Bobblehead day is when we celebrate the fantastic development that are bobblehead dolls! Whether you’re buying them for your favorite baseball team, or one of those commemorative presidential bobbleheads, Bobblehead Day is your opportunity to get out there and learn a bit about these iconic toys history!
History of Bobblehead Day
Bobbleheads first came onto the scene over 100 years ago, being composed of a simple doll with a head attached by a spring, creating that signature bobble-head action. The first of these recognizable toys was actually thought to have been created in the mid 1800’s, when plaster cats with bobbing heads were all the rage. In the 1920’s the bobblehead came to sports, each being made exactly like the other. In the 1930’s the love of these died off, only to be reborn in the 1960’s when they started producing custom faces representing the most popular players of the time.
Since then the bobblehead craze has never really died down, growing in popularity and design over the ages. While not technically a ‘bobblehead’, hula dancers were an extremely popular rendition of this style of doll, often having two or more spring based joints throughout their design.
When plastic bobblehead dolls were created in 1990’s, the industry once more saw a boom that has carried through straight into modern day, with ever more customizable options being presented with each passing year.
- Typically, bobbleheads have a body with a head attached to a spring, which bobs or wiggles when it is touched or moved, and sometimes the head is disproportionate to the body.
- Depictions of people are most commonly made into bobbleheads, the majority of which are important figures, such as politicians, musicians or sportsmen, while custom designs and animals are also available.
- Bobbleheads are believed to have originated in China, and they first arrived in Europe around the 1760s; while a depiction of two Chinese ones can be seen in the background of the 1765 painting Queen Charlotte in Her Dressing Room by Johann Zoffany.
- Original bobblehead designs from China portrayed Chinese people in a lifelike manner, while early European designs of the 1800s included animal forms, as well as humans.
- Over the past century, a wide variety of bobbleheads have become available, many of which have become valued collectible items, with sporting team ones reaching significant popularity in certain decades.
- Bobbleheads are commonly distributed for promotional purposes, especially in the United States, often as free merchandise, especially to encourage support for sporting teams.
- As of April 2016, the largest bobblehead officially recognised by the Guinness World Records was 4.69 metres (15.4 feet) in height, and it was a depiction of a St Bernard dog; the mascot of the Applied Underwriters insurance company, in Orlando.
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