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California's Great America | Railblazer | RMC Raptor

Jake Martell

Jake Martell

Roller Poster
From Screamscape it appears CGA's new coaster will be a mirror image of Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster...
Quoted text from an update yesterday.

"Screamscape sources have confirmed that Railblazer will indeed be a mirror image clone of the Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster, but with only two trains instead of three, which more than likely means that it won't have the same moving platform station feature the Six Flags ride will have either."

While it's disappointing to see that it is not something more unique, I think it will be a better fit for this park in the long run than Wonder Woman. I'm not very familiar with CGA, but from what I gather it certainly seems like a lower traffic park than SF Fiesta Texas, and the ultra-low capacity raptor may not become as problematic.

http://www.screamscape.com/html/california-s_great_america.htm
 
Damn, not sure how I feel about this. Capacity is going to be brutally horrendous and poor CGA got the spotlight stolen from them by Six Flags. WW GLC looks like a fun ride, so I'm sure this will be too.
 
I mean, WW looks fun, but can't help but feel like this is a slightly disappointing announcement. Both in terms of their thunder being stolen by SFFT, and in terms of the (very) low capacity coaster.

I'm not completely convinced by the single rail idea yet. I know RMC are good, but I'm not quite in that camp of "everything they do is gold", and I think this could be a test of how well they can diversify their range. I'm curious, and am looking forward to trying one at some point, but I'm not sold just yet.
 
Kind of off topic, but can we first take a moment to appreciate the fact that this Raptor track can be used to build a full scale coaster in a boomerang's plot because it's only a bit more than a foot wide? 15.5 inches wide, you could pick up a piece of it and carry it through a doorway.

Based on what I saw and was told was a "busy Saturday" at Valleyfair, this won't be an issue assuming both parks are roughly the same size. Still not sure why they'd go through the trouble of reducing capacity on it when they could just clone the 3 train model verbatim and set it up, but I'm sure they'd have their reasons.

RMC's absolutely amazing, though. All of their rides have been nothing short of phenomenal to me and they've definitely made me a fan that'll defend them to the death. They're certainly the most innovative manufacturer out there and they're certainly leading the charge to move the amusement industry forward, so to see them doing so much this year is awesome. Can't wait to get out there for this and Joker in two years!
 
Jarrett said:
Kind of off topic, but can we first take a moment to appreciate the fact that this Raptor track can be used to build a full scale coaster in a boomerang's plot because it's only a bit more than a foot wide? 15.5 inches wide, you could pick up a piece of it and carry it through a doorway.

Based on what I saw and was told was a "busy Saturday" at Valleyfair, this won't be an issue assuming both parks are roughly the same size. Still not sure why they'd go through the trouble of reducing capacity on it when they could just clone the 3 train model verbatim and set it up, but I'm sure they'd have their reasons.

RMC's absolutely amazing, though. All of their rides have been nothing short of phenomenal to me and they've definitely made me a fan that'll defend them to the death. They're certainly the most innovative manufacturer out there and they're certainly leading the charge to move the amusement industry forward, so to see them doing so much this year is awesome. Can't wait to get out there for this and Joker in two years!
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We were there on the Friday of 4th of July weekend and it was getting busier as the day went on. Friday, single train, had about a 40 minute wait. Gold Striker was easily an hour at one point. The park is still in a major metro of Silicon Valley, it will get crowded and this will easily have a 6 hour wait. Add to it the park doesn't believe in shade and it will be a long, hot, wait.

I had said after my visit an RMC wouldn't get me back there. I hated it. It makes me happy Fiesta Texas is getting one as it's a few hours south. Now I definitely have no desire to go back.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
Jarrett said:
They're certainly the most innovative manufacturer out there and they're certainly leading the charge to move the amusement industry forward, so to see them doing so much this year is awesome.
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I disagree. I think RMC are still the pretty boys of the coaster industry (looking only at their coasters now, not their previous construction experience). They're the Ferarri of coasters. Their performance is incredible, they're rare and they innovate extreme new technologies. However, they don't really change the industry, or drive it forwards, as they're simply too bespoke.

I think the real title of that goes to Vekoma and Mack, at the moment. They're both producing some incredible looking coasters that will be sure to become the staple of most parks. They're the Volvo or Ford of coasters. Sure, they're not the intense machines that RMCs are, but their new offerings are more where the future of coasters is going. However much you might like your little hashtag, RMC conversions are going to remain relatively rare. This is where the new Raptor (and eventually T-Rex) coasters could come in to play, but we haven't yet been able to prove their performance (I'm not alone in thinking this model doesn't blow me away). They're a flagship company, for sure, but I don't think they're the ones carrying the industry forwards at the moment. The new products from Vekoma and Mack, however, are.
 
I'll give you Mack. But Vekoma isn't doing anything other companies like Intamin haven't been doing since 2000. They don't get extra points from me for finally getting a few coasters right. And they have yet to make a dent in the US.

The fact that CF was basically forced to jump on the RMC train or get left behind, tells me all I need to know about how they're doing. Well that...and one ride on Lightning Rod.

As for the Raptors coming next year? Cool little rides meant for parks like Silverwood or Kentucky Kingdom, but SF and CF couldn't help themselves after totaling the potential sales for their skip the line schemes. That's not really RMC's fault.

They're also going to be used as preludes by both chains to decide if they want to invest $15+ million on the real deal, the T-Rex.
 
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John Knotts said:
I'll give you Mack. But Vekoma isn't doing anything other companies like Intamin haven't been doing since 2000. They don't get extra points from me for finally getting a few coasters right. And they have yet to make a dent in the US.

The fact that CF was basically forced to jump on the RMC train or get left behind, tells me all I need to know about how they're doing. Well that...and one ride on Lightning Rod.
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True, but we're seeing a lot of small Vekomas popping up in parks that can't afford (or fit) and Intamin. Family shuttle coasters, firestorms, blitz coasters (or whatever they actually called) are giving comparable ride experiences to Intamin coasters, for sure, but we aren't seeing Intamin building many coasters like that. I think Vekoma are bringing affordability into the market with competitive products. RMC haven't really made a dent in Europe and Asia - where both Vekoma and Mack seem to be doing relatively well.
 
^ Well yes I agree there. I'd much rather the Vekomas be built in those two parks than the Raptors, which are going to be great little rides, but also really piss people off lol.
 
Operations at that dump are f**king shocking as well. They can't manage to run two trains without having one stuck on the brake run for ages, so I'm not surprised they're not opting for a third.
 
^ I don't remember it always being that way. Wow, things actually got worse under Cedar Fair's care...the fanboys won't want to hear that lol
 
So I guess we have concluded this will be as disasterous as opening a single train raptor track at fuji queue highland(home park btw haha)...
 
To be fair to that dump, I'm only going off the experience from one visit, but it was a joke. B&M inverts are among the coasters with the best capacity, but they were sending a train out, literally, with 5-7 minute intervals. On Grizzly, they were leaving an empty train in the station, airgates closed, until the other train was back on the brake run. Staff were slow and rude. Guest services was staffed by assholes who flat out lied to customers faces.

Worst (major) park ever.
 
gavin said:
To be fair to that dump, I'm only going off the experience from one visit, but it was a joke. B&M inverts are among the coasters with the best capacity, but they were sending a train out, literally, with 5-7 minute intervals. On Grizzly, they were leaving an empty train in the station, airgates closed, until the other train was back on the brake run. Staff were slow and rude. Guest services was staffed by assholes who flat out lied to customers faces.

Worst (major) park ever.
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You went before Gold Striker right? While the operations are much better now then you described, apparently they're still not up to the standard of other Cedar Fair parks.
 
Post Gold Striker. The comment about guest services outright lying is because of that ride. It was in the middle of being down for weeks, but when asked they said it "might be open later today". They knew it was down for the count and just flat out lied.

There were so many people complaining that day - not about Gold Striker, but the general awfulness of the operations - and they were just rude and didn't care.

Genuine overheard conversation:

Kid: Dad, whyyyyyy did we have to come here?
Dad: I know. This is why we usually go to Six Flags.
 
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