Toy Soldier Parachute Drop
| Toy Soldier Parachute Drop | |
|---|---|
| Park | Walt Disney Studios Park · Hong Kong Disneyland |
| Land / area | Toy Story Playland (Paris) · Toy Story Land (Hong Kong) |
| Type | Parachute drop tower |
| Opened | August 17, 2010 (Paris) · November 17, 2011 (Hong Kong) |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Operating |
Toy Soldier Parachute Drop is a parachute-jump-style drop tower ride in the Toy Story lands of two Disney resorts: Toy Story Playland at Walt Disney Studios Park — the second park of Disneyland Paris, since renamed Disney Adventure World — and Toy Story Land at Hong Kong Disneyland. At Paris and in most reference works the name is written in the plural, Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop; Hong Kong Disneyland uses the singular "Toy Soldier". The ride, built by Intamin, casts guests as recruits of the Green Army Men from the Toy Story films and drops them, gently and repeatedly, from a tower more than 80 feet (about 25 metres) high. The Paris version opened on August 17, 2010, and the Hong Kong version on November 17, 2011.[1]
History
The attraction recreates a short sequence in the original Toy Story (1995), in which the Green Army Men parachute down through the banisters of Andy's staircase to scout out his birthday presents. A parachute ride on this idea had been considered much earlier for Disney California Adventure, but that park received the Maliboomer space-shot tower instead, and the parachute concept waited for the Toy Story lands planned overseas.[2]
Toy Story Playland opened at Walt Disney Studios Park on August 17, 2010, timed to the release of Toy Story 3 that summer, with three rides — the Parachute Drop, RC Racer and Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin — in a corner of the park dressed as Andy's backyard, where guests are shrunk to the size of a toy.[3] Hong Kong's Toy Story Land followed as the first of three expansion lands at that park, opening with the same three rides on November 17, 2011.[4] No version has been built at the United States resorts, so the ride remains an overseas-only Toy Story attraction.
Experience
Guests enter through a Green Army Men training base, themed at toy scale: an oversized plastic lookout tower, a walkie-talkie and crates, human-sized army accessories, and a large Playskool baby monitor that periodically crackles into life with reports on Andy's whereabouts.[5] The tower stands between its two neighbours in each land — Slinky Dog and RC Racer — and anchors the entrance, visible from well beyond the land itself.[6]
Riders board one of six parachutes, each a bench for six guests seated beneath a camouflage canopy. The parachutes are hoisted to the top of the tower — high enough for a panorama over the surrounding park — and then released into a series of controlled rises and falls, floating down rather than dropping in freefall, before settling back at the base.[7] The motion is deliberately mild, and the minimum height to ride is 81 centimetres (32 inches), as listed for both parks.[8] A single-rider line operates to fill spare seats, a useful provision on a low-capacity ride whose standby queues are often among the longest in its land.
See also
References
- ↑ Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop Disneyland Paris 2026. Julie Ears. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop. Disney Wiki. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop Guide – Disneyland Paris Tips. DLP Tips. Retrieved 2026-11-14.