Six Flags Magic Mountain aims to reclaim coaster crown with Green Lantern in 2011

[GAcoaster]

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Six Flags Magic Mountain aims to reclaim coaster crown with Green Lantern in 2011

 

Concept art of the Green Lantern vertical coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain. (Six Flags Magic Mountain)

 

Six Flags Magic Mountain will reclaim the Roller Coaster Capital of the World title with the addition of two coasters in spring 2011, including a first-of-its-kind ride in the U.S., amusement park officials said.

 

The Green Lantern will bring Magic Mountain's coaster count to 18, allowing the Valencia amusement park to recapture the coaster crown, taken by Ohio’s Cedar Point in 2008. Magic Mountain snatched the crown from Cedar Point around the turn of the millennium after adding a coaster a year during a building binge that stretched from 1997 to 2003. Cedar Point, with 17 coasters, plans to add a tower swing thrill ride in 2011.

 

The Green Lantern vertical coaster, with green zigzag track and black supports, will sit on a compact footprint near the Batman and Riddler’s Revenge coasters. The new-concept 4th dimension coaster, similar in style to X2 but more tame, will reach a top speed of 37 mph over 825 feet of serpentine track during the two-minute ride. (Watch concept video of the Green Lantern at Screamscape.)

 

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The Intamin ZacSpin coaster will be the first of its kind in the U.S. The Grona Lund theme park in Stockholm added an identical ZacSpin called Insane last year, with smaller versions of the ride also operating in Spain and Finland.

 

Coaster enthusiasts who have ridden the European ZacSpins invariably describe the experience as fun, intense and weird but gripe about capacity issues.

 

Upon boarding a train that straddles the track, eight riders per car face in two directions, forward and backward. A chain lift carries each car up an inverted curved section to a height of 107 feet. From there, the suspended trains rock back and forth on the straight-aways and rotate head over heels as the cars plunge over freefall drops.

 

Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey will also add a stand-up coaster called Green Lantern in 2011, relocated from a shuttered park in Kentucky. The debut of both themed coasters will coincide with the 2011 release of the "Green Lantern" movie based on the DC Comics superhero with otherworldly powers.

 

Magic Mountain will also add a kiddie coaster in spring 2011, relocated from a now-shuttered Six Flags park in New Orleans. Mr. Six's DanceCoaster was announced as a new addition for 2010 and later postponed because of construction delays. Magic Mountain has since dropped the Mr. Six name from the coaster.

 

The as-yet-renamed red-and-black junior coaster will replace the Sierra Falls water slide between the Thomas Town and Bugs Bunny World kiddie lands. Eventually, the kids' coaster will likely get a Looney Tunes theme, officials said.

 

I find it funny that on some sites there are people complaining about our park "just" getting the Green Lantern standup. This Zac Spin coaster is small and a capacity nightmare designed primarily to help sell Flash Pass and will probably end up costing less than our Green Lantern. As for the "three" coasters they're getting the second one is a repaint/new cars and the third is a relocated kiddie coaster. We're better off since our collection is better quality over quantity.

[Yoshi]

I agree, the capacity is going to be horrible. 8 riders a train, no way is each car going to be full and even if 3 cars get dispatched per cycle, each cycle is going to take a while. Roller Soaker also dispatches 3 trains per cycle and that coaster barely gets over 300 riders an hour. If there is an average of 7 riders a car and each set of cars is dispatched 3 minutes (figuring time to load the cars and how long it will take for each car to climb the lift and hit the first block brake) is 420 an hour. Maybe they are going to charge $15 extra a ride for Flashpass users like with X2 since if regular Flashpass is allowed without an upcharge, that line is probably almost always going to have a 2+ hour standby wait.

 

Magic Mountain needs flats almost as much as Great Adventure, so that makes the addition even worse and I think they would have been better off adding a thrilling flat and family flat instead.

Edited October 20, 2010 by Yoshi

[RobertDavid]

I don't understand why they keep putting different rides in each park while giving them the same name. They're different rides, in different parks-give them different names.

 

Here's an idea, give them a name and theme that actually fits each park. What a concept.

[acq10uaz]

Honestly, how many people that ride GL west will ride GL east or even know it exists. Same on GL east, most people won't know GL west exists.

 

I don't think MM needs this Zacspin. It should have gone to a park that deserves more. SFA anyone?

[GAcoaster]

That's another argument I keep hearing is "SFMM doesn't need another coaster.", "(Insert other park name here) deserves the coaster more". When it comes down to it this is a company that needs to conserve money and there are really only three or four parks that NEED major additions next season to make the company have a good year (SFMM, SFGAdv, SFGAm) which are all getting relatively major new attractions for next season. Those are the parks that make or break the company's financial performance. This new management team has realized that the Burke team was correct in deciding that many of the parks (but SFMM in particular) are THRILL parks. The only thing that makes SFMM successful is its being a unique park for coasters. The California market has got the market cornered when it comes to THEME parks, but thrills are what SF can do better.

[acq10uaz]

^While I do agree with that 100%, I just hope they do not let the other parks get run down like Burke let them did. Like I said before, I'm perfectly happy with SFNE, my home park, getting the mouse this year, but I don't want to the new management ruin what Shapiro did.

 

I also don't want to see SFMM get its bad name again.

[RobertDavid]

If "Thrill Parks" were so great, they wouldn't have gone bankrupt. The successful parks are the theme parks, the parks with something for everyone. A park needs to appeal to all demographics to be successful, and Six Flags refuses to accept this. They insist, all evidence to the contrary, that they will be successful if they just keep adding coasters, loud music, superheros, fast food chains, and everything else to appease teenagers and turn off adults. They will just keep failing as long as they do not learn from their mistakes.

[GAcoaster]

The bankruptcy was much more a result of bad timing than anything. The Premier model worked in bringing in revenue through thrills and teens, and was QUITE successful at MM, GAdv, GAm and the established parks. The problem was expanding the smaller parks just as the economy went south and not being able to recoup the expenditures quickly enough.

[acq10uaz]

But I thought families had all the money. I'm a teen, honestly, I spend absolutely no money in the park. I buy a season pass. I use all the season pass coupons I can. I get a Flash Pass, about the only money I spend. Then we leave to go get food, as most teens do that didn't get dropped off.

 

Families are the ones who play games. Families are the ones who eat in the park. Banishing all the kiddie rides/kiddie sections at SFMM to one section of the park is a bad idea IMO. If a group goes with several different age groups and they want to stay together, its going to be impossible to please everyone. Thats my take on it.

 

I do think/hope SFMM can pull it off again and not turn trashy, but GAdv needs there flats and I think GAm should still be the one focusing on families while still getting thrills. They are the most rounded SF Park. SFNE is like a mini version of it. Then SF should sell off they're dead weight. I think its a good sign about who didnt receive cap ex in 2011 about who SF doesn't care about. TGE is a kiddie park, and if what you're saying is true, and I believe it, it doesn't fit what Premier did best. And SFA, poor SFA...

[GAcoaster]

Next time you're at the park, look at who plays games (literally throwing money away), and it's more teens than families.

[acq10uaz]

The only game I can think of that teens play is the 3 Point Shoot out, they're attracted to the cheap jerseys not knowing they're cheap when they see them hanging. I also see a lot of teens playing the guitar hero game. But know that I'm thinking about it, we do spend some money on arcade games when we're waiting for the flash pass to buzz.

[southview2]

That's another argument I keep hearing is "SFMM doesn't need another coaster.", "(Insert other park name here) deserves the coaster more". When it comes down to it this is a company that needs to conserve money and there are really only three or four parks that NEED major additions next season to make the company have a good year (SFMM, SFGAdv, SFGAm) which are all getting relatively major new attractions for next season. Those are the parks that make or break the company's financial performance. This new management team has realized that the Burke team was correct in deciding that many of the parks (but SFMM in particular) are THRILL parks. The only thing that makes SFMM successful is its being a unique park for coasters. The California market has got the market cornered when it comes to THEME parks, but thrills are what SF can do better.

 

You know, you really make a valid point, I have never viewd it that way before. Though I still stand with most people,in the fact that other parks do deserve a new coaster more but with it being such an "important" year they kind of do need to focus on the mothership parks more, but still the other parks need something new to be brought in to pull some crowds.

[mrceagle]

While I agree they need to focus on the big park this move is a bit Glutinous. The new Family coaster and Supeman rehab would have been plenty to market. They could have saved the 7 million Dollars and invested it or more in 2012.

 

The Zac Spin would have been better at SFNE with the mouse going to Another park, TGE perhaps. The mouse will do little to nothing for SFNE. It has received a huge backlash. On top of that it will be Competing again st 2 other new Coaster; Quassy is adding Wooden Worrier, a wood Family coaster which will only be a little smaller. Canobie Lake Park Which is on top of Some of SFNE's major markets like Worcester and Boston is adding Untamed a new Euro Fighter. Lake Compounce is also looking at a new attraction but will most likely be a Flat.