NOVELTIES Heads are bobbling over artist's venture into personalized dolls

The custom-made bobbleheads are $150 each.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Andy Warhol might as well have said it: In the future, everyone will have his own bobblehead.
Those lovably pudgy spring-loaded figurines have moved beyond the wide world of sports, where they have become big business as ticket-sales incentives, into the wacky realm of pop culture. Current top sellers, according to Bobbleheadworld.com, include the Osbournes, Bill Clinton, SpongeBob SquarePants and Jesus.
Now an Iowa entrepreneur has started making one-of-a-kind bobbleheads to order. For $150, customers can immortalize the special people in their lives -- newlyweds, golf-loving dads, local politicians -- in addle-brained plastic.
"I have had celebrities ask for my product," said Bryan Guise, founder of It's You Small in Des Moines, Iowa, "but in my business, everybody is a celebrity."
Prestige
For the actually famous, having your own bobblehead has become a curious mark of prestige. The online clearinghouse Priceline.com is offering a William Shatner bobblehead with vacation purchases. With her TV show renewed for a second season, Anna Nicole Smith has earned her own bobblehead.
Robert Ramsey, co-owner of Just for Fun, a California novelty store, has been stocking a growing line of bobbleheads for about two years -- Austin Powers, Betty Boop, Mr. T and assorted devils, beatniks and Little Rascals.
"I sell out of Pee-wee Herman every time I get him in," he said. "Surprising."
He has just gotten a shipment of all four members of the coveted Osbournes. For Ramsey, the bobbleheads sell so well for one reason and one reason only: "People love to have this stuff sitting on top of their computer."
As bobblehead stock goes up, apparently, the magnet business has plummeted. "Computers used to have metal casings," he noted with the faintest hint of a wry smile.
Guise, a caricaturist and former ceramics major, started making clay likenesses for friends as a hobby.
'Got lucky'
"I got lucky by picking something that really took off," he said. Just three months in business, he has had to hire two employees to keep up with demand.
"I am busy, busy, busy," he said. "I'm working on one right now."
Alternately known as bobbers, wobblers or head knockers, bobbleheads have been around for years. The Beatles, the Peanuts gang and others were bobbleheaded long before Barry Bonds was.
Star athletes
But in recent years, pro sports franchises picked up the concept, luring fans with likenesses of the home team's star athletes on giveaway days. On Oakland A's Bobblehead Days this year, dozens of fans bought tickets, collected their souvenirs and did U-turns out the turnstiles, not bothering with the game.
According to the NBA, basketball teams gave out a combined 375,000 bobbleheads in one season. Some athletes seem energized on their bobblehead days; for others, the phenomenon can be a bit of a curse. In Dallas, Maverick Tim Hardaway was traded days before his giveaway night, and teammate Michael Finley pulled a hamstring three minutes into his game of honor.
Bobbleheads have been especially big in the promotion-happy world of minor-league baseball. Earlier this year, a team in Maryland briefly flirted with the idea of hosting an Osama bin Laden bobblehead night.
Not until he comes out of the dugout.