Royal Bobbles is proud to have been chosen to produce a made-in-the-USA bobblehead for Mike Rowe. Back in August 2014, Mike issued a challenge on his Facebook page, asking if there was any company in the US who could produce a made-in-the-USA bobblehead for him. He wanted to have some bobbleheads made-in-the-USA that he could auction off to raise money for his nonprofit mikeroweWORKS foundation, which supports the skilled trades through scholarships.
We spoke up and told him that we thought we could do it. And we did! We agreed to produce a small limited-edition run of 100 Made-in-the-USA Mike Rowe bobbleheads. It turned out to be a great success. Each one is individually hand-made and painted by Rachael and her team here in our Alpharetta Georgia office, and is hand-signed by Mike, and includes a postcard signed by the artists who made and painted it. 100% of the proceeds go toward the Foundation. The first one sold at auction for over $8,000 and total funds raised to date have exceeded $23,000 for the Foundation. These signed, made-in-the-USA bobbleheads are ONLY available via the foundation website at www.mikeroweWorks.com/bobblehead .
And then this experience was documented on Mike’s new show “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” on CNN. Here is a clip from that show:
However, the project was so successful that many fans expressed an interest in having a more affordable version. Warren asked if he could produce a separate version, under license, which:
- Would be produced through the company’s normal channels, rather than completely Made-in-the-USA, and
- Would not be signed by Mike or the artists, and
- Would contribute 20% of the sales proceeds to directly support the nonprofit mikeroweWorks Foundation.
In this way, the bobbleheads can be made available at a reasonable price to fans who could not afford one of the exclusive Made-in-the-USA versions.