Which name do you like the most for The Bat?

[MaestroJr]

Just a quick little random forum I thought I would post. Which name,colors, and look do you like the most for our suspended coaster called The Bat today? Do you like it as red,white and blue as Top Gun, blue and white as Flight Deck, or orange and dark grey for The Bat. Personally I like the Top Gun name with red, white, and blue the most as that was what it was called on my first visit to Kings Island and I also loved riding it during those years to get as close as possible to Son of Beast, but I do like its name and colors of The Bat today and love the ride, always have. Just a random question I thought I'd ask, their are no wrong answers with this one! Let me know what your favorite version was! MaestroJr

[King Ding Dong]

Uh, I like Bat Gun.

[MaestroJr]

That'd be an interesting name!

[DontWantToWait42mar0]

I appreciate this history of Top Gun and now The Bat.

It could have gone without the Flight Deck era in my opinion.

[MaestroJr]

I agree, even when it was called Flight Deck I think most of us still called it Top Gun, the same can be said with FACE/OFF, and Drop Zone, although Drop Tower is pretty similar. The Bat is cool because it has a historical name and look of the original. Flight Deck to me was just there to fill in a non-Paramount gap and was pretty much the same for the theme of the ride as well. The planes stayed in the queue line until 2013, about 6 years since the name change.

[Diamondback96]

I still call the other two Paramount franchise rides in AZ FACE/OFF and Drop Zone. FACE/OFF could work if the slash was removed (there's currently a reality TV show on Syfy called Face Off) and Drop Zone really could have been left alone. There's other rides with the name Drop Zone (such as Alabama Splash Adventure's new tower ride). Both of these rides had very minor ties to their namesakes and very little actually had to be done to remove any movie references. I don't know if there was themeing around FACE/OFF at the time, but I'm pretty sure Drop Zone: Stunt Tower had nothing to do with the movie, aside from a loose movie studio stunt theme. CF was also very unoriginal when choosing the names Invertigo and Drop Tower: Scream Zone. One is the manufacturer's name for the ride and the other is literally what the ride is and is rearranged (with a word changed but same initial) from the original ride's name. Plus, people don't really remember either of these movies. I didn't know they were movies until after the name changes, and I was born 2 years after the Drop Zone movie and one before the Face/Off movie!

 

Also, both ride names make complete sense on their own. FACE/OFF because you face other riders when riding, and Drop Zone because... well, you drop.

 

Now, IJST, Top Gun, and Tomb Raider (and to a lesser extent, The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear)? All those are clearly franchises. IJST doesn't make any sense on its own. Neither does Top Gun. You could make a case for Tomb Raider, but it's still a very well-known franchise. In any case, IJST and Tomb Raider were heavily themed to their namesakes unlike the other licensed rides. Flight of Fear got lucky as Paramount made an original story that is loosely based on The Outer Limits. When the license expired (or when Paramount decided to pull the licensed name for whatever reason), the only major change was the restraint system. The storyline stayed the same and the video played in the queue remains to this day and was even remastered for new LCD TVs.

 

Getting back to the real topic, I think I liked it best as Top Gun, but I'll take The Bat any day over Flight Deck. I'd take Afterburn over Flight Deck.

[GODZILLA2877]

It really bugs me when people call Invertigo and Drop Tower by their old names. I don't know why. 

[CP Maverick]

It really bugs me when people call Invertigo and Drop Tower by their old names. I don't know why.

I still refer to Rougarou by the name "Mantis"...

And I like the Top Gun theme.

[Joncars05]

I jokingly call it by its full name Top Gun AKA Flight Deck AKA The Bat!

[BB1]

Top Gun, simply due to the fact that it had some pretty cool aeronautical props strewn about the queue and the classic under-queue line. It was just a cool attraction with an amazing theme added to it.

[benny1388]

I'm not a huge fan of the ride, but that's mainly because it is such a long way to walk for such a short ride. Other than that, I really do enjoy it.

 

I have no issue with the current name. In fact, I kinda like homage being paid to the original hanging coaster. I barely remember the theming of the original, but I do recall the cars were black (and at least the front car was shaped like a bat).

 

If they could retheme/paint (I know that's not trivial) to be more like the original, I think it would be perfect. 

[King Ding Dong]

They need to buy a Von Roll 101 to get to The Bat.

[IndyGuy4KI]

I really like The Bat colors!

[DontWantToWait42mar0]

I miss the Top Gun music most of all.

 

 

Just like I miss Van Halen playing in the queue for Drop Tower.

[upstop]

How about when it was called Swoops.... ( the planned name before Paramount bought the parks)

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[Browntggrr]

Use the logo that was painted on the ground leading to the queue and go with:

 

"The coaster formerly known as......."

 

 

upstop, on 03 Aug 2016 - 2:33 PM, said:
How about when it was called Swoops.... ( the planned name before Paramount bought the parks)

 

I thought it was to be Thunder Road pre-Paramount?

 

[Tr0y]

I much prefer The Bat paint scheme and tame over the previous Flight Deck and Top gun in the past. Top Gun was nice when it had red paint, but it eventually was painted to all grey which made the coaster look very bland.

[GODZILLA2877]

Does anybody here remember when they used to play the Transformers 2007 theme in The Bat's que line back when it was Flight Deck?

 

[upstop]

Use the logo that was painted on the ground leading to the queue and go with:

"The coaster formerly known

upstop, on 03 Aug 2016 - 2:33 PM, said:

How about when it was called Swoops.... ( the planned name before Paramount bought the parks)

I thought it was to be Thunder Road pre-Paramount?

I just remember seeing a sign right at about the entrance is now showing "coming next season Swoops" and no diagrams or maps. There was also a sign that said "who would have thought we'd "resort" to this". Neither sign was huge, just those sandwich boards style signs. It might have had several name changes prior to the Paramount buyout.

[Kyle100991]

Top Gun and The Bat. I loved the theming for Top Gun and and the color scheme plus the movie itself. I love that they brought back The Bat in a way with how it is now.

 

I never cared for the name Flight Deck for that ride. It just sounded boring and generic for my taste.

[Gannersdaddy]

As I missed the Paramount years, I simply refer to it as Bat 2.0

[Magenta Lizard]

I really enjoyed the theming of Top Gun when it opened, it made the ride into a full "experience."

However, I am awfully fond of the change of theming to The Bat. The original Bat was a bit legendary to me, here and gone long before I started riding coasters. So, even though it's not the "real" Bat, I can pretend. I think its flight resembles a bat more than a jet fighter to me, anyway. I am a little upset that the stickers on the front of the trains are already either in bad shape or missing. That is a disappointment in theming.

[SonODiamondback]

WOW !!!! I never knew The Bat was a Planned pre Paramount coaster. Anyway I liked it better as Top Gun with the aircraft carrier theming and the Top Gun music.

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[SonODiamondback]

I think I like it better if they used the original Bat logohttps://goo.gl/images/QssSwS

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[upstop]

^i love The Bat heads and wings on the cars... Great theming for a suspended coaster!

[Wanderer]

I loved the Top Gun theming those first few years. From all the stuff in the lower level, to the fog in the station. Almost made those crazy long waits worth it. Without all that theming I am glad to have The Bat name reborn. I would love to see the cars similar to the original Bat though, they look really awesome!

[Supernova]

Does anybody think that it would be a good idea if the current trains on The Bat were replaced with the ones Vekoma added to Vampire in the UK?

[benny1388]

I think it would make the ride more fun, but I'm not sure the ROI is there...by that I mean I have no idea how much 'I' is involved, let alone how park calculate the 'R'.

[silver2005]

While in context, I prefer Bat over Flight Deck during its time in the Cedar Fair era, I am a fan of its early Top Gun days.  Top Gun was the coaster that got me started being interested in coasters, and the theming was awesome.  It had models of the planes, some radar stations, and movie stills along the queue, the giant billboard with an F-14 readying for take off, the ride crew dressed in USN attire, the much better red and blue-grey paint job, a simulated aircraft carrier control room in the lower station queue, and to top it off, some smoke that shot out as the trains dispatched to semi-simulate a carrier launch.  It was such a cool ride in its early days.  

 

It also used to be a lot more wooded in that area before SOB came, which made for excellent night rides.  I considered it the 2nd best night ride in the park at the time behind Beast.  That plus you got to see and smell the campfires from the former camp grounds. 

 

Fun fact- the original station was designed by John DeCuir, the production designer for the movie. 

[purdude86]

Agree with some others that my favorite was Top Gun when it first opened. The extended queue underneath the station with all the props and stuff and the fog effects in the station were great. 

Love The Bat right now though. It's probably my favorite color scheme of them all. It really pops back there with the orange track. And the theme of a bat fits much better in the woods than an aircraft carrier did. Just wish they could have either converted the small tunnel or the area under the queue into a bat cave look or the station into an abandoned building look with rafters to give that little bit of theming to it. Think that would have pushed it over the Top Gun theming.