Kongfrontation

[Silver Figment]

I have never been to Universal Studios and have recently been looking into it. Something i've found is that they have closed many rides that seemed interesting to me. Kongfrontation being the biggest one. I watched videos of the ride and the detail in the entire thing was stunning. It looked like the ride gave an amazing experience and it makes me sad that if i go there it's something i can never ride.

Any thoughts on this ride ride from people who had been on it before it was closed?

 

[Skip]

To my understanding the reason it closed was maintenance costs. Most of the headliner attractions built for Universal's opening (Earthquake, Kong, Jaws, etc.) were built by the Totally Fun Company, which may now be defunct actually. Bottom line is Kong used highly custom parts that were not cheap to replace - especially after the companies that originally built them went under over the years. The Kong AAs themselves were especially problematic - the story of Bridge Kong's arm going 101 on the final day of operation is often tossed around. I also hear the Kong AAs range of motion was reduced over the years to reduce the maintenance needs.

They'll unfortunately never build attractions like that again.

 

[c-one]

I was never a huge fan of it to be honest. It was slow to the point of oddly anti-climactic, and the effects were, well, of their time. It didn't age well. Also, it annoyed me that the Roosevelt Island Tram-themed vehicle made turns around the set, because trams can only go in straight lines! Had a pretty great queue, though.

 

[Matpez]

Watching it back on video sure does make it seem somewhat less boring than it was. It is great it can live on in video and awesome that it made way for Revenge of the Mummy which is most guests favorite attraction in the Studios park.

 

[Crockett]

The Kong AAs themselves were especially problematic

Between Uni's Kong AA history and the current state of DAK's Yeti AA, perhaps future developers/imagineers in the biz should steer clear from large, hairy behemoth creations. Just saying.

 

[cheezbat]

It was...different. Unlike any other attraction out there. While it wasn't a fast paced exciting ride, it sure was a fun one! I loved the massive Kong animatronics and the banana breath and fire effects. I only rode it a few times, but I'll never forget it.

I personally hope to see the day when Kong makes a return to Universal Orlando...in any form.

 

[Skip]

Between Uni's Kong AA history and the current state of DAK's Yeti AA, perhaps future developers/imagineers in the biz should steer clear from large, hairy behemoth creations. Just saying.

Seriously, what happened to troll/Universal-hating Crockett? Not that I'm complaining, your posts across the board have been great lately. Woohoo!

Anyway, I chuckled at this. Giant AAs generally have maintenance issues - big custom parts, difficult to quickly repair, cause the attraction to go 101 out of absolute necessity for show (okay, maybe not in Everest). At least in KONG you got to take a lot of time to admire and be terrorized by the ape versus the blink-and-you'll-miss-him Yeti. When they work though, they're something to behold... the closest thing we have these days are the Cartonosaurs at DINOSAUR (easily the most impressive statside of my examples), the Big Bug at Men in Black, the Lava monster at Journey to Center of the Earth in Tokyo, and the sharks in Jaw- oh. never mind on that last one...

KONG might've suffered from poor pacing but you can't deny the sheer grandeur of its design. Quite simply, this was Universal's Pirates of the Caribbean - immersive, detail-flooded, slow-paced but exciting. It's a shame that it's gone, and Jaws with it now, too. We still have E.T., though...

 

[dave&di]

I also never got to ride ite Kong before it closed but love watching it on YouTube, it's a shame the old fashioned attractions are going. Why does everything got to be simulators these days, I can't think of anything more thrilling than being in a tram with a massive actual Gorilla swiping at me! I know this would be my favour attraction.

I also liked a massive shark jumping out the water at me too! Oh well!

 

[71jason]

The Kong AA was impressive, but otherwise, yeah, kind of a boring ride.

What I really miss was the year they had a foam party during HHN underneath Kong. Weird times at HHN. But fun.

 

[AswaySuller]

Kong was cool however, it was slow . The set and queue details were outstanding.

I wasn't devastated when it went like I am over Jaws.
I hope a kong attraction comes back.... but not the Peter Jackson one that is at USH.... I thought that was kinda meh!

 

[headhoncho34]

Seriously, what happened to troll/Universal-hating Crockett? Not that I'm complaining, your posts across the board have been great lately. Woohoo!

Anyway, I chuckled at this. Giant AAs generally have maintenance issues - big custom parts, difficult to quickly repair, cause the attraction to go 101 out of absolute necessity for show (okay, maybe not in Everest). At least in KONG you got to take a lot of time to admire and be terrorized by the ape versus the blink-and-you'll-miss-him Yeti. When they work though, they're something to behold... the closest thing we have these days are the Cartonosaurs at DINOSAUR (easily the most impressive statside of my examples), the Big Bug at Men in Black, the Lava monster at Journey to Center of the Earth in Tokyo, and the sharks in Jaw- oh. never mind on that last one...

KONG might've suffered from poor pacing but you can't deny the sheer grandeur of its design. Quite simply, this was Universal's Pirates of the Caribbean - immersive, detail-flooded, slow-paced but exciting. It's a shame that it's gone, and Jaws with it now, too. We still have E.T., though...

The dragon AA in FJ is very impressive as well.

 

[Crockett]

Seriously, what happened to troll/Universal-hating Crockett? Not that I'm complaining, your posts across the board have been great lately. Woohoo!

Our Fla trip back in Nov.

Uni has greatly improved over the years. And in comparison to WDW, while we still enjoy the place and it'll always be our favorite, just little things here & there are sorta closing the gap between the two theme-park entities. We certainly enjoyed Disney, and will go back. But it isn't the 90's anymore.

Nov's trip was sorta an eye-opener with a few things. A). Uni isn't "the big bad wolf" down the street. B). WDW certainly isn't flawless.

 

[pumpkin7]

i used to love kongfrontation. i only ever saw it as a kid, unfortunately so my memory of it is a bit sketchy. i do remember it had a fantastic smell to it. not sure how to describe it. it smelt like burning, and dirty, and creepy. i remember walking through the 'subway' queue and i'm sure there was (intended) graffitti on the walls. they made it look like a proper subway.
and turning the corner to see kong grabbing hold of the tram! wow, he was one impressive animatronic. of course, to my 8 year old self, he was kong and he scared the crap out of me every time but i loved it! it was awesome. and the CMs made it enjoyable too, like he was really there.
then in the shop at the end they had a kong that you could pose with. that was cool until they made it so you had to pay for the picture.

it's like, disaster! when it used to be earthquake. when you thought you were going into a subway on a subway ride. now though with all the preshow (that i don't remember being thre when i was younger) it's like 'look at what the movies can do!', so you KNOW it's faked. it's a shame they changed it. kind of like what they did with the back lot tour. that was like you were going onto a live set and the director didn't know you were there and the cm's paniced. they've taken that out now. it's too intentional.

 

[GLaDOS]

now though with all the preshow (that i don't remember being thre when i was younger) it's like 'look at what the movies can do!', so you KNOW it's faked.

Earthquake was always like that.

 

[MansionGoer13z]

Rode Kongfrontation once. Wasn't impressed and I was maybe 13 then maybe a bit older. Glad to see a better ride (The Mummy) has replaced it.

 

[c-one]

Earthquake was always like that.

The ride itself didn't used to be like that, though. Just the preshows. Of course, it was kind of odd to go from "we're on a set" to "omg real earthquake". Gotta stick with the shooting-a-movie theme or the total-immersion theme, not switch back and forth. (Talking to you, Revenge of the Mummy...)

 

[GLaDOS]

The ride itself didn't used to be like that, though. Just the preshows. Of course, it was kind of odd to go from "we're on a set" to "omg real earthquake". Gotta stick with the shooting-a-movie theme or the total-immersion theme, not switch back and forth. (Talking to you, Revenge of the Mummy...)

True, they never had the filming aspect on the ride, but I could have sworn they never really considered it total immersion. I don't remember the original Earthquake all that much though.

And yes, Mummy's plot is painfully uneven. Thankfully the ride makes up for it.

 

[pumpkin7]

Earthquake was always like that.

was it? meh, i must have blanked it out. i can only remember the bit on the end vividly. the pre show must have bore me even then! lol.

 

[Silver Figment]

KONG might've suffered from poor pacing but you can't deny the sheer grandeur of its design. Quite simply, this was Universal's Pirates of the Caribbean - immersive, detail-flooded, slow-paced but exciting. It's a shame that it's gone, and Jaws with it now, too. We still have E.T., though...

That's the kind of feeling i got from watching videos. It just seemed like a different quality of attraction than we seem to get sometimes nowadays (excluding the breaking down AA's on Kong). Theming and details can make an attraction so much better. I've heard fairly good things about E.T. as well, i wonder how long that'll be around for...

 

[ChrisFL]

True, they never had the filming aspect on the ride, but I could have sworn they never really considered it total immersion. I don't remember the original Earthquake all that much though.

And yes, Mummy's plot is painfully uneven. Thankfully the ride makes up for it.

In the original Earthquake....after the whole quake happens, a "director" comes out of the side and yells "CUT!!" and some stuff about great work, etc..., so it is still about movie making at that point.

I honestly didn't ride Kong that much...I think that a lot of it is the queue, the graffitti, the news broadcasts, the streets, it was just really well done.

The only large AA I haven't heard issues about is the lava monster in DisneySea, and that could be just because we don't get many reports from that side of the world.