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Today I got around to opening my Son of Beast bolt & piece of track. (I was busy yesterday.) I would like to thank the park for not only deciding to sell pieces of the ride, but for putting so much effort into it. I could not be more impressed with the piece of track, the photos that have been posted do not do it justice. As I sit here looking at it I can only think that this is certainly not a "money grab" by the park...it is obviously a labor of love from one coaster fanatic to another. Thanks again to everyone at the park that made these items possible.

Thought this was pretty crazy. Props to TOPGUN1993 for the bottom photo!

The Triceratops-themed Timberliner? That's terribly terrific! Talking theoretically, though, think they'll try to take that time-tested theme to the top? (This totally ties to the topic title today, too!) Thanks! ...Thoughts, Terpy? -Tb, Truly tasting the tea this Thanksgiving...

Amazingly astounding alliteration ably achieved! An apt allegory? Interpreter, impressed!

I thought jerkiness still worked at Carowinds. So far. Then over at BGW there's Loch Ness, but that's a different monster!

You know what's more annoying than the crop of somewhat uninspired threads that have popped up lately (not including this one)? The cynicism/trolling from the "cool" kids. There, I've had my grumpy post for this off-season. Carry on!

I'm pretty sure I know what he'll say

Paramount Parks never confirmed the first cost of Son of Beast. The coaster also had continual maintenance, repair, settlement and litigation expenses. There comes a time when it makes more sense to get rid of an old car that's costing more than replacing it or that is no longer dependable, comfortable or as desirable as a new one.

^ Umm...what Son of Beast cost- it was millions. A lot of millions. About $20,000,000 exactly, in 2000 terms. Using a inflation calculator, that's $26,866,085.95 in 2012 dollars- Son of Beast was probably, adjusted for inflation, the most expensive thing Kings Island ever built (Diamondback was $22 million, but that was in 2009 dollars, so it's adjusted price is $23,720,728.83 for 2012...less than SOB, and not counting the many fixes/repairs SOB got). Hmm...out of curiosity, here's what some of Kings Island's other coasters would cost in 2012 dollars... Racer (Opened: 1972)- $6,640,679.43 Not a bad price, considering the park got two coasters... Beast (Opened: 1979)- $12,744,738.29 Beast was, for a woodie, pretty expensive...most woodies don't hit the $10M mark (some do, but they seem fairly rare). Then again, they were building the tallest drops and longest track for any wooden coaster in the world at the time... King Cobra (Opened: 1984, Closed: 2001)- $6,679,027.91 Not a horrible price considering the size of the ride whatsoever...even though its "cheapness" meant it would die an early death. Vortex (Opened: 1987)- $8,144,964.79 OK- ask B&M to build a 148' tall coaster that goes upside down six times, you'll probably get a price tag of well over $16,000,000+! Seems the rumors that Kings Island got a deal from Arrow on Vortex, due to The Bat's failures, are true... Adventure Express (Opened: 1991)- $6,793,450.81 OK, wow...I had no idea Adventure Express cost more than King Cobra and rivaled the price tag of Vortex. That theming must not have been cheap... These are the only prices I could find using rcdb.com and an inflation calculator, converting the cash of the year these rides opened to 2012 dollars...yeah, Paramount was very stingy on sharing how much their coasters cost, apparently...SOB and Diamondback prices are listed way above near the top... Just more random info I thought might be interesting...oh, Tomb Raider: The Ride was worth $25,716,175.65 in 2012 dollars too, BTW...Kings Island demolished $50,000,000 worth of rides in 2012. Yikes.

Hmmmm? Posted by The Gravity Group

For my 1,000th post, I've decided to post my video I took of a behind the scenes tour of The Beast that Don Helbig surprised KICers with. Thanks Don! <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GjAbTZIflTk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Hopefully this works. It should also be 1080p instead of 360p, but thats what it wanted to upload as. Hopefully, I can get some other videos on the day and a trip report in this thread at somepoint as well. Thanks for watching! Edit: Darn, it didn't work! Here's the link to the actuall video: Edit #2: Oh wait, that's all I had to do .

Because I would just love to pay $500 to fly there to see a mound of litter in the sea.

Which makes me want to ask, Over where? In the general direction... because, we're all focused on a now empty lot, when the lot itself could be the diversion.

Why do I get an advertisement on this site for legal poker in 28 states? And why do they act like that's a good thing?

As long as we don't start screaming at each other. Terp, who absolutely loathed that advertisement. To put it mildly.

Thrills Connect.

You could even have the ride provide an extra "ghost passenger" like the Haunted Mansion does. It would be a dinosaur - all the different types of dinos, all looking happy that you're there to see them. Hummmm......with my luck, I'd probably get Kinzelsauras in my car.

Yes.Happy Thanksgiving!

^ He wasn't being serious.

I once left a cup on the table by the Subway

Well if Dick was still in office it wouldn't be allowed because it would take away the Longest Steel roller coaster in North America record away from Millennium

I'm not an expert in construction, but I have a feeling that even those inflated figures for the old rides wouldn't touch what it would really cost to build them today.

Considering that this is November, you have a pretty long wait. Pay attention to meet-ups that are being discussed, and show up to one. Threads about them are in the "meet ups" forum: http://www.KICentral...ntral-meet-ups/ . The bigger meet-ups, like this one, will have lots of replies. Read the thread for details on how to find the others, and reply to let everyone know you're coming. Do be on time at any designated meeting location, or you might miss the group. Lots of people missed us on closing day.

I don't know why but this project reminds a lot of Six Flags Magic Mountain with Full Throttle, also known as YOLOcoaster. This is a good piece of land that has alot of elevation changes, similar to SFMM. I'm excited to see what comes, I still don't think it's going to be a Giga and I shake my head whenever I see someone say it will be.

I'm quite sure it will be FUN.

My uncle works for the city of mason and does inspections. He got a call in the first week of July asking for demolition permits for a roller coaster at Kings Island about 2 weeks before SOB's death was announced so I was waiting for KI to announce it. No one believed me until KI announced it and I was like " HA HA HA HA HA. IN YOUR FACE!! Where's my $20?" Sadly, I never received that $20

I'm glad Boomerang Bay is gone.It was old, crusty & needed refreshing. I think we can say that about many waterparks. No.Just Boomerang Bay.

Somehow, as the proud workers and designers and park employees watched as the first Son of Beast train left the station, I doubt any of them believed that just a bit over 12 years later, it would come to this.

Hey, can we get back to talking about the woodie? Terp, resisting talking about the nuts that fit around those bolts...

Now that the ride is down it really hit me like a ton of bricks .

Yes, but I'm assuming they aren't completely pulling the contents of Mr. Helbig's quote from thin air. 2 things. 1 The Enquirer has been going down hill for the better part of the last 4-8 years. Add onto that it is an electronic article, which makes me think there will be edits before going to print. But yeah the Cincy Enquirer has been decreasing its product while increasing the price, so no surprise there are problems. The other thing could be that the quote was from Don a few weeks prior. There was not even a current photo attached to the article (at 835). So its possible they interviewed Don in October and are now running the article.

I'm definitely interested in going to my first Holiwood Nights this year. Nothing's guaranteed at this point, but this is the first year since I've discovered Holiday World that the event isn't falling the weekend before finals week. There's actually a chance I'll be able to make it, but we'll have to see how things go down.

Yes. People eating would give you a serious BM...

Great Idea! At least if another wooden hyper coaster came to Kings Island now, technology has advanced since the age of SOB and maybe a smarter plan would be made for such a coaster. In all honesty I was expecting more of a response against this idea, but I'm glad you share my enthusiasm! And if you look at the facts, Colossos is very close to 200ft. and its still going well, and El Toro goes 70mph so its stress factor must be close to SoB's and it hasn't degraded. And are all 4 Prefab Intamins in Mitch Hawker's top 10? I think if you take the successes of SoB and implement them on a coaster without all of the critical design flaws, we could have one of the best coasters around!

If your talking in the woods where your wife can't hear you, are you still wrong?

Cedar Point doesn't have one.

I see what you did there!!!