Shake your head if you believe bobbleheads are taking over America.
If they could nod by themselves, the 20,000 Chipper Jones bobbles that the Braves will hand out Thursday night and the 20,000 Dan Ugglas the team will give away on Aug. 18 surely would tip their super-sized noggins affirmatively.
So would the countless Captain America and Thor bobbleheads commanding store shelves, keyed to this endless summer of the cinematic superhero. Ditto the bobblers of Snooki of MTV's "Jersey Shore" infamy, Progressive Insurance advertising icon Flo and those ever-peppy Pep Boys -- Manny, Moe and Jack.
By presidential decree -- yes, just about every White House denizen from Washington to Obama has had his likeness immortalized on one of the toys -- there must be two bobbleheads in every garage. Or so it sometimes seems.
These simple, springy-headed figures date to mid-19th century Germany and started the latest in a long series of comebacks in 1999 when the San Francisco Giants offered a Willy Mays bobble to smitten fans.
In an iPod and Wii-crazed world, you'd expect them to be utterly passe, not the must-have collectible of the moment. But Gus Eurton, Braves executive director of marketing, no doubt was nodding over the phone when he said, "I don't think the nostalgic value of bobbleheads has ever gone away."
No, this isn't just a case of the national pastime reveling in past times once again. Eurton views bobbles as recruiters of future fans, youngsters lured initially with their parents by a free toy that becomes a holder of fond family memories. Those small-fry have the potential to become true blue Braves fans, he believes, imagining that a dozen or so years hence, they might be regulars cruising the outfield Chop House restaurant-bar with a posse of college pals or gals.
Drawing fans from six Southeastern states, the Braves have what Eurton claims is the largest marketing footprint of any American sports franchise, and he said a bobblehead (or T-shirt or cap) giveaway can be the tipping point for families considering a Turner Field sojourn.
"It all adds up to, hopefully, we're gonna get you while you're young, like any other brand would hope to," he said. "You know, happy kids, happy parents.""
The Braves are hardly the only true believers. Bensussen Deutsch & Associates Inc. in Woodinville, Wash., a major supplier of Major League Baseball premiums, delivered more than 1 million wobblers last year to be given away at some 44 promotional dates. Those numbers, by the way, didn't include our home team, which took a two-year bobblehead "breather," according to Eurton, "so it would be cool again."
Cool is pretty much the niche of Funko, a Seattle area toy manufacturer that licenses just about anything making pop culture waves and turns it into a bobblehead. Funko figures to sell around 1 million of them this year on the strength of movie tie-ins such as "Captain America" "Thor" and "The Hangover Part II." Also adding up the numbers: rock ‘n' roll wobblers such as the recently launched Kiss line and figures keyed to video game releases including the popular prequel "Halo: Reach" and the reboot of "Mortal Kombat."
A benign bobblehead created in conjunction with a violent video game would seem like the ultimate non sequitur. But "novelties have been around forever and always will be," Funko sales associate Shawndra Illingworth noted. "Bobbleheads are actually refreshingly low tech."
Lannie Bittinger, who operates a sports memorabilia booth at Queen of Hearts Antiques and Interiors in Buford basically to support his own collecting addiction, got into bobbleheads, cards and other keepsakes more than 15 years ago through the passion of his son, Clay, now 27 and still passionate.
Bittinger, who has at least 50 bobbleheads available at any time (typical price range: $10-$30), said customer interest waxes and wanes depending on how the Atlanta team is doing. "If the Braves are hot, then, yes, the Braves bobbles will be extremely popular," he said. "I don’t think it makes the value go up, it just makes more people say I want a little bit of the Braves sitting on the shelf."
The fact that the toys stay on display at least partly explains their enduring appeal. "You can actually set it out and look at it and enjoy it, whereas a baseball card, you look at it and then put it in a drawer," reasoned the dealer who is drawn to obscurities such as his Dale Murphy nodder produced by the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, a former Braves farm team where the Atlanta hero never toiled.
You might imagine that Braves marketing boss Eurton has a deep bench of bobbles, and he does.
"I probably have 70 bobbleheads sitting on a shelf in my garage," he said with the kind of pride that reminded a little of a Little Leaguer.
The garage?
"It's kind of a my collector's wall of things the wife won't allow in the house."
Baseball
Chipper Jones bobblehead night
7:10 p.m. Thursday. First 20,000 fans entering Turner Field for the Braves vs. Pittsburgh Pirates game get a free Jones bobble presented by Delta Air Lines. $8-$78 (advance, plus fees). 755 Hank Aaron Drive, Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.braves.com/tickets.
Collecting tip
Buford sports memorabilia dealer Lannie Bittinger says potential collectors should simply pick a player or team they enjoy and stick with it -- and not treat acquisitions like they're playing Wall Street. "Don’t worry about what it's going to be worth later, do what you enjoy," he advised. "To me, that should be [tip] No. 1, 2 and 3. This is not gold and silverware collecting here, this is memories and fun. These things are never going to put anybody through college."
About the Author
