"It was kind of in my blood, so that got me hooked on cars," says Loffert. "I had two cars before I even had a driver's license."
In 2017, Loffert founded Rodz and Bodz as a prop rental business with twelve cool vehicles worthy of events such as weddings, music festivals and music videos. As business picked up, Loffert added more vehicles...enough for a car museum.
But finding a permanent location for that collection hasn't been easy. After multiple moves around the metro area, Rodz and Bodz will close August 3 at its current spot at 401 Englewood Parkway in Englewood. Loffert will hold a two-day auction there later in the month, selling hundreds of props, cars and toys to raise money to purchase property for the museum's ultimate home.
Rodz and Bodz became a museum as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted life's activities, events and outings, heavily affecting the business. "People stopped peopling," Loffert says. And that's when he decided to make his dream of opening a museum a reality.
"I always wanted to do a museum," he recalls. "At this point, we probably had sixty or seventy cars, so everybody always wanted to see the cars."
After months of planning, Loffert opened the Rodz and Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum on May 15, 2021, at Colorado Mills. From Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater from the Disney/Pixar Cars franchise to a hand-built replica of the iconic DMC DeLorean Time Machine vehicle from Back to the Future, visitors — whether "a two-year-old to [a] 102-year-old" — found a piece of media history to resonate with.
The museum hosted events such as "Celebrities & Cars" and "Nutz & Boltz Intelligence Program," which attracted car fans from across the state. But in February 2024, the museum announced it was moving. "We outgrew that space and our lease was up," says Loffert.
In March, Rodz and Bodz reopened in Greeley, in a space just under 100,000 square feet that held up to a hundred vehicles at a time. Loffert rotated his displays often so that visitors could experience "something different" every time, he says.
But five months later, the museum again announced its departure, this time because of problems with the building. It hosted a reopening celebration on October 12 in its new home in Englewood. Everything seemed like it was going according to plan, until it wasn't.
Englewood resident Eric Anderson learned of Rodz and Bodz via a LinkedIn post that featured an event the museum was hosting. He lived just two blocks away, and decided to visit with his adult children.
"[The replica vehicles] are done really well and it's just amazing that they're all in one place," says Anderson. "It's interesting to people, whether or not they love cars, because there's so much pop culture there."
It included "roadside America" memorabilia, signs and fixtures from across Colorado. His attention was caught by the neon sign of the former "Denver Diner," along with an auction flyer.
In early May, Loffert announced on Instagram that due to Kimco Development's plan to develop over 400 apartments and a hotel on the property, the museum would be closing for a third time. Now he wants to buy his own space and transform the museum into an "immersive movie experience" that won't have to move again.
In order to achieve this goal, Loffert made the difficult decision to auction off some of his movie vehicles, memorabilia and signage. From August 22-23, Rodz and Bodz will host an auction, in-person and online, where fans can purchase notable artifacts that the museum showcased over the years.
"A good chunk of this stuff is going up for auction," says Anderson. "I would be biting my nails if it was my collection."
When Littleton resident Roland Jarman was diagnosed with cancer, he and his son participated in Big Batmobile Colorado, an initiative in which Loffert dresses up as Batman and brings holiday joy to children with special needs and those who are facing life-altering situations.
Since then, Jarman has been a season pass holder of Rodz and Bodz. A truck driver for over 25 years, he's made time to volunteer with the museum: hanging up TVs, aiding at events, and helping Rodz and Bodz move into its new homes.
"We came almost every week to the museum just to talk to the front-end people because [they are] just such great people to know," says Jarman. "They've pretty much changed my whole life, because I'm around people who are positive and uplifting."
As the museum prepares to close its doors on August 3, Loffert wants locals and beyond to swing by to not just celebrate what the museum did for Colorado, but to see this collection unified before it goes on auction.
Throughout its existence, the $12 admission prices to the museum has never changed and vehicles from the 1900s until now have been in rotation. As he seeks out different pre-existing buildings and plots of land, Loffert is ready to transform Rodz and Bodz into a one-of-a-kind experience that can't be compared.
"It's cool and sad at the same time that this is the last time this collection will be together," Loffert says. "The next time [people] visit when we reopen, it's going to be completely different, nothing like the layout that we have now."
Rods and Bodz is location at 401 Englewood Parkway in Englewood, and is open through August 3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Monday; learn more at rodzandbodzmuseum.com. The auction is August 22-23 at the museum and online at kraftauctions.com.
