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20 Fun Facts About Toy Story Midway Mania

By Cassie

Step right up! Don’t be shy! Come try these carnival midway games of skill at this incredibly popular attraction in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Andy’s toys have come to life and put together a carnival game he got for his birthday. They invite you in to try the games. You will see the empty boxes in the bedroom. You will find evidence of his other toys in the queue area too. This attraction is intended for family members from young to old, to enjoy and hopefully, to ride again. They have definitely achieved that with Toy Story Midway Mania. (I have italicized the fun facts for you.)

The queue is usually full of guests as this is one of the, if not the hardest, FastPass+ to acquire. The FP+ line enters to the right side of the entrance and takes you through a very short queue area where you get a peek into Andy’s room. The Standby queue weaves through scattered toys, in very large versions of themselves. So you become the size of a toy as you pass by playing cards, a Paint by Number, Barrel of Monkey’s, Tinker Toys, Sorry, Chutes and Ladders, Checkers, Battleship, View Master picture discs, coloring pages, and a Lincoln Log house. You may remember some of these toys from the 60’s and 70’s, which is the time period of Toy Story. This shrinking to the size of a toy is very important as the toys won’t come to life if humans are around, remember?

That voice you hear belongs to a Mr. Potato Head audio animatronic barker that calls you in to play the game. Listen to his jokes and watch him entertain the crowd. You will see games on the ceilings and an animated giant Etch-A-Sketch. Crayons abound. As you pass by the Lincoln Log house you will see trays of 3-D glasses, take one. You will need these to see the screens on the ride. You are directed up a flight of stairs where you walk down a short hallway decorated like a carnival tent, then cross a small bridge where you are given great views of Andy’s room and other guests on the ride. Then you go down a flight of stairs to the Cast Member grouping people to load the ride. As your ride vehicle stops before you, it allows a couple of seconds for the other guests to get off the ride then your gate opens and you step in. Get your safety bar pulled down and look around the room at all the great detailing here. We see strings of Christmas lights, books that Andy liked to read, even a working night light, all extra-large size of course. The load area for the ride is enclosed in a Tinker Toy “house”.

It is time to put on your 3D glasses! Your ride vehicle will spin you around a few times and bring you in line before a screen. This is why you need the 3D glasses. The first screen is a practice round so you can learn how to aim and shoot your toy cannon. You pull the string on your cannon after you have aimed it at a target. Your cannon is tossing pies at the bull’s-eyes being held by two of your favorite Toy Story characters. There are five mini-games that follow this pie-throwing practice round. Each mini-game is hosted by a couple of Toy Story or Toy Story 3 characters. Your on-board display will tell you your score for each game, your accumulated score and your accuracy rate. It has been said that guests “break” over one million virtual china plates each day.

As you are spinning around you will notice a great deal of artwork off to the sides that use black light, which were designed and painted while the artists wore 3D glasses.

Each mini-game has a hidden “Easter egg” or a target that can trigger high value additional targets.

“Hamm and Eggs”, the first scoring mini-game has you shooting targets at stationary and moving farm animals. For higher scoring shoot the fox in the hen house, then look for the chickens running out that incrementally increase as you shoot them; shoot the two pigs on the fence, they are replaced by a cat and shoot the cat. Cat point values go up to 2000 points each. Your toy gun is hurtling plastic eggs.

“Rex and Trixie’s Dino Darts” is shooting darts at balloons. Aim for those 6 lava flow balloons which will trigger an eruption of 500 point balloons. If you have time aim for one of the comets up in the corners.

“Green Army Men Break the Plates”-this one is so much fun. Break the high point plates, not missing the gold ones. There will be a plate tossed up, on both sides, which you and your ride partner need to break to cause even higher point plates to be tossed up. Your toy gun is tossing baseballs.

“Buzz Lightyear Ring Toss”-you are tossing rings over aliens, some on rocket ships, and a group of eight are on a ship that you and your partner should concentrate hitting before any of them can regenerate. If you do it this will turn into a monster robot’s mouth and try to shoot all you can into his mouth the second time it opens when you earn 500 points for each ring. While waiting for this to open shoot the higher point rockets on the sides. Your toy gun is tossing rubber rings.

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“Woody’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Shootin’ Gallery”-shoot at the swinging doors on the saloon to trigger higher point targets to explode out the top. Keep shooting even when your ride vehicle begins to move. This opens up into a scene with four mine carts riding toward you, two for you, and two for your riding partner. Shoot all the targets on the mine carts. Near the beginning you will also see a bat appear above the carts, shoot it. Shoot some more carts until the bat appears again at 5000 point value. If you hit the bat again then the points on the mine carts will all be 5000 points. It ends with a large target before you that you just need to hit as fast as you can that can really turn your game around. Your toy gun is shooting suction-cup-tipped darts.

Before you spin back to the unload area you are shown your score and what toy level you are. If you pull the trigger on your toy gun it will release confetti. You will see a screen that tells you the high score of that ride vehicle, high score of the day and month. Make sure you check your accuracy rating too to see how good your aim is.

Ride Vehicle:

  • Two-sided cars holding two people on each side
  • Cars are dispersed in sets of two, so it could accommodate a party of 8 wanting to play at the same time
  • Small children may sit on their parents’ laps if their legs fit under the safety bar
  • Safety bar for each seat, and toy gun for each seat
  • Vehicles spin as they move along the track
  • Toy guns that operate very much like the ones on Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold at DisneyQuest
  • The toy guns are placed on the same mechanism that the safety bar is on so it will accommodate almost any size rider, keeping the gun at a comfortable height for every rider.
  • There are special ride vehicles for guests with wheelchairs.

Attraction details:

  • Found in Pixar Place of Hollywood Studios
  • Replaced Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Play It!
  • No Single Rider line
  • Dark ride
  • 5-6 minutes duration
  • There are over 150 computers that are needed to keep track of each time you are firing your spring loaded toy canon, along with all the spinning and moving of your ride vehicle.
  • There is no height or age restriction.
  • Each game play area is 30 seconds long

For a no obligation, FREE Quote with new bookings contact our sponsor Magical Vacation Planner by calling: 1(407)442-0289 Or for a free no obligation quote with new bookings you can fill out the form by Clicking HERE!

Attraction Timeline:

  • January 2007-attraction is announced
  • May 31, 2008-official grand opening
  • June 17, 2008-California version opened and this makes history as the first attraction to go through creation in two Disney parks at the same time
  • May 21, 2010 changed one of the mini-games “Bo Peep’s Baaa-loon Pop” was replaced with “Rex and Trixie’s Dino Darts”. This marks the addition of a new character from Toy Story 3
  • July 9, 2012-Japan version opened

Character Meet and Greet: Woody, Buzz and sometimes Jesse are available across the street from TSMM in Pixar Place.

Gift Shop: there is a small door-less gift shop across the plaza with Toy Story and Pixar themed merchandise.

Restaurants nearby: Hey Howdy Hey Take Away is an outdoor kiosk offering frozen beverages, bottled beverages, hot dogs and ice cream. The closest restaurant would be Brown Derby for table service, and a counter service location is Studio Catering Company, just beyond Pixar Place on your left. There is also a Joffrey’s Coffee kiosk next to the entrance of Pixar Place.

Closest restrooms are located just to the right side of the attraction. There are more just past the far end of Pixar Place and the Backlot Tour entrance.

About Cassie

Cassie L. I am a lifelong Disney fan. I attended Walt Disney World in 1971, and was there during the opening week of EPCOT, and have visited the Disney Parks for than 30 times. I have had the privilege of visiting Disneyland as a child, and then again with my children. My family recently moved from the northeastern United States to the Walt Disney World area. I now have cast members in my family and enjoy hearing the magical stories at the end of a shift. I love visiting all of the parks and getting to try more Disney food and being able to share it with you to help you plan your own magical day at Disney.