Bobbleheads rock at Milwaukee museum
MILWAUKEE — A new museum in Milwaukee may well 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.
They decided on a museum and bobblehead-creating business about four years ago, after quitting their corporate finance (Sklar) and retail sales (Novak) jobs. Since then, they have been making bobbleheads to earn money, collecting bobbleheads from thrift stores and private donors, finding a location and all the other things that go with creating a museum.
They have collected more than 10,000 bobbleheads, including a life-size bobblehead, a Pat Hughes bobblehead calling the World Series title for the Cubs, and one of Donald Trump from “The Apprentice” that says “You’re fired” upon the push of a button. Some of the figures will be on rotation or part of special exhibits — like, say, if a certain sports team is in town.
The museum on the second floor of 170 S. 1st St. also includes information about the making of bobbleheads 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 Guinness World Records.
The current record is 2,396 bobbleheads, held by Phil Darling, a 40-year-old hardware engineer from Richmond, Ontario. He’s acquired an additional 500 since the certification in 2015.
Sklar said he hopes the museum will attract bobblehead fans as well as “people looking for something fun to do.”