Bobbleheads

They're hotter than the latest Tony Hawk video game or *NSYNC concert tickets. They're bobblehead dolls - and they have people lining up for hours and adults acting like children, just to get their hands on one of these nodding pieces of ceramic.

Bobbleheads have actually been around since the 1950s but the most recent bobble craze began when the San Francisco Giants gave away Willie Mays bobbleheads at a game in 1999. Since then, the bobblehead craze has sparked fights in the streets and riots in the bleachers at sports games everywhere. Bobbleheads have been made of athletes, coaches and even mascots from virtually every sport.

When the Seattle Mariners had an Ichiro bobblehead day, fans lined up for more than a day to get their hands on one of the 20,000 dolls being given away. There was even more pandemonium at an Allen Iverson bobblehead giveaway in Philadelphia. The dolls were to be given away to the first 5,000 kids under 15 years old. This led some adults to buy tickets for kids provided they handed over the Iverson lookalikes.

There are now more than a million bobblehead dolls being pumped out each month from a factory in China. You can expect to see dolls of Roberto Alomar, Mark McGwire and Chipper Jones in the last few weeks of baseball season and you'll see several NFL bobblehead days once football season starts.

Do you have a bobblehead doll? Or is there a bobblehead doll you'd like to see? Send your bobblehead brainstorms to Kidzworld.

Bits of Bobble

Cliff Floyd, Jim Thome, Jason Giambi and Sammy Sosa all hit homeruns on the same day they were featured as bobbleheads.

In October 2001, a bobblehead of a can of spam will be available at the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays gave away a bobblehead of their team mascot, Raymond.

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