Tag Archive: roller coaster

Is Son of Beast Returning to Kings Island?

18 years ago, Kings Island opened Son of Beast, the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster ever built. This coaster was most famous for featuring a massive vertical loop, making it the first modern wooden coaster to go upside down. Unfortunately, due to several manufacturing flaws, this coaster had a reputation for a rough ride and suffered many technical issues. These flaws even resulted in an incident that sent 27 people to the hospital after a cracked wooden beam caused the train to suddenly stop. After less than a decade of operation, this coaster was closed down in 2009 and later demolished in 2012. Since then, Son of Beast has become one of the most infamous defunct rides ever built, and one of the biggest flops in roller coaster history. However, after several years of infamy, this ride may be making a comeback.

A few days ago a teaser flyer appeared at Kings Island. This flyer, shared by Emotional Roller Coasters on Instagram, gives quite a few hints at one of their most famous defunct coasters returning.
First up, there’s the obvious mentioning of Outpost 5, which was the name of the ride’s currently standing but not operating station. The flyer also mentions that after years of searching, the remnants of “number five” have been found and officials are formulating a plan to bring it back.

Moreover, the flyer mentions “southern yellow pine” which was the exact kind of wood used to build Son of Beast.

What’s even more interesting is the phrase “oak strong and iron bound” is used, which could indicate that the fine folks at Rocky Mountain Construction could be resurrecting the ride as a hybrid coaster. While Son of Beast’s original layout was criticized for its overuse of large helixes, Several fan-made rendering online show that an RMC rendition of the coaster has plenty of potential.

As if this flyer wasn’t enough to indicate a possible return of Son of Beast, wooden planks have just recently been spotted under the ride’s memorial in the queue line of Banshee, the park’s B&M Invert. Why put this wood there now unless they were teasing something for the near future.

Speaking of Banshee, some have made the argument that that it would be impossible to rebuild Son of Beast since Banshee uses some of the ride’s land. While this is true, there is quite a lot of empty space in that area, so who’s to say they can’t rotate the coaster’s layout while still reusing the station.

While many Kings Island fans are anticipating a Giga to be the park’s next major coaster, a beefed up reboot of Son of Beast would certainly generate a plethora of buzz. It would make headlines not only the enthusiast community, but to long time fans of Kings Island who remember the failed coaster. As Defunctland’s hit video documenting the coaster shows, there are quite a lot of people curious about this old attraction, and bringing it back as a more functional and exciting coaster could make it an A-list attraction for sure.

Overall, while absolutely nothing has been confirmed yet, the clues given by the park certainly indicate something big in store for kings island. Or they could be trolling us.

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Kennywood Continues to Tease Their 2019 Addition with a Word Search

Happy 4th of July everyone! Kennywood promised an Independence Day surprise, and we certainly got one. The park released a word search this morning to further tease their massive 2019 addition known as “Project 412.” This word search features several clues which link up to the several numbers the park released over the past few weeks in their scratch-lotto teaser campaign. In the word search below, you can guess what those numbers mean.

The best part about this word search is that it’s part of a contest. The first twelve people to correctly match the numbers with the words will be among the first people to ride the new attraction. Will you be one of those people? Fill out the word search below and find out!

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Epcot’s Guardians of the Galaxy Ride WILL be a Roller Coaster!

Good news for coaster enthusiasts and Disney fans: that much-anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy attraction coming to Epcot will indeed be a roller coaster. At the park’s 35th Anniversary Celebration on Sunday, Vice President of Epcot, Melissa Valiquette confirmed to the media that the ride replacing the former Universe of Energy will be a brand new coaster experience. The ride’s manufacturer is currently unknown.

As of right now, Epcot is the only Disney theme park in the world not to have a roller coaster. While Test Track is a high-speed thrill ride, it is technically a powered slot car attraction and does not classify as a coaster. With this new attraction though, Epcot will finally get an RCDB page of its own.

As stated before, the ride, which was announced at this summer’s D23 event, will be built on the former site of the Universe of Energy. The pavilion, up until recently, was home to an arguably outdated show called Ellen’s Energy Adventure, a show that involved Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye talking about the wonders of fossil fuels…oh and there’s a dinosaur diorama worked in there somehow. After years of waning popularity, the pavilion closed earlier this year in order to make way for this brand new attraction.

If you ask me, it’s about time that the park received a massive E-ticket attraction like this. I always thought that Epcot could have used a roller coaster, and with the fine folks at Disney Imagineering involved, this one in particular is sure to blow you away.

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Sesame Place Teases Massive 2018 Attraction.

 Sesame Place; the Pennsylvania theme park not too far from Six Flags Great Adventure known for being themed after Jim Henson’s classic children’s series. Owned by SeaWorld, this park isn’t known for its thrill rides, but it no doubt has a special place in peoples hearts. As of right now, the only roller coaster to ever open at the park is Vapor Trail, a Vekoma Junior coaster that was added in 1998. It’s been almost two decades since this park got a new coaster, but for young coaster enthusiasts in the making, 2018 may see yet another major attraction coming to Sesame Place.

The park recently teased a new attraction on social media, referring to it as the “biggest, grouchiest” ride. The teaser featured the famous Oscar the Grouch, indicating that the ride will be themed to him. A small family park like Sesame Place getting a new coaster may seem hard to believe, but when a park teases a ride as being their biggest investment yet, it usually indicates a new coaster.

As for what kind of coaster this could be, speculation is already running wild. Considering that Busch Gardens Williamsburg just got a family GCI named Invadr, some are suggesting that a new wooden coaster could be coming to Sesame Place. Kid-friendly wooden coasters are nothing new; we’ve seen rides like Woodstock Express and Idlewild’s Rollo Coaster. Personally, I’m predicting something like Roar-O-Saurus at New Hampshire’s Storyland; a small coaster that kids will get a kick out of and enthusiasts will happily seek to ride. For now though, the only way to find out what the park will receive is to wait until their announcement on September 20th.

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First Look at NEW Slinky Dog Dash Coaster Trains!

One of the most anticipated family coasters of next year is without a doubt Slinky Dog Dash at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida. This Mack launched coaster will be part of an all-new section of the park themed to Toy Story. We’ve previously seen the track, but check out these incredible ride vehicles!

This image comes courtesy of Reddit user golf4miami, and it shows everyones favorite spring-loaded canine in all his coaster glory.

As you can see, the ride vehicles feature his trademark spring between the cars, which is thin enough to not obscure the views of its passengers.

Its cartoonish appearance makes it resemble a kiddie coaster more than a thrill ride, but this coaster is said to be much more exciting than a typical kiddie ride. Think less Barnstormer (Magic Kingdom) and more Firechaser Express (Dollywood).

Im oersonally a sucker for a good family coaster with incredible theming, and this ride looks to deliver the goods in 2018.

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Dragon Challenge Closes in September. New Coaster to Replace it!

In a surprise announcement today Universal Studios said on their official blog that the iconic Dragon Challenge roller coasters will close for good on September 5th. Well this has been predicted for quite some time it is still undoubtedly came as a shock for fans of this attraction. While the rumor of Dragon Challenge’s closure has been buzzing around for a while, not many people expected the closure to be announced this soon. However, considering that fellow Orlando resort Disney World announced several major attractions just weeks ago, it’s clear that Universal wants to one-up the competition.

Originally opening in 1999 as Dueling Dragons, this ride experience was quite innovative for its time. It featured two B&M inverts named Fire and Ice with awesome dragon-shaped trains going head to head. However, in 2011, the park stopped dueling these coasters after several instances of park guest being hit with flying objects from the other train. The incident that sealed this rights fate occurred when a fifty-two-year-old part guess lost his eyeball after being hit in the face with an unknown object. Comments made by the law firm representing the man implied that it was a penny. Naturally, if something as small as a penny could cost someone an eye, these coasters were deemed too much of a liability to keep dueling. 

Dueling Dragons at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure

In the years following this incident, Universal installed metal detectors in the queue line. While lawyers said that this was a step in the right direction, it’s clear that it wasn’t enough to have the dragons duel again. So after the removal of such a major attraction, what will replace it now?

Well, while the park will be losing two coasters, it’s at least going to gain another one. Universal confirmed earlier today that Dragon challenges replacement would be quote ” one of the most highly-themed coaster experiences we’ve created. It will combine a new level of storytelling with an action-packed adventure…and a few surprises along the way.” Universal didn’t give many details about what kind of coaster it would be, but a popular rumor going around is a Mack Powered coaster. Something like Arthur at Europa Park. This is a family coaster that lends itself to heavy theming, which fits the few details given on Universal’s blog.

I feel a rumor going around it’s a Mack powered coaster something like Arthur at Europa Park. This is a family coaster that lends itself to heavy theming which fits the few details given Universal’s blog. In addition, it’s rumored that the ride will be theme to the Forbidden Forest. Either way, Universal implied that it would be fun for the whole family. The idea of taking two major thrill rides like Dragon Challenge and replacing them with the family ride is a bit odd, and it’s always unfortunate to see a coaster bite the dust. At the same time though, we could be in for something really special. Escape from Gringotts and Forbidden Journey are fantastic, and despite universal’s recent reliance on screen-based motion simulators there’s always room for innovation. 

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