In a few days, car enthusiasts and film buffs will have a chance to own some incredible pieces of American cinema. After four years of existence, Colorado’s Rodz & Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum closed for a third time this month. Later this week, on Friday, August 22, more than 60 film-used and replica movie cars will cross the auction block. Along with them will be over 400 pieces of movie memorabilia and road art. It’s a sad speedbump for one of the lesser-known, but great museums in America, but these cars will get to live on with collectors. Thankfully, there’s also some additional good news.
The Rodz & Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum closed its doors on August 3, and so visiting it is no longer possible, at least for now. We’re hearing this news from the Drive, which got its story from an Englewood Herald story published back in June. Somehow, all of mainstream car news somehow missed this until it was too late. That’s a shame because it sounds like the Rodz & Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum was an underrated gem. Most car museums preserve pieces of automotive history, but the Rodz & Bodz put a creative spin on it by saving screen-used movie cars and holding onto surprisingly accurate replicas of other movie cars.
Rodz & Bodz isn’t the only museum of its kind in America; my local Volo Auto Museum also preserves lots of movie cars, but that doesn’t diminish the excellent vehicles held within. This museum says that it was Colorado’s first car museum dedicated to movie cars. The great thing about movie car museums is that there’s something in them for everyone, even if they don’t like cars. For example, one of the Rodz & Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum’s more famous cars is a replica of the Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story. If you look closely at images posted online, you’ll see that the museum also has a classic second-generation red Dodge Ram complete with a mock Dorothy from Twister. There’s also this, a custom-built “Star Wars Jar-Jar Binks Pod Racer Trike Motorcycle.”
What on Earth are you even looking at here? Rodz & Bodz says it was custom-built right there on site, and it features a hopped-up 454 cubic inch big block V8 pushing 700 HP to the rear wheels. It’s supposed to look like a Star Wars pod racer, which, sure, I can sort of see it. But the big news with this ride is that it’s actually street-legal and someone was crazy enough to drive it 500 miles since the build was finished. Yes, it’s for sale, too!
Closing For Its Third Time
Some museums are lucky if they survive just one shot at keeping their doors open. However, as Denver Westword reports, this is actually Rodz & Bodz’s third time shuttering.
Rodz & Bodz was originally founded in 2017 as a rental business. As Denver Westword reports, owner Zack Loffert has spent his life around cars, starting when he was a little kid, spending his days in the auto shops where the women who raised him worked. Apparently, Loffert fell so head over heels for cars that he owned two before he could even legally drive them.
Loffert achieved a dream when he founded Rodz & Bodz. At first, Rodz & Bodz was a business providing props and 12 cars for rent. His clients were everyone from people having weddings to people looking for cool cars to feature in music videos, commercials, or festivals. At first, Denver Westword writes, adding to the collection helped bolster business, but eventually, Loffert ended up with so many movie cars and replicas that he had enough to create a museum. Then the pandemic hit, and Loffert’s rental business took a hit as people stopped having gatherings. So, Loffert pivoted and checked another box off his bucket list This was the beginning of the Rodz & Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum, which opened in Colorado Mills in 2021.
As the Englewood Herald writes, Rodz & Bodz grew to an impressive size. At any given time, there were 80 cars on display, but the total car collection is currently sitting at 180 vehicles. Of these vehicles, Loffert says that 48 of them were used on screen in television or a movie. The rest are replicas built by Ro. Loffert says he’s always on the search for new cars, and goes shopping every week to buy something from a collector or a museum. He has a knack for film cars, and if a desired film car cannot be found or purchased, Loffert says he and his team will just build a replica themselves.
Rodz & Bodz also cemented itself in the community, reportedly hosting car shows and popular events like “Celebrities & Cars” and the “Nutz & Boltz Intelligence Program.” People who came to the museum paid just $12 to see cars ranging from the early 1900s to today.
Unfortunately for Rodz & Bodz, staying open has been difficult. The museum has lived inside of buildings owned by development firms, which meant that the collection was subject to the whims of external forces. The museum had to close two other times and move elsewhere around the Denver area. The Colorado Mills location reportedly closed in 2024 after the museum outgrew the space and the lease ended. The museum would move to the Greeley Mall, but would move again later in 2024 after alleged complaints about the mall building. Radio station Retro 102.5 reported:
Visitors would come in to find puddles on the floor due to a leaking ceiling and the air conditioning not working, to name a couple of problems.
The museum is currently located in Englewood, Colorado, in a building owned by Kimco Development. Unfortunately, in another bad hand dealt to Rodz & Bodz, Kimco Development has decided to redevelop the property into a hotel and over 400-unit apartment complex.
Understandably, Loffert is not pleased with having his dream museum uprooted for a third time. For now, Rodz & Bodz will operate only as a prop rental company, but the hope is that perhaps in a year or so, Loffert will be able to afford to construct his own building to house his museum. Then, he couldn’t be kicked out by a developer or have his cars sitting in an old shopping mall. Loffert was to build what he calls an “immersive movie experience,” but this is going to require lots of capital.
So, Loffert is letting go of 463 pieces from his collection, including over 60 cars, plus a handful of scooters and even some go-karts. For those of you counting, Loffert isn’t letting everything go. Obviously, he needs to keep cars for his business, but also for when it becomes time to open a museum again.
The Auction
Loffert notes that the auction taking place at the end of this week will be the last time this museum will ever be seen in this state, and the last time the museum’s current collection will ever be in one place. So, if you like movie cars, this auction, which is being hosted by the Kraft Auction Service, might be the one to visit.
The fun kicks off on Friday, August 22, at 7 p.m. local time. The day one auction, the lots of which you can view here, is pretty much all road art and memorabilia. The car auction hits the day later on Saturday. Here are some of my favorite highlights:
Dominic Toretto’s 1970 Dodge Charger R/T From Fast & Furious
This one is a real movie car! From the auction:
This car was used in both Fast & Furious 4 and the beginning of 5. Car has a completely stripped interior with an added roll cage, and racing instrument cluster. Interior door panels and other panels have been replaced with stamped metal. The blower and manual slap stick shifter is just cosmetic. Car has multiple stickers and paint marker numbers #1.8 stunt presumably for the identification of a stunt vehicle for the movies. Comes with the COA.Motor: 440 cu in V8Transmission: Automatic
Custom Built SpongeBob 1970 Jet Boat
Amazingly, this is a real functional vehicle, from the listing:
This boat car was built to replicate the Lego SpongeBob Boatmobile, and is fully street legal. Features a classic ’70s / very SpongeBob color paint job, and comes with the SpongeBob and Patrick plushies and Lego kit.
Motor: Porsche 911 Air Cooled 991cc 2.0L.
Transmission: 4-Speed Manual.
Custom F-16 front landing gear.
2016 Ghostbusters Ecto-1 1984 Cadillac Fleetwood Hearse
This one is another real movie car:
This car is 1 of 4 made and used in the 2016 Ghostbusters. Comes with all the original movie prop add ons like the Ghost Box, siren, flashing light, and more details.
Motor: 368 cu in V8
Lightning Hybrids LH4 Concept
This car is pretty wild. It’s actually the concept car for what was supposed to be a hybrid-hydraulic car, from Motor Authority in 2009:
A company born out of Colorado is planning to launch an advanced hybrid sports saloon that will eventually compete in the multi-million dollar Automotive X-Prize competition to successfully build and market a 100mpg vehicle. The first prototypes are currently in development but a concept version of the vehicle was unveiled today at the Denver Auto Show.
The company behind the new hybrid concept is Lightning Hybrids, which plans to use a relatively unique hydraulic hybrid system to power its car. Dubbed the LH4, the sporty saloon concept features a 240hp (179kW) powertrain composed of a 90hp (67kW) twin-stroke biodiesel engine mated to a 150hp (112kW) hydraulic system.
Lightning Hybrids claims the LH4 will have a fuel economy of 100mpg yet still be able to accelerate from 0-60mph in less than six seconds. Part of its prowess in efficiency comes from a super-slippery profile measuring in at just 0.20Cd. Other key elements of its design include cylinder deactivation technology, no transmission, and 100% brake energy regeneration.
This car does not have that unique powertrain. Instead, it has the dashboard and drivetrain of a 2012 Mazda Miata NC. Apparently, this car was used in the film The Power of Few.
Bidding is already pretty high on some of these cars. The auction hasn’t even started, yet the screen-used Dodge Charger from Fast & Furious is already at $20,000. The A-Team van is currently at $32,000, even though it isn’t a screen-used car.
Sadly, as I indicated above, the museum is already closed, at least for the foreseeable future. Either way, once Loffert builds his new museum, these cars won’t be there. Kraft Auctions says that you can participate in the auction in person, via call, or online. If you participate in person, not only do you get to see the museum in its current form one last time, but the buyer’s premium is only 10 percent. If you bid for vehicles online, the premium rises to 15 percent.
Rodz & Bodz might not have been around for a long time. Heck, it didn’t even reach legend status like the Klairmont or the National Motorcycle Museum, but it’s always sad to see any museum shut its doors. We hope that Loffert is able to pull through one more time and reopen his museum.
That Starsky & Hutch Torino is what I pictured when my wife said her first car was a Torino…reality, it was a green 4 door Torino.
Sadly, a lot of these car museums are closing up…
Aww damn, I was hoping this was an 18-speed Charger.
I’m a recent Denver resident and had no idea this place existed, but I think I can attend the auction so I might have to do so.
I think the bigger news is the “GTA 6” car for auction.
The auction states:
This car is one of the actual used models for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI video game and was 3D scanned directly into the game meaning you’ll be able to drive this exact car in the game.
However, it’s just a standard 2013 Chevy Caprice Pursuit.
So, ether the auction is lying and this is just some promotional car for marketing, or GTA is going to use actual licensed vehicles? I somehow doubt that.
https://bid.kraftauctions.com/auctions/142/lot/95254-gta-6-vice-city-police-dept-2013-chevrolet-caprice-ppv?tab=details
I’m sure it was used as a promotional thing at a convention or something and whoever’s doing the writing here is just confused. There’s no way in hell there’s ever going to be officially licensed cars in GTA.
I saw that! I haven’t even seen promotional cars for the game yet, and here we are. Gamer boards are currently debating what this car could have been used for. I have noticed that many of the latest models in GTA V are almost exact clones of their real-life counterparts, so I do wonder if Rockstar is now scanning real cars and then changing the design just enough to be kosher. Sadly, I haven’t found anything definitive on that front regarding GTA VI.
Either way, that one was weird to me, so I didn’t list it here.
This place was really cool: smelled fantastic and there were a lot of unexpected treats to see. The owner’s vision to recreate movie sets, probably with fewer subjects, in a building he owns is admirable. I can’t buy any of the cars, but I’ll be watching for the future revival.
Interesting! I’m in Denver and a bachelor for the weekend. I think I might know what I’m doing on Saturday…
The Cadillac in 2016 Ghostbusters is 1990–1992 model due to the composite headlamps, lower side panel covers, wraparound front bumper, and door-mounted front seat belts.
Only 48 were actually used in movies. Meaning the other 132 are either replicas or are random customs no one has heard of. I see the appeal of a museum of cars actually used in movies, I don’t see the appeal of a bunch of close enough replicas.
I need that A-Team van and the Fall Guy truck.
Man I NEED that “Driven” movie standee. It’s just too perfect.
This is awesome. Our family tries to do at least one regional roadtrip every year for a few days, and this is exactly the kind of place we try to target. The sights where you tell people later and they’ve never heard of it. It’s like the opposite of the Instagram Travel scourge (“B*tch, nobody cares that you can do a handstand on the edge of the Grand Canyon, and we’re all secretly hoping for minor injuries.”)
A couple places like this in our area don’t rise to the level of full museum, but they also often rent the cars out for events…but most of the time, the venue is just a corporate event location that’s not open to the general public. I think it’s a good idea, but that’s mainly if you own the building — sounds like these guys were victims of the very stereotypical gentrification of the Front Range, landlords ignoring them or kicking them out. It happens everywhere, but IMO it’s especially acute in Denver (anecdotally, but also for my own commercial real estate research at work…on paper, it all looks great but it sucks the soul out of places pretty quickly.)
Don’t speak for me.
I openly hope for major tragedy.
I kinda want the National Lampoon station wagon.
NVRMND it doesn’t have the headlights.
You think you hate it now, wait till you drive it!
Without Roscoe’s Fury, it’s not complete.
It occurs to me that most of these car museums are the last vestiges of the old road-side attractions along Route66 etc. Just like the one in my town that closed last year, they are shuttering their doors all over the country. With the advent of the internet, those slow looky-loo touristy days are over. People today expect much more entertainment than a guided walk-through of old stuff.
I’ll note; the Petersen Car Museum seems to be an exception but it appears to operate on a much higher scale and is known world over as a destination.)
In the end the best cars will go to a new museum.
Perhaps, as the Highlander said,
“There can only be one”
Same shakeout is going to happen with house museums. Sure, stuff like Mount Vernon or La Cuesta Encantada makes sense, but not every big, old, fancy house in every small town needs to be a museum just because a rich guy died and left it to the community, not everything has to be a museum or be in a museum to be preserved
Perhaps with the reduction of flights and increased ticket prices, some of the road tripping vacations might return. Certainly a museum like this would do well to pair up wit someone looking to make unique Air B-N-B’s. that seems to be a thing to draw people to places outside of the normal big cities.
Are we all just going to ignore Blucifer, right there in the background of the cover photo??
Give me the Bluesmobile, the Cuda, and the Sierra Grande and I’m set.
I’ll be more than happy to take the Plymouth Barracuda Gran Coupe off their hands!!
I would have gone with accidental fire.
I’ve been wanting to have a Dukes of Hazzard style “General Sherman” Charger made. Someday. With “WON” on the sides.
There was a character played by Sorrel Booke who was JD Hogg’s look-alike cousin, “Abraham Lincoln Hogg”. He wore an all-black suit.
Look-alikes, android copies, and surprise twins were a big thing in 70’s television.
As was my least favorite trope; the precocious child:
https://the-artifice.com/the-problem-of-precocious-children-in-tv/
Did they get any worse than Cousin Oliver? Yes, yes they did.
Uhhh… Wesley Crusher?
If you thought Wesley was insufferable let me introduce you to Hieronymus Fox. This was a child prodigy character played by Gary Coleman in the cheesefest that was Buck Rogers in the 25th Century:
“In the 20th Century
He graduated college at age nine and received his PhD in physics at age ten. When the holocaust began on Earth in 1987, Fox created a prototype cryotube; after the war escalated, he used it on himself.
In the 25th Century
After the war, his tube was stolen by aliens and passed around until the Genesians finally obtained it. He was thawed and willingly helped the Genesian people, and in gratitude for his help, he was made President of the Genesian government. He turned his presidential estate into a civic center a month ago. He currently owns a condominium with a sauna, hot tub, and tennis court.”
https://buckrogers.fandom.com/wiki/Hieronymus_Fox
(The show aired in 1979 so I’m counting it as a show of the ’70s and TBF he was not the only insufferable character on that show.)
Another insufferable set of precocious child characters was Boxey and his mechanical dog thing Muffit on the original Battlestar Galactica:
https://en.battlestarwikiclone.org/wiki/Boxey_(TOS)
https://en.battlestarwikiclone.org/wiki/Muffit
I wasn’t the only one who was glad to see him booted off the reboot:
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/battlestar-galactica-avoided-worst-trope.html
Dude, I watched every episode from first-run on NBC. Erin Gray is STILL my #1 space-chick crush. More than Jeri Ryan, more than Carrie Fisher.
And yeah Boxie was terrible, thank God RDM axed him from the reboot after the pilot.
There were better space-chicks on Buck Rogers. Markie Post, Jamie Lee Curtis…
Nah. Wilma Deering was like the highest-ranking military officer on Earth.
The eye candy was certainly the strongest appeal of that show.
I dunno, I was intrigued by the idea of a society administered solely by blinky robotic clocks.
As was I but I thought they were too preachy about it.
Buck Rogers also had the weird golden kid with the bowl cut, with his taller older? golden near-twin with a bowl cut.
A buddy of mine named Grant had a 1970’s Challenger with a 318. I always wanted him to paint it up in Union colors as “General Grant”. https://www.rcsuperstore.com/pioneer-1969-dodge-charger-general-grant-white-1-32-slot-car-dealer-special/
The Volo auto museum owners are probably drooling at the chance to snag up more movie cars. I’m curious to see if any do show up there. They’d be all over the Waynes World car. I remember visiting once and they had TWO of the car from the Inspector Gadget movie parked out behind a building. One was missing most of the front end and you could see where the stunt driver was positioned inside the fake engine area to ‘self drive’ the car.
There is a similar place in Branson. To be honest, instead of selling like Volo does, there should probably be an alliance where cars and diorama’s get shared like regular museum exhibits, to keep a place like this fresh for the locals as well.
I’d take the Ghostbusters hearse as long as the siren works. It would piss off the neighbors for sure when I flip it all on to go bust some ghosts at 1 am. Plus, burgundy crush velvet 80’s caddy seats!
I think The Autopian needs to put in a bid for the Mirthmobile, it is currently at less than $3k.
(and) It can only ever play Bohemian Rhapsody. A single track on forever repeat.
While DT drives to Chicago with the entire family. and then talks the Volo guys into letting him swap it for the family Truckster to return to Wallyworld (Knots Berry Farms) https://www.volocars.com/vehicles/16530/1984-ford-ltd
What, no Dreamweaver?
Gimme the 1960 Imperial Crown. I’ll take The Fall Guy GMC as well.
I’d take the Gran Torino so I could power slide around turns with Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion blasting.
Where’s Huggy Bear when you need him?!?lol
That Crown is an amazing looking car. (also easily my favorite car here) I’d kind of forgotten those even existed. A proper villain car.
Ooh, I see Doc’s Delorean and Marty’s ’85 SR5 in the background.
Those two are not a part of the auction! Presumably, that means they might still be available for rental. 🙂
Holy Gen-X Childhood, Batman!
Not really, these seem mostly from reboots / adaptations of 80’s things.
I didn’t even realize there had been a movie version of the A Team or Fall Guy.
The A-Team movie was actually decent as I recall and we learn why B.A. won’t fly with the crazy fool. The Fall Guy looked so bad from the previews I haven’t watched it.
Fall Guy is good! It won’t change your life or anything, but a fun watch for sure.