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Trinity-area businessman seen on ABC show's season finale

Andy Jones/TRIBUNE

Christine and Jeff Wolsky in their Trinity-area home office with some of the custom bobbleheads they sell. Jeff Wolsky is featured Tuesday night on the season finale of “Shark Tank” on ABC.

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 20, 2009

Updated:

The king of the bobbleheads has jumped in the "Shark Tank."

Jeff Wolsky, a Pasco County resident who sells custom-made bobblehead dolls, will be featured Tuesday night on the season finale of ABC's "Shark Tank.

Wolsky, who's HD Design Center LLC has sold more than 1 million bobblehead dolls worldwide, said he wants to take his business to the next level by opening kiosks in shopping malls.

He and his wife, Christine, sell bobblehead dolls on the Internet. They offer every kind of bobblehead from those designed by people who want bobbling replicas of themselves or their friends and loved ones to bobbleheads of the rich and famous.

The President Barack and first lady Michelle Obama bobbleheads are big sellers. But much of the business is from ordinary citizens who want one or more as gag gifts.

"We get all kinds of orders from people in nudist camps who want full frontal bobbleheads to people who want a whole wedding party," said Wolsky. "We even made one that was over 7 feet tall of a professional basketball player."

The orders are taken via the Internet at the HD Design Web site, where customers can help design the dolls, which are made in China.

Wolsky said that he wants to open bobblehead shops. "That's why I agreed to go on this show," he said. He taped his segment months ago.

Tonight's "Shark Tank" features a panel of investors with deep pockets. They were ready to invest their money in products and concepts pitched by entrepreneurs such as Wolsky.

"I was contacted by the producers who had seen our Web site," said Wolsky, who started his online enterprise in 2006.

"I taped my session in Los Angeles before anything had aired," he said. "After seeing what some of the people have gone through, I'm not sure I would have done it, if I had seen one."

Wolsky cannot reveal the outcome. On previous episodes, some entrepreneurs have overvalued their products or concepts and lost out on potential investments. Others have balked at taking on partners and giving up control.

Wolsky, a veteran businessman who used to once owned a security business, said he knows what his product is worth.

"This is a fun business because people can be so creative and we get to meet a lot of interesting people," said Christine Wolsky, a stay-at-home mother of three children ages 7, 12, and 14.

Jeff Wolsky said he learned a lot from the experience, including what happened to a celebrity bobblehead of Jay Leno that he made years ago.

"When I was first starting out, I sent out some celebrity dolls to see what would happen," he said. "I never heard from him. But one of producers on 'Shark Tank' told me he used to work for Leno and that bobblehead is on the desk in Jay's office."

The Wolskys have supplied bobbleheads to sports teams and corporations. They make a series of political figures for the U.S. News & World Report Web site. They also sell the political bobbleheads on their Web site.

Custom bobbleheads run about $89 but can be more expensive depending on the design.

Among the more unusual bobblehead orders was one for a woman's head on the body of a dog. "And in the photo sent in for the head, the woman had a grimace on her face," said Christine.

They have also received orders from celebrities such as "Cheers" star Ted Danson and comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

Wolsky has designed some bobbleheads himself, including an Obama bobblehead bank modeled after the Lincoln Memorial.

But instead of President Abraham Lincoln, Obama is sitting in the chair.

Sculptors at the factory in China study photographs e-mailed by customers. They make clay molds of the heads, which are subject to approval by the customer.

"They might want the head a little bigger, or the chin narrower, or whatever," said Jeff Wolsky.

After the customer approves the head, body and anything else to accompany it, the dolls are baked and filled with polyresin, painted and baked again.

The Wolskys say their bobblehead business grew out of a part-time business they started in 2004, selling cake toppers, wedding favors and guest books.

"People kept asking for wedding cake couples with bobbleheads so we started making them," Wolsky said.

"It's led to a really successful business that's a lot of fun. We are only limited by the customer's imagination."

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