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...

Before Toy Story 2: Knott's Berry Farm in California

The Prospector!  He'll wanna meet ya!

Yodel-ay-hee-hoo!

Oh, that's funny, Bullseye!

What the Pixar?!?

Before Stinky Pete, Jessie and Bullseye, there was Knott's Berry Farm.

Knott's Berry Farm is an amusement park in Buena Park, California.  It started out as a farm selling----yep, berries, in 1920.

The stinky Prospector here is named Whittles.

So how did a berry farm become a theme park?  Why did the chicken cross the road?  It was running for its life to get away from Knott's Berry Farm.

By 1934, Knott's was selling chicken dinners on property.  The dinners were extremely popular.

More diversions were built to give diners something else to do.

In 1952, a replica of a Ghost Town was created to entertain people waiting for the restaurant.

The Ghost Town turned into a Boom Town.  The park also started adding rides.  The Calico Mine Ride opened in 1960 (and still operates today).

Knott's added shops and more attractions over the years.

Would you like a hand-made souvenir to remember your visit?  I would!

Legend has it that these wooden toys were actually made at The Woodcraft Shop at Knott's Berry Farm in the 1940s.

These are amazing!

Playing with these toys will make you think about Knott's Berry Farm or the old Purina Chuck Wagon dog food commercials.

By the 1969, Knott's Berry Farm had become a much bigger destination experience.

This plate has an error, so maybe it is a big collector's item.  It identifies the Timber Mountain Log Ride (from 1969) as the Calico Mine Ride (which opened in 1960).  Oops!

It is souvenir mash-up time!!!  Universal Studios, Knott's Berry Farm, and Magic Mountain together at last!

...AND Busch Gardens!

Things were looking good for Whittles.  Until something big happened.  Something that starts with "S" and is associated with a flying dog.

Sputnik?  No.  Snoopy!

The Beagle had landed.  In 1983, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang set up Camp Snoopy at Knott's Berry Farm.

Knott's Berry Farm gained one of the most popular cartoon characters of all time, kicking the characters from Toy Story 2---I mean the early Knott's Western characters---to the curb.

Today, Snoopy is Top Dog at most Cedar Fair amusement parks (owners of Knott's Berry Farm).  Snoopy rules his own worlds at Planet Snoopy lands at parks like Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowinds. Cedar Point, Worlds of Fun, Canada's Wonderland, Dorney Park, Valleyfair, and California's Great America.

Aww, look, a cute Knott's Teddy bear.  Or is that a Teddy-berry?

Say, doesn't this look a bit like Duffy, the Disney Bear?

Disney's Toy Story At Burger King

In November of 1995, the groundbreaking PIXAR animated film Toy Story debuted.  Back then, it was known as Disney's Toy Story.  In the United States, Burger King promoted Disney's big animated films, starting with Beauty and the Beast in 1991 and ending with The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996.  Outside of America, McDonald's promoted all these films, including Toy Story.

Burger King Kids Club Meals featured six different Toy Story toys.  Aside from the Burger King toys, Toy Story merchandise (especially anything related to Buzz Lightyear) was tough to find in stores in 1995.

With such a large cast, it is interesting to see which characters were chosen for the promotion.  The Army Recon Squad is a fun and different choice.  I remember thinking the Little Green Men aliens should have been represented.  The Woody premium is worth noting because the head and boots are plastic and the body is cloth (a similar toy was used for Clopin in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame toys sold at Burger King in 1996).  I thought it was interesting that Hasbro's Mr. Potato Head was used rather than another Disney-owned Toy Story character.  Rex the dinosaur has wheels here for some reason.

In addition to the Kids Club Meal toys, Burger King sold Toy Story hand puppets for $1.99.

I think the Buzz Lightyear puppet was the toughest to get.  Burger King also sold character puppets for The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996.

Computer animated movies are very common today, but in 1995, quite a few Toy Story viewers did not know what kind of film they were watching.

I can remember watching Toy Story in the movie theater, and seeing the trailer for Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  I do remember thinking that Toy Story was the beginning of the end for hand drawn films.

Naturally, a movie about toys has a good chance of being a big hit at Christmas.

Because Toy Story was such a different type of movie, there was uncertainty of how well it would be received.  At the time, Disney was trying to diversify their animated offerings.  That's why there was Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), A Goofy Movie (1995) and James and the Giant Peach (1996).

Kid Vid and his friends were the mascots for the Burger King Kids Club for many years.

Burger King discontinued Kid Vid and his pals years ago.  They should not feel too bad, because I haven't seen Grimace and the other classic McDonaldland characters at a McDonald's in years.

How ironic that the movie that seemingly ended hand drawn animated features used a hand drawn flip book as a Burger King promotional tool.

In the United States, Burger King had another set of Toy Story Kids Club Meal toys in October of 1996 to promote the home video release of the film.  When Disney's stateside partnership with Burger King ended in 1996, the Toy Story characters found a home at McDonald's.  In 1999, McDonald's promoted Toy Story 2 with a set of 20 different toys.  By the time Toy Story 3 debuted in 2010, marketing decisions had changed, and there weren't any fast food promotional toys for the film.

For more fun, check out Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame At Burger King And McDonald's.

Tigger And Pooh And Buzz And Woody, Too: A Stuffed Toy Story

Did you ever wonder what happened to Pooh and Tigger when Christopher Robin was sent away to Boarding School?  Well, wonder no more!  This Toy Story and Winnie the Pooh mash-up could be found years ago in the Disney Catalog and at The Disney Store.

Pooh is cast well as Buzz Lightyear ("Am I reallly that fat?").  He is joined by Tigger (Woody), Piglet (Little Green Man) and Eeyore (Bullseye).

It would have been funny to see Kanga as Jessie, thought it probably would have been difficult for her to squeeze into a pair of pants.  Kanga could have had Roo (dressed as Stinky Pete) in her pouch.

Re-imagined versions of Winnie the Pooh characters are nothing new.  In 2001, a new puppet series called The Book of Pooh debuted on The Disney Channel.  This show featured an older version of Christopher Robin.

The new look for the cast of the 100 Acre Wood for The Book of Pooh was created by Chris Renaud, who directed the 2010 film Despicable Me.

I bet someday we will see a live action Winnie the Pooh movie with computer animated plush toy characters (like Ted).  It could be an epic, multiple movie franchise like Lord of the Rings.  Just think: Daniel Radcliffe IS Christopher Robin!

Toy Story 3's Bad Big Baby

I was recently given a Target Gift Card for my birthday, and today I decided to get to a Target store and put it to good use.  When I saw the display for Disney Pixar's Toy Story 3, and Big Baby, I could not resist buying this "Buddy Pack" from Mattel (it would have been awesome if the Buzz Lightyear in this package had been Spanish Buzz, because he and Big Baby were my favorite "new characters" in Toy Story 3).

I love that the Big Baby figurine even has his crayon-scribble tattoos.  I'm not sure if Big Baby's head spins around like it does in the film (a chilling scene!).

I absolutely love the character designs used for this collection.  So far, these two are the only figures I own.  The Action Links! sets look like fun (kind of like the Mouse Trap game).  If you collect these, you might want to know that Walmart has some exclusives (like a paint variation for Buttercup).

On this spending spree, I also bought Season Four of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives on DVD and a case of Caffeine-Free Diet Coke.

I ended up spending all of the $30 Gift Card, and I owed Target 20 cents.