Welcome back to Disney Stuff.
Surfers are notorious for saying, “You should have been here yesterday!” as far as missing out on great surf conditions. My brother famously, or rather infamously, turned down a Led Zeppelin ticket for Madison Square Garden claiming, “I'll catch them next time,” only to watch the drummer die shortly afterwards thus causing the band to call it quits forever. I myself passed on a Grateful Dead ticket at my local arena in 1990, for no real good reason, and missed what turned out to be what's widely regarded as one of the top shows of all time. The moral of the story, of course, is sometimes you just have to act while you can.
Every once in a while a Disney collectible that I really liked and really should have acquired has escaped me. Sometimes it's just not practical to purchase. Sometimes it's a lack of space. Sometimes it's my wife glaring at me as I salivate over yet another piece of Disney stuff. Most of the time, it's a matter of dollars and sense (pun intended).
I shudder to think how much Disney stuff there would be in this home if logic, space and money were no object. That said, there was one collection from Disney that I feel I really missed out on, and I had no good excuse. I just said, “I'll pick one up next time.” Next time, of course, never came. This great collection was discontinued years ago, never to be seen again in the Disney parks and resorts.
One of the first articles I ever penned way back when here on MousePlanet was about Disney die-cast vehicles. I was a “toy car kid” growing up and I guess once a “toy car kid” always a “toy car kid” because I still gravitate toward them as collectibles today. Disney has done a great job over the years with the die-cast toy market on all sorts of fronts. There's a dated Disney Matchbox bus or truck available in the parks and resorts each year. They've been selling the die-cast monorail for a long time now. A few years back, they added the Parking Lot Tram to the Theme Park Collection, which I of course had to purchase. I've written about the Disney Racers Collection that my boys and I collect as well.
But to be honest, I think the coolest die-cast collection was the attraction vehicle series that was put out under the Disney Theme Park Collection moniker. These were well made and larger than your average Matchbox or Hot Wheels style car. They were essentially models of Walt Disney World or Disneyland attraction vehicles and each had a character or two on board. The collection expanded to include parade and transportation vehicles as well. As I said before, I missed out on collecting the bulk of these. I made the poor assumption that they would be around for a while. These are the few that I was able to snag in the parks before they disappeared.
Winnie the Pooh was the first ride that each of my kids experienced on their first Disney trip so this was a must have. I got this at Pooh's Thotful Shop in the Magic Kingdom, before I discovered the whole collection.
Pooh and Tigger ready to journey to the Hundred Acre Wood. Photo by Chris Barry.
I later made sure that my favorite ride was represented in Peter Pan's Flight.
Off to Neverland with Peter Pan. Photo by Chris Barry.
I have one in the package as well that someone bought me as a gift.
This Peter Pan is still in his original packaging. Photo by Chris Barry.
My good friend Robert bought me the Toy Story Parade Vehicle.
Buzz and Woody ride in a car from the former parade at then Disney-MGM Studios. Photo by Chris Barry.
For quite some time, the only available vehicle at Walt Disney World was the transport bus, so I had to have one of those, didn't I?
Mickey drives the bus. Photo by Chris Barry.
Goofy should keep himself in the vehicle at all times. Photo by Chris Barry.
And that's it! That's all I managed to collect from the parks. Not counting the monorails, trains and the aforementioned tram, there were 40 of these attraction vehicles released and I've only got four. I mistakenly figured that these would be for sale for a while in the parks and I couldn't have been more wrong. They disappeared quite swiftly.
Among the vehicles that I wish I had acquired from Walt Disney World were the Haunted Mansion doom buggy, the Jungle Cruise, Kali River Rapids and Maelstrom. Some of the ones that I would have liked from Disneyland were the Matterhorn Bobsleds, Pinocchio's Daring Journey and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Quite honestly, the whole collection is quite cool.
These were for sale in the parks back then for a very fair price. I believe they were less than $10. Today I have seen them, when I can find them that is, from online resellers for anywhere from $15 for common ones to as high as $65 for the more rare ones. It takes patience and searching to find reasonable prices, but it can be done. While I was writing this article I was poking around online and found the Tomorrowland Astro Orbiter featuring Mickey on Amazon for only $16 and the Star Wars Parade Vehicle with R2-D2 and C-3PO on eBay for $19. I snapped them both up while I could.
These attraction vehicles are a great example of a souvenir that would appeal to kids—my sons played with these for a while—but they also appeal to adult collectors. I'm not sure why they were discontinued, but I can't imagine they will ever come back to the store shelves. If you're interested in adding one to your collection, the Internet is your best chance to acquire one; don't look in the parks, resorts, or the Disney Store. You might find the bus in the parks, but that's it. In my opinion they are one of the cooler toy collections released in recent memory by Disney and it's a shame that they aren't still available.
Am I the only one out there who misses these? Do any of you readers have a collection of these attraction vehicles? As always, I'd like to hear what you have to say. Click on the link below; let me hear your thoughts and I'll see you next time with more of that great Disney Stuff.
