Chessington to auction Scorpion Express Memorabilia

Starting on Monday at 10am Chessington World of Adventures will be holding a series of auctions on their online store for various pieces of memorabilia from their Scorpion Express ride which has now been dismantled to make way for their new Project Play. You can read more about that here. Scorpion Express operated at the park from March 2014 until July 2022 when it closed suddenly for repairs and never reopened, prior to this it operated as The Runaway Train from when the park first opened in 1989.

What’s in the auction?

Pieces in the auction include a lot of signs from the ride, some physical theming pieces and even the front of the train! Let’s dive into what’s on offer some more!

Signs, signs and more signs!

The majority of the auction items are various signs from around the ride. This includes the Reserve and Ride sign, some themed signs from the queue line such as ‘No Looting’ and ‘Watch out! Scorpions’ signs. There’s also a variety of ‘Staff Only’ signs, air gate signs, row seat signs and even the original wooden entrance signs. These have various starting prices beginning at £15 right up to £175!

Ride Control Panel

The ride control panel is also up for grabs with a starting price of £300!

Theming Pieces

Chessington have also listed a variety of theming pieces from the ride which are various Scorpion Sculptures which start at £150.

Front Train Carriage

The biggest piece in the auction (literally) is the front train carriage of the Scorpion Express which starts at a huge £2500. Chessington recommend 6 adults to carry this and it’s clearly the coolest piece in the auction and one I’d certainly be bidding on if I had a spare £2500…which I don’t.

When will the auction run?

The auction starts at 10am on Monday and I can’t find when it will end but you will need to be registered on Chessington’s store to bid and will need to pay a one-off, non-refundable £5 to join the auction, after which you can bid on all of the items.

Once you win you’ll have 72 hours to pay and you must collect within 3 weeks of the auction end.

Final Thoughts

I love that much like Thorpe Park and Alton Towers have also done recently Chessington are giving enthusiasts a chance to own some of the park history and I’d love to see parks continue to do this…although some of the pricing is eye-watering, especially when Blackpool Pleasure Beach are selling a Valhalla Boat Head for (just) £500.

Will you be bidding on anything?