If The Scream Machine Must Go, Then Where?

Well once again, it seems like Six Flags has decided to *%^*$#) over its guests and take away the fabled Great American Scream Machine - and for what? To replace it with a 13 year old stand up ? Granted, its the 2nd largest stand up in the world, but its not like Great Adventure is getting a 4th-dimension or anything like that. (That would make waaaaaay too much sense). I digress.

I would hate to see the Scream Machine suffer the same fate as its older brother Shockwave. We all know what happened there. So I was just throwing this out there...If you could send the GASM to another park, which park would it be? IMHO, I would like to see it at Six Flags New England or Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Both of those parks are lacking a huge looping roller coaster and they both have space for it. I could also see it going to Six Flags Over Texas if they get rid of Flashback or place over the lake between the entrance to the park and the Judge Roy Scream. It would be an improvement to the park's skyline for sure. I could say that removing the Ninjas from either Six Flags Over GA or St. Louis would be an option too, but that would take a bit more effort.

Anyone else ponder the fate/possibilities of the Scream Machine? Just curious....

KTH

"*%^*$#) over its guests?" Isn't that a little dramatic? When have any of the giant Arrow loopers been something people wanted to ride in any significant numbers? Better question, how many parks are willing to keep paying for their upkeep?

Mark my words, it'll be scrap like Shockwave.

OH? Does that mean that Vortex and Kings Island and Viper at Magic Mountain are next on the chopping block? And BTW, Jeffrey, there are quite a people on Facebook that want to save the Scream Machine.

Well if it's on Facebook, it must mean it's a good business decision! And for the record, Vortex sucks.

Seriously though, don't you think it's a decision rooted in what makes the most business sense? Parks are not charities. If it were really that important to customers, they would keep it. See: Whizzer.

So replacing a 21 year old standard looping coaster with a 14 year old stand-up is good business sense ?

If it's cheaper to maintain and gives them something to market, yeah.

Wow coasterhound. Do you really think a headbanging Arrow looper is going to be missed when a decent B&M standup coaster replaces it? Watch how the lines will be long when Chang gets installed.

When Shockwave at SFGAm was there in its last few years, it had no lines on crowded days. As soon as Superman replaced it, the lines were huge.

Watch and learn grasshopper.

I'd much rather ride GASM or Vortex then Chang. Not that that's saying much. I really don't care what Six Flags does. They're their rides.

I have to agree with Jeff though. I don't see them relocating GASM. It's days have been numbered. It only has 9 more to go. Unless thery change their mind about when to close it for a 3rd time.

Other than a couple hundred people on Facebook and some coaster enthusiasts, how many people will know that Chang is a used coaster? Very few (See Firehawk, Nighthawk, Carolina Cobra, Dominator, etc...).

Heck, when I was there last summer people at the park were raving about the new Bizarro coaster and how cool it was.

Great Adventure has been "*%^*$#) over its guests every since Scream Machine opened! Good riddance!

LOL!

Yes, very few people in the NJ market have ridden a major stand up. If it is 100% coming, it will be a good addition. SFNJ has been rounding out its lineup pretty good of late, and this is a welcome addition.

I still haven't seen any evidence that S&S is even interested in supporting that arm of the old Arrow catalog. They may not be fabricating replacement trackage for any of the old Arrow loopers/suspendeds (to wit: PRevenge, Shockwave, Eagle's Fortresss, Big Bad Wolf).

Can you get *someone* to work on those rides - obviously. Will S&S build new replacement parts for these rides from the old Arrow catalog? I've yet to see evidence to the affirmative.

Edit: I'm from the school that says "stand-ups are a poor gimmick", so personally this does nothing for me either way (didn't much care for the old megaloopers either - Vortex is meh, Viper is a *little* better). Nonetheless, it will be a VERY welcome addition to GAdv - and hopefully get a few more people out from my Toro line... ;)

GASM about ripped off our heads when we rode it a couple years ago.
Vortex is definitely painful (unless you ride it in the front) and even then good luck.

Its too bad not alot of parks have the balls to do what Kennywood did to Steel Phantom. It would be great to see rides like GASM or Vortex suddenly being remade into amazing rides.

Viper at SFMM wasnt too bad and I was actually surprised about that.

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2231 :)

I would imagine that S&S are still supporting the rolling stock, wheels, etc. I know a few people said that the reason S&S purchased Arrow was because of the lucrative replacement parts business. But as far as track or major structural support, I doubt they'd want to mess too much with it.

Granted, you could get Vekoma or Morgan to fabricate you some track, but why?

I think that the era of Arrow loopers has come to a close. It's been 11 years since one was built, and in that time 6 have been scrapped, with this being the 7th. Arrow did a lot of great things, but they didn't innovate because they didn't have to for so long, that when they did need to start, it was too late. The best thing they did in the last decade was X (and that's a hard thing to say with all of the problems it had) and Tornado. Everything else was same old, same old.

I think S&S took the 4th dimension coaster and improved it, and I can't wait to see what the 3rd one will be like in China. And even though you can see some 'inspiration' in the new track design from S&S, it seems as though they aren't doing the things that made Arrow great, Loopers, Suspendeds, or even mine trains.

I seem to recall that Arrow let go of their track fab facilities before they even sold out.

And by the way, these sure look like the trains for sale. Note there's no coaster listed to go with them...
http://www.irmpri.com/product.htm

(3) 7 car trains from 1989 and one is blue with a white stripe? Yeah, I'd say that's them too.

What's amusing is that the photo appears to be cropped from a larger photo. My guess it that the car was probably sitting on the track in the photo and they didn't want to show the coaster.

Agent Johnson said:
Yes, very few people in the NJ market have ridden a major stand up. If it is 100% coming, it will be a good addition. SFNJ has been rounding out its lineup pretty good of late, and this is a welcome addition.

I'm sure many non-enthusiasts won't even remember that GAdv once HAD a stand-up, ShockWave. That was there in the days when I had just become a coaster nut (opened in '90, closed in '92, and I started paying attention to this stuff in the late 80's,) and I was intimidated by it and never rode. I don't particularly care for stand-ups, but if my home park can't get a NEW one, I'm glad it's Chang..it's the only one I've been on that I truly liked. Wonder what its new moniker will be...can't see them keeping "Chang."

It's near Superman. They should theme it to Doomsday ;).

S&S will still sell Arrow replacement track. They just haven't had any takers.

I will second that Viper at SFMM was surprisingly good for an old Arrow. Maybe because of the steady weather out there. Other than that, though, they're getting worse every year.