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

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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 ”