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p. 2030 - Top Thrill 2 announced!

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On a side note, I was looking at the webcam and Shoot the Rapids is now loading people in the last row and leaving the middle row empty .

 

Without knowing the boats' center of gravity, this makes the most logical sense yet for balance, though I'm sure CP managment are still a little embarrassed on the rides performance thus far. (performance defined as uptime, the need to place people based on their weight, lack of us of all seats, etc)

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On a side note, I was looking at the webcam and Shoot the Rapids is now loading people in the last row and leaving the middle row empty .

 

Without knowing the boats' center of gravity, this makes the most logical sense yet for balance, though I'm sure CP managment are still a little embarrassed on the rides performance thus far. (performance defined as uptime, the need to place people based on their weight, lack of us of all seats, etc)

It's definitely for balance, they do the same thing on Pilgrim's Plunge at Holiday World. Have we seen any boats with people in every row?

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My guess is either the "age" of the ride, the height of the ride or the theme that they want to use. The system that StarFlyer uses is somewhat similar to the rocketship ones that used to operate at Dorney Park and even the new one that was built for DCA. On height, the dinosaur pictured is famous for it's long neck. As for theme, I highly doubt that Cedar Fair would even have the creativity to make a new theme land unless it's called "Trashcan Land".

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^Agreed.

 

Im getting a kick out of people overanalyzing everything (moreso on some CP sites). Cedar Point must be laughing their asses off at the speculation that goes on when they do this. So far each clue points at the Star Flyer type ride yet many just want to talk it into being something else much like last year with StR.

 

Unscrambled "airtime"- This is a good clue to fool people into thinking its a coaster because the star flyer doesn't have "airtime". Instead it spends time in the air.

 

Windmill- Look at one of these rides from the top. They spin and have the look of a windmill.

 

Dinosaur- Could be two things, both that its tall and the "saur" for "soar"

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Speculation is fun, although I do agree that it will most likely be a Star Flyer type ride. So far the clues align with the Star Flyer rumor. I'm just not a fan of the dino theme, hopefully it is just a play on words and not a hint into what the ride will be themed like.

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It could also be a Zamplerla flyer as well. It fits all the criteria...

 

- Spends time in the air = Airtime

- Has a spiral lift hill = spinning Windmill - Utah was just there to throw people off

- Soars = StrataSOAR

 

Or a half pipe slide...

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My opinion is either it's a Starflyer type ride and this is CP's worst kept secret ever, or it's something completely different and this is one of CP's best tricks (I'm leaning towards the latter). Right now it just seems too obvious to me. For example, they want us to think it's a Starflyer and then all of a sudden next Tuesday, out of the blue, the new ride is something no one has ever heard of before. That seems more like a Cedar Point marketing campaign (unless they are just slacking off this year ).

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Looks like the cat was let out of the bag....

 

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/sandusky/2010/aug/19/ride-wars-cedar-point

 

The fate of Cedar Point’s new ride could already be up in the air as a patent war brews between two ride manufacturers.

 

Brian Mirfin, of Australian ride manufacturer Funtime Group, said the new ride will be the Wind Seeker, made by Dutch-based manufacturer Mondial.

 

The Wind Seeker, however, is a patent-infringing copy of the StarFlyer — a tower ride the Funtime Group made and owns a patent on, Mirfin said.

 

Both rides are tower rides that spin riders around as they extend high in the air.

 

The StarFlyer pulls seats attached to a chain. The Mondial design is similar but uses arms instead of chains.

 

In its news announcement in early February, Mondial said it came up with the new ride “following requests from clients who wanted a StarFlyer-style ride they could still operate within normal wind conditions.”

 

“It’s almost like Mondial’s plagiarizing our idea,” said Mirfin, director of the Funtime Group and owner of Cottingham Agencies, which holds the patent for StarFlyer. “It makes us very, very angry.”

 

Executives at Mondial did not return an e-mail from a reporter seeking comment.

 

Dick Kinzel, president, chairman and CEO for Cedar Fair, said Wednesday night he had no comment. He repeated that the company plans to make an announcement at 2 p.m. Tuesday about the new ride for 2011.

 

Mirfin said his company, which has built 22 StarFlyers so far, thought it had a deal to build one for Cedar Point after amusement park executives flew to Orlando, Fla., several months ago to look at a StarFlyer at the Magical Midway.

 

Mirfin said his company planned to build a StarFlyer for Cedar Point that would be 400 feet tall — even bigger than the StarFlyer at Prater Park in Vienna, which stands 384 feet tall.

 

Instead, Funtime learned Cedar Point was buying a similar ride from Mondial, Mirfin said

 

“Now, not only do we not get the contract, now we’ve got to get into litigation,” Mirfin said. “The ones that we’ll be suing will be Cedar Point and not Mondial.”

 

Funtime’s U.S. patent for StarFlyer — patent No. 7666103 — was granted Feb. 23.

 

Tony Handal, the Connecticut attorney who filed the patent, said he believes the Mondial ride would be a patent infringement on the StarFlyer.

 

“It looks pretty much like the same thing to me,” Handal said, adding that he doubts litigation will be necessary.

 

“I think Cedar Point will not go forward without a license,” Handal said. “They can either do that or they can have the ride built by a licensed company.”

 

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^I thought the exact same thing. I guess Arrow should sue Intamin and B&M now .

 

 

I really am surprised that this turned out to be the ride (For the record, I'm not being all fan-boyish here). This has got to be the worst marketing that has ever been done for a new ride built at CP. We basically knew what the ride was, minus the details, before the first teaser was released. Even Planet Snoopy and Shoot the Rapids had better teasers than this.

 

 

I do have to wonder if this lawsuit does succede, if it will have any impact on the ride being built. That would really be a new level of disappointment (at least Shoot the Rapids works ). The Sandusky Register really should of waited until Tuesday to publish this article, but it is the Register (I bet CP is loving them right now) . Might as well announce the ride today!

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The cat is out of the bag on cedarpoints new attraction. It was leaked by a local newspaper. The artical also said that cedarpoint plans on announcing the new ride at 2pm tuesday. Read about it here....

 

 

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/sandusky/2010/aug/19/ride-wars-cedar-point

 

Sandusky

 

The fate of Cedar Point’s new ride could already be up in the air as a patent war brews between two ride manufacturers.

 

Brian Mirfin, of Australian ride manufacturer Funtime Group, said the new ride will be the Wind Seeker, made by Dutch-based manufacturer Mondial.

 

The Wind Seeker, however, is a patent-infringing copy of the StarFlyer — a tower ride the Funtime Group made and owns a patent on, Mirfin said.

 

Both rides are tower rides that spin riders around as they extend high in the air.

 

The StarFlyer pulls seats attached to a chain. The Mondial design is similar but uses arms instead of chains.

 

In its news announcement in early February, Mondial said it came up with the new ride “following requests from clients who wanted a StarFlyer-style ride they could still operate within normal wind conditions.”

 

“It’s almost like Mondial’s plagiarizing our idea,” said Mirfin, director of the Funtime Group and owner of Cottingham Agencies, which holds the patent for StarFlyer. “It makes us very, very angry.”

 

Executives at Mondial did not return an e-mail from a reporter seeking comment.

 

Dick Kinzel, president, chairman and CEO for Cedar Fair, said Wednesday night he had no comment. He repeated that the company plans to make an announcement at 2 p.m. Tuesday about the new ride for 2011.

 

Mirfin said his company, which has built 22 StarFlyers so far, thought it had a deal to build one for Cedar Point after amusement park executives flew to Orlando, Fla., several months ago to look at a StarFlyer at the Magical Midway.

 

Mirfin said his company planned to build a StarFlyer for Cedar Point that would be 400 feet tall — even bigger than the StarFlyer at Prater Park in Vienna, which stands 384 feet tall.

 

Instead, Funtime learned Cedar Point was buying a similar ride from Mondial, Mirfin said

 

“Now, not only do we not get the contract, now we’ve got to get into litigation,” Mirfin said. “The ones that we’ll be suing will be Cedar Point and not Mondial.”

 

Funtime’s U.S. patent for StarFlyer — patent No. 7666103 — was granted Feb. 23.

 

Tony Handal, the Connecticut attorney who filed the patent, said he believes the Mondial ride would be a patent infringement on the StarFlyer.

 

“It looks pretty much like the same thing to me,” Handal said, adding that he doubts litigation will be necessary.

 

“I think Cedar Point will not go forward without a license,” Handal said. “They can either do that or they can have the ride built by a licensed company.”

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Mirfin said his company, which has built 22 StarFlyers so far, thought it had a deal to build one for Cedar Point after amusement park executives flew to Orlando, Fla., several months ago to look at a StarFlyer at the Magical Midway.

 

Mirfin said his company planned to build a StarFlyer for Cedar Point that would be 400 feet tall — even bigger than the StarFlyer at Prater Park in Vienna, which stands 384 feet tall.

 

So CP execs flew to Orlando to see the StarFlyer "several months" ago? That's odd, considering the park usually says that they're planning new attractions 3 to 4 years out.

 

As far as litigation, since FunTime says they'll be suing Cedar Fair and not Mondial, I would assume that the suit would be filed over contract issues, not patent issues.

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