Around the World: The Big, the New, the Odd

Tobu World Square: Near Tokyo. Replicas of the pyramids of Giza, the Taj Mahal, the World Trade Center, and many other structures reproduced at 1/25th their original size.

Siam Park City: Near Bangkok. Claims to have the tallest water slide in the world. Offers live Thai music concerts and imported specialty attractions.

Beto Carrero World: Penha, Brazil: An $80 million venture that draws 1.3 million visitors a year. Opened in 1991, it highlights themes such as cowboys, pirates, African adventures, and medieval knights. Billed as Latin America's largest and the world's fifth-largest theme park.

Legoland: $126 million park being built near Windsor, England. The original is in Denmark.

Port Aventura, Barcelona, Spain: Opened in May; cost $400 million; expects 2.65 million visitors.

Disney Institute: Orlando, Fla.: Leader in ''edu-tainment,'' new ways to combine learning with amusement. Guests choose from 80 hands-on programs. Opens in February 1996.

Family Entertainment Centers: Worldwide trend toward small amusement parks within shopping malls for families tight on time and money.

Interactive Entertainment Centers: Computer-generated ''rides'' where participants take control. ''Virtual Glider'' suspends rider in harnesses with the sensation of flying over a city or the Grand Canyon. Another, from Sega Enterprises in Irvine, Calif., puts riders in virtual race cars that shake, rattle, and roll.

Sky Coaster: Tower in which 1 to 3 riders in prone position are suspended by a cable to a height of 180 feet and released to swing in a giant arc-like pendulum at 60 m.p.h. First appeared in Kennywood Park in suburban Pittsburgh. A 250-foot version is scheduled to be installed at Whisky Pete's in Jean, Nev.

Space Shot: Riders sit around the base of a 225-foot tower with backs to tower. Expanding compressed air catapults riders from zero to 40 m.p.h in 1.5 seconds, 0-70 within 3 seconds. Riders experience weightlessness, then negative gravity as they pogo-stick to a stop after 30 seconds. In 1996, a version will appear atop the 900-foot Bob Stupak Tower in Las Vegas.

Outer Limits: At King's Dominion and King's Island Parks in the US, roller coaster is lifted by power-rocket sleds instead of conventional creaky chain. Blast off into a darkened interior with the aid of magnetic-induction motors developed for the Strategic Defense Initiative (''star wars''). Rapid acceleration mimics liftoff of plane from aircraft carrier.

Steel Phantom: Roller coaster reaches 82 m.p.h. while dropping 225 feet at Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh.

Hellevator: Kentucky Kingdom, Louisville. First and tallest straight free-fall coaster. Twenty riders drop 157 feet, slowed by linear-induction technology. Opened mid-October in Louisville; soon to be introduced at Paramount's Carowinds in Charlotte, N.C., and Paramount park in Santa Clara, Calif.

Busch Gardens: Florida. In spring 1995 will introduce world's first inverted coaster (riders hang from suspended rail) to turn upside down seven times.

Mega-Coaster: Scheduled for December opening at ''New York, New York'' Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. Cost is $15 million. Features a 202-foot drop, top speed of 67 m.p.h. Length nearly one mile. Riders turn over twice.