DanM64

^I did earlier this summer, and I didn't really care for it. I think X-Flight is better than Wild Eagle, though I wouldn't say I was all that impressed with X-Flight, either. I will be going to CP in a few weeks so hopefully I can see how GateKeeper stacks up. Honestly, I just want the B&M Wing Rider craze to be over. Edit- I think this country needs less B&M wing coasters and more Intamin Skyrush-esque wing coasters!!

Six Flags Great America is my home park. My favorite parks are Knoebels, Kennywood, Hersheypark, and Dollywood.

Thanks to those that posted the pics. I was really glad to see that the coaster doesn't appear to have many inversions. Inversions are fine, but Great America already has plenty of inversions on other coasters. What they really needed was some ejector airtime, and at least from those plans it looks like this thing will have loads of it!! I was also really impressed with how well it seems they are going to make it fit in that area of the park. It's really amazing what the engineers can do with fairly small spaces in parks these days.

Adventure Express, Legend, and Wild Eagle were all great picks! Every time I go to SFGAm, I always forget about Dark Knight because it gets so much hate. I ride it almost every time I go, so I don't forget it exists, but every time I ride I think the same thing- "that was a lot better than I remember it being." It's really not nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be. EDIT- Cedar Creek Mine Ride at CP is so forgettable that I actually forgot to leave it off my post! I never remember it's there, and never ride it because I find it uncomfortable.

You can see Deja Vu's loop to the left of Columbia Carousel, and RMC did build Aftershock when it moved to Silverwood... ...Deja Vu is coming back! Goliath is sort of an appropriate name if the coaster ends up being what we think it is, even if the name is lame and overused. Hey, it's still a way better name than "Flight Deck"!!

I voted Dragster, but in reality Dragster and Maverick are tied for my favorite. Mantis is by far the worst. I hate standups. 1. TTD and Maverick 2. MF 3. Magnum 4. Raptor 5. Blue Streak 6. Mean Streak 7. Disaster Transport- RIP 8. Gemini 9. Wicked Twister 10. Corkscrew 11. Iron Dragon 12. Cedar Creek Mine Ride 13. Mantis

It was actually a pretty hard decision! I ended up choosing Viper. Viper is a blast in the back row! I've ridden it countless times, and I never get tired of it. It still runs great, it's hard to tell that it'll be 19 years old next year. Whizzer was pretty close up there, as well as Batman. Whizzer is always fun, especially at night, and it's one of the first coasters I ever rode. Simply classic! Batman is still pretty intense, and even though it was cloned to death, I give this one the home field advantage. It was nice to see the fog working again when they switched it backwards, now they just need to bring back the junk pile! I'd say Whizzer and Batman are basically tied with Viper as my favorite. Raging Bull was my first mega coaster- I waited 5 hours for it in '99 (young and dumb-I was in 7th grade), but it feels outdated now. If the line is over 45 minutes I usually don't even ride it anymore. V2 is another one I only get on if the line is short. I really like V2, but I never will wait more than 30 minutes for it, and sometimes won't unless it's 15 or less. I'd ride it a lot more often if they turned the holding brake back on. American Eagle Red is great if it's running well. Unfortunately this year it was not. The helix trims were on really uard, which kills the 2nd half of the ride, and the airtime hills at the end were really rough. With some rehab AE Red would be at the top of my list. Demon was my first looping coaster, and I still enjoy it. I ride it defensive and it doesn't hurt at all. Shockwave was by far my all time SFGAm favorite. It was my first "big" coaster, and I rode it well over 300 times.

^^^^^That sure looks like a match to me. Great catch!!! The more I see, the more excited I am for the 29th. I've never been on an RMC, and I was really looking forward to making the trip to trying out the first 3. I still plan to, but the thought of having one on my home park is awesome! I'm really curious to see how the RMC coasters stack up against El Toro. I think the location in the park is perfect, I just hope they don't go overboard with inversions. As awesome as Outlaw Run's barrell rolls look, I would rather have only a couple of them, and a whole bunch of ejector air hill goodness.

^Lol! Assuming it is RMC- how about Iron Timber Wolf? I can't wait for the 29th!

Old Indiana Fun Park was easily the most ghetto park I've ever been to.

Done! I just added $30. Sorry I didn't see the thread sooner. I hope everyone who reads this donates to this great cause! Every little bit helps!

Sorry the Cubs didn't help the Bucs out by losing to the Cardinals today. I think they'll be fine. It would be really nice to see them in the playoffs. Think the owners will ok the instant replay for next year? I don't see why they wouldn't, and it's about time they get it!

^You have obviously never ridden El Toro. It is NOTHING like Raging Bull- it is a much greater coaster than Raging Bull could ever be. If they tore any current coaster out and built and exact clone of El Toro in its place I would be the happiest person on the planet. Yes, I am an El Toro fanboy, but it was the fact that the ejector air I had on El Toro was like nothing I could even describe to people that made me a fanboy of it. There should be more than enough room for plenty of ejector airtime hills and a barrell roll or 2 . I really hope it doesn't break the wooden coaster inversion record. Having one or 2 inversions would be cool, but I'd much prefer more ejector air to a bunch of inversions.

I'm not certain, but I would assume that the Village would only require them to state the height above ground, so the drop could very well be bigger than 165 feet. I guess we'll know for sure in a few days! (I really hope it's RMC or Intamin)

I am REALLY excited!! I was fine with a Premier launched coaster, as I really enjoyed Sky Rocket, but I feel like the park already has enough steel coasters. A big new woodie is a great addition for the park.

Nice to see a POV. Flying Turns looks pretty epic, though I wouldn't expect any less from Knoebels!

The year I worked at SFGAm the lift motor for Batman the Ride blew during Fright Fest, and they had a spare motor for it, so they just swapped the bad one out with the spare. I can't remember what day it actually broke, but I know it was out of service only 1 operating day, so they do have spares for at least some coasters. I would think El Toro will be down only a week tops if they keep a spare. I know BTR is a chain lift and El Toro is a cable, but assuming the gears are fine I doubt El Toro's motor is any more complicated. Keep in mind that BTR's lift motor is by no means easy to change, as it is mounted out top of the track, and squeezed in between the top of the track and the ceiling of the station.

I'm looking forward to the final announcement, whatever coaster it ends up being should be a nice addition to the park. I'm glad it seems like our major coaster dry spell seems to be over!

I want to throw in a 3rd recommendation for Palermo's near Hershey. I went last year, and the pizza and pasta I got were both fantastic!

My girlfriend loves Mean Streak. She doesn't like that they've been doing work to it to make it smoother, she says it will ruin the ride because she loved how rought it was. When we rode Hades last year, she said she'd never ride it again because it was too rough. If that doesn't put how awful Hades is into perspective, I don't know what does.

^That's a really good point! I think it's awesome that the park goes to all the trouble to make the teaser videos. I enjoy watching them, and I enjoy reading all the rumors, even if I've been trying to disprove most of them . I really hope SFGAm keeps making these campaigns a yearly thing, they're doing a great job! I'd much rather have this then what Darien Lake did- no teaser, no word from the park at all, even after the park told the c8ty exactly what they're doing.

^^^Exactly! Even if they only were redoing the blue side, which would make no sense, there is no way they coild restructure it and just have the red side running with trains screaming down the course while people are working on the other track 10 feet away. The AE rumor has made no sense from the beginning, and these pictures have pretty much just disprove the idea even more.

In High School I had a bus driver everyone nicknamed "Otto" because he looked like a spitting image of Otto from The Simpsons, and if you asked, he'd take a side street home from school, and go flying over a hill that would make you pop out of your seat. Sometimes heavy rain will form a soft spot to form on the train tracks, and I've literally bounced completely out of the seat. 210 ton locomotives give some amazing ejector air if you get them bouncing doing 50-70mph! I just went over a big one about 2 months ago. Flew out of my seat, and all my paperwork got tossed around. Those are really rare though, since as soon as you find spots like that the track inspectors temporarily lower the speed limit in that spot, and they fix them right away.

^^^Agreed.

If you check out RMC's Facebook page, they have a photo of that exact hoodie in the Screamscape photos and tell you how anyone can order one. The photo seems to me to be a fake made by an enthusiast who ordered the hoodie and took the pictures to mess with everyone, and it explains why he's only in the queue line. Here is the photo from the RMC Facebook page- the hoodie in the Screamscape photo is clearly the exact hoodie RMC offers for sale: Rocky Mountain Construction hoodie EDIT- Just have to add- the nerd in me really wants to order that RMC beanie!