Opinions On The Edmonton Mindbender

i never here of this coaster discussed or even reviewed, it is very underated. i have been 3 times and it is not for the faint of heart. it's funny, the locals still talk about the accident like it happened yesterday. one of the times i visited, the second half of the train was backwards! this coaster gives you the ride of your life, but backwards, it was a torture chamber.

some of you must have ridden it.

I went to Edmonton for a long weekend about four years ago for a MACC event. We stayed at the Fantasyland hotel and really didn't need to leave the mall, but decided we should check out some of the sights of the city. Galaxyland is a fun little park. Mindbender is everything you would expect from a Schwarzkopf: fast, smooth, intense (really intense). I loved it, it's one of my favorite steel coasters-- number 14 on my steel list (which I just sent to Mitch yesterday). On the first night of our visit they were running the last car backwards. It was kind of cool for about half of the ride...but then I desperately wanted off. Fortunately it was my last ride of the night so I had the whole evening to recover before riding again.

The world waterpark is excellent too, they have some really wild slides--slides that probably could not operate in the litigious U.S.

A lovely little coaster. I made my boss ride it with me when I went on a business trip to Edmonton last year. He was white as a sheet afterward but I still got a good review! :)
The use of the indoor space was great, making you feel like a crash into the roof was imminent, much like the way trees are used elsewhere.
I wish I'd had the chance to ride backwards, though. (sigh - Ed's so far away from Pittsburgh.Don't know when I'll get to go back.)

Has anybody been on it and its sister in Atlanta? I absolutely love SFOG's model, and I just hope that Anton made the Edmonton one as good

^^^^ SFOG's Mindbender isn't a "sister" to the Edmonton Mindbender (unless you just meant by name). Edmondton's is much larger stat wise, and probably much more intense. However, SFOG's 'bender is a classic due to its great lapbars and perfect pacing. You just can't beat the Kopf!

I realize that, but they are similar, I mean, same designer, a steel looper (The Edmonton one has another inversion and it beigger, I know) and I think that they even share the horizontal loops (or at least that is what one of the photos at RCDB suggests). I knew that the aren't clones or anything...

Edmonton is on my to-do list, but it is so far away from the rest of the world that I don't realistically expect to get there any time in the near future.

The "real" sister of the Edmonton Mindbender is the transportable "Dreier Looping" which is now in a sad state of neglect and facing an unknown future in the U.K. as "Magnum Force".

Mindbender is a mirror image of the former fairground classic and is a bit larger and longer. But the layout is identical IMO.

I wonder why Mindbender is such a brutal beast despite its slow trains. Dreier Looping is/was very forceful with its seven-car trains, but it was never as "white-knuckle" as the Canadian version seems to be.

I absolutely loved the first drop ouverture, followed by a great second drop into the loops. I still think its a far better coaster than "Thriller/Zonga" ever was.

In 1984 I witnessed a film-team shooting a movie sequence on "Dreier Looping": They strapped a stuntman ontop of the first car, and sent him through the course! They stopped in every blockbrake and checked if he was alright. I would have loved to do this too!

My wife and I grew up in the Edmonton area, and when we got married in 2003, it was in the mall and we rode the Mindbender a few minutes after the official ceremony. :) I first rode the Mindbender as soon as I was tall enough, just a few months after it reopened following the accident. Some people still don't trust it, including two of my three brothers-in-law. They ride other coasters, but "not one that kills people."

The Mindbender is a great coaster in terms of height, drop, speed, inversions and thrill-factor. However, the restraints are overkill, and there's plenty of head-banging in the high-speed helixes near the end of the ride.

I never rode it before the accident, but from what I've heard from my sister-in-law, there was only a lap-bar and maybe a seatbelt. (I suspect the restraints were similar to Hersheypark's Soopoerdooperlooper.) After the accident, it operates with seat belts, lap-bar, and uncomfortable-super-tight OTSRs which ratchet down to clap your shoulders. IMO, the clamp-down OTSR is overkill, but without the modifications, more people would be like my BILs and never ride it.

It's tough to compare with other coasters because it is so remote. The only other serious coaster within a four-hour drive is the mildly-thrilling Arrow Corkscrew at Calaway Park.

On a sad note, Mindbenders days may be numbered. When it hits 20 years old, the track needs a full metalurgical inspection. A friend of mine works for a company bidding on the inspection. He said that original construction techniques (done before the roof was installed) prohibit many of the normal X-ray testing methods, so it might have to be dismantled to be analyzed. That could be cost prohibitive for an indoor themepark. *** Edited 12/16/2004 3:01:31 PM UTC by greatwhitenorth***

geez, that's too bad, i hope it never closes. the thrill of being so close to the roof before going down that incredibly steep drop not even seeing the bottom is hard to decribe. please ride this horror machine before it's too late.

those accordion-like otsr's do tend to dig into your shoulder blades. the best way to avoid getting hurt is to hold on to the bottom of the restraints and putting your elbows on the arm rests. the trains are short (only 12 seats) and the best seats, in my opinion, are the third and fifth seat. the back seats are visually restrictive because of the otsr's. marathoning this coaster is impossible because it can be vomit enducing even after only 3-4 rides in a row.

be warned, i know two people who flew there and got sick after one ride and were unwilling to ride again. so as i have said before it is NOT for the faint of heart.

This coaster and park are on my short list of things to hopefully do next year. Thinking about driving north up from Silverwood into Calgary and Edmonton. I know it's far but the drive should be nice.