Monster appears to be retired ?

[BlondyRidesOn]

If the rumors are true, this will be the second Eyerly Monster to be retired as a parts donor for Kings Island's/ Old Coney's Monster. The first was Shiva's Fury at Canada's Wonderland, which was retired in 2003. 

[johnjniehaus]

16 minutes ago, BlondyRidesOn said:

If the rumors are true, this will be the second Eyerly Monster to be retired as a parts donor for Kings Island's/ Old Coney's Monster. The first was Shiva's Fury at Canada's Wonderland, which was retired in 2003. 

Wow was shiva's fury retired that long ago? I thought it was more recent than that

[CoastersRZ]

And wasn`t a Monster ride retired from Dorney Park, the year that Iron Menace opened in 2024.  With the former ride area being turned into a dining area for a nearby eatery.  Same thing happened when Witch`s Wheel was retired from Cedar Point.  I just hope they don`t replace the location at Cedar Point with another bar or restaurant.  

[johnjniehaus]

22 hours ago, CoastersRZ said:

And wasn`t a Monster ride retired from Dorney Park, the year that Iron Menace opened in 2024.  With the former ride area being turned into a dining area for a nearby eatery.  Same thing happened when Witch`s Wheel was retired from Cedar Point.  I just hope they don`t replace the location at Cedar Point with another bar or restaurant.  

From the press announcement sounds like it won't be replaced by anything 

[johnjniehaus]

https://battechenterprises.com/pageserver/service

Also for anyone interested this company Battech based in Salem is the one who does some amount of service to the older Eyerly rides however I don't see "Monster" specifically mentioned at all. Also an interesting find is they manufacturer new models of the smaller "Spider" version that they are calling the black widow. I thought Kings Island was waiting on a part from Italy or somewhere over seas for our monster so I'm curious if they were working with Battech and they had to get something fabricated or if Battech doesn't support monsters anymore hence it seems that both the KI one and the CP were at the end of their service life 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Isn't there another Eyerly Monster model that has something slightly different? I thought the other one had more/less arms or cars. It might've had a different overall shape as well. I'd be curious to know if Battech manufactures parts for that other model or not.

12 minutes ago, johnjniehaus said:

From the press announcement sounds like it won't be replaced by anything 

I doubt it will be replaced with anything anytime soon. Unless they get something from Six Flags America that pad will sit empty. We also still haven't seen anything official about the ride closure directly from Cedar Point. 

[johnjniehaus]

4 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

We also still haven't seen anything official about the ride closure directly from Cedar Point. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2026/04/cedar-point-retires-longtime-ride-after-more-than-50-years.html%3foutputType=amp

I mean maybe Cedar Point hasn't made a social media post or blog post about it but clearly Tony Clark talked to the news at some point because there's plenty of articles out there. Does not sound like he anticipates it being replaced anytime soon 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

I know he talked to the news and that it was published in the article, I just think parks should formally announce this kind of thing on their channels via either a blog post and/or a social media post. They don't have to do exactly what Silver Dollar City is doing for ThuNderaTion, but a short blog article from the park is all I'm asking for. 

 

It's obvious (to me at least) that Silver Dollar City is doing what every park should do for a standard ride retirement.

1. Announce the retirement at least a few months before its last day of operations.
2. Sell some ride-specific merchandise. These don't need to be new designs, just something for the fans.
3. Make a blog article and social media post to announce the closure and thank the ride for its service to the park. Nothing big but something to remind guests that it's the last time they'll be able to ride it.

If this was not a planned closure — which it sounds like that's the case — I still think they should make a post via their official channels.

[johnjniehaus]

10 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

If this was not a planned closure — which it sounds like that's the case — I still think they should make a post via their official channels.

Oh 100% agree it should have been reflected somewhere on their website 

[DonHelbig]

10 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

I know he talked to the news and that it was published in the article, I just think parks should formally announce this kind of thing on their channels via either a blog post and/or a social media post. They don't have to do exactly what Silver Dollar City is doing for ThuNderaTion, but a short blog article from the park is all I'm asking for. 

 

It's obvious (to me at least) that Silver Dollar City is doing what every park should do for a standard ride retirement.

1. Announce the retirement at least a few months before its last day of operations.
2. Sell some ride-specific merchandise. These don't need to be new designs, just something for the fans.
3. Make a blog article and social media post to announce the closure and thank the ride for its service to the park. Nothing big but something to remind guests that it's the last time they'll be able to ride it.

If this was not a planned closure — which it sounds like that's the case — I still think they should make a post via their official channels.

Once again a Six Flags park didn’t control the narrative with a ride closure and only responded to the media because they had to with a photo in circulation. 

[DispatchMaster]

The picture seems to have been unauthorized, so it's possible they had planned to announce it at a time of their choosing, but were forced to respond to an earlier than expected press request.

Also pretty stupid of whoever took that photo to not be more careful. It won't be difficult for the park to figure out who took it, considering you can see the side of their vehicle in the photo...

[DonHelbig]

18 minutes ago, DispatchMaster said:

The picture seems to have been unauthorized, so it's possible they had planned to announce it at a time of their choosing, but were forced to respond to an earlier than expected press request.

Also pretty stupid of whoever took that photo to not be more careful. It won't be difficult for the park to figure out who took it, considering you can see the side of their vehicle in the photo...

But once again. they weren’t in front of it and were reactive instead of proactive. 

[DispatchMaster]

Sure, but not sure how they're supposed to get in front of an unauthorized photo that was taken and posted in violation of their agreement with vendors? Are they supposed to prepare a media package before moving forward with the actual ride removal?

[TheCrypt]

It doesn't seem unreasonable to share information with the public before, as, or shortly after it's decided. It's not like these decisions come lightly or too fast for an Instagram post.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

Look I agree that the employee should not have taken that photo and posted it. In my years working at KI, when we would go in for on ride training, we would be told we can't take pics of new stuff/construction that hadn't been publicly shared by the park. I especially remember training day 2023 as the rides I worked were near Adventure Port and we were told if we got caught taking pictures of the construction we would get in serious trouble. 

At the same time, it's not that hard to make a simple announcement saying that "the decision has been made to retire this ride" before anything gets out by unauthorized people. It's also not hard if they know in advance a ride is going to close to announce it and let people get their last ride. Even if it is a ride with low ridership, it is still someone's favorite ride. I thought this would change with the new CEO, but I wonder if it is those on the board of directors who don't want to publicly announce these things. 

[johnjniehaus]

It's got the arms on it now! That's a good sign... I'm still waiting for the multi color pods from the CP one to show up on it. Kinda interested if there will be any paint color changes to the ride and if they will go all out and fix the lights too

 

[DonHelbig]

7 minutes ago, johnjniehaus said:

It's got the arms on it now! That's a good sign... I'm still waiting for the multi color pods from the CP one to show up on it. Kinda interested if there will be any paint color changes to the ride and if they will go all out and fix the lights too

 

They had the part they needed last year and chose not to operate it. 

[johnjniehaus]

26 minutes ago, DonHelbig said:

They had the part they needed last year and chose not to operate it. 

Yeah I thought I'd heard the part came in during the season and they just waited till the off season to do anything. Didn't the monster also have a season around 2016 where it was gone temporarily and then came back? I know shake rattle and roll definitely disappeared for a season 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

38 minutes ago, Hawaiian Coasters 325 said:

I thought this would change with the new CEO, but I wonder if it is those on the board of directors who don't want to publicly announce these things. 

There's actually been some speculation on this matter and a few people have reached that same conclusion. More specifically, that's one of the reasons why folks like the hosts of GreenTagged (on YouTube) think Marilyn Spiegel was ousted from her Chairman of the Board position. It's thought that JANA Partners published their letter calling for more change because they saw certain board members that were holding the company down and were acting as a roadblock for John Reilly and his ambitious plans for Six Flags.

 

1 hour ago, TheCrypt said:

It doesn't seem unreasonable to share information with the public before, as, or shortly after it's decided. It's not like these decisions come lightly or too fast for an Instagram post.

Even if this decision was somehow too sudden for a social media post, what's the reasoning behind not putting anything else out besides a comment to the local news? Better late than never applies here too.

[johnjniehaus]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14T8rv9Ln86/

 

Pictures of monster pods on their way to KI! 

[WoodVengeance]

1 hour ago, johnjniehaus said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14T8rv9Ln86/

 

Pictures of monster pods on their way to KI! 

I'm wondering if they're going to be used for spare parts or if they're actually going on the ride.

[johnjniehaus]

1 hour ago, WoodVengeance said:

I'm wondering if they're going to be used for spare parts or if they're actually going on the ride.

I think it would be hilariously ironic if they put those directly on the ride after shipping them down there. Honestly the black frame with the red,. orange,. and yellow pods would probably look sharp

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

2 hours ago, johnjniehaus said:

I think it would be hilariously ironic if they put those directly on the ride after shipping them down there. Honestly the black frame with the red,. orange,. and yellow pods would probably look sharp

As long as they remember to take the Cedar Point logo and decals off and do some extra painting I think it'd be cool. The one thing I couldn't stand about Cedar Point's monster was that it had the eyes and goofy sign. I like how KI's Monster looks more old-timey (at least with the sign).

One thing I really hope we get and see installed are all of the lights from their ride. It looked like they still had the lights on the rotor and some of the ones on the arms, which would help give ours more visual life!

[disco2000]

16 hours ago, TheCrypt said:

It doesn't seem unreasonable to share information with the public before, as, or shortly after it's decided. It's not like these decisions come lightly or too fast for an Instagram post.

But at the same time, if they decided November 15th and the park doesn't open for another 6 months, what good does it do - too late to ride at that point.  Whenever it was decided to remove, the park/chain determined the timing wasn't right to announce.

And people should be aware actions on their job have consequences.  Vendors sign contracts for a reason.  Employees agree to social media posting for a reason.

I am reminded of a quote that Jason McClure (made while Senior VP in chain) has said and I have used it on the forum frequently as to why something may or may not be said from Corporate:  "It is important to remember that Cedar Fair is a publicly traded company and that affects the type and timing of our communication."  That simple statement says it all.  There are countless of real world, everyday examples demonstrating this same technique in other businesses and industries.

At the end of the day, they are not under any obligation to tell us the whole truth and thus they control the narrative and how it is presented (unless of course someone leaks it out earlier).  The fact of the matter is someone in the know will not officially come out and say something against the narrative the park is telling...unless they don't care about potentially losing their job LOL. 

[johnjniehaus]

4 hours ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

As long as they remember to take the Cedar Point logo and decals off and do some extra painting I think it'd be cool. The one thing I couldn't stand about Cedar Point's monster was that it had the eyes and goofy sign. I like how KI's Monster looks more old-timey (at least with the sign).

One thing I really hope we get and see installed are all of the lights from their ride. It looked like they still had the lights on the rotor and some of the ones on the arms, which would help give ours more visual life!

It will also be ironic to me if they do a half job at fixing ours up when they had all the parts of the CP one to work with. Theirs even had the bottom skirting. I like that ours kinda has a green and white color scheme at night but I agree hopefully they can reuse or get new lights because 2024 alot of the bulb sockets near the center on the arms were empty and the center pieces hasn't had lights for a VERY long time