Astroworld Viper

Is anyone certain of the outcome of Astroworld's Viper ? Has it been scrapped?

Viper and XLR8 both were scrapped

You mean - scrapped as in "scrapped" or ... put for sale?

Scrapped as in "taken out with the garbage."

Thats unfortunate, Viper was a good little ride.

That is really sad, because I thought Viper was still in pretty good shape when I rode it 2 years ago.

It's really sad to see the Looping Stars of the world disappearing everywhere. I wonder who still has one.

Six Flags Frontier City still has Silver Bullet, but this might be its last year as well.

http://rcdb.com/id153.htm

Bobbejaanland in Belgium had one till 2003. They removed it and replaced it with a Gerstlauer Euro Fighter and the park said they were looking at reinstalling the Looping Star later on... but, the cost was too expensive and it is still in storage at the park.

I am curious to find out what happened to the ACE marker(s) that was/were at the park. Wasn't Greezed Lightning marked as a classic? And wasn't there one marking the park's having 3 Schwarkopf's? Does ACE reclaim those?

Shaggy *** Edited 3/14/2006 7:23:47 PM UTC by Shaggy***

---

Shaggy said:
I am curious to find out what happened to the ACE marker(s) that was/were at the park. Wasn't Greezed Lightning marked as a classic? And wasn't there one marking the park's having 3 Schwarkopf's? Does ACE reclaim those?

Shaggy *** Edited 3/14/2006 7:23:47 PM UTC by Shaggy***

---

There was one plaque located in front of Greezed Lightnin'.

http://www.acesouthcentral.org/PhotoGallery/displayimage.php?album=10&pos=12

Currently, it's location is unknown. ACE requested the plaque be returned but it somehow got lost in the mess of the auctions and demolition.

I know XLR-8's trains were relocated to Magic Mountain, they arrived at the park a few weeks ago, but I'm curious to know whether or not Viper's trains went to any of the Six Flags parks with a Schwarzkopf coaster...(SFoT's ShockWave -- SFoG's Mindbender).

It just killed me to see the pics on Screamscape of Vipers tracks all crushed and just discarded in the dumpster. I'd give anything to have a Looping Star in my backyard, delivers such a solid fun ride for it's size.

I would have given SF a couple of grand just to take it off their hands, then donate it to Bonfante Gardens or some other small park that could really use a great ride like this. I can't believe they couldn't find anyone to donate it to or something, it was one of my favorite coasters there. To casually just discard another great Anton coaster to the junk heap is unforgivable :o(

I am sad to see this coaster go. As a kid this was one of my favorite coasters. It was the first one I rode that had an inversion. I had been hoping to get to Texas to re-ride the Jet Scream and see if it lived up to my memories from long ago. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Long live Jet Scream!

---

jomo said:

I would have given SF a couple of grand just to take it off their hands, then donate it to Bonfante Gardens or some other small park that could really use a great ride like this. I can't believe they couldn't find anyone to donate it to or something, it was one of my favorite coasters there. To casually just discard another great Anton coaster to the junk heap is unforgivable :o(

---

Ehh. Not so quick. Those coasters were scrapped because they were worth more in scrap metal than to be relocated and marketed as a new thrill ride at another one of Six Flags' parks. To say that they were "casually discarded" is to be ignorant. They were discarded, yes, but Six Flags makes money off their scrapping and liquidation, especially since steel costs and demand have blown through the roof. Think of it as you going to the neighborhood aluminum/glass/plastic recycling venue and turning in all of these cans and getting cash in return. Except with Six Flags' case, they're recycling steel and they get a hefty sum in return. Same concept, almost.

^^Couldn't have said it any better myself. SF realized how much the coasters were going to fetch on the market, and realized that the money they could get to recycle that amount of steel would be much greater. That was definately true to XLR8 and Viper. And they probably took the steel off the tracks of Texas Cyclone too.

I totally understand about saving a classic type of ride, but the decision to close SFAW was truly a business decision right down to which coasters to save and which to send to the plant to get melted down. Very sad, but that's how business runs sometimes.

During the auction, there were bids to take the coasters as scrap metal and the top bid for Viper was $6,000. SFI didn't even scrap the whole coaster just the track so they probably only got about $3,000 for the metal. I don't know how you could possibly consider this to be a good business decision. Viper had to be worth more than $3,000 as a coaster. I find it appalling that you can try to justify the desecration of an Anton classic as "recycling," and then have the nerve to tell anyone who disagrees with you that they are ignorant.

---

kRaXLeRidAh said:

---

jomo said:

I would have given SF a couple of grand just to take it off their hands, then donate it to Bonfante Gardens or some other small park that could really use a great ride like this. I can't believe they couldn't find anyone to donate it to or something, it was one of my favorite coasters there. To casually just discard another great Anton coaster to the junk heap is unforgivable :o(

---

Ehh. Not so quick. Those coasters were scrapped because they were worth more in scrap metal than to be relocated and marketed as a new thrill ride at another one of Six Flags' parks. To say that they were "casually discarded" is to be ignorant. They were discarded, yes, but Six Flags makes money off their scrapping and liquidation, especially since steel costs and demand have blown through the roof. Think of it as you going to the neighborhood aluminum/glass/plastic recycling venue and turning in all of these cans and getting cash in return. Except with Six Flags' case, they're recycling steel and they get a hefty sum in return. Same concept, almost.

---

In that case, could they please scrap Ninja at Six Flags Over Georgia or Flashback at Magic Mountain? Shouldn't they scrap any looping coaster NOT built by Anton or B&M? Just a thought.

Ignorant is not always used in a disrespectful way. Ignorant generally means not fully knowing and in his point that I gathered was that most individuals think that the park just through it away and gained nada, but that clearly isn't the case.

Considering that Six Flags is trying to generate as much funds as possible, I can't imagine them not making the best decision possible. I personally think that the bids weren't satisfactory enough so they recycled the steel and kept the trains and are using them at other Parks as spare and repair parts. Keeping the trains was a great move all it's own. More than worth $6000.

---

SK610 said:
^^Couldn't have said it any better myself. SF realized how much the coasters were going to fetch on the market, and realized that the money they could get to recycle that amount of steel would be much greater. That was definately true to XLR8 and Viper. And they probably took the steel off the tracks of Texas Cyclone too.

I totally understand about saving a classic type of ride, but the decision to close SFAW was truly a business decision right down to which coasters to save and which to send to the plant to get melted down. Very sad, but that's how business runs sometimes.

---

Well if that's the case, think about how much money Six Flags can get out of the scrap metall of Nitro, All of the Goliaths, Titan, and Kingda Ka, when there time comes. Because we now know that they care nothing about the preservation of any of their rides.