Buzz Lightyear attractions

Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom's version of the ride, known as Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and the first version of the Buzz Lightyear attractions altogether is the third Omnimover ride to operate in Tomorrowland's south show building.

The layout and systems of the ride date all the way back to 1972. This space was originally home to If You Had Wings, an aviation themed ride sponsored by Eastern Airlines. Eastern Airlines dropped sponsorship of the ride for financial reasons in early June 1987. All Eastern themes were moved, and the ride was renamed If You Could Fly. If You Could Fly closed down in January 1989.

Six months after If You Had Wings/If You Could Fly closed down, the ride reopened as a completely redressed ride called Delta Dreamflight, sponsored by Delta Air Lines. Delta sponsored the attraction until January 1996, when, due to financial reasons and sponsorship of the 1996 Summer Olympics, they withdrew their sponsorship. The ride was renamed simply Dreamflight until June 1996 when the ride became known as Take Flight. Take Flight closed in January 1998 to be transformed into Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, which opened ten months later. Space Ranger Spin thus has a combination of the elements of its predecessors and all new scenes (the speed tunnel is the original speed tunnel from If You Had Wings and Delta Dreamflight).

Queue and pre show

The queue of the ride shows different pictures of Buzz Lightyear and the Little Green Men. It also shows the battery cells and pipes plugging into Star Command. Guests then pass the Buzz Lightyear animatronic (This version of the animatronic has his wings open and is not holding anything). After listening to what he has to say, guests then leave that room and board the XP 37. Attached to them are ion laser canons and a joystick to spin the cart.

Ride

The ride begins when the cart enters a room with four blue colored Astronauts holding guns aiming at a disco ball. The guests then enter the robot attack scene. An orange robot called the Box O Bot and a blue and purple robot called the Giganto bot are present in this scene as well as the dogbot and egg shaped green one called the Batterybot. The ride then slopes down a short hill into Planet Z. Guests will encounter many aliens including space chickens, space spiders, and others. There is also a green goo shooting Volcano. The guests then enter Zurg's fortress where they see a battery delivery. Zurg is in his spaceship which he dubs his Spiderbot. The next room shows the aliens showing the guests that Zurg has escaped. The next room is the projection tunnel where Zurg is shooting at guests. Guests can shoot him back as he will retreat than go back to normal. The final room shows Buzz Lightyear fighting with Zurg in the now destroyed Spiderbot. The Little green men help Buzz tear it apart. Then the unload area shows Buzz Lightyear thanking the guests while holding Zurg in the claw. Guests will then exit the ride into Store command where they can purchase a photo of them self on the ride.

Disneyland

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters at Disneyland

Disneyland's version of the ride is called Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Like the Magic Kingdom version at Walt Disney World, it uses infrastructure from previous attractions. Its show building originally housed the Circle-Vision 360° theater. In 1997, as part of a major makeover of Tomorrowland, the Circle-Vision theater was removed and the space became part of the queue for the now infamous Rocket Rods. The Rocket Rods, which were prone to breakdowns, ran from 1998 to 2000. This space was then unused until 2005, when Astro Blasters opened.

A key difference between this ride and its counterpart at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom is that its laser guns can be removed from their mounts to allow for more accurate shooting (similar to Men in Black: Alien Attack). The laser guns at Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom cannot be removed from their mounts and have limited movement.

Queue

Astro Blasters has a lot more dialogue than Space Ranger Spin did. This ride's queue(as well as the other Astro Blasters/ Laser Blast) includes a walkie talkie with Buzz Lightyear on it reading his wrist communication device. The speakers provide backstory to the ride and how Zurg is attacking Green Planet, home of the Little green men. It also includes a picture of Zurg as wanted criminal number one. It has pictures of The green squadron leaving to attack. It also has posters describing the blasters and the XP 40 Star cruiser. In the Fast Pass line, there is a picture of Buzz Lightyear shooting a purple, green and orange colored alien. It also shows Lightyear leading a team of Space rangers as well as making a cameo for Princess Mira Nova(from the show Buzz Lightyear of Star command). The guests enter the briefing room to see Buzz Lightyear(This animatronic has no wings out and is holding an Astro Blaster. He later uses it in his speech about what the guests must do). The guest proceed down a long Corridor seeing the LGMs testing the Blasters. The guests than board the Star cruiser.

Ride

The Ride begins in the Robot attack scene with The Box O Bot, The Gigantobot (who have changed positions and coloring as in WDW's version, The Box O Bot was neon orange and was on the left side of the track and the Giganto bot was dark blue and purple and was on the right side of the track. Now Box o bot is just orange and is on the right and the Gigantobot has a red body and red ears. ) the dog bot(who has a lighter yellow) and the batterybot (who is now red and has a target on his nose[this variation is in Paris and in California while a similar version with a target on his forhead is in Tokyo and Hong Kong]) are all present during this scene. There is also a mini space Ranger in what looks like a X wing. The Guests enter Zurg's DreadNought down a hallway shooting batteries until you reach his laboratory. Zurg is shooting his "Zurgatronic Ion Blaster" (he dubbed it this in BLoSC). He is standing behind his now damaged Spiderbot. Guests are about to transition into the next room while robots are being electrocuted trying to land the DreadNought. The Guests enter Planet Z(In the France Version of the ride Buzz Lightyear says "Attention Space Rangers, you've landed on Planet Z! Be ready for anything.). Guests can shoot aliens including a call back to the pterodactyl that belongs to Sid Phillips in the First Toy Story Film. Before leaving Planet Z, Zurg is laughing in when he thinks he has triumph. He is about to shoot Green Planet. Guests then enter a light tunnel with Zs around it. The next room is similar to Space Ranger Spin. Buzz Lightyear is using his Astro Blaster to take down Zurg's Spiderbot. The Green Squadron are helping Buzz take down the ship. The final room has the LGMs signing the receipt to return Zurg to Al's Toys Barn. Zurg Promises revenge as the Green Squadron thank the guests. Buzz Lightyear thanks the guests. He tells them to put the Blasters where they belong and to check the score board. Guests exit the ride to Little Green Men's Store command.

Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland

Former site of Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters at Hong Kong Disneyland

At Hong Kong Disneyland, the ride is also called Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and is a highly identical clone of the Tokyo version of the ride. The Tokyo version is the original version of the ride and all of the ride's audio is in Japanese. In Hong Kong however, the Entire ride is in English and is only in Chinese for safety rules. Those two versions also featured a floating Planet Z out side of the space ship. Their version's cruisers are called XP 38. On March 3, 2017, Disney announced that the ride will be closing and would be replaced with an Ant-Man themed attraction titled Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle!, making this to be the second Marvel themed ride at Hong Kong Disneyland. The ride closed on August 31, 2017. However, Tokyo Disneyland's version is still operating today.^[1]

Disneyland Paris

At Disneyland Paris, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast replaced the Circle-Vision 360° production Le Visionarium, which closed in 2004. This version of the ride is much like the Disneyland version, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, except for the presence of a tribute to Le Visionarium: When you are in the robot attack scene at the beginning, if you look beneath the left arm of the Box-O-Bot, you might be able to see 9-Eye (the Circumvisual Photodroid from Le Visionarium) hiding there. However, it is an easy to miss tribute.

In the Paris version of the ride, the dialogue is the same but translated into French as well as English. In the queue, the Buzz Lightyear animatronic speaks English, as well as French for those who speak French, and don't understand English. Some areas of the ride provide both dialogues, but in the scene where Zurg's weapon is half-destroyed, it switches from English to French in a 6 dialogue loop as it does in the California version of the ride. This ride's cruiser is called the XP 41 calling back to the California version.

Shanghai Disneyland

The most recent version of this attraction is called Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue. It is more heavily based on the opening sequence of Toy Story 2, taking place on the planet where Zurg has his lair set up, and featuring the same style of robots as in the film.

Queue and Pre show

The Queue has the look of a Star Tours type attraction. It looks like the International Space Station. The walls are covered with pictures of Buzz Lightyear himself. Video monitors are displayed on some of those walls. The monitors play videos of the LGMS,and Zurg with his new weapon. Buzz Lightyear will also appear on the screen fighting the robots. Most of the videos show the Star command space ship. Each ship has a red and green blaster on each side. After the queue, guests will walk into the room where the space cruisers are.

Ride

The Ride begins on a planet where the Little Green Men are helping guests take down the Zurg Bots. As well as Buzz being there using his laser. He is later seen fighting two of the robotic giants. Afterwords, the vehicles move into a mine where Zurg has been digging to get his weapon to fire at the planet. He sets up more robots as Buzz struggles to stop the Evil Emperor's mining. After a while, Zurg is defeated and swears he will get revenge. On your way out(like all the attractions) you see a scoreboard with the different scores from Level one to Seven.