robinschroder

Do you own the German version (the release of which I believe coincided with the Stengel exhibition in München)? There was supposed to be a reissued English version a while back, but it still has yet to be released! Although I note that one seller is trying their luck at £326.01 with a used copy via Amazon... Maybe one day it'll come out! I'm sure there are many of us here on TPR that have from time to time put 'Werner Stengel' into an eBay search in the hope of finding that book. Anyway... back to GeForce...

Hello, I'm not quite sure what this is. I think it must have made sense when I began it this morning, and it definitely kept me busy around my day at work. But anyway, I hope you enjoy it! You too can have the same amount of fun if you sign up for Club TPR and get your own Club TPR pen!! Robin The Club TPR pen can be used to access those recessed reset buttons - like here on my alarm clock. The Club TPR pen can be used to complete crossword puzzles... ...sudoko puzzles... ...but not kakuro puzzles. I don't know what these are. Club TPR pen takeover of central London's Centre Point. Club TPR pen takeover of London's BT Tower. The Club TPR pen is a useful tool for grouping multiple faders on a mixing desk together. Club TPR pen takeover of the Apple Store on London's Regent Street. Hey this is one cool guy... ...check the type of pen he's using! The club TPR pen might just save your life in an emergency. Look - here it is directing people to the nearest fire escape. Club TPR pen takeover of the London Underground at Oxford Circus. Club TPR pen takeover of the tube! Like I say, I don't really understand what this TR is!! I'm tired - it's been a long, confusing day!

Das ist sau geil! Ha ha - knew something new was on the horizon from my visit last Autumn, but didn't realise it would be a new coaster! The construction area is along the route towards Super-Wirbel, not so far from the main entrance if you head 'round to the right.

^^ With RingRacer, it's the public transport that's going to let you down... the buses I researched last year (but never took because RingRacer kept exploding) arrived in the morning, and then departed late afternoon. That may have changed, but you'll need to do some careful research!

Sorry I missed this thread so far! If you do end up travelling by train, it's very easy to get to many of the major German parks - details below. Germany is really well set up for public transport! I notice you missed off Heide Park from your list - worth considering, I'd say; Colossos is very good! Europa Park - easy by train; a short-ish bus ride away from Rinsheim train station Holiday Park - easy by train; a short bus ride away from Haßloch (Pfalz) train station Phantasialand - easy by train; a short-ish bus ride away from Brühl train station Heide Park - an hour from Hamburg ZOB (Bus terminal) by a special bus, but do-able! For all of your train needs, check bahn.de for details (and they an option to view in English too). You can even search with the destination as the themepark and it'll give you the bus route details in addition to the train details (although watch the connections it suggests to you). Of course, all of the bus details will be on the park websites. By the way, if you're going to try and do Nurburgring by train / bus, this is trickier. There are some buses to and from Koblenz - but I seem to remember these are only on certain days (such as Saturday). Best to do this one by car, if at all. And obviously check ahead that RingRacer is actually running before you make firm plans to visit, unless you really like Formula 1! As far as I know, there's no news on RingRacer opening yet... Good luck! Sounds like you're almost going to be replicating this year's TPR Europe trip without Italy*. Robin *PS - there are still spots open on that trip...

Big Mike, Great to see the start of your Scandi trip updates! Be sure to post some clips of you on The Peoples Court for us international Big Mike Readers to check out!! All the best, Robin

This all sounds amazing! I can't wait to sign up!

Oh yeah, totally! The Goose Fair (at least 1997 - 2000 when I lived in Nottingham) was great! Robin

Some colleagues of mine recently went on a work trip to Vietnam. I was chatting to one of them the other day and he started to tell me about a theme park they'd visited one day (we work hard here!). "Mike, tell me you got some photos!", I said (having previously been stung by a colleague who went to Turkmenland in Turkmenistan, rode the rollercoaster but had no pictures to show for it!). Mike didn't take any photos... but our colleague Darren did! So here are 2 photos of Tàu Lon Vông Sieu Toc at Đam Sen Park, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam! (loose translation - Super-train that loops around at speed, i.e. rollercoaster!) Thanks to Darren! Robin Photo by Darren Wardrobe Photo by Darren Wardrobe

Hi! If you speak Arabic, no matter where in the world you live, and would be interested in possibly being interviewed by an Arabic radio programme about theme parks both in the Middle East and the rest of the world, I'm very interested in hearing from you! Please get in touch with me through the TPR forum via a private message, letting me know the best way to get in touch with you e.g. via email / phone - and also where you are in the world. Many thanks for your help! Robin

Great pictures!! Thanks for posting them! It would be great to hang out with you guys again at Liseberg at some point soon! Robin

One thing that did occur to me is that whilst having the word "Family" printed on the family membership cards makes perfect sense, the inclusion of the standalone word "Single" on the standard membership cards kind of makes it seem like it has something to do with some sort of dating club...

Ha ha! Congratulations on finally getting on Steel Dragon 2000!! Glad it was worth the wait! Robin

OK, I've had a go. The attached files will require the fonts: Arial Black, Arial Narrow and Gadzoox installed in order to display properly as I haven't converted key text elements to paths so that they can be edited - but that shouldn't be a problem. The .svg file was created in Inkscape (open source vector graphics software), but should load in Adobe Illustrator etc. I've also made a .pdf version which should open in most scalable vector graphics applications too. There's also a family membership version within the .svg and .pdf files. Robin (Edit: corrected spelling of Gadzoox) Vector_Graphics_Files.zip.zip And the vector graphics files used to make the jpegs. Membership card - Robin Schroder (please note, it looks a bit soft here due to the jpeg conversion; it's sharper on the vector versions) Club TPR Logo - Robin Schroder

Thanks for posting that clip - I got quite a surprise to see a friend of mine being interviewed at the end of it!

- Favorite new coaster - Most memorable park moment - Most memorable coaster moment - Best ERT session - Most interesting ride you've seen introduced - Favorite new ride - What was the biggest trend of this past decade? - The decade's biggest success OK, I'm grouping these all together just to say let's hear it for Intamin's Prefabricated Woodies - my personal stars of this decade! 2001 - Colossos (Heide Park) 2003 - Balder (Liseberg) 2006 - El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure) 2008 - T-Express (Everland) I've only managed to ride 2 of the 4 so far (Colossos and Balder) - but, wow, they sure are great rides!! I can't wait to see what Intamin come up with next using this winning formula! None of them have left the top 17 from Mitch's poll since their construction - the top 7 if you don't include Colossos. Riding Balder with TPR earlier this year was just the most incredible day ever - unbelievably good!! Balder, I salute you! At the risk of going overboard with praise for Intamin, another special mention must go out to Expedition GeForce (opened 2001) for providing me with so many close runner-up moments to those I had on Balder. I've been lucky enough to visit Holiday Park 4 times this decade. GeForce, you've definitely not seen the last of me yet - of that there's no doubt! - Least favorite coaster - Least favorite ride In 2004, I made it out to Cedar Point from the UK and, amongst discovering the power of Intamin for the first time (via Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster - oops, there I go again; I genuinely do like rides by other manufacturers too!), I rode my first woodie - Mean Streak. Whilst built in 1991, I still count this as a huge personal low point for this decade. Ouch! My back's never been quite the same... - Your favorite TPR moment (favorite post, trip report, video, whatever!) Finally, a huge shout out to Robb and Elissa for making TPR what it is. Where to begin? The opening of the forums in 2005? All of this decade's amazing updates, pictures, videos and DVDs? Starting up the TPR trips in 2006? All of the hard work, love and attention that's put in to the site, moving it from strength to strength? Robb and Elissa, I salute you!

I'm also going with 4!

(Hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread, Piers!) Well, I finally managed to go along to Hyde Park yesterday to ride Maurer Söhne's Power Tower 2. Whilst definitely not as forceful as an Intamin or an S&S drop tower (mainly due to the fact it doesn't technically freefall) it was a lot of fun, with several small pops of airtime! It was also really great to get such a unique view over Hyde Park, The Serpentine and the whole of London from up at the top. The programme they ran when I rode involved holding us at the top for a good 30 - 40 seconds followed by a drop, then back up to the top with an immediate drop, and then one more with a 2-stage lift up. Then they asked if we all wanted to ride again and we had a couple of bonus drops - the first a 2-stage drop, the second a normal drop. It was £6 a go (!) but I really enjoyed it. I rode nothing else, although it all looked like a lot of fun (if not a little expensive!). Here's a deliberately lo-fi video I shot on a Japanese toy camera with no LCD screen. Robin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OTomM0tObY

1. Sounds like a good idea! 2. Can't think of anything right now - already sounds like a good package. 3. Yes! 4. Only previous concerns mentioned about high numbers of premium members reducing the value of having the priority trip placement. 5. If it helps you guys keep the site running in addition to us getting extra stuff, that's a win-win situation!

Thanks for posting, Piers! The Hyde Park setup had totally passed me by... but now I know they've got a 220ft drop tower, I'm totally there as soon as I can be!

Hi Big Mike, I'd love one of your special Big Mike Holiday cards! I went to my profile... and my most active topic is indeed the Big Mike Road Show! But I'm definitely going to send a card in the post to you too! (It might just take a little while to arrive from the UK!) All the best, Robin

Just completed my steel poll ballot - here's my top 15: 1. Favourite Wood Coaster (Balder!) 2. Expedition GeForce 3. Silver Star (I guess I caught it on a good day...?) 4. Blue Fire Megacoaster 5. Speed Monster 6. Millennium Force 7. Top Thrill Dragster 8. XCelerator 9. Wicked Twister 10. Nemesis 11. Lisebergbanan 12. Lynet 13. Winjas 14. Piraten 15. X2 I sent in my wood poll ballot a little while ago. As it's so sparse, here's the complete list: 1. Balder 2. My Favourite Steel (EGF!) 3. Colossos (Heide Park) 4. Thundercoaster 5. Troy 6. Colossus (SFMM) 175. Mean Streak (ow, my back!) Robin

Mine arrived this morning - thanks! Looking forward to checking it out!

I can't believe the total sensory overload throughout the entire show. I mean, I've been to big raves that were less intense than the Yo Gabba Gabba live experience would appear to be! The initial segment reminded me a lot of a Kraftwerk gig, but gone insane! Thanks so much for posting the photos and videos! Glad you had a great time!

Sadly we'll have to wait until the next decade for this to happen. Ring Racer ran once at the German Grand-Prix as a showcase, but not at its full speed. After 2 explosions (for which the ride's software has been blamed), the project was shut down until at least next year.