Joe Mauer Prototype

Wow, its been a long time since I posted a blog.  Not sure if blogging is still a thing (probably not) but this one deserved a post!  A fellow collector of mine found this one several years ago.  Upon selling some of his collection, he knew I'd like this one so we made a deal for it.  Its definitely a prototype made by BDA.  This was made for the 2014 season when Target Field hosted the All Star Game.  I believe this Mauer bobble was originally offered to the Twins as a potential giveaway that year.  They pivoted to do a Harmon Killebrew instead.  You'll see the similarities between the two bobblehead icons.  

Safe to say, this Joe Mauer bobble is one of my new all-time favorites.  

2014 TC Bear Bobbleheads

Back in 2014, the Minnesota Twins hosted MLB's All Star Game.  It was a week long party and plenty of stuff for fans to enjoy and see.  Of course there were bobbleheads.  3 mini bobbleheads were given away on 3 different mornings at Fanfest.  Joe Mauer, Tony Oliva and TC Bear.  TC was only given to kids under 13 (maybe 14) and they were pretty strict about that.  1000 bobbles of each were produced.  Mauer and Oliva were gone within 20-30 minutes of Fanfest opening.  There were plenty of TC's leftover.  And the TCs you found on eBay sold pretty quickly.  Ultimately the Twins sold the rest of them at Twinsfest a couple years later.  

What is unknown, by many collectors is the full version of TC that was sold during All Star Week.  These bobbleheads weren't numbered but I have a feeling that less than 300 were produced, most likely either 144 or 288.  I never saw one that week and I went to a few different events, including the ASG itself (thanks to one of my best friends, Matt).  

I've meant to show the difference of these 2 bobbles for a while.  As I know several people are looking for the full version and usually the mini version comes up.  So here is a picture showing both!  As you can see they are quite similar, for the most part, the same pose, but a different base and obviously different height.  The full version is definitely one of the harder to find TC Bear bobbleheads!  

Final 2014 ASG Bobblehead - Glen Perkins

Before the 2014 season, the Twins announced there would be 4 bobblehead giveaway days.  The first 3 were Harmon Killebrew, Lou Gehrig & Tom Brunansky.  Here are a couple links to previous blogs I've posted regarding this set of bobbleheads.

2014 Twins Bobbleheads Announced

Mystery ASG Bobblehead - Not so mysterious anymore

Once Perkins was named to the All Star Team, in my mind it was a foregone conclusion that on September 6th, people would be lining up hours in advance of game time to get their hands on a Perk bobblehead.  The Twins announced it was Perkins earlier this month and now we have a picture to go along with the announcement.  (Credit to my buddy Zane for the Perkins Tweet with picture!)

I've been advocating for a Perkins bobblehead since the Twins announced it was a "to be determined" bobblehead.  I'm certainly a happy camper with the news.  I've never met Glen Perkins (certainly would love the chance), but he seems like a down to earth guy (love listening to his weekly appearances on 1500 with Mackey & Judd).  He's also a former Gopher and obviously he's a stud closer!  Hopefully there are more bobbleheads in the future for Perkins.

2014 All Star Game & More

I'm guessing anyone who reads my blog probably knows the All Star game was held at Target Field last week.  Leading up to it, MLB had plenty of events, one was something they call "Fanfest."  In June I blogged about the 3 mini bobbleheads that were being given away at Fanfest - TC Bear, Tony Oliva and Joe Mauer. Jess and I went down to Fanfest last Sunday.  A buddy of mine had some extra tickets so we checked it out. It was pretty cool but also fairly overwhelming.  However, lets be real - we probably went on the worst day possible, Sunday early afternoon.  There were tons of people but also so much cool stuff to see.  I kinda thought the "Collectors Showcase" would be just as big (if not bigger) than Twinsfest.  Unfortunately that wasn't the case at all as there was only a handful of dealers.

However, with TC being given away to kids on Friday, I knew that would be the hardest bobblehead of the 3 to get.  I noticed a listing on eBay early on Friday morning and I thought it was a very good and fair deal, so I bought the TC bobblehead.  Of course this meant I was committed to getting the other 2 bobbleheads. Once I receive all 3 of them, I'll update this posting with a picture.  They are cool mini bobbleheads, but as is the case with most any mini bobblehead - they aren't very sturdy and quite fragile at times!  The TC Bear bobblehead routinely goes for between $40 and $50 on eBay while Tony Oliva and Joe Mauer are going for quite a bit less.  If you are looking for the set...TC will be the hardest and/or the most spendy of the bunch. Good luck!

Update: Here's the picture of the 3 bobbleheads.  They are pretty tiny!

Mystery ASG Bobblehead - Not so mysterious anymore

At Target Field on September 6th, the Twins will give away this years final ASG bobblehead.  I previously blogged about this, read it here.  In that blog, I mentioned that the most likely candidates were Joe Mauer or Glen Perkins, hoping it would be Perk.  I was half right.  I doubt many people would have guessed Kurt Suzuki would have been an option!  And just tonight MLB announced that Brian Dozier will be in the Home Run Derby.  I don't think any other Twins players will be added to the roster so at this point the "to be determined" player is either Perkins, Suzuki or Dozier.  I'm not sure if Dozier would "qualify" as he's not in the All Star Game, but the Twins could certainly choose to do his bobblehead and not many people would be offended.  But I would have to think all signs point to it being Perkins (no offense to Suzuki).  Perk is a team guy, local sports hero, great in the community and a guy the Twins want on this team for the long term. Based on my February post, obviously you know I'm biased but for good reason.  Hell that reason should only have to be, cuz I like Perkins, but he's a stud closer too. I'm hoping I can update this blog with a picture of a Perkins SGA bobblehead!

2 days ago, Twins President, Dave St. Peter confirmed the final ASG bobblehead would indeed be of Glen Perkins!  Here's the link!

2014 All-Star Game Fanfest

I've been meaning to post about Fanfest for a while.  If you don't know much about Fanfest, just click the link or there is lots of info at mlb.com!  I'm blogging about this for a couple reasons.  First there will be a huge collectors show.  My hunch is this will be bigger than Twinsfest as there will be plenty of national dealers as well as local ones selling all sorts of sports memorabilia.  Right now, I don't have tickets yet, but am really hoping to get down there, just hard because of my work schedule right now!

Secondly, there are 3 bobblehead giveaways.  I'm not sure if I'll look for these or not.  They aren't true SGAs and I don't even think they are given away from the Twins persay (guessing its more of a MLB giveaway with a Twins theme because its in Minnesota).  There are 3 mini bobbleheads, TC Bear, Tony Oliva, and of course Joe Mauer.  Cool but at this time, not a necessity of mine.

Reply to this post if you are going and what you are looking forward to.  After the ASG I'll write another blog about the ASG events and if I was able to make it to Fanfest or not.  Looking to get your Fanfest experiences too!

One last thing, here's a brochure I found on the Fanfest website.

Lou Gehrig & Tom Brunansky Bobbleheads

Back in February I blogged about the 2014 Minnesota Twins SGA bobblehead games.  At that time we know there would be 4 bobblehead giveaways (later changed to 5 with the Sid Hartman giveaway). Harmon Killebrew on June 20th, Lou Gehrig on July 4th, Tom Brunansky on July 5th and a bobblehead celebrating a player named to this year's All-Star game.  Click the hyperlink above to read that blog.  At the time I was excited to see what the bobbleheads would look like.  We now know what 2 of them will look like or at least what they appear to look like based on the Twins promotional site.  Below are pictures of the Brunansky and Gehrig bobbleheads.  You'll notice both have a brown base, not a surprise on the Gehrig bobble, but somewhat of one regarding Brunansky.  I was expecting the typical green base.  Check 'em out!

(Sorry about the poor quality...once I find better quality pictures, I'll update this post)

2014 Twins Bobbleheads Announced

The Twins just announced their promotional schedule for the upcoming season.  As I wrote in an earlier blog, that you can read here, the Twins are giving out 4 bobbleheads in 2014.  At the time of my previous blog it was scheduled to be 3, but as you'll see at this link there are actually 4 giveaway days!  It was widely speculated these bobbleheads would have an All-Star game theme to them because the Twins are hosting the 2014 All-Star game at Target Field.  Those assumptions have turned to fact.

Friday June 20th - Harmon Killebrew 1965 All-Star Game bobblehead.
Friday July 4th - Lou Gehrig bobblehead.
Saturday July 5th - Tom Brunansky 1985 All-Star Game bobblehead.
Saturday September 6th - To Be Determined 2014 All-Star Game bobblehead.  (Looks as if the Twins will design a bobblehead based upon whoever makes the 2014 All-Star Game, my bet its either Mauer or Glen Perkins - I'm hoping for a Perkins bobblehead).

I'm excited to see pictures of these bobbleheads.