What do you think about clones?

Scientists are doing it, reality shows do it (way too much) and rollercoasters do it. Cloning! Do they get on your nerves as much as they do mine? I just found out that Raptor has a clone. Orochi in Expoland. Could someone tell me the benefits of this? I personally think it's a waste of metal to have something that's already been done instead of creating something original.

What are your thoughts?

-Shawn Bailes

If cloning coasters gets on your nerves that much, you need to get a life.

To me, it doesn't matter. They are just coasters, masses of steel/wood amazingly pieced together for the enjoyment of guests. Whether or not there is another exactly like the one I may be riding doesn't change the thrill for me.

And it's really funny that you called me immature! Have you read you own post?

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Am I really that shy?
*** This post was edited by The Shy One 4/6/2003 10:03:12 PM ***

And forums are doing it! If you do a search, you'll probably find several closed topics on the subject.
*** This post was edited by bigboy 4/6/2003 4:48:21 PM ***

Why worry about it so much, if you rode one of them, you basically rode them all. To quote South Park " I mean C'mon"

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coasterandy

It saves parks money

The Genral Public doesn't usually know

However I'd have to say that the Batman The Ride and SLC clones breeding are out of control.

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MMM Giant Pretzel @ Great America *drool*

I reckon i take a nuianced view, Clones are good, it doesn't hurt to have a few in a large park or one for a small park, but originality is certainly noted.

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UK, home to the King of Inverts, Nemesis, and the soon Heir, Inferno

How many general public would know that a certain ride has a clone? Not too many. Besides, it's not like parks do it to piss us (enthusiasts) off. They do it to save money.

Oh wow, look Car companies clone their cars. Its the same concept. You design one ride, then clone it to save the parks money. Ok, well actually the parks choose if they want the clone or not. But point is, you don't have to spend more money on designing a new ride.

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Rob

"Some people spend an entire LIFETIME wondering if they made a DIFFERENCE. The MARINES don't have that problem." -President Reagan 1985

I was surprised how many people here in California had ridden more than one Deja Vu, Batman, and even some thought that (because of their shared name) the Medusa's were clones. GP aren't as dumb as some like to think, and they don't care.

Say I was to visit a park like SFGAm, I have already been on a V2, Deja Vu, and Batman. It is ok to clone but I think that sending so many clones to one park is a little bit of a shame.

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www.CaliforniaCoasterNews.com
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While I'd rather see parks get original designs, if a ride is good enough to be cloned, then I don't see a problem.

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Sometimes I wonder whether Vekoma would be better off just changing their name...
Never Has Gravity Been So Uplifting.

I'm not sure this thread has too much time left (though it's been pretty civil for the most part, are CBuzzers growing up?! ;)) so I'll post my thoughts while I still can.

The enthusiast side of me -- of course I don't care for clones all that much. There are *very* few notable exceptions in existence where I am unbelievably excited to ride a cloned coaster. Actually one of them only comes to mind, and that is SRoS at SFA. My favorite ride in the park! But for the rest, I guess since I travel so much, I usually have already been on the ride. It makes hitting the [once] unique ride not such a destination anymore. Example would be the SUF clones at SFGAm and SFGAd this year....I have been on the original almost two hundred times by now, so to actually be sooper dooper excited about riding something *extremely* similar at another park I've traveled a long distance for, I can't honestly say I am. I'm more traveling to SFGAd for Nitro and Chiller, and to SFGAm for Raging Bull and Viper ("cloned", but absolutely none of them feel the same). So yeah, the enthusiast part of me is not jumping up and down when I hear Scream! at SFMM is a clone, or Superman Ultimate Flight at SFGAm is a clone.

Now the business side of me thinks clones are great. They allow a ride that has already been designed (and God willing, it's actually GOOD) to please millions of riders in a completely different geographic location without shelling out hundreds of dollars to travel. They are cheaper for the parks, which in turn will make a park more likely to actually purchase a coaster in the first place. So they definitely have their place!

But at the end of the day, I'm an enthusiast and not in the business side of it, so I can't help but at least wish some of the cloned rides at the larger parks were custom. And I don't think that is being an enthusiass by any means.

JC's two cents.

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"No honey, the monkeys have already done enough damage on this trip." - Guy coming out of front gate at SFGAd

GoliathKills, SFGAm's Batman is not a clone. It is the original. But that is common sense.

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Rob

"Some people spend an entire LIFETIME wondering if they made a DIFFERENCE. The MARINES don't have that problem." -President Reagan 1985

In that sense yeah, but if you're someone who hasn't been to SFGAm yet, but have been on many BTR's at other SF parks, what does it matter to you if it was first or not? It's still a "clone."

Joe "very good at pointing out the obvious, I am!" C.

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"No honey, the monkeys have already done enough damage on this trip." - Guy coming out of front gate at SFGAd

I don't give a s*** about how much parks save. At the end of the day, the South doesn't have a hyper, and a combo meal still costs 9 bucks.

See ya tomorrow, Joe.

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I'm not an enthusiast, I just play one on message boards.

Coasterfreakbailes said:
I just found out that Raptor has a clone. Orochi in Expoland. Could someone tell me the benefits of this? I personally think it's a waste of metal to have something that's already been done instead of creating something original.

I guarentee you that not one person in Osaka is *****ing about there being a clone in Ohio. 100% for sure. It boggles me that anyone thinks that anyone else would care one bit! Does it bother you when you go to another city and they also have an Olive Garden? The same movie is playing in their city? :)

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- "I used to be in the audio/visual club, but I was kicked out because of my views on Vietnam........and I was stealing projectors" - Homer Simpson
*** This post was edited by Peabody 4/6/2003 6:46:02 PM ***

Clones are alright to me as long as they don't have the same size hill and inversons { unless ride does not have any inversons}.All and all if it is a great ride buid it

TOP THRILL DRAGSTER I AWAIT YOU COMING

see you on may 4
*** This post was edited by CP Dude 4/6/2003 6:49:55 PM ***

I'm one of the gernal public people and I really don't care about clones. There just as good as other coasters. Some flat rides are cloned too and I don't see anyone complaining. Other people like me don't have money to travel all over the world so clones are a big help.

If it weren't for clones, most of us wouldn't be able to say we've ridden Batman The Ride, one of the 2nd generation Impulses, Déjà Vu, Boomerang, Superman Ultimate Flight, etc.

There would be a bigger batch of complaining enthusiasts than we have already. So shutup with the clones already.

Personally for my homepark PKI, if we could get any inverted it would be B:TR. No matter how many times I ride it still delivers. Yes I would love any inverted or any coaster for that fact of the matter, but exceptional coasters that are clones well let them be cloned! DeJa Vus, V2s, these are great coasters IMHO, so let them be cloned, so what im trying to say is if youre tired of clones or whatever, I guess dont get in line and let me ride quicker!
Just my opinion and 3 cents ;)
Cameron P
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Beast-Crew 04'
RCT2 Wizard: TheBeastMaster

But "Kraxleridah" why would we care? There would be more variety. I highly doubt there would be more complaining.

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www.CaliforniaCoasterNews.com
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Just in case we forgot, parks are buisnesses. That means they are in it to make money. So why would they want to spend a hypothetical 12 million on a custom invert when they know that guests will enjoy Batman:The Ride just as much at the cost of 10 million? Thats 2 million saved, a pretty substantial sum.

When we are talking about every SF and CF park, we are referring to regional and local destinations. That means that the parks draw mostly from people that live nearby or from within a day's drive. Therefore, all of these parks are not designed for the traveler or enthusiast who makes up a small proportion of their income.

Just a few industry facts to keep in mind. Not like they exist solely as a favor for us. ;)

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The Trip: CP, SFWoA, PKI, KW, HW, IB, SFGAm, MiA and LeSourdsville too.
8 Days- 10 parks. May 2003