Could Chance MFG. possibly build a TUMBLER?

Okay, call it a dream if you will, but it has always been a hope of mine to have a Chance Tumbler in my show. If anyone remembers these, then you will know that they are extremely rare, and only one was ever built. I spoke with chance a couple of years ago about building a Turbo, and they said that the expenses would be right at 1,000 000. But they did sound willing. I wonder if it would be the same case with the Tumbler, or would they refuse because they only built ONE model...

You realize, of course, that when there is only one of a particular ride built, there is usually a pretty good reason, right? 8-)

Oh, and that reason generally involves things that the people involved do not like to talk about.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Yeah, i know. Lol.

But... i think that it was WAY ahead of it's time, (1968) and i think that now, it would be a big success.

It just looks so fascinating, i wish that i weren't born 12 years after it's demise.. ;)

I didn't realize that there was just one Tumbler. Did the one at SFOG wind up being the one I saw in derelict pieces years later at Brooklyn's Coney Island?

RideMan said:

Oh, and that reason generally involves things that the people involved do not like to talk about.

For the uninformed, what happened? Sorry... when you said that, it caught my interest.

RCMAC said:

I didn't realize that there was just one Tumbler. Did the one at SFOG wind up being the one I saw in derelict pieces years later at Brooklyn's Coney Island?

Yes... there was only one built, as you said.

I think so. I know that that the one that was in SFOG was transferred to two different parks after it left there, and was eventually scrapped. So it might have been the one you saw.

Almost forgot about this one. A lot of the rides that Chance built during that era didn't last too long. For the most part they were extremely heavy, (giving a whole new meaning to the carny term "pig iron") and had low RPH figures. They were willing to try a lot of things that the other established ride manufacturers wouldn't touch, and found out why they shouldn't have.

This old thread has some info.

Scottt: I'm not aware of anything in particular with the Tumbler. But quite often with something massive like that, what happens is that the ride ends up being a lot less fun than it looks, or doesn't work very well, or costs more to operate than it earns, or...whatever.

It was more of an observation than a specific comment about the Tumbler.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I bet something similar would do very well now. Looks like a frisbee and a Chaos combined. Bring on the vomit!!

Frisbee + Chaos = Evolution

That one of those fell over was not really the fault of the ride, but hasn't exactly helper it's popularity, either.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.