Disney buffs are in for a treat as they will soon be able to take some incredibly rare pieces of the happiest place on Earth home with them at an upcoming auction in Burbank, California.
Toy collector Joel Magee is putting up more than 1,500 pieces from his private collection for auction later this month, Van Eaton Galleries, who is running the auction, announced Wednesday. Items include a 1917 Model T Ford Moving Van that Walt Disney created himself, a Peter Pan Ship Ride Vehicle, and a rare set of restored Tiki Birds from the Enchanted Tiki Room.
Other exciting pieces at the auction are a Haunted Mansion “Doom Buggy,” the Dumbo ride vehicle, a rare 1955 Junior Admission Complete Ticket Book, an Original Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Sign, a Tower of Terror (1994) Twilight Zone Bellhop Costume, and an Original Phantom Boat Production Model from 1955.
The exhibit will also display the world’s largest collection of Disneyland posters all together for the first time, a press release from the auction house said.
How Joel Magee built his massive Disney collection
Magee, who is popularly known as “The Toy Scout,” has been building his collection of almost 6,000 pieces for more than 30 years, making it the largest individually-owned Disneyland/Disney Park collection in the world. In fact, some pieces in his collection are so rare that they haven’t been seen in public for over 60 years, the press release said.
Magee’s passion for collecting began at age 13 while visiting a local flea market where he was fascinated with a collectible lunchbox. As a kid, he had watched “The Wonderful World of Disney” on TV but had never been to the park and had never thought about collecting or being a collector.
“At the time, I couldn’t afford too much,” Magee told the Associated Press. “I bought a couple of pieces, but that’s where it all began. In my travels as ‘the toy scout,’ I meet people all over the country and for the last 25 years, they’ve just been bringing me all their stuff and here it is today.”
While Magee says it’s hard to choose his favorites in such a large collection, he has a soft spot for the items that were lovingly restored, such as the Tiki birds.
“The Tiki birds, oh my gosh, they were piles of junk when we got them! They were worn out, pieces were missing,” Magee told AP. “Some good friends of mine that do a lot of work … in that field brought them all back to life better than you could ever imagine. And … people look at that and you can just see the magic in their eyes when they see them.”
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When and where is the auction?
The auction titled ‘The Joel Magee Disneyland Collection’ will kick off on July 17 to coincide with Disneyland’s 68th birthday. It will continue for three days, concluding on July 19.
A pop-up exhibition of the collection is underway and will run until July 16 at the Burbank Town Center Mall, a location that was where Disney once planned to build the Disney-MGM Studios.
“For this auction, I have hand-picked just over 1,500 pieces that trace the story of the parks in an extraordinary fashion,” said Mike Van Eaton of Van Eaton Galleries in a statement. “A couple of examples of the rarities the auction will provide are the set of three Audio-Animatronic Hitchhiking Ghosts, which are estimated to sell for $100,000-$200,000 and the “Midget Atopia” car, estimated to sell for $50,000-$100,000.”
“It is the most amazing collection we’ve had the honor of working with in decades,” added Eaton.
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