TOY STORY LAND: Join the Carnival Action on Toy Story Mania!

Step right up for Andy’s Room carnival fun and try your skill at Toy Story Mania! midway games!

Toy Story Mania https://www.magicalmouseschoolhouse.com — Photo used by permission from WDW News.

The countdown has begun: 6 days until TOY STORY LAND opens!

The 2008 opening of Toy Story Mania! marked the first time Walt Disney Imagineering designed an attraction to premiere simultaneously at Walt Disney World and at Disney’s California Adventure. Inspired by the Disney•Pixar Toy Story films, this ride “shrinks” Guests to the size of Andy’s toys and plunges them right into the action of the Midway Games Play Set Andy got for his latest birthday.

The ride queue is themed with oversized toys, from a Lincoln Log structure to crayons to the books on Andy’s shelf. A five-foot tall Mr. Potato Head (seen here with actor Don Rickles) hosts the action as a carnival barker. He was the first Audio-Animatronic character that could remove and replace one of its own body parts (his ear). He used to interact with Guests by looking directly at them, and his mouth appeared to move realistically with the words he speaks. However, over time, he stopped functioning properly. It is unknown if a repaired or updated version will grace the queue once the new Land opens.

Toy Story Mania! was Disney’s first interactive 3-D ride, as it is also a game.

Wearing special glasses, Guests can actually see the virtual objects they launch as they hit (or miss) targets in five different game booths. Adding 4-D special-effects technology, riders may sense objects whirring past them as they pop out of the 3-D scenes or feel the spray from bursting virtual water balloons. Players compete against their tram partners and can compare their tallied scores at the end of the ride. Some of the games are available online for Guests who can’t make it to the park.

After Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3 opened in theaters on June 18, 2010, the ride was updated to feature Rex and Trixie’s Dino Darts, replacing Bo Peep’s Baaa-loon Pop. In early 2018, a third track was added. Currently, only one track is open while things get shifted around a bit to relocate the entrance in the new TOY STORY LAND area.

Shrink to the size of Andy’s toys and play the Midway Games Play Set he got for his bday @ Toy Story Mania!

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Today’s Takeaway:

A lot of traditional schools around the nation have a field day near the end of the school year. Why not follow their example, but plus it a bit? Create some cool midway games and invite your friends over for carnival day. Organize a larger event, if you have space, by getting together with other homeschoolers at your co-op or support group, OR just have family game night with your moms and dads, sisters and brothers.

You will need tables and/or desks, poster board, tape, paint or markers, small prizes, and some other miscellaneous materials. Click the link here to access a tutorial from eHow for How to Build Midway Games in a Carnival, creating a ring-toss and a balloon-pop game; and watch the following video to see more clever ideas (as seen at a school event), such as mini-golf, beanbag toss and more.