Frolic ride and King Amusements

I am very intriqued by the Frolic ride at Wyandot Lake (Monsoon). Are there any of these operating anyplace else? What other types of rides did King Amusements make?

I always liked flat rides where the rider has some control over the operation (tilt-a-whirl, flying scooters, etc.).

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everything's better with a banjo

There are a few other Frolic rides out there; I saw a center and a few tubs for one up at Vollmar's Park a couple of years ago, that one only had five tubs. I saw another one racked for travel...er...I'm trying to remember where; I want to say it was sitting on the ORI lot in Salem, OR. That would have been ca. 1996.

There is another ride almost identical to the Frolic called the "Heart Flip." That's a trailer-moutned ride and I can never remember if it is Watkins or Wisdom. In any case, Bates Amusements (the guys who do the I-X Indoor Amusement Park up in Cleveland) have one of those. Also, the Wisdom Tornado is little more than an updated Frolic...and it seems every carnival in America has bought one in the past four years.

As for other King rides...I believe the old kiddie swing ride at Wyandot (er...the one they took out last year) was a King. Stricker's Grove has a King kiddie plane ride, and there are a few additional King kiddies floating around. King did build some other adult rides, but I haven't seen any. I saw a photo of an Octopus-like ride from King at a ride safety seminar and one of the other attendees indicated that it was the ride that put King out of business, but he didn't say why or how.

I'm curious, millrace, are you one of those thousands of people I could have met at Wyandot Lake last Sunday?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Are there any pictures of these around? The description sounds really similar to a ride being set up for a carnival down the street from my house this week.

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I don't like your tone, chris...

Here is the one going up by my house:

http://www.windycityamusements.com/midway/majorrides/tornado.html

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I don't like your tone, chris...

Thanks for your help RideMan. I wasn't at Wyandot last Sunday. In fact, I haven't gone there at all this year. I about had my fill last year, especially since they didn't add anything new. What was going on to have thousands of people. Oh and how does that carousel look? Is it finally finished? I peeked at little at it from behind the fence but didn't a good look :)

Chris: I don't know of any pictures of a Frolic. Basically, the ride consists of tubs suspended from a frame that swing out as the ride rotates. Each tub holds two people oppisite from one another with a horizontal wheel that you can turn to make the tub spin. It isn't something I can ride too many times in a row (or even ride once when you have the sadistic operator I had last year).

( Just saw that picture. Same idea but the Frolic has more of a primitive appearance)

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everything's better with a banjo *** This post was edited by millrace on 7/26/2001. ***