Way back when Apollo’s Chariot made it’s debut, it featured the original 4 across B&M mega coaster train design, and for the longest time, that’s the way things were. It wasn’t until 2008, when Canada’s Wonderland opened Behemoth, was there an alternative design. The new design featured staggered “stadium seating.” Giving each seat a more open air feel, and in turn, due to the longer more spread out cars, each train is longer, resulting in varied experiences depending on whether you sit at the front or back.
Something else that changed with the seating layout, is the zero car. As you can probably tell from the pictures, the original design, used on Leviathan, has a sunk in triangle pointed out, and in the new staggered layout, it has more rounded design, with a raised, rounded point in the middle. This change may be purely aesthetic, as the zero car design has varied on staggered trains on all B&M megas with them, as Diamondback, and Intimidator have unique designs.
Now that they’re all had the chance to open, I think it’s about time that we put 2012’s literally biggest coasters up together in a CoasterPoll. Yes you heard me right, I’m talking about the MEGA coasters. Now this year, we saw not one, or two, but three new mega coasters open to the world. Now, I’ve heard nothing but good things about all of these coasters, but I think it’s nessecary to talk about all of them.
First, we have Leviathan at Canada’s Wonderland. Now, this is a coaster that we at PureCoaster have consistently covered. In short, it’s speed, speed, speed! Every element is executed with speed and grace. To read about the world’s fourth giga coaster, check out our previous post: https://purecoaster.wordpress.com
Next up, Skyrush at Hershey Park. Now based on Hershey Park’s history with Intamin, it’s no surprise that Intamin built this coaster instead of B&M. The layout for this ride is spectacular, and many are calling it the successor to i305. Airtime, high speed/high g curves, this coaster has a bit of everything!
Finally Shambhala, B&M’s second mega coaster for 2012.
Another instant classic B&M Hyper, and it has plenty of airtime, a cool splashdown element and that unique turn-around element, (I don’t know what else to call it.)
Cedar Point hasn’t put in a new coaster since Maverick in 2007, and every year since then, rumors have circulated saying that Cedar Point would be building a new coaster for the upcoming season. Earlier this year, we learned that Cedar Point would be removing Wildcat from the park, in order to encorperate an “expansion to Celebration Plaza.” But, in a recent turn of events, we may be seeing that new rumored coaster come to fruition very soon. Recently, we’ve learned from the Sandusky Register that the park plans on investing a monumental $25 million on a record-breaking, 170ft tall B&M wing coaster, and restructuring the entrance.
However, with this news came a bit of sadness for some, (and me,) as the memo by Cedar Fair CEO Matt Ouimet to Cedar Point’s board of directors clearly states,
Disaster Transport and the Space Spiral both would have to come down if the site plan currently under consideration is chosen.
Now, this is a bit of a “deja vu” for me as the park did in fact remove White Water Landing to build Maverick, but surely the park can find a way around removing such classic rides like Disaster Transport, (arguably the park’s only dark ride,) and the Space Spiral observation tower!
Just the other day, the Facebook page Keep space spiral at cedar point posted this rendering of a possible layout for the new wing coaster, and if this really is the layout, I can see that it WILL impact the park’s entrance like Leviathan does at Canada’s Wonderland, but oddly it doesn’t seem to impact Space Spiral at all, and yet it it slotted for removal.
Additionally, Â if the entrance were to be pushed over towards the beach, both Disaster Transport and Space Spiral could be kept! Or, if the layout were to change just a little, Space Spiral’s location could be used as the entrance, and the observation tower could just be relocated like Ocean Motion was for Windseeker!
So in short, the park already removed Wildcat, dropping the park’s coaster count to 16, and now they’re planning to remove Disaster Transport AND Space Spiral, all for 1 rumored coaster? Maybe we’ll see more than this wing coaster next year? Either way, something weird is in the works at Cedar Point for 2013.
One final point I have to make is that many, (like me,) are opposed to the removal of Space Spiral and Disaster Transport from Cedar Point, so there are a bunch of Facebook pages dedicated to raising awareness of the situation! Check out Save-Disaster-Transport-and-Space-Spiral-at-Cedar-Point on Facebook right now!!!
We’re almost half-way through 2012 and the theme park news shows no signs of slowing down. Over the course of the last month, we’ve seen openings, testing, announcements, and even new construction for next season!!! Let’s take a look at what happened in theme parks this month;
X-Flight Opening
The third B&M wing coaster for 2012 finally opened, in the form of the highly appraised X-Flight, at Six Flags Great America. Also, the park surprised us with a few water and fog effects to complement this cool coaster.
SeaWorld’s second Aquatica waterpark opened in San Antonio this month. This one features the same tropical theme, with some new slides. I really think SeaWorld has a winner with this concept!
What might just be Leviathan’s biggest competitor this year is Port Adventura’s Shambhala, which features a mid-course splash-down, and the new staggered seating trains from B&M. Can B&M make a BAD hyper?
Busch Gardens’ themed launch coaster Verbolten made it’s debut recently, and I’ve really got to applaud the park for the amazing theming and backstory to this ride. The whole “Gunther and Gerta” characters, and the pitch black indoor section with the vertical drop section, makes this ride VERY unique.
SeaWorld’s second interpretation on the Manta concept opened in San Diego as a MACK launch coaster.
Skyrush Opening
What is this, the year of the mega coaster? The third new mega coaster to open for 2012 is Skyrush at HersheyPark. As the park’s 12th coaster, it joins amazing rides like Great Bear, Stormrunner, and the classic Comet.
Deja Vu reopend in it’s new home as Goliath this month, and despite the normal technical difficulties, I think it’s better suited at Six Flags New England than it was in California. Now if only they’d remove Flashback………
The third Wizarding World of Harry Potter has been announced, and it is destined for Japan. Universal Studios Japan will be building another incarnation of the highly appraised land, the famed Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, and presumably more for a 2014 opening date.
Now, 1998 may have seen the release of B&M Dive Machines, but 1999 was when two new coaster classes emerged from B&M. It was in 1999 that they unveiled their very first hyper coasters and floorless coasters to the world. Personally, these two classes of B&M coasters, are real winners in my book, but what about in yours?
B&M hyper coasters……
……. or B&M floorless coasters?
B&M released two new concepts in one year, which is better?
As mentioned in PureCoaster’s previous post “When will Cedar Point Build a New Coaster”, Cedar Fair’s flagship park hasn’t built a new coaster since Maverick in 2007, but today they announced that they would be removing the classic WildCat roller coaster from the park’s Celebration Plaza. You can read more at Coasterblog
A while back, Screamscape posted photos of the mysterious green wing coaster track at B&M’s Ohio plant, is this track destined for Cedar Point on Place of WildCat?
Canada’s Wonderland’s newest coaster Leviathan held its previews on Friday April 27th, and the folks from PureCoaster were there to check it out! With the addition of Leviathan, Canada’s Wonderland is now that much better of a park.
Leviathan dominates the park, especially the entrance. The hammerhead turn takes up that whole little park in front of the entrance. Plus, the lift hill is visible from anywhere, and when you’re driving to the park, it’s the first thing you’ll see on the horizon.
The trains do in fact feature those cool zero car add-ons with snake head theming like on Diamondback, and it should be noted that this coaster is using classic style four across cars instead of stadium seating like on Behemoth.
As for theming, I’m glad Wonderland continued the Medieval theming, and not only on the station, but in the former Cyber Central arcade building. It used to look really out of place with a large futuristic metal facade, but in the off season, the completely redid it, and in the photo on the right, you can see everything fits together seamlessly.
My thoughts on Leviathan:
Leviathan is an absolutely fantastic ride. You pull amazing g’s on the drop, and you maintain high speeds throughout the ride. The high speed curve is surprisingly fun, and yes you do pull a little airtime on it! Each element is executed with speed and elegance, Leviathan is a coaster that should be on an enthusiast’s bucket list! if you ever have a chance to come up to Canada’s Wonderland, Â take it!
And if you’re just dying to ride this thing, but sadly you can’t make it to the park, CWMania shot a great POV of the ride on preview night!
Things are really looking good for Leviathan as Canada’s Wonderland continues to check things off of Leviathan’s to-do list. Today, the park released a POV of a Leviathan test run. As things continue to show up online, I’m getting more and more pumped for the opening of this monster coaster. Additionally, if you look closely in the video, during the airtime hills you can clearly see the water dummies rise up against the restraints! Behemoth has some serious competition.
In addition to the video, Leviathan’s official blog has a new entry and the main gallery has a bunch of new photos of the trains and station building.
When Wonderland opened for the 2011 season, a fence appeared near Speed City Raceway, and immediately the speculation on what Wonderland had up their sleeve began. But in August, it was released that in 2012, a new B&M Giga would be premiering at the park.
Featuring a whopper 306ft lift hill, a top speed of 148km/h, and a bunch of classic elements, it is quite the coaster.
Now I will admit, I wasn’t thrilled when the ride was announced back in August. I was actually a little upset, (I really wanted a B&M floorless,) but as I’ve seen it rise, now I’m really looking forward to riding it, and personally I think it is an excellent addition to the park.
Leviathan’s track is finally complete, and I went up to that park yesterday and I took so many photos that if I posted them all in this post, it would run on for a ridiculously long length. So, I’ve posted the highlights here, and you can see the whole gallery on the PureCoaster’s new Flickr account.
To be honest, this is one of those rides where photos don’t do it justice, personally, I can’t wait to see it action.
it featured the original 4 across B&M mega coaster train design, and for the longest 
Something else that changed with the seating layout, is the zero car. As you can probably tell from the pictures, the original design, used on Leviathan, has a sunk in triangle pointed out, and in the new staggered layout, it has more rounded design, with a raised, rounded point in the middle. This change may be purely aesthetic, as the zero car design has varied on staggered trains on all B&M megas with them, as Diamondback, and Intimidator have unique designs.
PureCoaster 