WOW I can’t believe it’s been almost nine years since we opened!!! So much has happened sine we opened in 2007. Stan Lee came here in 2012 and filmed 2 episodes of his Super Fan Series. The Toy Hunter filmed an episode here in 2014. We acquired Adam West’s personal Batman costume he wore in the 1970′s and 1980′s at public appearances. We acquired one of the six shields used by Chris Evan’s in Captain America: The First Avenger and it’s autographed by the entire cast of Winter Soldier and Marvel:Agents of Shield. We received our largest donation from celebrity Richard Rawlings the 65 Iron Man Shelby Cobra used in the First Iron man Movie and then he featured us on his hit show Fast N Loud!!!!
I started this as a small local museum to house and preserve one of the largest super hero memorabilia collections in the world. Our attendance and collection has grown every year since. We have now become an international tourist attraction that brings super hero fans from all over the globe to visit our amazing museum. We have outgrown our facility and must relocate sometime this year or early 2017 to be able to handle our ever growing collection but also the number of fans coming to visit us as well. We need your help and support to raise at least $100,000 this year that will allow us to relocate and remodel a larger facility. We have some amazing plans for Hall of Heroes 2.0 which will be 5,000-10,000 square feet and will include larger and more spread out displays like a full replica of the Batman 66 set with Bat computers and full size Batmobile. A massive gift shop so more cool stuff you can purchase for your collection. A super hero birthday party room to celebrate your special day with your favorite hero or heroine . A super hero arcade with not our classic X-Men game but also Avengers, Spider-Man, Superman and the 1970′s Spider-Man and Hulk pinball machines!!!
We are currently looking at locations in the north side of Elkhart close to the toll road. The City of Elkhart is very excited about helping us make this happen unfortunately they cannot give us $$$ since we are not a city owned property but they can help promote us. We have a marketing plan in place that will bring 50,000-100,000 visitors per year to our new museum via bill boards, online, print and television. This will also help our local economy by increasing tourism here in our area.
Our foremost mission is to preserve and educate on the history of Super Heroes in comics, toys, film and animation. A larger facility will allow us to help preserve and share more of that important history. We host many history panels and lectures at several of national comic cons as well as schools and universities. Please contact us if you would like to have us at your con or organization. We were recognized as a national authority of comic book history last year when we were asked to do the research for the Senate and the Military for the Congressional Medals that will be awarded to Stan Lee and Allen Bellman the last surviving writer and artist of Captain America Comics during WW II that was so important to the soldiers. Allen Bellman will be our guest of honor for our Captain America 75th Anniversary event on May 14, 2016. We were so honored to be part of this project because we support our veterans and try to honor them any opportunity that we can. Hall of Heroes not only supports our veterans but supports many children’s charities as well. We strongly believe that heroes provide children with a positive role models that many of them may not have in their lives. We work with The Boys Scouts of America, The Boys and Girls Club, CAPS and many local schools and libraries. We provide these organizations tours, passes or super hero appearances. We believe it is important to give back and be like the heroes that we promote.
If you are reading this you are of course a fan and lover of super heroes as much as we do no matter your age. Whether you grew up watching the classic such as George Reeves Superman in the 1950′s, Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin BANG, POW, WOW in the 1960′s, Super Friends “Meanwhile Back At The Hall of Justice”, Lou Ferrigno/ The Incredible Hulk or Lynda Carter/ Wonder Woman, Christopher Reeve/Superman in the 1970′s, William Katt/ The Greatest America Hero, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends in the 1980′s, Batman Animated series and the return of the Batman on the big screen in the 1990′s. These are things from your childhood that you now share with your children of course their stuff is so much cooler than back in the day for us. I see so many adults bring their kids and they end up enjoying these trips down memory lane more than their kids. This is what we are about not only preserving the history but bringing back the nostalgia and childhood in all of us. Whether you are a die hard fan , an adult just bringing your kids in or a professional in the industry we share these fond memories from our own childhood. That is why we know you appreciate and support our mission of preserving this history for generations to come. We need your support to help make this happen. We need to raise $100,000 this year for us to relocate and remodel a larger facility. Anything you can do to help is appreciated. Hall of Heroes is a 501 C3 non-profit so all donations are tax deductible. You can donate to us directly via PayPal to stewartreality@egixmail.com or the donate button at the bottom of this post or mail a donation to us at 58005 County Road 105 Elkhart Indiana 46517. We also welcome donations of original comic book art, comics or toys that we can auction off at our fundraisers. Several Comicons are hosting us this year to help us as well. Please be sure to visit us and donate at any of these Cons we will be attending this year. C2E2 March 18th-20th, Indiana Comic Con April 29th-May 1st,Awesome Con June 3rd-5th, Wizard World Chicago August 18-21st, Plymouth Con Oct. 8th, Grand Rapids Con Oct. 21st-23rd. We would of course invite you to come visit our Super Museum for yourself to see for yourself how cool it is. Thank you for your support to help us preserve comic book history!!!
Jay Hershberger