Best of the rest 2008/2009

[Gazza]

While rides like Manta, Terminator and Blue Fire have gotten the limelight, there are still a few new coasters opening soon that are pretty interesting you may or may not have heard much about.... Fluch von Novgorod, Hansa Park. It's another Eurofighter, but suprisingly it will have an LSM launch, making it the only coaster in the world to have a chain lift and launch on the same ride. Construction photos are here, and you can see the twisted track and themed enclosed sections taking shape. Anubis, Plopsaland Another Launched Gerstlauer, but a bit more elaborate than the original Lynet at Farup Sommerland. You can see a animation here and it will feature an Immellmann, Dive Loop and Corkscrew, and two top hats. iSpeed, Mirabiliandia. It may have a terrible name, but this could well be the best and most well rounded Intamin Accelerator to date. The park have released a NL animation (a bit rough, but then again it is just park PT stuff), it has 4 inversions, airtime hills like Superman Escape, and rapid directional changes like Maverick. As a side note, people should check out the shooting spinning dark ride Mirabilianda opened this year, a post apocalyptic themed one called Reset: Anno Zero. Diamondback, Kings Island. A 65m high B&M hyper, what else needs to be said. The ride has its own site here. The main point of difference from most B&M hypers is that it will feature at water splash at the end, and the new staggered train design. The official page on the ride is here. GCI projects: Aside from Terminator, GCI are doing a yet to be named coaster at a small park called Freizeitpark Plohn in Germany. It has 27.5m high first drop, but from there out it is a twisted, ground hugging layout, filled with lots of little airtime hops. GCI have a pov on their website. The funny thing it is an American coaster, but the park is building it with EU funding. The other coaster GCI is doing is Prowler at Worlds of Fun. Its a similar idea to the German one with a ground hugging layout, but naturally on the larger scale of an American park, and a bit more spread out. The official park page with renderings and video is here. Happy Valley Shanghai The Chinese theme park boom continues, and this park looks to have a superb opening lineup. There will be a B&M Dive machine, an Intamin Mega Lite, an Intamin Mine train, but the only coaster to be named to date is Fireball, a Gravity Group woodie, with a layout that is a bit of a fusion between out and back and twister. The pictures section of the rcdb page has renderings and construction photos. Tranan, Skara Sommarland A world first. It is an S&S eagle coaster, its a little bit hard to explain how this coaster works, but imagine something with cars that can pivot like orphan rocker, but the cars hang off the side of the train, and the track goes upside down, but the cars stay upright. You can see a video of the prototype on the S&S site, as well as an animation of Tranan's layout. Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit. Universal Orlando. Last but not least is the latest big ride for Orlando. Its a Maurer Sohne X car coaster with onboard user selected music, with its main feature being a 50m drop from a vertical lift, into a non inverting loop (the track twists so people never go upside down). The park intended for this ride not to have inversions, so it will have similar broad appeal to its predecessor, Hollywood Dream at Universal Japan.

Edited April 3, 2009 by Gazza

[cadboy]

making it the only coaster in the world to have a chain lift and launch on the same ride.

What about Maverick? Another coaster worth noting is Saw - The Ride currently under construction at Thorpe Park. Again we see another Eurofighter, featuring 3 inversions and some awsome themeing http://www.rcdb.com/id4162.htm

[Gazza]

What about Maverick?

Maverick, CA Screamin and Atlantis adventure have LSM lifts and an LSM launch on the same ride. They don't use a mechanical chain like Fluch von Novgorod will.

[Gazza]

Time to update this a bit: A POV of Blue Fire has emerged, and it looks to be an excellent ride with rapid pacing. As a plus, it has a Superman style dark ride section in what appears to be a Geothermal facility (The Ride is located in the Icelandic section of the park.

The other big launcher, I Speed at Mirabilandia is finished and at the pull through stage, though Intamin have managed to come up with a support style uglier than the I beam type they used here. http://www.miraforever.com/index_.php?id=1...to%20completato The smaller European launcher, Anubis at Plopsaland, has also had its first test runs, it looks to be quite a nippy little ride.

Manta has been testing, perhaps a bit slower paced, but its a flyer and they tend to be like that. The ride looks to continue Busch's tradition of high capacity coasters, it has 9 car trains, plus a cool little zero car at the front with a fibreglass manta ray.

EDIT: Woah, things move fast...a few more updates for you. Anyone remember that park in Italy that was building a mini accelerator....well its open now. What makes it interesting though is that most of the layout is just like Superman Escape, but in miniature:

Now there is a POV of Anubis:

Fluch Von Novgorod is looking to be one of the best themed coasters of recent times, quite an effort for a small park: http://www.kataplektor.de/bau-blog/fotogal...otogalerie.html Insane, the 3rd ZacSpin is now finished construction: Edited April 6, 2009 by Gazza

[cadboy]

Fluch Von Novgorod is looking to be one of the best themed coasters of recent times, quite an effort for a small park: http://www.kataplektor.de/bau-blog/fotogal...otogalerie.html

This ride looks great. I can't wait to see a POV of the preshow and ride it looks great so far. How many inversions though?

[downunder]

I'm going to Hansa in June and definitely Fluch Von Nogood (I know I misspelled it, more like Fluch Von Bloodybrilliant) is definitely one of the 3 most anticipated coasters of the trip along with Balder and Piraten. I think Wicked at Lagoon has a launch and a Eurofighter style drop but I haven't heard much about what it's like. Hitting a greater than 90 degrees drop at a good speed was sensational on Maverick especially at the back.

[Gazza]

How many inversions though?

Just a barrel roll.

I think Wicked at Lagoon has a launch and a Eurofighter style drop but I haven't heard much about what it's like.

Wicked at lagoon is sort of a Dodonpa style top hat, just vertical on each side.

I thought I'd post up the 'worst of the rest' for 2008/2009...The King Kong ride at Bobbejaanland. It's a Huss creation, nice idea on paper, but seems way too slow in real life...even slower than the pounce and bounce ride at MW!

[stdragon03]

I have been wanting to go to china to climb the great wall, and see the culture China has to offer however being a true coaster nerd i need to go and ride Fireball. That wooden coaster looks amazing .

[Gazza]

Manta has soft opened, and it looks fantastic...The theming is up there with the 3 B&Ms at the other end of International Drive, I mean, how well did they pull off the water spray effect!

In terms of an onride POV video, this is all that has turned up so far:

It seems to share the same quality of Tatsu in that it spends a decent amount of time high in the air and above trees, which is what a flying coaster should do. There are some pics of the ride here, including some of the well themed indoor queue that has aquariums, undersea lighting and caves: http://www.pointpics.com/details.php?image_id=9613 http://www.pointpics.com/details.php?image_id=9606 http://www.pointpics.com/details.php?image_id=9539

[cadboy]

Fantastic theming, I was going to put something up about this a few days ago but didn't get around to it. I too think the water effect is spectacular, it is in perfect sync with the train and almost looks convincing. I would love to see one of our parks install a flying roller coaster, MW preferably and see if we could get such cool effects, the queue doesn't look bad either. I love this picture, it really shows the quality of the ride and effect.

Edited May 5, 2009 by cadboy

[Gazza]

One other thing I forgot about (Though to be fair, it isn't a major coaster) is Pilgrims Plunge at Holiday world, which opened a few days ago. It is currently the worlds tallest water ride, and features an SDSC style lift. The thing that is interesting is that it was built for USD 4.3 Mil, (Which is just AUD 5.7 Mil) IMO this is the sort of thing DW could/should be building...low cost, but it has the thrills and the stats. Source: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewt...asc&start=0

[cadboy]

Haha, weird water ride though that last drop looks incredible. The support structure on the lift looks like Intamin coaster pieces, quite ugly IMO. I would like to see something like this but with a longer and more complex layout with the lift and record breaking drop being the climax. The lift could even be enclosed in a mountain like on WWF.

[Gazza]

^There is a bit more to it, it's just woefully unfinished at the moment.

[cadboy]

Woah! It sure is unfinished. That looks terrible, not a great view for riders, they better do something with that section of the ride or else the whole thing is waste of potential.

[paauly101]

My friend who lives in Michegan (coast fan) said she loved it. Really looks like you get wet in the front. I wish one of our parks brought out something like this but with more themeing. I know its not done yet, but still. Whatre they gunna do? Throw in some trees.

[TimMc333]

Fantastic theming, I was going to put something up about this a few days ago but didn't get around to it. I too think the water effect is spectacular, it is in perfect sync with the train and almost looks convincing. I would love to see one of our parks install a flying roller coaster, MW preferably and see if we could get such cool effects, the queue doesn't look bad either.

I would like to see MW replace Lethal Weapon with a Manta-like flying coaster! I think that would boost attendance stats!

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit. Universal Orlando. Last but not least is the latest big ride for Orlando. Its a Maurer Sohne X car coaster with onboard user selected music, with its main feature being a 50m drop from a vertical lift, into a non inverting loop (the track twists so people never go upside down). The park intended for this ride not to have inversions, so it will have similar broad appeal to its predecessor, Hollywood Dream at Universal Japan.

I gotta say, it might not have inversions, but it's still a pretty wild ride. Not the sort of thing that appeals to a mild coaster type person. Looking up at that first drop would make the average person think twice before queueing up I think...