Buy a Genuine Disneyland Autopia Car!

These opportunities don’t come along very often, so when they do, you have to act. Several items from Disneyland have somehow exited the Magic Kingdom and are available for purchase:

• A genuine Disneyland Autopia car

• A car from Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

• A Rocket Jet from the big, spinning ride that centered Tomorrowland

• Even an original Skyway Gondola from the long-discontinued “Sky Buckets” (You weren’t one of the kids who spat on people from those, thus killing the ride forever, were you?)

Heritage Auctions of Dallas is holding the sale online, with bidding open to whomever wants to sign up. Heritage used to specialize in rare coins and did sell a 1787 New York-style Brasher Doubloon in 2021 for $9.36 million. It also sold John Wayne’s beret from The Green Berets for $179,250, part of a $5.4 million John Wayne sale; Nicolas Cage’s Action Comics #1 for $2.16 million; and, so far, it has sold $12 million worth of Neil Armstrong’s stuff.

Compared to that, the Disney stuff is cheap. Bidding on the “Park-Used Original Autopia Car” is at just $16,500 with 10 days still to go (nine by the time you read this).

“This is truly one of our favorite pieces of this entire sale,” reads the auction catalog. “This is an astounding original Autopia car, used at Disneyland and acquired directly from the park. What makes this particular vehicle so incredibly special is that it is believed to be the single Autopia vehicle to ever come to auction with all original components present, including the chassis and tires (with the exception of the engine, which was not allowed to be sold for safety reasons). Autopia's vehicles were designed by Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr, who reportedly fashioned this generation of the car to have a front-end inspired by a Corvette Stingray and a back end inspired by an Opal (sic) GT. The classic charm of this car should appeal to not just the Disneyland lover but also the automobile fan. Just imagine how many children and adults alike have taken this car for a spin on the speedways of Disneyland!”

We saw three Disneyland Autopia cars at the Pixar Motorama in 2015. They were owned by a guy named Tony Bottini, who had converted them to electric power. Bottini not only showed them at the Motorama, he let people drive them around Pixar's jogging track at speed. At the time, we heard Pixar’s Mark Walsh owned two others himself.

The “Park-Used Original Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Vehicle” is a little more, with bidding at $17,500 at the time of this writing. You remember the ride, unique to Disneyland and not available at Disney World. The ride is based on the Wind in the Willows scene from the animated Disney film, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Riders took a thrilling spin through the lavish English manor house known as Toad Hall. For English racing enthusiasts, Toad Hall has a separate meaning, but that’s another story.

“Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was one of the Magic Kingdom's original opening day attractions. Mr. Toad's journeys to nowhere in particular came to an end on Sept. 7, 1998. It was a very stylized attraction and resembled a cartoon more than any other Disney attraction. It contained highly ornate characters and sets that were very reminiscent of the multiplane camera work featured in classic Disney films. From this iconic attraction, we offer a fine example—this is an actual Mr. Toad buggy! This amazing piece has been professionally restored and repainted with added features like spinning wheels and working headlights! This gorgeous "fire engine red" ride vehicle is a rare piece. With a limited number of these vehicles ever made, only a handful made it to market. It's in Fine condition.”

The “Park-Used Original Rocket Jets Vehicle” is the most affordable of the four we’re featuring, with current bidding at just $11,000. As Heritage notes, “You don’t need to be a billionaire to fly this rocket into space!”

“For almost 30 years, the Rocket Jets stood as a focal point of Tomorrowland. These sleek white and black rockets replaced the Astro-Jets in 1967 as part of the New Tomorrowland refurbishment and took thousands of little astronauts on their aerial adventures over Tomorrowland. At the time, these vehicles were designed with a more modern look which vastly improved Tomorrowland's futuristic appearance when compared to the clunky carnival-colored Astro-Jets. Few of these vehicles have ever been offered for public sale.”

The Rocket Jet catalog caption ends with the somewhat hilarious note, “Sold as-is with no implied warranty. Some assembly will be required, and some additional hardware may be necessary,” in case you really plan to take it out of the heliopause.

The “Park-Used Original Skyway Gondola” would go well hanging on your front porch. This one—No. 50—was used in both Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida. When they took down the California ride, they shipped some of the gondolas to Florida. This one is pretty rare in that it flew over both parks. Bidding is a bargain in a bucket at $14,000.

“If you visited Disneyland or Walt Disney World before the 1990s, chances are good that one of the highlights of your trip was getting a panoramic view of the park from above in the Skyway. The Skyway was a hallmark of Disneyland beginning in 1956, and it stretched across the park until 1994. The attraction was built by a Swiss company, and it was the first of its kind in the United States. In 1965, Disneyland switched from the original round Skyway gondolas to new rectangular versions that weren't quite as cramped and could accommodate up to four guests. These are some of the rarest Disney attraction vehicles to exist, especially complete examples.”

The auction has a lot more than the above-listed stuff. You can get everything from a genuine wheel used on the Disneyland Railroad to a Crew Member Cap from the Disneyland Monorail. In these now-cynical times when people don’t believe anything they hear and even less of what they read (and who reads anymore?) these objects are a link to a more innocent time, when people believed that tomorrow was really going to be a better day. Scan through the catalog and find something from your youth.

See you at the auction, “First star on your right then straight on till morning!”