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Battle of the top coaster designers  

1,050 members have voted

  1. 1. Battle of the top coaster designers

    • Intamin
      514
    • B&M
      536


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B&M before they started designing in-house. Riddler's Revenge for the win!

 

Although Intamin does have Maverick, which is technically my number #1. But having worked at a park with four faulty Intamins, their innovation is sometimes they're undoing

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I've gotta go with Intamin. I haven't ridden that many, but Maverick is easily my favorite and just looking at I-305 and El Toro makes it an easy choice, not to mention Mega-lites and Aquatrax. A little roughness doesn't bother me, and I think it's a fair compromise for the sake of a better ride (with obvious exclusions, but I didn't find Maverick rough). I definitely do love B&M's though, and I've ridden plenty. I used to like them more, and maybe I will again someday.

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Although Top Thrill Dragster and Millennium Force are in my top 5, I voted B&M strictly for reliability. Intamin rides are down a LOT, but I rarely see a B&M down.

 

Intamin's designs have also been pretty faulty for the past few years, from the heart-line roll on Maverick, the boats on Shoot the Rapids, and the modifications required on Intimidator 305. If I were a park comparing the two companies to find out which I would rather deal with, I'd pick B&M.

 

The ride experience on Intamins and B&Ms are hard to compare. I will say that I'm not a big fan of Maverick. One ride per visit to Cedar Point is enough for me, and if the line is over 40 minutes you can count me out. However, I've never been unimpressed with a B&M.

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Intamin has tons more product types, but they are all too similar. By similar I mean all the trains are the exact same style, just a slightly altered appearance. I truly love Intamin, it's a great company and makes great products. However, while B&M's product line is short, the different types that they have all pack an insanely different punch. For example, if you were to replace Fahrenheit's vertical lift train with a Multi-Looper train, the experience would pretty much be the exact same. But say you replaced the Hulk's train with a Floorless or Standup, now you have a totally different experience. Now that B&M is getting into new and unique train designs like the Wingrider, I can easily see them starting to branch out and possibly even start launching. When B&M started, LIMs and LSMs were not around and their trains were too heavy to be launched around, but now with the magnetic power, they can launch those trains in a second. B&Ms are tons more reliable. I have never witnessed a B&M brake down in my life, but I have been on El Toro 3 times during breakdowns. If you look at it this way, there is really no competition.

 

B&M all the way.

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Intamin. 15 years ago, I would have said B&M. However, while Intamin rides seem to develop and get more thrilling over time, B&M's tend to grow less intense. The last "good" B&M was Katun in 2000, and since we have been stuck with less intense costers. Intaimin, however, still designs some of the most intense looping, hyper, and shuttle coasters around.

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From a rider standpoint, I'd have to say Intamin. Their rides are getting more and more intense, and B&M's are getting less and less forceful. If I were a park owner, however, I'd much rather own and maintain a B&M. Intamins have so many technical issues.

 

I used be a big B&M fan, when all I had ridden was Raptor, Montu, Kumba, etc. Now that I've experienced their newer, less intense rides such as Silver Bullet and Patriot, I find Intamin to be the better company. I wish that B&M would get back in touch with their old-school style, because they have designing rides down to a science. They're very reliable, and they are very re-rideable. It's just that lots of the new stuff isn't really worth waiting in long lines for anymore. Fun, but not intense.

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I have only been on a few B&Ms (Nitro, B:TR, B:TDK, and Bizarro) but for the most part, (even Nitro), they all bore me. Even Nitro feels like it has no airtime to me. Intamins are way more thrilling, and I love the airtime which i can't find on B&Ms.

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The last "good" B&M was Katun in 2000, and since we have been stuck with less intense costers.

 

I think more recent B&Ms are still incredibly fun, but after a while they do seem too "cookie-cutter," and lacking a real "wow factor." They just don't seem to be the type of coasters that will put parks on the map and cause people to visit from all over just to ride them. Hopefully Raptor is the first step of great new things to come.

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The other reason I choose Intamin, other than to fit in here (kidding), is that they're not afraid to try new things. Sure there's reliability issues, but you learn from those, and you make them better. The other is the intensity and airtime. I love all sorts of air , but from videos I have seen, and by reports, their airtime has become things of legends, and that's a selling point to me.

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I agree that Behemoth is a great ride, but my only beef with it is to me its really not THAT much better or different than Apollo's Chariot, which was built almost a decade before. I've ridden both at least a dozen times and I've had some rides on Apollos that were much better than most Behemoth rides and vice versa. Not that its a bad thing to build or anything, but IMO the best products B&M makes were invented in the 90s and most were built in the 90s. Intamin has just done so much more since then in terms of creativity and honestly I think their best rides (El Toro, Maverick, Bizarro from the ones I've ridden) just kick so much more a$$ than even the best B&Ms.

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^While that is true, it doesn't cause heated speculation between fanboys on the internet.

 

And in my opinion, I really like that Intamin isn't afraid to push the limits. B&M doesn't even do launches...I feel like B&M is more concerned about their reputation than actually WOWing guests at parks. Even when it comes to hyper coasters, I would choose Intamin because I know the airtime would be intense!

 

On the other hand, B&M coasters are much more reliable, capacity monsters, and much easier to operate...I think B&M coasters are a better experience when you want a nice smooth disorienting experience; as opposed to an intense, quick, forceful, and exciting experience which Intamin could offer.

 

(Personally, I'd rather see a B&M flyer at CP next year than another Intamin.)

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How about this. They both make terrific rides, and it doesn't matter which one is "better."

 

Of course they both do, no one is denying that. It's our job as enthusiasts to bicker over the minute details that separate one company from the other. Besides, what's the point of this thread if everyone should have that mindset?

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A couple of other points to remember is that B&M coasters are known for being high capacity, and at large parks where the summer crowds are huge, this is important. I've never waited over an hour for a B&M. In fact, the longest I've waited was Diamondback on a Saturday for 45 minutes. While it doesn't seem that important, having an attraction at a park that is not only able to draw crowds but is also able to handle them is great.

 

Also, I don't know how you could say that B&M doesn't draw crowds. Their hypercoasters have been popping up at almost all of the former Paramount Parks, filling in the empty spaces in the coaster line-up. All of these parks now have a new signature steel coaster, easily the most popular attraction at each of those parks.

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I love both equally. Intamin probably makes the best rides on the planet, but B&M consistently makes more good rides. B&M's are reliable, high-capacity, and for the most part uniform in quality. Intamins push the envelope, have more extreme forces, and have more one-of-a-kind elements. However, in the US at least, I can think of only around five or six Intamin's that I would consider to be top coasters, while I can think of maybe 15 B&M's that would fit into that category. Overseas, it's probably different though. But when an Intamin design hits, it's pretty amazing (prefabs, megas/megalites, gigas, twisty launchers). One argument that I dislike is the "B&M hasn't made anything good in the last decade." This may hold true for the inverts, but Behemoth is the best hyper in my opinion (not to mention the way it put CW on the map), and the flyer has been perfected with Tatsu and Manta. B&M can still make awesome rides. My feeling is that each company completes the other, and without one or the other, coaster enthusiasm would be quite unsatisfying.

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There are a few reasons why B&M stays away from launches:

 

1)Reliability(cables breaking=down time= for enthusiasts and park guests)

2)consistency(launches don't always end out with the same speed(rollbacks))

3)complexity(launches use a lot more advanced tech than the traditional lift)

4)capacity(B&M use very heavy trains and will probably need to be shortened for a launch to work)

5)ride time(B&M would rather leave you with a 2-3min chain lifted ride than having an expensive launch system leaving you with a shorter track to make up for the spent money)

 

I honestly don't think B&M should go back to their 90's old school days but instead go with a new school style

for example:for inverts there would be an airtime inducing first drop and between elements there would be turns and airtime .(think dragon challenge red side's hill)

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There are a few reasons why B&M stays away from launches:

 

1)Reliability(cables breaking=down time= for enthusiasts and park guests)

2)consistency(launches don't always end out with the same speed(rollbacks))

3)complexity(launches use a lot more advanced tech than the traditional lift)

4)capacity(B&M use very heavy trains and will probably need to be shortened for a launch to work)

5)ride time(B&M would rather leave you with a 2-3min chain lifted ride than having an expensive launch system leaving you with a shorter track to make up for the spent money)

 

I honestly don't think B&M should go back to their 90's old school days but instead go with a new school style

for example:for inverts there would be an airtime inducing first drop and between elements there would be turns and airtime .(think dragon challenge red side's hill)

Humm...allow me to chime in on your points.

 

1) There are lots more ways to launch than just a cable.

2) Thats true but from my observations, the only coasters that roll back are ones that start off with a top hat?

3) That can be debated. Even though the launch technology is far advanced than that of a chain lift, in most cases (especially with LIM launch technology) it involves less moving parts which in turn could help with downtime.

4) Incredible hulk (even though B&M didnt do the launch it still uses that heavy train)

5) Still, incredible hulk...lol. I even think hulk's launch system today would probably be cheaper to do again than it was over 10 years ago.

 

I believe B&M will eventually do a launch coaster somewhere down the line but I heard in the past that they used the excuse "the technology is too new to risk" but now I cant see them using that excuse!

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