JT325

Black Panther rocks. Speaking of Handsome African-based actors, any Madea fans here? I love those movies, unfortunately BOO 2 (the newest) was kind of a dud.

With all those ridiculous "records," they should've named it "Hybrid Vengeance." Otherwise, looking good! You know those ride ops are going to be hand selected. They will have to be the best of the best.

^Ooops! Haha. Misprint on my part, I fixed in the post above. That would be crazy, huh?! Speaking of outing, Cedar Point was a great place to come out when working there in the 90s. I had my first boyfriend my last summer there. College is a good time to figure that stuff out, but good thing kids feel OK doing it earlier these days too.

^Thanks my friend! Ironically, the loop entrance to the Revolution loop is very forceful and sudden, so the VR headsets are flying forward marking up the back of the headrest in front of them. Can't be comfortable for those who don't know that's coming. It's all a bad idea. At one point during my visit when they did have VR running, they were only loading one of the two trains. Both trains were on the track but they were only loading one with VR and the other train was sent out empty. Out of the one train that had VR, they had 16 headsets available. I was told the empty seats are not being used right now. I got that, there are limited VR sets, but what about people that want to ride with out VR? Oh, what a mess. The Cedar Point training that will forever be cemented in my head wanted to take over the entire operation. We were trained to have healthy communication with eachother and guests, and make practical decisions. That is not in Six Flags DNA. It's very basic stuff. I don't blame the ride ops, it's a deeper issue.

^It's amazing that a 140' drop (X-Scream at Waldameer Park) could be MUCH more intense than a 400' drop. Those smaller towers (Santa's Villiage and Knoebels have them, both terrifying) seem to have the "dead weight drop" feeling that I love so much. Similar to the old Intamin Freefalls. Perhaps even better! The manager I spoke to (don't remember his name, but he had a nice business shirt on and seemed to be "someone of some importance") insisted that doing VR was the only way Revolution would get attention with their market. I respectfully disagreed with him. If done right (with proper seats and train shells) it could have been a HUGE hit. It's just not in this parks blood unfortunately. I've heard Mind Bender at SFOG and Shock Wave at SFOT have gotten special attention over the years... something about the original Six Flags owners are involved? I'm very grateful my home park SFGAm takes especially excellent care of our classic Schwarzkopf coaster, Whizzer. They have the original 5 trains and are always swapping them out for rehab. There are 3 trains on the track every summer. Even the seat pads look brand new, all the time. When VR was not functioning (most of my visit), there were 2 employees to greet you at the Revolution entrance and were all "so sorry, VR headsets are down, it's just the ride by itself." I mean, they were presenting it as a bummer... if you present your ride that way, what do you expect? But like I said in my long ass trip report, most people I talked to about Revolution prefer it with out the headset, including employees.

^Thank you for mentioning Lex Luther. I forgot to mention that ride in my report. The drop is fun, but the view is to die for!

Just remember that sooperdooperLooper is a very family-oriented, mild ride. More so than Revolution and perhaps even Whizzer. It's very mild... and EXCELLENT! I had to warn you though as I remember a friend was so excited to ride it after riding Mind Bender at SFOG, then wondered why the ride was a "dud." Both Schwarzkopf coasters and both top notch, just very different levels of intensity. There is a cover over the side of the end shoulder bar(s). I thought it was a hard shell, but maybe not. Green Lantern had a similar obstruction. Picture from tpr showing Superman restraints. I enjoyed it backwards, but miss the lap bars it used to have.

Thanks for the kind words guys I'll get around to finishing the Knott's/Giant Dipper portion soon. I was all about RMC a couple years ago, and I've tried on several occasions to really like their stuff (including on my home home park SFGAmerica's Goliath), but oh well. It's still fun, and I enjoy it with good friends but wouldn't go out of my way for one. I'd rather hit the true classics a little more while we still have them! The MOST fun I've had on an RMC was watching a friend (who doesn't ride coasters like us) freak out looking for something to hold onto going up the lift of Goliath. AND I'll have to say for some reason Wicked Cyclone at SFNEngland I enjoyed the most. Even thought I *LOVED* the old wooden Cyclone/Riverside Cyclone a million times more. Just imagine the Colossus that re-opened in 1979 with PTC buzz bar trains. THAT is the Colossus that was all over top 10 lists in the 80s. I was especially suprised when Twisted Colossus was announced as I distinctly remember hearing or reading that SFMM Park President (at the time) Bonnie said "Colossus is OFF LIMITS!" when the first 2 RMC wood-to-steel conversions took place. Oh well. You guys GOT to go! SoCal has SO much to do... so much stuff I've never done the umpteen times I've been out there. Watt's Towers comes to mind, and so many little parks around too.

Yes, please! Let's just get some true classic-ish seats and shells on those new chassis. See Montezooma's, Shock Wave and Mind Bender. Those classic flat seats and vertical headrests are perfect and practical. What they have on "New" Revo is a mess. Big Corey Feldman fan here. He's a couple years older than me, and we're both in recovery. But he's much luckier as he got to fight with Jason! "Tommy! Trish! Tommy I told you to leave! Trish!! Tommy! Jason! Tommy! Trish! Jason!"

(Very late to finish and post this, but here goes!) Part 1: Magic Mountain, July 16 & 17, 2017. My first time at Magic Mountain since 1999! I was very excited for this, especially with my long obsession of Schwarzkopf coasters including a detailed history (which I won't go into here and now) with Revolution. I've been on 9 out of the 19 coasters at MM. 10 would be new to me and 1 (Magic Flyer) I'm not sure if I ever rode and wasn't permitted to ride this time per park rules. This was a "big family" trip which included 8 of us; myself, my 2 parents, my aunt (whom is more like a sister being only 2 years older than me), her husband and 3 teenage boys (more like nephews to me, as I was already an adult when they were born). The 'vacation' was to Carlsbad/San Diego, but I planned way ahead to spend time away (smartly!) and get back to Magic Mountain. The family isn't as into parks and coasters as I am, but they wanted to spend at least one day at a park. I explained to them that Knott's would be the best choice - in every way - for our family day. My cousins wanted to go to Magic Mountain with me, but their mother had other plans for them. I picked up my rent-a-car on Sunday, July 16th and made my way across Orange County (where I was born, but raised mostly in Chicagoland), and through LA. I had spent time in LA in the 90s during and after college with intentions of moving there. LA could be a scary place for a 22 gay guy who just came out in the 90s. Totally different culture than Chicago. The move never happened, however I did spend a good amount of time at Magic Mountain. I always loved that drive leaving the LA/Valley area up to Magic Mountain. So nice to return now; familiar territory, just a little different. After 1999, I didn't have any real draw to go back to the park. Of course, new things are nice, but nothing I wanted to go out of my way for. Until fall 2015 when the park announced New Revolution. Both days I got to the park in the early afternoon, which served me well. It was around 103 degrees, very hot! I took the long walk to the gate and headed straight for Revolution. It's weird but awesome not being in a place for 18 years and then returning to take the same familiar walk. I was praying to the coaster gods that the heat would shut down VR operations on Revolution. REVOLUTION I'll spare the details on my history with Revolution by just saying I'm a big Schwarzkopf fan, Mind Bender at Six Flags Over Georgia being my #1 steel coaster. That spot was taken over by Superman at Six Flags New England for a while, but the changes that ride went through moved it down my list. Hey, I'm a guy who likes comfort! Needless to say, I was totally psyched about Revolution finally running without shoulder bars again. Everyone said "it will never happen!" including park staff and representatives. With all the excitement of getting back to Magic Mountain after so long, Revolution was of course my focus. This was the coaster news of the decade for me. A breath of fresh optimistic air. So many of us Anton fans finally got what we wanted, how could it go wrong? When I arrived at the ride, I was greeted by 2 employees telling me the ride is NOT running VR due to the heat. SCORE! In the 2 days I was at the park, the VR was down most of the time. I never rode VR and had no desire to after doing it at other parks. I'll skip all the "leave it up to Six Flags..." and ignore the VR operations and issues and just review what I rode, good old Revolution. I knew from seeing pictures that the trains were definitely not classic Schwarzkopf copies. The chassis looked great, spot-on, but the bodies were a bit mutant. No worries, right!? I mean, the shoulder bars are gone, how could one complain? First issue, the seats are sort of bucket-y. One of the best things about classic Schwarzkopf trains (see Mind Bender at SFOG and Shock Wave at SFOT) is - although very dated looking and seemingly simple, that specific design makes for comfort while still enabling riders to feel the forces of a classic roller coaster. Those seats are almost flat and non-grippy; one gets to slide laterally in the seat on curves while still staying safe under an individual but non-restrictive lap bar. The seat backs and head rests are straight up and comfortable on those other Schwarzkopf trains, including Montezooma's Revenge at Knott's an hour away. These new Revolution trains have thin headrests with a recline. It's awkward to lean back like that, so most riders don't. The interior of the bucket seat have a sort of painted-on bumpy material, watch your elbow! It seems they took the mutant Revolution seats from the 90s trains and re-created them here. What would have been ideal is simply re-manufacture parts/seats the way other parks do (including SFOT and SFOG, Knott's) and use them. These seats and train shells are closer to what you find on an RMC. The chassis feel great, but the "shells" and seats are not. These new shells have 3D decorations on them which were completely filled with dirt and dust. They were heavily scratched up all over, especially on the headrest in front of each rear seat; this is where VR head sets are slamming forward going into the loop... if there were soft and straight up headrests (like most classic Schwarzkopf looping trains), this wouldn't happen. This scratching is in addition to all the defacing/graffiti/tagging/etc. this park sees. The shells just feel and look cheap. Revolution's younger and smaller cousin at Hersheypark, Sooperdooperlooper (properly: sooperdooperLooper) got a deluxe rehab a few years ago which included new trains from Premier. These were sooperdooperLooper's 3rd set of trains; the 2nd set were exact copies of the original while these new orange ones were close but not exact. Still, MUCH better and user-friendly than what we have here at Magic Mountain. Six Flags probably couldn't go with Premier, but they still could have done much better with this "new" design. Despite the poor design of the seats/headrests/train shells, I was still able to enjoy Revolution immensely. There are 2 trims on the ride; before the ramp into the loop and immediately after the tunnel. They still grab hard, but not as hard as they did in the "New Revolution" promotional videos. The devices opening and closing at the top of most of the hills are block brakes as Revolution once had 6 trains. I'm not sure if they ran 6 at a time, but they definitely ran 5. I've always loved the layout, it just seems so perfect. Thrilling in spots, but Revo is more of a family coaster or "joyride." Coming out of the tunnel, heading towards the loop... it's on the downside of the hill so your height is increasing as you move forward. That vista going through there is awesome. It's such a simple but perfect ride to me. Hopefully it will stay around for a few more years. Perhaps even get a proper makeover with nicer train bodies (current chassis are fine!) and some nice magnetic brakes. Oh yeah, and loose the trims of course. Trims or not, I love Revolution and it's now in my top 10 steel coasters. Over the 2 days I probably had 15-20 rides. VIPER I ran up into the empty-looking building and ran up the stairs to be greeted by a crowd at the top. Everything is silent and they are only loading one train. Someone had puked in the 2nd operating train and they were cycling it. Holy cow were these dispatches slow. I finally got on and Viper is just as great as I remember. Rattly Arrow goodness, but still as fun as a bag of snakes. Loved it! This bad boy used to run 3 trains with a 4th in waiting. Looks like there are only 2 trains now. I went to the ride once each day and got 2 or 3 in a row the 2nd night. Such a great night ride, way up there on the hill. NINJA Loved it then, love it now. Such a cool station; you don't see many steel coasters with a curve in the station (the only station curve on a steelie I can think of off the top of my head would be the Vekoma portable "Whirlwind" Corkscrew model, any others?) One thing that really brought back memories was getting up that hill to Samauri Summit! In the 90s I could run up there with no problem, but not any more! Good motivation to be in better shape. My goal is to be able to run up that hill next time I'm at Magic Mountain! I love Ninja and hope they keep it around for a long time. One trip to Ninja each day, and scored 2 or 3 re-rides each time. SUPERMAN I remember riding this when it was new-ish, on a cool October night when the park was empty. It was with good friends and we had a bunch of rides with no waits. One of those special park/coaster memories for me. Fast forward to now, this was my first experience on the ride going backwards. I only rode once on one side and however fun - the view going up backwards was totally awesome. Thumbs down for the shoulder bars with the nasty what is crawling around and or caked and dripping inside of here arm-shield thing. Did they really need to add shoulder bars? I'm having a Deja Vu moment. I'm sure there is some Dippin Dots-esque excuse about brakes? BATMAN Skipped it both days. I rode the heck out of this thing years ago as well as the many clones. Great ride, but I got other stuff to focus on while I'm here! RIDDLER'S REVENGE Loved this ride in the 90s. Not a fan of the new paint scheme, but whatever. Also, I miss Freefall being in there. I walked up to the single rider line and got right on. It was pretty shaky, and just not much fun for me. The layout is awesome and unique, but the ride wasn't as good as I remembered. One ride and done for me. Good thing is, lots of folks seemed to love it! GOLDRUSHER Just as awesome as I remember! Quirky and jerky Arrow transitions, all lines and circles. "Lines and circles" is a point of contention with some coaster fans, as much of the newer coasters have very complex force-based designs, complete with plenty of "heart-lining." Older coasters have "circle and line" designs which make them slam into corners and such more, which can be seen as "rough" or just plain "old." I tend to love the older designs, they have more character to me. But it's nice to have both, isn't it!? The careful, complex/force-based designs work very well for large coasters, especially those 200/300 foot tall B&M designs. I'm glad this ride is still at the park, love the feel; the loose seats and the jerky-but-not-painful ride. And of course, it's a terrain coaster! Rode it a couple times each day. X2 From everything I heard about X2, I was going to love it or hate it. Going in with a good attitude I hoped to like it. When I finally arrived at the station, I spotted a single rider in the last row (last to leave the station). I asked if I could ride with them and the station attendant said sure. It's always nice to cut a couple minutes off a wait, even though the queue wasn't long to begin with. As the train pulled out of the station, I could already feel the forward/back jogging that the ride is known for. Heck I been on nearly 500 coasters, I can handle all kinds of jerk and roughness, right!? Up the lift - and I am definitely a lift guy - an incredible panorama of the park and mountains comes into view. The Frank Sinatra song turns to a lame, pseudo bad-ass generic Metallica song. Really, if they wanted to go badass, pick some old school Misfits or Gwar, but I understand the reasons for the mainstream stuff. Keeping the Sinatra song all the way up the lift would have been more interesting and great contrast to the impending screams. Just my 2 cents. Other than the annoying badassery of an overplayed Metallica song, this is definitely one of the best lifts I've ever been on. The view can't be bested and the ascent was a nice pace; not too fast. You don't get to take in the view when the lift is too fast or steep (from the point of view of a lift hill enthusiast, anyway). Over the top (at this point I'm bracing for slams from all angles) we're dumped forward looking at the ground 200 feet up. I can't remember ever involuntarily swearing on a coaster, but out came "OH SH*T!" from my mouth. It was incredible! Rushing down that drop and then getting flipped over at the bottom... back up and looking down from high up again. I was really loving this ride! The rest of the ride was great too, especially that backwards twist (does it have an official name?). At the end, going up into the brake run I finally got a real hard *KICK* to the back of my legs. Or was it my butt and back? I dunno, but it was a good bomp. No big deal, it was all worth it. When I got off the ride and started heading out of the station, I spotted another single rider. I kindly asked the ride op if I could jump in with that guy, she said sure and off I went for a bonus round. That is one policy of Six Flags that I love. You usually cannot do that at Cedar Fair parks, for example. Six Flags is usually cool with it, I've even seen them encouraging re-rides. The 2nd day I went out to X2 twice, the first time scoring a double ride. The 2nd time was at night, and I asked to get back in an empty seat and I was told "No. We don't allow re-rides." Fair enough, I can't complain after all the re-rides I had. X2 is definitely a new favorite of mine. Probably top 5 if I think about it too much. TWISTED COLOSSUS I'm one of the probably 3 people that loved the old Colossus. Those squeeky Morgan trains working their way along those drawn-out curves, loved it. RMC trains and I just don't get along. I'm not a fan of being held down super-tight and having my top half jerked around like a rag doll. Don't get me wrong, I find some fun in it in low doses. I'd rather be thrown around in a looser seat with real air time where my butt actually leaves the seat. I know enough to understand that RMC coasters must have tight restraints and seats for what they do, I get that. That's their thing and I'm happy people love it, just not a big fan myself. I'll also note the couple times and RMC seat got me real good in the tenders. That obnoxious hard plastic horn coming up the middle of the seat? Ouch. Ok, I got all that out of the way. I walked over to Twisted Colossus with the right attitude. I've done this before ... 'my good old classic woodie is gone, get over it' to myself. Got it. I'll do my best to enjoy the new ride. Luckily, I'm very good with spotting single riders from a distance. Partly from being a park/coaster goer for so long, but also from working at parks. There was a single rider getting in the back seat on the next train. I asked the ride op if it was ok, and I got to skip ahead a couple trains. Out of the station and up the lift we went. Up the lift... the old Colossus lift, what a strange feeling. I was determined to LOVE this new Twisted Colossus as all my friends insisted it was awesome. Down the first drop ... up into the old turn-around area. Holy cow, was this thing in over-drive? Was the heat doing something to the friction and making it faster than I had seen in videos? Where the cold weather wheels on? Does RMC even have cold weather wheels! Whatever was the case, this thing was cartoon fast. As good as that might sound, the jerking and the snapping on the ends/turn-arounds were totally my limit. I love getting slammed around; VOYAGE at Holiday World is one of my favorite rides and I never understand the complaints about it... but THIS was different. It's the speed at how fast transitions come here, but even more so it's being held down from the waist down and jerked around like a rag doll, as I mentioned before. It was also super-hot. I felt that acid-vomity feeling inside. Uck! I've never gotten sick on a ride. Returning to the station, I did what only a super coaster nerd would do, even feeling the way I did. I spotted another single rider, near the front of the train this time! On again... As nutso as it may be to do that twice in a row while feeling like that, I figured I'd be fine with all the coasters/rides and marathons I've done. And I was fine... especially enjoying the middle sections of Twisted Colossus - and the lifts, of course! - but the turnaround areas were too much rag-doll action for me. Over the 2 days, I had 4 or 5 rides on Twisted Colossus. At least 2 of those were dueling rides; I really liked the heartline/cork-thingy during the duel. APOCALYPSE On the way into the queue, I thought "good, shade! I'm sure they have the A/C on in this queue!" Nope, no A/C. But no biggie, it was a walk straight into the station and to the back seat, with no wait. Why is a dead and probably empty sound box where seat 12 should be? Another ho-hum about restraints: I'm not the biggest GCI fan partly because of those lap bars. They tend to ratchet down an extra click and *pin* me in unless I hold the lap bar up with one hand. The coaster rode VERY fast. Must have been that heat! The ride had just been back from a major overhaul (which I saw in pictures here on TPR last year), and seemed to tear up the course. There was a subtle off-feel, a rumble. You could tell GCI didn't do the work. More than anything, I think that low-frequency bouncing came from the hot and dry climate/super-dry wood. Might just be the feel of dried out track. Still a fun ride! I did enjoy it, but only rode once. GREEN LANTERN I'm pretty sure I went through the single rider line on this one. There were kids around age 13, and me with my 6-1/220lb body. Up the lift and slam-over: it seemed I was held face down (or head-down?) the entire ride, with very strong accelerations directed straight up through my head. At the very end of the ride, it almost felt as if my eye balls were going to pop out and my head was going to explode. If it wasn't so uncomfortable and near-frightening (in a bad way), it would have been hilarious. But it was all bad. Never again. I guess that was a so-called unbalanced load? A fluke? Whatever it was, never again. Besides, the S&S version at my home park (SFGAmerica) is WAY awesome and totally rideable. This is the only coaster I have nothing good to say about, boo-hoo! F-U Green Lantern! FT/FULL THROTTLE My first ride was in the front seat. I started to remember how awkward these Premier trains can be while getting in, and where to put my feet. No real biggie and it's comfy once I got in. The ride was great! Loved it... except that "scream down a huge drop directly into brakes" part. I know I know... Six Flags nowadays builds short, test-track type coasters, but darn... the energy that thing has. Remember (say it with me): "it's not an issue of space. It's an issue of cost and the Six Flags business model." During my 3 or 4 rides on FT over the 2 days, I kept thinking how cool it would be to run in a different mode. Forward as it does now, but no braking in the tunnel; let it roll up the top-hat as far as it will go, then free-fall backwards through the tunnel; up the spiral-loop-thing a bit, then finally a huge boost coming back through the tunnel forwards. I think that would be a blast. Just a different experience, the one that is there is good too. Nice to have options! SCREAM Having ridden the clone/original in New Jersey and not being a big fan of that one, knew this would be a "credit" for me. And it was. Rode in front with 3 scared/excited/screaming teenage girls, which was the funnest part of my ride. The ride looks outstanding with it's newly painted structure and track, but runs very shaky. One and done. TATSU This was the only coaster with a notable wait, but still not bad on these super-hot days. As geeky as it sounds, my favorite part of the ride might be going up the lift. The angle is perfect while riding in that position. The view is excellent and proximity to the tower was a world-class move/design feature. The first drop was great, and the run before the giant loop was longer than I expected. I thought we were ready for the loop then it was another flip-over and curve. The giant loop was fun, but for some reason didn't give the tummy-tickling feel I've had on the smaller B&M flying coasters. Still, very intense and fast. I know from riding coasters for so long that bigger/steeper/faster/jerkier (hi RMC) doesn't always mean more fun, at least in my book. But what that loop lacked in tummy-tickle it made up for with an incredible view. The "oh sh*t" I spat out on my first X2 ride happened here when I saw how high up we were. Breathtaking is a good word, huh!? Such a great view of Revolution, too. Over the 2 days I rode Tatsu 4 times, 2 of which were double rides as it was very easy to find plenty of empty single (and double!) seats after my first ride was done. GOLIATH I was always impressed with the ball & socket joints I had seen in pictures of Goliath (and Titan at SFOT). Movable joints on steel coasters absorb so much vibration. This is one of the reasons my all-time favorite steel designs - Schwarzkopf - stay so smooth over time. Notice even B&M has ball & sockets on every other track/structure connection, but these big Giovanola coasters have them at every support. More moving joints, less rattle and vibration. The ride was comfortable and fun, about what I expected. It was nice to sample a different manufacturer's take on the hyper coaster. The design lacks a bit: there is so much energy going into the block and again going into the final brakes. The spaghetti-bowl is fun but a couple small hills/speed bumps breaking up would have made the design much more solid. I walked to the ride once each day, and got multiple rides each time as there were plenty of empty seats for re-rides. KIDDIE COASTERS As an equal opportunity super coaster nerd, I'm always happy to make myself look like a total dweeb and ride all the kiddie coasters, get all the "credits" as they say. Here we have CANYON BLASTER, SPEEDY GONZALES, ROAD RUNNER EXPRESS and MAGIC FLYER. I could have sworn I rode what is now Magic Flyer in whatever configuration it was in the 90s. I was told that adults cannot ride now, understood. So, I'm not sure if I ever got that coaster. Out of the other 3 others, 2 were surprisingly fun while the third was on the jerky side. Of course, it's not designed for adults over 6 feet, I get it. Still fun! Always good to see young thrill seekers screaming and laughing. Such simple times! OVERALL PARK REVIEW AND FINAL THOUGHTS Magic Moutain has so much potential. It was sad to walk up to Ninja and see garbage thrown over the fence all over. So much of the park is just so worn down and neglected. The operations were... well, no need to go there. Having worked at Cedar Point for a few years in college, it's hard to NOT see all the things we would never let slide. And cleanliness could be last on that list. I also spent one summer as an intern at SFOT and one day at SFMM (long story). The differences were stark even in the 90s, and much worse now. The crowds seemed better behaved than other Six Flags parks, but perhaps it was due to the heat. I only spotted one teenager in a skull hat. People were friendly in general as I always at least say hi when I jump in with a single rider. I told a few people about my geeky love for Revolution, and most of them said they prefer it without the 'headset'. The only person who didn't agree with me on that point was the one upper manager I talked to for a bit. Six Flags and your purposely long entry and exit walks to rides. Yes, I got hungry and thirsty doing all that walking in your passive-aggressively designed queues. But I still didn't buy your food. Ok, I took a break from fountain water and had one cold pop (soda for you guys out west) each day. They even let me use a "free drink" ticket from my home park Six Flags Great America, that was cool. I would only eat in a Six Flags park out of desperation due to the operations. Plenty of free water will do, except at the fountain nearest to Revolution as it didn't work. Both days. In record heat. The HUGE PLUS is that Six Flags parks almost always allow re-rides when slow, many parks do not allow that. Like many parks in the chain, I often imagine what they would look like and how they would run if under different ownership. Of course Cedar Fair comes to mind. Six Flags simply has a different business plan that doesn't include the level of operations/training, etc. that Cedar Fair (and a bunch of other corporations and independent parks) have. I accept it, but it's hard not to think how great the park could be. Magic Mountain has such an incredible setting and so much potential, it deserves much better. It's a shell of a dream park waiting for love. I'm so happy Revolution is running with out those wretched shoulder bars despite the sloppy designed seats and train shells. The whole "VR thing" completely squashed what could have been a proper re-introduction to a classic. Maybe next rehab! Log Jammer. Not a space issue. Ok I'll shut up now. On the way to Ninja both days, I couldn't wait to ride Jet Stream but it was closed both times I went by. I saw it operating from a distance but I didn't move fast enough. Bummer. Hope it stays for a long time. I still had a great time at Magic Mountain, and next time I will be in good enough shape to RUN up Samauri Summit! All these years later, I still love Viper. If people think this is rough, you should have rode the 2 deceased step sisters... or many other Arrows for that matter. I thought Viper was running great! LOVED this ride! It completely freaked me out and quickly earned a spot in my unorganized and not-that-important-to-anyone-but-me top 10 steel coasters. So happy the park still has Ninja, love it. Didn't the columns used to be grey or tan? My obsession on this visit! A unique station with a curve! Reusing the old Dragon lift ride gave Ninja this unique design feature (hey, it's a feature in my coaster geek book!). Great view. Looks hot out there. And it was! Almost everything except Tatsu and X2 was a walk-on. Ah, the benefits of sleeping in. Loved this view of Goliath. Great ride, but they could have done a little more with the layout. If you watch old footage, the train would fly over this hill into the helix. The whole layout after the loop was taken much faster as they didn't brake it hard back then. Still, the layout is so perfect and unique. Schwarzkopf track segments flex between structure connection points, this keeps them smooth all the time. For this "New Revolution" freshening up, they slapped on a quick layer of paint. There was no refurbishing/sandblasting or that fancy stuff that other parks will do from time to time. It was a quick job, and you can hear those cheap train shells shaking over these deep paint cracks and lumps. Not to be confused with the heavenly thumping a classic Schwarzkopf train makes as it rolls over the train joints. That's happening too, of course. I remember SFOT and SFOG (in 2007 I believe) giving their Schwarzkopf classics an in-depth spa treatment, but not poor Revolution. Thank you 103 degrees for making VR impossible on my visit. You can see these train shells are already tore up with scratches. The chassis and lap bars on these trains are GREAT and near-original, but those seats/headrest and outer shells are a hot mess. Going up the 3rd hill, classic shot. I once had a Six Flags Great America shirt with this view and Bugs Bunny. True story. Some stuff shouldn't be donated! This hill leads to the 3rd and largest drop on Revolution. What a world-class lead-up/courtyard to a world-class design! A new top 10 steel coaster for me, even with my critical review of the train bodies and seats. The layout is just so damn regal, spread-out and awesome. Tatsu is like a monster over Revolution. I enjoyed Tatsu, but spent much more time on the classic. Scream looks GREAT in this sundown shot, and in full sunlight with it's new paint job. Unfortunately for me, it was just another one-and-done credit. Great view, as much as I miss the old Colossus with it's panoramic flat turns. I tried hard to *LOVE* Twisted Colossus, but in the end I'm fine with "it's fun for a couple spins." When I saw the new of the park painting Superman, I was confused as that money could have been spent somewhere else. Oh well, I'm not in charge. Goodbye Magic Mountain! I still love, but I feel your pain. You want more love, TLC, proper training and an all-around world-class operation... you will have to wait for now, but let's hope for the future. LOVED X2! Even with the couple punches it gave me. I took this shot before getting on the freeway to head to Knott's. I had the option to stay at Magic Mountain another another day, but I was ready to go to Knott's.

The Demon artwork Great stuff! I hope they do well.

In case this hasn't been posted... I ran across a great video of the park from 1978. You can even catch a rare glimpse of the Gulf Coaster at about 2:05. I'm waiting for the day when someone dusts off some footage of (one of the) Tidal Wave(s) at night. Such a simple but effective light show. It would have white tracers at a normal pace, then go solid and start blinking when a train was launched, then everything turned a beautiful aqua blue when the train started heading backwards. Or was it reverse? Either way, it was awesome!

^Very nice to see this! I hope it's all good. I loved Lakemont Park and those coasters. Even when they really really need some TLC those old rides and coasters are few and far between. We don't have many left.

ERT has been spoiled by Holiday World. If you want to experience true "spoil your butt off" ERT, check out Holiwood Nights. Sorry to drop that in the CP thread... (disclaimer: I am not bashing CP by any means. I'm simply speaking about my experience at Holiwood Nights, Cedar Point and their events still rock) Speaking of CP, I haven't been to Coaster Mania since 2000. It was very crowded and not the best experience in terms of "an event." I know they have changed many things since then and am looking forward to Coaster Mania again in the future. I'm pretty sure it's almost always during Holiwood Nights, so I'll have to wait for a year I'm willing to take the CP event over HW's.

The last buzz bars in the chain, boohoo. Bummer. GASM ran great backwards in 1994 (at least, probably more). You're going to feel the potholes more now with those heavier trains... At least GASM always looks good. Trivia quickie - the PTC trains running (or that ran) on GASM were from Colossus.

Being in recovery and sober, I'll pass on the hangover.

Great unique colors! I bet they call it "Zip." Zip being the wild Traver coaster they once had:

Add to that GCI (or CP doing just as GCI goes) took the re-profile saw to a few little pops of airtime. Due to space constraints, there was nothing they could do about that first speed bump though! But even the former 45 degree average drop has been "parabolized" at the top and reduced a couple degrees to about 43. Silly to spend time removing such a little pop of air, but that's what they do. The entrance and exit to the turnaround was changed, and what we called the "square hill" after the turn was also changed. We didn't know how lucky we were to have so many "classics" still around in the 90s. I covet those times now!

^We would occasionally ride a running board to the lift as well. People would be yelling "my seat belt my seat belt" when they couldn't fasten the belt quick enough. Riding the running board went from a sort of "cool carnie trick" that impressed people to a definite NO NO. We used to announce "seat belts are optional" as the train was leaving the station to a ride rule: if the restraint is on the ride, it must be fastened. The 90s changed a lot.

^If the season pass was twice as expensive, it would still be relatively cheap and they would perhaps be able to clean up some garbage, run and maintain rides betters. And improve training... just a thought. A Cedar Fair top pass is about $200 and look at the quality of those parks. If you visit once a month, that's like $16 a visit. Probably the cost of going to a movie and getting a large soda.

And to think Knoebels' 30 second dispatches could be beat... here is Blue Streak in 1991. This is how we did it back then. Before the train is dispatched - 19 seconds after stopping - you will hear "the bell" alerting the crew they have but a few seconds to dispatch the train. The bell was on the drop of the 4th hill. The train leaving the station had to be completely outside of the station before the 2nd train was under the drag break to avoid a set-up. https://vimeo.com/57728739 I didn't know how lucky I was to have worked on this ride for 2 years. Great times! Everyone says how great the Blue Streak still is, and yes they do take care of it best they can. But it's a completely different ride with all that heavy "train gear" that was added in the mid-90s. It just doesn't ride the track the same with the extra weight. They could have changed the ride system and brakes and left the train alone. In fact, I think that's how the ride ran in 1994. Oh well... good times! Maybe the park will one day see the value in a true classic (one bench seat, no seat divider and ratchet bars) and "fix" the trains. Kennywood understands... as do a few other parks.

Awesome!! I remember the lights and fog, and I generally love campy little touches like this. I stayed at Sandcastle as a young kid and recall getting my first impression of Magnum as I walked along the back path that contours the coaster. The first hill looked huge, but I wasn't truly intimidated until I saw a train disappear into a foggy tunnel with glowing lights inside. Then I saw more tunnels and thought, "Oh lord, what on earth happens in those!?" Even though we can all clearly see the contours of the tunneled track segments, it didn't matter -- I thought it might really be outer space or something in there! Ah, to be young. The lights and fog would be a welcome return, don't you think? I miss those red lights. And while they're at it, how about blue lights in Millie's tunnel(s)? With fog, of course. But just at night... it could be "Maggie after dark" and "Millie after dark." Ladies of the night. They could join their big sister TTD, otherwise known as "High Heel Dragqueen."

Magnum tunnel sound effects! I seem to remember red lasers and fog?

^I’ve been at the park at different times, including a June weekday, where the park closed early. There was an official reason but it was really because “not enough people in the park.”

“Page not found,” have a Six Flags day. Are there specifics to the cold Great America weekends? Will the park actually follow through on the days AND times they say they will be open. They struggle with that sometimes.