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Shane's Amusement Attic


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Even though it was 1978 (when I was 5), I still have vivid memories of Astroworld. While I believe I was too small to ride some of the bigger rides, I do remember the Alpine Sleighs (didn't it have a couple of really small drops in that), that weird spider looking double ferris wheel, and the River of No Return (With King Kong). I rememebr seeing the Marvel Macfey shows in the kiddie area as well. Did they find a home for the Gunslinger swings?

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Yes, the Gunslinger Yo-Yo from Astroworld is at Wonderland in Amarillo, Texas (its still in storage along with The Mayan Mindbender Roller coaster).

^ Shouldn't they be starting construction of these rides that they bought from AstroWorld? A lot of rides from AstroWorld were salvaged: Batman, Greezed Lightnin, Ultra-Twister, Serial Thriller, Mayan Mindbender, but they all remain in storage. I hope that some of the rides make it out of storage soon and back to entertaining riders.

 

At least AstroWorld could kind of live on in someway if these rides get rebuilt. I know I probably would never make the trip to Joyland, but you can bet your sweet a$$ that when and if they ever get that shuttle loop up and running again, I am so there!!!!

 

Why Do all good things come to an end?

 

The simple answer to this question is:

Things always become "good" when they end and are no longer around. I remember the abuse AstroWorld used to take from enthusiasts in its last day, well now that it is gone it is almost like a saint.

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This reminds me!

My girlfriends dad is an arcihtect, he worked on the "Original Main Street" theming and the Mountains stucture. He said that once he can find it all, he would give them to me to photocopy! Sorry this is not in its own topic, but I keep forgetting about it... this reminded me!

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BONUS POST!

 

Wow over 22,000 views! I am so impressed that so many of you are popping in to check out my thread. I guess you are enjoying it so I will keep on adding stuff, and as a bonus for the 22,000 views here is a little bit on a coaster I know all enthusiasts have a strange fascination with...

 

UPDATE: Just added this clip on Drachen Fire from a TV show called "Theme Park a Go-Go on E! Listen to the comment the rider makes at the end of the ride and you will understand why this ride is no longer around.

thanks for checking in and for all your comments!

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Did they really run trains on Drachen Fire that close or is this the beginning of Photo Shop?

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Busch Gardens 1994 brochure. The last year of the corkscrew that followed the MCBR.

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Busch Gardens brochure from the 1993 season

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OK, let's see if I can answer some of your questions here...

 

I am not sure why they had to remove Laser Loop to install Steel Phantom, I have heard many rumors from; "it was sinking" ,"the foundation that the flywheel was on was bad and caused the flywheel to spin off balance" and "basically it was just too complicated for that park to keep operating" If anyone can fill me in on the correct reason the Laser Loop had to be removed I would love to hear about it.

 

The official reason was because all the other parks were getting multiloopers and megacoasters at the time. They did it for the sheer competition in the arms race.

 

The unofficial... That is there area where the original swimming pool was. When they closed the pool (because of mine subsidence), they just paved over it, made it the pay-lot, and "expanded" the park a little, with the Laser being the final addition at the time. The loop footers consistantly shifted while the ride was in motion, and you would witness this because the entrance to the park at that time was under the loop. They put wood fence around the footers, but if you looked over the fence and waited for the train to go through the loop, you could plainly see the outer footers of the loop move, causing mini-sink-holes around them. I would say they moved a good 6 inches in each direction, so a big concrete footer moving a foot total doesn't loop pretty. Not really sure this was the "reason" behind the removal, but i'm sure it helped. As we all know, the ride was in good working order, and was relocated.

 

I believe the year the Laser Loop opened the track was left primer red and later painted black.

It was actually the other way around. It opened with black track, and was later painted primer red. They never did paint the inside of the loop, but the rails became red.

 

Here's some aditional photos, not sure if I submitted these to TPR's little database, so if these are repeats, I appologize.

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Yes, the 80's were a mess, look at me in my acid washed jeans and jacket! LOL

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Thunderbolt with Steel Phantom

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Phanton Construction

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Phantom Construction

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Laser loop 1988

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^ Thanks for clarifying that for me. I knew there had to be some reason for them to remove the ride otherwise why wouldn't they have just kept the Laser Loop and added the Steel Phantom. After all at the time they were calling themselves "The Coaster Capital of the World"

 

I had heard that there was problems with the Laser Loop footings, and your explanation makes perfect sense. I remember walking thru the Entrance under the loop, it was a cool view while the ride was running but the entrance was less than attractive.

 

Also about the paint job...either way it was the ugliest of all the shuttle loops I thought. Too bad they didn't make it look like they advertised it looking on the front of the brochure.

 

PS. Loved the additional pictures you added, yes even the acid washed jeans, all of us from the 80's went through that phase, but thank God we came out of it!!!!

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That is quite a description for a shuttle loop! But it is all true. Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loops...one of my all time favorite coaster creations!!!!

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The Laser Loop would have looked awesome if it were painted in this color scheme!

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Aw man, lots of good memories there. I remember when I was a kid in the 70s/early 80s, the tour was the big, main attraction at Universal. People would just say "going on the Universal Studios Tour" instead of visiting Universal Studios. The weird thing is that after going twice when I was about 6 years old in 1979 (my dad got to be the pilot in the Airport '77 thing), I went 20 years without going to Universal Studios. So when I went back SO MUCH had changed... they didn't have the escalators then; the tram would take you down there where you could hang out and see stuff, and then you'd catch another tram to finish the tour and take you back up. I remember the Wild West show and an Incredible Hulk appearance in the theater that later had Fear Factor in it.

 

And of course, Magic Mountain... I think the Mountain Express may have been the first coaster I ever went on, unless it was something at Disneyland.

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I can't believe none of the older people brought this up yet...

 

Does anyone remember the Steve Miller Band video "Living in the USA"?

 

It was filmed at Barnum and Baily's Circus World. Originally, the "video" was just part of "Wild Rides", hosted by Matt Dillon. They decided to make the video the official music video for the song, and it played on MTV in it's early days.

 

Unfortunately, I cannot find any youtube clips of this.

 

I have an old VHS copy of this... great stuff... also has the Cars singing "Dontcha stop" to the Mindbender at SFoG...

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I remember the airtime on the Turn of the the Century at Marriott's Great Adventure--before they "demonized" it. And I remember the old Knott's ads, too--from when it was great park. Sigh . . .

 

Me too, you can easily see how small and rounded off the airtime hills were, introduced me to the joyous bliss that is ejector air! This is the coaster that 31yrs ago turned me into the coaster dork I still am today!:

 

 

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.

 

Wasn't just SFMM, all parks of the 70's were modeled after and tried to be local versions of the family friendly DL. It wasn't until the steel loop craze changed everything with parks dropping the focus on "theme park" and redirected instead on trying to outdo each other with the biggest steel looper and such. Out went the family friendly approach and in with the extreme thrill rides. It's just unfortunate that SFMM is the most glaring example of what went wrong with this approach, really used to be such a different place with a charm all it's own that's long been stripped away.

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Was this ride taken to Six Flags Magic Mountain? It sure does look just like Viper.

 

Ugh, NO. Sorry to sound mean, but that's just the way it's gotta be.

 

Viper is one of the arrow 7 loopers created. Bat was an arrow suspended coaster...two completely different coaster types designed by the same company...and similar color schemes. That was honestly...dare I say it...a dumb question.

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Second question: EBL mentioned Arrow's 4th Dimension Debacle...is there a thread on that somewhere? Was it problems with that one ride design that led to their being bought out, or a set of problems including that? I know it's a tough business, and I guess too much dough dropped into one big project that ends up not selling can really kill you.

 

martin

 

I'm sure there's a thread somewhere, but I couldn't find it. Here's the long and the short of it:

 

Arrow sold the 4th Dimension coaster to SF, agreeing to a completion date before the ride was even done being designed. In fact, vertical construction began even before the brake run (the one that goes under the lift) was made.

 

As the date grew nearer, Arrow knew that the ride wouldn't be done in time and told SF. SF basically said "You gave us a date, get it done or you're not getting paid."

 

Arrow never actually completed the ride on time. Summer 2001 was the billed date, X actually opened in January of 2002.

 

The result: Arrow goes bankrupt installing a coaster MM doesn't think it should have had to pay for because the completion date wasn't met.

 

Not sure what it has to do with the Bat ride but there ya go...

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The "Bat" did look a fun ride for it's time and I thought "Top Gun" had extreme swinging.

 

"Vampire" at Chessington (England) has improved with age and the floorless cars make the flying even better esp the 2nd 1/2 when it dives into a tunnel. I have not been on BBW, the 2nd drop looks pure fun over the lake.

 

If anything on the "Beast" could be changed, what would it be..

 

I think the "Brake Run" shed on the Beast should not be as long as it is, KI could remove / shorten it, add some floating hills and a figure of 8 helix before hitting the underground / overground tunnel.

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I know you've probably been on several Arrow launched loops (what they're called on rcdb), so what do you think of them compared to Schwarzkopf shuttle loops? "Montezooma" is a pretty good hint as to which you prefer, but a launch into a drop looks like it would be fun too! Thanks for the Circus World updates, that's what reminded me.

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THey each have their good points but the Schwarzkopf has no bad points and the Arrow version has several.

 

Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop Positives:

- Great launch

- Great loop and great sensations both forwards and backwards

- Instant change in motion from forward to backward.

- Great finale, up that back tower at such a steep angle and then a rush back into the station.

- Lap bars.

- Their popularity has withstood the test of time.

- They just look extremely cool!

 

Scwharzkopf Shuttle Loop Negatives:

-Not enough of them

 

Arrow Launched Loop Positives:

- Great airtime after the launch into the drop both forwards and backwards.

- Great airtime at the top of the hill on the reverse side if you are in the front of the train. If you are in the rear of the train it happens on the return trip.

- They kind of look cool (I am struggling to come up with more positives)

 

Arrow Launched Loop Negatives:

-The climb both up and down.

- Weak launch. It was kind of like being pulled by a team of Donkeys.

- Arrow loops just don't do it for me. They are small and to clothoid-ee.

- The slow braking on the other side and then the wait for the reverse launch. Talk about a buzz kill

- Because they were so high in the sky they always had ugly stations. 8' tall chain link and no shade cover.

- They didn't stand the test of time too well.

- Over the shoulder restraints.

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