D.Silentu
Well-Known Member
I like your description here. Having experienced it both ways, that’s exactly how it felt. Advantages in each direction.
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All things Magic Mountain
- Thread starter Phroobar
- Start date
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
One of only two rides of its type built, yes. The other one was at Dream World in Australia, which also had the built-in drop tower a long time before Magic Mountain did (ironically, the Australian ride was called...Tower of Terror).
Although I never got to ride Flashback, for whatever reason it always fascinated me in the Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 Magic Mountain scenario. It was only later that I found that it actually started at MY Six Flags park (Great America), where it had been called Z-Force. Although I've never heard anything positive about the ride experience, it's sort of a prototypical ride in that it indirectly led to all sorts of influential rides that came later-Batman, Goliath, Riddler, etc.
The seatbelt on Riddler is a secondary restraint, a back-up in the unlikely event the primary restraint fails.
In addition, for most of the industry it is a relatively recent feature for a roller coaster computer system to insist on a coaster restraint be fastened to a particular place before the ride dispatched. This is a result of a few things: 1) changing ideas about coaster restraints over the last few decades, in concert with 2) the push for more extreme airtime requiring stricter, tighter restraints for rider safety. For much of roller coaster history, gravity worked sufficiently enough as a primary restraint-the lap bars/shoulder bars were actually secondary restraints much of the time. Why? Because even on attractions that heavily featured airtime/negative g forces in the past, the forces were not extreme enough to put the rider in any real danger of flying out unless they straight up were doing something they weren't supposed to be doing, like standing up. You could ride virtually any coaster built before 1992 or so without any restraint actively engaged and lived to tell the tale, assuming you didn't do anything stupid or there wasn't a random ride fault when you happened to be riding. Into the early 2000's, you used to be able to go on certain Coaster Nerd sites and find pictures of coaster enthusiasts riding coasters with restraints that were very clearly not fully engaged or closed around the rider, if they were even closed at all.
This didn't change until the mid-90s when new companies like Intamin and now RMC were coming into the coaster market in full force, using newly developed computer technology to put new emphasis on extreme negative-g forces on many of their designs, making it possible to build rides that took extreme thrills to the next level. Suddenly those restraints became primary, and before the industry fully adjusted to this new reality, a few people flew out of those rides to their deaths as a result of the unfortunate combination strong negative-g forces, inadequate restraints, and rider size (two of the three Superman: Ride of Steel coasters built by Six Flags in 99/2000 have done this, as has the RMC-designed New Texas Giant). Hence, since then on average there have been more restrictive restraints, harnesses needing to go down to a certain threshold to be allowed to dispatch, the increased use of seatbelts on everything, and so on.
It's a redundancy to keep you safely seated in the event your harness fails. It's also used as the visual go/no go indicator on B&M rides (Silver Bullet, Batman, Riddler, etc). Can't fasten the belt? You can't ride.
BuzzedPotatoHead89
Well-Known Member
Replace Riddler with Log Jammer and you have my all time top 3. I don’t mind the B&Ms just feel a derivative after a while.
Gold Rusher, Viper, and even grand circle touring the metro were fun, too. Heck I even miss the old Batman and Robin stunt show and Looney Tunes Discount electric parade.
Haven’t been to the park in ages though, honestly don’t plan to go back.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Funny I was actually thinking about replacing Goliath with Log Jammer.
Misted Compass
Well-Known Member
https://www.ocregister.com/2025/03/28/six-flags-magic-mountain-permanently-closes-superman-coaster/
Superman confirmed permanently closed. Lex Luthor Drop of Doom remains in operation.
Superman confirmed permanently closed. Lex Luthor Drop of Doom remains in operation.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
I'm not shocked. While an icon of the park, it's not a particularly exciting ride, it's a relatively old ride at this point, and it's pricy to maintain-and the park's operating company is looking to cut costs.
I imagine it'll be a weird ride to describe to younger enthusiasts within a few years.
denyuntilcaught
Well-Known Member
Has anyone heard any updates regarding the new coaster? SFMM is surprisingly quiet about it.
Mr. Sullivan
Well-Known Member
I don't think we're gonna hear about it for a little bit. Six Flags released a couple of months ago a big master list of their upcoming projects and provided no specific details about it then. I would imagine we won't hear more specifics until it's further along. They seem to be wanting to push attention toward Top Thrill 2 and Rapterra over in Ohio at the moment.
truecoat
Well-Known Member
Vekoma glider coaster. This picture is accurate from the top down but the height of the track is unknown.
So that goes next to Full Throttle where the theater was?
Suspended Motorbike coaster. Currently it looks like everything has been delayed at the construction site. Even the weeds are growing back.
Nirya
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone! I just went to Magic Mountain Thursday for the first time in 10 years and had some thoughts.
Overall
I actually had a great time at the park outside of two specific instances. It was a scorcher of a day (100 degrees at the height) which kept crowds low, but the park in general actually looked fairly good and operations were (for the most part) good as well. We got into the park at opening and I was initially afraid that things were going to go poorly, as X2 was not ready at opening and Tatsu was only running one train (and one side of the station), but that ended up being an anomoly as those two were the only coasters not running at least two trains. Loading was slow but thorough, which I appreciated given the coasters involved. The park was pretty clean, and all of the staff we interacted with were great. I was not expecting the quality, but here we are.
The Negatives
This goes to the two non-coasters we did, Justice League and Jetstream. Let's start with Justice League because this thing was an absolute mess. The ride queue is definitely a step above the normal Six Flags quality, but the park isn't even bothering with the pacing and pulsing people into the preshow room with Cyclops (not that the room is working properly anyway). They were only running four cars, which was wild, and the loading was a nightmare, especially because the poor employee at the front was alternating filling cars with the regular guest and single rider line (did we abuse this to cut our wait time in half? Absolutely). The ride itself is fairly neat, with a mix of audio animatronics and screens that you would not expect from a Six Flags park (the Joker one in particular is very good) but ho boy those screen sections are rough, especially the last few that involve chase sequences; the whole thing is animated at like 10 frames a second and I'm fairly certain I got motion sickness from it. On top of that, it's a shooter where the guns just don't work; Buzz Lightyear is more accurate than this thing. I got off the ride confused by what I had just experienced, and definitely a low point for the day given it was one of the longer waits we experienced.
The other low point was Jetstream. Now, I'm not upset at the length of the line - it was a hot day, of course everyone wanted to go on the one water ride that was open - but good lord this thing is broken. It had a breakdown at one point, and I sat there watching employees have to jump up and down on the backside of the boats to get them to catch the rotating platform and move forward. One boat just kept getting cycled without any riders, presumably because it was broken, but then why is it even on the track if that is the case? I get that Six Flags probably felt they needed to run this thing given the log ride is gone and Roaring Rapids are down, but they should probably spend the winter fixing it (or build a new water ride).
Coaster Rankings
Spoiler: we enjoyed pretty much all the coasters, so this is more a ranking of how much we enjoyed them. In general, if you love coasters you can't really beat this selection and variety, but if you're not a fan I'm not sure how much you'd get out of this park.
1. Full Throttle
2. Twisted Colossus - The top spot was a toss-up between these two coasters, but ultimately I went with the only coaster we rode twice. Full Throttle is shorter than I would have liked, and feels like it needed one more element after the top hat to make it one of the all-time great coasters, but what it does have packs one hell of a punch. That loop is so ridiculous to experience with the lap bar seating, and the second launch is a great bit as well. On the flip side, I've never been on an RMC coaster, and Twisted Colossus literally had me out of my seat from the word go. It's a fantastic ride that is a great successor to the original ride.
3. Wonder Woman: Flight of Courage - Maybe my surprise coaster of the day, but this thing absolutely whips and is a fantastic ride. The comfort collar usually isn't something I like on a ride but in this particular case it made me feel better about the rest of the ride.
4. X2 - This is not a slight against X2, which is still one of my favorite coasters ever. I just wish they did better with the operations on this thing; running only one train should be considered a crime for this thing.
5. Westcoast Racers - Where I was happy with the double length of Twisted Colossus, I was pretty abivalent about it here. I think the ride itself is pretty good, but I can understand why they doubled it and had you go through the course twice, because in general it's pretty short.
6. Goliath - In my older years, I'm really appreciating this coaster more and more. Hypercoasters are pretty no-thrills, getting most of their bang out of the size of the ride, and this one is still really impressive. I came close to graying out on the final helix, which was the only time that happened all day, so have to give credit where it's due.
7. Scream
8. Tatsu - Scream got the upper ranking mostly due to seating; we were front row on Scream while we were back row on Tatsu. I'm also dinging Tatsu for abysmal operations (1 train, only 1 station operating) so I'm wondering if this thing is due for a refurb in the future. They're still both good coasters, and Tatsu's giant loop is maybe the most impressive element between the two, but I'm trying to rank these things as well as possible.
9. Viper - I have a soft spot for Viper, but some of it feels like we're getting close to the end of the road for this coaster. Maybe a long refurb is in the future to modernize this thing, or a replacement.
10. Riddler's Revenge
11. Batman - These are both solid, workhorse coasters, nothing bad to say.
12. Apocalypse - It's a wooden coaster, with all the positives and negatives that implies, and this is still a pretty good coaster, but my heart will always lie with Ghostrider. Maybe they'll get lucky and move Gold Striker down here from California's Great America when that park closes in a few years.
13. Revolution - Nothing against Revolution, which is surprisingly smooth given its age. There are just much better coasters in the park.
14. Gold Rusher - It's the only "bad" coaster here, definitely from a time when coaster development was still in its growing stage, but there's value in having this coaster still running through the hillside as a step-up for smaller children.
Overall
I actually had a great time at the park outside of two specific instances. It was a scorcher of a day (100 degrees at the height) which kept crowds low, but the park in general actually looked fairly good and operations were (for the most part) good as well. We got into the park at opening and I was initially afraid that things were going to go poorly, as X2 was not ready at opening and Tatsu was only running one train (and one side of the station), but that ended up being an anomoly as those two were the only coasters not running at least two trains. Loading was slow but thorough, which I appreciated given the coasters involved. The park was pretty clean, and all of the staff we interacted with were great. I was not expecting the quality, but here we are.
The Negatives
This goes to the two non-coasters we did, Justice League and Jetstream. Let's start with Justice League because this thing was an absolute mess. The ride queue is definitely a step above the normal Six Flags quality, but the park isn't even bothering with the pacing and pulsing people into the preshow room with Cyclops (not that the room is working properly anyway). They were only running four cars, which was wild, and the loading was a nightmare, especially because the poor employee at the front was alternating filling cars with the regular guest and single rider line (did we abuse this to cut our wait time in half? Absolutely). The ride itself is fairly neat, with a mix of audio animatronics and screens that you would not expect from a Six Flags park (the Joker one in particular is very good) but ho boy those screen sections are rough, especially the last few that involve chase sequences; the whole thing is animated at like 10 frames a second and I'm fairly certain I got motion sickness from it. On top of that, it's a shooter where the guns just don't work; Buzz Lightyear is more accurate than this thing. I got off the ride confused by what I had just experienced, and definitely a low point for the day given it was one of the longer waits we experienced.
The other low point was Jetstream. Now, I'm not upset at the length of the line - it was a hot day, of course everyone wanted to go on the one water ride that was open - but good lord this thing is broken. It had a breakdown at one point, and I sat there watching employees have to jump up and down on the backside of the boats to get them to catch the rotating platform and move forward. One boat just kept getting cycled without any riders, presumably because it was broken, but then why is it even on the track if that is the case? I get that Six Flags probably felt they needed to run this thing given the log ride is gone and Roaring Rapids are down, but they should probably spend the winter fixing it (or build a new water ride).
Coaster Rankings
Spoiler: we enjoyed pretty much all the coasters, so this is more a ranking of how much we enjoyed them. In general, if you love coasters you can't really beat this selection and variety, but if you're not a fan I'm not sure how much you'd get out of this park.
1. Full Throttle
2. Twisted Colossus - The top spot was a toss-up between these two coasters, but ultimately I went with the only coaster we rode twice. Full Throttle is shorter than I would have liked, and feels like it needed one more element after the top hat to make it one of the all-time great coasters, but what it does have packs one hell of a punch. That loop is so ridiculous to experience with the lap bar seating, and the second launch is a great bit as well. On the flip side, I've never been on an RMC coaster, and Twisted Colossus literally had me out of my seat from the word go. It's a fantastic ride that is a great successor to the original ride.
3. Wonder Woman: Flight of Courage - Maybe my surprise coaster of the day, but this thing absolutely whips and is a fantastic ride. The comfort collar usually isn't something I like on a ride but in this particular case it made me feel better about the rest of the ride.
4. X2 - This is not a slight against X2, which is still one of my favorite coasters ever. I just wish they did better with the operations on this thing; running only one train should be considered a crime for this thing.
5. Westcoast Racers - Where I was happy with the double length of Twisted Colossus, I was pretty abivalent about it here. I think the ride itself is pretty good, but I can understand why they doubled it and had you go through the course twice, because in general it's pretty short.
6. Goliath - In my older years, I'm really appreciating this coaster more and more. Hypercoasters are pretty no-thrills, getting most of their bang out of the size of the ride, and this one is still really impressive. I came close to graying out on the final helix, which was the only time that happened all day, so have to give credit where it's due.
7. Scream
8. Tatsu - Scream got the upper ranking mostly due to seating; we were front row on Scream while we were back row on Tatsu. I'm also dinging Tatsu for abysmal operations (1 train, only 1 station operating) so I'm wondering if this thing is due for a refurb in the future. They're still both good coasters, and Tatsu's giant loop is maybe the most impressive element between the two, but I'm trying to rank these things as well as possible.
9. Viper - I have a soft spot for Viper, but some of it feels like we're getting close to the end of the road for this coaster. Maybe a long refurb is in the future to modernize this thing, or a replacement.
10. Riddler's Revenge
11. Batman - These are both solid, workhorse coasters, nothing bad to say.
12. Apocalypse - It's a wooden coaster, with all the positives and negatives that implies, and this is still a pretty good coaster, but my heart will always lie with Ghostrider. Maybe they'll get lucky and move Gold Striker down here from California's Great America when that park closes in a few years.
13. Revolution - Nothing against Revolution, which is surprisingly smooth given its age. There are just much better coasters in the park.
14. Gold Rusher - It's the only "bad" coaster here, definitely from a time when coaster development was still in its growing stage, but there's value in having this coaster still running through the hillside as a step-up for smaller children.