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Best Defunct manufacturer?

Who was the best of the defunct manufacturers?

  • Allan Herschell Company

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Arrow Dynamics

    Votes: 22 23.7%
  • Giovanola

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • Morgan

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • Pinfari

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Schwarzkopf

    Votes: 57 61.3%
  • TOGO

    Votes: 1 1.1%
  • SDC

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Custom Coasters International, Inc.

    Votes: 11 11.8%
  • Dinn Corporation

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Roller Coaster Corporation of America

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    93
How do I delete the 2nd one? 🤦‍♂️

I'm pretty sure that Scorpion at BGT is the only Schwarzkopf I've been on and it was pretty good from what I remember, but I'm gonna have to go with Arrow as Vampire is just bliss.
 
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Looking at each:

Allan Herschell - only ridden the one at quassy - which was pretty unmemorable, and looks typical of their coasters

Arrow - Certainly had some good and groundbreaking rides - revolution, steeplechase, phantoms revenge, eagle fortress, but also had some suck - python at busch gardens, steamnin demon at great escape

Giovanola - too few rides to judge, but anaconda looks pretty awesome!

Morgan - not many to judge by, but steel eel was decent enough, and the others looks pretty good too

Pinfari - Generallly awful, althouigh grizzly bear at lightwater is actually "ok"

Schwarzkopf -= truly groundbreaking, Alpina bahn, teststrecke and olympia looping are legendary traveling coasters, Jetline, Lisebergsbanan, and even canonball express at pleasurewood are decent rideable coasters

Togo - according to rcdb they're still in business!

SDC - Only ridden skyways, which was ok...

CCI - They vary from "Meh" to "decentish" , but I prefer Gci and GG

DINN - yet to ride one!

RCCA - Much maligned, but bandit is actually quite fun..


TLDR - It's Schwarzkopf, and their shampoo's are good too!

 
Perhaps it's a bit "America-centric," but I feel like Arrow is the easy winner, for me at least. Just about every major development for steel coasters in the 20th century was under their umbrella. First tubular steel track, modern inversion, suspended coaster, hyper coaster, and wing (or multi dimension) coaster. From Matterhorn Bobsleds to X2, they really pushed what exactly a steel roller coaster could do. I can't help but admire them as the sorta "Godfather" of coaster manufacturers.

I can understand Schwarzkopf as the obvious answer though. Their coasters have a real grace and precision that can be severely lacking in Arrow's work. But, then again, I think that's what makes Arrow's work so great. They swung for the fences constantly and eventually swung so far they hit themselves in the face.
 
Arrow by a mile. Arrow's contribution to the industry is unrivaled by any other manufacture with concepts such as the first modern inverting coaster, first coaster to break 3-7 inversions, first hyper coaster, first launch coaster, first coaster below the track, and first 4-D coaster. That's not even mentioning how many incredible rides that they made, Magnum and X2 are regarded as some of the best rides of all time. While some of their other work is a bit more disliked I generally like all of Arrow's coasters and their roughness doesn't really bother me.
 
For me the Arrow or Schwarzkopf question comes down to consistency. Arrow has some brilliant coasters; X2, Canyon Blaster, Viper, etc, but they also have loads of absolute rubbish. While no Schwarzkopf is equally good as the greatest Arrows, neither is anything as bad as the bad Arrows. Honestly, I dont think I have never ridden a bad Schwartskopf, everything has always been good. For being 40 year old coasters that's an enormous achievement.

Therefore, Schwartzkopf is my choice.
 
Of the ones present, I actually went for Custom Coasters International. Whilst I do much prefer GCI and Gravity Group from my experience of all the woodie manufacturers, Megafobia isn’t a bad ride overall, and I think it would actually be quite a good, enjoyable layout if it wasn’t so rough in some seats (the back was a bit too rough to enjoy, even though front and middle were fine). CCI also did some very revered rides like Boulder Dash, GhostRider and Tonnerre de Zeus, and their layouts overall look quite good.

There seems to be a lot of love for Schwarzkopf in this thread, but I must say that I was very disappointed by the one Schwarzkopf I’ve done (Olympia Looping). I’ll admit that it was impressively smooth for a ride of over 30 years old, but the layout style wasn’t really my thing (a bit too intense for me), and the shoulder bars detracted significantly from the ride, in my view.
 
It's CCI in my book and it's not even close. Shivering Timbers is S tier, GhostRider, Legend, and Cornball are in my top 50, Raven and LoCoSuMo are just outside it, I've only ridden 10 CCIs and all have been unique and awesome
 
I can't believe my opinion is actually in line with everyone else. I seriously need to get to Hersheypark or something and hop on a Schwarzkopf myself so I can really experience these things first hand but with Schwarzkopf, I was smitten at first sight. <3
 
Arrow as I've never been on a Schwarzkopf. But CCI is really good too. But I have to go with Arrow for pioneering the amusement industry.
 
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