Good day theme park enthusiasts.
As you are all fanatics and visitors off this website, you’ve probably seen the pictures and videos off some strange you-can-operate-them-yourself-rides, mostly found in small German parks. If not attractions named Butterfly, Nautic Jet, Luna Loop, probably do ring a bell.
All these attractions are manufactured by Heege Freizeittechnick.
During one of my many visits to German parks I wondered how much of an investment such an attraction would be for a really small theme park.
In example FreizeitPark Bell. During my visit with a friend, we were the only 2 people in the park. We arrived 1 hour after opening time and there were just some operators/staff/cleaning crew. Probably 2-3 persons have to do everything.
These really small parks are more like playgrounds but with attractions like Butterfly, Nautic Jet, you just might think you are actually in a theme park.
These attractions look cheap (and I say this with most of respect, I honestly do) but they are lot’s off fun, don’t need an operator and has a great endurance I guess. Would it be worth the investment, it’s the managers decision I guess.
Here are the official prices (given to me by Heege in euro’s but I’ll put them in dollars by today’s exchange rate).
Vids thanks to TPR
butterfly
Package selfservice: USD 64.498 (47.400 euro).
nautic jet
Package selfservice: USD 63.137 (46.400 euro).
skydive
(image thanks to Peter Van Genechten. At background another 2 attractions by Heege;))
Package selfservice: USD 30.208 (22.200 euro).
luna loop
Package self-service: USD 67.900 (49.900 euro).
loopi
Package self-service: USD 40.549 (29.800 euro).
tower
Package self-service: USD 165.600 (121.700 euro).
With operator-function: USD 169.955 (124.900 euro).
loopster
With operator function: USD 271.465 (199.500 euro).
When I’ve seen these prices for the first time I must admit I wouldn’t have guessed these kind of attractions were that expensive. I’m not a technician or engineer so I don’t know if these prices are reasonable or not. I also would have placed the Nautic Jet higher then the butterfly but once again, I’m not an expert.
But thinking this over, attractions like Butterfly and Nautic Jet may be a big cost for smaller parks but they are lots of fun and can stand there for ages. U don’t have the cost of an operator and in case of Butterfly you are able to place the cheapest ‘coaster’ in the world in your backyard instead of buying that expensive car.
After all, who wouldn’t want to have his own personal coaster credit