Shavethewhales

I voted no when I first saw it, but now that I've seen it in action it's growing on me. I like the way it stands out, but the inner shadows kind of seem overstated. However, considering how playful the logo is, maybe that works into it. At this point, I'd say keep it.

Another thing I noticed - the listing states they have until May 30th to remove what's left of Zingo. Sounds like that's when his storage lease is up and he can't/doesn't want to spend the money to store all that anymore. I wonder what that means for the rest of Bell's remaining assets. It also says that he is open to people making offers. Since he's made it so that people can't actually use Zingo's pieces to rebuild Zingo, I can't even fathom how he expects to get anywhere near $400,000. I mean, I could see making a fair bit off the PTC trains, but that's about the only valuable asset here. Is there some sort of use for 50 year old used coaster wood I'm not aware of?

Here's the news story about it: http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=13818460 Ugh. At this point I even hate to hear about Robby's attempts to get Bell's going again. It just brings back bad memories of seeing my old childhood haunt get torn apart. There's absolutely no way the park is making a comeback now. I've been steadily loosing hope since the the last rides on site were torn apart by the city. The attempted deal with Coweta was bad, but this takes the cake. Without Zingo, Bell's is nothing. The park had three major rides: Zingo, the White Lightning log ride, and Phantasmagoria (Bill Tracy dark ride). Without those, all that's left are a few kiddie rides, a chance swinging ship, and a tilt-a-whirl. I guess they do have a pretty decent tower, but if I recall correctly, that ride cost over a hundred grand just to install. So even if he somehow miraculously gets $400,000 for some old PTC trains and wood that can't even be used for their original purpose, his new park is going to be worse than Little Amerricka was before it got the Little Dipper. Don't get me wrong, for years I've wanted nothing more than for Bell's to make a comeback, but at this point it's getting pretty hopeless and I'm becoming extremely jaded. If he can open something, I'll be the first to show up, but I think Tulsa is going to end up pretty disappointed.

^Actually, it's an old custom that steel workers do each time they top out a building. In fact, it stems from a long line of ancient traditions involving construction. There's a good read on the subject here: http://www.modernsteel.com/Uploads/Issues/December_2000/0012_05_christmas.pdf Can't wait to hear the first reviews. I'm giving strong thought to driving down there from OKC during spring break.

Yes, for those who don't seem to notice, it's a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter Model 320+. It's the third to be built so far. http://rcdb.com/r.htm?ot=2&mo=8513 That's great though, because like so many other clones, it does the job well. It's small, yet tall enough to thrill; compact, yet it packs in several sweet elements. Paying to engineer completely new track designs is quite expensive, I'm sure.

^Most of the rides are still up for sale, but only a couple seem to have actually been sold off while 4 have been moved to other HFEC properties. The new Miracle Strip park just bought the tilt-a-whirl. I haven't seen some of the rides up for sale ever though, including the S&S tower, KMG fireball, Mack Supersplash, and flying carpet. With the exception of maybe the fireball, all of those rides might be headed to other HFEC properties. The aquarium thing was just a rumor that started around the time the chain bought up a couple of aquariums. They still haven't mentioned anything about any potential plans for the site.

Awesome photos. I have a ton of photos of SDC from a week ago that I still haven't been able to get around to posting. Guess I don't need to worry about it too much now. I'm glad you were able to get on PK - it was down almost all weekend when I was there. Between the sensors and the trains constantly causing the ride to go down, I'm beginning to see why another air-launched hasn't been built. You'd think after 5 years they'd have it more ironed out. TGS seems to be running one arm most of the time now as well. I don't know if that saves them money somehow, or if it's another maintainence issue. Is that not usual for most Screamin' Swings?

SDC would benefit vastly from a good wooden coaster, but OzCat isn't going anywhere. Moving wooden coasters is rarely worth it unless there is some sort of major sentimental value. OzCat was pretty good, but even if SDC had the flat space and the ability to move it cheaply, I'd rather see SDC get a larger, custom design. The giant ferris wheel moving to SDC would be the absolute worst thing ever. It's a bit sad how much of the park you can see from the outside as it is, considering the founder's original intentions. I seem to recall HFEC saying they wanted to have something worked out by this year, but I haven't heard anything in a year at least. The last thing the chain said about the park publicly was that they were still reviewing options for the place, even turning it back into some sort of an amusement park, but all the rides turned up for sale soon after. I'm still trying to figure out what on earth they're thinking. I assume there's something going on behind the scenes that explains why they would let so many valuable assets collect dust for two years and counting.

It grinds my gears that the park is still just sitting there unused, apparently still without a set plan for the property. I feel like they could have kept it operating the last couple of years until they actually had a plan. Right now only the 3 rides that went to WA, the Tilt-a-whirl, and one of the kiddie rides have found a new home. The rest are just sitting there waiting to be sold. All the buildings have been gutted. It's pretty clear that they aren't going to open another park on the property.

So according to the latest scoop on screamscape, HFEC is indeed considering picking up some of these contracts, but they're more interested in Darien Lake than FC. Also, Parques Reunidos and several others are in the mix as well. I don't know if I like Parques Reunidos all that much. I've heard negative things about how they have changed Lake Compounce. I mean, they're a pretty big corporate entity, and none of the parks up for grabs need more of the big corporate treatment. Burke/Story taking over FC doesn't sound too appealing either, since they sure didn't do the park any favors during SF's management. I'm starting to really miss PARC... Whatever their financial issues were, you have to admit that they did a pretty good job fixing up a bunch of odd little parks. I hope HFEC is able to at least pick up Darien Lake, and maybe FC too.

I just got back from OTC yesterday. It is indeed pretty great. As far as comparing it to DW's event goes, I assume they're very similar. They both have multi-story tree/light shows, millions of lights, special high-quality theatrical productions, etc.

I think it's somewhat unfortunate, because I think PARC's strategy was good overall and that they would have done much better with more time and a better economy. I don't know about the rest of the chain, but at Frontier City they did more in a few years than Six Flags did in twenty. It sounds like they're just looking for a new management team rather than selling off any of the parks though. The earlier rumor about HFEC buying FC may just mean they were approached as a potential operator. I doubt they would do that though... I'll be glad to see a new set of hands at the wheel again though, just to see another fresh wave of changes at the parks.

Anyone else from the midwest excited about the possibility of HFEC snatching up Frontier City? According to a somewhat verified rumor on frontiercity411.com that was noted on Screamscape, HFEC might have put in a bid for the park. There's a lot of potential for the place. I only went twice this year, but it feels like they had a fairly lack-luster summer, but ended the year with strong attendance during their fright fest event. Clearly, people were willing to come out to the park, but the lack of quality water rides on these hot summer days is a critical issue for the park. A splash battle or CC's old Mack supersplash would do the place wonders. I felt that PARC was doing a surprisingly good job refurbishing the park, but they didn't have time to really hit full steam. They repainted everything, improved the quality of the park's various performances, and did some major refurbishments on a couple of rides, but to truly be effective the park needs some major refurbishments of the Wildcat and the log flume. Both of these rides have horrible capacity/operations due to odd set-ups that minimize capacity. This really hurts the park because these are easily the crowd favorites, but even a small crowd can mean half-hour waits. On the rare busy nights you can just forget about getting on them. I could go on and on about this, but I don't want to get too excited yet. HFEC has bid on the park before when SF was selling off multiple properties, but ended up backing out. I feel like they're in a good position to grow though, having been conservative with funding projects during the recession while retaining good attendance. They did end up shuttering CC, but that entire take-over seemed to be more of an effort to stop competition with SDC anyway, and by the time they sell of the land or open a new attraction in that location the ordeal shouldn't hurt the company too much... Does anyone know how much WA has grown attendance wise since the HFEC take-over? That could be a big clue into how much they're willing to expand again.

They probably tried to refurbish the old trains, but upon finding how much needed to be replaced opted to just start from scratch and get a better quality product. I don't think it's fair to compare these trains to Flying Turns, as I assume they don't have to work out extensive engineering problems for these.

Considering PARC's success with Zamperla's motocoaster at Darien Lake and Vekoma's suspended family coaster at Frontier city, I would think that if they're adding a coaster it would be either of those. Considering PARC's tight purse-strings this year though, I'd imagine they're probably just expanding the stage or something.

Ugh, yet another hit for suppliers. This industry has been bleeding for too long. It's especially tragic because it looked like Loudoun was really starting to shape up over the last few years. Last I saw they had added a refurbished S&S tower that shot out of a little barn. It looked pretty nice.

Bleh, the same crappy, dangerous rides and stupid merchandise. The Tulsa Fair is a far cry from what it was when I was a kid. I remember getting out of school to go to the fair, because it was supposed to be such an educational experience with all the groups and activities that would happen there. Now there's really nothing to do but look at RV's and risk your life on Murphy's rides. If only they had the foresight to at least keep Zingo in place, then there would at least be one positive aspect remaining.

It's a unique name at least. I was expecting 'Wildcat' or some variation therof, as usually results from these contests.

I hate to pull up 'dead' threads, but does anyone have any current info about this project? I haven't heard much about it in months. Even just a description of the progress so far would be great to hear. I'm really curious to see what the completed attraction will look like.

I don't know of this deserves a separate thread or not, but I found it interesting that there's another S&S launched similar to the Beijing installation in Shenzhen. http://rcdb.com/9442.htm?p=0 Is it a clone? I didn't look to closely, and there aren't too many photos, but it appears to have a similar first hill and short layout.

It's worth noting that Vekoma has changed their designs so much in the past several years that the old reputation doesn't really fit anymore. Strangely enough though, now that they actually put out good rides, you don't see them getting many projects in the US. They haven't erected a new coaster in the US in several years, and the vast majority of recent installations are just old rides that have been moved. I guess that means they hold up well and Vekoma is making some money off of parts. If only a few of the dozen or so small parks that have bit the dust in the past several years they'd have more customers I'm sure.

Did anyone even know it was going to open? It seems like it just happened all of the sudden. I didn't expect it to happen this year, considering how much they said they needed to raise to get it open... Hopefully this weekend, with all those articles in the papers, it'll get more attention.

What's the verdict on the ride experience? Was it as rough as it looks? Does it crawl over the tops of the hills? Is the new section smooth?

While re-opening a coaster isn't that great of a cause by itself, it's impact will have the potential to do a lot of good for the area - hopefully. Besides, most of the causes in the $50,000 were no more altruistic than the Blue Streak project. While I'd have rather seen the money go to real charities that do real good, I don't think the Blue Streak winning this competition is going to snub anything truly reputable from getting funds. Honestly, a lot of the ideas sound like thinly veiled scams to win money... Edit* Although, now that I look back through the leaders, it looks like a lot of good ideas did float to the top... but I still say the Blue Streak project has the potential to be worth it. I just hope the Board uses this to do a lot of good for the community.

Ah, too bad. I was going to get giddy with anticipation again. I was worried that it was OzCat, but I'm glad to know it isn't leaving Branson... yet.