Bobblehead doll

Hunter, Tim - Bobbing Head Dolls: 1960-2000 (Krause Publications, 2000). Eagle fibula, often worn in pairs, commemorate the worship of the Sun, common among the pagan tribes. The millennium would bring a new type of bobblehead toy, the mini-bobblehead, standing just two or three inches tall and used for cereal prizes and such. They were usually made of precious metals and often had encrusted gem stones. The variety of bobbleheads on the market rose exponentially to include even relatively obscure popular culture figures and notable people. They came in many varieties and held prominent significance for the identity of the wearer. It was now possible to make bobbleheads in the very limited numbers necessary for them to be viable collectibles. They were shaped somewhat like a large safety pin and were used to hold clothing together.

What finally prompted their resurgence was cheaper manufacturing processes, and the main bobblead material switched once again, this time from ceramic to plastic. Fibula (or Fibulae plural) are ornamental clasps or broochs used by migratory tribes in Europe during the 3rd through 7th centuries. Although older bobbleheads like the baseball teams and The Beatles were sought-after by collectors during this period, new bobblehead dolls were few and far between. As fashions in brooches changed rather fast, they are important chronological indicators. It would take nearly two decades before bobbleheads returned to prominence. The earliest known brooches are from the Bronze Age. By the mid-1970s, though, the bobblehead craze was in the process of winding down. Brooches are often decorated with enamel or with gemstones and may be solely for ornament (as in the stomacher), or sometimes serve a practical function as a fastening, perhaps for a cloak.

One of the most famous bobbleheads of all time also hails from this era: The Beatles bobblehead set, which is a valuable collectible today. They are usually made of metal, often silver or gold but sometimes bronze or some other material. Over the next decade, after a switch in materials from paper-mache to ceramic, bobbleheads would be produced for other sports, as well as cartoon characters. Brooches (or broaches) are decorative items designed to be attached to garments. The 1961 World Series brought the first player-specific baseball bobbleheads, for Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Willie Mays, still all with the same face. By 1960, Major League Baseball had gotten in on the action and produced a series of paper-mache bobblehead dolls, one for each team, all with the same cherubic face.

Bobbleheads as we know them today began to gain ground in the 1950s. Although not strictly considered bobblehead dolls, some examples of Japanese netsuke exist with bobblehead-like spring-operated features. Early bobbleheads depicting animals were sold by street vendors as novelties; presumably, most were bought as gifts for children. While the word bobblehead was not used directly, the main character's neck was described as "like the necks of plaster cats which wag their heads".

The exact origin of the bobblehead doll is unknown, though first known reference to a bobblehead doll in literature was in Nikolai Gogol's famous 1842 short story "The Overcoat". Bobblehead dolls are sometimes given out to ticket buyers at sporting events as a promotion. Watson, they are most associated with athletes, and baseball players in particular. Although bobblehead dolls have been made with a wide variety of figures such as vampiric cereal pitchman Count Chocula, beat generation author Jack Kerouac, and Nobel-prize-winning geneticist James D.

Instead of a solid connection, its head is connected to the body by a spring in such a way that a light tap will cause the head to bobble, hence the name. Its head is often oversized compared to its body. A bobblehead doll, also known as a bobbing head doll or wobbler is a type of collectible doll. The lyrics compare the act of dancing to the motion of a bobblehead, with the chorus: "...take it to the floor and act like a fool / shake it, shake it, shake it like a bobblehead...".

Child rapper L'il Romeo's album Romeoland includes a song called "Bobblehead". In 2003, as a promotional stunt, cable network GSN unveiled the "Chucklehead", an 11-foot-tall, 900-pound bobblehead statue of game show host Chuck Woolery. In the Firefly episode "Trash", the characters discuss a shipment of bobblehead geisha dolls they smuggled and sold. See the "History" section above for details.

Bobbleheads are referred to in the Nikolai Gogol short story The Overcoat in 1842.