Today, we’re going to be heading to infinity, and beyond, as we talk about that infamous Space Ranger, Buzz Lightyear, and his many attractions around the world.
Now, when talking about the many attractions to bear Buzz Lightyear’s name, it’s easy to think of Magic Kingdom having the original, but that’s actually not the case. As a matter of fact, Magic Kingdom was beaten by it’s now defunct quasi-sibling a few miles away, DisneyQuest. Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters opened with DisneyQuest in 1998. Looking like a bumper car on steroids, AstroBlasters combined the driving and bumping of dodgems with a rubber ball cannon that could be used to blast other cars in the arena, causing them to spin uncontrollably for a few seconds. This fast-paced game was best played with two players and could command pretty high wait times, but it was certainly unique, and memorable.
In November 1998, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin opened in the former home of If You Had Wings, If You Could Fly, Delta Dreamflight, and Take Flight. Utilizing the exact same layout and vehicle type as the previous tenants, Space Ranger Spin was the first laser-based interactive attraction built by Disney. In this ride, Guests board a XP-37 spaceship ride vehicle with a joystick that allows the ship to spin on the track. Throughout the ride, Guests shoot at “Z” targets located on robots, ships, landscapes (including a volcano) and other minions of the evil Emperor Zurg. Fun fact, the ride actually incorporated a few elements from the previous attraction housed in that building, including the speed tunnel from If You Had Wings, the jet engine effect and even the base of the marquee from Delta Dreamflight. Seriously, same sign, take a close look! A couple additional interesting features of Magic Kingdom’s ride include the ability to see into the attraction from the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover, and it is the only version of this attraction with blasters mounted to the ride vehicle.
The next version of the attraction opened in 2004 at Tokyo Disneyland, now named Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. There, it had replaced the Visionarium attraction, known as Timekeeper in the United States. While very similar to the Florida version, now the blasters could be lifted off the spaceships, allowing for much more freedom in aiming. Disneyland followed shortly thereafter in 2005, replacing the queue for the ill-fated Rocket Rods attraction, which was also previously the Circle-Vision theater. This version, similar to Tokyo, also had removable blasters, but can also send scores to visitors, along with their pictures, at home. Due to the unique home of this attraction, it has a more compact and tightly placed queue and ride path, but is still a marked improvement from the WDW original.
The attraction was later added to Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, with the latter two getting new purpose-built facilities instead of replacing older attractions. Like Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, these versions of the attraction continued to feature detached blasters.
Interestingly, Hong Kong Disneyland’s version, opened in 2005, has gone to the great space station in the sky, being replaced in 2017 with the Ant Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle! attraction, based on the Marvel film. While very similar to the Buzz Lightyear attraction that preceded it, Nano Battle removes the ability to control the spin of the cars, allowing designers to focus Guest attention in the direction they choose.
Despite newer and arguably more impressive rides of these types being launched since the original Space Ranger Spin premiered, these attractions are still very popular and manage to attract long waits at their parks. Certainly they are trailblazers, and it will be interesting to see what kind of interactive shooting dark rides will come to be in the future.
