Steely Dan

This is nitpicking for sure, but RCDB currently lists Kuwait Entertainment City's Lightning (batman clone) as SBNO since last June. I have no idea what its story or situation is, just regurgitating RCDB trivia. But it does still at least exist, and your general point about B&M durability and longevity still very much stands.

Yep. The pattern over the last handful of years for CF regarding their stand-up coasters has become crystal clear: 2014 - CW's Skyrider is closed and sold to some park in Italy 2014 - CP's Mantis is closed and is reborn in 2015 as floorless Rougarou 2015 - KD's Shockwave is closed and scrapped 2016 - CGA's Vortex is closed and reborn in 2017 as floorless Patriot It's quite clear that CF is making a concerted effort to get out the the stand-up coaster business by converting their B&M's and removing their Togos. I'll be shocked, SHOCKED, if we don't see a floorless conversion for Carowinds Vortex within the next year or two. If Carowinds already had a floorless or traditional sit-down looper from B&M, the issue might be more complicated, but it doesn't, so it's not.

They're both around 2,000' in track length, with Caowinds Vortex actually being about 100' longer (not that it makes much difference with these two similar coasters). The general consensus seems to be that Mantis to Rougarou was a positive upgrade, and the early reports seem to generally agree that CGA's Vortex to Patriot conversion is also a success, so I'd have to imagine that the inevitable Carowinds Vortex floorless conversion will be a winner as well. Good on CF for breathing some new life into these old rides instead of allowing do-nothing inertia to tighten it's vice-like grip.

Damn, Cedar Point be trolling the enthusiast community HARD. Fun stuff!

I don't think the stall on Goliath at SFGAm is quite 100' in the air, but it is up there (maybe 80'?), and it's massive, and it's one of my favorite coaster elements of all time. I dearly hope something similar is in the works for RMC Mean Streak.

My cousins in Cincy always talk up LaRosa's pizza. I've had it a few times; very mediocre pizza in my opinion. But I'm a bit of a pizza snob, so if you like it, knock yourself out.

There is. It's more or less a foregone conclusion at this point that CF will eventually give Vortex the same floorless conversion therapy that Mantis/Rougarou at CP & Vortex/Patriot at CGA have undergone. CF is clearly on a mission to make the chain stand-up free. The only question now is the when.

A-FREAKING-MEN! The game is good. The game is sound. The game is fun. Not knowing is the only thing that makes the game fun. Did you really want to find that stash of Xmas presents in your parents' bedroom closet on dec. 12th, and then have to fake all of that excitement on Xmas morning, or, in hindsight, would it have been a crapload more fun to just simply f@€king wait?

Is that a guinea pig in your fanny pack, or am I just losing my mind?

Unfortunately, I've only ridden one RMC, Goliath at SFGAm. I freaking love it, but it does seem to be consistently rated last among RMC's by those who have ridden a handful or more of their coasters. A common criticism seems to be that it's way too short, which seems on the mark to me because the ride does seem to end a little too abruptly. But looking at the RCDB stats for other RMC's, Goliath doesn't appear to be substantively shorter than most of the others. the 1st grouping of four below are all significantly longer, but the 2nd grouping of seven are all within several hundred feet of each other, with Goliath right smack dab in the middle of the pack. 1. Twisted Colossus - 4,990 ft 2. New Texas Giant - 4,200 ft 3. Wildfire - 4,150.3 ft 4. Lightning Rod - 3,800 ft 5. Wicked Cyclone - 3,320 ft 6. Iron Rattler - 3,266 ft 7. Joker - 3,200 ft 8. Goliath - 3,100 ft 9. Medusa Steel Coaster - 3,000 ft 10. Outlaw Run - 2,937 ft 11. Storm Chaser - 2,744 ft A question for those who have ridden Goliath and some of the others in the second group above: why does Goliath seem so much shorter than the others? Is it the height, and henceforth speed, of the ride that just eats up track more quickly compared to the others? Or is it more that the individual elements are just bigger and more drawn-out and not as numerous, hence the ride doesn't feel like it "does" as much as some of the others in its length range? In any event, if Goliath really is the weakest of the bunch (and i LOVE it), I guess that just means that I have a whole hell of lot more RMC goodness out there to seek out and ride once I can start getting out to parks more often (I'm lost in babyland these days with a 2 year old and a 1 year old). I'm already making plans for a Cedar Point 2018 trip, so at least there's that at a minimum.

But that's just not fair! Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

That's awesome! As I said earlier, I'm loving this game.

"It's interesting how their is wood higher than the track on this turn." Yes, that is actually quite interesting. I've been wondering about it for some time. And what about the misuse of "their"? A simple typo, or an intentional misdirection?

Montu Lagoon?

The most recent pic released on the official unofficial Mean Streak twitter account teases that possibly something interesting is gonna be done with the MCBR. My mind wonders what RMC might do with it. Any ideas? Or maybe it will just remain a MCBR. The element by element slow-reveal of this ride is gonna be so much damn fun over the coming months. I'm loving the game thus far!

Back in my former obese life, I was pushing 240 pounds (and only 5'-9" tall) and I was still able to fit on Wicked Twister. It was a bit of a squeeze, but no walk of shame for me. I've since "slimmed down" to 185 pounds, and while I found the fit on the RMC trains on SFGAm's Goliath a bit snug, it was still very tolerable for me. Just about any leg/lower torso snugness (within reason) is worth it to me to avoid OTSRs.

In a perfect world, 2 or 3 years from now SFStL will announce an RMC conversion for Boss. Just imagine what RMC could do if they ever got their hands on that beast of a structure. Then all of our heads can explode all over again.

You must have been a big fan of Boblo's Skystreak and its unusual "low flat" element. Check it out below at 1:23 [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] I only went to Boblo once as a kid ages ago. I don't remember the ""low flat" being anything special; pretty anti-climactic, actually.

Haha, good point. I've only had the good fortune to ride one RMC so far, SFGAm's Goliath, which is a crapolad of fun, but often said to be one of RMC's lesser efforts. I've never ridden over anything like a 4' tall bunny hop at the bottom of a 200' drop. It looks so small and inconsequential in the pic I saw, but yes, this is RMC we're talking about, so it will probably make peoples eyeballs pop out of their skulls or something.

Damn, you weren't kidding. I'll try to be more careful. Demon love forever!!!!!!!!

^ There's a reason Demon is celebrating its 41st birthday (or 37th, depending on how you're counting), while Shockwave never even made it to 15. I too remember being one of those "cool kids" in the 90s who thought that Shockwave and the B&M's had relegated Demon to obsolete status, but I'm glad it has managed to hang around. That first drop in the back of the train is still a damn fine roller coaster moment. The super-70s disco tunnel is excellent. The loops and corkscrews are fun. The theming, while not extravagant, adds a nice extra touch. All in all, if you're gonna ride a '70s/'80s Arrow multi-looper, you can do a lot worse than Demon.

I just came across a new image (new to me at least) depicting the very small airtime hop at what looks to be the bottom of the 1st drop. This element was said to have been shown to those attending chillout, but this is the first time I've seen a picture of it online. It doesn't look very substantial (perhaps only a handful of feet tall), but taken at the speed the train will be traveling at the bottom of that drop, who knows how crazy it will be.

Montu. Canada's Wonderland.

Yep. My thought exactly. Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! I'm not saying that it's neccessarily gonna be the best roller coaster ever built, but given RMC's ridiculous track record, and Mean Streak's MASSIVE timber structure, and what we've seen from the spy photos so far, it certainly seems to me that there's potential for it to be in that discussion.

^ Don't forget about Heidi The Ride over in Belgium for GCI's 5th 2017 coaster. They've been VERY busy recently. In fact, it's the busiest GCI has ever been in the company's history.