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Yes sorry about that. See I apologised for straying and look what happend, the discussion digressed even further! Ah well, such is the life of the forum world I guess :-)

Oh yes of course Thunder Lethal Weapon (which was what I was refering to) was unique when it opened I was more generalising and talking about the SLC model as a whole. To be honest I do quite like LW and prefer it to its B&M cousin which would obviously be the Batman Beemer. Thanks for correcting me with the facts.

Hey its cool for whatever you want to put as your avatar...just curious as to why... and now I see, basically your saying you don't like to roughness of Demon and LW. I myself didn't find LW that rough but hey thats just me. I think the thing about Demon is that its getting on in age and so starting to wear, same thing with its clone at Knotts. Just don't fall into the trap of hating Vekoma in general because of a couple examples... its like Arrow. Apart from Xcel, Corkscrew is still the smoothest coaster Ive ever ridden to this day. But the coaster at Circus in Vegas was as rough as guts!! Now as for DJV at SFMM its damn fast, damn smoothe and damn fine HEHEHE Vekoma do turn out some quality stuff, hopefully you can get on some real coaters in the US one day :-) I dont know how Im gonna go back to the aussie parks now.

Okay here are my realistic thoughts on IF wonderland were to get a new coaster what it may be... I think it is safe to say it wouldn't be something we already have so that rules out Inverted and most likely any sit down coaster like a Hyper or Giga. Dont et me wrong SFMM's Goliath blew my mind (only coaster Ive ever started to black out on!) but the Australian punter mentality would see it as just another coaster :-( We are probably going to get something stock off the shelf rather than a brand spanker huge custom coaster...we just don't have the budget unfortunately. Stand Up or Floorless would be likely but I don't know about you guys but IMO B&M would be the king of these and they are great rides however getting Beemers introduced here could be a challenge as stated... If it was intamin I think it would be a Rocket, prolly more Xcel like than TTD cause of budget but still one kick arse ride so thats probably maybe? If it was a Beemer a Floorless like Scream could give them a power packed ride at a reduced cost that would go up in no time and would definately work which is a plus :-) However were they to build another Riddlers type ride here that would be awsome too but probably too big for Oz. Lets just hope its a floorless or a Rocket ay :-) What do you think? If Wonderland wanted to be fully out there they could go 4D but it would take a big leap of faith for a park to do that again and likewize for Arrow.

Sorry for being a little big off topic but I just noticed... Hey Flea; Just noticed your new pic and had to ask what is it that has got you sooo against Vekoma?? I mean all we have out here are two of the most prolific clones there are out there but they still do some nice work and not all their coasters are exactly CRAP :-) And Richard...THANKS HEAPS, Keep up the great work, the forum is GREAT!

Sorry yeah it was getting a bit off topic...just thought I had to slip it in once we degenerated (no offence) into which coaster is cool :-) Just couldnt help it, how wicked a coaster is RR. However there would be a zero chance I would think of something that size here due to out pop.

This is Riddlers Revenge...NOW THATS WHAT I CALL A STAND UP COASTER :-)

To be totally honest I'd be more than happy with either. However I dont like to base my arguments on what other people say and for this reason I don't think either of us can really comment on the reliability of a ride when we don't really have any true facts. One thing I know is I've ridden DJV and its one kick arse ride. Same as a 4D, I had the wait the longest out of any ride in the US for X and its not the most reliable ride but I'd still kill to have one here in oz :-) As for the impulse, I'd dare say you would not get 100% reliability there either and the GIB certainly isnt anything like down 90% of the time. Even the rockets have their down time, same as any piece of mechanical equipment. Dont start me on reliability of moving lights HEHEHE

Well I havn't ridden WT and god knows I'd sure like to but let me assure you if it was to be a Giant Inverted Boomer you definately would not be dissapointed. They are one Damn Fine amazing ride! Of course I'd much sooner see them get a Rocket like Xcelerator but as Im sure most will agree space and budget prohibit this :-(

Last time I was there (a little over a year ago) they had replaced the show with your typical human actor theme park stage show. Just basically a really lame story, cheesy songs and not that entertaining at all to be honest. Not surprised that this show isn't running any more. Although the old Puppet show wasn't exactly a technological marvel it was still something different and to its target audience a quite entertaining little show. Also by using animatronics it only required one person to run and thus could be run many times a day with little cost. Much better idea than what they replaced it with. Who knows though, maybe we will see another good show come to this theatre soon. Usualy its the areas that havn't seen action in a while that are the first to receive the new attractions.

Well first of all regardless of any of our opinions TOT is a coaster as that particular style of ride has been classed as a coaster. I'm not going to debate this. That being the case TOT is a world class coaster but I totaly agree with you that other than that we don't really have any world class coasters here. Cyclone would be the only thing that realy comes close but really today a standard (over the track) steal coaster has to be something special to be world class... Lets think Goliath or Viper here to name a couple (even Viper has lost its edge now) at SFMM which I'm sure everyone will agree is one of the top 2 coaster parks in the world. We don't have a true coaster here that tops 100km/hr and thats not that fast these days (TTD just hit 200). If cyclone was to be considered world class it would have to offer something more like Manhatton(sp?) at NYNY. Wata you guys think?

Got back from my first US (and overseas) trip a few weeks ago... We hit (although I wouldn't call a couple 'parks') Nascar Cafe` Circus Circus Stratosphere New York New York Disneland Park DCA SFMM (twice and I hope MANY times again...the park may be bad but the rides can't be beat!) Universal Studios Knotts Top ride overall - eXcelerator Most amazing ride experience - X Awsome size award - Goliath Freekiest Ride - Scream and the ride everyone must get on - Riddlers Revenge As far as best of a Kind that goes to Goast Rider and Perilous Plunge (ive been dryer jumping in a pool)

Howdy Thunder ...couldn't have said that better myself. Of course its just my opinion but until you ride DJV you just can't get an idea of how awsome it is. Even whilst waiting in line I had no idea how freaky that first dop would be just hanging there with your life resting totaly in the hands of your restraints :-) I can liken this to my feelings about eXcelerator over at Knotts...I'd seen the videos and specs but it didn't do all that much for me...how wrong I was, turned out to be the best ride I have ever ridden and I did a good 50 spins on it that day. Can't wait to get back over for TTD, eXcel is the only coaster Ive ever been on that whilst giving an amazing ride doen't affect you negatively at all, I could have ridden 200 times in a row with no sickness or headaches to be heard of. As for the most 'exciting' form of coaster, (IMO) don't know if you've ridden one of these babies but the cross between the two... the FLOORLESS coaster is the most thrilling for me because if you are in the front seat there is nothing in front of you and track racing mere inches away from your feet. A great feeling, Get on one everyone out there!

Security wasn't too bad, pretty much the same I found at any US atraction. Maybe a little bit more thorough (would hate to be there on a busy day) but you do seem to get a different sort of crowed there so thats probably why. Psyclone I thought was just plain rough as guts and not all that satisfying...GO GET ON GOASTRIDER AT KNOTTS. Thats is one amazing coaster, its huge, long and just hurls around that track without stoppping one bit. Unfortunately no Flashback on either day I was there, and only X and DJV on one day each. They only ran 1 car on X so it was a 3 hour!! wait to ride whilst all other rides were walkon or 5min wait. Even the brand new Scream! Even if it was 3 hours X was certainly worth the wait, just wish they would do better than 1 dispatch every 7.5 minutes.

Quite simply the Giant Iverted version ala 'De ja' Veu' simply doesnt compare to standard boomer. Well actualy its the other way around. After riding De ja' Veu at SFMM a few weeks back when I was in the US the standard Boomerang at Knotts just did nothing for me. The feeling of hanging in your seat before you drop on the first hill is amazing...you have to have a lot of faith in those restraints because its a F*(KING huge drop!! And 90 degrees makes all the difference. When that thing drops you fly through the course and the ride is pretty smoothe. The catch is a bit of a jolt but still works very smoothly and is quite fast. Backwards is as good as forwards without the usual roughness and when you come back into the station you actualy go straight through and get lifted back up the first hill before being slowly let down. Much better than the hard breaks. All in all its a FANTASTIC ride, I'd put it in a category with X and Excelerator as supreme rides. Highly Recommended.

. I would have to agree on the standard boomerang however after just returning from a US coastering trip I have to say very little can compare to the first Drop on the Giant Inverted model at Magic Mountain. THATS A RIDE! After riding that and heading over to Knotts the boomerang was indeed nothing to even think about writing home about.

Damn... I missed out on riding by less than 2 weeks :-( Ow well I guess it'll still be interesting what they come up with but they could have waited a few weeks until after I had visited the US!

Thanks for the terrific info.! Unfortunately I can't get to 54 (only 19 :-( ) but I will make the most of vegas anyhow.

Howdy I agree the rides do look good but is it definiately worth the money for the amount that there are? At this stage we have alocated two 'Disney' days so would we be better to have one day at Disneyland and the other at DCA? I have heard some reports of the negatives of SFMM but I was still leaving two days for the park just for the sheer number of rides and the fact I wouldn't mind more than one ride on them as it will be some time before I can get there again (not like its a 10hour drive away :-)... In Vegas I am staying at NY NY so theres one coaster on the doorstep and yes I'll definately be getting a couple goes in on Speed!

WOW sounds coool. I think thats pretty freaky as I am just about to leave on a 2 week park hopping trip to the US visiting Vegas and LA. I will be visiting Disney, Universal, Knott's and SFMM. How did you find Calf. Adventure for thrills? I am planning to skip it in favour of more days at SFMM as this has clearly got to be one of the worlds top thrill parks (well if you can't get to Cedar Point anyhow).

I too remember the original Wonderland TV commercial. In fact I still have a copy of the original Park brochure/map with all of the original attractions. My first ride would always be the 'Sea Deamon' (now Endevour) which was located after a tree tunnel and before the rainbow arch where the Wildlife park now sits. I remember arriving at the park one day to find the ride gone and one staff member informed us that it had been removed for goog. Imagine our surprise when later in the day we made our way down to Goldrush only to ride the Ride in a new home with a new name! I can remember the park being all new and in great condition with lots of great rides...it is very sad to have watched it degrade into what it is today. A quite pathetic attempt to imidate the great parks of the Gold Coast.

Ned Kelly's was indeed a twin flumed taboggon ride very similar to the Double Screamer at Wet n Wild. However where the Double Screamer has a pool landing Wonderland's landing was much more like that of Seaworlds ride with a shallow trough lined with astroturf as previously mentioned. As also said it was located adjacent to the Ampol cars in Goldrush. One very silly rule for this ride was that riders were required to ride FULLY CLOTHED as this was a dress code for that part of the park at the time. This did tend to make it quite unpopular and I'd guess that this factor along with the safety aspect led to its closure. ...either that of it was just a day ending with a 'y' so wonderland had to remove another ride