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Henry’s Random Thoughts
2007
Cincinnati Reds SGA Bobbleheads
Bronson Arroyo Bobblehead
The team did away with the
figurines in 2007 and went straight into the bobbles. They honor starting pitchers
with the two active player slots this year. First off on May 23 is the
ever-popular Bronson Arroyo, in a pose that shows off his trademark hair and
high leg kick. The crowd of 32,000 was quite good for a bobble night,
especially when you consider that the team hosted cellar-dwelling Washington,
while residing in the NL Central basement themselves.
Aaron Harang
Bobblehead
On June 13, the Reds honored
standout pitcher Aaron Harang three weeks after the previous bobblehead night.
The game drew 29,000 or so, despite hosting a good interleague team. This
lukewarm crowd is surprising given the excellent work Aaron has done for the
team since 2005. This one is a bit bigger than most of the others. I’m not sure
if this was on purpose, but it probably was because the player featured is a
mountain of a man.
There were quality issues on
this one. The paint jobs weren’t very good and a couple of them had arms break
off during shipping. The broken arms were just the result of a design flaw,
with the pitching appendage being too delicate for shipping. The paint job
gives a little insight into how these and other imports are made. They are
designed here in the USA, but the actual painting of them is farmed out to
shops in China. The promotion company probably deals with an agent over there,
who in turn finds the factories to paint them. Therefore, you have different
plants doing the work on every batch. The quality will vary from player to
different player, but very little within different bobbles of the same player.
You never know what you get until you open the box down at the stadium.
Frank Robinson
Bobblehead
On July 25th, the
Reds drew a good crowd to watch them play the first place Brewers and also get
a bobble of one of the best Reds ever, Frank Robinson. It’s just a shame they
traded this guy in his prime for Milt Pappas. It was the worst trade ever,
unless you are an Orioles fan. The bat came separate and screwed into the
player’s hands. Separate bats are something they have done over the past few
years, since bats tended to be prone to breakage when they were permanently
attached to the player. The innovation has made a world of difference.
Marty/Thom
Brennaman Dual Bobblehead
August 22 was the final bobblehead
date in 2007. It featured the new father/son announcing duo. Demand was lower
for this one vs. the player bobbles, which is to be expected. But there was
still quite a bit of interest in it. Marty has already been featured on an SGA
with Joe Nuxhall, and also on the Kroger Big Red Machine bobbles released this
year, but he remains a fan favorite, since he’s all that’s left from the
machine days. The detail was nice on these, but a handful of ours were broken.
The weak spots seem to be the knees and the necks of the figures. Also, some of
the boxes were kind of mangled. I get the feeling these were abused in transit,
but that’s purely speculation on my part.
