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MORMON NIGHT YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! LDS Standards LOL! WOW!! That must have been a BLAST!!!

That was probably the early days of Nights of Joy.....

Those are amazing! THank you so much for sharing them!!!

 

I'm thinking these were different than what we now call Nights of Joy. Anyone can buy tickets for NoJ, this was just for the mormon kids.

 

When I worked at Adventuredome, we had one of these and let me tell you these kids were not the best behaved. We had our hands full.

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Ah, Marineland. It was in my town. I remember visiting it as a kid. The skytower (an Intamin, maybe?) stood for many years after the park closed.

 

And Battlestar Galactica! I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen as a 6 year old.

 

 

OMG...Battlestar Galactica that scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. I distinctly remember plugging my ears and putting my head in my mom's lap. It was too much! Ah, the good old days of Universal. They need to bring the intensity back!

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"...do either of you remember a place called 'Japanese Village'?" (montezooma)

 

Yep, I sure do. In fact, I still use a souvenir that I got during my one and only visit in 1973---one of those day/date things that you flip over and the little metal plate slides down in front of the other one (I should post a picture of this thing).

 

Our family went one day with a combo ticket to Japanese Village and Movieland Wax Museum. There weren't any rides at Japanese Village; only a few shows, pearl divers, etc. Somewhere, I have a brochure/map of the place. I'll have to dig it out.

 

That park was located right next to I-5 just across the Orange County line headed south toward Disneyland.

 

Eric

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I don't remember anything about that park except for the name. I know I went there, just don't remember much about it. It must have not been too exciting.

 

I would love to see some pictures of it. I will try to google it and see what I can find.

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Well I did a google search and came across some cool stuff. I had completely forgot that it was also a Deer Park. Well when I saw some of the pictures of the place it sparked my memories of going there as a kid.

 

They sure had some funky amusement attractions back in the 70's

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While googleing Japanese Village I also looked up Marineland and came across these old postcards. Boy this park had probably one of the best locations of any park I have ever been too, Ocean Park in Hong Kong being the once exception.

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Seems like these Sky Towers were all the rage back in the 1960's.

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PETA would not like this. That is quite a small tank for two Killer Whales to be in.

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I was at Australia's Wonderland in January 1989 and I thought I remembered there being a looping coaster as the pictures above it says that one opened in 1992. I seem to remember making the "joke" that since we were in Australia the coaster started upside-down and when it went through the loops it went right-side-up.

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Wow man those photos of Wonderland brings back so many memories. Just then I looked at Google Maps to find its location compared to mine and it is actually not too bad of a distance away... I remember thinking the car rides to the venue would take an eternity. When I first went there as a kid, I recall being terrified of The Demon & Bush Beastie. Once I was older, I conquered my fears on both and just loved them.. although I never went on the Bounty's Revenge up-side-down boat thing. I still wish it existed.. it'd be wicked to go down there on a weekend with friends for some mild thrills.

 

It's really nice to see these photos as my head is being flooded with memories right now. Great stuff!

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^Same, my first coaster was at Wonderland on the Beastie. Went there during a trip to Sydney at the end of 1988, and was able to drive past the Expo 88 site in Brisbane on the way to the airport. The Demon came from the Expo site as one of the three coasters that they had there during 1988. Now that is one that you maybe should post about also...will have a look to see if i can find the old park maps from that time.

 

The Wonderland park was sold and turned into a industrial estate, but if you are interested about the park, some of the best people to ask questions about can be found at this thread at Roller-Coaster.com.au...

 

http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/forums/index.php?s=50783d55dc07779b86c0a218575de5d0&showforum=9

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That photo of the Magic Room, and the one of the Condor, were taken at the 1984's Worlds Fair in New Orleans. I distinctly remember the Magic Room being a major let down. The walls swoung back and forth, finally rotating 360 degrees while the seat in the middle remained stationary. Tried to give the feeling of a rocking ship....but nope, didnt work. I was 13 at the time of the fair, and I also remember getting stuck on the Condor, when it broke down at the very top of the lift pole.....will admit, I was scared s..tless!

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Interesting stuff from Arrow-Huss,

 

>What intrigues me is the Space Race coaster, which looks like Arrow's take >on the Bobsled coaster. Too bad that never went around.

 

I agree about the Space Chase being an interesting ride, but it was Arrow's attempt to further control the out-of-control nature of their Flying Turns remake. I interviewed Ron Toomer last year about this very subject.

 

Six Flags was so impressed with Arrow that they ordered five (!) Flying Turns. The first model was going to SFOT. Arrow went so far as to fabricate the troughs for the rides, but once their prototype was up and SOMEWHAT operational in Mountain View, SF decided against the ride and canceled the contract. They instead went with the Intamin model.

 

I have spoken with two people who actually rode the Arrow prototype, and they both said it was WAY intense and rather dangerous. Ron said they just could not control the vehicles because they insisted on using a train that was too big/long. Apparently, the train tried to tear itself apart.

Hence, the Space Chase.

 

SR

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ARROW DYNAMICS

This is the last bit of information I have from Arrow. In the mid 80's Arrow Huss was forced into bankruptcy which provided an opportunity for Arrow's key employees to take the company back. The new company was named Arrow Dynamics and was headed up by Ron Toomer.

 

This is the time the company had much success with their Hyper Coasters and Mega-Loopers. But this is also around the time that B&M showed up on the scene and slowly started taking coaster orders away from Arrow. It wasn't long before Arrow started to fade away. They had a brief comeback with their version of the Wild Mouse, but Arrow Dynamics could not compete with the brilliance that is B&M.

 

After the "X" situation Arrow was again on the selling block and was picked up by S&S power. Here is the last bit of marketing material I have from Arrow Dynamics.

UPDATED 3/6/08: Added this special from PBS Nova. It contains an interview with Ron Toomer and it features the designing, building and grand opening celebration of Busch Garden's "Drachen Fire"

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Wow...it's really cool to be able to see this stuff, especially the rides that were so new and innovative at the time (and pretty much standard or old at this point!) It's also interesting (to me, anyway) to see how many of the Arrow rides from the first brochure were in now defunct parks. Old Chicago, Adventureland (Addison, IL?!), Nara Dreamland and Circus World were just some of the ones that caught my eye...

Very cool stuff - thanks for sharing!

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Here are a couple more old ads I found for Arrow, Geauga Lake (this kind of rubs salt in the wounds as they mention several times what great success the park is enjoying) and from Taft, owners of Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Carowings, Marineland and a few others.

 

I sure love those old logos, so much better than what CedarFair has come up with recently.

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I raise you two Demons and a Gemini.

 

Great stuff Shain, keep it coming.

 

A pair of Demons does not beat a Gemini. Not even three of a kind (ShockWave, GASM & Viper) beat a Gemini!!!

INTERNATIONAL AMUSEMENT DEVICES

OK, so you want more? I got more, while we are on the subject of coaster suppliers, how about this company that has gone under but was the mastermind behind the 1st Colossus...International Amusement Devices.

According to an interview with Bill Cobb, famous designer behind the Texas Cyclone, this company was not well versed in the physics of coaster design.

 

He mentions in the interview that they would take elements from other coaster designs and blend them together to create a new design. This was the reason for the rough design of the first Colossus. It was a "cut and paste" if you will, of other coaster designs that did not work with the laws of nature to create a smooth ride.

 

The coaster fought the laws of gravity and was tearing itself apart. Needless to say Colossus was the last coaster that IAD designed and the company wasn't around to see the Grand Re-Opening of the newly improved Colossus.

 

I find it strange that this company was headquartered in Sandusky, OH. I am not sure if there were connections to Cedar Point from an earlier time and that is why they were there. Just seems kind of strange, kind of in the same way that Arrow is in Salt Lake, but doesn't have any of their coasters at Lagoon.

 

Just added this video of Montana Rusa, the coaster that inspired Colossus

 

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The Rainbow was another model that was at the IAAPA convention for several years but never made it into a park. I always thought it would have been cool, but the capacity and staffing issues probably wasn't very efficient.

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After the Colossus fiasco it seems they tried to offer more than just wooden coasters. I remember seeing models of the Z coaster several years at the conventions. It obviously never made it out of the development stage. This brochure comes from the 1980 IAAPA convention. I think it might have been the last year they were around.

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A marketing brochure I picked up from the 1979 IAAPA convention. At this point their focus was on wooden coasters... what the hell is a Telex? Is that before faxes? even I am not old enough to remember those.

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