Contributed by Russ Muller Photography
One lesson I learned may years ago was to never turn down an opportunity for a private tour of a car collection. That’s how I got to know Bob Shearer and shoot his S40 Collection, and it’s how I got to see the American Muscle Car Museum. When Tara asked me if I would like to tour Dezerland Park Orlando with Flacarshows.com, I immediately said yes.
If you’ve lived in Orlando for a while, you may remember Dezerland’s location as Festival Bay, an indoor shopping mall that hosted the likes of a Ron Jon Surf Shop and Vans Skate Park at the North end of International Drive. After closing in 2012, it was “reimagined” and opened as Artegon Marketplace in 2014 and operated until 2017. After it closed, Michael Dezer, a Miami based real estate developer purchased the property and began to transform the mall into what is billed as Florida’s largest indoor attraction, with 800,000 square feet of entertainment space. There’s indoor cart racing, a bowling alley, trampoline park, pinball arcade (all are Mr. Dezer’s vintage machines!), retail shops, and a 250,000 square foot automobile museum that houses over nine hundred of Mr. Dezer’s private collection of cars. Let’s take a walk through the collection…
Our tour began when Cory, our primary tour guide gave us a preview of the Bond Museum, which is not yet open to the public (but will be soon). Beginning with an Aston Martin DB5 and ending with a modern Land Rover, Bond movie vehicles are displayed within vignettes of each Bond movie and actor and displayed by the year of release. Whether it’s Sean Connery, David Niven, Gorge Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig, all have a presence. 
Many of the vehicles on display were screen used in the filming of the movies, such as Goldfinger’s private jet and the Renault that gets sliced in half in View to a Kill. There is also an extensive collection of 007 memorabilia and screen used props on display, and it is claimed to be the largest Bond memorabilia collection in the world. For as immersive and entertaining as the Bond collection is, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The main museum begins with a display of 1920’s cars, including a beautiful 1924 Packard 233 and a replica of the Bonnie and Clyde car. They are currently developing a Dezerland Park app, which will allow you to scan the QR codes you see the signs to learn more about the vehicles. After a walk through the boat room, which includes an amazing collection of motors and models, we made our way into the famous TV and movie cars. The Dukes of Hazzard section includes a Charger that was used on screen, as well as a replica of the Daisy Duke Jeep that
has been signed by most of the original cast members. The A-Team van (screen used from the TV series), KITT Trans Am, Monkee Mobile, and the replicas of Dragula and the Munster Mobile are just a few of the gems you will see from TV shows. 
The original ’48 Ford Deluxe “Greased Lightning” from the movie Grease is here, along with Herbie from the Herbie: Fully Loaded movie, the Gran Torino from the Starsky & Hutch movie, the Auburn Speedster from Dick Tracy, vehicles from the Indiana Jones franchise, and dozens and dozens of others. Sensory overload started to set in, but we still had a long way to go…
