Bobble of the Day
Mascot: Pirates Mascot
Team: Pittsburgh Pirates
Year: 1996
Manufacturer: Twins Enterprises (TEI)
Twins Enterprises out in Boston, Massachusetts made these bobbles in the early 1990’s. No one knows for sure how many were made, but if I were to guess I would say 10 to 15 thousand of each. Many old school vintage collector’s call these “nodders” as opposed to bobbleheads. I like these a lot and to complete an entire set of them from any given year is damn near impossible. I’m sure you can try and chip away like I have to collect them all but some are so fucking rare. The majority of these have the thick green base with a sticker with black lettering displaying the team name or mascot. I’ve seen many that have the sticker on backwards and crooked and it looks like dog shit. Considering these were made over 20 years ago, the condition is a major factor. These TEI’s are made with such heavy ceramic molding and a very thin layer of paint that even the littlest bump against anything will surely chip the paint off. I have over 60 of them and I cannot find one that doesn’t have a chip of paint either on the body, the base or the neck. If you buy one, you can sure as hell bet that any one of these that don’t come with a neck protector will have paint chips in the neck area.
Sniper Rating: These TEI’s are the follow up models of the late 50’s and 60’s nodders but are designed much more sturdy. The earlier 50’s and 60’s nodders are ridiculously fragile and rare. You’ll almost never find one in absolute mint condition without any obvious restoration. Therefore, these late 80’s and 90’s TEI’s are awesome to collect if you have the room to display them. I particularly like this Pirate Mascot because of the fine detail and paint work put forth by our friends in China. Most of the standard boy faces go from anywhere between $20.00 to $40.00 and most mascots are more expensive. When wanting to start a TEI collection the most important thing is to zero in on condition, as that’s the biggest factor. If your TEI’s are in good shape, the stickers are glued on straight and there’s not to many obvious chips of paint missing, you’re looking at a rating of a 8.0.
