February 26, 2013

More Bobbleheads!!!



With the Wizards winners of three straight, seven of the last nine and streaking towards NBA relevency, its time to turn the focus for a few minutes onto something more important than kicking ass and taking names on the court: bobbleheads, baby! Check out what I brought home last week.

For the last few years, the Washington Wizards have been providing season ticket holders with an exclusive gift as a thank you for being a season ticket holder. I guess it's sort of a compensatory gesture for sticking with the franchise that just hasn't produced what it's supposed to produce, namely a team that wins consistently. This year the team offered a choice for season ticket holders: a set of "starting five" bobbleheads or a team basketball signed by this year's first round draft pick, Bradley Beal.

Now, as you probably understand if you read my blog regularly, I absolutely love bobbleheads. Having said that, even if you are not me and don't share my oh so slight obsession with bobbleheads, I'm not sure how you choose the basketball. I can get basketballs autographed by Bradley Beal at any number of season ticket holder events. True, the basketball with the DC Unity Hand logo is not available for purchase so that makes it a little special. But a custom, limited edition set of bobbleheads? For free?? I'm taking the bobbleheads without a second thought.


This is the second year in a row the team has proposed a bobblehead set giveaway. Last year they abandoned the idea half way through the season, probably because the team rebuild was in full swing and our starting five included Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee and Nick Young, each of whom could have been shown the door at any point (all were, of course, evenually). I have to say I'm not upset about last year's cancellation; I'm happy I don't have to wrestle with keeping or throwing away a McGee bobblehead (throwing away bobbleheads goes against the very fabric of my being but so does pretty much everything JaVale McGee does).

Since we were a couple of months into the current season and I hadn't heard any news on my gift, I followed up with my account representative shortly after the new year to check on the status of the bobbleheads, fearing no news was bad news and steeling myself for the inevitable email response indicating the bobbleheads would once again be canceled. But this year I got some good news. It wasn't canceled at all and last week, I headed down to Verizon Center on trade deadline day (a day off work for me) to pick up the John Wall, Bradley Beal, Jordan Crawford, Trevor Ariza and Nenê bobblehead set. What a treat! I get giddy every time I get a new bobblehead, but five in one day? Imagine my euphoria.

First of all, while I love this set, let me say that this is no starting five. The combination of these five guys has NEVER EVER started a game for the Washington Wizards. And I'm OK with that entirely. I'm not complaining here. When I contemplated the possible starting five combinations for this group, I was worried that I would end up with an Emeka Okafor bobblehead, who by the way has been tearing it up since I put Emeka in my least favorite Wizard status in my mid-season post. Again, not like Emeka should care what I think but I didn't want an Okafor bobblehead this year. I'm a little distraught at what could have been (Martell Webster would have been awesome) but I can't get everything I want all the time. At least not yet.

For a minute I thought the real John Wall and Trevor Ariza were hanging out at my place.
This set is awesome. These are definitely not your ordinary standard everyday bobbleheads. There is nothing close to the "generic black man head" that you sometimes get and the paint work is more precise than probably any other bobbleheads I own. Trevor Ariza and John Wall actually look like their real life counterparts; Ariza's almost a dead ringer, although admittedly without the neck tattoos. Clearly whoever ordered these specified better molds and requested they be sent to the most experienced bobblehead painters in the Chinese factory where they are made.

By the way, China has to love bobbleheads. It's like free propaganda against the decadence of western society. I can't imagine what the elderly Chinese craftsman is thinking while slaving to perfect the intricate detailing on a plastic head on a spring so some spoiled bourgeois capitalist like me can have these things just sit on his shelf at home and do nothing. And the guy's probably struggling to make ends meet on top of all that. It can't be a difficult sell to the bobblehead factory workers that America is the devil.


But enough politics. Thanks to the Chinese workers, there are some great details on these things. I love the hair detail on Nenê's head and the birthmark, dimples and teenage chin stubble on Bradley Beal's. With his hair, Nenê has probably the largest head to body ratio of any of my bobbleheads. The bigger the head, the better; it just looks that much more ridiculous. Despite the attention to detail, the designers of the bobbleheads forgot the circumflex over the second e in Nenê's name on both the jersey and the base. Small complaint, but it's a complaint. Not as bad as the mini Verizon Center we got in 2007 where the court orientation is 90 degrees off from the actual court orientation, but it's a mistake nonetheless.


And then there's Jordan Crawford. Poor Jordan. Traded away the same week his one and only Wizards bobblehead arrives at Verizon Center. It's customary for me to turn the bobbleheads of guys who no longer play for us around after they leave but since there's a whole graphic montage thing behind these guys I'm not sure I'm doing that right away. Plus I think I owe it to Sizzle to leave him facing forward for a while. As non-existent as his defense was, I like Jordan as a sixth man instant offense type guy and he was nothing if not entertaining just about all the time. Jordan was a walking non sequitur. Read his tweets on Twitter or see his photos on Instagram and explain them to me if you can (you won't be able to). I'll probably turn him around in a couple of months when the season's over but until then, he gets to face forward (well almost forward) with the rest of the guys left behind.

As a devoted Wizards bobblehead collector, I'd love to see them do this every year, although I'm not sure I need eight or nine John Wall or Bradley Beal bobbleheads. I'm already averaging one Wall and two Beal bobbleheads per year for their three and one years in the league respectively so far. Maybe they could do a set of bench player bobbleheads next year: I'd love to have Jan Vesely, Kevin Seraphin and Chris Singleton bobbleheads on my shelf, although admittedly the average fan would probably not be enticed to buy season tickets with that group as the season's bobblehead offering. I think the priority for the Wizards has to be to re-sign Martell Webster in the offseason and deliver a Martell bobblehead somehow next year. I'd be happy with that as the only addition to my collection next year. 

Next up: Detroit. Have to beat the Pistons tomorrow!

Sort of appropriate I guess that the team is looking forward except for Jordan Crawford. Foreshadowing?

3 comments:

  1. Really like the locks details on Nene's go and the birthmark, cavities and young chin area stubble on Bradley Beal's.

    Bobbleheads

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  2. would there be a way for you to get an extra and sell it? I would totally buy it. I haven't seen any extras hit ebay yet

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  3. Nice collections of bobble heads.Keep up the excellent work! Thanks for sharing the blog with us.

    Special Bobbleheads

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