When you and your friends are feeling competitive at Magic Kingdom or Disneyland, you know where to go! Since 1998, Magic Kingdom has delivered tons of fun for friends who want to wage war on the intergalactic battlefield, and Disneyland joined Star Command in its fight against a malevolent emperor. This videogame deftly disguised as an attraction is different each time you play it, and the underlying Imagineering concepts are sublime. Let’s go Behind the Ride to learn all the secrets of Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin aka Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters.
The Experience: Bringing Buzz Lightyear’s fever dreams to life
The Trick: Creating an intergalactic, fully immersive environment
Image: DisneyYou may feel a bit jaded about the several Buzz Lightyear rides around the world. You’ve ridden them so many times by now that you take for granted the majestic backdrop of the attraction. What you’ve forgotten is how remarkable a feat Buzz Lightyear was during its early days.
Toy Story the movie came out in 1995. At the time, Pixar was an upstart computer animation company that Disney wouldn’t purchase for another decade. Building a Walt Disney World attraction based on a Pixar film was a daring decision at the time. The only other major non-Disney licenses at Walt Disney World at the time were Star Wars and the Twilight Zone. Also, Pixar was the competition. They were trying to horn in on the animated film industry, Disney’s bread and butter for 60 years and counting!
Fortunately, park planners weren’t territorial about animated cinema. To the contrary, they delighted in the adventures of Woody and Buzz and wanted to bring them to life in an attraction. Woody’s time would have to wait until Toy Story: Midway Mania!. Buzz got the call first. His backstory naturally lent itself to a theme park ride.
Image: DisneyToy Story buffs know that Buzz is a manufactured toy, but he believes that he’s a member of Star Command. These soldiers are, for lack of better terminology, guardians of the galaxy. Their primary mission is to defeat Zurg, the nefarious ruler of a planet named Z (somehow spelled Xrghthung).
The Buzz Lightyear attraction brings the plight of Star Command to light. You must battle a swarm of evil robots, all of whom are programmed to enforce Zurg’s will. But the conceit of this ride is that the robots are only an aggravation.
Your real mission is to prevent Zurg from claiming batteries to fuel his killbot armada. So, you’ll see bad guys throughout the ride, but you’ll mainly aim at the batteries of Little Green Aliens. Their ships need these batteries to travel through space, but they also double as power supplies for Zurg’s killer droids.
The construct of Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and its siblings is that you are new to Star Command. You must prove yourself by claiming as many batteries as possible. Armed with a starship and your special gun, you head out into the blackness of space, where you will encounter Zurg at one point. It’s world-building done right, which explains why the ride is so timeless in nature.
The Experience: A Star Command vessel with full movement
The Trick: Modifying a classic Disney vehicle to modernize it
Image: DisneyThe immersive nature of Space Ranger Spin is critical to its popularity. To provide this sort of escapism, Imagineers had to construct a ride cart that felt perfectly at home in outer space. It also needed to operate at reliable speeds to assure appropriate throughput, a pragmatic consideration for park planners. To achieve both goals, Disney returned to one of its classic inventions.
The Buzz Lightyear ride employs third generation Omnimover technology. The carts are all interconnected on the same structures, and they move at a controlled pace. This solves the throughput concern. Disney added a new trick for this particular vehicle, though.
Image: DisneyYour starship is capable of 360-degree movement! Outer space is 3-D, and so Imagineers decided that Star Command trainees would need to full range of motion. On a practical level, this design puts the Spin in Space Ranger Spin. Should you miss a battery, you have the ability to turn all the way around to keep shooting at it.
When you’re in the midst of battle, you might take this movement for granted, but it’s revolutionary for an Omnimover. For the first time, Disney stopped controlling the line of sight of Omnimover vehicles. Instead, they ceded full control to theme park tourists, a huge step in the advancement of ride design. It’s in stark contrast to an Omnimover design like the Doom Buggy, which narrows your focus to a specific part of the Haunted Mansion attraction. Space Ranger Spin is a liberated interpretation of the original Omnimover concept.
The Experience: Shooting your way to bragging rights
The Trick: Laser tag concepts converted for a Disney attraction
Image: DisneyWhile the backdrop and ride system of Space Ranger Spin are fascinating, what people care about the most is the game itself. It’s what makes every ride experience different. It’s also what keeps bringing people back. No matter who you are or who you’re with, you’ll feel competitive the moment that you join Star Command. When you have those batteries in your sights, you’ll want to prove your skill by attaining massive totals and thereby gaining the associated bragging rights.
How does the gaming system work? Disney took a simple concept that was already in the zeitgeist at the time and plussed it. At the core, the Buzz Lightyear attraction is a glorified game of laser tag! The simple but elegant point-and-click system from that popular game is on full display here, only with special Disney touches.
Each ride cart comes equipped with two laser pistols and a joystick. On the Magic Kingdom version of the attraction, the pistols remain in place. The Disneyland iteration advanced the concept so that guests can move the guns and thereby fire more accurately. Score this round for the Happiest Place on Earth.
Image: DisneyThe purpose of the laser pistols is to aim at bullseyes, hard targets shown on each battery. You’ll know them by the accompanying Z for Zurg. The signal from the laser pistol notifies the system when your aim is true. When you “hit” a Z, you score points, just as a laser tag player’s armor lights up to signify a hit.
The joystick’s presence emphasizes the genius of the ride cart. You use it to “control” the vehicle, turning it in the direction of your preferred target. At least, that’s the intent. In practice, most people work the joystick to guarantee that their friends miss their shots…and also get annoyed. The joystick’s presence is what gives the ride the full 360-degree range of motion. While it’s true that Space Ranger Spin is a kindred spirit to laser tag, it’s the superior version due to these Disney touches.
The Experience: Scoring the most points and thereby claiming victory
The Trick: Well…
Image: DisneyOkay, this section isn’t your standard Behind the Ride secrets reveal. Instead, it’s a compilation of a few helpful tips so that you can master the Buzz Lightyear scoring system.
The first tip is to trust the controller. This attraction is different from Midway Mania. In that game, you must perform an action to fire. With Buzz Lightyear, you can just hold down the trigger. It will auto-fire. Since accuracy isn’t a scoring mechanism on this ride, never let go of the trigger. You may get lucky with some stray shots that hit targets, even when you’re not aiming!
You’ll also want to locate the high value targets in each section of the ride. The most famous of these is Zurg himself. In the darkened area where Zurg’s spaceship is off in the distance, aim for the lowest target onscreen, which is actually beneath Zurg. It’s worth many more points than Zurg is.
Image: DisneySimilarly, the start of the ride is home to a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em-looking robot that is orangish-red in color. It moves its hands up and down. You want to hit the target on the left robo-paw. Then, find the volcano in the main area. Aim for all the targets on it to score hundreds of thousands of points in quick succession! You can really spike your point totals once you know where to aim.
Finally, you can turn a negative into a positive. Omnimover attractions are notorious for stopping at inopportune times. On other rides, that’s a problem. On Buzz Lightyear, it’s a chance to score lots of points when the clock’s not moving. Yes, as long as you’re on the ride, you can add to your point total, even if it’s not moving! Anytime there’s a pause, use this opportunity to spin around and hit every target in sight.
Presuming that you’ve followed all of these tips, you’ll unlock a special achievement. A score of 999,999 aka Galactic Hero comes with a hidden benefit, an Easter egg of sorts. Take a picture of your total and show it to a cast member. They’ll give you a special sticker that proves you’re a master of the Buzz Lightyear ride.
