Ever since the first successful loop in the world premiered here in California, the vertical loop’s been among the most common inversions on coasters around the world. And in all honesty, who isn’t a fan of the Vertical Loop? There are all sorts of them out there. From those that rush through them at high speeds to those that leave riders hanging upside down! In the state of California, we’ve got quite a few loops, all are unique in their own way, let’s see what the 5 best are! Continue reading “The 5 Best Vertical Loops in California”
The 5 Best Vertical Loops in California
This is quite an interesting Six Flags Magic Mountain Update… We’ve got some Twisted Colossus news, that wasn’t enough to create a separate update for. We’ve got some refurbishments, ride operations, upcoming events and much more! 
Thank you Six Flags Magic Mountain for inviting me again, to the fourth Twisted Colossus Tour! This Tour gave us a great look at the Screampunk District, the Gearworks theater, The theming in the new area, The Top Gun Stall and Zero-G-Roll on Twisted Colossus! We’ve got trains, station, Scream! news… and more! Additionally we have some amazing news, OPENING DATE! 
The Twisted Colossus track work is completed. But there’s a surprising amount of other work left to do! Such as painting, and the addition of a lot of supporting wood. Since I didn’t collect enough information to create an additional Six Flags Magic Mountain Update, therefore all Screampunk District related things will be in this update, as well as the painting of Tornado at Hurricane Harbor. 
Pretty much every coaster includes drops. Some are hardly considered drops, and some have riders fall out of the sky hundreds of feet. In addition there are quite some types of drops. We’ve decided to bring you the 5 best drops in California, from twisted drops, to those that invert riders, the state of California has a great coaster collection, and thus a great collection of thrilling and unique drops! 
The moment’s almost here! Twisted Colossus is literally feet from being completed. The Zero-G-Roll looks amazing, and of course so does the rest of the ride of course! We expect to see testing by the end of the month, and finally Magic seems to be able to pull off a Spring Opening again! Here’s the Twisted Colossus Update you don’t want to miss! 
Northern California parks are hours away from the Southern California theme parks. Yet, they’re in the shadow of these Southern California parks. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there are a few great parks up state, such as Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, California’s Great America, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and Gilroy Gardens. We’ve decided to take a look at the coasters we find in Northern California, many of which are thrilling and world-class attractions. Here’s the list of the 5 best coasters in Northern California. 
Jurassic Park- The Ride opened on June 21st 1996 as a major attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. Totally transforming the Lower Lot. All other rides on the Lower Lot have since been replaced. But Jurassic Park- The Ride is going strong. Perhaps because Jurassic Park- The Ride was a massive project… so massive, that the following 5 facts can clarify that for you! 
Thank you Six Flags Magic Mountain for inviting me again, to the third Twisted Colossus Tour! This Tour gave us a great look at the Screampunk District, the Gearworks theater, The High Five on Twisted Colossus, The Double-Down, and the highly-anticipated Top Gun Stall! Additionally we have some station, lift, Scream!, and more! 
Let’s take a look at a part of coasters we all seem to love. Inversions. California has a total of 72 inversions. Half of which are all found at Six Flags Magic Mountain, that with the world’s largest collection of coasters, has 18 coasters and 36 inversions. This doesn’t mean the best ones are all at Six Flags Magic Mountain! Take a look at the 5 best inversion in California, and you’ll know which one to ride next! 
Now the Scream! repaint is pretty much finished, we’ll be back to focusing on Twisted Colossus itself. They are currently busy installing all sorts of things, including the green track for the Top Gun stall! 
We’re back with a Throwback Thursday! And in style, less than two weeks ’til the 2015 season start’s at California’s Great America, we bring you a California’s Great America Throwback! This time we’re talking about a ride that’s not commonly seen in american amusement parks anymore, but was once a hit! We’re taking a look at The Edge. 
Disneyland. Claimed to be the ‘Happiest Place On Earth’. Every child wants to go there, and pretty much any adult in the state of California has been there. Many even grew up with it. Disneyland. The theme-park that set the standards for modern-day amusement parks, and is arguably the world’s most famous theme-park. Now what do people not know about Disneyland … Here are 5 Disneyland facts you may not know! 
California is a great state if one’s looking to ride some great roller-coasters! We might not have the most renowned line-up of Wooden Coasters in the state, but we sure have a thrilling collection of these wooden giants. Here’s the 5 best woodies in California! 
Magic Moments theater hasn’t been touched yet, but soon will also undergo its refurbishment. 
Twisted Wiches, the Gourmet Sandwich shop, is slowly starting to be refurbished. Notice the style they’re going with at the entrance of the building. 
They will replace all pavement in the area, they are not exactly sure what the new layout or colors will be. 
Finally, the awful looking Coca Cola vending machine collection has been removed!
This is right next to the entrance of Twisted Colossus, and near the new Twisted Whiches. The park is placing sets of small stairs in the hill-side. 
The station track is connected on both sides. They yet have to modify the station platforms. The new trains and track are wider than the old. 
The control-panel booth has been taken out and the gap in the station is filled. The new panel will be on station level, located on this metal platform below. 
WHAT? That’s shiny Scream! We’ll get back to that later in this update. 
The unused side of the station is now covered up! 
Here’s the actual TC station where guests will board one of the 4 trains. They repainted the walls below the track white. 
Here’s the view of the brake-runs from the station. The transfer track has been placed as well. They’ve been working on that for months due to the fact that the new track is a lot larger and thus the transfer track couldn’t just be added to the old structure but had to be altered, which turned out to be very time consuming!
Looks a little messy, but there sure are lots of tiny details going into a monster hybrid coaster like this.
One of the many container-work-shops. 
UNWRAPPED! 
What?! It’s the famous lead car! And she’s a real beauty in person. The details on the train are incredible! 
The trains have seat-belts, and lap-bars with shin-guards. 
Some second row good-ness. 
The nerd back-side of the train! 
This is only the first of 4 trains, the other trains will each have a different color scheme, blue, green, and purple.
Here’s the trim-brake section before riders will enter the second (green) half of the ride. 
That transition from blue to green! 
Interesting looking structure in which two break-runs will be located. The green one on top, the blue trim-breaks on the bottom. 
In case of an evacuation from the blue-brake section or the green lift-hill, behind this panel a staircase will be installed. 
The empty Colossus Turnaround Colosseum… For those of you who were worried the blue trim-breaks indicated that the out-ward bank on the blue side would not be placed. Worry no longer, no such thing was ever mentioned, the blue outward-banked airtime hill will still be part of Twisted Colossus. 
I say… FLATRIDE! Really, they could fit some in here, it’d be spectacular with Twisted Colossus flying by. Sadly no such thing was mentioned… 😀
Rest in pieces block-brake section! Here’s the booth and staircase that were connected to the mid-course break-run on the Ol’ Colossus. 
The deepest point of the ride is located before the double-up. This dip is coated with asphalt. 
Rocky Mountain Construction is adding a lot of extra wood to the already existing structure to support the heavy track. The old track crossing through will not be demolished, but has become part of the supporting the structure. Wood is being placed all over it!
See, this is a sign of the construction moving along at a great pace, track everywhere! 
And then… like Twisted Colossus wasn’t looking pretty enough yet, here’s two absolutely stunning drops. These will be filled with ejector-time! 
Look at those little floater hills! 
The new, white, structure seen here is the structure for the green double-down, and the blue dive underneath it. 
What?!? I’m in the middle of the two drops! Notice that the old track on the left will not be demolished. It will be part of the supporting structure. 
Artsy air-time hill shot! 
Beyond these hills… lays the magical twisted High Five element!
Oh, there it is! 
They were placing the High Five element as we were taking the tour! Very exciting!
Wood of Twisted Colossus meets paint of Scream!… 
All of Scream! is being painted by hand! The primer for the supports is peach, and the actual coat of paint is bright orange, as Sue from Six Flags Magic Mountain said, it really pops. It does, I was a bit conflicted with the colors at first, but now I got to walk around the ride, it really does pop. It looks great! 
Busy painting! 
After the primer, the bright orange is added, and then it looks like this, amazing!
The helix on Scream! has completely been painted. 
There are two trains still on the storage tracks. The track on top of the Zero-G-Roll behind it has been painted as well!
The painted track on the loop!
Let’send with this shot of Scream!’s interlocking Corkscrews! Looking awesome with the new paint!
Mostly the entire old block-brake structure has been removed. 
The structure for the double down is being placed. In the background you can see the approach to the high-five element being completed on both sides. (The green track in the below the structure will be going up the High Five next). 
There’s a lot of track and wood ready to be placed. 
And then here’s the beautiful moment at which they’re placing the actual High Five. All track preceding the High Five has been placed. And as I was taking pictures, the metal beams, for the 90′ degree banks in the middle of the element, were being placed. 
Notice the amounts of blue and green track! Ready to go up very soon! 
Here’s the crane that’s placing the High Five beams and track onto the structure. 
Definitely seems as if Magic Mountain is really aiming for that Spring opening!
Oh look! That’s Scream! over there! Let’s move on to the Scream! repaint.
A lot of track has been repainted already. I would say about 80%. Including the interlocking corkscrews of course!
Most of the lift’s track, the drop’s track and the loop’s track have been repainted already.
Wow… What’s that? That’s orange supports! 
The orange is way lighter than I initially thought I saw for the helix. Maybe they’re going over it again? Maybe it’s more Steam-punk-esque this way…
Now I think about it, I kind of like both colors of the supports. But I guess I’m going with the new fresh, bright, orange! 😀
The drop, as I mentioned before has been repainted as well. The track that is.
Look at that loop, all shiny repainted in blue!
An overall shot of the Scream! repaint on the side where no orange is to be seen. The brake run, parts of the Zero-G-Roll, the valley between the drop and the Reversed Immelman/Dive, and the entire Cobra Roll are left to be repainted. Track wise. 