TombRaiderFTW

I've been on both I305 (with soft restraints) and Maverick. I've sat towards the back on both. For Maverick, the resulting ride felt painfully close to whiplash. For I305, the resulting ride was by far the most exhilarating experience I've ever had on a steel coaster, period. Mileage may vary depending on your opinion of the rides, but Maverick, for me, would get much closer to being one of my top steel coasters with the soft restraints. (I can't even imagine riding I305 with hard restraints... Talk about pain!)

You forgot the red track, yellow supports, huge logo with name ending in -hawk, and obnoxious "TALLEST, FASTEST, MEANEST, SWINGIEST RIDE IN THE ENTIRE CONEY MALL AREA" plastered somewhere on there.

I don't know if this has ever been posted before, but I just came across a video on Vimeo (with actual video--stick around after the slide shows) of KI's Winterfest. I was surprised to see how big a scale it was done on--in my head, I always thought Winterfest wasn't much more than gift shops, ice skating, and train rides. Enjoy! http://vimeo.com/10045469

^ You have memories from the Coney Mall bathroom...?

Exactly. I can't tell you how many times I've seen stock footage of SoB after the '06 incident used for any KI-related news story on WHIO-TV in Dayton. Thank you for sharing it, though, KIanatic1975.

THIS. Tomb Raider was the ride that pretty much started my "enthusiasm". The first time I ever rode it in (approximately) 2003-2005, we were stopped in the preshow chamber for about an hour and a half because the ride went down (and that was after a 30-45 minute wait). And it was still worth every last second. If I let myself get too nostalgic, the pain of the Crypt makeunder still hurts/frustrates just as much as it did in 2008. A small shout-out goes to Gobbler Getaway for being one of the weirdest (and, in spite of it, the most fun) ride experiences I've had to date.

Just a guess, but: maybe to sit tower segments on top of so they don't get all muddy?

*wipes drool* Road trip to Texas, anyone?

Thanks for the update! I was pretty excited to see this post after I got that text message.

Great report! It's nice to get an outsider's view on Magic Mountain--most of the MM regulars on various coaster sites seem to only find negatives about the Mountain in its "off-season". How would you say Viper compares to Vortex? Or Ninja to Flight Deck?

I don't think it's totally unreasonable to believe this might be an SoB hint, as Beast had those pawprints painted on the asphault for many years and this looks like a derivative of that. Of course, it just looks like Patrick Star made a snow angel to me, so what do I know?

^ Wow... Just make a guy feel old, why dontcha. Alex, who can think of other things that started 20 years ago.

I'll be honest... I don't really get the point of drafts at all. Doesn't keep me from joining in, though! 1. Maverick - Cedar Point (beastfan26) 2. Millennium Force - CP (coasterguy15) 3. Diamondback - KI (Indyguy4KI) 4. The Beast- KI (McSalsa) 5. Prowler - WoF (thekidd33) 6. Top Thrill Dragster - Cedar Point (Centurey) 7. WindSeeker - Kings Island (jcgoble3) 8. Intimidator - Carowinds (Coney Islander) 9. Magnum XL-200 - Cedar Point (LordSkippy) 10. Intimidator 305 - Kings Dominion (TombRaiderFTW) You have no idea how painstaking a choice this was. Totally hoping people don't start claiming certain rides in the eastern US...

LOVE the looks of those trains. I'm now contemplating how I could make it down to Tampa over Christmas Break this year... BGT officially offers too much to ignore.

^ Unless I'm mistaken, yes. He's basically just lost the power to okay his own plans in the board through the chairman position.

Err... from SavetheBigDipper.org: In reference to: That's the fairest opinion I've ever heard so far in any thread anywhere related to the Big Dipper. Thank you.

While her heart may have been in it, the effort was not there. There was nothing insulting at all. The effort was poor, at best. Just look at the website and updates (or lack of updates). it comes off as internet spam. What judgements were passed without facts? The effort was not there, and the project failed. You can call it "passing judgement"- I call it the brutal truth based upon the facts given (or not given) by the fundraising website. If you have more "facts" that have not been released, please enlighten us. Being an enthusiast does not entitle one for fundraising. Where can I acquire the ability to tell how hard someone works simply by looking at their website? Perhaps not a direct reflection of how "hard" somebody works, but definitely an indicator of how seriously they take the project. And couple that with the fact that donors were not directly contacted or thanked after making their donations, and it's easy to see a lack of planning and foresight in their efforts. Nobody is doubting their intentions. They made the classic mistake of applying emotional justification to a business decision without the necessary planning, procedures, or protocol. They claimed to own the ride when they didn't. They didn't even make the full, agreed upon, down payment. They lost any ounce of credibility with me when they proclaimed "the ride could run today if it had power." The ride had been sitting for several years, and the trains were sitting, exposed to the elements, in the exact same spot on the midway where they were on the day of the auction. Did you donate to the project? Did you completely miss that both Kat and Harold had no reason to believe they didn't own the ride at the time of the down payment, as per their agreement with Mr. Woosnam? Did you ever inspect the Big Dipper for yourself? Do you know how well its trains can handle the weather? Do you know for a fact that they've just been sitting all alone, by themselves, with absolutely nothing protecting them? Have you seen the land the ride's on? Have you talked to--or even met--Kat? Save for the last (and maybe the first) question, can any of us answer any of those with "yes"? And yet, the apparent majority here seem to know all about it and have the full evidence to be so sure that Kat is running a scam that got started carelessly on a whim with a random stranger she found online. What gives any last one of you the right to judge the true motivations behind the project or its leaders? I didn't donate to the project. I did read that Kat and Harold had reason to believe the ride was theirs. I haven't ever even been to the Cleveland area, let alone Geauga Lake. I have absolutely no insider information on the Save the Big Dipper project or the ride's . But I do know this: I have met Kat and talked to her multiple times. And she shared some of her coaster passion with me, of which she has a huge abundance. I don't know why she apparently didn't send a thank you to each person that donated, but I do know she had a drive to save a classic John Miller ride. It's exactly the sort of drive that inspired historic coaster funds like the National Roller Coaster Museum, etc. Whether you thought the ride was worth saving or not, Kat had a vision where the ride lived on to thrill families for years to come. And she was working to fulfill that dream, even in spite of some personal issues that required more attention than the Big Dipper project at times. She was doing what she could, and people like He Who Owneth TPR (who I'll not name, because he'd probably like that) worked in the name of a "joke" to knock the plan to the ground. Kat stuck her neck out for her dream, which takes a lot of nerve, in case those of you who are content to cut her down left and right comfortably behind your keyboard weren't aware. Those are my words, which came from talking to her over the length of fall quarter--not hers. And you know what? I supported this project when it started, and if it somehow manages to continue (a miracle, I'm guessing, now, as Woosnam seems to be double-crossing Kat and Harold) I will gladly donate at least $25 to the project and post my PayPal receipt here for all to gawk at. I won't say the project was perfect, because it wasn't. Thank-yous to donators were absolutely called for but apparently never showed, and I feel the legitimacy of the project could have been fleshed out more through photos and videos. I am just getting sick of how torn apart every last fricking detail of this project is getting by judgmental cynics and downright know-it-alls who know nothing at all, including He Who Selleth His Home Videos For Too Much Money, when all the project is doing is exactly the same thing a lot of people wanted when Geauga Lake was closing--saving the rides! Call me naive or immature for typing all that. Whatever. I'd rather be naive and happy than a miserable, judgmental "realist". Alex, who finds himself less of "a coaster enthusiast" (if there even is such a thing) and more of "a person who likes roller coasters" with each day this garbage rolls on!

#1 - Magnum XL-200 (McSalsa) #2 - Super Himalaya (KIfan1980) #3 - Maverick (HTCO) #4 - Wicked Twister (TH13TEEN) #5 - Raptor (thekidd33) #6 - Mantis (TylerRider) #7 - Top Thrill Dragster (jcgoble3) #8 - Millennium Force (TombRaiderFTW)

I was originally going to guess that it's for the new dive machine Krake at Heide-Park Soltau, but I'm pretty sure dive machine track is wider than that. Maybe it's Chang track, with primer already applied, getting ready for the green paint?

Infact Mr.Kinzel is the one who made the decision to remove the organs... You might want to interpret things more closely...more than that I will not say, I have said more than enough already... Are you saying what I think you're saying right now, Terp?! Falfas resigned (or whatever Q wants to call it) and took the organ with him?!

Great blast from the past! I've gotten so used to Diamondback that I forgot how really pretty Rivertown used to be, what with Swan Lake and the trees surrounding it and Tomb Raider.

^^ Ah, okay. Thanks, Terp. The conversation about Volcano just before my post was a little confusing- I wasn't sure if, by 'vertical launch,' you two were referring to a launch like Top Thrill Dragster or, like you said, like Superman, if that's considered a coaster. Like you said, the distinction doesn't matter too much in the long run. I just wasn't sure which one you referring to at the time.

They are to pull the train further up the spike. It's the same effect as the second lift on Invertigo or any other Vekoma Boomerang, inverted or not. The train itself will not have enough potential energy to make the return trip, so the lift pulls it up to the original height and releases. Launching too quickly and using the LIMs to slow the train would, as an uneducated guess, be a hazard in the case of an electral blackout during a cycle. On that note... Are there any LIMs on the vertical (as in, after the initial, horizontal second launch) part of the second launch on Volcano? I'm just curious.

Just wanted to make everyone aware: they're going to announce the winner sometime today, presumably after 5pm.

^ I second this. Mad Mouse at Michigan's Adventure was one of my favorite, if not my favorite, coasters there. Seriously.