Buzz Lightyear Refurbishment Will Make It a 21st Century Experience
All Space Rangers: prepare for launch to 21st century as Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin closes this August for a refurbishment. The ride will get a thorough glow up, with details below. Disney hasn’t announced an exact closing date yet, and puts the end date at “next year”. But they’ve also used the word “temporary”, so we expect this to be only a few months. Disney is already playtesting these updates with Imagineers, and they’re excited to see them heading to the real-world ride.
A Brand New Scene
The ride’s intro will receive a new character – Buddy the support-bot. Buddy will make sure you know how to aim and help you through final system checks on your Star Cruiser.
New Ride Vehicles
The Star Cruisers will also get a revamp, with a new design and new colors. You’ll also find video monitors with real-time scoring updates and other features. (We’re thinking this will be similar to the scoring screens on Toy Story Mania, which also show accuracy and round percentage.)
Handheld Blasters
Ooh, I am so excited for this one. The last time I rode this my seatmate cleverly turned our car near the beginning of the ride so that my blaster couldn’t see any targets. This update should definitely fix that! According to Disney, these advanced blasters will also include an always-on laser (great for re-rides) and come in two different colors per Star Cruiser, so you can tell what you are hitting and what your seatmate is hitting. Plus “new lighting, sound, and vibration effects” to help you aim.
Interactive Targets
We all love those Zs, but the static targets of today will be giving way to the reactive targets of tomorrow. New technology will let the targets light up when you hit them, and “also opens the door for a few other ideas Imagineers have in mind.”
Are you looking forward to these updates? Let us know in the comments!
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Hello Jennifer, I noticed Touring plan website mentions a closing date of August 2025 and a reopening date of late 2025. Do you know if that reopoening date is confirmed ?
Thank you !
The exact quote in Disney’s release (at least the one I worked from) is “To prepare for these updates, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will temporarily close in August and reopen next year.” There may have been later reporting somewhere else that adjusted the date, or it may have been marked that way to indicate that we don’t think it will be a very long refurb. At this point, neither closing nor reopening dates are confirmed by Disney.
Thank you Jennifer – any idea (historically) when dates start to be more “permanent” ?
Sorry, not a clue.
You have me confused. “If Buddy has gotten as far as the concept art stage yet, Disney didn’t release it.” Looking at the image above that paragraph, I would have guessed it was showing Buddy. Does “concept art” have a technical meaning that wouldn’t include that image?
Hi Tom – we wrote a draft version of this article, then found the art later. Obviously we missed making the correction in the blurb, so thanks for catching that. I’m sure you noticed that Disney kept us on our toes this morning!
Four articles in one day. I noticed. Are you getting paid per article or just salary?