Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Toy Story 5
Buzz Lightyear has had quite the legacy across movies and television. First introduced in 1995's Toy Story, the fearless Space Ranger became one of Pixar's most recognizable characters. At the same time, audiences have also seen Buzz Lightyear in several different forms (and "modes").
While the original Buzz Lightyear eventually discovered that he was a toy and not an actual Space Ranger, there have been several variants of the character in the main Toy Story franchise, with Andy and Bonnie's toys having met new versions of the toy. Likewise, even the original Buzz himself has experienced alternate modes that have changed his entire personality. Furthermore, there's also been more than one spin-off starring the legendary Space Ranger.
Keeping that in mind, here's our ranking of all the biggest variants of Buzz Lightyears seen across movies and shows (including the new Buzz Lightyears who've just debuted in Toy Story 5).
While fun and lesser-known pieces of Toy Story history, the variants of Buzz Lightyear introduced in a 1996 promotional short didn't make much of an impact.
In the short, Andy's Buzz witnesses a commercial for all-new and improved Buzz Lightyear variants, including Cyber Sonic Buzz, Battle Scar Buzz, and Sky Runner Buzz, each featuring different accessories, new colors, and upgrades. Encouraged by Woody that "the original is still the best", it's fun to imagine what these other Buzzes would have been like; however, these particular alt Buzzes were never seen beyond this in-universe commercial, hence their place at the bottom of this ranking list.
2011's Toy Story Toons: Small Fry saw the OG Buzz literally being replaced by a much smaller "Happy Meal" version of Lightyear, who was desperate to be played with. Known as Mini Buzz, the much smaller Space Ranger, voiced by Teddy Newton, tries to convince Bonnie's toys that he's their friend, simply shrunken thanks to the ball pit plastic at Poultry Palace. However, Woody and the rest of the toys know better.
Thankfully, the real Buzz escapes the restaurant and returns with Mini Buzz joining a support group for discarded kids meal toys. While very funny, Mini Buzz was only ever featured in this single short.
One of Lotso's cruelest actions in Toy Story 3 is forcibly restoring the OG Buzz to factory settings with "Demo Mode". This allows him to turn Buzz against his friends after Lightyear believes he's an actual Space Ranger once again, with Lotso as his commander. Thankfully, the change doesn't last long, but the reversion did highlight how far the toy has grown since the very first Toy Story film.
While fairly divisive, Pixar's Lightyear depicted one of the boldest versions of Buzz ever seen on-screen. Voiced by Chris Evans, the 2022 film is meant to be the in-universe sci-fi movie whose adventures inspired the toy line in the Toy Story universe, a movie that Andy himself apparently saw as a child and made him want a Buzz Lightyear of his own.
Although Evan delivered a sincere performance as the "real" Space Ranger, the movie's plot was widely criticised, particularly for being too serious and too modern-feeling as opposed to a movie Andy would have watched in the 90s, with not enough of the expected Pixar heart. Likewise, the twist that Zurg was not Buzz's father in the movie and was actually an older version of Buzz himself drew heavy criticism for breaking what has been established in the main Toy Story movies.
Following the OG Lightyear's dark turn as Demo-Mode Buzz in Toy Story 3, his fellow toys try to reset him back, only to switch Lightyear to "Spanish Mode". This turns Buzz into a far more romantic (and flamenco-dancing) hero voiced by Javier Fernandez-Peña, serenading Jessie and being far more flamboyant (at least until a TV falls on Buzz, resetting him back to normal).
While Spanish Buzz was only around for part of a single movie, he was incredibly memorable, especially when Jessie brings him back at the end of the movie to dance to a Spanish rendition of "You've Got A Friend In Me."
In Toy Story 2, the OG Buzz encounters an entire aisle at Al's Toy Barn filled with Buzz Lightyears, including an upgraded model with a blue utility belt. Similarly believing himself to be an actual Space Ranger, the OG Buzz has to try to convince this new Buzz that he too, is a toy, though the new version believes Andy's Buzz to be an impostor.
Utility Belt Buzz is also the version of Buzz who fights the toy version of the Evil Emperor Zurg, including the iconic Star Wars homage where Zurg reveals himself to be Buzz's father during their elevator fight. Even better, Buzz and Zurg are shown near the movie's end to have reconciled and are even playing catch as father and son. As such, Utility Belt Buzz provided more than one of Lightyear's most memorable movie moments.
The brand-new Toy Story 5 debuts an entire army of "Hi-Tech Edition" Buzz Lightyear toys, representing the next evolution of the toyline. Experiencing the same identity crisis seen with past Buzzes, the Hi-Tech army is eventually guided by the OG Buzz, learning that their "sole mission on this planet is to make a child happy."
Likewise, Toy Story doubles down with the Star Wars parallels with the OG Buzz telling his fellow Lightyears to "search their feelings, you'll know it to be true" regarding their existence as toys, before telling them all that "Zurg is our dad!" resulting in a resounding "Nooo!" that would make both Luke Skywalker and Utility Belt Buzz proud.
By the end of Toy Story 5, it's also revealed that each of these Hi-Tech Buzz Lightyears can actually fly with drone wings, a truly epic moment paying off Buzz and Woody's "falling with style" scene from the very first movie.
The first few minutes of Toy Story 2 remain one of Pixar's greatest movie openings of all time. Rocketing down into a planet's atmosphere with impressive speed, Buzz Lightyear takes on armies of Zurg bots, infiltrates the Evil Emperor's fortress, and finally faces Zurg himself in a truly epic sci-fi sequence...at least until he gets vaporized by his arch-foe with the reveal that Rex just lost Andy's Buzz Lightyear video game.
While not "real", the video sequence was a brilliant way to show audiences the kind of epic space adventures the OG Buzz originally believed he'd had. Likewise, when you're four years old in the theater like I was, hardly anything that cool had ever been shown to you on the big screen before.
ong before 2022's Lightyear, Disney expanded Buzz Lightyear's in-universe mythology with 2000's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, a 2D animated series watched by Andy and his toys. Running for 62 episodes with a direct-to-video movie, which kicked off the series, Buzz was joined by a crew of fellow Space Rangers as they fought all kinds of sci-fi threats, including Zurg (voiced by Wayne Knight, who voiced Al in Toy Story 2).
While Tim Allen voiced Buzz in the movie, Patrick Warburton took over the role for the actual series. Giving Buzz Lightyear an entire universe and lore, the Star Command series did some serious work fleshing out the character of Buzz Lightyear beyond the main Toy Story movies themselves.
It should be obvious that no version of Buzz Lightyear will ever surpass the original, who first debuted in 1995's Toy Story voiced by Tim Allen. The entire scope of his journey from deluded Space Ranger to embracing his role as a loyal friend and beloved toy is iconic, with Buzz himself objectively being a core pillar of the entire franchise. After more than 30 years, Andy and Bonnie's toy remains the definitive Buzz Lightyear.
Toy Story 5 is now playing in theaters from Disney and Pixar.
