Superhero theme a little babyish?

Amusements parks are in the business of escapism. Providing places for us to live our dreams, escape from reality and feel like a child again. To me it is great to see the variety of themes they offer, allowing them to cater to many different tastes as well as offering us the opportunity to experience many differents types of escapes.

But I also think Six Flags needs to cool it on all the superhero themed rides - at the very least start using some different characters.

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"Looks like you've been missing quite a bit of work lately"
"Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it, Bob."

jdancisin said:
"Amusements parks are in the business of escapism."

Yeah, and I want to "escape" from cheesy movie and pop culture tie-ins.

I don't know if the names are babyish or not. Generally speaking, I don't like to consider anything babyish. Why should age preclude us from things we enjoy? Who cares? Play on the swing set and buy yourself a big box of Legos.

I do know that superhero names significantly detract from my park experience and I personally find them annoying at best and unusually repugnant.
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everything's better with a banjo

*** This post was edited by millrace on 4/5/2002. ***

But what I'm *really* interested in knowing is what would you people offer in the stead of so-called "cheesy movie and pop culture tie-ins".

What you like names like Kumba? You only like it because it's not english. The English equvivalent, ROAR, is not nearly as well liked.

How about Alpengeist, Loch Ness Monster, Gwazi, Montu, Phoenix, Zeus, Cyclops, Pegasus, Dragon whatever...? Great! Instead of using 20th Century fantasy, we'll use OLDER fantasy.

Hate Millennium Force? How about Turn of the Century?

The Flying Coaster name sucks to you? Fine, let's just go ride Corkscrew!

Awww **** it! Let's just resort to the most boring topic in small talk conversation and name everything about the weather (Typhoon, Cyclone, Twister, Tornado, Hurricane, Lightning Racer/Loops).

On second thought, maybe we can all agree on animals: Jaguar, WildCat, and a million and one Vipers!
lata,
jeremy
--patiently waiting in line to ride "White Elephant"!

....man, once that Yeti coaster is up and running, I am ALL over that thing.....

Hehehe.

Nice on 2hostyl. I don't think that superhero based rides are bad. I just wish that SF had Marvel rights instead of DC. There're SO many more Marvel characters that could do justice to a ride theme than DC. I mean, just in the X-Men you have Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Colossus (although that's already been used in a different context), Rogue, Storm, etc. etc. etc. Let alone the villians....

Either that or Universal should take expand its parks and build new parks with well themed Marvel rides. ;)

One thing that I have noticed though, is that people that are in Boston from other parts of the country (I go to college in Boston) don't get excited about S:RoS because they've "already been on a Superman ride" at another six flags. Even if it's something totally different like S:TE, to them it's "just another" or "the same" superman ride.

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The legend lives!

*LOL* Very true, Jermey. There are tons of names for coasters. If one theme park wants to use super heros for their coasters, so be it. If another doesn't want to theme ANY of their coasters, so be it. Do you REALLY ride them for the theme or name? I don't think so. You ride them because they are fun. Admittedly, themeing does help the long boring wait in the queue, but even that can get old.

Just be glad I don't have the power to theme or name coasters. I could come up with some that would send the youngsters off screaming in total disgust.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

SFgadvMAN said:
Does anyone agree with me that the superhero theme at Six Flags parks is a little babyish. Superman and Batman are for little kids. Does anyone agree with me.

Eh. Maybe when you're in that "I'm not a little kid anymore" age group from about 13 til about 18. If i am mischaracterizing then I am sorry. After that no one worries about being thought "babyish." Except maybe infantilists, but that's a different story.

The real secret, though? Six Flags got this awesome deal on superman coloured paint one year...

AA (not to be confused with my club of 'drinking buddies ;)), while I too am more of a fan of Marvel than DC comics, I think DC has plenty of good heroes/villians.

An impulse coaster themed to The Flash
A Inverted coaster themed to Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet.
A Flying Coaster themed to the Green Lantern (I really thought that's what X-Flight was going to be)

And my personal favorite a terrain hyper-style coaster themed to the Swamp Thing.
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Besides, if we were really shutting down people we disagreed with, would Jeremy (2Hostyl) still be around? :) I think not. - Jeff 1/24/02

....gotta wonder why Wonder Woman's JET was invisible, while she was clearly visible....kinda defeats the purpose, like announcing on CNN when you're going to launch a "sneak attack". Also, have to wonder why 2hostyl would want a coaster themed after GREEN anything.....

I think The Flash would be great because you have the superhero tie in, plus it would be a decent stand along name as well.

The Green Latern, while I would love to see it happen, is just a bit obscure, me thinks.

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If the shoe fits, find another one.

hehehe, great names Jeremy. It's not as easy to come up with names that match coasters as people seem to think. And the alternative names that I hear from people are usually so bad they make me want to RUN back to Six Flags. I DARE someone to actually sit down and try to come up with new names for all of SF coasters built since 1999. There is one catch, they cannot suck. It's not that easy, in fact, it's difficult.

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Coming Soon: Coasters "American" Style.

You nailed it with the 13-18 age group, Comatose. I'm always reading some posts on here & somebody'll say something like "when I was a little kid, way back in 1998 or 99", & I'm just pulling my teeth thinking 1998 was yestrday, lol!

There's nothing wrong with the super hero theme, I love some Batman, so therefore, I'm upset if I don't see Batman, so there! It's not like the average person is going to ride more than one or two Batmans in their lives, so therefore, every SF park I manage to go into, I should be choked with DC Heros from the time I walk into the gate. I want a Preaher ride, lol(for those who know:)). But, Marvel, DC, it doesn't matter(it did 10 years ago, lol). Stan's the man behind 'em all, or at least next to them. BTW, kiss the code goodbye, some of those comics are really juiced up! Like X-Force. Really not for kids, since more adults actually read them, they give us "more adult material", until the youngers want to read the "adult material", comics aren't really for kids, there's just some comics made for kids.

Don't act like it's strange for "older" people to enjoy 'toons & comics. There are dozens of toon sites, many of which have forums larger than this one full of 11-20 year-olds who know EVERYTHING, so even your fellow teens are involved, not just preteens & us old nerds, lol.

CPLady said:
"Just be glad I don't have the power to theme or name coasters. I could come up with some that would send the youngsters off screaming in total disgust."

There are enough of us oldsters here... Let's hear 'em!!!;)

Later,
EV
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"Just remember, wherever you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Banzai

Her jet was invisible, yet see visible simply so that in every shot you could see her panties. Now you might take that as a joke, but I really believe that is the reason. Sorry, but sex sells.

And as long as it's not a green B&M I'm cool with it. I LOVED Phantom's Revenge.

And the thing with sucking is that it's all subjective. Funny thing though, it's been some of SF "creative" names that I've liked the least: X-Flight (boo), NITRO (hiss..), Vertical Velocity (where the hell are my tomatoes!).

Though X and Deja Vu were tight.
jeremy
--who still would have rather seen Titan named Texas Fireball

I've been working on an RCT park based on Dune, with attractions/coasters based on names in the books. How about Mau'dib for the wild mouse coaster, or Ornithopter for the flying coaster. Then there's the hyper or giga coaster called Shai'halud.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

One word MARKETABILITY well known things such as comic characters are , original names like IRON WOLF are not as much so (ok I'm ready Iron Wolf fans begin your bashing)

Second I am 33 years old and still watch the Batman animated series(cartoon) the new Justice League series(cartoon network) and skim thru comic books at the store they are not written just for kids anymore go check some out

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JOHN

Oh well in that case, I'll go into "Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy" and name a coaster Zaphod (as in Zaphod Beetle Brocks)
lata,
jeremy
--who notes that hs first car was named Zaphod (Zay-fodd)..my dad named it though...

call a roller coaster 'marv'!

2Hostyl said:

"And the thing with sucking is that it's all subjective".

Ok, I'm not going to go there LOL!

Seriously, the fact that great coaster names are subjective I think is the reason SF spends about 5 minutes coming up with them. Someone's going to hate it no matter what.

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Coming Soon: Coasters "American" Style.

I know they are cool because of Superman and Batmans strength but I'm just saying I think they could have made better names. But I know I couldn't think of any

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