Six Flag Clones

[CincinnatiCyclone]

Well, all of you have heard of six flags right? What many of you who visit there maybe dont know that you could go to another park the same size as yours and get the same experience, Literally! T2, an Inverted coaster(prototype) The Second of only two coasters that are the same, even though nearly 30 of it's standard type were made. Of those six Six Flags Parks Have the exact same coaster! Plus when you count Deja-Vu in, thats almost four more coaster in the Six Flags Parks. Personnaly I would love to visit a Six Flags Park, but I'd rather visit Kentucky Kingdom than go anywhere else. I think that six flags had to cope with the fact that they had too many parks to actively increase. But I dont blame them, and besides, paramounts did the same thing too. Three parks have Backlot Stunt Coaster, and two have Flight of Fear.

[gigacoaster2k]

I'm always reading that Kingda Ka is a copy of TTD. I'm not sure how true that is, but I know some people aren't aware of the writing or the fine print in a contract between a park and a coaster manufacturer. So your guess is as good as mine on that one.

[Braves0511]

What you have to remember, most people out there, besides us, don't realize this and are not aware of the existance of these clones.

And while Kingda Ka is eerily similar to TTD, it's 20 feet taller and slightly faster.

[The Interpreter]

I also disagree that you get the same experience in a different park. Different examples of the same ride often ride differently. An excellent example is Face/Off aka Invertigo at Kings Island versus Invertigo at Paramount's Great America versus Two Face/The Flip Side at Six Flags America. Each of the three, though supposedly identical, was a very different experience.

As for Cincinnati Cyclone's supposed Six Flags copies, parks have always bought standard models of many things, from Scramblers to Tilt-A-Whirls. And Six Flags parks were not the only ones to buy Vekoma SLC's. There's one at Wonderland, for example, now called Flight Deck. So many parks bought them that roller coaster data base takes two pages just to list the standard models;

http://www.rcdb.com/ir.htm?model=3

Cincinnati Cyclone's example isn't really all that great, either. Six Flags had more than 30 parks at its peak, and less than 1/3 ever got an SLC. Boomerangs were much more plentiful, even Kentucky Kingdom had one...Vampire.

Parks are ride manufacturers' customers. Except at Disney, Universal and Busch, very few rides are designed by parks. Beast was. That was also long ago.

As for Kingda Ka, it's 36 feet taller and 8 miles an hour faster. And it is a very, very different ride experience. Its launch is more powerful and it surges during launch. Top Thrill Dragster is a smoother and more elegant experience, Kingda Ka is more powerful and intense. Some say you get airtime on the hill after the drop. I can't say that.

[Braves0511]

you're right about the thrty six feet, I didn't have the numbers right in front of me, I was close though...As for the experience, I've never been on either so I'll take your word for it.

[CincinnatiCyclone]

Your right terpy, my example wasn't that great. I was on rcdb.com this morning and stared at all those rides, mainly Deja-Vu. The least they could have named them all different. And don't forget ThunderHawk in Michigan's Adventure.

[The Interpreter]

And who named it that? It wasn't always Thunderhawk. Who gave it such a (cough cough) original name? What about all the Flight Decks? Or the Vortexs? It's a universal practice, even.

[KIfan1980]

As for ride cloning - I'd expect to see more of it in the years ahead. As a park needs a new ride, why completely re-engineer something at a higher cost, when you can copy for less. Remember there are many many people who haven't been to multiple different parks so any ride is a new ride to them. As an example, it'd be an interesting poll to find out how many people (even on these forums) ever rode "x-flight" at geauga lake

[The Interpreter]

And not just cloning...given the economic situation, and the reported words of one Jeff Gramke of Kings Island at a KIC event last summer, look for a ride rotation program similar to the one under the old Six Flags to come to Cedar Fair. In some ways, it already has, but the rides so far have come from parks Cedar Fair no longer operates, like Geauga Lake. I wonder what some of the Cedar Fair partisans will say when a favorite ride is removed from their park to be located elsewhere. So far, Cedar Fair has been the hero in stopping such actions, such as the widely discussed moves of Flights of Fear from PKI and PKD to PCWo and PCWi that were reportedly planned under CBS. The PKD FOF had already been closed when Cedar Fair took over, fixed the ride and reopened it. And, as can be seen, the KI and KD Flights of Fear remain at those parks.

Remember too, it was Paramount who relocated the Flying Eagles to Carowinds from KI.