Dragon Khan

C'mon... is a coaster a rip off of another coaster just because it shares its colour scheme ? The shades of blue / cream are not exactly the same, for a start. Then you'll answer "ok, but it has Egyptian themeing too". I agree BUT wait till you see the final result. THIS Egyptian themeing will be different with lots of allusions to the comic strip Asterix and Cleopatra, with humour touches like an egyptian styled Eiffel Tower... the whole result will be more cartoonesque than the more "realistic" Montu... if we start this way, then Batman the Ride's and ex Top Guns arte rip offs of each other, Green Lantern is a rip off of Riddler, any red Arrow is a rip off of Viper... I also doubt a lot of French are even aware of Montu... would you prefer a Raptor green coaster instead ? Not sure THAT would fit the theme... I mean, look at everything Egypt related and you'll see this scheme is the one that makes more sense...

That's what she said last night ...

No need to be a rocket scientist to figure out I'm all for the sitdown type. Dragon Khan was the first coaster I left with wobbling legs. It's just pure intensity from first drop till you hit the brakes. The drop out of the MCBR (which one cannot feel at all) comes as a nice surprise with the "bank and drop". I have ridden lots of B&M's but the ones that come to my mind are Superman in Madrid (only excellent floorless), I also love Nitro, and I would say my favourite inverts are Talon, Batman and of course Nemesis. Stand ups are gimmicky but I appreciate Riddler's Revenge, as for flyers, I just don't care about them. Maybe Crystal Wings would change that because of the themeing / interactions. Dive machines are ok but too short or just "near clones".

Taking into consideration this hill is very elongated, I would think it's more fated to deliver sustained floater (as opposed to sudden ejector). The proof of the receipe will be in the tasting, for all the lucky riders on Leviathon tour

OMG the sexiest coaster on earth is becoming even sexier ! It was about time, but now the contrast is clearly visible !

What did you just post in Leviathan's thread ?

For all those who are worried about a speed record breaking coaster in the future, stop worrying... B&M will one day come with a launch and make it ... reliable This is a JOKE ! No need to try and explain me how forceless a B&M launch WOULD be and so on. We all can have fun , can't we ?

This woodie looks magnificient. Has the price tag for this gem been officially announced ? (with or without themeing ?) The layout is very different from all the GCI's twistiness I have ridden so far. My favourite were Prowler and Renegade. I wonder how GCI does with a more classic "nearly" out and back design. I really want to visit this park again now

^exactly, like Pink Panther the ride (ooops sorry, I meant Xpress at Walibi Holland) and Superman, the floorless in Madrid

Tunnel might be short, but at this speed, imagine the headchopper effect !

Something tells me I was well inspired to book my family trip there for late August ! Now if the RCS team does as amazing a job as at Asterix, it might go quick. But I assume the size of the lift will make it take some time before it's complete, though. Do you know if the painters team is also people from RCS ? or "normal maintenance" workers ? Too bad they don't use the B&M ball pod to access those tall elements. Which coaster (beside Silver Bullet) has one ?

^you're right. Probably my mistake is based on the pictures I took at that time, which make it appear brighter. Weather conditions might have played a role too. I remember watching this video (World's greatest RC Thrills in "pseudo 3D" " This video was shot before the park opened to the public I think, or really in the early days: look at the barren land ! no vegetation at all. Trees and greenness has grown a lot since then, but I guess a lot of it is now gone again to make way for the hyper. As long as it doesn't fade into the pink of the 2 examples I gave in my previous post, we're safe. I hope we see the lift starting soon to have a better impression of how it will (or won't ) dwarf Khan. I think I read on a Spanish site (probably PA Community) that tests were planned around mid April

At long last vertical construction has started. Not sure about the shade of red they've picked for Khan though. I remember it brand new in 95 when it was an orangish flashy red (nearly like fire brigade trucks !). This one may be more "in tune" with the Chinese theme, but my fear is, this shade could turn to a pinkish colour with the Spanish weather and the sea side environment. Hopefully it never turns like Xpress at Walibi Holland or Khan's cousin Superman in Madrid. Now we have to wait and see how it blends with "Shambhala"'s dual color track

I think a park that undergoes a very bad transition (into what, I don't know...) is my home park (nearly ashamed to admit) WALIBI Belgium: they have been removing rides (including coasters), trying to put in absurd rides (Vertigo), spending time and money HALF renovating old rides (what's the point of cleaning the half of the rapids, half of the mine train...) and introducing new characters (for the second time) and they let their only very good coaster (imo) Turbine SBNO (even if they are willing to renovate it, it's been standing there, rusting for 3 years and finally won't reopen till 2013 !) This added to the fact they always operate poorly, not judging necessary to put another train on a woodie when a queue is one hour long... I went with US friends and just for the credit, we had to wait one hour for an SLC... I almost forgot: Cobra (Boomerang) was closed for a huge part of the season, and there seems to be a threart that the Ferris Wheel might be in its old days too... Come on Walibi... BE what you used to be in the eighties: a PIONNEER

Expedition Ge-Force at last, getting back to Olympia Looping after 11 years (!) and my first visit to Europapark

Having never been to this park, I cannot comment on the crowds, but indeed: no need to be rocket scientist to imagine long queues on this one. I would be surprised if SFDK was the final home of this coaster. Maybe it's one for a ride rotation programme ?

This summer, I concentrated on Europe with: Bellewaerde Walibi Belgium Plopsaland Walibi Holland Efteling Toverland Phantasialand Europapark Holiday Park Parc Asterix Herne Cranger Kirmesse for Olympia goodness. I hit all these parks with fellow TPR members, and even home parks I consider "average" (to be polite) took another dimension with my two US coasterfriends

I'd say Millennium Force in its inaugural year, for which I had to wait almost 4 (four!) hours. The weather was so hot ! It made me sweat like a beast (I think SFStL on Mid Am 2010 is my only souvenir of a hotter day). Fortunately they had tose fans spraying some water and the DJ's did an awesome job to make time appear faster. They even organised dancing mini contests in the lines, and made the winner access the coaster at once ! kind of authorized line jumping

^ this sums it up... I think if someone asked them to build something more intense, I don't see them refusing, as long as they get paid. I still believe Werner Stangel involvement or not, plays a role in the forces generated by a coaster. And we all know he doesn't collaborate with B&M anymore... which I agree is a shame

^I have to admit that when track parts started to appear at the park, and seeing it was no dive machine gauge, I really expected (hoped ?) to see the park adding a Kumba / Khan killer. In this case, what I still find an attracting project despite being in an obvious minority WOULD have been the "if you can only ride one this year, this is the one" coaster. If I'm not mistaken, all of their loopers are not that impressive, and this would have been the real deal imo

Although this manoeuver may NOT be as forceful (but you never can tell, with the speed this will be negociated at) and less of a surprise, it makes me think of one of my favourite elements ever on a non looping coaster: Dutch Goliath's Stengel dive (why didn't they build another one of the same scale ?). Probably it won't have the "snap" I liked on Golie, but it reminds me of that more than MF's first overbank.

Robb, is there any way you or the starter of this thread or a moderator could implement a poll in this thread, or is it just impossible once a thread has been starting ? Because you're right: there has been a lot of digression in this thread, and even if I like to read everyone's opinion, a graphic representation could help making it more objective and cool down the "warriors" lol. It's so weird the thread for most anticipated for 2012 is 5 page long, whereas this one started one week later and is 3 times the same size !

Some new artwork has popped up at the Spanish site following construction of the Beemer. I am not sure if it is real park material or just a fan's fantasy, using Nolimits / any picture editing software. The thing that makes me doubt is the difference in spelling between ShambHala and Shambala (on this pic). As a reminder no name is official yet, and it could end up being something totally different like Shumbulu (lol) Did you know Dragon Khan (and not Kahn) had been called Khan Draak as well as Khan Drax in documentation before the park opened in 95 ? Same for Anaconda (now at Walygator park) which was supposed to be called Diplodocus

I feel the same way, and I have a feeling this thread is boiling. you'll notice I substancially say over and over again BOTH are good. And often, when several members post something quite neutral in a row (meaning cooling people down with all this passion) then someone will pop up and drop a line that might be perceived as provocation and it starts all over again. I remember how boiling the debate SFMM / CP once was too. Comparative threads have always had this kind of result. Too bad this also happens on a thread that was NOT intended to be just that. I have no pretention to be a (back seat) moderator, but one can clearly feel the tone used to criticise one manufacturer is NOT the same as the one used to criticise the other manufacturer... Look at my signature and you'll notice both Swiss are in my top 5 steelies, this should make it obvious I love both... once it was (ridiculously) fashionable to put Vekoma down for their roughness. Trends are changing, it seems

^I wouldn't go THAT far... edit: hadn't noticed the smiley