rollermonkey

No, I've got enough to do in the Navy as it is without chasing MORE terrorists! Do you have a unibrow?

Retreat and Descent Danzig from Black Aria

"Safeway brand - Swiss Fondue." ^Hmm... Good question. I was thinking swiss cheese fondue, but yeah, swiss chocolate fondue works too. Mr. Cheat, which one is it?

Well you wouldn't get me to ride it until they put the wheels back on!

Derek, we all know you want a B&M version of Olympia Looping, but it's just not going to happen! The elements have to decrease in size as the ride progresses or the train would stall. (Look at X or Eejanaika. Those elements shrink fast because of the all the drag from the extra rails 'squeezing' and 'stretching' the trains.) The elements you listed aren't accurate for a lot of B&M's. BTR is a great example. I think a lot has to do with how tha elements interact with the surroundings, too. A zero-g roll wouldn't work well near the ground because it is actually a twisted air hill. A small cobra roll near the end of a ride could be very uncomfortable. That's actually a lot of directional changes in that element. Small vertical loops tend to have very high positive-g's. That's uncomfortable for a large majority of people and can cause health concerns. (Mission: Space?) Just some ideas I had.

A summary of the other Morgan coaster status: Steel Force is down awaiting a new lift chain. Mamba reopened after an inspection. Steel Dragon is still closed after the last accident (2003). Phantom's Revenge is still running with Arrow trains. Quicksilver Express is a comparatively small mine train, max height 38 feet, max speed 32 mph. The trains are significantly different that the Morgan Hyper trains. Operating status not confirmed since the accident. Santa Monica West Coaster is a comparatively small coaster, but runs a train very similar to those found on Wild Thing. Operating status not confirmed since the accident. Steel Eel: Smaller than Wild Thing, but runs similar trains. Operating status not confirmed since the accident. Superman el Ultimo Escape: The most recent coaster built by Morgan, has similar stats as Wild Thing. Trains appear to have a different design than Wild Thing. Operating status not confirmed since the accident. If anyone knows for sure what's up with the other Morgan coasters... Please share! PS: SteelPeppe, please keep me updated if you hear anything about SD2K! Thanks!

It was mentioned in another thread that Mamba opened a few hours late the next day.

Tell me what Toyota factories you are going to and I'll get you a list of nearby parks. Top 5? TDS TDL Space World That's my top three. Let me get back to you after Parque Espana this weekend or the last two!

^ SPELL CHECK. Please? That'd help people understand you. I get your point. Yes, parks are typically more to blame for clones than the manufacturers. Vekoma does tend to market their line up as predesigned rides, and customizing those rides is an option for the park. The real point is parks are in the business of making money, and the GP is where most of that money comes from, not us enthusiasts. So if it's cheaper to plunk down a boomerang in stead of a custom multi-inversion B&M, a park is likely to choose the boomerang. They still get to say they added a coaster, and to the GP it still 'goes upside-down'.

If you are talking about Entertainment City, I've been, but before I started taking pictures. It was either '94 or '96 and they had cleaned up all the destruction Saddam's troops had done to the park, and had a display showing what the park looked like after his troops had pulled back to Iraq. It was a nice little park, and one of my first outside the US, but the coasters weren't much to write home about. There is a newer park that has a B&M, but I haven't been back to Kuwait since '96.

Kumba9, I'd like to thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. It seems like the decoupled car came to rest in the first 25-30 feet of the brake run. I agree that the stoppage of that car was most likely a result of being misaligned with the brake shoes. This seems to mean that there was likely a failure before that point to cause the misalignment, as the front 5 cars made it through that point. Does anybody know what Minnesota's procedures are for an incident like this? (I guess I should go check out that Rides911 site, huh?)

I missed out on the smaller Himeji park. I didn't know they had a coaster similar to 'Slope Shooter'. That is one of those that is on the edge of the definition! DisneySea, I will have to stop seeing you soon... 6FGAm just won't be good enough. Thanks for the pictures, Captain! It's aways nice to see someone elses' perspective, and the parks looked so great with all the cherry blossoms!

I heard it was the cable. I don't know if it parted, or just didn't pass an inspection, but based on the low profile I'd guess it failed an inspection. (Nylon lines usually show signs of wear before parting. I'm a sailor, and work with large lines (Rope to ya landlubbers!) all the time.)

Please don't ever stop making these!

Elissa, the park really was small, and the flats were prety cheesy, but the rides I mentioned really did impress me. If I whored this place like I did a couple of the parks earlier in the day, I would have been done in about 20 minutes! (It was a walk on for everything I did here.) I slowed down and got a couple rerides, and experienced the park in 90 minutes. I am sure that on a Sunday, it gets pretty packed, and it was a bit more expensive than most of the smaller parks here in Japan. (The starlight passport: After 3PM, was still 3000 yen.)

HUGE! I can't decide if this is good or bad! or SO much to think about!

On Saturday, I made my way out to the shinkansen and went down to Nagoya to hit a couple of parks outside the city. I had a small problem in that I was in need of the day to roll over stateside, so I could hit an ATM, but it all worked out. I arrived at Inuyama Yuen station for Japan Monkey Park about 20 minutes before the website said it was supposed to open, but they ley me pay my way in (1500 yen or 3700 yen for a freepass) and I worked my way around to the park's newest addition Go! Go! Banana Coaster. (My new favorite coaster name.) I shot pictures for RCDB, whored it, and moved on to the shuttle loop, Atomic Coaster. This one is identical to the one at Mitsui Greenlend, but has more trees near it. A quick spin and I was moving on to Eagle Coaster. This is an interesting ride, more twister than anything, but a little rough. Next, I rode the highly customized, powered coaster Monkey Coaster around it's circuit. If this wasn't powered, it would be a pretty decent ride, but the motor slows it down too much. (And it screams while it goes downhill trying to slow it down!) I had no desire to actually see stinky monkeys, (despite my screen name) and I had ridden all four coasters before I had planned on arriving at the park! I worked my way back to Nagoya to get the rest of the day's train tickets on my credit card at JTB to save money until after 3PM and I could hit the ATM. I caught my train down to Minami Chita Okuda station and walked about 10 minutes to Minami Chita Beach Land park. This small park has devoted the larger portion of the park to marine life, and I had to work my way across this part to get to the small rides section known as Toys Kingdom. Almost everybody in the park seemed to be in the dolphin show, so I made my way over to the coaster quickly. Sadly, the gravity coaster had been removed (apparently it had actually been SBNO for quite some time) and replaced by a Zamperla Dragon. I paid my 300 yen and shot some pictures before scooting back to the train station. (Less than 30 minutes after I had arrived!) I worked my way back towards Nagoya and transferred to another train getting off at Kariya station. Kariya-shi Kotsu jido Koen is about a 5 minute walk from the station. This small neighborhood park had some city construction going on, and no gate fee, and I was able to get on the coaster a few moments before it closed for the night. The coaster isn't really a mouse, but it looks like a very small Arrow coaster. It does have single car trains, but these also look like Arrow train cars. The park stayed open, and I looked around a little before moving on. I hit the Post Office ATM, and caught the next train to Gamagori station to check out Lagunasia just before sunset. Lagunasia, despite being a fairly small park, turned out to be the highlight of my day. Aqua Wind is one of those really cool Gertslauer bobsled coasters that have been popping up all over Europe. I rode it as many times as the park operating hours would allow. (They closed at 8PM, quite late for an amusement park in Japan.) They have a beautifully themed reverser flume, The Legend of the Labyrinth. (My first.) They also have a ride, Treasure Hunting, that uses the same ride system as DL's Indiana Jones, but with a different theme and storyline. Like most of the rest of the park, this was beautifully themed. The flume and Treasure Hunting shared a structures/building with some of the park's waterslides. The center of the park was a wave pool, lazy river, and a pond for paddle and bumper boats. They had some other nice attractions, but in this forum, you guys just want the pictures, so here they are! The park looked cool after dark with the lighting effects in use. However, it was time to go home. R&E You missed a really cool (but small) park! Dinner actually tasted a lot better than it looked. Deep fried phyllo dough with ham and cheese inside and a grilled chicken sandwich with some Greek sauce. YUM! I kind of got yelled at for taking a photo of the stolen ride tchnology that is Treasure Hunting. At least the layout and everything else was different! ...and this one! Cool, huh? Check out the difference between this car... The world needs more well themed Gertslauer bobsleds! OK, who finds this homoeritic? This structure houses the Indiana Jones ride, the flume and some water sllides. The pond in front is shared by bumper boats and paddle boats. Japanese children have heat shields in their butts. Here some kids demonstrate by sliding down an astroturf hill on their keisters. Do we have any railfans here? The foreground is actually a go-kart track. That doesn't look like a wild mouse to me! Oh, yeah, this is Asia! Oh, they have penguins! That makes everything OK! Aw, crap. This wasn't supposed to be a Dragon! If I hadn't seen a ferris wheel in the distance a few seconds before arriving at this station, I might have been a little worried! Yes, those are rice paddies. Wow! This place is almost exactly like Disneyland! Because Axe Wielding Monkey Coaster just doesn't have the same ring to it... Even these burly security guards have a hard time keeping back the hordes who would ride the Eagle Coaster. Another of those weird Japanese shuttle loops where the loop is lower than the level of the station. Go! Go! Banana Coaster in all it's glory! Note how the wheels stay attached to the train all the way into the station.

Final Fantasy, but I'm not sure of the new direction it's taking. Gran Turismo for sucking away hours of my life. SSX was really good, but I didn't care for the last one.

Hmm, what do you consider a launch? Do Intamin impulse coasters count? I like the sustained launch on good old Superman: The Escape and the kick in the chest from Dodonpa, but I think my favorite is actually Mr. Freeze or Volcano: The Blast Coaster.

Is this random?

^^Don't worry, she tells everyone to die, but really she's a sweetie!

I'm going to have to see if I can get a hold of that episode. Good luck with twins!

I like the park's weird sense of humor. The signs for Geisha the coaster and the Grasshopper coaster are actually quite funny. (Both are photoshop image plays of Fujiyama.) Then of course there is the very odd theme for Dodonpa. The name is musical notes for drum beats? The cars look like people with their jaws ripped open? WTF? I can't wait to see what weird things they do for a coaster named for the feeling of relief after a rapid succesion of earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons lead your village to mass riots!

First: Congratulations! Second: I've been meaning to ask you, is that an actual quote from CSI? I've seen a couple episodes when 'passing through' the US, but I don't think I saw THAT on an episode! Just think, now you get to learn the joys of 'Child Swapping'!

Well, Jeez! By then I'll be back in the states! OK, yeah, every picture I've ever taken is clogging up my hard drive. Just waiting for your say-so!