Let’s begin with a brief history of bobbleheads. 2000 : Bobbleheads seemed to be 20th century relic by the turn of the century until a promotion by the San Francisco Giants brought the bobblehead back to the public eye. The Giants offered a Willie Mays bobblehead to the first 20,000 visitors on May 9th to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Candlestick Park, which was the last year of the Giants playing at that stadium. New variations of the bobblehead were made including the mini-bobblehead, bobble computer sitters, bobblehead banks, and even bobblehead air fresheners. The Guinness Book of World Record for largest bobblehead was set for a bobblehead in the likeness of TV show host Chuck Woolery. The bobblehead weighed 900 pounds, was 11 feet tall and was originally displayed at the McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois.
How are bobbleheads made? There are all types of bobble heads and they’re made from several types of materials. Generally, the most common bobble heads are made from resin and plastic. There are also ceramic and wooden bobble heads, but they are in the minority of the products currently produced. The resin bobble head dolls are solid and generally allow for greater details and finer contouring of the body. Plastic bobble heads are cast from a mold, but not all plastic bobbing heads are the same. Some styles rely purely on the mold as the entire product with the appropriate paint colors added. Our most popular bobble heads use a plastic inner shell that are not solid and are covered with felt cloth. The felt adds a layer of detail, a layer of feeling, and an additional layer of strength to the bobble head. With our bobble head animals, you’ll find that the eyes are made of plastic and some vary from completely solid colors to an eye complete with color and pupil.
In June 2012, the TBS talk show ‘Conan’ went to film in Chicago and produced one of the largest bobble head dolls ever documented. The Conan O’Brien Bobble Head stood at 16 feet tall! In 2016, there were many terrific MLB bobble head giveaways that focus on team mascots to legendary Dodgers broadcast Vin Scully. Both major league and minor league baseball heavily use bobble head doll promotions to drive attendance. For 2017, MLB teams plan no let down in the size and scope of bobble heads. Teams from the Mets with their Noah Syndergaard Thor themed bobble head to the Angels with three different Mike Trout bobble heads throughout the season aren’t letting up with promotions throughout the league each and every week.
In 1960, Major League Baseball decided to give away a series of papier-mache bobblehead dolls for each team with the same cherubic face and imported from Japan. That same year World Series was held and first bobblehead dollswere made specifically for players but they still had the same faces. The players that had bobbleheads made for them were Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Willie Mays. Beside of players, teams made and gave away as souvenirs bobblehead dolls in the shape of their team mascots. When material of making bobblehead dolls was changed from papier-mache to ceramic they were made in likeness of players of other sports too and of cartoon characters. The Beatles bobblehead set, which was made in the next decade is still a very valuable collectable. In time production and interest for bobblehead dolls again waned and by 1970s it almost disappeared completely.
Alexander Malcolm would become one of the largest bobblehead sellers and a key figure in the history of bobbleheads, producing 48-49 million of these sentimental nodding heads. But he did not know it at the time when he sat down at a business meeting with the San Franciscio Giants during the 1990s. He was just hoping to sell some sort of promotional item for them. When Malcolm asked what they were looking for, The San Francisco Giants replied, “bobbleheads”. Malcolm agreed to provide thousands of Willie Mays bobbleheads to the professional baseball organization to be passed out to their fans for free. Malcolm went to work, but did not know he could get away with using the traditional cartoonish boy bobblehead. Instead, he made a much more real version of Mays (although Mays would disagree). So, on May 9, 1999, to celebrate the anniversary of Candlestick Park, the last year the Giants would play at this stadium by the bay, 20,000 visitors each received the Willie Mays bobblehead. It was a success! The crowd loved the semi-life-like yet cartoonish novelty item. That one game made way for the bobblehead era revival. The next year, eight Major League Baseball teams had bobblehead giveaways. And Malcolm’s small business in the 1990s flourished into the global enterprise it is today.
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