50 years of coasters – 2017

It’s been fascinating to see the ebb and flow in how strong the lineups have been over the years and that’s as apparent as ever coming off the back of what I considered to be the greatest year of all. 2017 looks good, but it’s nowhere near in the same league. Of course it’s never been the full sample size in any of these as I haven’t (yet) ridden them all, but there appears to only be a handful of potentials in each list over the most recent years and, from my humble opinion, never a group that can fully change the landscape of success in any given year, at least in a way that threatens that sacred 2016.

As evidenced by starting with a prolific clone. Three more of these opened at Six Flags parks in the very same year. To be fair to Arashi it stands head and shoulders above the others of this model I have experienced and I probably wouldn’t mention it otherwise. Saying that, yet another Mega-Lite opened this year that could do rather well in this list, it just isn’t the best example of one. I know, I’m inconsistent, like them.
There appears to be a huge scope for altering the ride intensity on S&S Free Spins by means of magnetic fins that affect the namesake free-spinning. This Japanese terror is turned up to 11 and is by far one of the most intense and scary pieces of hardware I’ve come across. It takes a lot for a ride to get me nervous these days, especially after a few goes. I respect that, a lot.

These Gerstlauer family launch coasters are about as premium as you can get when it comes to a milder thrill package. They’re drastically underutilised around the world in lieu of generic stock models with an obvious ‘that’ll do’ attitude to appease younger audiences. While I can’t comment on the business perspective of this, I can say that the hardware lends itself so well to inspiration and sheer joy. The comfy trains and versatility of lift hills, launches, forwards and backwards travel tend to go hand in hand with great story telling and really make these a cut about the rest.

I was heartbroken to find that this was by far the weakest of the Jungle Trailblazers, not only through the amount of effort required but also because it’s the only installation so far I’ve managed to drag Mega-Lite along to, after raving to him about these coasters so much. It let me down, the pacing is all over the place and it doesn’t carry itself well over at least 75% of the hills. But that’s all relative, this is good for a woodie, just not for a Gravity.

I want to love this thing, I really do. It’s so visually appealing and there’s that undeniable aura of intrigue around these ‘new-age’ Vekomas that understandably makes you want to elevate your opinions of them, if only in stark contrast to what the manufacturer used to be like. That’s not fair though. Many of the other major manufacturers have come out with some trash over the years, but they dusted themselves off and honed their craft over time, rather than doubling down on it for at least a couple of decades. Again this isn’t business advice, I’m sure it worked very well for them, it’s just my battle scars talking.

2017 appears to be defined by the triple launch coaster. After Intamin showed it off in a big way last year (although that one only achieved 10th in its list, it comfortably beats all of the ones here today), several other familiar manufacturers showed their hand with something a little more compact. Gold Rush is great for the footprint, the use of the dive loop element for the backwards section is great fun, the oddly shaped top hat is surprisingly potent and it’s interesting how Gerstlauer kept it simple with a closed circuit layout – no clever switch tracks.

Mack also had a dabble at this new triple launch trend and while a quality package, it’s not a patch on what they can really do with the hardware. It has some great moments, but all feels suboptimal even from the story-telling perspective.

In fact, I could say the exact same thing for this Mack triple launch too, they’re almost inseparable in terms of ride quality even though the elements are all rather different. It’s interesting how they both ended up representing major media franchises and just didn’t quite pull off a cohesive themed experience with their hardware. While slightly shorter, this one has a couple more powerful moments for me.

I’d always liked the look of this B&M wing coaster, if only for the dinosaur themed trains. I love it when rides have a face, it can’t help but add a sense of character. I was skeptical about the supposed ‘airtime hill’ on this layout, given the nature of the vest restraints, and rightly so. What I didn’t expect however was how ridiculously intense this ride would be, well up there with the finest Inverts and even a few Flyers. The clever use of terrain in the layout had me seeing stars, and I loved it. There’s now a clone of this at another Happy Valley park and it has some backwards seats! I’d almost forgotten how much I need that in my life.

A double podium finish for this park, pretty impressive stuff. I had a wild range of emotions throughout my experience with Jungle Dragon, initially not knowing anything about it, visually seeing that it looked very much like my #1 woodie, not really loving it that much, then forever growing to appreciate it more and more as time goes on. It’s not a patch on GCI’s best, for sure, yet it comfortably sits above pretty much everything else they’ve done. I find that odd, but endearing.

Without a second thought, this wins the year. Facing forwards it’s one of the best hyper coasters around, with a mix of powerful airtime and many other standout forces. The ride is of course legendary for that back row of backwards facing seats and I can’t even begin to describe how much that does for the experience, though I gave it a good go here. Absolute world class ride, put the entire southern hemisphere on the map for the coaster scene, best in 2017.

I feel like a few honourable mentions are due this year, I really could have picked many things for the bottom two thirds of this list as they all fall into that great, but not game-changing category.

Madagascar Mad Pursuit is a lot of fun, the indoor aspect and theming attempts did a lot for it, though it doesn’t quite give off that air of fine craftmanship like Pégase Express.
From the same park, Dragon Gliders could well have podiumed here for how much I love it, but it doesn’t feel fair to rate it as a coaster when the dark ride aspect does all the heavy lifting.
Red Force is the potential elephant in the room. While I appreciate it a lot more than I believed I would, those layouts just don’t really do it for me.
GCI had a solid year in the medium sized range with both Heidi (but it’s a clone) and Invadr. The less honourable mention goes to Great Desert Rally, which broke the national streak, badly.

Outside of what I’ve ridden, here’s how things stand.

GaleForce looks insane, yet another contributor to the triple launch league. That compact goodness combined with a style of ride that S&S haven’t really touched before is extremely intriguing to me.
I hope Mine Blower will be the redeemer for the Gravity Group this year, it looks like a real pocket rocket that should be right up my street.
Mystic Timbers is one of the last great GCIs I need to knock off. It appears to be rather highly regarded, but can it compete with the Chinese tier?
Talking of China, I don’t expect great things but I really want to try Snow Mountain Racer, a Jinma Rides (Golden Horse) mine train with a dark ride section and a couple of other tricks up its sleeve. For, you know, research.
Wave Breaker: The Rescue Coaster could be solid based on it’s type, I do love a good Intamin family launch. Haven’t heard much about it really.

And that’s it for now. Like I said at the start – the list could change for sure, but how it stacks up against other years seems pretty set in stone at this point. Just goes to show how much of a marvel 2016 was.

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50 years of coasters – 2016

If 2015 was the year of superlatives then I don’t even know what to say about this one. It’s the year to end all years as far as I’m concered, we’ve not seen a lineup this strong before, or since (spoilers), at least in terms of rides I’ve managed to experience. We begin the countdown immediately in my personal top 40, which means we’re looking at ten rides here inside what I consider to be the best ~3.5% of coasters in the world. Something was definitely in the air.

Including this dragon, soaring about through ridiculously large inversions and non-inversions. In a year that saw Intamin step their LSM-launch game up like never before, Soaring with Dragon was one of the first major coasters to show off clever switch tracks and triple launch techniques in the name of both space saving and visual spectacle. The result is a rather special blend of forces that should always keep you coming back for more.

Sunac (Wanda at the time) were a pretty major contributor to this big boom, opening both the Hefei park and this revamp of an existing park in Nanchang with some massive headline attractions within a very short time frame. Intamin were the go-to manufacturer again and created this beast, China’s tallest and fastest coaster to date. Aside from the Megalite model, we hadn’t really seen anything from their Mega Coaster product range for a good 15 years, and it was a welcome return. That first drop is ridiculous and some of the airtime moments on this ride are obscene.

Over in Europe we experienced a fairly momentous occasion, the first contribution from game changing coaster creators Rocky Mountain Construction, outside of America. No one would have expected this to go to a remote zoo in Sweden, a place that most ride or park enthusiasts had likely never heard of, but it certainly put Kolmården on the map. I personally followed the construction of this ride more closely than perhaps any other attraction to date and this eventually came back to sting us quite badly when it didn’t open on time. I’ve generally paid less attention to things until I’m actually on them, ever since that experience, so it will always be remembered for that, perhaps even moreso than for being my first RMC. Which, while not the best the manufacturer has to offer, is an incredible ride.

It was a busy year for RMC openings, their second most hectic to date in fact, yet another solid contributor to this stacked year. While Joker has none of the visual spectacle and wonder of Wildfire, I marginally preferred the ride experience for being truer to what these hybrid coasters do better than pretty much anyone else in the world – that non-stop beautiful blend of interesting inversions and amazing airtime. On my journey through rides from this manufacturer, this was a far more representative taste of things to come.

We must have known we were in for something special this year when, on New Year’s day no less, this opens. Mack Rides also performed a rare breaking of the 200ft barrier in China and it was a first for the manufacturer, putting that wonderful train design to yet more fantastic use. Claims to the world’s biggest loop were thrown around a lot in this era and while this one is pretty damn amazing, it’s the complete package of the ride layout that does it for me. Hyper coasters that mix it up with far more than just big hills are right up my street and Flash was a real masterclass of an early example for that.

While they quite often get an easy pass in these lists by the very nature of their existence, the legends that are Bolliger & Mabillard had to bring their A-game to even get noticed by me in the 2016 lineup. And they certainly did that, reaching what I currently consider to be the pinnacle design of their most exciting ride type. Competition is fierce in the styles of attraction we’ve seen so far today, but B&M stand entirely alone when it comes to Flying coasters. The dinosaur uses a brutal combination of elements that do all manner of terrible things to your body, and that’s why I love it. There’s very few places in the world, if any, where you can get that type of experience.

The vicious and mesmerising cries of the new Intamin LSM launch system were heard for the first time in more than one corner of the world this year. Taron uses it twice over, to great effect and as if I didn’t already have enough reason to love multi-launch coasters, I fell hard for this one too. It’s one of the most alluring designs in the world of amusements, not least helped along by the almost unprecedented levels of theming that surrounds such a significantly-sized attraction. True bucket list material.

The launches keep on coming, even where you don’t anticipate them, but don’t expect them to work all of the time. You can no longer ‘peel out on the world’s fastest wooden rollercoaster’ like you could in 2016 because, due to a recent track overhaul, those that care about such things have decided that Lightning Rod can’t be classified as wooden any more. It shouldn’t matter, I’m sure it’s still the ridiculous romp it always was, yet another RMC for the list with a gorgeous setting and some astounding features. This one doesn’t even need to invert, it simply blasts you with airtime again and again through that legendary quad-down sequence.

Really starting to appreciate how many manufacturers were putting out the best of what they have to offer in this highly competitive year. I like to think that it’s a conscious effort in the relationships between companies and parks, to push the boundaries and outdo each other in any given time frame. It probably never actually lines up like that, what with how vastly different the time scales are over which these rides are designed and created. I guess it is just business at the end of the day.
Anyway, there’s nothing I love more from Intamin than their Wing coaster design, the way those outside seats try to eject you in all sorts of never-before-seen ways after the insanely fast lift hill mercilessly wrenches you up to your doom. They’ve only made two and they’re both top ten rides for me, the biggest success rate in my coasting career. More please.

I’m so desperate to go back and ride this thing, if only in attempt to get some better photos. With all the crazy elements on display above us, an unremarkable lift structure does nothing to sell how this is my favourite wooden coaster on the planet. Yet it’s probably not something any visual can do justice. What makes a ride like this so special is all the things you can’t see that deliver the moments you can’t expect. Hidden intricacies in the building material, the shaping of the transitions and the absolutely inspired use of terrain bring out not only the best of GCI, but the best of roller-coasting in general for me.

Surely that’s the end, right? Amazingly, no. I’ve still got my sights set on a couple of major coasters from 2016, though do have my doubts over whether all but one of them can make a dent in this lineup, based on previous experience.

Mako certainly looks the part, even if it may not be the style of ride I enjoy the most. I’m still waiting for a B&M hyper to blow me away and there’s every chance it could happen one day.
Monster appears to be a beast of a Gerstlauer Infinity coaster with a fun selection of elements, perhaps more crucially it would bring me tantalisingly close to completing the worldwide set, again.
Storm Chaser is the real, conventional threat to the list. At the risk of setting myself up for disappointment, I don’t see why it wouldn’t give RMC an eye-watering fourth entry here.
Valravn on the other hand is the most token of B&M entries to this ‘what else could be good?’ section. I’m sure it’s highly competent, but will it even stand out amongst the coasters at the legendary Cedar Point, let alone the best year ever?

I also feel strangely compelled to give a few honourable mentions this year, mainly to excuse the absence of my favourite Gravity Group from the list.
I love Timber to pieces, but the baby woodie just can’t compete here today. They also built two cloned designs in Fantawild parks in China this year, one of which was my best coaster of 2013 and the other a solid finisher in 2015. No mean feat.
Lost Gravity was also an outstanding addition to the Mack Rides roster, as the debut of their Big Dipper model. I can’t wait to see more of them.

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50 years of coasters – 2015

Whilst my personal selection from 2014 was a little lacking (compared to the overall quality of this decade at least) 2015 is looking to be absolutely stacked. Everything in this list today is, at the very least, incredible. What a year for the coaster industry this one turned out to be!

Much as I’ve enjoyed the B&M wing coasters that have been popping up over the last few years, for me the company’s Flying Coaster type is a cut above the rest. They generally have far more to offer in terms of extremities and often have elements that would put any seasoned rider out of their comfort zone. Acrobat is admittedly a bit of a lazy clone of Florida’s Manta, complete with matching trains that don’t tie in with the loose theme, but I can’t fault the insanely intense ride experience.

So why not have two in a row? I still can’t quite believe how good this ride is. A combination of a fear of clones and a fear of spoilers almost got the better of me and had me originally dismissing Harpy as not worth the effort. In the end it more than paid off the extra lengths you generally have to go to get to this remote Chinese park, by virtue of it’s top tier flyer layout packed with a wicked range of sensations.

Another manufacturer honing their skills and bringing their best coaster model closer to perfection this year was Gerstlauer. Junker is a quintessential Infinity Coaster with a punchy launch, tight manouevres in those tiny trains, powerful airtime and creative inversions. There’s not a dull moment to be found on board.

2015 was the birth of the Jungle Trailblazers, a collection of Gravity Group woodies that opened as the headline attractions of various Fantawild parks throughout China. The fact that so many of them share the same name does them a disservice, as they make use of several different layouts that are all world class in their own right, yet tend to be rather overlooked from an outsiders perspective due to a lack of individual identity. This particular version is notable for having a rare wooden coaster inversion and, to me, for having an insane run of airtime pops all in a row.

A busy year for B&M, who also put out their largest creation to date. The beast that is Fury 325 remains the tallest coaster with a traditional lift hill and marked a drastic shift in style for their model of hyper coaster. Rather than largely focusing on those signature camelback hills, Fury performs a very inspired set of manouevres at high speed as it winds its way out across the entrance plaza, into the car park and beyond. It’s a visual spectacle that’s wonderfully presented, as well as a very standout and special ride experience.

Gerstlauer also had their sights on something big for 2015. Previous local customer Hansa Park had some lofty ambitions to put a vertical lift hill that reaches over 200ft tall inside a building styled like a medieval tower in Helsingborg, Sweden. Things go on in this tower that had not been seen on a coaster ever before and then once you burst out into the open air at over 80Mph, it’s a ridiculous and intense hyper coaster experience, again like no other. How are we only at number 5?

Well partly because there’s still more Jungle Trailblazers to come. This Wuhu version is the only layout that currently cannot be found anywhere else and also features one of those unnatural inversions. It also plays on some similar beats to China’s very first wooden coaster, with an epic combination of larger and smaller airtime hills that the Gravity Group pull off so well.

RMC were solidifying themselves amongst the best of the best by now, putting up smash hit after smash hit. The fact that this conversion from an out-of-date wooden coaster into a vicious, storm chasing, world beating experience filled with the perfect blend of extreme airtime and glorious inversions has become bread and butter to the manufacturer by now is simply scary.

So give them the opportunity to reimagine an iconic and massive racing woodie at another park on the other side of the country and then be astounded by the result. I’ve written at length about how this is my favourite RMC to date on here and it’s a personal top 5 in the world. Yet we’re still not done here for this year.

My favourite Gravity Group creation trumps my favourite RMC for now, by the tiniest of margins up at the top of course. Something about the raw-er experience of an actual wooden coaster at the absolute best it can be, along with the unpredictability that can bring just appeals to me slightly more and this third Jungle Trailblazer was such an incredible shock to the system upon a first ride for countless reasons. I had no idea they could be this good.

Well with a list so packed full of superlatives can there really be anything else left in the world to threaten this bunch? Amazingly, yes.
Cannibal appears to be the US equivalent of Kärnan with it’s intimidating tower structure and unorthodox design, the fact that it’s even more ‘homegrown’ in execution fascinates me.
Impulse is a rare example of a Zierer Tower coaster, another string I need to add to my bow at some point to at least see how they compare with other, similar designs.
On top of all their other achievements this year, B&M also went wild with a launched version of their Wing coaster by the name of Thunderbird. Something else I’ve definitely got to check out at some point.

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50 years of coasters – 2014

I’ve spent most of January trying to get all the trip planning for this year back on track, so writing this series took a sideline amongst all that nervous excitement. With that in mind and how long I’ve already dragged this out, it’s going to be 52 years of coasters if I don’t finish up before the end of March (fingers crossed). Let’s give that a go at least.
Something about this year strikes a chord with me, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Was there a particularly notable ride built? I think so.

Various clones on the extreme end of the spectrum could have filled this spot at the moment, with my personal 2014 roster not quite being as fleshed out as I would like it to be. Altair is one of several lap bar editions of the original record breaking 10-looper Colossus at Thorpe Park that exist in varying conditions around the world. I wasn’t as bowled over by the experience as I had hoped. It was fun for sure, but I thought the new found freedom in the riding position would lend itself to some cool moments. Instead it mainly served to highlight how underwhelming the layout of endless inversions is.

Not much of a coaster really, the Mack powered inverted hardware lends itself rather well to dark ride sections and scenery instead. Arthur pulls this off reasonably well and has a couple of magical moments to offer outside of it’s faffy queue and operational system. Padding the list a bit though I feel, things need to pick up a bit.

This Beijing Jiuhua built mine train was a surprise hit for me, they’ve come up with a (hugely welcome) custom layout that keeps on building in intensity very nicely and it blends into that rockwork a treat, enhancing the experience even more. One of my favourite Chinese coaster designs to date.

Back to Cinecittà again, the other Intamin coaster in the park is far more exciting, even though you can’t see it. A thrilling indoor experience complete with a powerful drop track section and some rather dark theming makes for a standout ride in this all-new-for-2014 park.

This might be the most gorgeous family coaster ever. Gerstlauer have a real knack for this type of experience, the combination of profiling and rolling stock on these models is always spot on when trying to find that happy medium between thrilling and fun. Beyond that, who needs a drop track when you can have fire, explosions and a backwards launch?

At last we’re in the big leagues. B&M are back, with their first entry being yet another wing coaster, continuing to prove how popular they were in this decade. This flight of the demons is an experience greatly enhanced by both the visuals and the haunting soundtrack that accompanies it. A twisted mess of that signature track always looks great when embedded into a landscape and it just so happens to be a really solid, interesting layout too.

But it can’t compete with how good this bird looks, nor with how good the layout is. As a complete opposite in design, it really has a ton of room to breathe, soaring between massive elements before dipping in and out of the glorious landscape. Everything about my experience with the parrot seemed to be well thought out, it’s a masterclass in creating a signature coaster for a park.

Here’s that other Mack Mega Coaster I promised in 2013. Though the layout of this one is highly unoriginal, being just too damn similar to Intamin’s Megalite, it’s still a top 3 today (for now). It’s testament to how incredible the ride that gave the inspiration is, that a well executed equivalent by another manufacturer is also ridiculously good. Though it doesn’t quite pack the same punch overall, their trains for this are second to none and I’d take it over any clone but Piraten, any day.

The pinnacle of the S&S air launch design for me. A breathtaking, world-beating acceleration into a massive, airtime-filled top hat, followed up an incredible sequence of elements. So many other launch coasters that came before just couldn’t deliver these things in anywhere near the same magnitude and that makes this ride really special to me. (Let’s not mention today that it’s also a clone).

Oh yeah, now I remember. My favourite rollercoaster of them all was built in 2014. Still searching for that perfection.

I’m rather excited to see just how many there are still to come out of this year. It was only back in 2010 that I became worried by lists appearing to already be set in stone, though there’s loads more to look forward to today:
One of the last great B&M inverts I’ve got my eye on is Banshee, I’m doubly intrigued by the seemingly mould-breaker styling and how the vest restraints will perform on that particular model.
RMCs are going to be a reasonably obvious addition to these lists from now on, ridden or otherwise, with Goliath and Medusa Steel Coaster being no exception.
I gave Iron Shark a shout out in 2012, so why not give it’s Colmbian clone Kráter a look in too. Certainly a rare one for the collection.
I’ve heard great things about Lightning Run and am always happy to get brand new ride types under my belt, of which the one and only Chance Hyper GT-X certainly is.
Nefeskesen is one of two red Intamin launch coasters in Turkey and, most enticing to me, is the custom layout of the two.
You potentially can’t beat a good family-sized Gravity Group woodie like Roar-O-Saurus when it comes to consistency.
Or can you? The memories of seeing super-sized Gravity Group woodie Time Travel closed, from the window of a taxi, still haunt me to this very day. This one is about as high as it gets on my to-do list, so I don’t think we can top that here, now.

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50 years of coasters – 2013

Here we go again. I might be detecting the slightest hint of a drop in quality here compared to how amazing some of the progress in the last few years had been. However there are by far the biggest number of coasters yet recorded in the RCDB for the year 2013 (with a massive jump of 50), so a different kind of positive sign for the industry at the very least. With an ever expanding lineup, that’s plenty more opportunities for the future.

S&S first put lap bars on their El Loco model a couple of years prior to this, but this was the first time I came across the combination and of course it’s a vastly superior experience for it. The freedom of movement in your upper body just adds an extra spice to all those interesting and fun elements like the stupidly steep drop and the downwards inversion.

Lap bars again, this time as part of Gerstlauer’s introductory year to their biggest and best ride type to date – the Infinity Coaster. Building on their brief dabble with standalone launch coasters and then launched versions of their Eurofighter model, Karacho showed a real turning point in what this lot were truly capable of with that, let’s say it again, freedom of movement. You can finally really feel all that funky stuff they’ve got going on.

With Wood Coaster already existing I think we hit a certain point where I see rides like this as ‘just some GCI’. And just some GCI is undoubtedly a solid coaster, a loud and fast paced wooden romp that’s bags of fun at the very worst, but I just don’t get that excited about some of them, like this one, after experiencing a lot more of the diverse sections of their catalogue. Should I play the winter card? It was cold (striker).

A late entry for this series, as I had it all planned out well before I ended up in Austria last September, but a welcome one. I loved Rattenmühle, it was pretty much everything I wanted it to be as a fabulously fun Gerstlauer Bobsled and then the surprise level of the theming and detail in the station and surrounding area took it up a few gears again.

Definitely leaning towards a bit of a family-thrill approach again this year, this time with Intamin giving their Family Launch coaster a much needed boost, literally. Jet Rescue set the precedent for how good this ride type could be back in 2008 and this time with some more room to breathe, larger and faster elements they once again proved it could pack a punch and compete with the biggest of coasters.

Wait, this was the one and only Gerstlauer Infinity to not feature lap bars, how come it was better than Karacho? Am I a fraud? Probably, but there’s just so much more good layout going on here and Smiler has been a real grower on me over the years. It would be absolutely insane feeling those 14 different inversions with lap bars and I wish it was a thing, but I’ll just have to settle for what it is – an intense, disorientating semi-masterpiece.

The multi-launch features again and will continue to do well for me for all time, always. There’s something magical the way it injects an extra energy into a ride and it is particularly well needed in Full Throttle with such a short length of track to play with. That tends to be a criticism of this bold attempt from Premier Rides but I’ve ended up as one of it’s biggest fans. The ridiculousness of the size of that loop, the silly airtime coming back over the top of the same piece of structure and the fun in between – love it.

I can’t get enough of the Disney mine train aesthetic, it’s such a quintessential theme park experience. Big Grizzly brought something new to the table and it was very welcome. The light-heartedness of the theme, and the stunning surroundings that were created just for this ride combined with all the surprises and tricks that the hardware has to offer just can’t fail to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

Oh, how I wish there were more of these. With a few years to think about it, Mack must surely have seen Intamin’s Megalite design and thought ‘we can do something like that.’ Their Mega Coaster was born. Storm was all we got, other than a near-clone of the Intamin that we’ll be seeing very soon (spoilers) and it’s a blast. Not only does it carry some powerful airtime, they chucked in a gorgeous inversion for good measure and the late night openings of this off-the-beaten-track park give the opportunity for some real special moments.

Back where we started in Tianjin, Fjord Flying Dragon was the star attraction that came with Happy Valley’s latest park and sadly the most recent time the company dealt the Gravity Group after such a strong trinity of a start. It’s the strongest of their three combined efforts for me and that’s saying something, with how much I love the 2009 winner of this series. It caught attention nonetheless and they went on to do even greater things with a certain rival park chain in China, but that’s a tale already told on here.

What else are we looking at?

I really want to try Abyss, even though it’s basically Australian Saw: The Ride, both for the alternative theme and setting and the fact that it’s just so damn obscure a location for coasters in general, all the way out there in the West.
A notable absence from B&M this year after being a staple of the lists for so long. This is entirely my fault, having not yet ridden either of their 2013 creations. Gatekeeper looks rather stunning, I love the way Cedar Fair have turned a signature coaster into an eye catching entrance plaza. Nitro as it was named back at opening could well be a surprise hit, but almost undoubtedly an entry just by merit of it’s existence here.
Also at Imagicaa in India, from the same year, is Deep Space, another potential hit for Premier. I love an indoor ride and in particular a space theme.
Some real contenders are running loose this year in the form of a couple of RMCs I haven’t managed to pick up. Perhaps that’s why I’m seeing a bit of a downturn in 2013, it shows that I’m slipping. From everything they’ve given me so far, Iron Rattler and Outlaw Run could just go all the way to the top here.
Just for fun, we’ll have a chuckle at Ring Racer. The layout isn’t going to be winning any awards and it only operated for a handful of days before it all went wrong so it’s highly unlikely it’ll happen anyway, but still, what a silly thing.

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50 years of coasters – 2012

This year was supposed to be the end of the world if I recall correctly. Feels like we’re a lot closer to that now than we were back in 2012 but, more importantly, what was going on the coaster world at the time? Great things by the looks of it.

Mack had the genius idea of taking their revolutionary launch coaster model to the next level by introducing it to the concept of multiple launches. Sadly it resulted in a rather jarring transition in which the train slows down rather than ‘hitting the launch running’, a shortcoming which future projects managed to put to shame even more strongly. Outside of that moment, it’s a perfect blend of a family thrill package with a lot to offer.

Following on from the more scary theming seen during the debut of B&Ms wing coaster in 2011, it was time to see what other parks could do with the concept. Dollywood decided to put some sweet-looking eagle shaped trains in a more eye-pleasing environment and accompany it with a fitting theme song. I love the use of landscape on this one and even without any theming of particular note it manages to do the ride type justice by creating many near-miss moments with it’s own support structure.

Thorpe Park on the other hand said we’ll have the exact same alien trains and try to use them in an even more desolate landscape. This narrative worked rather well with the impending Mayan calendar apocalypse and the park did a memorable job with lore-building during the construction phase, which is perhaps even why I still associate it so strongly with 2012 to this day. It wasn’t quite the remarkable coaster we hoped for at our home park, but it’s only grown over time and offered plenty of memorable experiences along the way.

Europe’s second B&M hyper after 10 long years is one of the most visually stunning pieces of coaster hardware around. The sluggish nature of the ridiculously long trains with their stadium seating appear to hold it back from delivering the types of sensations I tend to prefer from my 250ft coasters, but I can’t deny that Shambhala is a masterpiece in its own way.

Multiple launches, a vertical drop track and a fun storyline make this the standout attraction at Busch Gardens Williamsburg for me, even amongst a very well stacked lineup of rollercoasters. I particularly adore the little details, homages to the ride that formerly stood in the same spot and the fact that it has multiple indoor sequences make it a blast to ride over and over again.

Aside from some lesser-known quantities amongst their terrain-hugging monsters, Wodan is GCI’s tallest project to date. And it shows, with this striking structure and highly memorable first drop experience that just plummets through the mess of timbur. It has some amazing queueline theming, an awesome soundtrack and really rounds off the Iceland area of the park perfectly.

After claiming the top three places in 2011, the boom in China over the last decade is showing no signs of slowing down. Dinoconda is the most recent of the rare breed that is the S&S 4D coaster and these are notorious for being one of the most extreme ride types ever created. I’m not sure my head was in the right place at the time of riding this one, which may well have been to do with the overwhelming effort of the visit itself. Looking back on Dinoconda now I have a massive amount of appreciation for it, but for whatever reason it just didn’t strike me at the time and I’ve only more recently discovered how insane these can truly be.

Wuhan was the fifth city in China to receive a Happy Valley park and opened its gates with this massively ambitious duelling wooden coaster from the Gravity Group. While Chinese park chains come up with all these eye-catching, bright ideas, there seems to be very little long term effort towards sustaining them so you’re unlikely to catch these in all their duelling glory. Luckily as a standalone wooden coaster, it’s world class, as we’ve come to expect from the manufacturer. It’s still a goal of mine to one day experience this with both sides operating however – I feel there could be more to give.

Despite being the very first park in the chain, it took Happy Valley Shenzhen until 2012 to get a signature attraction that would stand out on a global stage. Bullet Coaster was the second layout of the newly rejuvenated S&S air launch coaster, following on from the revival in Beijing the previous year. It’s even more effective in the way that it delivers any number of powerful sensations throughout the layout, complementing that life-changing launch.

Almost a clean sweep for China, but the States have an ace up their sleeve. There aren’t many rollercoasters in the world that can downright terrify a seasoned enthusiast, yet the unique blend of violent forces and minimalist restraints on Skyrush do exactly that. There may have been some sacrifices in comfort along the way and for that very reason we may never see anything exactly like this built again. That just makes it all the more special though and for me it’s an easy top ten in the world.

There has to be more out there though, surely.

Plenty more in the B&M catalogue for starters – I missed out on Firebird during its transition phase from stand-up to floorless coaster, though I think a better chance lies with Leviathan – their first coaster to top 300ft. The wing coaster sold very well in its second year for such a major piece of hardware, with X-Flight being a third unique creation.
I’m struggling beyond their contributions however, perhaps lap-bar Eurofighter Iron Shark has an outside chance of making an impact but this field looks too strong to break.

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50 years of coasters – 2011

Just as the quality of coasters was really picking up, this 50 years series ended up on a several month hiatus to make way for many, many trip reports. It was great to finally be able to write about some fresh overseas experiences and it definitely made the best of a brief window of opportunity this year.
Now as I sit here in December with the world locking down again, wondering whether I’ll ever ride a coaster built in the 51st consecutive year, let’s pick up where we left off and continue to look at the most exciting decade for the industry so far.

The most recent of B&Ms major ride type innovations is now 10 years old, leaving everyone to wonder what the esteemed manufacturer will bring to the table next. Raptor was the first of these wing coasters and simultaneously introduced the concept of pairing the hardware with near miss scenery elements to give them that extra edge. The use of terrain seems all backwards on this one, leaving the pacing to feel a bit off, but it felt like a solid first attempt at showcasing some potential.

It took some witchcraft to fit a wooden coaster with this much runtime into the space available here in Stockholm, but it seems the Gravity Group are always up to the task. Twister isn’t my go-to creation for what their miniature coasters do best, but they’ve never really set a foot wrong as far as I’ve experienced.

It was typical Fuji-Q to get something this intense and Gerstlauer were the ones who stepped up to the task, taking their Eurofighter model to new heights. Setting a new record for steepest drop in the world wasn’t enough, they also chucked in a punchy launch section and countless dizzying inversions that made this coaster one of a kind – until someone had to take that status away from it…

Family coasters have always been a strong point for Gerstlauer too, though there’s nothing particularly family friendly about the theme of this indoor masterpiece. With tight turns and special effects cranked up to the max, Van Helsing is one of those well sought after perfect combinations of hardware and theming.

More horror theming now, this time with the premise of being swallowed whole by a Krake(n). The concept works really well for this smaller B&M dive coaster and though the subsequent sequence of elements from splash effect to airtime hill are teasingly short, they pack a punch. As does the soundtrack.

And punch is what we’re all about from here on out. Seeing this as Maurer’s best coaster to date after 10 years makes me wish for them to get back in the game properly and stop messing around with silly projects. The market for mixed bag launched looping coasters has come a long way since then, but I think there’s still room for these X-cars amongst it, especially if they’re anything like Shock.

Feels like I haven’t spoken much about Hair Raiser on here, and I should, because it’s awesome. As we enter a more modern era for B&M they tend to see more scrutiny for ‘playing it safe’, but there’s nothing safe about this one. With a location to die for, perched atop a mountain in the sea, Hair Raiser has a very different feel to its layout that really stands out. It was also, for whatever reason, stupidly rough when I rode it, completely uncharacteristic of the manufacturer, and that only added to the experience.

In fact they were just going from strength to strength as far as the Asian market was concerned. Starry Sky Ripper was a ridiculous achievement, not least for containing a 540° twist and vertical loop, on a flying coaster. It’s these sorts of elements that make the ride type B&Ms finest for me just because they bring the concept of intensity to a whole new level.

You can tell something big was going on in the Chinese coaster scene this year. Aside from a couple of early OCT and Chimelong hits, 2011 appears to be the year that things really kicked off for the country and it’s been manic ever since. I’m forever trying to play catch up with all the world class coasters they keep laying down for us. Extreme Rusher was a landmark return for the S&S air launch after ten long years of silence and it took the type to world beating status in a different way by actually doing something significant and thrilling with the layout outside of ‘we need to set records’.

Well what a year. We’re finishing on a personal top ten ride now, as China pushed the limits of another manufacturer to a new extreme, this time wooden warriors GCI. A ride like this shouldn’t be able to exist in such an environment and yet it does, although it’s notably hard to actually catch it operating. Most importantly of all, they didn’t compromise one bit on the layout when making it happen and the end result is mind-blowingly spectacular.

Anything left in the 2011 pool for me?

Cheetah Hunt is the first to jump out, particularly as we’ve unusually not seen anything from Intamin here today. Their next step in the multi-launch revolution has always fascinated me.
Speaking of revolutions, this was of course the debut year of hot topic RMC. New Texas Giant paved the way for the manufacturer to take the coasting world by storm and I’d love to see how it rides.
Two more Gravity Group coasters excite me greatly of course, I already dropped a reference to Wooden Warrior above and should have ridden Zippin Pippin by now but… you know.

We’re done. These to-do lists are definitely getting shorter, a double-edged sword I feel.

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