Fall & Winter Slow down

As summer fades into fall, it typically signals a slow down in the bobblehead world.  We all know baseball teams (all of them it seems, no matter the league) are the best at giving away bobbleheads. Last year, the Wolves did a set of 5 bobbleheads and a few years ago the Wild did a set of 5 bobbleheads.  Other than that, the fall and winter have been extremely quiet in Minnesota when it comes to new bobbleheads.  Unfortunately that will likely stay the same this time around.  The Wild have announced their promotional schedule and no bobbleheads are included in it.  I've heard from the Timberwolves that its unlikely they do another set of bobbleheads this season.  They'd have the foundation for a nice set, starting off with top pick Kris Dunn.  Then you could do tribute bobbles for Flip Saunders and Kevin Garnett and why not a dual Rookie of the Year bobble for Wiggins and Towns?  People would go nuts over it!

However, at this point, thats only dreaming and its not looking very good.  So...I deal with it.  Perhaps it'll give me some time (ya know, cuz I have all sorts of that with an 11 week old at home) to organize my collection.

Hughes the Force

The Minnesota Twins did a special event bobblehead giveaway on May 4th, I blogged about it previously, read that here.  It was probably the most well received SGA bobblehead the Twins have done in a long time.  Jumping on the "Star Wars Themed" bandwagon - like so many other teams are doing, the Twins did a "Hughes the Force" bobblehead featuring Phil Hughes in Star Wars gear.  It's a really cool, extremely well made, and heavy bobblehead.  Even has a special box and all!  Definitely one that all Twins bobblehead collectors should have in their collection!  It's a limited run of 2500 and you had to buy specific tickets to get the bobblehead.  I think I'm going to keep 2 of these for my collection.  

Another Torii Minor League?

That's right, I picked up another Torii Hunter minor league bobble.  This is in fact an SGA.  It's from when he was with the New Britain Rock Cats.  I have another one, just like this, but its the retail version and doesn't have the plaque on the base.  I knew this one was out there but finally found it for sale!

Aaron Hicks Minor League Bobblehead

I've been looking for this one for a long time!  Finally found it for a price I was willing to pay.  I mean, its Aaron Hicks after all, so I wasn't going to spend much on him.  The way he's been playing the past month tho...maybe the light bulb finally went on for him!  This is an SGA from the Beloit Snappers when they were a Twins affiliate.

My first Prototype!

I had been looking at this one for a while on eBay.  After talking with the seller a little bit, I finally pulled the trigger.  This is Jacque Jones when he played for the Fort Myers Miracle (Class A Affiliate of the Minnesota Twins).  In the early 2000s they did a giveaway of Jones and this is one of the prototypes the team used in determining the final product when going through the revision process with the manufacturer.  I hope to dig out my other Jones bobblehead to do a side by side comparison at some point, but right now, its in storage.

Goldy Bobbleheads - The Common 6

Here's a picture of the 6 most commonly seen Goldy bobbleheads. They were fairly easy to find a few years ago and still aren't uncommon, but more and more are damaged in one way or another.  There are 2 different baseball Goldy's.  The one in the white jersey was a giveaway at a baseball game with Hormel sponsoring it.  The other one, just like it's 4 counterparts are all part of the Rainbow Foods promotion.  You could find these on campus pretty easy when they were originally giveaways, and then later, you were able to buy them in Rainbow Foods stores.  I have seen both the wrestling Goldy as well as the basketball Goldy plaque-less.  I don't know the story behind those.  The hockey Goldy is the most valuable of the bunch and the wrestling Goldy is the one I see most commonly damaged. With his arms in front of him like they are, his fingers are often broken.

Check back soon for another variation of Goldy in bobblehead form!