Slinky Dog and Hot Wheels

Continuing our exploration of Toy Story Playland at Walt Disney Studios Park, we come across Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin, a game Andy has left set up in his backyard box and all. The queue for the attraction winds through fences of Lincoln Logs and right into the box itself. On the side of the box, you'll notice a reference to James Industries. Richard James invented Slinky as a toy back in the '40s. Of course, it's also appropriate that James Varney provided the voice of Slinky Dog in the first two Toy Story movies (he passed in 2000, prior to production of Toy Story 3).

Once inside the box, you'll find all the game pieces and instructions needed to play the Zigzag Spin game.

For the attraction, though, we're going to leave the box behind and join Slink on a mad chase after his own tail. Rows of seats are built into the coils of the Slinky, all surrounding a dog bowl filled with treats. Once everyone's in place, it's time for the spinning fun to begin - round and round, over and down, faster and faster. Next thing you know, you'll have a big grin on your face, just like Slinky Dog!

Nearby is the feature attraction of Toy Story Playland, RC Racer! While the ride features the RC character from Toy Story, the setting here is very much about Andy's Hot Wheels cars. From the carrying case marquee to the molded-plastic sections of the queue, every detail is just right.

I love that several of the "decals" on the toy set, like the ones above, are peeling off just like they often did in real life. All the details in the queue are fantastic. I love the trees pruned to resemble traffic cones and the walkway, designed to look like snap-together sections of track.

There's a gas station playset (Dinoco, of course, the brand seen in all the Pixar films), and every element looks plastic and toy like.

The toy illusion continues as you enter the load building for the ride, where parts of our RC model car are seen still attached to the plastic frames on which they came.

The car assembled and a half-pipe of Hot Wheels orange track curved and waiting, it's time to board. RC rolls back and scoots forward, then he rolls back some more and scoots even further ahead. Before long, the car is zooming up and back, nearly to the ends of the track. It's actually quite thrilling and provides a great view of the park and a fine conclusion to our day at Walt Disney Studios.