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Lowrider bobblehead creators, and Isotopes, get it right
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Rob Vanderslice and Joseph “Blast” Leyba put in a long day’s work in the hot sun on Saturday.
No, they weren’t among the fans who started showing up at Isotopes Park on Saturday at 5:30 a.m. to get in line for what the Triple-A baseball franchise is saying was one of their most anticipated fan giveaway promotions in its two-decade history.
They didn’t have to.
The two Albuquerque artists and lowrider enthusiasts were the creative brains behind the design of the special Mariachis-inspired lowrider bobblehead figurine that was given away to the first 3,000 fans at Saturday night’s Mariachis/Lowrider Night game at Isotopes Park, where the Isotopes beat visiting El Paso 7-3 for their third-consecutive win.
The announced crowd of 14,591 was the fourth-largest minor league turnout in the country this season.
“We were amazed at the translation of our ideas into the final product (fans) are getting here today at the game,” Vanderslice said about the bobblehead that fans were proudly walking around the stadium with once gates opened at 5 p.m.
“You gotta think, this thing’s getting made in China, and you’ve got a communication barrier from lowrider guys (in New Mexico) getting all the way to them. It’d be like us trying to (design) a Chinese dragon or something.”
He and Leyba noted the “team effort” that included several people working in the Isotopes front office made Saturday a success.
It began with several thousand fans waitng outside the stadium several hours before the game sitting in lawn chairs, listening to music, dancing and watching the dozens of lowriders on display parked around the outside of Isotopes Park.
There were also 45 lowriders parked on the outfield warning track, where fans were allowed to walk around to look at before a boisterous lowrider parade driving off the field before first pitch.
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While giveaways and promotions are a big part of minor league baseball, for the Isotopes, getting both their Mariachis promotions and Saturday’s lowrider promotion right was important.
“We try to be collaborative, and the word I think that’s really important that I use for these things is we try to be authentic,” said Isotopes general manager John Traub.
Vanderslice and Leyba said Assistant General Manager Adam Beggs approached them and made very clear that the Isotopes wanted to involve the lowrider community and not make any assumptions along the way about how the giveaway should look.
“(Beggs) had started something, which was really cool, but then we came in and we’re like, man, hey, let’s do a different car, let’s tweak this and tweak that and it turned out where people can look at this and say, ‘They did the lowrider community good,’” Vanderslice said.
Added Leyba, “It’s very important (that the Isotopes take the time to do that). ... We have our input — ‘don’t do this because we wouldn’t do that, do this or do it like that.’ When they honor that and keep getting it right like that, it draws other people in, you know?”
The final product for Saturday’s Pepsi-sponsored giveaway featured one of the Isotopes popular alter-ego mascots, the Mariachi de Nuevo Mexico driving a car that had a creative paint job designed by Leyba and Vanderslice.
“To see how much detail they were able to fit in there and on such a small thing to get it to look that good, we love it,” Leyba said.
But just how close did that final product come to looking like what the designers had in mind?
“Close enough. It’s real close,” Leyba said about the car that looked an awful lot like a ‘59 Impala with their magical paint job on it.
Then his co-creator chimed in with the punchline and some good-hearted laughter.
“But it’s far enough that it won’t get the Chevrolet trademark (involved),” Vanderslice said.
