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02Fall 2013
COLLECT IONSI ssue No . 01
Summer 2013
obsess . com
B E M Y H U N N Y B U N N Y
L A R G E S T C O L L E C T I O N S
01 obsess
COLLECT I ONSI ssue No . 01
Summer 2013
obsess . com
B E M Y H U N N Y B U N N Y
L A R G E S T C O L L E C T I O N S
02Fall 2013
o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o
b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e
s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s
o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s
e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s
s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b
s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e
s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o
b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e
s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s
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e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s
o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b
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b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e
s s o b
s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e
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b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e
s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s
o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b
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b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s
e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s
o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s
e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s
s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b
s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s
s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o
b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e
s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o
b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s
e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s
o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s
e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s o b s e s s
COLLECT IONSI ssue No . 01
Summer 2013
obsess . com
B E M Y H U N N Y B U N N Y
L A R G E S T C O L L E C T I O N S
01 obsess
A Collection of Rabbits Keeps on Multiplying
A Collection of Rabbits Keeps on Multiplying
WORDS: Nora Zamichow IMAGE: Kristin Shaw
Y E A R S A G O , A C O U P L E E X C H A N G E D B U N N Y K N I C K K N A C K S .
N O W T H E Y ’ V E G O T T H O U S A N D S .
Candace Frazee’s toilet seat has a rabbit on it. She
brushes with a bunny toothbrush and washes with a
rabbit-shaped bar of soap. Her phone? Bugs Bunny.
When one of her pet rabbits, Bonnie Bunnie, died last
year, Frazee had her stuffed and placed in a glass case
in the dining room. She burns carrot cake-scented
candles and allows her five rabbits to run free in the
kitchen and bedroom.
Frazee and her husband, Steve Lubanski, live in a
1,530-square-foot Pasadena house that has been taken
over by their collection of long-eared knickknacks,
which includes an Elvis Parsley pitcher and a 30-pound
chocolate you-know-what.
By 1999, the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, they had ac-
cumulated 8,437 rabbit-related clocks, neckties and fig-
ures -- or enough to win the Guinness world record for
owning the most bunny items in the world. The couple
believe that their collection has since doubled.
Five years ago, they began opening their home, a 1926
Spanish-style house known as the Bunny Museum, to
the public on holidays. They figured that Easter would be
a natural. But Christmas proved to be the most popular.
Last Christmas, several hundred visitors appeared. This
year, they expect even more.
“We are filling a need we didn’t even know existed,”
said Frazee, 47. “People own a Renoir or a Matisse, and
they’re the only ones who see it -- that’s selfish. People
should share what they have.”
Collecting has become one of the nation’s popular
pastimes. About 35% of Americans collect, according to
one study.
In some cases, those collections turn into museums. In
Orange, for instance, there’s a Moose Museum, which,
among other things, has gold-dipped moose dung.
“In an age of conformity, collecting allows you a form of
individual expression,” said Harry Rinker, author of the
Official Guide to Flea Market Prices. Rinker’s 250 collec-
tions range from the serious, like English Staffordshire
china with American historical views, to the absurd, like
toilet paper.
In Frazee’s case, she sees the bunny collection as an
expression of love between herself and her husband.
She and Lubanski met 11 years ago in a singles group at
a church and began dating. For Valentine’s Day, Lubanski
gave a white plush rabbit to Frazee, who called him
“Honey Bunny.” At Easter, she gave him a white porcelain
rabbit. Then they began exchanging bunny gifts on all
holidays. Soon, it was bunny gifts every day.
Evolving Gifts
“It wasn’t meant to be a collection,” said Lubanski, 46.
“We were just giving each other things. It evolved.”
After dating almost two years, they married. At the wed-
ding reception, Lubanski surprised his wife and dressed
in a white bunny costume. When the party kicked into
gear, guests formed a conga line and danced to Ray
Anthony’s “Bunny Hop.”
Their wedding cake? Carrot.
At this time of year, she has been known to wear a red
02Fall 2013
A Collection of Rabbits Keeps on Multiplying
A Collection of Rabbits Keeps on Multiplying
01 obsess
02Fall 2013
01 obsess
Candace Frazee’s toilet seat has a rabbit on it. She
brushes with a bunny toothbrush and washes with a
rabbit-shaped bar of soap. Her phone? Bugs Bunny.
When one of her pet rabbits, Bonnie Bunnie, died last
year, Frazee had her stuffed and placed in a glass case
in the dining room. She burns carrot cake-scented
candles and allows her five rabbits to run free in the
kitchen and bedroom.
Frazee and her husband, Steve Lubanski, live in a
1,530-square-foot Pasadena house that has been taken
over by their collection of long-eared knickknacks,
which includes an Elvis Parsley pitcher and a 30-pound
chocolate you-know-what.
By 1999, the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, they had ac-
cumulated 8,437 rabbit-related clocks, neckties and fig-
ures -- or enough to win the Guinness world record for
owning the most bunny items in the world. The couple
believe that their collection has since doubled.
Five years ago, they began opening their home, a 1926
Spanish-style house known as the Bunny Museum, to
the public on holidays. They figured that Easter would be
a natural. But Christmas proved to be the most popular.
Last Christmas, several hundred visitors appeared. This
year, they expect even more.
“We are filling a need we didn’t even know existed,”
said Frazee, 47. “People own a Renoir or a Matisse, and
they’re the only ones who see it -- that’s selfish. People
should share what they have.”
Collecting has become one of the nation’s popular
pastimes. About 35% of Americans collect, according to
one study.
In some cases, those collections turn into museums. In
Orange, for instance, there’s a Moose Museum, which,
among other things, has gold-dipped moose dung.
“In an age of conformity, collecting allows you a form of
individual expression,” said Harry Rinker, author of the
Official Guide to Flea Market Prices. Rinker’s 250 collec-
tions range from the serious, like English Staffordshire
china with American historical views, to the absurd, like
toilet paper.
In Frazee’s case, she sees the bunny collection as an
expression of love between herself and her husband.
She and Lubanski met 11 years ago in a singles group at
a church and began dating. For Valentine’s Day, Lubanski
gave a white plush rabbit to Frazee, who called him
“Honey Bunny.” At Easter, she gave him a white porcelain
rabbit. Then they began exchanging bunny gifts on all
holidays. Soon, it was bunny gifts every day.
Evolving Gifts
“It wasn’t meant to be a collection,” said Lubanski, 46.
“We were just giving each other things. It evolved.”
After dating almost two years, they married. At the wed-
ding reception, Lubanski surprised his wife and dressed
“ O F C O U R S E , A L O T O F P E O P L E A R E G O I N G T O T H I N K I T ’ S O B S E S S I V E O R C O M P U L S I V E , B E C A U S E N O O N E E L S E D O E S T H I S ”
02Fall 2013
01 obsess
02Fall 2013
in a white bunny costume. When the party kicked into
gear, guests formed a conga line and danced to Ray
Anthony’s “Bunny Hop.”
Their wedding cake? Carrot.
At this time of year, she has been known to wear a red
shirt and red pants cinched by a black belt. Frazee, who
grew up in Toronto, has long platinum blond hair. Bunny
earrings dangle from her ears, and a bunny pin
sits below her left shoulder. Her lipstick is red. Her two
front teeth have a small gap reminiscent of the animal
she adores.
Asked by a visitor whether she has ever eaten rabbit,
Frazee winces. She is vegetarian. Often when she
cooks, she’ll intentionally drop vegetable slices on the
kitchen floor, where three rabbits -- Chummie Bunnie,
Jackie Rabbit and Buddy Bunny -- eagerly await the
falling tidbits.
In the kitchen, as elsewhere in the house, rabbits rule.
Their powerful hindquarters have shredded the lino-
leum. (Frazee has given up her quest for bunny-themed
linoleum.)
Magnets cover the refrigerator, stopping 1 1/2 feet
above the ground. It turns out, Frazee says, that bunnies
chew magnets.
Stacks of platters, dishes and pitchers clutter the coun-
ters and unused stove burners. The kitchen display case
holds food that’s either bunny-shaped, like the pasta
and cookies, or bears a bunny label, like the molasses
and cocoa. There’s a rabbit waffle-maker, cake pans and
chopsticks.
The motif of their silverware? Strictly hare. They have,
however, had little luck finding adult-sized forks.
Today, the house is wall-to-wall bunny. What was once a
living room now holds 23 floor-to-ceiling display cases,
wedged together, blocking windows.
The cases contain different categories of bunnies,
including angel bunnies, music box bunnies, bunnies on
bikes, bride and groom bunnies. One shelf is devoted
to bunny pretenders -- animals or characters, such as
SpongeBob SquarePants, trying to disguise themselves
as bunnies.
The couple’s 40-page tiny-type inventory hops from
acrobats (seven ceramic, one wood) to yo-yos (one 1951
Bunny Martin World Champion, three rabbit-shaped and
one plastic one with a hare atop).
Plush rabbits jam the TV room, which the couple call the
warren. The layers of plush are so thick that they muffle
sound in the room.
“Of course, a lot of people are going to think it’s obses-
sive or compulsive, because no one else does this,” said
Lubanski, who runs a Pasadena bike shop. “But what we
do is give joy to people.”
The bedroom and bathroom are not open to visitors.
But Frazee insists that those rooms are as leporine
as everywhere else. In her most recent newsletter,
“ S H E ’ S A B U N N Y F R E A K ”
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