My Disney Racers Concepts: Dueling Aladdin Sidekicks and Lady and the Tramp: Dog vs Cats

Grease Monkey Klepto Riff Raff Street Rat Rod

Way back in 2002, Disney and Hasbro released the Disney Wild Racers line of die cast cars.  At the time, they were sold in themed packs of two characters.  The cars themselves had names in addition to vanity plates.  It was during this time that I thought of different sets I wanted to see.  I recently found the drawings I did and tweaked them just a little bit.  One idea I had was for an Aladdin animal sidekick set.  Aladdin's friend, Abu the monkey, just had to be a Disney Racer.

I've decided to name each car like Disney Wild Racers did with their cars.

The car for Abu is Grease Monkey Klepto Riff Raff Street Rat Rod.

The Iago car is Molting Motor Mouth.

Molting Motor Mouth

Jafar's henchman parrot, Iago, is the perfect foil for Abu.

Tramp from Lady and the Tramp is a favorite character of mine.  The Tramp car is called Dashing Radical Mongrel.

Dashing Radical Mongrel

For whatever reason, I did not draw a design for Lady.  In my mind, I was thinking of "dueling" character sets.  Even though Disney Wild Racers had sets of friends (Like Mickey/Pluto and Timon/Pumbaa).

Though they share no screen time, I chose Si and Am the cats to duel with Tramp.

The Siamese Cat car is called Twin Tran SiAm.

Twin Tran SiAm

I liked the idea of representing both characters on one car.

Eventually, the Disney Wild Racers line was discontinued by Hasbro.  The toys live on as Disney Racers, sold at Disney theme parks.  These days, the focus is on Disney, Star Wars, and Marvel characters.

Buried Treasure Planet: Unreleased Disney Wild Racers

Disney Wild Racers Treasure Planet John Silver

Recently I was the victim of eBay sniping.  At literally the last second of the auction, a bloodthirsty pirate took away my chance at getting a highly coveted collectible that I'd known about for years, but never seen.  A John Silver Treasure Planet Disney Wild Racer.

What is interesting is that this particular eBay auction listed the car as "BEN" (the obnoxious robot) from Treasure Planet.  This car is clearly not BEN, it is Silver.  It is Silver's arm as a car.

The popular Disney Racers die cast car collection started out as "Disney's Wild Racers" made by Hasbro back in 2002.  The cars were sold at toy stores and retail giants like Walmart.

New waves of Disney Wild Racers were announced, but never released.  Among those announced was a set of cars for Disney's 2002 animated film, Treasure Planet.

The Treasure Planet set was going to feature BEN and Silver.  I have to admit this Silver car looks better than I ever imagined.

There was also an eBay auction for a different, unpainted prototype version of the Silver car.

I lost that auction, too.

The unpainted Silver car is pretty slick, too.

It's not surprising that the Silver car was never released.  Treasure Planet did not do well at the box office, and the Disney Wild Racers line was discontinued at toy stores.  Luckily, the line became Disney Racers and continues to be sold at Disney theme parks.

Another unreleased Disney Wild Racer is Buster the dog. *

UPDATE 02/18/2025:  OK, I wrote this a long time ago, and I now think this is Baloo the Bear from The Jungle Book.

Baloo was announced as a Wild Racer, to be sold with Shere Khan. But Baloo was never released.

Buster the dog was the villain in the 2001 movie Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure.  The paint scheme and nose made me think it was a dog, but the ears do look like a bear, and it has Baloo's tufts of hair.

I'm not sure who this character is supposed to be.

Is this the long lost Jungle Book Baloo Disney Wild Racer?  I'm leaning towards yes.

Disney Wild Racers of Shere Khan and Bagheera were made and sold (as was a Kaa the snake track).  It is curious that the planned Baloo car was never made.

It is rather shocking that Zero dog did not make it past the prototype stage.

Zero Disney Wild Racer

Zero the dog (with Skeleton Jack) from The Nightmare Before Christmas seem like they'd sell like crazy during the Haunted Mansion Holiday season at Disneyland in California.

It looks like Zero would have been similar to the "invisible" Cheshire Cat Disney Racers.

Dr. Finkelstein from The Nightmare Before Christmas was also made into a prototype Disney Racer.

Dr. Finkelstein also seems like a no-brainer to sell at Disneyland.

Jack, Oogie Boogie, Zero and Finkelstein could sell really well as a boxed set.

Rex and Woody had been announced many years ago as a set for Disney Wild Racers.

Eventually, Woody was released at the Disney Parks.

Given how many Toy Story character Disney Racers have been made, I'm rather shocked that Rex was never produced.

I failed to get any of these Unreleased Disney Racers when they were being sold on eBay.

By 2016, the Disney Racers line has morphed and grown into something very different. Star Wars and Marvel are the big focus now, which isn't that shocking, because they sell.

The search continues for more buried Treasure Planet Disney Racers...

Ultra-Rare Disney (Wild) Racers: The Jungle Book

I have been collecting Disney Racers die cast cars since the line debuted in 2002 as "Disney Wild Racers." The cars were released by Hasbro and could be found at toy stores like Toys R Us, as well as Disney theme parks. Hasbro sold the cars in packs of two, and the first ones came with vanity plates. The cars even had their own names.

Wave 3 of the Disney Wild Racers did not include the vanity plates. I could not find any of the Wave 3 releases in stores. These included Donald Duck with Goofy, Timon with Pumbaa, and the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat. Wave 3 Racers could be found on eBay pretty easily (that's how I got mine).

Some special Disney Wild Racers were released for the 2003 Disney film, "The Jungle Book 2." The Team Shere Khan Transport featured a Shere Khan Big-Rig with two Shere Khan cars: The Tar Tearin' Tiger (orange) and Striped Speeder (white). Note that "Shere Khan" is mis-spelled on the box.



I never saw this set in the stores, but I think it may have been sold through the Disney Store. I got mine on eBay, of course!



The Shere Khan Big Rig Transport has got to be the rarest Disney Wild Racer ever.


Wave 4 of the Disney Wild Racers was announced, but never released. They were:

Woody with Rex (Toy Story), BEN and Long John Silver (Treasure Planet) and Baloo and Shere Khan (The Jungle Book).

Woody was just released (finally) as part of a Disney Racers box set at the Disney Parks for the launch of Toy Story 3. Rex is still not available. The Treasure Planet ones will probably never be released. Baloo has yet to be released.



Shere Khan was available in the Jungle Book 2 set, and the orange version of the car was sold at Disneyland and Walt Disney World as part of the re-named "Disney Racers" line, which is no longer associated with Hasbro.

Another Jungle Book set was sold for the release of "The Jungle Book 2." The Escape the Snake Playset featured a Bagheera car called "Midnight Cruiser." This set could be purchased at Toys R Us.


The Bagheera car was also later available through the "Disney Racers" line at the Disney Parks.



Here's the Kaa looping track, along with pictures of the Hasbro Disney Wild Racers.


The Disney Catalog sold the Escape the Snake Playset, too---with an exclusive car!



The Be-Bop Burner was only available with this set (it's just the Bagheera car with a different paint job).

Some of the Disney Wild Racers that were sold exclusively as part of a set were eventually re-released at the Disney Parks under the Disney Racers brand (the Hydra car and the Steamboat Willie car, for example).

The Disney Racers line is still going strong. Check out the Disney Blog for more about the Disney Racers line.

Of course, I have a list of suggestions for Disney Racers:

Dumbo, Casey Jr. Circus Train, Timothy Mouse, Pink Elephant, Beast, Gaston, Cogsworth, Lumiere, Yeti (Everest and Matterhorn), Splash Mountain (Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear, Vulture), Peter Pan, Tick Tock the Crocodile, the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Monstro the Whale, and a Country Bear Jamboree set. It would also be nice to see Robin Hood, Elliott and Lady and the Tramp, and Sebastian and Flounder. There's lots of Disney characters to choose from!

Of course, Spider-Man and the Marvel Universe characters seem logical for the Disney Racers line.

I'll bet Disney Princess Disney Racers would do well with girls, as would Marie from the Aristocats.