Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and inspired by Disney·Pixar's Toy Story franchise, the attraction was first unveiled during a press conference at Walt Disney World in January 2007. The Florida version was officially opened by Tim Allen on May 31, 2008, on the same date that the Buzz Lightyear action figure launched onboard Space Shuttle flight STS-124 (whose objective was to deliver the largest module of the space station - Kibō, the Japanese Experiment Module pressurized section, developed by JAXA),[1][2] while the California version officially opened on June 17, 2008.[3][4] The Japan version of the attraction opened on July 9, 2012.[5]
Park guests wear 3-D glasses (Carnival Games Goggles) aboard spinning vehicles that travel through virtual environments based on classic carnival midway games.[6][7] Ride vehicles seat up to eight in four back-to-back pairs. Small children are also able to ride on an adult's lap if they are facing forward with their legs securely underneath the safety bar.
Mini-games
The attraction features five mini-games after a practice round, where the player can hit targets from 100 to 5,000 points. Each mini game includes at least one "Easter egg" that can trigger additional targets or gameplay changes. In order, the games are:
Pie Throw Practice Booth (pie toss target practice game, a no points introduction)
Hamm & Eggs (egg throw game featuring Hamm and Buttercup from Toy Story 3)
Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts (dart throw game; replaced Bo Peep's Baa-loon Pop)
Green Army Men Shoot Camp (baseball throw / plate breaking game)
Buzz Lightyear's Flying Tossers (ring toss game)
Woody's Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gallery (suction cup shooting game)
Each guest's score is recorded by an onboard display screen as points are acquired with individual toy cannons firing simulated projectiles at virtual targets. Toy Story characters including Woody, Hamm, Buzz Lightyear, Rex, Trixie and many more characters appear during the attraction's different games.
Similar technology had been used in Disney attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold at DisneyQuest and several Buzz Lightyear attractions. According to Disney, it is the first attraction created simultaneously by Walt Disney Imagineering for two theme parks.[8]
The line at both parks features a large Mr. Potato HeadAudio-Animatronic figure that interacts with guests through pre-recorded snippets of dialogue performed by late comedian Don Rickles, who voiced the character in the Toy Story films. The sophisticated figure identifies people in the audience, sings and tells jokes.
Former mini-games
Only five mini-games can be used at a time. So far, only one game has left the attraction. On May 21, 2010, the original dart throwing game, Bo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop, was replaced with "Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts" (updated with the release of Toy Story 3).[9]
Timeline
January 2007: Toy Story Midway Mania is announced at a press conference for Disney's Hollywood Studios. The ride is also announced for Disney's California Adventure as the first part of their expansion.
2007: Construction begins on the ride in California and Florida.
May 31, 2008: Toy Story Midway Mania officially opens at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
June 17, 2008: Toy Story Midway Mania officially opens at Disney's California Adventure.
June 12, 2009: The highest score ever recorded on Toy Story Mania was achieved, with BCC scoring 500,000 points.
January 1, 2010: Single Rider line is removed at Disney's California Adventure.
May 21, 2010: Bo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop is replaced by Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts to promote the release of Toy Story 3.
July 9, 2012: Toy Story Midway Mania officially opens at Tokyo DisneySea along with the new Toyville Trolley Park under a shortened name, “Toy Story Mania!”.
March 5, 2015: Disney officials announce plans to expand the Hollywood Studios version of the ride to improve capacity[10]
May 2016, The third track officially opens at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
April 6, 2017: FastPass is added at Disney California Adventure.[11]
June 23, 2018: With the opening of Pixar Pier at Disney California Adventure, the ride reopened with a new exterior paint job and a new entrance to the ride's regular and fastpass queue.
June 30, 2018: With the opening of Toy Story Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios, a new entrance to Toy Story Mania was opened inside the new park expansion, and the old entrance was closed and converted to emergency exits.[12] The ride’s name was also officially shortened in Florida to “Toy Story Mania!” just like Tokyo.
Fall 2021: With the retiring of FastPass in California & Florida, a new plate of text reading “Lightning Lane”was installed at both parks, covering the old ones.
Technology
At its debut, Toy Story Midway Mania! was one of the most technologically sophisticated attractions yet developed by Walt Disney Imagineering, costing an estimated $80 million to design and build.[6] It marked the company's first use of industrial Ethernet for a ride's control system.[13] Many of the parts for the attraction's control system came from two of Disney's corporate sponsors, Siemens AG (from Spaceship Earth) and Hewlett-Packard (from Mission: Space).[13] The ride was the biggest system that had been built at the time and ran on one of Disney's most advanced automation systems to date.[14]
The control system is divided into three components: one for the ride vehicles, one for the games and one more for the attraction's special effects.[13]Programmable logic controllers in the vehicles alert the control system wirelessly via ProfiNET RT to the vehicle's speed and location. The central controller then sends its instructions back to the vehicles using a hard-wired network within the track. The one-way communications flow adds a factor of safety, even though the wireless network is protected against outside interference, such as a denial-of-service attack.[13]
The attraction features more than 150 PCs, which includes one HPWindows XP PC for each of Midway Mania's 56 game screens, as well as others that control the special effects at each game.[13] At the game screens, two tracking systems provide the game control system with the vehicle's exact location, making sure that gameplay is not affected by even minor differences in vehicle position. According to Jody Gerstner, executive director of show and ride controls, "The game doesn’t care if the car parks in the same spot every time. It just needs to know where each car has actually parked, and it can compensate."[13] Additional sensors in the spring-action shooter provide information on its orientation, which is fine-tuned using data on the position of the ride vehicle at the screen and the rotation of the seats on the vehicle base.[13]
All three sub-systems work together to handle any contingency. For example, if a delay or other vehicle stoppage is detected (such as might occur if the loading and unloading of the ride vehicles is taking longer than expected), the control system can command the affected game screens to launch a non-scoring practice round, so that guests may continue to shoot targets while they wait. Similarly, it can instruct the show control system to play an audio spiel telling guests about the delay.[13]
As the games are software-based, changes can be made to the attraction's lineup of games without significant effort. In April 2010, Disney Parks announced plans to replace Bo Peep's Baaa-loon Pop with Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts. The change took place on May 21, 2010.[15] The new game includes one of the new characters from the Toy Story 3 feature film, which was released in June 2010.[15]
Locations
Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney California Adventure in 2009
Disney California Adventure: Pixar Pier, beneath the Incredicoaster roller coaster, a space formerly occupied by themed midway games and food service locations. The area is designed to resemble a Victorian-era seaside carnival. Pixar Pier replaced Paradise Pier on June 23, 2018, and the attraction located in California is the main attraction of a "Toy Story" themed area in the new land.
In October 2014, Disney's Hollywood Studios began testing a new procedure that would require all riders to have FastPass reservations for the attraction.[16] The test, scheduled to last only a few days, eliminated the standby line that is used by visitors who have not already obtained a FastPass ticket for the ride, either because they had all been claimed or they were holding FastPasses for other attractions.[16] Some analysts suggest that this process could become more common in years to come as amusement parks attempt to keep guests from getting frustrated or waiting in extremely long lines.[16]
Name variation
The attraction is being referred to as both Toy Story Midway Mania! and Toy Story Mania!. While the attraction marquees and some in-park signage read the former, the latter has been used in press releases to the news media,[17][18] used in both resorts' advertisements, and on the disneyland.com, disneyworld.com, and official promotional website for the attraction, along with attraction merchandise. Websites for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World both identified the attraction with the registered trademark "Toy Story Midway Mania!" as of September 2014. As of February 2019, the attraction is known as "Toy Story Mania!", except for the Disney California Adventure version which is still known as “Toy Story Midway Mania!”
Music
Music for the queue area was arranged and recorded by Jennifer Hammond at Capitol Studios with a live orchestra. More than an hour of music was recorded, all based on the first two Toy Story scores composed by Randy Newman.[19] It went on to be featured at Toy Story Lands across the globe.
Merchandising
Disney Interactive Studios released a Toy Story Mania!video game in September 2009 exclusively for the NintendoWii console.[20] The game features gameplay and levels similar to those in the theme park attractions, along with original levels and features.[20]Jakks Pacific also released their "Plug It In & Play TV Game" version of Toy Story Mania! in 2010 featuring the original levels & Infini-D technology (Infini-D glasses are included). A version for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was released on October 30, 2012, and developed by High Voltage Software.[21]
Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane available
Disney Premier Access available
Wheelchair accessible
Assistive listening available
Closed captioning available
