Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will return on April 8th, Walt Disney World has confirmed.
When the Toy Story-inspired dark ride returns to Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom, it will feature new rides and improvements, including more targets, enhanced blaster-to-target interaction, new sound effects, and an original robot character named Buddy.
“We think it makes games more interactive, more immersive, more exciting and more fun. That was really the goal of this relaunch,” Walt Disney Imagineering producer Kimberly Allison said this week.
“We know this attraction is a fan favorite and we really want to improve the guest experience, which is why we’re making a lot of reinvestment into the project,” she said.
The changes were first announced last March and it has been closed for renovations since August. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin debuted in theme parks in 1998, taking over the space previously occupied by Delta Dreamflight and similar attractions from the “If I Had Wings” series.
Disney World announced the reopening date for Space Ranger Spin as part of its Cool Kids Summer announcement on Thursday. They also revealed that Bluey and Bingo’s meet-and-greets will begin at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park on May 26, the same day the new “Disney Junior Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live” show debuts at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The debut of these attractions is set for the day after Memorial Day.
Riders of the reimagined Buzz Lightyear attraction will encounter Buddy, a support bot, in a new scene early in the experience.
“We’re so excited to be working with Pixar to introduce this brand new character,” Allison said. “She’s doing a final systems check on the departing Star Cruiser, and it’s just a chance to calibrate her blaster to her practice targets. Her paddle has a small Z target.”
Park users can enjoy spring with fresh, refreshed attractions
Pixar produced the first Toy Story movie in 1995 and is now a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.
Space Ranger Spin is a slow-moving, dark vehicle in which moving passengers aim at targets and fire beams to become a rookie space ranger and try to stop Zerg, another robot and villain from “Toy Story 2.” Scores will be kept and levels such as Space Ace, Space Commando, Galactic Hero etc. will be achieved.
The updated Ride’s blaster will no longer be attached to your vehicle, allowing you to move around more freely. Each vehicle has one green laser and one red laser, and an on-board monitor displays your current score.
Former Imagineer Joe Rohde releases book on creativity and collaboration
Creative director Justin de Torra said the blaster effect is similar to a laser pointer seen in classrooms.
“You’ll always be able to see where the blaster is pointed and where it’s being aimed,” he said.
Riders can also expect more reactions from their targets.
“The target is a combination of LED lighting and media, so the large target lights up and becomes responsive,” DeTora said. “The color of your blaster will glow. So if you have a red blaster and you hit that target, you’ll see it glow red.”
It will also include “haptic feedback”, or vibrations, for successful hits.
Allison said the redesigned vehicle was inspired by toys.
“You can see there’s a battery on the back. Everything in this universe is powered by batteries, or crystal fusion power cells as Buzz likes to call them,” she said. “We worked with Pixar to go back to basics for Buzz’s color palette as well. … We made sure it was really clean, fresh and streamlined.”
New plaques downtown mark spots that made Disney history
Finally, there will be another scoring opportunity.
“Now that we’ve reached our media-based target, we have an opportunity to rethink the gameplay a little bit,” DeTora said. “We want to make sure we have fun surprises for our guests who keep coming back and show us their best performance.”
Email us at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Blue Sky: @Theme Park Database. Thread account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to Theme Park Ranger Newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.
