A bobblehead bonanza
Friends shoot for world record with newly opened museum in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE — A new museum in Milwaukee might hold the largest collection of bobbleheads anyone has ever seen, displaying more than 6,500 figures of athletes, mascots, celebrities, animals, cartoon characters, politicians and more.
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum recently opened and was the brainchild of friends Phil Sklar and Brad Novak, who started collecting the figures 16 years ago.
“We’ve put everything into this,” Sklar said.
They decided on a museum and bobblehead-creating business about four years ago after quitting jobs in corporate finance (Sklar) and retail sales (Novak). Since then, they’ve been making bobbleheads to earn money, collecting figurines from thrift stores and private donors, finding a location and doing the various other things required to create a museum.
The two have collected more than 10,000 bobbleheads, including a life-size bobblehead; a Pat Hughes bobblehead calling the World Series title for the Cubs; bobbleheads of characters from “The Wizard of Oz” and the “Star Wars” franchise; and the first football and baseball bobbleheads from the early 1960s. They even have one of Donald Trump from “The Apprentice” that says “You’re fired!” upon the push of a button.
“I think that passion comes from the fun aspect and seeing the reaction people get when they see the bobbleheads,” Sklar said.
Some of the figures will be on rotation or part of special exhibits — if, say, a certain sports team is in town, for example.
The museum also includes information about bobblehead manufacturing and the people they represent. Admission is $5.
Sklar and Novak are in the process of having the collection certified as the world’s largest by the Guinness Book of World Records. The current record is 2,396 bobbleheads, held by Phil Darling, a 40-yearold hardware engineer from The museum entrance Richmond, Ontario. He has acquired an additional 500 since the certification in 2015.
Darling said that although he’ll be disappointed to lose the record, he does hope to one day visit Milwaukee to see the collection and meet Sklar and Novak.
“It’s on my bucket list,” he said.
A smaller bobblehead museum exists at Marlins Park in Miami, but its more than 600 figurines are all baseball players, mascots and broadcasters.
Sklar said he hopes the museum will attract bobblehead fans as well as “people looking for something fun to do.”
“There are so many negative things going on,” he said. “We need more places to escape and have a good time and also educate at the same time — so, hopefully, we will be an asset to the community.”