Chin Up, Down, Up, Down

When Anne Wells was 10, her father took her to a Dodgers game and bought her a Dodgers bobblehead. The doll, about 6 inches tall, had a sweet smile and a head that never stopped moving. “I was so excited,” says Wells, a bankruptcy attorney. “I named him Cappy, because of his baseball cap.”

Wells doesn’t remember what happened to Cappy, but the Sherman Oaks resident has collected more than 400 bobbleheads in the last 10 years or so. “I went to a swap meet at the Rose Bowl in the late 1980s and saw them there,” says Wells. “It was very nostalgic, and they were hard to find so it was exciting. I started going to antique stores, and would find them in odd places, like a sidewalk sale in New York.”

The dolls may have their roots in China in the porcelain figurines found in temples, according to Hilma R. Irtz, author of “Figural Nodders” (Collector Books), who has been researching bobbleheads since the 1950s. Irtz says that missionaries and travelers took such pieces to Europe, where Germany began producing nodding versions by the 18th century.

Bobbleheads became popular in the United States in the early 1960s, when Dave Warsaw, a Chicago sports marketer, introduced the dolls as stadium giveaways, first in baseball, then in other sports. Many were made in Japan, until manufacturers ceased production in the early 1970s. In the late 1990s, bobbleheads resurfaced as popular collectibles, priced anywhere from $10 to $2,000 each, and now mimic everything from sports stars and movie characters to social and political icons.

Wells buys her bobbleheads on EBay and through online auctions on specialty websites. Her home is filled with the sweet-faced figures, which sit on recessed shelves and in display cases, categorized by sport--baseball, football, hockey, horse racing, for the most part--and time period. Non-sports figures include characters such as Smokey Bear, Spider-Man, Howdy Doody and Casper the Friendly Ghost. Her favorites include a rare Willie Mays bobblehead and a basketball player whose face holds the photo inset of one’s choice.

One of the most unusual in her collection is a 10-inch rendition of Anne Donovan, coach of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, who stands 6 feet, 8 inches tall in real life. “It’s twice as tall as any other bobblehead I have,” Wells says. Part of her collection was used as set decoration in the 1996 film “The Fan,” which starred Wesley Snipes and Robert De Niro. When the production company returned Wells’ bobbleheads, the New York Yankees one was missing. After discovering that De Niro had taken it home with him, the production company asked if it could buy the bobblehead from her, and a price of $400 was set.

“I love them because they make people happy,” Wells says. “It looks like they’re having the best time. They’re also a real good indicator when we’ve had an earthquake.”