ENGLEWOOD – What little boy didn’t want to be Batman growing up?

Batman wasn’t born with superpowers. He wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider. And he didn’t travel from another planet.

But he was still a hero.

“I’m a huge Batman fan; sometimes I wish I could be Batman,” said Zack Loffert, owner of the Rodz & Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum. “He’s the most relatable superhero. He’s just a guy with money trying to do good.”

It’s no wonder that Loffert’s most treasured car on display at the museum is the 1989 Batmobile model. Loffert even owned a mini 1989 Batmobile toy as a kid, fondly recalling visiting KB Toys inside the Southglenn Mall in Centennial, Colo.

“There’s obviously different versions of the Batmobile — that was mine growing up,” Loffert said. “For me, that was mine, that was my era … and that was one I related to.”

In Loffert’s opinion, everyone, not just him, has a connection to a movie car.

“Movie cars are kind of like their own characters,” Loffert said. “It’s something that people can attach to. Everybody has a story about every movie car: where they’d seen it, who they were with, when they saw it, where they were and what impact it had on their life.”

Loffert first opened the doors to the Rodz & Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum about five years ago. But after moving the museum three times in less than two years — ending up at 401 Englewood Parkway — he is ready for a change, starting with an auction in a few weeks.

The auction will take place Aug. 22 – 23, both online and in person at the museum. More than 450 items will be sold at the auction, the bulk majority of them memorabilia, gas pumps, vintage signs, toys and other collectibles. About 50 movie cars are being auctioned off. Movie cars such as the “Ghostbusters,” “Herbie,” “Jurassic Park” and “Knight Rider” vehicles will be up for sale as will four of the 10 “Fast & Furious” cars that Loffert owns.

Auction items will go to the highest bidder

“We have a lot of cars,” Loffert said. “Obviously, we can’t keep them all. That’s how we got too big in the first place…. All of them are iconic, but we have to pick and choose.”

All of the cars are drivable, except the flying car from the “Harry Potter” film series, which is not for sale.

The last day the museum will be opened to the public is Aug. 3.

In 2017, Loffert took his prior experience in the auto repair and prop rental industries and started his props rental warehouse business for movies, weddings, music videos and more with just 12 vehicles — a mix of classic cars, muscle cars, hot rods and anything unique enough for someone to want to rent.

Three years later, he opened the movie car museum during the COVID-19 pandemic, when several other businesses were shuttering. Since many people stopped hosting large events, such as weddings, Loffert saw this time as a golden opportunity to open his museum.

“I wanted to do something that nobody else had done,” Loffert said. “Colorado didn’t have a prop rental warehouse at the time, and it never had a movie car museum in its history. … I just hope the passion for cars and movies carries on.”

His movie car museum first opened at the Colorado Mills mall in Lakewood, where it stayed for about four years. The museum then moved to the mall in Greeley, but was only there for a handful of months in 2024 due to facility issues. In October 2024, after quickly scrambling, Loffert transferred the museum to a new location in Englewood. However, he learned in December that the building his museum is in will be demolished to make room for new apartment units and a hotel. The building has to be emptied out by the end of August.

About 900 people visit the movie car museum each week, per Loffert. On average, he does around 280 rentals per year.

Loffert currently owns about 180 custom-built, replica and screen used vehicles — of which around 80 of them are stored in a private warehouse. Usually, he keeps around 100 vehicles on display at Rodz & Bodz and regularly circulates them out with ones kept in the warehouse.

After the auction, Loffert will still have more than 100 vehicles in his possession.

Hard to close and let go of some cars

“It’s sad, but at the same time I’m staying positive and seeing what the future will hold,” Loffert said about auctioning off some of the cars. “I can make a better experience for everybody. So, it’s sad at the start, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.”

The end goal for Loffert is to take the auction money, buy an existing facility or purchase land and build something from the ground up for a smaller but more immersive museum. With hopes of securing land or a facility somewhere along the Interstate 470 loop, Loffert envisions constructing exhibits of different movie sets, including ones based on the “Fast & Furious” movie series, “Back to the Future,” General Lee from “The Dukes of Hazzard” and a monsters-themed one.

“The ultimate goal is to be a destination for all movie fans or movie tourists or history tourists,” Loffert said. “We are a destination that they want to stop at, whether they are living in Colorado or if they’re just visiting. We want to keep car nostalgia out and alive. … So, the museum’s one thing. Having a drive-in movie theater on the side of our building is a possibility as well.”

“We have big, big plans and big dreams, so we want it to be something that everybody will love,” he added. “I think that’s what we are already, but I think we can make it better.”

To reach this goal of becoming a destination stop, Loffert thinks the museum will be down for about a year. He’ll still keep running his props rental business out of his warehouse on the side as he searches for a new home for his museum. And while he’s gotten interest from other states to set up shop elsewhere, Loffert wants to remain in his home state of Colorado if he can.

“I’m a big believer in betting on yourself and [that] everything happens for a reason,” Loffert said. “We’ve had some bad luck with properties. But that’s what happens with a lease. When you don’t own, you don’t control what’s there with the property. So, buying is going to be the next big step. Our biggest goal is to bring the best experience to the fans, and to do that we need to have our own property to invest the money that’s needed to make it an experience. That’s what it comes down to.”

The Rodz & Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum is located at 401 Englewood Pkwy. in Englewood, Colo. To learn more about the auction, visit the Kraft Auction Service website.