Gordon Bombay

There may still be some, but it's my understanding that most were sent off as spare parts to the park's that still had them at the time. The ride's controls are gone and the Technifex projector was replaced with a new digital projector for the Dinosaur attraction.

Yeah, won't happen unfortunately. The seats and ride controls are long gone.

Great eye, nice find!

That was an awesome day at work and ended up being the only day I left early. After spray painting all morning, my finger got really sore and I couldn't move it. I was allowed to leave work, made a doctor's appoiintment for that evening and then came home and fell asleep. Never ended up going to the doctor and that finger never hurt again. We also did a lot of work fixing up the FOF queue that season. Ha. Sorry for the random side story. Also, here's that concept art I was talking about. This isn't the image I had, but a newspaper article featuring the same art. Shout out to TG93 for this one:

My pleasure, glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you for posting that! The feels, man, the feels. I went to Kings Island for the first time in 1995, two years after the ride had opened. I didn't ride it, but most of the group I was with did. I have a very distinct memory of watching it from the overlook and seeing the fog pour out and the lights under the station. It looked amazing in the mind of a six year old who was absolutely in love with that movie. When I finally did ride it, sadly, a lot of that theming was gone/deteriorated. I still get nostalgic thinking about it though. The select songs form the movie soundtrack that would play in the line, the fighter squadron flags hanging up etc. SOME HISTORY: When you think about it, Paramount actually did a pretty good job theming that ride to the movie. Keep in mind, the ride had been ordered from Arrow under former management, was supposed to follow the area's "Adventure Village" theme ("Swoop" and "Thunder Road" are the intended names often mentioned). According to RCDB, Paramount had brought in John DeCuir, a famed Hollywood set designer who had worked on a lot of the sets for the film. However, I'm not sure if this is true since DeCuir died in 1991 and (I'm assuming) Paramount didn't begin plans to alter the ride's intended them until 1992 after DeCuir was passed. Nevertheless, they made the ride's queue and station feel like an aircraft carrier. I'm curious to know if/how had the ride been labeled as "Swoop" or "Thunder Road" would've utilized the under station queue if at all. From my understanding the ride's station design was completely altered by Paramount. Exline Design performed the design of the station for Paramount Parks and actually designed the queues for all three Top Gun attractions. Original concept art for Kings Island's "Top Gun" station: - Notice how much more it looks like an aircraft carrier than what was actually built? Exline actually spent three days aboard the USS America researching the carrier (The movie actually filmed aboard the USS Enterprise and USS Rangers, different classes of aircraft carriers). Exline also did a large format photo shoot during those three days which produced the photographs seen on the massive "billboards" in the ride's queue. A mural under construction: That above particular mural, I'm not sure which park that went to. I think it was the one that you saw when waiting at the loading gates looking across the station. You can see more of Exline's concept work here: http://exlinedesign.com/entertainment/portfolio/ride/topgun.htm At some point, when the ride became sponsored by "Gillette Mach 3," the murals were changed to this: - Photo from Don Flint's KIExtreme.com (another great Kings Island site that's worth a look!) The other mural not seen in that photograph depicted an F-4 Phantom fighter jet waiting on a carrier deck. The F-4 was no longer in service when Top Gun was filmed and is not the jet featured in the movie. Another mistake is that on the image above it shows to F-15 Eagles photoshopped in to a scene where they're flying over an aircraft carrier (again, it's the USS America, not the "Enterprise" from the film). The carrier shows F-14 Tomcats sitting on the deck. The F-15 Eagle was never used by the navy and never used in carrier service. Anyone remember the old spiel from the early 2000's of Jeff Seibert's voice saying: "Gillette Mach 3 Hopes You Enjoy you Ride on Top Gun!" That debuted the same year that the backs of the ride's cars had the Gillette logo painted on them. Somewhere around here I have old concept art from the ride that depicted a full scale F-14 jet that was to be placed atop the ride station. Clearly, that never made it to the actual ride, but it would've been visible from the tower and looked pretty cool. The F-14 was an amazing fighter jet, the backbone of the U.S. Navy for years. It's no longer in service. Back in 2011, when I worked for the park, my boss was really into sprucing up the theming along the ride. We used industrial tape to create the "fake" runway on the ride's brake run early one morning before the park opened. When trying to decide what number to put on the ground (aircraft carriers are marked with a two digit number on their flight decks), I suggested "93" for when the ride opened, we ended up going with "41," the last two digit's of the ride's phone number. SOME SPECULATION: I always loved the Top Gun theme and loved the movie. I miss hearing that awesome 80's soundtrack in the line. However, IF they are re-theming or changing anything I think "The Bat" would be a nice nod to KI history and to the fake website pulled earlier this year. They could turn the under queue into a "bat cave," but personally I think that they're just going to keep the line as is. There's an extra set of stairs that attaches the ride's exit down to the lower queue. In the past, this featured a handicap electric ramp where guests in a wheel chair could experience the queue then ride up to the accessible part of the station. I bet you that becomes a "Fast Lane" entrance. I.E. Fast Lane riders enter through the exit, then go down those stairs and join up with the regular queue.

Wasn't it repainted in 2005 as well? For some reason I seem to remember it being wrapped and blasted during a BL:SC construction tour.

Yes, that is one huge waste of paint, and money, which we all love money. What's a waste of money and what's not isn't for anywhere on here to decide... that's decided in Sandusky. And just to point out - Vortex recieved a full paint job a few years before 2009 and for the 2009 season only had its rails painted, not the entire ride.

When put in the correct mode, it will stop exactly where it's supposed to for transferring. Iron Dragon is a different story as it has that goofy storage shed that's lower. I never understood why it or Corckscrew were that way.

You're comparing small, indoor venues of a different industry to a massive theme park. Apples to Oranges.

I don't see how having an "indent" instead of a perfect circle means B&M designed it specifically to have a guest area there. Is there evidence of this on other splashdowns with the same design?

There is a curved in portion of the splash down that was built for a splash zone, but it was fenced in. It's not a big area but you can see that it is the only area that water splashes from the pool. There were never plans to extend the pathway down by the Diamondback splash pool in order to create a "splash zone." If you look at the ride's original blueprints, renderings and promo photos - what you mention wasn't in the cards. Before the ride opened, each train had different "fins" on it, each one creating a different effect for the splash down. None of them shot outwards. There were a couple different things. Essentially you would queue through there and see various displays that depicted how an aircraft carrier operated. There were mock "Am-Ram" and "Phoenix" missiles on display (common armaments on the F-14 Tomcat), a model aircraft carrier that lit up, a missile that would rumble and bellow steam as if it were firing, a radar panel and an area for an employee to sit and perform height checks.

You might be able to see the "Bolt Barn" one, unless it was removed for Banshee construction (I don't think Banshee goes back that far though). The other one is too covered by brush and trees though. Maybe when the leaves fall?

Woah, really? That is strange, it's been there since the first days of the ride. Actually, it hadn't been. Some coworkers and I found it in an abandoned office and gave it to our boss who painted it and stuck it there in 2011.

I wouldn't say there's "tons," but there are a few. Two buildings are left that used to house animals. One of them was repurposed into a "bolt barn" for Son of Beast. That one had almost any spare part you could think of for Son of Beast track work. It was located just up the hill from SOB's "cloverleaf" turn making it much more accessible for the SOB maintenance crew when they needed something. Another building is still located way in the back near the edge of the property. It was still surrounded by fences and gated areas used for moving animals in and out of the attraction. On the inside it was partitioned into different enclosures and had heaters running along the roof for the animals. At the time I went back there, it was being used to store Winterfest theming, old light poles from HB and a bunch of spotlights that used to be inside Skyflyer's arch that made it change colors at night. Throughout where the old monorail ran, there's various small shacks that were always rumored to be "guard shacks." I don't know if they were really for zookeepers or that's just what everyone said they were. If you go up on the tower and look NorthEast behind where SOB used to be you can see a patch of bright green. That's actually an old pond with moss growing over it that the monorail used to circle. It's pretty gross now.

Because it makes the park A LOT of money. Big crowds who can't exit and re-enter - crowds who get hungry and thirsty and fork over money to buy things, including the all new Fright Lane for the members of the crowd tired of waiting in said crowd. So, if all the things said about the event in the past couple years are to believed: the park is more concerned about essentially trapping a rough, rowdy group of wallets in the park for a couple hours to make a profit than it is with ensuring that both guests and employees have a safe, enjoyable time*? Sad. * That's not a comment on the quality of the security officers the park currently has. If the security staff is shorthanded, is there nothing at all that could be done to entice more people to work in security? No, I don't think it's a matter of greed over safety. The park does keep things safe for both employees and guests, but generally Haunt does attract a more raucous crowd. Currently, it would seem they can manage the situation while at the same time being able to put on the event. The park is smart in what they do - there's a reason why this event is marketed as "extreme," "18+," "for adults," etc. There's a reasons why they didn't have a problem dressing up mannequins as a dead Steve McNair. For what Halloween Haunt brings in, it outweighs and potentially bad press. No, you didn't and neither did the park. Haunt makes money - Winterfest did not.

Because it makes the park A LOT of money. Big crowds who can't exit and re-enter - crowds who get hungry and thirsty and fork over money to buy things, including the all new Fright Lane for the members of the crowd tired of waiting in said crowd.

But who's to judge if a person was raised right? I know...shut up Chris is what you're probably thinking. Overall, the bottom line comes down to security. Either there isn't enough security presence or there isn't enough security personnel that actually care to take care of problems. There's plenty of security and other personnel who can radio for security, all who do their job darn well. There's far more guests who don't like to behave.

There's good reason why many people refer to Halloween Haunt as the "White Trash Bash."

So don't comment or read it later instead of being rude. I appreciate the posters who take time to write well thought out responses as opposed to kids who can only muster "tl:dr."

Let's compare notes. Did your diss I respond to make you feel better about yourself?

Yeah. They'd be as pathetic as a guy who trolls a website all day long and used to go by the name of "Big Sexy."

Yeah, I'm sure they'd be thrilled to fly you out to California so that you can visit a competitor.

Your logic is impeccable. You'd think they'd put up a sign that says something to the effect of: "DO NOT STAND UP. Keep Hands Inside Car." Or maybe some sort of automated voice recording saying: "Remain seated throughout the entire ride, keep hands, arms and legs inside the car at all times. Thank You."

And they're not particularly paid well either... And despite the sometimes difficult customers, there's a lot of good ones and regulars who I can guarantee you the ride ops enjoy seeing. Markr is one of those fine folks.