Did anyone ever own a Spacewarp?

None of the large ones, they were too big to ride. ;)

"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

A few large ones because no one told them that the ride was designed only for smaller European marbles. Fatalities have decreased but that's because the ride has been suffering from a lot of downtime so no one is riding.

I played until I lost mine :)

Mine is sitting on the headboard of my guest bedroom.

The lift did suck, but I never had a problem with the track retaining it's shape. I built it almost 20 years ago and it still runs the ball just fine.

Fever I really enjoy the Simpsons. It's just a shame that I am starting to LOOK like Homer.

I think I started playing more once I lost mine!

I had a Black Wolf coaster, which I think was a spacewarp version. I was really young when I had it though, and I don't know what happened to it over the years. I do remember thoroughly enjoying it! It had a moving staircase and all kinds of other neat stuff. Can't seem to find a pic of it online though.

I wish I still had it!

On a side but related note, if anyone has seen the Anthony Hopkins movie Fracture, they have some REALLY cool metal marble drop devices in that. I want those all over my house!

Mamoosh said:
I played until I lost mine

Your "one" marble? ;)

My Spacewarp knockoff used plastic supports. They, and the cross-ties were made from cheap plastic. I ended up breaking most of them.

I liked making loops, but they tended to eat up a lot of the momentum.

"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

I had a couple of these and loved it but could never get the lift to work either. Also cutting the tub/track stuff would ruin it too. The little pins that came with the kit would make for nasty marble potholes.

I think I had the Black Wolf. I vaguely remember the box.

I attempted loops but I had the same problem with them using up a lot of momentum. I found that it was best to put a loop at the end of the ride so there was plenty of momentum before it for twists, turns and drops.

Oh my gosh, I just found this picture, and it's insane. One really has to wonder if it even worked! It must have taken a dozen kits.

http://www3.tokai.or.jp/matoba/spacewarp/maxi_sw.jpg

So...did anyone else design diving 1/2-loops into their layout? Once I got them to work they were pretty cool! ;)

I did! Corckscrews too! I just fiddled with the inversion until it worked.

-Travis
www.youtube.com/TSVisits

Give me some Spacewarp track, and I'd give Ron Toomer a run for his wire-bending money. I tried all sorts of stuff, including an inverting top hat, years before Premier would use one.

I also came up with an inversion I called a "split 9," which I can only describe in RCT terms. From ground level, angle up to vertical, twist to the left 90 degrees, then insert two quarter-loops (the top and right side of the "9"). Then pull up to horizontal, half-corkscrew to the right, followed by a half-loop. You end up going the same direction as when you started. Would never work in real life, but those marbles can handle more G's than your average peep.

I think the marbles worked reasonably well because they were pretty heavy. At least they had momentum once they got going.

I had the Black Wolf kit, I was too young to put it together so one of my friend's older brothers started to work on it for me, he never finished it. I was saw a small part of the kit last year in the basement but can't find the rest. It looked like fun but I never got to see it run

I could never imagine building something like that only to have the marble get stuck at one place... would you ever find it?

RCPete said:
Oh my gosh, I just found this picture, and it's insane. One really has to wonder if it even worked! It must have taken a dozen kits.
http://www3.tokai.or.jp/matoba/spacewarp/maxi_sw.jpg[/quote]

Wow. Now I can see my cats getting into something like that. ;)
-Tina

Ahhh, Spacewarp. I worked on my parents for years after seeing that thing in the JC Penny catalog. I loved it when I finally got it, although I too experienced the weak cross ties. My lift motor died when I stuck the contacts into an extension cord in an effort to make it go faster. I can remember working on projects on the weekends, and being so engrossed I'd lose track of time only to realize it was 3 AM and I had to start my paper route in three hours.