Six Flags reverses trains on its Mr. Freeze roller coasters

I've never ridden one of the Mr. Freeze coasters so I don't know how powerful the launch is, but I wonder if there could be a safety issue since there's nothing in front of the riders to support their heads in that direction during the launch.

With all due respect to Vicky Sue Robinson: "Turning the Freeze A-round". ;)

That's a great point. I'm sure [one of] the largest amusement park chain[s] in the world, the manufacturer and their insurance companies never even though about that.

They forgot to ask their lawyers. After a couple of whiplash lawsuits the lawyers will say "It doesn't matter what the experts say - you should have asked us. We would have told you not to do this!"

Trains will be retrofitted with head retaining straps before 2014.

Convert the headrests to facerests.

Don't really see the point of this except you will be looking down the spike instead of up it. The tophat and overbank is still in both directions.

I would think the launch wouldnt be pleasant. Instead of having your whole back and head forced against the seat, you are now going to take lap bar to the gut.

One of the more exciting parts of the ride IMO was going up the spike seeing nothing but sky in front of you. There are already 2 moments of looking down at the ground through the top hat.

Vater said:
Convert the headrests to facerests.

Nothing beats getting a facefull of grease from the person who rode before you!

I am actually planning my first Mr. Freeze ride this summer and I think it sounds better the way it was before.

This is very interesting. I'll have to report as soon as it's ready. (2 trips to SFoT this season and still no laps on tNTG - that'll teach me to go during spring break).

At a lesser level, the ride already had a backwards launch. The spike pulls the train up, then launches it down. Same thing on the former Chiller: Batman and Robin at Great Adventure.

Maybe they can reverse the trains on their Pandemonium/Big Spin coasters next to market them as "new" rides LOL. :)

Management can spend minimally and still have something to point to as a new attraction. Lets take a gander at some of Six Flags recent moves:

-Ride rotation program seemingly resurrected

-Adding rides to parks just for the sake of adding things. Chang was nearly relocated to Great America, where they would have operated two standups for at least one season. It seems like they changed their mind at the last second. Dumping Deja Vu right next to an existing boomerang in New England. Addition of a Vekoma SLC to La Ronde, which was already operating a B&M invert. I'd love to hear some of the reasoning behind these moves.

-Renaming and then marketing coasters as new after a new coat of paint, addition of on-board audio and scattering some cardboard cutouts here and there

-Attaching flamethrowers to everything

-Turning existing wooden coasters into steel coasters

-Sticking drop towers onto existing structures

-Turning trains around on Freeze, Superman. Repaint and rename Superman- market as new addition.

Waste not want not, I guess. Maybe their mother told them that there are a great many parks around the world that aren't as fortunate, so stop sneaking your meatloaf to the dog and eat it.

I really wish they had this mindset in 2002, so instead of scrapping Shockwave it could have been relocated, or my dream scenario at the time: have Morgan come in to give it Phantom's Revenge treatment

I would assume that if stopping and starting distances are the same and the starting velocity is similar to the ending velocity the g's experienced during a backwards launch would be similar to a forwards stop.

^^I spent many hours back then dreaming up and drawing up plans for a 'Phantoms Revenge' redo of Shockwave! Shame, what a waste. Could have made a top 10 steelie out of that. (Heck, I liked Shockwave as it was, much better than what's there now).

After it didn't happen for Shockwave I began hoping it would for Great American Scream Machine. Now, only Viper remains. The recent thriftiness of Six Flags and modernization of Texas Giant should make it more likely, but probably would never be considered or even thought of.

CoasterDemon said:
much better than what's there now.

Yeah, it's easy to think of countless better possibilities than converting it into an unsightly dumping area for scrap metal:
-Drilling a hole into the earth as far down as possible, filling it in, and repeating the process indefinitely
-A K'nex Screamin' Serpent with terrible downtime requiring additional manpower, which spreads maintenance thin and noticeably worsens park operations. On days that it happens to operate, the restricting nature of the train and restraints cause more trouble for larger guests than on the worst Intamin offenders out there
-Leaving the plot open and untouched allowing nature to gradually reclaim it

Funny thing about Shockwave - I believe it had the highest capacity in the park, but the lowest ridership. See, Arrow got some stuff correct :)

Mr. Freeze isn't the first coaster to be launched backwards. Six Flags did this marketing trick for Magic Mountain's Superman; Escape from Krypton (Intamin ride). I never been on it, forwards or backwards launch, but I definitely image a more intense experience on Superman. Superman orginally launched at 100 mph (per marketing) facing forward. Does anyone know if they dialed down this launch speed and if they made any modifications to the cars?

Mr Freeze is similar but different than Superman being a completely different ride layout and manufacturer. But, I bet since Six Flags had experience launching Superman backwards and continues to do so, they're probably comfortable doing the same for Mr. Freeze.

We gotta give credit for the nex Six Flags management for trying. I am not keen on this decision, as it probably worsens a great ride. Six Flags has spent plenty of resources on the high quality ride animations of the "new" rides (Mr. Freeze and the former Chang).

But, it still a shame that the SFOT ride has the name of a Batman foe, but Superman colors. It was this way orginally, as the coaster was like it's St. Louis counterpart where the paint matched the theme and was perfectly themed coaster. Perhaps with little doubt the best themed coaster by Six Flags? Why didn't SFOT managment just rename the coaster "Superman; something something" with the blue and red repaint? At least they didn't repaint it tan and and teal and call it "Goliath; The Escape".