Olsor's Amusement Shoebox

Following the lead of Shane's Amusement Attic and Scott's Amusement Closet, I bring you the much less impressive Olsor's Amusement Shoebox.

To be more precise, it's a banker's box, but that doesn't have the same ring to it. Anyway, I've been gradually going through all my old videotapes and transferring them to DVD. Back in the late '80s and early '90s, when I was just getting interested in coasters, I started taping absolutely anything about coasters that was aired on TV. This was before the days of endless Discovery Channel and Travel Channel shows entirely devoted to coasters, so even getting a two-minute segment on tape was something to be treasured.

I'll be posting more clips as I get them transferred. I apologize in advance for the horrible quality of the video. A lot of my videotapes are old enough to vote.

Local coverage of Iron Wolf's debut in April of 1990.

Thanks this is some interesting stuff.

This must have been big news back then, but know every time you hear about Iron Wolf all you hear is how painful it was.

This is some cool stuff, can't wait to see what other stuff you have.

Sadly, Robert Jordan's reporting skills are just as bad.

Nice video. I don't think I rode this for a couple years in my defiance of them taking out Z-Force.

Personally I think Georgia Scorcher looks better!! I enjoyed the video though! Thanks for posting it... I would never have found it on my own!

~Matthew

Next up is a segment on roller coasters from Prime Time Live in 1990. Lots of good stuff in this one: Magnum with insanely long lines, the big four at Kings Island, Excalibur at Valleyfair, Hercules, Flashback at SFOT, Viper at SFMM, GASM at SFGAdv, a brief shot of Z-Force at SFOG, and Ron Toomer interview goodness. Plus, you see the obligatory "history of roller coasters" portion of the segment, which became a staple of any of these early '90s segments on coasters.

Prime Time Live segment on roller coasters

Wow, Did anyone pick out one older coasters required a full time nurse!?!

Thanks Olsor for all this great stuff.

Keeping the train rolling with a 1990 segment from the old tabloid show Hard Copy. This one features the usual suspects (Magnum, Beast, Viper), along with some mullets, as well as the first of many cameos from the human quote machine, Paul Ruben.

Bonus: ACE convention at Darien Lake, where Predator is breathlessly described as "wonderful." Yes... times have changed.

Hard Copy segment from 1990

Olsor-

I love this thread. It is so good to see this old stuff, thanks for posting

I agree O., glad to see your old vids on here!

Now that we have the Attic, Closet and Shoebox, someone out there MUST have a Basement full of fun stuff ...

-S

Wow, I remember that Prime Time Live segment. It's impossible to forget the line "many buffs boast that the beast is the best." I never thought I'd see that again, so thank you very much.

Thank you very much for the Iron Wolf video. It is at my home park, and I've seen old footage of Z-Force and Shockwave, but never ol' Wolfie. Thanks again!

I'm glad everyone's enjoying the videos! Seriously, with the huge size of the TPR community, we must have a veritable museum of coaster history amongst our ranks. It's great to see all this stuff online.

Today's clip is from an old Nickelodeon game show called Wild & Crazy Kids. In this challenge, teams of kids compete to see who can keep the most water in their cups after riding Colossus at SFMM. There's excellent stock footage of pre-MCBR Colossus mixed in with newer footage of the kids.

Bonus: there's a very short snippet of a travel show segment on Knott's Berry Farm at the end of the video. There's a brief reverse POV of Montezooma's Revenge.

Be on the lookout for: 1) flat-top haircuts, 2) annoying kids sitting too close to the microphone, 3) the girl who looks like she's going to hurl halfway through the ride.

Colossus on Wild & Crazy Kids

Today, appropriately enough, the shoebox gives us a look back at the debut of a ride that's already been turned into toothpicks. Here we see Wil Shriner yuk it up to the delight of the many housewives in attendance at some lame daytime talk show hosted by Gary Collins. From 1991.

I apologize for the poor quality. Of the video and the ride.

Psyclone on some lame daytime talk show from 1991:

(and I promise it's not a RickRoll)

^This is great stuff! I have somewhere (maybe, still) buried deep on a dusty un-marked (hmmm...) VHS, a group of kids given fries, burgers and shakes to eat on the REVOLUTION!! Of course, before the OTSRs...

One treasure I'd love to dig out sometime is a tv video of 3 kids (yes, 3 in a seat) on a 4-bencher red PTC car riding the Texas Cyclone. I'm lazy, waiting for it to show up on youtube.

Even if I did find it, I have no way (yet) of converting it or whatever you do to get em on here...

What trains are those on the psyclone? They don't look like PTC's.

^ Believe it or not, they're B&Ms! Psyclone ran with three trains built by Bolliger & Mabillard---the only wooden coaster trains ever built by them.

Psyclone is gone, but the trains are still at the park and used on Colossus when it runs backwards during Fright Fest in October.

Eric

What's up with the Batman music during the POV?!

I almost miss Psyclone! Thanks for posting.

-Jahan

What's up with the Batman music during the POV?!

 

-Jahan

I noticed that music also. Did you notice that they are exiting from Tidal Wave and not Psyclone?

And why were they on the far side of Psyclone? I noticed that just before they got on.

But I've always said, Psyclone was actually nice during its first couple of seasons. I used to get some decent airtime on it.

Eric

It's tabloid Thursday! (Shut up... I realize Tuesday would've worked better). First up, we have a segment on roller coaster safety from Entertainment Tonight (WTF?) from 1991, shortly after "Black Sunday" at Kings Island. Lots of good stuff in this one. Be on the lookout for a hilarious Cedar Point training video, a maintenance worker named Udo, and the awesomeness that is John Tesh.

Entertainment Tonight segment on roller coasters

And because you're special, here's another segment from 1991. This one is from Inside Edition. Paul Ruben brings his "A" material, and we get to see an awkwardly coiffed, pre-Fox News Bill O'Reilly. Yes... he hosted Inside Edition before he became a famous blowhard.

Inside Edition segment on roller coasters

Again, Great Stuff to be posting here. I love seeing all this stuff.

While on the subject of safety, I have a couple of videos here to share that report on some of the accidents...

Rail Blazer

Enterprise

Great Air Racer

Lightnin' Loops

^Wasn't the Lightnin' Loops accident the reason that all of Six Flags Arrow looping coasters have those large hand grips on the shoulder harnesses?

Awesome stuff, Shane! I'd always hoped to see some coverage on the RailBlazer accident. I had thought that that accident happened on the ride's media day.

Secondly, Bill Kurtis for the win. This will not be his last appearance in this thread, by the way.

All my prior knowledge of the Lightnin' Loops accident had come from that 1987 Popular Mechanics article on ride safety. It was strange to see how people at the time had so much difficulty articulating what had happened.

And now, for your weekend enjoyment, a lengthy, two-part segment on coasters from National Geographic Explorer from 1990. This one devotes a large amount of time to the first tests of the Arrow pipeline prototype.

Be on the lookout for horrible audio editing, Sam Kinison (WTF?), and Mr. Wirebender himself, Ron Toomer.

National Geographic Explorer segment on roller coasters, Part 1

Part 2

LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

What a find to have footage of the pipeline actually running!

One question...Is it called "The Colossus" or just "Colossus"?