HomeGrown Bobbles

Article from the Pitch.com

Published: August 10, 2006

We were nodding in agreement with the Royals' latest marketing ploy to increase attendance by giving away bobbleheads of baseball legends Frank White, Dick Howser and George Brett (the last of the trifecta will be available August 19). In the midst of what could be another 100-loss season, it might help fan morale to see those former idols shaking their plastic heads in agreement.

But then the T-Bones hawked a bobbler of Survivor's Danni Boatwright on July 24 and we realized it doesn't take much to become a yes-doll these days. So we called Richard Lynn, the owner of The Bobblehead LLC in Lee's Summit, to find out just how common the casting of bobble-people has become.

Lynn has worked in the miniature and sculpture portraiture business since the 1970s but formed his own company in 2000. He says his staff conceives roughly 500 new mini-me's a year. They create one-of-a-kind dolls for birthday parties, retirement bashes, weddings and, of course, game-day goodies. Making a single doll costs about 400 bucks, but when mass-produced, the cost-per-doll ratio reduces to just a few cents.

Lynn refused to take credit for the Royals' tiny nodders, or the T-Bones' Boatwright, saying he has nondisclosure agreements with many agents and leagues. Still, he gave us a few examples of real people he's spoofed. He's done a Howard Stern and a Dr. Phil, who raises his fist in a triumphant manner. There was the Homeland Security Agent bobbler and faceless figurines of a Starbucks barista with a place to insert your photo here.

"You know the Supreme Court Justices all have bobbleheads, and they swap them," he says. Chief Justice John Roberts' version came complete with the justice clutching a red box of french fries and a small toad by his feet — perhaps some inside joke.

Lynn also got mileage out of a mock-up of a New Jersey-based company's notoriously tightfisted CFO, squeezing a piggy bank in a headlock, his eyes bulging. Employees have since told him that the doll shows up in pictures at offices worldwide.

While an indicator of celeb status, the toys do not guarantee popularity for their real-life counterparts. Recently, Lynn fielded an order from a detachment of U.S. Army officials for a head-shaking doll of North Korea dictator Kim Jong Il. "He's just standing there with his hands in his pockets. I haven't the slightest idea what the Army is doing with it," Lynn says. "Target practice? I don't know."