Jordan pieces in my collection, I waited years after the market crashed to pick this up for a reasonable price. I also like the dual card concept of the 1990 set with one of those cards being a rookie year card.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#115 1992 Starting Lineup Michael Jordan Warm Ups

Why I Like It: The first is numerous MJ SLU's make their appearance here as this is the Warm Ups version of his 92 figure (he also has one in a dribbling pose). Back in the heyday of SLU'S, Jordan figures were the holy grail for basketball collectors. Jordan stopped appearing on figures in 93 and his figures always sold for high prices. This is one that really doesn't have a cool personal backstory, I bought a few MJ pieces after the SLU market crashed, but in my opinion any MJ SLU deserves to make my countdown so here's this one at #115.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#116 1996 Starting Lineup Troy Aikman Albertsons Exclusive

Why I Like It: Here's the first Dallas Cowboy SLU on the countdown. This was a Albertsons exclusive figure as it features Hall of Famer Troy Aikman in the double star jersey the Cowboys wear for Thanksgiving game. It's definitely my favorite Aikman figure out of my collection.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#117 2000 Starting Lineup Extended Series Ken Griffey Jr.

Why I Like It: The parade of Griffey SLU's ends here at #117 with his Extended Series piece from the 2000 set. There's a multitude of reasons why I like this figure and why I value it more than the rest. I love the pose for one, besides the wall pose, it's probably my favorite baseball pose. It's also the first figure to feature Griffey in his new Reds uniform. All that is reason enough, but the #1 reason is the personal historical significance of this piece to me. It represented the end of the line for collecting SLU's. This was the last piece I ever chased down. I had been waiting for Extended Series baseball to come out for a long time knowing this Griffey piece was in the set. During the summer when we made our annual vacation/SLU hunt  trip, we chose Dallas this particular year. Extended has just come out and I was just hoping that I'd find a Griffey in one of the numerous  Wal-Marts, Targets etc.. Luck never usually went my way, I was sure this piece would be super tough to find. Believe it or not though, I did find it, and it was at one of the Toys R Us stores in Dallas. I also picked up some of the All Century Team SLU's that were out during this trip, but those ended up getting returned when I decided to stop collecting SLU's. After this trip (and after making a 2000 Football Wish List) I reevaluated my collection and decided it was best to move on and sell off most of it. This Griffey was one of the few pieces that I kept out of my original collection. It signifies the end of an era of my SLU collecting days.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#118 2010 Ken Griffey Jr "The Kid" Bobblehead

Why I Like It:  A break from SLU's but still a figurine, this is the only bobblehead I have in my collection. I bought this off Ebay, I dunno, I just liked it. These were given away on April 16th, 2010 during the Mariners/Tigers game. It's the first of 5 bobblehead nights the Mariners had that season. Griffey's my guy so it's fitting he's my only bobblehead.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#119 1996 Starting Lineup Team USA Basketball Set 1

Why I Like It: It was the harder to find of the two sets and in my opinion it has the most star power with Shaq and Penny in their primes along with Pippen, Stockton and David Robinson.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#120 1996 Starting Lineup Team USA Basketball Set 2

Why I Like It: It was one of the pieces that helped kickstart the big run i went on collecting SLU's. This time around, Kenner decided to make two 5 player sets instead of one 10 player set for the 96  version of Team USA. This was the easier one of the two to find and it was definitely a must have. This set features Grant Hill, Reggie Miler, Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, and Glenn Robinson.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#121 1992 Starting Lineup Team USA Basketball Set

Why I Like It: It's one of the most iconic sets made by Kenner. The funny thing is, these were horrible sellers when they initially came out and were blown out on clearance shelves at pretty much every retailer that carried them. After SLU's started gaining steam though, so did this. And why wouldn't it? It's a great collector's piece of the greatest team ever assembled in basketball history. I waited until the crash to get this and it's actually in pretty terrible shape. That's the main reason I don't have it ranked higher.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#122 1996 Starting Lineup Derek Jeter FP

 

 Why I Like It: I mentioned before that although I'm not exactly thrilled with the piece itself..it comes across kinda bland to me, I still can't leave this off the countdown since it's such an important piece in SLU history. I remember never even coming remotely close to finding this piece locally when it came out. I got it many years later after the market crash. If the figure had been cooler (I even would prefer the pinstripes over the grey jersey) maybe it would've ranked higher but still there's no denying that this is a must have figure for every SLU collection.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#123 1999 Starting Lineup Randy Moss FP

 

Why I like it:  It was one of the most anticipated figures I had waited for. I was disappointed he wasn't in the 98 extended set, but knew there was no way Hasbro would exclude him from the 99 set. I knew I had zero shot at it retail level (though I did score the Classic Double with Cris Carter as I bought the set through JC Penney of all places). Finally at a card show I found it for $15 and gladly paid the price. The Moss Rookie Piece was MINE!!! It's the only non Cowboy football piece I kept from my original collection.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#124 1999 Starting Lineup Classic Doubles Minors to Majors Ken Griffey Jr.

Why I Like It: The Griffey SLU Barrage continues with yet another Classic Double featuring "The Kid".  This series was unique as it featured a figure of the player in their minor league uniform along with one in their modern MLB uniform. Of course with Griffey in the set I had to get it, and I did find this at the retail level. It also showcases my favorite baseball pose, the "robbing of the hr" one.

My Favorite 150 Items in My Collection-#125 1996 Starting Lineup Anfernee Hardaway

 

 Why I Like It: I picked this over the rookie piece, 2nd year piece, and 97 Extended I have because of the story behind it. I wrote about it in an earlier post, but basically I grew up a HUGE Penny fan and the one thing I wanted the most was an SLU of him. Back around this time ALL my friends got hooked on collecting SLU's and one of my friends found a Penny at the local Venture store in town. I was shell shocked. A figure of that caliber found at retail and here in Corpus no less. To top it off, my friend was a Johnny Come Lately collector. He'd barely been in the game and right off the bat he finds my holy grail. I was beyond jealous. I never found the piece at stores, but that Christmas my parents bought it for me after finding it at our flea market. I was BEYOND STOKED. It became the cornerstone of my collection. That's the reason I like this figure over the other 3 made of Penny.