Joshua

It was put there as a a fun little easter egg/tribute.

What is in the fenced-in area in front of FoF? At first I thought was a piece of meteor, but is it charred rubble?

I think this looks incredible. Orion is one of my favorite Metallica songs and one of my favorite movie studios and now it'll probably be one of my favorite rides at KI. My guess is that it is just a tribute.

I believe the traditional shirts are available during Haunt. But when I went to Winterfest last year, they mostly only had Christmas stuff with the exception of The Beast 40th Anniversary shirt.

I love that people are leaving gifts in the box. Surely not the park's intention, but it makes it even better in my eyes.

Unless they decided to call the new coaster "Frequently Asked Questions"...

You might want to save some of that money for medical bills if you are going to eat even a fraction of those Big Macs.

I agree. As much as facing up a great height can be intimidating, looking down is far scarier.

At this point, I half-expect the music video to be in FunTV's rotation next year.

Lester Bangs, the referenced music journalist, died in 1982 and composer Leonard Bernstein passed away in 1990. The latter is obviously yet another reference to the R.E.M. song. Both men have connections to the music industry, but the real connection comes from their initials. Could the ride's name have the initials L.B. or is this just a funny little red herring? EDIT: For those who have never heard of Lester Bangs, he used to write for Rolling Stones magazine and was portrayed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Almost Famous. In college, I once had to read an article he wrote about taking cough medicine and going to a Tangerine Dream concert.

On that Chain of Possession form, I see references to Leonard Bernstein and music journalist Lester Bangs. I don't recognize the other names.

Diamondback. Start 'em off early.

At the very least, it shows the name "Spacelvania," which sounds like B-movie gold.

They don't always use the early trademarked names. Other members can elaborate on the subject better than I -- and IIRC have done so in this thread -- but there have been a couple examples where ride names were trademarked, but a different one was used. Also, I believe someone elaborated on the complications of using Polaris or Orion. Forgive me, I've forgotten who posted this and I hope they chime in because they would probably know better. But if I recall, they explained that the rights that allow for merchandising had already been taken for both trademarks and suggested that in order to use either name, the park would have to alter the trademark (ex. Polaris 301). Orion, and Polaris just seem a little pacified to be attached to a coaster with a big end of the world theme. In theory, they could still be attached to the ride's canon as "shuttle" names. As an aside, I wonder if they might incorporate those Firehawk remnants as part of the "rubble."

You are confusing three different movies. ELE was from Deep Impact, which came out the same year as (and IMO was vastly superior to) Armageddon. Independence Day was the Will Smith disaster flick and was about an alien invasion. There was also a really cheesy TV movie around the same time called Asteroid. It starred Michael Biehn from The Terminator and Aliens. It was pretty awful. Coincidentally, ID4 was heavily advertised with (and briefly featured) the song "It's the End of the World As We Know It" by R.E.M.

It seems less likely the name will be Polaris or Orion. Thinking along the lines of "end of the world," how about Doomsday?

Yeah, seems about right... At that point, you might as get one of the designs from the shops.

I will say the shirt part was here-say. Either way, I don't think Fast Lane should be open while a promotion such as that is in effect. But that's just me.

This is what it was like in line for Banshee on opening day. The Fast Lane line was apparently being treated as a "walk right on" line and allegedly, some riders were using it to nab more than one of the "first rider" tees that were being handed out.

Well, the park has already had Top Gun. Now it's time for Iron Eagle.

Part man. Part machine. All Matarese.

I think too that another thing to consider is what the kids think of Snoopy. The only people I ever hear complaints from are the parents who miss Scooby and Spongebob. I think we as adults often get caught up in our own nostalgia that we sometimes forget that kids right now are creating what will be their own nostalgia. They don't necessarily need to know the history of a character to fall in love with them.

If they changed the theming, I am not sure what they could change it to that would actually satisfy those who are disappointed. KI was lucky to have characters like Scooby Doo and Spongebob in the park because the previous owners, Taft Broadcasting and Paramount, had the benefit of owning children's IPs that were either current or at least still popular.

Good idea! Perhaps they could re-theme Invertigo. "60% of the time, it works every time."

The ride op on The Beast today seemed unimpressed with the ride he was working on. In a cynical, unamused tone, he was saying things like "Enjoy your ride on The Beast. It's faster, longer, and more intense than WindSeeker." Ouch.