The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame & Museum, just south of downtown Milwaukee, houses more than 10,000 unique bobbleheads.
From pop culture figures to sports teams, superheroes — you name it, there’s probably a bobblehead for it.
The collection also includes political bobbleheads. So, like many other Milwaukee establishments, the museum geared up for visitors during this week’s RNC.
It’s no exaggeration to say that there are wall-to-wall bobbleheads inside the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame & Museum on South 1st Street.
The museum opened in 2019. Phil Sklar is one of the founders.
"We have a lot of political and presidential bobbleheads, so we made sure all those are out for the visitors. Everything from Biden to Trump, Harris, and all the presidents from Washington to Biden are on display."
In addition to housing its collection, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame & Museum also sells some bobbleheads. For the RNC, the facility stocked a limited-edition Republican Party elephant bobblehead that visitors could buy for $30.
There’s also a bobblehead of the Democratic Party’s donkey, also selling for $30, commemorating next month’s DNC in Chicago.
"Yep, so we put them front and center for the convention and we’ll keep them up there for a little while," says Sklar.
Sklar describes the design on the Republican Party elephant figurine. "It has the Milwaukee base and there’s a nice picture of the skyline behind it and then a night view of the skyline on the backside. And then Chicago has the donkey and then has the Chicago skyline and Chicago at night behind it. So, yeah, I think fun collectibles for people attending the conventions or people who just want something fun to commemorate. Each one is individually numbered to 2024 for the year so that makes it, you know, even more special."
Sklar says the convention bobbleheads have been selling pretty well. Although, the elephant was selling slightly better as of Thursday, due to the Republican National Convention being in Milwaukee.
But how was business overall during the RNC?
"We've had quite a bit of media attention, both locally, regionally, nationally. So that's been really great. I think that'll have more of a lasting impact," Sklar says.
As for non-media visitors, "We were busy, like leading up to the convention Saturday, not as much on Sunday, and then during the week of the convention, it's been really quiet … Summer is our busiest time, and we get like a lot of local families that come and visit. And then a lot of people who are just coming to check out Milwaukee. So, I think this week, it's you know, there are a lot of people here, but they're more concentrated in that security zone, and they don't want to venture out and then have to go back in."
Sklar says the neighborhoods around the bobblehead hall of fame & museum — the Third Ward and Walker’s Point — were pretty quiet.
That didn’t surprise him, based on what he read about businesses that were slow in Cleveland, during the last full-scale RNC. Lots of Milwaukee establishments hoped to be busy, with 50,000 people in town for the convention.
Sklar says the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame & Museum probably didn’t suffer as much as some other places.
"We have a lot of other things going on in terms of like bobbleheads that we're producing. So, it's not as big of a hit as it might be to other businesses like restaurants or bars that they're dependent on people coming in," says Sklar. "So hopefully things will pick it back up for for all the businesses, you know, Friday when everything wraps up."
Sklar says while some businesses in the downtown area may not have seen the bustling traffic that they thought they would be during the RNC, he hopes the extra attention on Milwaukee will encourage more people to experience the city in the future.
He adds that a lesson for cities that may host future conventions could be for planners to highlight that businesses surrounding security zones are still open and can be accessed despite road closures and detours.
