B&M's first 4D coaster testing.

Offride footage of Raptor at Gardaland testing. Looks nice. Wide trains just like the Arrow model.

Beemer 4D

BUY A TRIPOD!

It's not really a 4D coaster as the seats remain stationary, it's more of a wing walker type ride.

Looks interesting, though, but I can't say myself that I'm rushing to ride one. Now, if they do come up with a model where the seats rotate...

Yeah Tekwardo. I had started thinking about that right after I posted this. If the seats don't rotate, it wouldn't classify as a 4D. Oh well, it looks like one though!!! :)

Yeah, the train looks a lot like the Arrow version. I'd love to see B&M take this and make something that had a controlled rotation, put some inversions, overbanks, and a vertical drop on it. Mayhaps one day.

This, to me, looks about as exciting as Furious Bacco, and that, to me, isn't that exciting looking. Still, nice to see B&M try something new.

kpjb said:
BUY A TRIPOD!

I'd settle for him not drinking six cans of Red Bull prior to picking up the camera.

Maybe he had parkinsons? ;-)

Which if we've learned anything at all in the news this week means he may be taking meds that turn him into a gay sex addict.

I have to say I saw that story too...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1352747/Parkinsons-drug-ReQ...ather.html

The reality is that he probably had to use the money to pay Gay escorts - because he's certainly not hot enough to attract anything for free!

He wouldn't need a tripod if he would just hold the camera close to his body. That seems to help me when I don't have a tripod.

I can't remember where, but I read somewhere that the next installation of a train of this type will feature rotating seats. I don't know how believable that info is, because I can't recall where it came form.

This ride, so far, looks slow and small. It's not amazing, but maybe it will be a precursor for something much more interesting.

One could argue that some of B&M's other prototypes (Iron Wolf, Oblivion, & AIR) haven't particularly been amazing compared to later installations. I'd be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that this prototype will lead to bigger and better things.

The only problem with your logic there, is that Iron Wolf IS awesome. So are the Batman rides.

/\ Iron Wolf being a bad ride is as tired a sentiment as all Vekomas being unreliable pain-trains. B&M doesn't make them like that anymore and it's a shame.

The seating on this ride looks fun. Different than Furius Baco in that it's to the side of the track, like X, but fixed. The concept is like a floorless and invert had sex. I hope this isn't as lame as B&M's last prototype, where they also took another company's idea and managed to douse it with Nyquil and suck.

What was their last prototype?

Air/S:UF both opened in 2002.

I love how the ride is being written off as sub-par already, and that hopefully the next versions will be better, and being compared to other less-than-stellar prototypes...after watching a minute of an empty train doing a test run on a coaster we can barely see through trees and buildings.

I didn't think S:UF was a disappointing prototype, and I don't really know anyone who was disappointed after riding Air.

Not even necessarily prototype, I thought it was a waste of steel in general. Then again, I'm perfectly aware that some/many may feel similarly about some of the coasters I enjoy- Iron Wolf being one of them.

For the record, I enjoyed Iron Wolf and S:UF. And Batman. And what ever the first floorless coaster I rode was ;).

In this instance, this is just a new seating configuration on an inverting B&M sitdown. I'm kind of over those, because I'm just not that into inverting coasters that much anymore. That's why this looks bland to me.

Medusa east (first floorless) is still certainly a good ride.