Six Flags Magic Mountain new rides

I just wish they find a way to make X smooth again the way it supposedly was at some point.
When I was on it the last time, it beat me around pretty badly.
Someone said "the people coming down from X looked like they just had been in a war zone" - "the fight of man against machinery" etc...
I think there is some truth to that.

Make it smooth and it's going to be one of the most mind boggling surreal experiences human beings can have on this planet.

I do hope they manage to drive this thing to its true potential!!
Good luck Six Flags Magic Mountain!

One other positive thing about this is that this is the first time in years where they are going to have a marketing angle targeted towards their core coaster crowd and towards the family demo with Thomas Town.

I think the last time they attempted to appeal to both markets in the same year with
"new" attractions when they intended to debut Goliath Jr. along with Deja Vu and X in 2001. That timeline didn't work out as it turned out, hope they are more successful this time around.

I think that this makes total sense -- X is extremely unique, and is located in a market that is extremely competitive with parks. You have Disneyland, DCA, Universal Hollywood and Knott's Berry Farm all in the same area. When you take those parks and you try to compete against them, you need to do *something* different.

Honestly, I don't know what the point in the Thomas Town part of the addition is. I don't see many people thinking, "Oh, Thomas is at Magic Mountain, so lets take the kids there instead of to see the Pixar characters at Disney." I don't see *that* much potential to market SFMM to a crowd that isn't coaster people.

But, for those coaster people, X2 sounds like a great investment in my opinion. If the capacity goes up and the ride experience is improved, there is nothing like it in the California area or even the United States for that matter. I will say that the $10 million price tag surprises me a bit. Even with needing to change the station up and with new trains, I'd still assume there will be quite a bit left over for theming. While that sounds good and I agree with the person who said it gives them a way to market the ride for a second time, I do wonder what they are building that could cost so much. I do think it will probably be something out of the normal, and completely unlike what can be seen in the other nearby parks to again set them apart.

We'll see.

By the way, did anyone else find it interesting how Six Flags announced this separately from all their other announcements? I think it would've made better sense to announce either everything including SFMM at once, or do them for each attraction -- so all of the Dark Knights could've been announced on the same day, and Evel could've had his own day... it just seems odd that this one was all by itself.

Who knows? Maybe that Batwing guy will actually find out in the future that there is something going to SFA! This can give him hope!

I think this announcement came late because of the switching of the guards at SFMM. Out with Del Holland and in with Jay Thomas. Notice how Jay is quoted several times in the press release.

*** Edited 11/2/2007 7:39:18 AM UTC by DWeaver***

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Parker17 said:
I mean MM has gotten rid of what? 4 coasters in the past two years? Not one has been replaced.

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Um... Tatsu? Never mind that Flashback and Psyclone were universally despised. It's not like they took out Goliath.

Sounds to me like the "re-theming" is just gravy to the new trains. If the new trains 1) are smoother and 2) improve capacity and reliability, the $10 million will be well spent. If they don't, the forum will be littered with price tags of other awesome rides that could have been built instead.

I agree with DWeaver... X has a lot of marketing potential. Just like Son of Beast. Those rides aren't quite to "money pit" status yet. Some modest investment (compared to the original cost) might make them last much longer in the end.

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thecoasterguy said:

Who knows? Maybe that Batwing guy will actually find out in the future that there is something going to SFA! This can give him hope!

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Nope, he's jumped ship since he's finally getting a B&M in his backyard. They had to close down all the rides in one park to make it happen, but I think we can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Granted, he's going to have an accident in his pants when the first footer gets placed, but thankfully for us, he'll be happy:)

I had no idea how bad X had gotten. I've always wondered why there wasn't an East coast/Midwest version. And now I have my answer.

^It's too expensive also!! The one in Japan is like 40 million.

I had no idea they were putting sound with it!

Sounds Awesome!!

I'm not exactly sure, but given X's current station configuration, new station track segments might have to be constructed to accomodate the new loading and unloading process. Right now, when a train is being dispatched, the X rails are lowered so the seats tilt backwards in order to be dispatched. These new trains do not have to do this because the floor is lowered below the riders before dispatch instead. New track segments would have to match the position of the X rails on the brake run and pre-lift curve.

New for '08...park is re-branded as "Jay" Thomas Town.

Best new attraction at SFMM since....since at least before I started going there.

Just received an email confirmation from the park's spokeswoman Sue Carpenter that Deja Vu will not be removed. She called it a "bad, bad rumor."

She also noted that the new Thomas Town area will take up residence next to Bugs Bunny World on a plot of land currently occupied by the Granny Gran Prix car ride.

new station track segments might have to be constructed to accomodate the new loading and unloading process.

If only someone had mentioned that earlier [see first post at top of page 2, lol].

Heh, anybody else see the line in the stats that says "Capacity: 28"? I know what they're really trying to say, but Freudian slip anyone? :)

So did they just use the Eejankeea (sp?) picture, or are they going to repaint the thing black and red as well?

Is this ride going to be prounounced "X two," "X squared," "X to the second power" or what?

Where does the additional dimension come in? Sound and visual effects deal with senses, not dimensions. Unless they mean this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Dimension

Up, Up and Away!

It's X to the second power -- so it's X^2 (X-squared).

Due to internet formatting issues, the press release has it as X2.

And the ride's new tagline: "Xtreme to the Second Power." should have also given it away.

Which means everyone will be pronouncing it

"Eks Tu."

http://www.coastercrew.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=109&page=3 has pics of new X2 vehicle from Iaapa

Worst.

IAAPA.

Photos.

Ever!

Oh man... i so pray for the new trains to make X2 the ride it should be...
I do believe that the roughness is a problem of tuning the trains, not necessarily of the track design - I could be wrong, but the jerky motions it had mostly seemed to be induced by the mass-spring behavior of the X-track rotation system.
Both thumbs pressed over here!

I'm not sure if this has been suggested yet, but I'm thinking that, as far as the new sensory experience goes for X, they might try to do something like on Furius Baco in Spain, where you go through this little pre-movie thing before the ride starts. Which is perfect for X becasue of the 2 stations. If they chuck the separate loading/unloading station idea and have the second station as the theater-like room, it would be perfect.