Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
| Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disneyland |
| Land / area | Tomorrowland (Disneyland) |
| Type | Interactive shooting dark ride |
| Opened | March 17, 2005
|
| Status | Operating |
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters is an interactive shooting dark ride in Tomorrowland (Disneyland) at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Riders board two-person space cruisers and, as recruits of Star Command, use handheld laser cannons to shoot light-up targets through a series of scenes from Pixar's Toy Story films, scoring points as they help Buzz Lightyear defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg. At the end of the ride, each rider's score earns them a tongue-in-cheek Star Command rank, from Star Cadet upwards.
The Disneyland ride is one of a family of Buzz Lightyear attractions built at Disney parks around the world, where the same basic concept appears under several names.
History
The concept first opened at Magic Kingdom in Florida in 1998 as Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and versions followed at other parks before California received its own. Disneyland's version arrived as part of the build-up to the park's 50th anniversary.
The building it occupies had already lived two lives. The space was originally the Circle-Vision 360° theatre, where guests stood surrounded by film screens. When Tomorrowland was remodelled in the late 1990s, the theatre space became part of the indoor queue for Rocket Rods, the high-speed ride that ran from 1998 to 2000. After Rocket Rods closed, its queue stood empty for several years until it was rebuilt as Astro Blasters.[1]
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters soft-opened on March 10, 2005 and officially opened on March 17, 2005.[2] It received a further ceremonial grand opening on May 5, 2005, the day Disneyland launched its 50th-anniversary "Happiest Celebration on Earth."
Versions of the attraction have operated worldwide: Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom, Astro Blasters at Tokyo Disneyland and formerly at Hong Kong Disneyland, Laser Blast at Disneyland Paris, and Planet Rescue at Shanghai Disneyland. The names and details vary, but the scoring shooter format is common to all of them.
Experience
The queue is styled as Star Command headquarters. An Audio-Animatronic Buzz Lightyear briefs recruits on the mission — Zurg is stealing batteries, the power source for toys — with the aid of a viewfinder-style briefing display, and wall panels explain the scoring symbols. Different target shapes are worth different point values, and lit targets are worth more than dark ones, a rule that rewards watching the scenes rather than firing at random.
The ride vehicles travel on an Omnimover-style system, moving continuously through the scenes. Each cruiser carries two riders, each with their own cannon and score display, plus a joystick that lets a rider spin the vehicle to face targets behind or to the side. A key difference from the Florida original is that Disneyland's cannons lift out of their mounts, giving riders a freer aim.
Scenes pass Zurg's spider-like robot henchmen, a planet surface under attack, and a final confrontation with Zurg himself aboard his ship. The ride ends in a score reveal and a ranking chart, and Disneyland's version added an on-ride photo in which riders can see their final scores — for a time, guests could email the photo to themselves for free, a novelty when the ride opened.
Because every target hit changes a personal score, the ride has unusually high repeat value: two riders in the same vehicle are quietly competing, and regulars learn which targets hide the largest values. That game layer, rare in a classic dark ride format, is the core of the attraction's appeal.