‘Complex’ Takes Us Inside Wrestler/Actor Dave Bautista’s ‘Nostalgia Temple’
Bautista’s Florida compound houses life-size dinosaur replicas, $15,000 vintage lunchboxes, a ’77 Trans-Am, and an enviable 10 Harley motorcycles.
In a recent post to its YouTube channel, the entertainment news site Complex gives us a peak at professional wrestler-cum-actor David Bautista’s Florida estate. To be sure, the expansive property and garage complex is nothing short of a dream for fans of motorcycles, sports cars, and really vintage anything. Oh yeah, did we mention the dinosaurs?
Dave Bautista’s collecting is heavy on lunchboxes
Growing up, Bautista’s family didn’t have a lot of money. Per the wrestler-actor, “any extra money in my pocket was going toward food, not collectibles.” Fittingly, his first childhood lunch box — promoting the animated series “Fat Albert” — was purchased used from a thrift store. Much later in life, after getting injured while wrestling in 2003, Bautista used the downtime to rekindle his love affair with lunchboxes.
Nowadays, the larger-than-life personality owns dozens of lunchboxes from as early as the 1950s. One of his most coveted pieces is a Beatles lunchbox valued at about $5,000. As well, he has multiple copies of a lunchbox shaped like an iconic 1960s Volkswagen Type 2 Microbus. Interestingly, the VW bus lunch pails were never actually sold. Instead, dealerships awarded them to potential customers for taking a test drive.
An ex-wife loved dinosaurs
Besides lunchboxes, Bautista is also a serious dinosaur enthusiast and many life-size replicas adorn his Florida estate. Apparently, the fascination with dinosaurs started after he and his wife witnessed fellow actor Chris Pratt receiving one at a Comic-Con event — a natural tie-in to Pratt’s role in the “Jurassic World” franchise.
Bautista’s then-wife became fascinated with the dinosaur replica and from then on, dinosaurs were her preferred gift item for special occasions. Some women prefer jewelry, but we guess that Bautista’s wife appreciated dinosaurs over diamonds. Then again, the couple is now separated so maybe that’s not the best strategy.
A ’77 Trans-Am keeps 10 Harleys company
Although vintage lunchboxes and full-scale velociraptors are cool, we can’t help but wish that Complex spent a little more time discussing what treasures are inside Dave Bautista’s garage. That’s because the wrestler-turned-actor casually mentioned that he owns no less than 10 Harley-Davidsons. Details on the stable of Harleys are scarce, but we do catch a glimpse of a springer front end, a knucklehead engine, and a custom-painted fuel tank with a mural of Bautista with his pet dogs.
Elsewhere in the garage among Porsches and Ferraris is a special — though not as valuable as others — car to Bautista. It’s a black 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am, just like Burt Reynolds jumped over a river in the original “Smokey and the Bandit” film. According to Bautista, the car “connects me directly to my childhood and my love for the movie…” This is a man that’s clearly making up for lost time from his impressionable years.
Photos: Complex/YouTube
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