montezooma

LIBERTYLAND Here is an update on a small park in Memphis that closed down awhile ago. It was one of the parks that I wasn't able to visit. This is kind of a small update to this thread as I do not have that much stuff on the park. But if you have interest in this park there is quite a bit of facts and information for you to read. Anyone feel free to add any info they have on this park....

Yes, this coaster seems to be "the coaster that time forgot" It is very illusive and tough to find pictures of. If anyone has anymore pictures of the Laser Loop I would love to see them posted here! I know there are a bunch of Kennywood fanatics out there, you must have some great shots of this ride....post away!!!

Bill this is not my thread. But what a great one it is. I am glad to see other nostalgic stuff pop up on here. It is so fun to see the glory days of these parks. I love the shots from the Eifel Tower showing Lake Charles before they filled it in and built the waterpark. Great pictures. I am so sorry I never got the King Kobra credit, it was closed when I went there, I also missed it at Jolly Rodgers and Alton Towers. It is one Shuttle Loop that I seem to be chasing all over the world to get the credit. Hopefully soon I will make it to South America and finally get it!

KENNYWOOD LASER LOOP & STEEL PHANTOM OK so thanks for getting me started on my Kennywood Laser Loop and Steel Phantom update. Unfortunately it is one of my smaller updates, Kennywood didn't change their brochures from year to year as the other parks did so I will just post the brochures that I do have and also some pictures from Laser Loop and the building of Steel Phantom. 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. Anyways on to the old stuff I have on Kennywood. Updated 4/6/08: added super 8 film footage including POV of Laser Loop Updated 5/4/08: added super 8 film footage of the Dipper circa 1982 finally they use the real ride in the brochure The Phantom starts to rise The map gets a much needed update and look. The Phantom makes it onto the map Here is the Thunderbolt before the Steel Phantom dove down between it This looks nothing like the Steel Phantom but more like the Viper at Magic Mountain ah you gotta love the 80's. I believe the year the Laser Loop opened the track was left primer red and later painted black. It was the least attractive of all the shuttle loops but it rode pretty good! This is the artwork for Montezooma's Revenge at Knott's Berry Farm The park map showing the Laser Loop

Thanks for posting that pic from the brochure. I remember seeing that model, they had it on display near the front of the park before Colossus opened. I remember they also had a model of the Revolution, it wasn't the whole ride, just basically the loop and the track coming through the loop. It had little dolls in the trains. Does anyone else remember that?

Here is a picture of the working model that Arrow had on display at the 1978 IAAPA trade show in Atlanta, GA. It shows the concept for the inversion for the suspended coaster. As a bonus, here is another great picture I found of the Bat. The name was so perfect for the ride! Parks were much more creative in those days, either that or maybe now-a-days all the good names are taken.

^ Well I have ridden both rides and I would have to say, although I love the Bat for nostalgic reasons, Top Gun is the better ride of the two.

I love reading everyone's memories of how the park used to be. I especially loved seeing the words to the Revolution commercial, that was a great ad. Remember the jingle when Six Flags took over? "Six Flags is building a better mountain at Magic Mountain..."

And here are Bloop's friends, the Wizard, Bleep was the female troll and I can not remember the name of the King troll. Notice there is no sign of the Revolution in the background.

You want the trolls? Here is Bloop on one of the vintage shopping bags. Bloop the troll was the mascot of Magic Mountain back in the olden days.

The bat flew sparadically its initial season. Luckilly it was operating the week that I visited the park. I will never forget my first ride on the Bat, it was such a unique experience compared to coasters of the past. The only thing to rival that unique experience was the original Batman: the ride at SFGAm. Anyways here is the ride in action. that is it for my post on one of my most missed coasters!!! notice that the brake fins are located on the bottom of the trains rather than up between the wheel housings great sign This is me and my mother in front of the ride. Good thing we grow out of that "awkward stage" OMG those socks!!!!!

The Bat was replaced by the Vortex. I believe Arrow basically gave them the ride as an apology for the whole Bat mess.

Here are some of the News releases and photos from the park that introduce and describe the experience of "The Bat" Also is some interesting stuff on coaster history and Arrow Development, the company the built and disassembled the ride. Scroll down for even more Bat photos... another press release about the ride. When it opened it was "the toast of the town" all that is left is some footings that can barely be seen beneath the Vortex. This release talks about Arrow Development and all it's accomplishments at that time. Originally the ride was designed to have two corkscrews but Arrow was not able to perfect the swinging, so they were omitted. Probably a good thing. What a great logo. Everything about this ride was done right, well except for the ride. The Logo was great, the station fit the theme and the trains were some of the coolest trains ever to ride the rails...or hang from the rails as the case may be

Kings Island - The Bat As a follow up to the post of some old magazine ads, here is some good stuff from Kings Island I found, the year they introduced the Bat. The year is 1981, after riding high on the success of the nationally recognized Beast roller coaster the park is about to introduce the "next generation thrill ride". Before I get to the Bat, get caught up on the park the way it was in 1981. There is quite a bit of reading but it is all interesting stuff and a good way to brush up on Kings Island history. Enjoy. Shane PS. If you love looking at old nostalgic amusement park stuff check out my thread that is dedicated to all the old parks, rides and fun stuff of the past. I will be updating it with old stuff every now and again so check back often. Shane's Amusement Attic See Vekoma's version of the suspended coaster here... Vekoma's Swinging Turns click here to see footage of The Bat in action. very small themed sections of the park. Safari is now gone and little remains of Oktoberfest The big new addition..."The Bat" Here is the way the park laid out. Park Map from 1981 A history of the park in the 80's with a description of each themed areas and the rides and games at that time. Boy the racer looked good back in it's hey day. What happened to painting the rides red, white and blue? So much better than faded and flaking white and grease. The other big thrill ride at the time was "The Demon" aka "the Screamin' Demon" Scenes from the park circa 1981. The Beast in it's prime! The Beast was a huge success and even appeared in national magazines such as People. Notice the capacity of the ride when it first opened. This is the official Press Release for "The Bat" 1981

Here are the Magic Mountain ads. These were the years that introduced the world to the Great American Revolution and Colossus. The Revolution is the ride that made me fall in love with anything and everything that was coasters! I was only 11 years old when the Revolution opened. Two years later the park ran an essay contest called "why I want to be King of Magic Mountain" It was for kids 12 and under and the winner could invite 20 of his friends and was actually treated as the king of Magic Mountain for one day. Unfortunately I was thirteen at the time, but I wrote an essay and entered it under my younger brothers name. Well I, or he, actually won the contest. I got to be part of the group but I had to sit back and watch as my brother was treated as the King of Magic Mountain. Enjoy what used to be LA's Giant Superpark. Well this is the last one, hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane. I think this is when it all started to go wrong. Well actually Six Flags when they first came in did a nice job with the park. This is one of my favorite ads, I love how they had characters for different experiences at the park. The park was really well rounded at this time. Colossus makes its debut. The original version of the ride featured some great negative g's Can you believe they actually used to feature a super round-up flat ride in their advertising? Good Times!!!! The three coasters at the park were the "Great American Revolution" (later renamed Revolucion by six flags, ugh) Gold Rusher and the Mountain Express

I am saving the best for last....Magic Mountain, the way it was and should've been... But before those ads here are a few random others. Obviously Elitch Gardens didn't have the advertising budget that the others did, but hell that was a great park!!!! And in my opinion one of the best named coasters ever. "Mister Twister" I miss the old parachute towers Six Flags Atlanta the year before the addition of Mind Bender, "The world's only triple looping roller coaster" or so it was advertised that way the year it opened. "The Land of Screams & Dreams" what a great tag line.

Sea World didn't have any rides at the time, but it is still fun to see the way it was. I grew up in San Diego and I used to write letters to Sea World telling them they should build a roller coaster (what a geek) but hey maybe they listened to me, it just took awhile to get the coastal commission to approve it. I still don't understand why the Sea World sky tower is still an additional upcharge attraction???? Pay to ride the tower but Atlantis is free, what is the reasoning??? Sea World was partial owners of Magic Mountain at the time and the success of Captain Kids world must have been the influence of Wizzard's World at Magic Mountain

I remember going to Universal back in the 70's there wasn't much to it, basically the tour and a cheesy western show. Of course there was the collapsing bridge, parting of the red sea and the flash flood. Oh and Frankenstein used to roam the grounds scaring the crap out of little kids, myself included. Airport 77??? WTF?

Coming shortly the early years of Magic Mountain and the transition to Six Flags Magic Mountain, Universal Studios, Sea World and for some reason I have a couple ads for Six Flags Atlanta and one from the original Elitch Gardens.

Marriott's Great America opened the bicentennial year of 1976. The Turn of the Century was all the rage in those days. It oringinally had two extreme air time bunny hills where the current loops of the Demon are today. Oh those where the days. When Marriott owned the park it was true to the theme of Great America. Most of those theme elements have been watered down or are completely missing from the park. Anyone remember the Yukon Yahoo or the Saskatchewan Scrambler? For Fun and Pictorium were added in 1979 This year the park added the Yankee harbor themed Tidal Wave. This is the ad from the year the park opened

Now onto Disneyland. It was a huge deal when the Matterhorn was shut down and the inside of the mountain was refurbished to include snow scenes and the menacing abominable snow monster. Space Mountain was also a huge deal the attraction cost more than the original cost of the entire Disney park. I love this ad. The lines for the Matterhorn where over 90 minutes long when the abominable snow man first appeared This picture is a model of the attraction

I have been going through all my old coaster stuff that has been stored in my attic since the 80's. I came across these great magazine ads from parks in California and thought I would share them. I miss the golden years of the theme parks, everything was so new and exciting then. If anyone else has ads like these from parks in their area I would love to see them. I hope you enjoy these ads from the hey day of the California park beginnings. Lets start with Knott's Berry Farm, Disneyland, and Marriott's Great America below. Shane PS. If you love looking at old nostalgic amusement park stuff check out my thread that is dedicated to all the old parks, rides and fun stuff of the past. I will be updating it with old stuff every now and again so check back often. Shane's Amusement Attic Here's some links to other ads: Universal Studios, Sea World, Six Flags Atanta, and Elitch Gardens Magic Mountain Kings Island's The Bat Taft Parks & Disneyland Knott's used to be such a quaint park that really follows it's theme intent. Now it seems like a hodge podge of random ideas that don't really belong together I loved the Roaring 20's airfield, shame it has stripped of all its charm. Notice rides like the Loop trainer, Propeller spin and Whirlwind The Corkscrew was a HUGE deal back in those days. Hold on 70 feet and two 360 loops!!!!

Oops, I missed this page in the update, but here you can see more of their collection of looping coasters including the Thunderbolt that used to be at DreamWorld in Australia.

MEISHO ride catalog Well I just have enough time to get one more update in before taking off for the holidays. For those of us lucky enough to have traveled to the far land of Japan we probably have ridden one or many of these contraptions. I love Japan simply for the pure quirkiness of all their rides and parks. Along with Togo, Meisho is one of the major ride producers in Japan and although most of their rides are in the Land of the Rising Sun they did build the Thunderbolt in Australia. Here is the catalog of their rides. From Coasters to flats, Meisho seems to have built them all. Please pay special attention to the sexy "Meisho Girls" with their random pointing and surprised looks. I love Japan! This catalog comes from an IAAPA convention I visited sometime in the mid 80's. Did you know that there was a Great America in Janan? Here is the Columbia Carousel Japanese style The wheels of Japan Maybe Magic Mountain can get new trains for their Metro here. now back to the rides these next few coasters are not from this catalog but from an earlier catalog I picked up the year before this one.

^ Well I did a lot more on my own, including my great trip to Japan, but the Holy Roller Tour was all the parks that I visited with my boyfriend and kids and the Sisters. It was truly a spiritual trip! If you remember I wasn't such an angel in Japan