Washington ? Chief Justice William Rehnquist is not exactly cuddly, but he is a real doll.

The impassive visage of the Supreme Court leader is now depicted, along with his signature gold-striped judicial robes, on a bobble-head figurine.

The doll is the brainchild of the editors at a small legal journal who intend it as an admittedly peculiar tribute to the 78-year-old jurist in what may be his last year on the bench.

“I’ve never met the man, and I probably never will, but we gambled on the possibility that three decades of being called ‘your honor’ has not left him without a sense of humor about himself,” said Ross Davies, a law professor at George Mason University and editor of the journal Green Bag.

David Gossett shows a bobble-head doll of Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist outside the U.S. Supreme Court. The doll is the brainchild of Gossett and other editors at a small legal journal.

Rehnquist learned about the doll when one of the little guys appeared in the chief justice’s chambers this month. Davies will not say how it got there, but Rehnquist got a good laugh out of it. He even sent Davies a thank-you letter.

The ceramic figurine really looks like Rehnquist, and it features inside details about his work on the bench. Rehnquist was depicted standing atop a color map that was a central feature of a 1979 case he wrote involving 19th-century railroad easements. He is holding an accurate rendition of the bound volumes of Supreme Court opinions.

The miniature chief justice, about 8 inches tall, has become a coveted commodity since word of it spread among lawyers and Supreme Court groupies this month. Davies said he had gotten scores of calls or e-mails from people angling for a Mini Chief of their own.

No such luck, Davies said. For now, there are just two prototype dolls, his copy and the one he gave Rehnquist. A limited run of 1,000 dolls is in the works. They will be given free to current Green Bag subscribers.

Davies said he planned no second run.