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New York City hasn’t even inaugurated its next mayor yet and he’s already earned one of politics’ most coveted honors: a place in the bobblehead canon. The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum rolled out the first-ever Zohran Mamdani bobblehead this week, giving fans and collectors who keep eBay alerts on at all times a chance to commemorate the city’s first Muslim and first Asian American mayor before he officially takes office.
The figure is exactly the kind of patriotic kitsch you’d expect from the Milwaukee-based shrine to wobbling figurines. Mamdani stands on a red, white and blue base stamped with his name, dressed in a dark suit and red tie, mid-wave and mid-nod—literally. Each bobblehead on sale is individually numbered and available exclusively through the Bobblehead Hall of Fame’s online store for $30, plus $8 flat-rate shipping. Pre-orders are open now, with deliveries expected in February.
If the timing feels fast, it tracks with Mamdani’s whirlwind rise. Born in Kampala and raised everywhere from Cape Town to Morningside Heights, he jumped into New York politics as a housing counselor and organizer before unseating a five-term incumbent in the State Assembly in 2020. He represented Astoria’s 36th District for three terms, championing fare-free buses, stronger tenant protections and affordability measures that quickly built him a devoted citywide following.
His mayoral win this week—where he secured 50.4% of the vote against Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa—cemented a history-making moment and sent collectors into overdrive. “We have been receiving a lot of requests for a bobblehead of Zohran Mamdani as he has grown in popularity during the campaign both regionally in New York and nationally,” Phil Sklar, the museum’s co-founder and CEO, said in the announcement. “We think his supporters will enjoy having this new bobblehead as Mamdani takes over leadership of America’s largest city.”
Political bobbleheads are a long-running specialty for the museum, whose roster spans every U.S. president, a parade of senators and governors and a surprising number of world leaders. Mamdani now joins their ranks—and potentially your bookshelf—just in time for the city’s next chapter. If you’ve been looking for a holiday gift that says “civic engagement, but make it whimsical,” this might be the one.