DegoRed

To answer a few more questions.. In 2003 I made a long start to the lift and by the time it reached the chain sometimes it didn't have enough momentum to catch, and I haven't had a problem with the short turn so I stick with that, the lift has to be in that position it wouldn't really fit anywhere else, and the turnaround on top of the tv requires minimal pieces, which this year I'm finding out I may be running short on, so its a keeper as well. The failed layout from last year took up way too much time, and pieces I tried all kinds of things to make it work but I never added weights to the cars cause I figured it would just make the supports shake even more. Unlike many K'nex builders I don't have a lot of time to put into these models. I usually have finals until the 2nd and 3rd weeks of December which leaves me about 2 weeks to build the intricate structure and layout through the tree. And I don't even do pre-tree construction till the end of November, and lastly, I do have a life so even when I have free time I don't devote it all to building the model The basis behind this years model is a compact layout of many turns and crossovers and passes through the tree with low elevation shifts, meaning no big drops, meaning less speed and longer circuit times, which means less speed = harder to make inversions. I'm hoping toward the end I can pull enough together for a loop at least, but don't expect a multi-looper And lastly, the starter framework for the interior tree support structure is going to sit inside the tree, the branches will hopefully hide most of it but it willbe used to help support the track so that I don't have to count on the branches for support, because they move alot = loss of speed. Should be interesting once the tree is up sometime this weekend

Finally got around do throwing together the update. Still no tree, that will be here sometime between Thursday and Saturday for sure, so expect an update Sunday or Monday. Right now, the station, lift and turnaround are in place, and i'm building the support structure which will go inside the tree. http://www.freewebs.com/knex-kreations

Lets see of the following, Dragons, Raptor, Montu, Great Bear, Silver Bullet, Talon, BTR my top 5 would be 1. Dragons - Ice 2. Dragons - Fire 3. Montu 4. Raptor 5. Silver Bullet (even though it's tame, BTR is just too damn short) followed by BTR, Great Bear and Talon

Hey everyone, since it's taking much longer than I thought to get the tree for this years model, I went ahead and put the video up of last years model. This is also in the 2005 thread but I haven't gotten any responses back so I figure I'd just give the video its own thread. To make the model look more realistic I slowed the video down in Premiere to 60% Check it out here The file is zipped, in windows media format and 24 MB

OK still no update but as promised I got the video up (Thanks Robb) so you can check out Ornament Express in action. The video is set to music and to make the speed more realistic i slowed down the video to 60%. I think it turned out pretty well. Check it out and let me know what you think The file is zipped and in windows media format and is about 24 MB so high speed is recommended Ornament Express in action

Ok so no update yet, there's been a delay in getting the tree. It was supposed to come on Friday I won't be picking it up until Tuesday or Thursday, so as soon I get that I can start building. I'll try to throw together an update of the station and lift, but that section is identical to last years ayway

Ok to answer a few people's questions... - Over the years I've accumulated 4 sets plus a few of what k'nex calls grab bags for rods and connectors - The process is extremely time consuming. Last year I attempted to create a multi-looping coaster and it failed tremendously. I then had to go start from scratch and finished the model a week and half later. You can see a picture of the failed layout below - My dad has kinda gotten tired of these models, but it's a tradition now and all my family looks forward to seein it so he's s--t out of luck I also figure that we go all out for putting lights on the house (see below) so why shouldn't i go all out on the xmas tree - As far as the speed goes, yes it does travel the course tremendously fast, but this year the changes in elevation won't be quite so drastic so I'm hoping to slow it down as well as make a nice long layout, in the video which be up soon, i used premiere to slow the speed down enough to almost make it look believable though - As far as inversions go, i'm kinda playing it by ear. I can't say for certain what the layout is going to be because there are just way too many factors involved, from supports to the arrangements of tree branches and clearings, i do know that inversions take so much speed away from these models so it's hard to incorportate them and still have a decent coaster, but there may be a loop. One thing is for sure this is one of my favorite parts of the holiday, so I'm sure I'll come up with something good my house all lit up at night The failed layout from last year, giant loop, cobra roll, zero-g and helix...train stalled in cobra and after zero-g

For those who don't know....right around Thanksgiving, I pull out my dusty box of K'nex and start building my new Christmas coaster. 2005 marks the fifth year I've used my screamin serpent sets to transform the christmas tree into a thing of beauty. For this year I'm drawing most of my inspiration from Space Mountain at Disneyland. I went ahead and set up a site where you can follow the construction progress of this year's model as well as check out last year's model, The Ornament Express. A video of last years model will be available soon and you should start seeing updates on the site a few days after Thanksgiving. http://www.freewebs.com/knex-kreations

^ Damn you spoiled people that get to go to HHN. Stop bashing Haunt Robb

To answer Robb's initial question... I haven't been fortunate enough to go to HHN but pretty much all the Halloween events (Haunt, Shipwreck, and Fright Fest) here in so cal, are usually somewhat the same year after year, so you kinda get accustomed to it not completely changing. There is something to be said about the mazes that prove to be good. For example last year, Curse of the Spider, and Asylum were 2 of the best mazes, so I was really looking forward to them again, but at the same time you also build an expectation for the maze to be good so like this year, when I went through Curse of the Spider it wasn't nearly as good as last year, so that was a bummer. On the other hand I'm kinda dreading going to HHN, becuase then it may ruin all the so cal haunts for me, and I don't want that to happen

Got to Knotts at 6:30, walked right up to security and walked right in. Immediately my date got surrounded by monsters, and it really freaked her out since she had never been to any kind of halloween event or haunted house. I started to think she might not make it in the mazes, but we decided since the place was dead, to warm up on the rides. Ghostrider - Walk on: Wasn't too painful, and she loved it. Silver Bullet - Walk on: Same ol same ol, but it turned out to be her favorite thing of the night. Xcelerator - Walk on: She was really freaked out by it, but just like everything else, ended up lovin it. Riptide - Walk on and soak mode was off but it was pretty hot tonight so I wouldn't have minded if they left it on. Rode it twice, and I actually got her on it with me the second time. OK now for what you all want to hear about. I'll start with the scare zones then the top 10 mazes. The Gauntlet: Lots of talent lurking around and scaring a lot of people including my date who got bombarded with 3 or 4 monsters a few times, cause she is so easy to scare 5/5 Ghost Town: Kind of a let down, the few times we walked through never really a lot of monsters in there. Although we had a couple that followed us for a long time. 3/5 CarnEVIL: Awesome talent, and a lot more than usual. We had this one girl follow us all the way from supreme scream to Riptide, and there was another girl on roller skates that scared the crap out of me and my date. 4/5 Silver Bullet Mining Town: Yawn, nothing special there, the swamp was way better. 1/5 Top 10 Mazes: #1 - 13 Axe Murder Manor - WOW, who thought they could put something in that would just blow Bayou out of the water. Great job on the theming, and lots of talent, and best of all. L O N G 5/5 #2 - The Asylum - Same as last year, no reason to change it, we both got the s scared out of us in this one, and we even got lost in the thing at one point so bonus points there. 5/5 #3 - Feary Tales - It's no Malice, but all the creepy hot girls in there make it a winner. 4/5 #4 - Red Moon Massacre - I was really surprised how many more monsters they added to this one. Got some good scares, and the best part was you weren't always sure where the monsters were gonna jump out from. 4/5 #5 - Hatchet High - I really like this maze, lots of monsters and other talent, and good theming, hope they keep this one around for awhile. #6 - Clowns - An oldie but goodie, same thing as last year, and a lot of monsters. 4/5 #7 - Red Beard's Revenge - MUCH more improved from last year. Great theming, and lots of monsters and good scares. 4/5 #8 - Lore of the Vampire - MUCH MUCH better than last year. Lots of talent, and some good scares. 4/5 #9 - Curse of the Spider - Well this one got knocked down a few pegs from last year, just didn't do much for me and too small to get good scares in. 3/5 #10 - Cavern of Lost Souls - Good riddance Army of the Underworld, this one was much better. Better theming and more monsters, just grabs the #10 spot. 3/5 Other mazes that were kinda ehhh: Terror Vision - Just didn't seem to have it this year, real short not a lot of talent. 2/5 Temple of Sacrifice - Can't ask for much in the queue of Jaguar. 1/5 Worst Maze/Scare zone this year goes to Dark Realm of the Gauntlet, no theming just L shaped walls everywhere with very little talent in it. 0/5 The Hanging - I don't want to give too much away but the title is called " The Happiest Hanging on Earth" so figure out what they were mocking, and they did a damn good job of doin so. It wasn't the best Hanging I've ever seen, but there were a few moments that I was laughing my ass off, definitely worth seeing. 8/10 I wanted to check out Alonzo's show but I'll see it next time I'm there on the 13th. Overall, looks to be an improved Haunt if opening night is any indication on what's to come.

count me in. I'll be there for the dinner meet as well + 1

^ No tripod, I held it the whole time, so my arm was pretty tired and sore after that there were a couple times I had to move cause idiots kept coming into my shot, but luckily they were inbetween fireworks and scenes so it wasn't too noticable. And I agree. if you aren't a regular visitor to the park, it's well worth the price of admission. and it's the only park that I would have no problem shelling out the $260 i did for my deluxe pass with parking

Here's your chance to experience "Remember...Dreams Come True" Disneylands 50th Anniversary Fireworks Spectacular. The video is uncut, so the entire 17 minute show is on there and I got one of the best spots you could get to film the show so it's like you're practically there. Now for the really cool part. I managed to come across the audio for the fireworks show so i dubbed it into the video. So now there is a crystal clear soundtrack, and I even left in some of the raw audio just so you can hear the explosions and the crowds reactions The video is zipped so you will need a program like winzip to unzip it. Enjoy "Remember...Dreams Come True" Video Jon

wow...i'm absolutely floored that both my videos (Cedar Point and Hersheypark) ended up in the top 10. It seemed to me that everyone prefered the antics and people over the coasters, but thanks to everyone for the votes. And I can't believe I won a title "most consistent videographer" I guess that's a good thing Till next year.... Jon

So Robb posted his version of the trip, so here's mine. Day 1 - BGT and IoA Started off wednesday night taking the redeye from LAX to Orlando, which was interesting since I had never taken a redeye before. Robb and Elissa slept for most of the flight, but I couldn't so that ended up catching up with me later in the day We get in to Orlando around 6:30 pick up the rental car and we're off to BGT. Meet up with our PR rep and head over to Shiekra. I was a bit dissapointed that we had to wait till the park opened to ride but we still got 2 front row rides in Review: Definitely exceeded my expectations, and is really a lot of fun to ride. Very high re-ride factor. The hold before the first drop is really cool, especially in the front, you get some good hangtime on the immelman, and the splash effect is really cool, best one I've seen on any coaster. The second drop is actually my favorite part of the ride because you are actually moving going over it which gives you some air, probably more in the back but didn't get a chance to ride the back row. It's definitely not an intense coaster, more graceful, like Silver Bullet, but overall I give it a 8/10 defintiely up there on my top coasters. After Shiekra we checked out the other coasters. Started off with Gwazi....I'm not sure what to say about this one. The ride is intense and fast, but man does it throw you around a lot. Still a lot of fun. We rode Lion cause Tiger wasn't open. And I saw some of the worst dispatch times ever on a coaster - waited 20 min Not really sure of the order after that but I think we did Montu next. I heard BGT kinda tamed the last part of the ride, but you coulda fooled me. First ride was in the front. Awesome, Absolutely loved the the theming and ground interaction on this one. Definitely one of my top B&M Inverts - waited 5 min Kumba - Another amazing B&M, I really had no idea what an intense B&M was until i visited this park. The great thing about Kumba is the theming and landscaping, you can't really see all of the ride from anywhere. Really intense ride -waited 5 min Scorpion - Another Swarzkopf (sp?) to add to my list. This one was really fun, and packed a good punch for a coaster its size - waited 5 min So after Scorpion we headed back over to Shiekra and I went and sat down while Robb got the footage he needed. It took longer than expected because Sheikra went down. At this point, I was so exhausted from the redeye I just crashed right there at the table. Robb has some shots of that I'm sure will end up in update. After that we rode cheetah chase and I took another ride on Montu and we headed back to Orlando to check in at Royal Pacific. Royal Pacific is easily the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. The hotel is a short walk from the 2 universal parks and the free Universal Express pass is a huge bonus. After we checked in and got settled we headed over to IoA Hulk - Another intense knock your socks off B&M. Awesome layout and the launch was cool. - waited about 15 min Spiderman - Loved everything about this ride except for the spinning part that almost made me sick. Really awesome effects though - waited 10 min Dudley Do-Rights Rip Saw Falls - My #1 favorite log flume, just a lot of fun, and the best drop of any flume I've ever been on - waited 15 min We got pretty wet so we decided to hit Bluto's raft ride. I really liked this one, probably one of the top raft rides I've been on. The curved drop at the end was really cool. Robb and I both got completely drenched on it, it was fun. Elissa decided to sit out the two water rides - no wait walked on with express pass we did Flying Unicorn which was a lot more fun than I expected, then it was off to my most anticipated ride, Dragons Dragons is easily my favorite B&M invert for a couple reasons. Even though the layouts are pretty short they pack a punch. The dueling element just adds so much more to the ride as well as the theming and interaction. Overall after 3 rides I liked Fire better. I think that ended our first day at IoA, but we conquered the park in under 2 hours, and we would be coming back on Saturday I was really amazed how light the crowds were at BGT and IoA. That night we had dinner at Carabba's, and I really wish we had those here on the west coast, cause it is some of the best italian food I've had, unfortunately I was so tired I could barely eat. Went back to the hotel and called it a night. One thing I forgot to mention. I did bring my camcorder and camera with me but while we were at BGT I made the decidion not to film due to the overall fast pace of the trip, so I won't have any videos or photos but Robb and Elissa took plenty Next day: Epcot and MGM.....

I'll be there as well, seein as I'll be with Robb and Elissa at EPCOT that day, oh and my name is Jon LoCoco if you want an actual name for the list

^^Ummm they'll show up on the site Ok first off my last name is LoCoco, not Loco or Coco, LoCoco I don't know how anyone could confuse my KBF video with my CP video, they are entirely different, and edited in different programs My videos are all off-ride coaster shots with some other rides. I don't usually have a group of people with me when I shoot these videos so yeah its lacking the human aspect, but I think I do a good job of making up for it with unique shots and i try to never use the same footage or even angle twice. Besides my video I really liked the Alton Towers one, very cool angles, and good editing

Elissa, I'd like "the I-talian Stallion" for mine please

Here are a couple of me. One is thanks to Eastcoaster.com but since I'm in it I see no problem posting it SROS Front Row Front Row On The Greatest Coaster In America...SROS at SFNE Front Row On Storm Runner