Bluefire Clones?

[gerstlaueringvar]

Seems like there's another Bluefire clone going to Poland in 2015. RCDB

 

If I get it right, in total, there will be 5 Bluefire clones around the world after Harbin's Wanda opens. Maybe Mack needs to work with IKEA soon. Other successful models including Premier's Superman:Ultimate Flight, Gerstlauer's Rage, Mack's Youngstar coaster... Which do you think will be as common as Boomerangs, or at least Batman clones? Or the time of cloning the hell out of a model is passed because there are so many great choices in the market now?

[GigaG]

Mack sorta has gone into the business of cloning things, and not just their own. The original Blue Fire is similar to Intamin LSM coasters, and Mack also built a Mega-Lite near-clone (Alpina Blitz.) However, if they can prove to build nearly as good or as good as Intamin for a lesser price and higher reliability, they have a very nicely working business model going. Mack isn't exactly your average Chinese knockoff Loop-Screw company - when they "borrow" an idea, they seem to start with a ride that was already good and make a similar ride of comparable quality. On the other hand, most of your knockoff companies will take an already not-so-good coaster (SLC/Loop Screw) and clone it and make a piece of crap - or, sometimes, make an original layout that is also a piece of crap. I also notice that Zierer and Zamperla have began making variations of Intamin and Gerstlauer coasters ideas (Zierer - Verbolten, Wicked, Knoebels Impulse, and Zamperla - Thunderbolt.) Most rides that they make are not shameless knock-offs - they usually add something original to the idea. They do what the parks want, and I guess that these companies are marketing themselves as cheaper alternatives to Intamin and other "heavy-hitters"

[_koppen]

The original Blue Fire is similar to Intamin LSM coasters

 

Blue Fire is nothing like an Intamin coaster.

 

However, if they can prove to build nearly as good or as good as Intamin for a lesser price and higher reliability

 

Mack rides are not cheaper than an Intamin ride, slightly more expensive actually.

[Thisisruss]

If I remember rightly wasn't Mack one of the contenders for i305.

[gerstlaueringvar]

^ I only know Intamin got SkyRush because their product is cheaper than Mack's.

[rcjp]

^Yeah, I was quite surprised by that. Now I wonder how the Mack coaster would have been but I never Imagined that a company with Intamin's reputation would be cheaper than a "newer one", at least when it comes to bigger coasters.

As to the cloning thing, well, they are definitely a step forward from the boomerangs so I wouldn't mind seeing it cloned a bit.

[_koppen]

^ I only know Intamin got SkyRush because their product is cheaper than Mack's.

 

That's not correct, Mack's proposal for the Skyrush project was a 200 foot tall inverted roller coaster with spinning vehicles (similar to Arthur) which also had inversions. That coaster was placed around the Kissing Tower.

 

The proposal was turned down because Hersheypark didn't want to be the first one who bought such a complicated prototype.

[rcjp]

^But I actually also heard it was a matter of price.

[_koppen]

^ Well it would for sure have costed more than what they got with Skyrush, but you can't really compare the price of it with that of Skyrush since it would have been a completely new system, that would also have been extremely complicated.

 

If Intamin would have been asked to also propose a spinning inverted coaster around 200 feet then the price would probably be very similar on the pricing, since it's such a complicated system.

 

If Mack would have proposed a mega coaster similar to Skyrush then you could say it was a matter of price, that would probably have been a little bit more expensive than Skyrush.