Shane's Amusement Attic

I love reading everyone's memories of how the park used to be. I especially loved seeing the words to the Revolution commercial, that was a great ad. Remember the jingle when Six Flags took over?

"Six Flags is building a better mountain

at Magic Mountain..."

From what I heard there were people who got injured on the ride. If I remember correctly there may have even been a death. I believe a car actually fell from the track. I could be completely wrong, if so let me know.

I thought the real reason The Bat was taken out was it would cost to much to fix all the problems. So Arrow built the Vortex to replace it.

Big Bads Wolfe in my opinion is a FINE coaster. I actually enjoy BBW better than Alpengeist. Alpengeist has gotten rough in it's 10 years of being the tallest invert, and the restraint system is a little constricting. I think Arrow should reinvent their suspended swinging coaster. As old as BBW is, it runs smooth, it never gets old and you can't beat the G's at the bottom on the hill at the second lift.

I've always wanted to ride a Suspended Swinging Coaster. Astroworld had XLR-8. But, it was really slow (top speed 34 mph)!! That's slow compared to others of it's kind! The closest one is Busch Gardens or Cedar Point.

^ Speed isn't as much a factor with a suspended as the layout itself. A good series of left-right or right-left turns is what gets the cars swinging from side to side. I never rode XLR-8, but I never heard anyone rave about it either.

Remember that it would be S&S that would bring Arrow's suspended back, being that they absorbed Arrow and its assets a few years back (after the whole Fourth Dimension debacle...). But regardless, I would also like to see some new designs.

Eric

"...or shall I say mammaries." (Guy)

I never knew anyone threw bras up there, but it doesn't surprise me either! LOL!!!

Eric

I wish I knew where they were but I've got several recorded television ads from over the years of SFMM. I know off the top of my head I've got Ninja, Tidal Wave, Freefall, Shockwave, and Flashback.

If you're wondering, I got a lot of these sent to me from people over the years, as I was a wee tyke (or not yet born) when a few of those rides opened.

^^Remember, The Bat's top speed was only 35 mph....

Its a shame the most intense suspended coaster got taken out it would a been a really thrilling ride

^ Speed isn't as much a factor with a suspended as the layout itself. A good series of left-right or right-left turns is what gets the cars swinging from side to side. I never rode XLR-8, but I never heard anyone rave about it either.

Exactly.

At one end of the spectrum is Iron Dragon, which is one of the worst examples of a suspended coaster out there. It's slow, doesn't swing much, and pretty much fails at doing what that ride should be doing.

At the other end is Eagle Fortress, which after riding it back in September is one of my favourite coasters ever. That thing just flies through the course, changes direction, and even has some airtime. On an Arrow suspended!

Just looking at the pixtures, it seems that Magic Mountain back then was much more family orientated than its recent years, and it's only now that the balance is starting to be redressed.

The last 15 years took the park to the brink thanks to a management team who appeared to come straight out of the greedy 1980's.

$24.95 for a season pass. I like these prices. To get to the 2008 tariff of $89.99 (KI only) this averages just under 5% per year (4.866 exactly ) inflationary increase. With inflationary highs and lows over the last 27 years this is probably about right (well from a UK perspective at least)

Interesting read Shane -and yes those socks are something else, though I assume you won the bet

yeah from those pictures you can really understand why there was so much stress on the track and on the trains. but it was the first one, so I suppose you have to make mistakes to learn from them.

Iron Dragon super-epic fails at being a suspended coaster. Big Bad Wolf is awesome ^_^

*sigh* if only Arrow had known back then that they needed to bank the turns....

^ The Bat was actually the second suspended coaster, MBB made a suspended coaster called "Alpenflug" for Oktoberfest in Munich, that failed for the same reasons, it only operated for the 2 weeks of the Oktoberfest, But Arrow didn't care/know of these problems.

There are videos of the Arrow test track for the suspended with a corkscrew, so they have actually tested it, too bad it wasn't realized in the end.

Anyway good finds Shane, it's really interesting to read this old stuff, I just hope that you have more stuff.

^I disagree completely that the B&M Inverts made the Arrow Suspendeds obsolete. They are two totally different rides.

 

The Arrow Suspendeds have a 42'' height restriction compared to a 52'' or 54'' B&M Invert. If I was running a nice family park, I'd gladly put in an Arrow Suspended.

 

Plus Ninja, Top Gun, BBW, and Eagle Fortress (put in in 1992) are all examples of what you can do with the technology and have a really kickass ride!

 

Maybe Arrow should go back and focus on rides like this instead of 4th dimensions and screamin rodents!

I agree but unfortunately the parks who are the ones buying the rides don't see it that way. Look at how many parks there are though that havn't got the budget for even an SLC....these are the parks where an Arrow suspended would really work wonders.

^ Speed isn't as much a factor with a suspended as the layout itself. A good series of left-right or right-left turns is what gets the cars swinging from side to side. I never rode XLR-8, but I never heard anyone rave about it either.

 

Exactly.

 

At one end of the spectrum is Iron Dragon, which is one of the worst examples of a suspended coaster out there. It's slow, doesn't swing much, and pretty much fails at doing what that ride should be doing.

 

At the other end is Eagle Fortress, which after riding it back in September is one of my favourite coasters ever. That thing just flies through the course, changes direction, and even has some airtime. On an Arrow suspended!

ID is a weak suspended coaster, but a good coaster for the kids

So, am I the only one who's wondering why Donald's wearing a Pilgrim hat in the Matterhorn ad?

I'm sure I have some stuff like this somewhere in my archives from Kings Dominion and/or Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I'll have to search for it and see if we can't get some east coast representation here, too!

"The Abominable Snowman is coming!" shout Normal Goofy, Sherlock Holmes Mickey and Pilgrim Donald.

No one ever got injured or killled on The Bat.

They should have kept it looks alot better than topgun.

^ Well I have ridden both rides and I would have to say, although I love the Bat for nostalgic reasons, Top Gun is the better ride of the two.

This seems VERY similar to the ride I spent my youth riding. One called "The Vampire" at Chessington World of Adventures. It's still there, though they've modernised it to a floorless inverted car - or something. It was still a great ride, which much better theming than this one.

Walked through the grounds of a castle...down into the dark layer and stuff. There are pics of the ride on this site with many of the UK Tours!

Remember that it would be S&S that would bring Arrow's suspended back, being that they absorbed Arrow and its assets a few years back (after the whole Fourth Dimension debacle...). But regardless, I would also like to see some new designs.

 

Eric

Vekoma has been offering their "Suspended Coaster" and "Swinging Suspended Coaster" with only a few sales, parks just don't seem as interested anymore in the concept as we are:

http://www.vekoma.com/rides_fam_coasters/swinging_suspended_coaster.htm

...

Plus Ninja, Top Gun, BBW, and Eagle Fortress (put in in 1992) are all examples of what you can do with the technology and have a really kickass ride!..

*ahem* Vortex came first!

I find it interesting that after the whole Bat fiasco they decided to go with it again and build Top Gun. Well I guess they knew that layout already worked at Canada's Wonderland!

Thanks for sharing!

I know S&S bought out Arrow years back. Just used the original name for poops and giggles

^^ That's because Top Gun is the "new and improved" suspended coaster vs. the "prototype and iffy operation" of The Bat.

And I forgot that Vekoma offers a suspended coaster. My guess is that these days, if a coaster doesn't have a bunch of inversions or the height of a skyscraper, no one wants it. That's too bad because a lot of "smaller" coasters offer a lot of fun.

Eric