Several months after diving into four coasters of yesteryear that I wish I had been able to ride, here’s a look at four more that I missed out on.
While it’s a thought that’s easy to set aside whenever one is looking at or riding Cyclone at Luna Park or Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the underlying truth to being a coaster enthusiast is that your favorite rides do not last forever.
Of course, the aforementioned coasters are right around the century-mark in age – showing that coasters have incredible longevity with the proper amount of maintenance and investment to help the rides age more gracefully.
Still, those coasters are much more of an exception than the rule, with most rides having at least a ballpark of what a general service life looks like, with a wide range of other factors often coming into play.
Of course, a coaster’s opportunity for success wholly depends on the success of the park it resides in – with many coasters meeting their demise alongside their home parks, as was the case for many coasters at the now-shuttered Six Flags America in Maryland and Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, Texas.
Beyond that, parks often have to weigh how much a coaster is worth in terms of investment, often parsing through each attraction’s ridership data and annual maintenance costs to help determine when a roller coaster may be ready to be retired – often occurring when the juice is no longer worth the squeeze.
While most famous coasters at large theme parks have stuck around over the past several decades and don’t appear to be going anywhere soon, these large parks still cycle through old rides that have since been decomissioned and scrapped after their service life was completed.
Back in March, I dove into four defunct roller coasters that I always wanted the chance to ride – but of course as an enthusiast, I couldn’t just stop at those four.
Although I can say with certainty that the vast majority of my bucket list coasters remain in operation, there are still another handful of very intriguing rides that I will never have the chance to experience. Here’s a look at another group of coasters I wish I had the chance to ride:
1. Vortex, Kings Island (1987-2019)
A prototype of sorts for the Arrow Dynamics mega-looper, Vortex opened at Kings Island in April 1987 as the tallest full-circuit roller coaster in the world and the first coaster in the world to feature six inversions.
While these records would both be eclipsed by the first bona fide mega-looper in Shockwave at Six Flags Great America in 1988, Vortex was an instrumental attraction when it came to kicking the tires on the coaster wars that would dominate the industry for much of the following 15 years.
At a 148-foot height with a 138-foot drop, Vortex covered 3,800 feet of track and reached top speeds of 55 mph, making it still a good chunk slower than The Beast, which remained the fastest coaster at the park at the time of its opening.
I’m a sucker for big looping coasters, and Vortex looks like it delivered on every level. Located in a mostly wooded area near The Beast, Vortex also looks like an out-of-control adventure in the far reaches of the park, with plenty of sharp turns and bone-crushing inversions that helped the attraction live up to its prestige as a record-breaker.
Although I have gotten to experience the largest version of this model in Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain, it would have been incredible to see how it all started with a coaster that was incredibly novel and adventurous at the time of its debut.
2. Tidal Wave, Six Flags Great America (1978-1991)
While this coaster got plenty of extended lifespan with stays at both Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom after it left Great America, I’ll be focusing on the ride’s time as Tidal Wave while it was located at my former home park.
This ride was removed five years before I was even born, but stories from those who were park regulars during Great America’s early days swear by the intensity and novelty that Tidal Wave brought to the park during its lifespan.
Debuting at the park in 1978 as its first looping coaster (Demon had its loops added in 1980), Tidal Wave was a Schwarzkopf shuttle looping coaster that featured a weight drop launch to propel trains through the signature vertical loop that would be traversed both forwards and backwards.
The coaster reached top speeds of 57 mph while the spikes had a top height of 137.8 feet, giving the ride a very noticeable appearance before the park had the dominant skyline it boasts today.
While this ride is a bit of a one-trick pony, the trick is a very good one. I’ve greatly enjoyed the two Schwarzkopf looping coasters I’ve been on (The New Revolution and The Riddler Mindbender), and I’d have to imagine that the launch directly into the loop packed a great punch of positive Gs.
3. Ultra Twister, Six Flags AstroWorld (1990-2005)
An ultra-unique coaster model, the TOGO pipeline coaster saw a brief era of popularity throughout the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, which included this U.S. installation at the now defunct Six Flags AstroWorld in 1990.
Different from just about any other coaster you’ll ride, Ultra Twister features a pipeline design around the track, with the train attaching to rails directly to the side of riders, as opposed to a typical roller coaster where the rails lie beneath the trains.
This bizarre coaster included a painstakingly slow lift hill, an abrupt 85-degree first drop and its trademark heartline roll, which made for incredibly compelling images that you won’t see on any other rides. The other stats weren’t remarkable by any means, reaching top speeds of 44 mph and a maximum height of 96 feet.
I have no idea if I actually would have liked this ride – it looks very gimmicky and like it was probably a pretty rough experience. But the novelty of something like this is unmatched, and impossible to find today without leaving the U.S.
Ultra Twister operated at AstroWorld until the park closed in October 2005, a shuttering that has left the Houston area without a major amusement park in the 21 years since.
4. Mindbender, Galaxyland at West Edmonton Mall (1985-2023)
While I previously included a Schwarzkopf shuttle looper in Tidal Wave, I’d be remiss to not include Mindbender, an iconic coaster at one of the world’s largest shopping malls that may still be the wildest and most intense indoor roller coaster ever built.
Having operated from December 1985 until January 2023, the coaster took a major hit to its reputation very early on in its lifespan after a catastrophic accident in June 1986 led to the deaths of three people and injuries of 20 others.
The coaster reopened in January 1987 with a slew of new safety precautions, including shorter trains, additional restraints, headrests and wheel assemblies along with anti-rollback features. The changes allowed the coaster to operate for another 35 years, where it maintained its reputation as a wildly intense ride for an indoor coaster.
At a height of 145 feet with a 127-foot drop, Mindbender reached top speeds of 60 mph and included three inversions – all of which were renowned for their insane positive Gs, with the ride clocking up to 5.6 Gs at one point.
Often closed for maintenance near the end of its lifespan, Mindbender closed in early 2023, with its trains remaining in service on another Schwarzkopf looper, the All-American Triple Loop at Indiana Beach.
Leave a Reply