PKI Avatar: Gyro Flyer?

Adam: You are, of course, correct. Let me start with that. :)

It's a question of how you look at it. What are the meaninful assets of the company? In the case of Vekoma, the product line went one way and the people went the other. Kumbak is a successor to Vekoma in the same way that Curtis D. Summers begat Custom Coasters which begat the Gravity Group. In this case, it's complicated slightly because Vekoma is also a successor to Vekoma...and carries on the product line and support of the earlier company. The thing is, Vekoma today bears about as much resemblance to Vekoma of five years ago as S&S-Arrow bears to Arrow-Huss.

To put it another way--

Kumbak:Vekoma::Morgan Manufacturing:Arrow Dynamics

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

While I agree they're not the same, I don't think you can say the people went one way and the product went the other. IMHO the majority of the face of Vekoma, i.e. what bore sales that led to revenue, was Peter Clerx, Peter Van Bilsen, and Charlotte Van Etten. They are still with the company so the while Roger went one way and the designers went another, three of the key people remained under the Huisman (sp?) ownership. I think losing these people would have been much more devastating to the company than losing the Kumbak Group. The only real difference is that the parent company essentially acts as a subcontractor for a lot of items, but with recent industry trends I can't say that even if they had not had financial issues they wouldn't be subbing things out, most people do.

Adam

"Delirium on a track would take up way too much real estate to be truly viable."

Not if the Real Estate you have to work with is a long narrow plot of land. ;-)

"But not if you shrink the disk a bit and put more than one disk on the track."

No shrinking... but oblong maybe... and one single "train."

"I am thinking a type of spinning mouse made by Huss possibly."

Guess again ;-)

Shaggy

LOL Shaggy. I can't wait for the debate on whether to count it or not ;)

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RideMan said:
Beast Fan: Remember Showquest? That was a consortium of (mostly) Dutch amusement companies, which included Vekoma and Caripro.

Anyway, something went very wrong with it, resulting in the simultaneous failure of several companies including Caripro and Vekoma. Vekoma reorganized and became Kumbak, and it seems that Caripro split, with some product going to Premier Rides and some product going to ETF.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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Vekoma still exists and is working closely together with Huisman-Itrec, a Dutch company specialised in offshore equipment. Most (if not all) of Vekoma's newest rides are built partly in the Czech Republic or in the Netherlands, by Huisman...Vekoma only does the paperwork, no more track manufacturing in Vlodrop.

Kumbak is a new (Dutch) company, with only a few ex-Vekoma employees. A bit like The Gravity Group.
They have made trains for Blackpool's Space Invader and the Efteling's Python...they are also working on a new darkride / watercoaster for that park.

ETF is a Dutch company as well, not Belgian.
It's located in Nederweert.
They aren't really specialised in anything. They have some Caripro stuff laying around, but so does (did) Vekoma. As far as I know, both ETF and Vekoma haven't build a Caripro design...

Hafema (famous for their whirpool river rapids) did. I believe the spinning one (GyroFlyer) was delivered by them.

Six Flags planned to build one at Six Flags Belgium (formerly and now again Walibi), but due to unknown reasons the project was cancelled.

And now Premier Rides has the rights / patents on these rides ?
Interesting...

Speaking of Vekoma, the Hammerhead Stall they offer is very similar to "Delirium on a track," and it seems to meet all the requirements that Shaggy has so graciously provided us.

It has one single train, with oblong cars (they are air-plane shaped on Vekoma's website) and it does involve spinning, albeit only a little.

However, they market this as a Thrill/Mega coaster, which makes me wonder how family friendly it is...

Its not a Hammerhead Stall.

Darn. One more strike and I'm out.

You won't guess because this type of ride is new and not announced yet by the manufacturer. Right, Shaggs? ;)

Hmm fun to speculate about. S & S?

If it's a long skinny plot of land I can envision it as a powered coaster that goes out to a dead end then returns back along the same track all the while spinning. Sounds fun if the seats do face outward like Delirium!

Super Disko?!

"You won't guess because this type of ride is new and not announced yet by the manufacturer. Right, Shaggs? "

Bingo... all new for Paramount PARKS.

Shaggy

My guess would be the new Mack powered Spinning line.

Adam