BAY LAKE, Fla. – Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin at Disney’s Magic Kingdom blasts back April 8 with new tech and brighter visuals, but still brings the same competitive fun: take down the evil Emperor Zurg and chase Galactic Hero bragging rights.
Key upgrades include handheld blasters, all-digital targets, and refreshed ride vehicles designed to make it easier to track individual scores. The refurb included a refreshed paint job at the queue entrance and through the queue itself.
“We’ve put a lot of love into reimagining this classic and keeping it really the same experience. You’ll see the thoughtful evolution,“ said Justin DeTolla, creative director at Walt Disney Imagineering.
The new vehicles provide a red blaster and a green blaster so riders can see which shots are credited to them, and riders can move and aim more freely. Blasters now deliver haptic feedback and sound cues to indicate successful hits. Imagineering also switched to all-digital targets responsive to light and visual effects, allowing new surprises without altering the core challenge.
The update also introduces Buddy, a charming new support bot that we’ve added to the world of Star Command.
Created by Walt Disney Imagineering and Pixar, Buddy appears as an in-world support bot designed to perform final systems checks on departing Star Cruisers and offer practice paddles so riders can calibrate blasters.
A life-sized View-Master toy in the queue includes an image that shows an Easter egg Buddy.
Imagineering said the team preserved the highest possible rank, Galactic Hero, while raising the ride’s scoring limit and switching to all-digital targets.
“You can hit over 999,999 for the very first time, so you can go to a million points and beyond. So we’re very excited for that,” Alison said.
Disney made no prior announcements that the preshow Audio-Animatronic Buzz Lightyear would receive an upgrade, similar to the advanced motorized figures recently introduced on Frozen Ever After. The preshow Buzz still uses a projection-screen face rather than a fully animated physical face.