GaryMrMets
05-17-2002, 11:58 PM
http://montreal.expos.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mon/news/mon_news.jsp?ymd=20020506&content_id=19379&vkey=news_mon&fext=.jsp
05/06/2002 4:03 pm ET
Bobblehead mania hits Montreal
They're seven inches of collectible craziness -- and they're coming to the Big O for the first time
By J.S. Trzcienski / MLB.com
MONTREAL -- They're so ubiquitous that in French, they're simply known by their English moniker.
Bonjour, bobbleheads!
The madness that has swept collectors and North America in recent years touches down in Montreal officially on Sunday, June 16, when 5,000 Rusty Staub bobblehead dolls will be given away to what undoubtedly will be a rabid throng of Expos fans and others who might simply be looking to make a savvy investment.
"I don't recall in my 20 years here ever having given away an item with such a high perceived value," said Claude Delorme, the Expos' executive VP of business affairs. "I was going through eBay and when you type in "bobble head" as two words, you'll find over 6,100 listings, and when you type "bobblehead" as one word, there's another 3,400 presently on sale. This is a big collectible item, and going with the limited edition like we are of 5,000, we opted to do it repeatedly to incite people to come to several games. Once people get the Rusty Staub -- once they see the quality of these things -- we're convinced they'll be collecting the whole set. There's a lot of speculation that if this is our last year, these things will have increased value. I was looking a few weeks ago, and a Harmon Killebrew that was limited to 5,000 through the Twins in 2000 was selling for over $250."
In addition to Staub, the Expos are releasing Steve Rogers on June 23, Tim Raines on July 14, Andre Dawson on July 28, Gary Carter on Aug. 4, and Vladimir Guerrero on Aug. 18. Each doll will come in a collectible box and will be numbered from 1 to 5,000 -- an added feature most bobbleheads don't have, and something that will appeal to diehards seeking lower numbers in the production run. To mark the occasion, each event (all of which fall on Sunday matinees) will also celebrate the Expos' greats by having the real players themselves on hand to sign autographs from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m., then throw out the honorary first pitch prior to the 1:35 p.m. start (Staub has yet to confirm, while Raines will be unable to attend due to the fact he's now with the Marlins).
As the ballclub looked to celebrate its 34 years of history in 2002, the promotion made sense on a number of levels, despite the fact it has no sponsor attached to it.
"Looking at our overall theme for the year -- and wanting to bring people back to the ballpark -- we thought it would be great to offer a collectible item and deal with Expos' alumni," Delorme said. "The bobbleheads answered all of that."
Just what the heck is the attraction of these seven inches of oversized, gyrating noggin? In a nutshell, their rarity. Sure, there are mass-produced bobbleheads everywhere now from manufacturers hoping to cash in on the trend, but in what the Expos organization is hoping to be one the most popular promotions in their history, they have gone to one of the top companies in the industry to produce their collection.
"We said, 'You know ... we think we can take this to another level,' " explained Todd Goldenberg, national sales director of Bobble Dreams, LLC. "I said let's do it if we can do something spectacular."
While spectacular might be a rather spirited term to describe a pound of polyresin, admittedly the dolls produced by Bobble Dreams stand apart from the wanna-bes. The company takes pictures of the front, back and side of a player's face and body, then produces a mockup design that gets approved by the ballclub before being sent to China. There, a "master carver" and his team of six consider the photos and mock up and design a prototype that is delivered to the club and the company's home office, whereupon "we just tweak it and tweak and tweak it until seven-and-a-half inches of Gary Carter looks like the six-foot Gary Carter," according to Goldenberg.
A painting process and more tweaking follows, until 90 days after the process began, the approved design finally goes into production. Bobble Dreams already had 10 existing unique poses for its baseball collection prior to embarking on their association with the Expos -- the design of the Andre Dawson doll was made up from scratch to suit the team's needs.
Gina Hackl, the team's director of promotions and special events, has been working the phone tirelessly to make sure such details as Guerrero's goatee are just right.
"It's a big project," she points out. "It's one of our main projects for the season, so it has taken up some considerable time."
The fruits of the team's labor are already evident.
"We've had a lot of interest from the outside," says Delorme. "From the States, we've had calls from Hawaii, San Francisco; a guy out of California wanted to know specifically who the manfacturer of the bobbleheads was and whether he should be traveling down -- we had the same thing out of Chicago. They're asking a lot of very specific questions from the type of uniform they're going to be wearing, their position, the exact layout of the bobblehead -- you can tell they're big collectors. So I think we'll see a lot of excitement, a lot of speculation, a lot of fans wanting to have these as a souvenir, and a lot of collectors coming into Montreal specifically for these items."
For now, the team isn't sure quite what to expect on the first giveaway with Staub, but it's confident that with word-of-mouth and the fact that the entire set will be promoted with the event dates on the back of every doll's box, by the time Carter and Guerrero are given away in August, the bobblehead craze will have become a genuine phenomenon.
"I think by the time we get to our last one, we'll probably have people sleeping over," Delorme said. "I think it's going to be like a rock concert, where people are actually coming to the game the night before, and sitting at the gate to be part of the first 5,000. We haven't witnessed anything of this nature."
It makes sense when you think about it. People are already queuing up a week ahead of time to be the first to see "Star Wars -- Episode II: Attack of the Clones." And really, what kind of return on their investment do they get there? Ultimately, bobbleheads rock unlike the Force itself.
J.S. Trzcienski covers the Expos for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
http://montreal.expos.mlb.com/images/2002/05/06/Yb3ikqff.jpg
If they were lifesize, the team's outfield woes would be solved: Vladimir Guerrero, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, and Gary Carter strike a mini-pose on the lush artificial turf at Olympic Stadium. (MLBAM)
05/06/2002 4:03 pm ET
Bobblehead mania hits Montreal
They're seven inches of collectible craziness -- and they're coming to the Big O for the first time
By J.S. Trzcienski / MLB.com
MONTREAL -- They're so ubiquitous that in French, they're simply known by their English moniker.
Bonjour, bobbleheads!
The madness that has swept collectors and North America in recent years touches down in Montreal officially on Sunday, June 16, when 5,000 Rusty Staub bobblehead dolls will be given away to what undoubtedly will be a rabid throng of Expos fans and others who might simply be looking to make a savvy investment.
"I don't recall in my 20 years here ever having given away an item with such a high perceived value," said Claude Delorme, the Expos' executive VP of business affairs. "I was going through eBay and when you type in "bobble head" as two words, you'll find over 6,100 listings, and when you type "bobblehead" as one word, there's another 3,400 presently on sale. This is a big collectible item, and going with the limited edition like we are of 5,000, we opted to do it repeatedly to incite people to come to several games. Once people get the Rusty Staub -- once they see the quality of these things -- we're convinced they'll be collecting the whole set. There's a lot of speculation that if this is our last year, these things will have increased value. I was looking a few weeks ago, and a Harmon Killebrew that was limited to 5,000 through the Twins in 2000 was selling for over $250."
In addition to Staub, the Expos are releasing Steve Rogers on June 23, Tim Raines on July 14, Andre Dawson on July 28, Gary Carter on Aug. 4, and Vladimir Guerrero on Aug. 18. Each doll will come in a collectible box and will be numbered from 1 to 5,000 -- an added feature most bobbleheads don't have, and something that will appeal to diehards seeking lower numbers in the production run. To mark the occasion, each event (all of which fall on Sunday matinees) will also celebrate the Expos' greats by having the real players themselves on hand to sign autographs from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m., then throw out the honorary first pitch prior to the 1:35 p.m. start (Staub has yet to confirm, while Raines will be unable to attend due to the fact he's now with the Marlins).
As the ballclub looked to celebrate its 34 years of history in 2002, the promotion made sense on a number of levels, despite the fact it has no sponsor attached to it.
"Looking at our overall theme for the year -- and wanting to bring people back to the ballpark -- we thought it would be great to offer a collectible item and deal with Expos' alumni," Delorme said. "The bobbleheads answered all of that."
Just what the heck is the attraction of these seven inches of oversized, gyrating noggin? In a nutshell, their rarity. Sure, there are mass-produced bobbleheads everywhere now from manufacturers hoping to cash in on the trend, but in what the Expos organization is hoping to be one the most popular promotions in their history, they have gone to one of the top companies in the industry to produce their collection.
"We said, 'You know ... we think we can take this to another level,' " explained Todd Goldenberg, national sales director of Bobble Dreams, LLC. "I said let's do it if we can do something spectacular."
While spectacular might be a rather spirited term to describe a pound of polyresin, admittedly the dolls produced by Bobble Dreams stand apart from the wanna-bes. The company takes pictures of the front, back and side of a player's face and body, then produces a mockup design that gets approved by the ballclub before being sent to China. There, a "master carver" and his team of six consider the photos and mock up and design a prototype that is delivered to the club and the company's home office, whereupon "we just tweak it and tweak and tweak it until seven-and-a-half inches of Gary Carter looks like the six-foot Gary Carter," according to Goldenberg.
A painting process and more tweaking follows, until 90 days after the process began, the approved design finally goes into production. Bobble Dreams already had 10 existing unique poses for its baseball collection prior to embarking on their association with the Expos -- the design of the Andre Dawson doll was made up from scratch to suit the team's needs.
Gina Hackl, the team's director of promotions and special events, has been working the phone tirelessly to make sure such details as Guerrero's goatee are just right.
"It's a big project," she points out. "It's one of our main projects for the season, so it has taken up some considerable time."
The fruits of the team's labor are already evident.
"We've had a lot of interest from the outside," says Delorme. "From the States, we've had calls from Hawaii, San Francisco; a guy out of California wanted to know specifically who the manfacturer of the bobbleheads was and whether he should be traveling down -- we had the same thing out of Chicago. They're asking a lot of very specific questions from the type of uniform they're going to be wearing, their position, the exact layout of the bobblehead -- you can tell they're big collectors. So I think we'll see a lot of excitement, a lot of speculation, a lot of fans wanting to have these as a souvenir, and a lot of collectors coming into Montreal specifically for these items."
For now, the team isn't sure quite what to expect on the first giveaway with Staub, but it's confident that with word-of-mouth and the fact that the entire set will be promoted with the event dates on the back of every doll's box, by the time Carter and Guerrero are given away in August, the bobblehead craze will have become a genuine phenomenon.
"I think by the time we get to our last one, we'll probably have people sleeping over," Delorme said. "I think it's going to be like a rock concert, where people are actually coming to the game the night before, and sitting at the gate to be part of the first 5,000. We haven't witnessed anything of this nature."
It makes sense when you think about it. People are already queuing up a week ahead of time to be the first to see "Star Wars -- Episode II: Attack of the Clones." And really, what kind of return on their investment do they get there? Ultimately, bobbleheads rock unlike the Force itself.
J.S. Trzcienski covers the Expos for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
http://montreal.expos.mlb.com/images/2002/05/06/Yb3ikqff.jpg
If they were lifesize, the team's outfield woes would be solved: Vladimir Guerrero, Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, and Gary Carter strike a mini-pose on the lush artificial turf at Olympic Stadium. (MLBAM)