Disney to shut down Buzz Lightyear ride and give it a new spin
Magic Kingdom’s Buzz Lightyear ride will be updated and enhanced, Walt Disney World officials say.
The changes for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin attraction will include new ride vehicles with video monitors for scoring updates and handheld blasters that fire color-coordinated beams. The attraction’s current targets will be upgraded to react after being hit by passengers.
“The blasters will be more reactive,” Michael Hundgen, creative portfolio executive producer with Walt Disney Imagineering, said during a program for media members Tuesday.
“The targets will light up. So, you know ‘Oh, I just shot that one with my colored blaster,’ so that it’s very clear that you’re either winning or losing terribly,” Hundgen said.
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The Tomorrowland ride also will sport a new character, a robot named Buddy.
“Buddy will be your sort of trainer right in the beginning, so you can learn how to use the blaster,” Hundgen said.
The ride will close sometime in August and reopen in 2026, Disney says.
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin opened in 1998 in the one-time “If You Had Wings” building. The dark ride, which uses “Toy Story” characters including Evil Emperor Zurg, has a carnival theme and passengers glide by targets. Visitors are ranked by their scores. Levels range from star cadet to galactic hero.
“This is us going back in and saying, ‘You know what, this experience needs some love,’” Hundgen said. “It’s the O.G. We’re not just sitting on our laurels and saying, ‘Well, let’s just kind of keep it running.’”
Magic Kingdom has a handful of new attractions in the works, including a villains-based land and two “Cars” rides set for Frontierland. But Disney has also recycled and rethought some classics.
Last year, the Country Bear Musical Jamboree, which debuted in 1971 with the theme park, reopened with new music, jokes, costumes and refreshed animatronics.
“It did feel a little bit long in the tooth at the time,” Hundgen said.
But there has been payoff, noted Jason Kirk, senior vice president, operations.
“What our guests tell us is, before that refresh, it was the 27th-ranked attraction in Magic Kingdom. After the refresh, the No. 6-ranked attraction in Magic Kingdom,” Kirk said. “So we knew when we saw it, we had a home run on our hands.”
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