PJ Fleck Golden Gophers Bobblehead

With the Big 10 announcement that football is back in October I thought it was fitting to share this PJ Fleck bobblehead.  This is a custom University of Minnesota Golden Gophers bobble.  Its full size, of course rowing the boat.  I like the detail of this one, sharp yellow jacket with maroon tie, complete with headset.  

  

New Add - Torii Hunter Powder Blue Custom

Here's another new addition.  It's a customized Torii Hunter Angels SGA bobblehead.  I didn't customize it...I don't have the skill set to do amazing work like this.  In one of the groups I'm in, I found a lady who has a ton of talent and made a trade with her. 

I have a small sub-set of customized powder blue bobbleheads, this fits perfectly!! 

Munchkin in Bobblehead Form

Today was my first ever Father's Day.  I had plenty of time to reflect and think about what the last 11 months have been like for me.  Other than simply amazing and incredibly busy they have been 11 of the most rewarding months of my life.  My daughter, Anneliese, was born on July 7th 2016.  After a week in the NICU we were able to go home and start life with a baby.  Jess and I were prepared (at least as much as we could be) but its still so much more than I can explain.  The feelings, the nerves, the joy...all of it is so much more.  Father's Day was quite similar.  Jess and Anneliese made it even more special when they surprised me with a bobblehead of Anneliese.  This is the third one Jess has done for me.  And as of now, it completes our family.  The first one was my wedding gift from Jess. Then came our dog in bobblehead form as a Christmas present.  And now for my first Father's Day is Anneliese in bobblehead form.

I couldn't be happier.  

Custom Jim Kaat - Powder Blue Jersey

I've been putting together a little collection of custom powder blue jersey Twins bobbleheads, this is the latest in that series.  Jim Kaat.  I definitely like how this one turned out and the red base on it really pops.  None of these custom bobbleheads are easy and they are definitely time consuming.  

My Latest Custom - Kirby Puckett

Here's my latest custom job.  It's original the World Series Hero retail Kirby Puckett bobblehead. Everyone loves the powder blue and I thought it would look great on this bobble.  I'm pretty damn happy with how this one turned out.  For the most part everything is time-period appropriate except the Twins logo, its not exactly like it is on the powder blues the Twins wore.  Also Puck is a bit stockier than he was when he wore the powder blue jersey.

All in all, it'll sit great next to my Tom Brunansky custom bobble!  I have a few more of these coming!

My Second Custom Bobblehead - Glen Perkins

Several months ago I blogged about my first custom bobblehead.  I learned several little tricks while doing my Mauer custom bobblehead.  At the time I had ideas of specific customs I wanted to try. Even tho I still have those ideas, a couple other ones jumped to the front of the line.

Everyone knows my passion for Gopher Sports.  Being a U of MN Alum...maroon and gold always get my attention. I blogged about this specific bobblehead back in 2014...the final SGA bobblehead the Twins did that season, Glen Perkins.  After doing the Mauer bobblehead, I kept looking at the Perkins bobblehead, but his arms in front of his stomach caused a huge problem as I figured it'd be extremely messy when trying to paint around/under/over and in between that area of the bobblehead. Luck would have it...I received a broken bobblehead I bought from eBay...the arm was out of socket, but easily glued back into place and it looks just like new.  I found a couple extra Perkins bobbleheads and about a month ago started the process.  The first part - breaking his arms from the sockets they are glued in.  Once I did that cleanly (enough) the customizing was on.  See a side by side look of Glen Perkins, his SGA bobblehead and Perkins in his Twins uniform with his Alma mater's colors - Maroon and Gold.

My first Custom!?!

The more I learn about bobbleheads, read about bobbleheads and see bobbleheads...one thing always grabs my attention - customized bobbleheads.  I'm not talking about the Best Bobblehead Ever or the Best Christmas Present Ever...I'm talking about customizing a promotional bobblehead into something different, something nobody else has done.  For instance, look at this, ahem, "well used" Joe Mauer bobblehead.

If you can't tell, click on the picture to see all the scrapes and scratches on his face.  Definitely not a bobblehead worthy of being displayed...even if it is of Baby Jesus.  I picked up this Mauer in a lot of other bobbleheads I bought.  It was super cheap, so if I didn't ever do anything with it, I wasn't out much.  But my idea was to customize it.  And so...about 6 weeks ago, I really started researching the best ways to go about this.  Most Twins fans love the powder blue jerseys so I knew that was the main color I wanted.  The rest of it...I had no idea.  After getting some awesome tips from a few other collectors, I was on my way.  

Obviously the powder blue would make it different enough from the SGA, but I wanted to make it somewhat close (if possible) to the actual jersey the team wore when they did wear throwback jerseys.  Google is my friend.  I found plenty online and I was ready to start.  I won't get into the finer details...as they might bore plenty of you (if you are interested tho, feel free to email me - sploehn@gmail.com).  Below, the pictures basically tell the story.  Enjoy!

And finally a before and after close up.  The last phase of my customization was to "gloss" the new bobble.  It's a clear coat, a protectant of sorts that I used to cover the entire bobblehead.  I'm not exactly happy with the outcome, it still looks fine, but in my opinion, its too glossy.  So for the next custom, I'll be looking for something different.  In the end, this one is so much better than the original and I had a ton of fun making it.  It took plenty of time, but it was time well spent!  

Best Christmas Present Ever!!!

So about a year ago, I blogged about the Best Bobblehead ever.  Today I can blog about the Best Christmas Present ever.  Jessica (my wife) puts up with my passion of collecting bobbleheads and sometimes she even gets completely on board, much like she did with a our very own custom made bobblehead that she gave me for my wedding present almost 2 years ago.  We display that bobblehead on our mantle year-round.  But every winter she goes into Christmas decorating mode and that includes a little sass for our bobblehead.  You'll see why I'm talking about this shortly...

Christmas morning came and before celebrating with our families we had our own Christmas morning, just Jess, Murphy (our dog) and myself.  Before we started to open our gifts from one another she calmly stated, "I won this Christmas."  Obviously you know from reading my blog I'm a pretty competitive person, and so is Jess.  What did she mean by that statement, simply put she meant she got me the better presents or at least she won in terms of intrigue, thought, and well...giving me the Best Christmas Present ever!

She ordered a custom made Murphy bobblehead.  Pretty spot-on too!  I never expected this, but I knew when she said "I won this Christmas" it might be bobblehead related, however I never would have guessed it was a bobblehead of Murphy!  Merry Christmas to me!  Oh and there you can also see our scarves and "snow" that we are standing in during the winter.