I felt the pegwarming was regional. Growing up in RI I could never find the Boston figures outside of specialty shops but coincidentally I found Pedro Martinez in NY.

Yup. And these are clearly new bucks. We (the forum) literally had this conversation last week with the Ghost Rider Haslab and it just goes in one ear and out the other with people who are essentially just whining about not being able to afford the toys they want.

If you thought Hasbro and Disney were "GWEEEDY" you ain't seen nothing yet.

The $50 would be more palatable if there was a "build a court" feature instead of (what will become) a generic stand.

Anyway, just a lot of problems here beyond the price.

It was! My brother was a big Starting Lineup collector back in the days, whenever I traveled he'd give me a list. You won't find Cal Ripkin Jr. anywhere near MD or surrounding areas, but you're likely to find him in CA. Likewise for other players, you have to get out of the city/state they're playing in, but that was before the days of internet and online ordering.

Most sport fans I know also are fans of a particular team. Lakers fans will only collect Lakers items, so out of the set only LeBron will be bought. They're not collecting the whole set to have rival players display on their desks.

We already discussed that this series is not for kids. Even factoring in the "whine factor", no parents are shelling out $400 for a set of these figures. Maybe 1 or 2 of the kid's favorite players, tops.

Toy collectors are already hurting with $25 - $30 Marvel/Star Wars/GIjoe figures, they may pick up one or two of their favorite players for $50. Maybe.

The market for these are getting narrower and narrower.

I completely disagree, I don't see a single person asking for LESS articulation between this, TFW2005, Reddit, Twitter etc. No adult collectors except those that are just vintage or ReAction collectors complain about it.

Being a fan of certain team is one of the things I didn't bring up. Were I interested in this line I wouldn't be buying anything without a Boston-centric jersey on it, and even then it would be from specific eras.

I don't care if collectors are mad about the price of things, but would it kill everybody to be intelligent about it? These are a hard sell, but there's clearly a reason that these figures are $50, it's not just "hasblo gweed".

If you don't think this is a fair price have some self-control and don't buy it. If you can't afford your toys (a complaint I've been hearing for 20 years) then get your act together and maybe somewhere down the road you can find stuff on eBay which, contrary to popular opinion, is not a scalper haven.

In the 80s parents were waiting on lines to pay $100 for a Cabbage Patch Kid doll. Flash forward to now and parents pay an average of $115 for American Girl dolls. I used to wonder why seemingly sensible adults would go to such lengths. Never discount the 'whine-factor' especially if you don't have kids and aren't familiar with their incessant mewling for things they believe are 'must-haves'. From what I've both been told and seen personally, it's enough to inspire what most would consider nonsensical action.

That may be your experience, but I've read plenty of comments about Legends being "over articulated" and having "ugly cuts" that mar the sculpt.

The “Everyone I Talked To” argument. Gotcha there duke!

By the way, conplaining about “ugly cuts” doesn’t mean people want less articulation.

50 bucks LOLLLL I don't see how Hasbro thought this would work.

I did collect Startling Line Up as a kid.. and I did collect McFarlane Sportspicks as well.. but this doesn't interest me at all.. and that was before I saw the price tag.

The figures themselves are just ok.. looking at Hasbro's other 6 inch lines, they don't compare. The faces are especially bad. They are more like cartoon likenesses. Which is weird, because at 50 bucks no kid will be buying them.

I don't think sports fans will be in for this either.. this isn't the good ol' days. Does anybody care about these guys anymore? NBA and MLB ratings at an all time low.. the NFL is starting to come back. I think they missed the mark by not having "classics" mixed in there.

And the packaging sucks.. my friend loves Steph Curry and he was ready to buy it but said "you can't even see the figure"

Agreed.

Lol Shall I name the posters here? I'll protect their identities, but some have been NECA fans! ;)

And, true, regarding cuts, but if I had a nickel for each time I've read here over the years that Toy Biz figs were over articulated, well, I'd have a lot of nickels.

This right here will kill this line.
SOOO DUMB. Nevermind the price.

$50
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6edf8a44_z.jpgC0917F53-81C9-4200-8517-7D9FBFC1DA74 by Comedian Horseman, on Flickr

I'd definitely buy some 90s players... sir Charles, the glove, the reign man, air Jordan etc

Gimme the "Lister blister" with all those as well lol

It's funny, because as an 80s kid my parents weren't waiting in those lines, whining or not. Whining got my ass smacked.

My parents would usually buy toys at flea markets so it would be easily affordable, and I could get an entire box of say GI Joes at once to enjoy.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! $50 bucks are you fuckin’ shittin’ me? Theres no way in hell these are gonna sell at that price. I don’t know what the dipshits at hasbro are thinking except they MUST wanna go bankrupt.

Haha! Me too, but the times they're a changin'!

Fair enough, I find it hard to believe it's a majority opinion though.

In your defense I could live without toe and finger articulation in most of my figures, a weird thing to say in a thread about Starting Lineup figures.

Games over toys are what children think.

I cannot see adults collecting these simply bc this isn't their childhood memories.

Memories sell. Bird, Magic,Dr.J, Isiah, Kobe, olajuwon, Ewing, Shaq and so on.

With sports shrinking, these prices are just bad. Kids no longer have attachment to NBA players. Working with schools, that's my take on it all.

Like think Hasbro has a real PR problem. They got too greedy, too fast. They're in real crisis real soon as a company, if they dont start understanding the pricing and market.

This is what I'm referring to when I say collectors aren't smart.

Harbinger, I know this is hard for you to comprehend, but if this line fails Hasbro will be nowhere near bankruptcy. If it's that bad they're just going to tell the leagues "we tried, but we're moving on" at renewal time.

And I know this will be a big shock to you, but every single one of these athletes if INFINITELY MORE POPULAR than whatever the next D-List Marvel Legends 3-pack is that you will no doubt find something to complain about. If you really think $50 LeBron's and Steph's are less likely to move than whatever garbage-tier ML Amazon 5-pack is out there then you should watch who you call a dips***.

Can we lay off the "Hasbro is is trouble" rhetoric? Two Haslab fails and some collectors drawing a line in the sand on six-inch figures doesn't mean the company is dying. This isn't the only stuff they sell and it's hardly what carries them to profit.

If this quarter and the next one are in the red then maybe there's an argument, but for now they're holding the fort.

Had a really long thoughful post which got lost but figure I'll just summarize.

I'm okay with the video game likeness, this is Hasbro they're not known for dead ringer facesculpts (see ML, SWBS, PRL). It beats alot of the old Starting Lineup and other sports things I've kept.
I agree the price is a bit much, I understand all the licensing shot it up but feel $30-40 would be easier to understand.
Criticism on execution: Need to have a clear window for packaging for QC paint issues, Dont care for NFTs, Hard to deal with that shorts/diaper sculpt, Simple solid flight stand (their hoop display showed a slightly better one), would have happily swapped a secondary alt headsculpt with a more appropriate or neutral expression for the NFT and bad stand. If these were all renders, should render and give an indication for Legends. Could have done one for the 8 teams I'd suggest Randolph, Robertson, Malone, Baylor, Hardaway, Blackman, Havlicek, Wilkins. (Save Kobe, Kareem, Russell, Bird, and Dirk for another wave). They're being pretty greedy considering they can reuse and have a new alt jersey or different colorway to the shoes, etc. Jack it up 5-10 more bucks and make it a retailer/region exclusive and/or Pulse exclusive.

Hasbro should try to push and understand the collector demographic, I'm sure most under 30 dont go for these and are happy with other things, like Pop.

Wanted to like this but disappointed, however feel if this is what other releases for the MLB, NHL, NFL will be like I think it may be ok except for the price but who knows how I'd feel when they do get around to those in the future. But for the near future guess my MAFEX Jordan and SHF Ohtani will not be having new friends.

Hasbro's 2022 Starting Lineup Starting Lineup is...

Renders.

No i think its YOU who isnt smart. If you think anyone but only THE MOSTDIHARD sports fan is gonna shell out $50 bucks for some overpaid sports personality then its YOU who fails to comprehend. Yah hasbro might make a few bucks initially but i guarantee you most will wait for these to be clearanced out before they shell out money for sightunseen sports figs.

And if hasbro doesnt start rethinking their biz models of these cracked out prices for their stuff, ESPECIALLY with the current packaging type, then they WILLA START TO FEEL IT IN THEIR BOTTOM LINE.

AND you really outta tone down your personal insult type responses as it just makes ya come off like you are some sorta superior know-it-all, which you most certainly are not,

This is spot-on and one of many things that drives me absolutely nuts about fandom in general and collector communities in particular. It's entirely possible that this line won't connect with the NBA fanbase or the sports memorabilia market, but they're real, and they have money. LeBron James has more name recognition in the US than any X-Men character not named Wolverine.

One of my general rules of thumb is that when choices like the ones for this line don't match fan expectations, it's often because the fans aren't the intended market.