Baseball is undoubtedly one of America’s favorite pastime. We want to get closer to the players and know all about their career, history, and life. In fact, it’s also very popular when it comes to betting – even Forbes once wondered if baseball betting is the next big strategy.
While betting is a controversial topic, we can talk about something less divisive and more entertaining – a bobblehead museum.
If you’re a fan like most of us, there’s good news for you. Milwaukee Museum has over 6,5000 bobbleheads waiting for you. Officially called the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, it puts real-world and fictional characters out on view.
While a large part of the museum consists of sports figures, mainly baseball, you will also find Star Wars Yoda, the much loved and often hated politician Bernie Sanders, and stars of some television shows and commercials at the museum.
The museum is the result of the hard work of Brad Novak and Phil Sklar. The two of them have been collecting bobbleheads for over 16 years and now have a collection of over 10,000 bobbleheads with the number on a constant rise, as reported by the Associated Press.
They worked a corporate job before they decided to devote all their time to collecting bobbleheads and building a museum. They quit their job about four years ago to start work on their dream and the museum officially launched this year on February 1.
Originally expected to launch in 2016, the museum took a little longer due to financial difficulties.
It wasn’t very easy to get the ball rolling. The pair found it difficult to raise the funds as their Kickstarter campaign failed to generate enough buzz and could not reach its goal of $250,000. However, they didn’t give up on the dream and decided to work on their own bobbleheads.
Their first custom-made design, a likeness of Demetrius Harris, the current tight end for the National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs, was quite a hit. They quickly moved to other fields and came up with more bobbleheads including some superfans, such as Lucky Beard Guy Jeremy Wilcox.
Now with a few custom-made bobbleheads in place and a bit of fame, they started more Kickstarter campaigns, most of which turned out to be successful. They also continued to work on more bobbleheads, one of their best is the recently released series of 32 Negro Leagues players.
With their name finally out, the duo realized the need to continue their dream of opening a museum. Finding a location was their next big challenge as they had been storing their bobbleheads in different places until now including a storage facility, an empty space in the city, and a number of small condos.
They finally hosted the first exhibition in the first quarter of 2016 at Milwaukee’s RedLine art gallery. It exhibited 2,000 bobbleheads including some very well-known names.
One of the highlights of the exhibition was a 36-inch version of Bucky Badger, University of Wisconsin-Madison mascot. Though the exhibition did not receive the kind of appreciation they had expected, it did show the potential of the idea.
They didn’t give up on the dream and the permanent museum is now open for public. The entry ticket costs only $5. They’re hopeful the museum will attract national and international visitors to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The museum contains thousands of bobbleheads with information on the individuals they represent. If you’re a fan of baseball, you would love to visit the place as it contains the largest number of baseball bobbleheads, with information on players including history and career achievements.
Other than this, there are popular characters from some hit movies, past and present political figures such as John F. Kennedy, and some loved cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse.
With about 10,000 bobbleheads and counting, The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum is the largest collection of bobbleheads in the country with their closest competition coming from Marlins Park in Miami, which has about 600 sports figures, all belonging to baseball.
Moreover, the duo may soon be a part of the Guinness World Record as the two are working on the certification process. You can visit the museum to have a look at their work or order your favorite players online. Now, it’s something worth bobbling your head about.
