Heide Park- B&M Wingcoaster 2014 looks interesting.

Alton Towers also has severe restrictions that force that creativity. Look outside of that park and the differences in layouts between European and US B&Ms seem less pronounced.

ApolloAndy said:

I wonder if it has to do with amount of competition from other nearby parks. If the 2 other parks within 300 miles of you have B&M inverts, you're going to want to build one with an "-est" and especially with a lot of "loop-de-loops."

Unless of course you're Six Flags. Then you just plop down a Batman invert at every park you own. And if a park 16 miles away already has one, you just paint it blue and hope no one notices.

In defense of Six Flags, Batman - The Ride has to be probably the best choice you can pick for a signature ride.

Within reason, I'm totally okay with having that one ride at every park, and I think B-TR is a perfect choice. It's when every park has a SLC and Boomerang that it's probably time to start diversifying your ride portfolio.

Every Six Flags park should have its own signature ride, not the same batman invert over and over again. It's a pretty sad example of how capitalism works, imo.

Germany is impressive, not only can they haul massive coasters like Alpina Bahn and Olympia Looping thru the country, looks like they can build a b&m wingcoaster in a week. The progress on this thing is mindblowing

Thanks for the great shots, but I'm not sure what your point is about the superior Germans. I doubt they're working to get the ride open as soon as possible. Surely the reason for an end of season push on construction like this is weather- get as much done as possible before the harsh winter hits.
I think we'll see as rapid a build on Banshee now that pieces parts are showing up on site. I bet we see most of it before the close of the season in late October. It was the same thing with or-Maverick for instance.
Cedar Point was stuck building most of their wing rider after the season due to it's location. Demolition had to be done that would have been disruptive, and they couldn't very well have torn out the front of the park until everyone was gone.
I'm with you, though, on the subject of huge portables for the fun-fair circuit. it seems every major city there has a Fest of some sort and they drag those giant rides from place to place. The best we see here in the U.S. might be some old-ass Looping Star or a Windstorm. And they're few and far between.
A couple of thoughts. Big rides like that are manufactured over there to begin with, and a U.S. showman would be faced with the burden and cost of importing. Carnival companies here are busy consolidating all over the place, just to save themselves in a tough economy, and there are very few independent showmen that could carry pieces like that over here. Plus, it might be a matter of geography. Our country's fair circuit is three thousand miles wide, while Bavaria isn't nearly as big. Those coasters travel the road on many many trailers, and here in the U.S. transportation like that just isn't happening anymore. There's gasoline prices, staff to hire, cranes to carry or rent, etc.
To know this, all one has to do is visit a show like IAAPA. Many manufacturers are currently touting one trailer rides, and showmen are snapping them up. That puts us even farther away from seeing large coasters, or even flats like the large Music Express rides or the huge imported spectaculars. The little one trailer rides may suck, but they sell in these tough times.

Looks like a very impressive ride. I think its unfair to necessarily point to this ride and say that it shows rides in Europe are necessarily more "creative". We have yet to see many of these wing rider coasters built in general so its fairly easy to integrate new and exciting elements into each installation. For example, each of the wing riders built herein the US have been fairly original rides compared to one-another.

Capitalize said:

Looks like a very impressive ride. I think its unfair to necessarily point to this ride and say that it shows rides in Europe are necessarily more "creative". We have yet to see many of these wing rider coasters built in general so its fairly easy to integrate new and exciting elements into each installation.

If you go back and read what I'm saying, I'm not talking uniqueness or the types of elements at all.

I'm talking the look, the feel, the flow of the ride. I can say without hestiation that this coaster is more 'artistic' than any of the US wing riders.

I agree that its a fantastic looking ride. Hopefully it won't be long and we'll see that pretzel loop type element on a wing rider on this side of the atlantic.

Or on any type of coaster. Can you imagine that thing on an invert!?

To me, Europe coasters seem to have fewer elements with better transitions. I've seen videos of Swarm, and that's what this reminds me of. Gatekeeper is nothing like that.

EDIT: FIXED GRAMMAR!1!!11!1!!!!1!!

"Fewer", not "less."

Capitalize "Swarm."

Learn to write properly.

Sigh.

"coasters in Europe" or "European coasters" .

CoasterBuzz: A place in which you can joke around all you want about stuff that really has nothing to do with coasters, but you better make sure that you follow proper grammar guidelines and write like a journalist at all times when doing so. I recommend suing the AP Stylebook when compiling jokes about gay campgrounds and complaining about tight seat belts, and endlessly posting the phrase "Or Maverick" on a daily basis.

Also, make sure to send your post to your proofreading department for corrections before submitting it for the rest of us to see. What? You thought this was a message board? lol

Or you could just write like you talk. I'm not here to impress anyone.

I think suing the AP Stylebook would be futile.

Vive la resistance!

Travis I no wat u mean. If we isn't all fancy in like norml life than whyduz it mattar if we rite fancy like eiether.??? Any body rites like that probly bein a jornalyst or like a laywer.or watever besides we is only talkn bout roler costers and stuff like that not transtlatin th bible or sum thing so you is rite bout that.. Word.

;-)

Edited for Mr. Winkie attendance.

Coasterbuzz: a place where responsible adults have the chance to mentor Math:10/English:3 Christian School students that will need proper communication skills to be successful when Real Life finally comes along and smacks them upside the head.

LostKause said:

I'm not here to impress anyone.

Well, at least you've been successful at something. ;-)

Color me un-impressed.

(that's a joke, BTW)