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Loco

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Posts posted by Loco

    Hard Rock / Freestyle Music Park Discussion Thread

    in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!

    Posted

    Is it just me or does the Zero-G-Roll looks a bit RCT3-ish. It seems like the roll is too spread out.

     

    Maybe it's just me.

     

    Nope, seems like B&M no longer designs their zero-g with that snap roll to them. Now they're more like a big spread out corkscrew roll, you can totally see and feel the difference between Scream's and Medusa West's, or B:TR's and SB's. One just gradually floats up and gracefully flips over, the other whips you around that inline spin and out of your seat like a rag doll.

     

    Yeah, Medusa's Zero-G-Roll is insane, It leaves me so disoriented.

    The Mega Dead Celebrity Thread

    in Random, Random, Random

    Posted

    From Yahoo:

    CLEARWATER, Fla. - Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

     

    Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

     

    Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

     

    Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.

     

    Although he dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, Knievel always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years. In later years he still made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products. Thousands came to Butte, Mont., every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival.

     

    "They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."

     

    His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.

     

    My deepest sympathy towards his family.

     

     

    Hopefully (most likely) SFStL will honor him with the opening of Evel Knievel.

    A Day In The Life Of YOUR TPR Visit!

    in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!

    Posted

    - What board do you read first?

    Theme Parks, Roller Coaster & Donkeys then I go to Random board.

     

    - How often do you visit? Every day, once a week, NEVER!

    Every day!

     

    - How many pages through each board do you read? (meaning do you read just the first page of topics or multiple pages?)

    I just read the first page, I don't really go into old threads.

     

    - Are there certain types of posts you read more than others?

    If I have time (and bored) and it's a cool topic, I usually read through all of the pages (Except if it's like 50+ pages)

     

    - Do you do anything else besides reading the forum (chat room, profile, searching, main site photos, etc)

    No, not really

     

    - Tell us anything else you want about your TPR visits!

    Best forums out there!

    The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

    in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!

    Posted

    Some news on SFMM from Screamscape:

    NOTE: This isn't an announcement, basically just rumors at this point.

     

    Today we’re going to talk a bit about the future of Six Flags Magic Mountain and how this once crown jewel of the Six Flags chain has become the new black sheep of the Shapiro family. As everyone has been made aware of, Six Flags’ new vision of the future is to go after the family friendly Disney style crowds which was previously the chain’s weakest demographic after focusing on thrill seekers and teens for the past decade.

    Of course, attempting to create a Disney style atmosphere is far easier for a park on the outskirts of St. Louis, Boston or even San Francisco than it is for Six Flags Magic Mountain who finds itself living right in Mickey’s very own back yard. Magic Mountain’s troubles don’t end there either, as they also have to compete against virtually every other major industry player in the same marketplace (Universal, Knott’s, SeaWorld and Legoland), all of which have been focusing on family friendly experiences for years. Knowing this, the former groups who have managed the Mountain in the past all chose to focus most of their efforts on the more adventurous demographic groups.

    If the latest rumors being whispered in the magic pagoda are true, then management has asked the park to come up with a long term solution to make the Mountain a slimmer and more profitable animal who can be altered to attract those family groups Shaipro is seeking while still keeping the local thrill seekers happy. The solutions they’ve come up will shock many of you because from what I’ve been told Magic Mountain has simply become too large to justify its size compared to the dwindling number of guests who pass through the turnstiles. Two of the biggest consumers of the park’s budget that are ripe for cutting are the staffing budget and maintenance.

     

    Staffing – To cut back here they’ve come up with a two prong attack plan:

    1) The time may have come to cut back on the park’s operating calendar and turn the chain’s only Year Round park into a seasonal park, closing down entirely for four months from November to February. However they may only cut 2 to 3 months from the operating season if the marketing folks can come up with a profitable plan to create a good winter Holiday In The Park style event. Given the local competition they’re going head-to-head against for this however, don’t count on it. Speaking of holidays... we’ve also heard that they may investigate creating a much more intense Fright Fest experience that would justify it as a separate ticket evening event. As before, factor in the local competition.

     

    2) The other plan to cut park staffing requirements would actually cause the entire park to “shrink” a bit. The plan would be to close off a 22 acre section of the park down the hill from Roaring Rapids, past Déjà Vu, including all those small shops, up to Upcharge Central (Skycoaster, Thrillshot and Go Karts) which would remain open. This would return the park’s layout to what it was before the ‘80s and the addition of Roaring Rapids and Spillikin Corners, where the only way to go from here was up to the Skytower and down the other side of the mountain.

     

    Maintenance – As we’ve been seeing starting to take place at other Six Flags parks around the country, they’ve begun to remove the attractions that are either the most costly to maintain or the most labor intensive. Using Six Flags Great Adventure as an example, any attraction that finds itself near the top of both lists either has to justify itself through guest popularity (Kingda Ka) or face extinction (The Chiller). Screamscape has been informed that the top three Magic Mountain rides that fall into this dangerous category are: Superman: The Escape, Colossus and Déjà Vu. Déjà Vu’s removal was predicted this year when the corporate office ordered the removal of its two siblings (Georgia & Chicago) and would be removed anyway when they close off that area of the park as detailed above. Superman… it’s no secret that it’s popularity has long since died and this explains why the budget to paint the massive tower Red, Blue and Yellow was killed. Colossus though… it’s a SFMM classic and while it’s not the biggest or best wooden coaster in the world, I have to admit I’d be tempted to chain myself to the tracks before I let them take the wrecking ball to it for purely nostalgic reasons.

    The sledgehammer doesn’t stop with the three big coasters however, as several of the park’s other rides have also been placed on the Dead Pool such as the Arrowhead Splashdown (Jet Stream). Oh… and all those years of never adding new flat rides to the mix is finally going to bite them in the ass as Circus Wheel, Spin Out, Scrambler, Freefall, Sierra Twist and Swashbuckler are all living on borrowed time.

    It wouldn’t be a transformation without the addition of new attractions however and the new Thomas Town kiddie area is just the beginning. The goal is for the park to eventually have four different children’s themed areas, so expect to see two more on the way in the next 5 years. They also know they want to keep the thrill seekers coming back, so we can expect to see the occasional new big coaster or thrill ride added to the park. They still realize that more than Knott’s, they have the space to built bigger and better coasters to maintain the park’s reputation as the coaster capital of the West. For now though, the plan is to focus on more family level thrills like a possible Dark Knight coaster or a copy a Tony Hawk’s Big Spin that could be placed where Colossus’s station is now over towards Scream. As part of this project, they may also finally take the time to landscape the area under and around Scream.

    And while we’re talking about cleaning up… they now realize that the park has a number of old unused structures still standing that need to be removed such as the Metro (monorail), the shops near Ninja, the old Eagle’s Flight upper station and the leftover lower Dragon station.

    If Six Flags goes through with this plan, the “New” Magic Mountain will be able to offer up to four kiddie areas with the plan being to offer more children’s rides and attractions than Disney and Knott’s combined. In the meantime, expect to see the number of coasters in the park drop from 15 (currently) to a more manageable 11 or 12.

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