PURE

What you said is as far as any of that has gone. That's a rumor that I believe was posted on Screamscape a month or two ago, although there's been no word of that officially. Nor does it make much sense. Ever been to MM when the overflow lot is full? They need that area for those busy summer days. Deja Vu runs fine and is barely down unless for its yearly rehab. That "rumor" sounded made up from the first time I read it. ^The park is much better now than it was 5 years ago. The parks clean, employees are getting better, the park is slowly beginning to turn for the better. The new owner and park GM don't seem like fans of plopping stuff in parking lots anymore, it was a thing of the past. Its time for the "parking lot coaster complainers" to stop dumping all over MM because the past GM had no clue how to run a park.

Watching the Video seems to clear up a couple things. First: it looks like fun to me. Swaying like that back in the day must have created a sensation that hadn't been done before, I bet it was nice to get on something innovative. Second: it's pretty obvious from just watching the footage that the swinging trains and non banked track definitely did a toll on the structure and the trains. Some parts of that video you can see where the train is tugging on the track in both directions which I'm sure was a lot of fun, but it looks like the ride simply wasn't made to be doing that everyday if they expected it to last a couple years. 5 years after this closed they had finally worked out the kinks for Ninja at MM which is one of the best suspended rides I have ever been on, and overall is a lot of fun for kids, especially if they don't like loops (although when waiting in line for Ninja this past Friday I heard young kids mentioning loops and their parents discussing amongst each other if there were loops or not). However Ninja still has minor flaws. There are minor structure problems with the ride, especially in places where the train swings rapidly and creates strong pull forces. Every so often there are minor cracks in the track structure, and they get have to get repaired. The train design is great for swinging side to side, but has a forward/backward "tugging" feel that's hard to avoid. The ride can valley if its too cold, or if the wheels have been over-greased. But if you rode it at all this summer you'll know it was riding much better and faster than usual. In fact the safetys had problems with the train coming in too fast almost every day, it would miss its mark, and the ride would be down for about a half hour. Thanks for all the videos and pictures, it really makes it easier to understand how these rides have evolved and improved over the years! Very interesting!

^^^^^How did you get those files to load up so large? When I loaded mine up and they were that big they said "file size too big." So I had to shrink them to the size they're at now. No way, I did too. I liked it because of how unique it was. That's why I took pictures.

Oh God I remember watching it that night. It had some pretty cool old footage that made it interesting looking at now aged coasters when they were new. But the molester ice cream guy, along with the rest of the acting in it made me cringe.

I'm not sure how interested everyone is in the good bye of Flashback. However, I went by the park today to see what kind of destruction was being done on Flashback for those who were interested and wanted photos. It was really hard to find a couple good angles of the ride, I hadn't noticed how it had become so hard to get photos of it recently. Everything looks pretty normal on this side. This is from right in front of the metal detectors. Soon this will be a shot of Goliath, and Flashback won't be in the way. Hope this satisfied those wanting to see what was going on! This photo was to show the inside of the spine. Kind of hard to see, however in person you could tell it was hallow. The rail support triangles stopped on the outside of the spine, welding was only done on the outside as well. Kind of a bad view, but it gives you an idea how they're taking it apart. As you can tell from the photos, this is no disassembly. Flashback will be scrap metal. You can also tell Viper has been painted, as well as part of X's turnaround. Part of the lift has been painted as well, but they got a long way to go. And the total amount of construction as of 2 PM Friday. They were basically cutting pieces and letting them drop. You could hear the heavy metal bouncing off other still existing parts of the ride, it was a pretty cool sight to see. Here you can see the dip before the lift has been removed. Lift chain is also hanging.

Well, I guess the only thing that matters is that X isn't getting demolished and that it will be open for all of us X fans for years and years to come! Oh the joy of the 5th dimension! ^Its really sad and unfortunate to hear that you never got the Flashback credit. I rode several times on my visits to the park, it was a blast!!! If anybody else cares to share their ride experiences with the "non-Flashback credit mourner," now would be the time!

That first drop looks like a winner. However the next couple hills, with their small margin of decrease in height, I'm skeptical about the airtime.

Sweet! Anybody interested in pooling some money?

Yeah relocating it to another park would be dumb. However re-locating it in the park would've been interesting. Good bye Flashback!

Hoping for the removal of X and mourning the demolition of Flashback? Thank god you're not in charge of the park! I'm surprised nobody has posted pictures yet. I'll be in the area tomorrow, suing the crap out of my old landlord. After that I'm gonna be stoppin by the park. Maybe I'll get lucky and the ride won't be gone yet. I'll take some Flashback Demolition action photos and post them for ya'll to see.

I don't see why the article calls this "begging." He said it's his biggest thrill. He isn't quoted saying "Pleeeeeese make this a ride Disney! PUH-LEEEESE!" Regardless, the movie doesn't need its own ride.

As far as I've experienced firsthand, if there is any wind at all they basically shut the show down. There's really no way to predict which way the winds will change during the show, so if it starts to pick up in any direction, they don't even start the fireworks, or cancel it in the middle. Either way, it'll teach you not to wait over an hour for a stupid fireworks show! lol.

Agreed!!! Disagree!!! The coasters may not be that crazy, but God Damn!, the park itself is amazing!

I doubt this will increase capacity by a substantial amount. This paragraph alone sounds like a nightmare to not only a prototype coaster, but to maintenence who has to work on the coaster in the future as well. Something that complex on an already complicated (vertical lift) ride, not a good idea, IMO. The pretzel loop? Or did you mean the first on Vekoma flyers? He's talking do a loop on inverted track with flying trains. Which I personally would have liked to see happen with Tatsu, however now, I'd just like to see it done.

Dude that'd be a great idea! Then all the dumb guests wouldn't know which ride is which and they'd ask employees "Which one is Goliath?" and the employees would say "Its the big red one with the black supports" and they'd go looking for a coaster with those colors and they'd end up going on the wrong rides the whole day!!! Muahahahaha! All us RCE's would be the only ones knowing what's going down. *bling* Thanks for the nice update Mr. Jahan. Very informative and non-illegal. Some really good shots, you wound up what's going on really well for some of us who'd love to be there as often as you but can't.

^You mean Fantasmic!?

If they extended the station there could possibly be 2 trains, which would help capacity. Doesn't look like its included in this model... The way that thing looks designed, either its going to be a lot bigger than it appears in the photo (I actually think its a cool idea, its just too bad Vekoma won't make it bearable), or there's going to be a lot of sore bodies.

^I mean Viper. Two red coasters right next to each other. Sure they've got different support colors, but I was just hoping they'd come up with another original color scheme like the way X was painted when it opened.

^When it comes to B&M's, its really a crapshoot. Haven't been impressed with their airtime sit down rides, but with that steep drop and basic design, it might be really good. Tatsu has trims and everyone was freaking out about them when they first saw them. But they have yet to be used. Those trims can't all possibly be necessary for normal operation, I'm with the post a couple up that said they're there in case they need to be used because its easier to install them now than later. I don't get why sometimes it seems like B&M knows just what they're doing, and then it comes to a simple out and back airtime sit down ride, and they just can't seem to give us the forces we're expecting. Simple things like that have always been a mystery to me.

I hope they paint the ride rail a different color than the "blood red" they're deciding to paint the spine, like they did on X. I always dug the color scheme of X and wish they would have picked another color besides one that's the same color as the ride right next to it. Seeing as how the parks open all week, and how I'll be around the area later this week, I might be able to get a couple "mid paint" shots of X. And maybe Flashback will be in the middle of tearing pieces off it too. Anyone know if Vipers open?

Yeah I'm not buying this. I'm gonna get the Extreme Pass with the free parking, and free Flash Passes. Best deal around, in my opinion.

^^^There are lots of different laws for guns. Some licences allow a concealed weapon, some don't. ^^It doesn't really matter what the situation is, people have rights to carry guns. It probably won't be going away any time soon, either.

Couldn't agree more. Which is why when it comes to coasters I've always thought Magic Mountain had the "kick in the nads" rides. Most overrated coaster overall has to be Millennium Force. I waited 5 years to get on this thing, waited 3 hours at the park, sat in the back seat and... Nothing. No airtime, no forces, and a lame layout. Man, I'll never forget how disappointed I was. But I kind of feel that way with all of CP's coasters. Raptor, Mantis, Iron Dragon, the Mine Ride, Magnum, all came in sub par for me. However I did like Blue Streak and TTD. The forces of the launch were just so unbelievable.

Just looking at that video explains why this ride was so bad after it was open for a couple years. I'm sure it was popular when it opened in 92, but I was only 7 then and wasn't getting on rides. After a couple years rolled by and its "new ride" status wore off, so did the crowds. I mean, that video is exactly how I remembered it. Think Freefall pain, but after each of 5 hairpin drops. And it wasn't so much the drops that hurt, but the design of the track after the drop. It had this whip effect that pulled the train the opposite direction it was hairpinning, which I'm sure didn't help the train or the track. Just really, badly designed. I think the last time I rode it was in 2003 which I believe is the last year they ran it. I don't think I'll miss it.

^In all my years going to the park, reading about the park, and being on coaster sites I've never heard of it. As far as I know Flashback was the only space dive coaster ever made. Flashback was a rough ride, hard to enjoy and quite an experience. It was also hard to get guests on after the advances of better coasters at MM. The concept was cool but the trains stunk (you couldn't see forward-even in the front seats!- because of the height of the trains), the restraints were worse (hard lap bars and over the shoulders), a rough ride (old track, constantly being re-located), and not well designed (there was a quick unexpected dip before the lift that always hurt, a forceful helix that clicked my restraints down so far I couldn't breath until they got released at the end of the ride, amongst other flaws). I mean, the rides honestly a POS. But compared to some of the rides I've been on that are still open, it's not one that I think should be melted. New B&M floorless trains and design fixes could make it a restored one of a kind ride. I mean, X is doing it, why couldn't Flashback? But when it was open I never remember it having lines. It was in a bad location of the park, and I'm sure a lot of GP never even knew this ride existed.