pashacar Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 I was reading this SFOG trip report when I stumbled upon this description of their newly renovated Monster Mansion: Monster Mansion- After that non-stop string of coaster riding, both of us needed a bit of a break. I wasn't a big fan of the Monster Plantation back in 2002, but I had heard the remodeling was worth checking out, so we hopped in the 5 minute line. I ended up being completely blown away. *SPOILER ALERT:* This instantly became my favorite dark ride of all time. I'm usually not a fan of these cheesy types of things, but this was excellent. The theming was great throughout, and the whole "Stay out of the Marsh!" storyline was really entertaining. There was a great combination of mist, lights, darkness, sound, and even bubbles that really made the ride a lot of fun. No matter how old you are or who you are with, this is an instant classic that is not to be missed! 9/10 Source: http://coasterbuzz.com/Forums/Thread/56578.aspx Hearing this rave review of the transformation makes me wonder if Six Flags might consider cloning the ride and opening it at other parks. It sounds like a great attraction that would fit very well at one of many properties, including GAdv, where I would LOVE to see it. From Shapiro's talk it doesn't sound like it's in the books for anywhere in 2010, but perhaps Six Flags will throw us a curveball, or install multiple in 2011. After the failures of Spygirl, TDK, etc., it sounds like they could be sitting on top of their first viable in-house brand and not even know it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acq10uaz Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Whats spygirl? And it would be a great addition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GAcoaster Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 Spygirl was a BIG failure for Six Flags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Railer Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 My two Girls don't even like Spygirl, and they like just about everything out there!!! Spygirl was a bust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pashacar Posted October 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) Spygirl was a stunt show at Great America a few years back. The character was created in-house with the intention of expanding it to rides, other shows, merchandise and, eventually, even movies and a television show, etc, all for Six Flags to cash in on in a big way. The problem was, SF hired the wrong kind of people to create the show (TV talent rather than theme park talent) and did too much creative work with their weak in-house team. The result was a big stinking failure, with an unengaging story and unappealing characters, leaving the Spygirl brand and all the potential revenue from it completely dead in the water. Shapiro's Six Flags has made similar mistakes with nearly every other in-house themed attraction in my opinion. TDK was a failure because they didn't draw out a storyboard and made the props on the cheap. Terminator Salvation at SFMM is a storytelling failure for similar reasons and, more embarassingly, because the preshow creators completely messed up their timing such that the operators have to choose between forcing guests to skip the preshow or sending out half-empty trains. Bizarro is a big mess as well if you ask me since, like TDK, the effects are cheap and don't tell anything even remotely resembling a story. And at SFNE, they've even managed to make the ride far less reliable than it was before; their Bizarro very frequently runs one train and routinely has multiple rows roped off. And we all know about the extreme inconsistency of the sound system. Any experienced attraction designer would not have let any of these things go wrong, and yet SF still does all of this work in house and puts out one subpar attraction after another. The few successes they have had in Shapiro's era have been when they chose to outsource work to proven experts in appropriate fields, like Gary Goddard for Glow in the Park, Cirque Dreams for CoolBriLa at SFOT, and Pyrotecnico for Saturday Night Lights. Even the Bizarro viral campaign was extremely well done, because they outsourced the job to a company that specializes in viral campaigns. But as we all know, moving past that to the SF-made ride experience was a huge disappointment in the storytelling department. I imagine that the Texas Giant restoration will also come out well, since they've hired Rocky Mountain Amusements and aren't doing it on their own (although the quality of the new "theming" in the queue line is certainly up in the air). Now I know that Six Flags certainly doesn't have a ton of cash to throw at expensive, experienced designers for every attraction. But I'd be happier if they came out with half as many attractions with the quality of Glow in the Park and Monster Mansion, instead of the current number of TDK- and Bizarro-quality ones. Plus, they could easily lessen the burden of the cost of these experienced designers by spreading the cost across many parks through clones of these quality attractions. Monster Mansion--which was also designed by Gary Goddard--seems like a great opportunity to do this. It sounds like they've got a bigger hit on their hands than any of the other "storytelling" projects that they've put more steam behind. Hopefully they'll be able to realize that soon, and bring Monster Mansion clones to many parks in place of more poorly-realized themed attractions. In addition to ensuring quality, it would fill a niche here and at many other parks as a unique ride that the whole family can enjoy together. Edited October 7, 2009 by pashacar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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