We try to keep moving at Theme Park Rangers Radar, but this week we found ourselves standing with a stack of Universal Orlando notes. The planets – including Universal’s maddeningly slow rotating globe – must have aligned. We have a peek at Minion Blast’s future, a Halloween Horror Nights math test and  a lunch menu with Florida’s own Lionel Messi.

Radar is a weekly compilation of observations from Central Florida’s theme parks and attractions. It’s posted on OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays.

Having a blaster

Universal Studios has been showing off its Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast thanks to technical-rehearsal mode that allows some park guests to try it.

The attraction puts players on a moving sidewalk arms them with E-Liminator X “blasters” to point at passing targets on giant screens. In the storyline, folks aim to impress members of the Vicious 6, characters from “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” a 2022 animated film.

Before a recent media preview of Blast, Victor Lugo, director of immersive experiences, explained it’s a “rough cut” of the ride, which is set to open officially this summer. When that happens, there will be more features, including a connection with a Universal app.

“We’re going to include an app that allows you to keep track of your scores and be more of a villain and upgrade yourself over time,” Lugo said.

The app will display a user’s latest score, the top score of the day and the personal cumulative score all time, which will reveal the player’s level.

“As you level up, you can unlock more weapons, more special powers, more abilities to upgrade your blaster,” Lugo said.

Visitors will be able to sync the app with the blasters and have default settings. The more times a Blast participant goes through, the more points are earned, the more (virtual) loot is collected, not to mention “special abilities” gained, Lugo said.

The app will have “seasonal skins” that will change out, he said, providing new experiences.

“So, during November, you can blast flaming turkey legs and exploding piñatas,” Lugo said.

“FOMO is gonna be real with people.”

Soccer sandwich

The peninsula rocked a bit with the news that Lionel Messi was signing with Inter Miami of Major League Soccer. You can’t watch a match these days without announcers exuding about him. Making a drinking game out of his mentions would quickly make things Messi messy.

We get it. He’s a seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, a key member of Argentina’s FIFA World Cup championship team last year (he was awarded the Golden Ball) and has “greatest of all time” talk surrounding him.

The hype is real. … and really near. Hard Rock Cafe at Universal CityWalk is serving a Messi chicken sandwich, one of his design. It’s in multiple restaurant in the chain.

I ordered one and ate every bite. The sandwich features chicken cutlets, melted provolone cheese, herbed aioli, arugula and tomato. It was good, if slippery. The aioli and arugula teamed up to propel the meat onto my plate about halfway through, but it was tasty.

Price: $19.99. But the campaign – and the little toothpick flag stuck in the bun – proclaims the sandwich was “made for you by Messi,” which feels like a stretch.

He’s also part of the augmented reality app for the restaurant. While waiting for my order, I could see a mini Messi standing on a nearby chair back whilst a sandwich hovered above his head.

There is also a line of Messi-branded merchandise in the gift shop.

Messi, 36, has been an ambassador for Hard Rock Cafe since 2021. He’s also had a branded burger with the chain. But now there’s a commercial for the chicken sandwich featuring the player as a chef with unusual abilities and an awe-struck young diner.

Math! The horror!

As Universal Studios was announcing that the fourth season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” would get the haunted house treatment for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights, the company also started selling its multinight passes for the fright fest.

We were in no mood to do math, but Universal Orlando made it easy when comparing the 2022 rates with the 2023 prices. Take last year’s price and add $50. That’s true for every level: Rush of Fear, Frequent Fear, Frequent Fear Plus and Ultimate Frequent Fear.

Note that Frequent Fear and Frequent Fear Plus passholders have three and four more potential nights, respectively, at HHN, this year.

Since the increase was the same for each pass, that means the low-end Rush of Fear went up 38.5%, while the top-line every night Ultimate pass was up 15.4%.

It’s a similar situation with the express add-ons, which allow ticketholders to avoid snaking stand-by lines for haunted houses. They each went up $100, leaving the highest of the high end – Ultimate with Express – to be $919.99 total.

The range for single-night tickets this year is $79.99 to $119.99, depending on the date. Last year it was $73.99 to $104.99.

Halloween Horror Nights runs for 48 select nights between Sept. 1 and Nov. 4.

I almost had to make a spreadsheet for this. Now that’s scary.

Weekend outlook

• It’s the final weekend for free beer at SeaWorld Orlando. (The last weekday is July 27.) The concert lineup for SeaWorld’s Summer Spectacular includes Don Felder (of Eagles fame) on Saturday and Rodney Atkins on Sunday.

• SeaWorld’s limited time Ultimate Shark Experience begins Friday.

• Lonely Dog Immersive Experience features a dueling piano event with Donovan Peters and Jason J inside the attraction’s Coco Kitz lounge from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday. Admission is $33, and that includes the piano segment, the 30 minute-immersive show and beer, wine or champagne. Tickets and details: lonelydogorlando.com.

• It’s free admission to the Orange County Regional History Center from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday as part of the Downtown Arts District’s Third Thursday programming.

• Dezerland Action Park Orlando will be the site of the I-Drive Throwdown show, featuring big trucks and other off-road vehicles plus associated vendors, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

• An adults-only glow foam party is set for Saturday evening at Island H2O Water Park in Kissimmee.

• Thursday is National Dole Whip Day, and Walt Disney World has more than a dozen locations for the pineapple treat (or its variations) beyond the traditional stops at Magic Kingdom. Three options that jump out: a Dole Whip cupcake at Contempo Cafe inside the Contemporary Resort; a frozen Old-Fashioned made with Dole Whip Orange at Wine Bar George at Disney Springs; and the pineapple upside-down cone, which has vanilla cake and white-chocolate-dipped cone, at Happy Landings Ice Cream at Typhoon Lagoon. For a complete list, go to DisneyParksBlog.com and search on “dole whip.”

What’s on your radar? Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com.