Kings Dominion fans, the wait is over. The RMC re-do of Hurler has finally been announced. It will be named Twisted Timbers, and it’s scheduled to open in 2018. The story of the ride goes as followed. Located next to the park’s Candy Apple Grove, this coaster takes place in the once-thriving Hanover Hill Orchard, named after the park’s location in Hanover County. One beautiful day, half of the orchard was mysteriously destroyed by an unknown force that shook the ground, turned over tractors and shattered glass. Now this land of local legend is open to the public for one wild ride.
It will be 111 feet tall, it will be 54 miles per hour, it will have 20 airtime moments, and it will have three inversions. It will also feature a massive barrel roll drop similar to Kentucky Kingdom’s storm chaser.
Much like last year’s Mystic Timbers at Kings Island, the trains on this coaster will be modeled after vintage cars, which will add a classy touch to this coaster
But that’s not all the park announced. Kings Dominion will also be receiving Winterfest, a Christmas event that will turn the park into an all-out winter wonderland of lights, ornaments, cookies Christmas carolers, an ice skating rink and old Saint Nick himself.
Overall, 2018 is going to be an incredible year for Kings Dominion, but there’s even more amazing announcements to come today, so stay tuned.
Big news out of Georgia. Six Flags Over Georgia announced this morning that the Georgia Cyclone will be closing for good on July 30th. However, rather than tearing it down, Six Flags may be looking to give this ride a certain makeover instead…
Originally manufactured by the Dinn Corporation, this wooden coaster first opened in 1990. It is a mirror image of the famous Coney Island Cyclone in Brooklyn, New York, but unlike that coaster, this one hasn’t exactly aged well. That’s why Rocky Mountain Construction installed topper track to 30% of the ride’s layout in 2012 to make for a better ride experience. However, it’s clear that Six Flags is interested in replacing it with something bigger and better.
Earlier this year, construction markers were found on the coaster’s footers, leading many to speculate the ride’s future. Considering Six Flags’ recent additions over the years, it’s almost certain that this ride is about to get the RMC I-Box treatment. Ever since the New Texas Giant opened in 2011, Six Flags has given the Iron Horse treatment to six different roller coasters, and pretty much made Rocky Mountain Construction the industry giant it is today. The Georgia Cyclone could very well be the next A-list attraction to come to the Six Flags chain.
At this point, an RMC Georgia Cyclone is pretty much confirmed, there are still a few unanswered questions regarding it. First of all, what will it be named and themed to? Although Six Flags has the habit of re-using ride names like Goliath and The Joker, Six Flags Over Georgia already has rides with these names. One is a B&M Hyper named Goliath, and the other is a Larson Superloop named Joker: Chaos Coaster. So what will this ride be named? Well it’s location in the park is completely opposite to the Gotham City area, so even if they didn’t have a ride named the Joker, it wouldn’t really make sense to put it here. In fact, the area of the park that the Georgia Cyclone is in doesn’t really have a theme.
Back in 2015, the old Cyclone roller coaster at Six Flags New England was re-named Wicked Cyclone when it got the hybrid treatment. Therefore, I’m going to make a pretty bold prediction and guess that this new ride will be named Twisted Cyclone. This name would be especially fitting if this ends up being one of Six Flags’ record breaking attractions for 2018. All this ride needs is four inversions to have the most out of every hybrid coaster, so a name like Twisted Cyclone would certainly be fitting. Whether or not this ends up being the case is still unknown, but once Six Flags makes their announcements in September, we’ll all find out.
The 2018 Hype Train strikes yet again. At yesterday’s annual Coaster Con Banquet, Six Flags CEO John Duffy announced that the chain will be receiving five record breaking or “North America’s First” rides in 2018. Now right off the bat, while this announcement is undeniably exciting, it’s also pretty broad.
First of all, the announcement doesn’t say if the record-breaking rides will be WORLD record breaking. For example, they could open the tallest waterslide in North America, but it wouldn’t be taller than the Insano Water Slide in Brazil. Also, it’s very likely that some of the new rides, while unique to North America, can also be find across the globe. Overall, the chain’s exact plans for next year are incredibly unpredictable, but let’s take a look at a few possible options.
A rendering of the Zamperla Backflash
First let’s take a look at some rides that have yet to be built in North America. Considering how Six Flags has worked with Itallian Manufacturer Zamperla in recent years, one very likely addition is a Zamperla Backflash. This is similar to a HUSS Top Spin, but the gondola has an extra axis of rotation. It looks like a truly disorienting experience and right now, there aren’t any built in the United States. Seeing one of these come to a Six Flags park is entirely possible, and would honestly be a pretty cool addition. If one of these does end up coming to the chain, don’t be surprised if it gets a name like Harley Quinn’s Spin-Sanity.
Another company the chain has been working with is S&S. Lately this manufacturer has been on a roll with their new concepts, and their Freespin models have become very popular with Six Flags. So what other S&S rides could the chain get? One coaster that they could bring to Six flags is the rare Suspended Free Fly model. The only one built so far is Tranan at Sweden’s Skara Sommerland. This is more of a family coaster, but it’s still a very unique ride experience. Six Flags could easily theme to Daffy Duck and put in a Bugs Bunny Boom Town.
Could this go to Six Flags Great America?
In addition, S&S has several other unused concepts. One concept that especially stands out is their winged looper. This is like a cross between a Larson Super Loop and a B&M Wing Coaster. This would be a great addition that wouldn’t take up too much space, meaning that it could go pretty much anywhere. For example, if Six Flags Great America actually ends up removing V2, this could go in its place. Plus, if they add something like this, Great America would still have a launch coaster, so there’d really be no loss.
Moreover, there are plenty of other attractions out there whose concepts we’ve seen at IAAPA, so we could be getting some of those as well. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if they went with this figure-eight style super loop from Skyline; it looks like it has some great potential.
Deep Water Dive overlaid onto Waterworld’s map.
Moving on, in terms of record-breakers, Six Flags could also bring a record-breaking water park attraction to northern California’s Waterworld, a waterpark they just acquired this year. Now keep in mind that Waterworld is in a pretty tight spot between two rivers and other businesses, so there’s not a lot of room to expand. However, they do have a nice clearing underneath their Tornado funnel slide, so they could totally fit a couple new body slides down there. As of right now, the tallest water slide in North America is the Ko’okiri Body Plunge at Orlando, Florida’s Volcano Bay. This is a massive trapdoor slide that goes straight down and according to Google earth, the clearing at Waterworld would absolutely allow enough space for something like it. To demonstrate this, I superimposed a satellite view of Kentucky Kingdom’s Deep Water Dive (which is just 4 feet shorter than Ko’okiri) over Waterworld, and it indeed fits inside that spot. All they would have to do is make it a foot taller and they would be able to market it as the tallest Water Slide in North America.
Dive coaster for Magic Mountain?
I’ve also heard a few people online bring up the possibility of giving Magic Mountain getting the world’s tallest and fastest dive coaster, and this wouldn’t be a bad idea. After all, dive coasters draw huge crowds and the closest one to Magic Mountain is thousands of miles away at Cedar Point. However, I’m not so sure that they would go with something like this considering Six Flags hasn’t been making such large capital investments for individual parks.
I’ve also heard the idea of building the world’s tallest Giant Discovery. However, since all giant discoveries are the same height, they would have to have one custom-built by Zamperla to break this record, and I’m not entirely sure if that’s possible.
So to wrap things up, John Duffy’s announcement could mean anything, and it’s still pretty much impossible to predict what the chain will add next year. Nevertheless, it’s still incredibly likely that whatever they do get will be solid additions for their parks and things are really looking up for Six Flags.
Big news out of Germany: world-renowned theme park Phantasialand is getting yet another major coaster, and this time, it’ll be a “world’s first” attraction. The park released the following video today announcing the new coaster named F.L.Y. It will be the longest flying coaster in the world and is currently estimated to open in 2018.
While the manufacturer is currently unannounced, the restraints shown in the concept art match those of a Vekoma Flying Dutchman. According to Dutch website Loopings, insiders have also claimed that this is indeed a Vekoma coaster. If this is true, this would be the first original Flying Dutchman model to open since Batwing at Six Flags America started operating in 2001.
So far, none of Vekoma’s Flying Dutchman models were designed as launch coasters. However, according to the 2006 Euro Attractions Show, Vekoma does in fact have a launched Flying Dutchman model; they just haven’t built one yet. Based on the coaster’s layout, it will start the launch while riders are still on their backs before using an immleman to switch to a flying position.
While Vekoma Flying Dutchman coasters aren’t as popular or desired among enthusiasts as B&M Flyers, they can still give great rides. Though I thought Nighthawk at Carowinds was just average, Firehawk at Kings Island really impressed me. It was an exciting coaster with thrilling inversions and I’d honestly be very interested to see Vekoma take on this concept again. There’s a lot more to Vekoma than SLCs and Boomerangs, you know.
However, considering the track record of prototype launch coasters, you might want to watch out for downtime or even a delayed opening before making plans to ride this. It’s entirely possible that Vekoma will get this new model working right off the bat, but the only way to know is to wait and see. Who knows? This could end up being the best flying coaster out there.
