TombraiderTy

Cool pictures! If the one you're uncertain of is the Ferris Wheel, that indeed is Coney. The coaster in the background is Shooting Star - you can see its left turn at the top of the drop and its tunnel down below. Here's a shot from a somewhat-similar angle showing those same two things.

Not to be "that guy", but it was actually Maestro on the platform. He held the curtain open for vehicles to pass under (reference start of video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8BBYbkOWck)

Not CoastersRZ, but here's one from August 2009. There were three poles (one is out-of-frame) and they were moved in front of the Fountain in May 2010.

^To anyone curious, here's the full thread from @bkroz. It's a very interesting read with a lot of fun ideas.

Disneyland was opened in 1955 (and Magic Kingdom, which also has a sidewalk, 1971). Shanghai Disneyland, which opened in 2016, does not have sidewalks on their "Main Street" (Mickey Avenue). It has the different-colored pavement, like what several users here have discussed. (Photo courtesy WestCoaster)

I love the first picture in that post (below). The Racer as a backdrop will look fantastic, and I'm glad they designed the path around pre-existing trees.

I've never noticed the lack of support arms in early photos; thanks for pointing that out! Here's pictures from 1972, 1973, and 1974. It appears they were added for the 1974 season. 1972 (eBay user MomThrewItAway) 1973 (flickr user tshiverd) 1974 (QueenCityDisco.com)

Thanks for sharing! I'm having a hard time orienting myself... is the green building the gas station? And the foundation with the posts is the station?

Paul Shortt (who also designed American Heritage Music Hall, today's Kings Island Theater) created design concepts for Festhaus and designed the building's original stage. The exterior of Festhaus was designed by Bruce D. Robinson Associates Inc. (today known as Bruce D. Robinson Design Group) of Cincinnati, Ohio.

^Re-routing the train and building WaterWorks also meant the removal of the old fort, Fort McHale. Maybe the logic was there was budget for a new fort, but not the budget for the house's demolition? I'd be an odd situation, but not outside the realm of possibilities I suppose.

I've heard the "land owner only agreed to sell his property if the park agreed to never tear down the house", but I personally don't believe it. I've also heard that the house was used as a break room for train performers in the early 1970s, but I don't believe that either... if you look at the 1972 to 2010 comparison on the last page, the house is very far from the railroad track. By the time the 1988 re-route occurred, I believe train performances were long done. Maybe it was originally kept to serve as a storage location? I'd love to know the real reason(s).

Not a picture inside the house, but probably one of the best photos of the house. Definitely shows how big the house is in comparison to the Fort. From Bing overview a few years back.

As of a couple years ago at least, KIU still has a couple training rooms but also now hosts FunTV's corporate offices.

^Not sure where it originally came from (I saved the file six years ago), but here you go. Can't vouch for the accuracy of all the text though.

I threw this image together years ago to show the layout changes. They occurred between the time the park closed for the 1988 season on October 2 and reopened in time for 1989's Winterfest. 1,300 feet of track was rerouted.

^To clarify, do you mean the Cadillacs operated until 2004? And then sat in storage for a period of time near Racer before disappearing? Regarding the Worlds of Fun rumor, here (link) is a thread claiming they went to WOF from 2007, and here (link) is the photo report it links to, with its new URL (the link in the thread is broken). About halfway down, you can see Worlds of Fun's ride has a mixture of Cadillacs and Taxis, with the caption "So apparently we have a lot of cars this year."

I never knew that, thanks for sharing. So did he specifically buy the French taxis? It also appears that the 1911 Cadillacs were moved over to the Coney side once Rivertown's station closed, and I can't find any evidence that the French Taxis ran in the 2000s. So were the French taxis sold to Hart when half the ride closed? For those unfamiliar, the two types of cars on the ride were 1911 Cadillacs (Rivertown side, or Ohio Overland Auto Livery) and French Taxis (Coney side, or Les Taxis). They were most easily distinguishable by the "Taxi" sign on top or lack thereof, but also had different shade structures and grills. Les Taxis, 1973, courtesy flickr user tshiverd 1911 Cadillacs, courtesy Reggie Zippo

^I suppose our definitions of "original" are different then. I would consider "original" as being the first and not a copy, but with CAD, that "original" exists on a hard drive or computer and any print-outs are copies. The fact that there are/were easily dozens, if not hundreds, of identical or near-identical print-outs... well, that stops me from thinking of any individual one of them as "original".

^You call it minutia, but I think there's an important distinction between one-of-a-kind hand-drawn sheets, with all the engineering calculations performed by hand, upon which the actual coaster was built directly from, and a printed A1 sheet. I wonder if this Smurf (as well as those Son of Beast plans) going for such high values may motivate others to sell their unique Kings Island mementos? If a Bat head appears in the near future, I'm sure we'll both be bidding for it

I'm sure I speak for most members when I say we'd love to see any pictures of the Smurf or your other collectibles! And as I mentioned, this is the highest I've seen an auction go for by far. In comparison, some other higher-priced items from memory... Those Son of Beast prints Shaggy mentioned, one went for $710 (an extreme amount) A Bat head, either from the sign or the front of a train, went in 2006 for $300. It didn't mean the reserve though, and I imagine one would go for a lot more now. A few poster maps have gone for $100 or so, but that doesn't seem as common anymore I've seen unique sets of slides/photos for $30-$50 If a similar Smurf went for sale right now, I think it'd probably end up below the $1025 this one sold for, but still $800+. Just my guess though.

"Original" blueprints is kinda a stretch... back in the day you'd have hand-drawn planviews and profiles and everything for these rides, which could be considered original. But it's all been computerized now and there aren't "originals" anymore. Someone spent $710 on a print-out of Son of Beast's layout that was likely used as a reference at some point.

I can't speak for the snail, but Tagg (Gary Gulliver's dog, seen across from him in the ride) was on eBay fall 2016. The four-foot animatronic dog was initially listed for ~$700, but it kept getting re-listed for less-and-less. I still regret not jumping at the opportunity to buy him when he was available for only a couple hundred

I personally disagree and think SDATHC was far superior to Boo Blasters. When they changed it to BBOBH in 2010, not only did they remove the memorable and marketable Mystery Inc., but also practically stripped two of the final scenes and replaced them with skeletons and strobe-lights. I was curious to see just how the building sizes compared... per Google Earth's measurement tool, the full BBOBH building is ~28600 ft2. In comparison, Crypt's main show building is only ~8530 ft2, or less than 1/3 the size. But, referencing a diagram of BBOBH's layout, the ride (not queue, Enchanted Theater, etc.) only occupies a bit more than 50% of the building, or ~15000 ft2... so you could fit about 57% of Boo Blasters into Crypt's main building. If you built on multiple levels (although that would boost the costs up a lot), you could easily achieve BBOBH or bigger though. Again, all numbers estimates from Google Earth. I'd love to see Crypt's old building repurposed for more than just a Haunt maze though.

That is true... as is covered in the first post of this thread

You scoff at people having a skill/interest and spending the time doing something they presumably enjoy? The concept looks great. I'd love a Sky Ride down the mall, and I'm digging the new paint scheme on Monster.