I was wondering if anyone knew where they kept old rides theming like Phantom theater and the smurfs, King Cobra, Turnpike Cars etc... I was planning on making a film Documentary about the park and I'm going to include all the rides from Coney till now and if anyone works there and knows where and if they have old rides still there I would appreciate any information at. Thanks..

I have no clue

I will find out for you if there is sill any old rides. I work at the park full time.

Well, as far as I know, all the theming from the smurf`s and Sunshine Turnpike have long since dissapeared. The theming for Phantom Theater is still in storage in the park somewhere as they brought out a couple of the animatronics for the line of Dracula`s Huanted Castle during Fear Fest last October. King Cobra has parts scattered about the park. One train is located in the drum of Flight of Fear, with some of the track and supports located back behind the maintenance buildings behind Flight of Fear, down towards the Little Miami River a little bit. The rest of the track and support structure is stored on a field behind Son of Beast.

I don`t know how much stuff the park actually holds onto from past attractions. I know there is nothing left of Kenton`s Cove Keelboat Canal, as that ride was completly scrapped. The Antique Cars, after being removed last season were parked behin the Zephyr, next to The Racer. As of last weekend the cars were still there with blue tarps over them protecting them. Could this be a sign they may return in 2006 in a Nick Central expansion? Possibly. I don`t see why the park would hold onto them if they didn`t plan to use them for something in the future.

Let me tell you something about what they do when Kings Island gets rid of an old ride. They will store the trains, cars and put them there until they can find some one to buy them.

I don`t think so. As far as I know, the Kenton`s Cove Keelboat Canal cars were stripped of the parts that could be used as replacement parts on Wild Thornberrys before they were scrapped. The park doesn`t have room to store the old cars somewhere in the park. For example, I doubt that they even have a single Bat car in existance somewhere within the park.

Coaster RZ's is right they wil only keep trains if they need the parts for them. I noticed last year the 3rd SOB train was sitting back under an awning up on supports and had certain parts stripped off of it.

Now, the third Son of Beast train, as I understand it, undergoes its winter maintenance during the summer (when the mechanics have free time during operating hours. That way, when the winter maintenance comes around, they only have to deconstruct and rebuild one of Son of Beast`s trains in the off season.

Yeah I was looking out for the cobra cars in the spaghetti bowl but they had the lights off this year.

Since it sounds like they have most of the parts for Phantom Theatre maybe they could construct a building somewhere and you could ride through it and see the Phantom stuff again or before you go up the hill at Congo falls maybe they could build some channels for water and enclose them like a tunnel with phantom stuff throughout, then you head up the incline and doors open and you go down the chute and get wet!!!!!

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna try and contact someone at the park and try to get behind the scenes look for the documentary. I'tll probally be a while before it gets off the ground due too planning, crew, funds and park consent. But wish me luck.

In 1991 Kings Island contacted Smurfs Collectors Worldwide and gave some of the Smurf figures to a man that lives in New York as far as I know he still has them around his pool and the christmas smurfs and Halloween smurfs where given a man that lives in ohio he uses them as Halloween and Christmas displays every year.

I don't know. I've heard that The Bat trains are still around. Don't know if that's true or not. Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?

A couple of the things mentioned above are in the PKI boneyard.. or at least we last year to the best of my knowledge.

PKI still has all of the Phantom Theater characters. They were loaded into crates and stored in an undiscolsed location on park property.

As for the Smurfs, there are still a few floating around the park, but they are owned by individuals rather than the park. They were either donated or auctioned off to park employees many years ago. One of the full-time Rides managers has one in his office, and I know that an ex-Seasonal Ops Manager for Rides has one in his basement.

The Bat cars are long gone. The fronts of each car (the "Bat heads") were given to VIP's related to the ride when it was dismantled (ride supervisor, etc...).

As someone mentioned, much of King Cobra is still floating around in various places from FOF's drum to the fireworks site to the field behind SOB.

The park doesn't keep much more than it needs to. Many times, after rides are removed, the cars/trains are given to another Paramount Park with similar rides, or used for spare parts. Usually, things of nostalgia (Smurfs, Phantom Theater characters, etc...) will be kept around for a while, but ultimately are sold through in-park auctions to managers and full-time staff.