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Coaster of the Decade

Amazing topic!

And the responses thus far are very thought provoking!

Millenium Force, Xcellerator, Collossus (Heide) all very strong contenders in my mind right now, but I'll give it some more thought before framing my final responses.
 
I do agree with Millie being very influential. First cable lift, first magnetic brakes, first stadium seating, first giga...

Think of all of the coasters that now have stadium seating and/or magnetic brakes. The number is too numerous to count.
 
CMonster said:
I do agree with Millie being very influential. First cable lift, first magnetic brakes, first stadium seating, first giga...
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Not quite. Tornado at Parque de Atracciones de Madrid already featured magnetic brakes when it opened (1999), so Millie was not the first one.

I agree with those saying that Xcelerator was one of the most influential rides in this decade. It was the starting point of the enormous growth that Intamin has experienced since they came out with the Accelerator concept. Sure this concept is now showing some issues but it's still a solid idea.

I also have to admit that X or the GIB were and still are impressive rides, from both the rider and technological point of view.
 
The obvious answeres would be Bizarro (SFNE) and Expedition Geforce since they both consistentley during the last decade have been voted best coaster in the world and best in Europe. But i guess none of them have been very "influential".

Then probably Xcelerator is a better choice for giving a rebirth to the launched coasters with a tophat and sequels like Storm Runner, Top Thrill Dragster and Stealth (which btw should be the best in the UK imho).

In Europe I think Colossos (Heide Park) has been the most influential hence being the first wooden prefab coaster(?) with sequels like Balder, El Toro and T Express.

If Asia will have it's on award I think it should go to Kawasemi for being the first Mega-Lite, which I believe will be a huge franchise for the upcoming decade (cheap, compact and greatly appreciated by both enthusiasts and the GP).

An honorable mention would go to X2. It has got a lot of problems and there have only been built one sequel. But it's probably the most technically advanced coaster built up to date. I haven't ridden it myself so I don't know whether it is any good. But it's a very very impressive and most awesome ride! I really hope there will be built more of them in the future!
 
Just for the sake of saying it first, AQUATRAX!

Only one has ever been built, and yet it's always one of the first things to be mentioned (either serious or as a joke) when new rides are being constructed...

This year has been interesting, with the main thing being bad and fast from Intamin for 8 years, and at the other end Gerstlauer coming in with cheap and fun rides...

We can also say that Colossus at Thorpe was influential for the park to rise as it did and obviously fall to what it is today ;)

I'm also gonna mention that Tokyo Disneysea is probably the best new park of the decade as a side note... It's 9 years in 2010 and it is still the best looking park ever made...
 
bezzzzzer said:
Just as a side note, I think coaster of the decade on the Asian front would be Steel Dragon 2000. I know it isn't overly unique or anything, but to me that is a quality coaster coming from that side of the world, as if to say 'Yeah mofo, we can do it too!'
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Fixed that for ya!
:wink:
 
Just a few suggestions:

TTD - perhaps the pinnacle of accelerators (ok, ka is a little taller..)

Millenium force - pretty damn pioneering

California screamin - fun fun fun

Revenge of the mummy and spiderman(ok, not a coaster, but...) at universal orlando - just for their technical achievements

dodonpa - that acceleration must be something

Maverick - some great elements

air

x/x2

atlantis adventure - again. great fun

winjas - a technically good spinner, and those nice tricks...
 
Gonna go on a wim here and say Air. It was the first coaster of its kind and although they havent made more than a handful of them, it has become a marketing success. Air made the parks realise that coasters could be more than just forces and intense themeing they could be a journey and not necessarily have to be big and full of gs to win the hearts of everyone and then it opened up a new genre of themeing, where themeing wasn't always scary or deliberately aggressively based, it was tranquil and cool.

Thats why I'm saying Air.
 
It'd got to be something that defined the decade nd changes the way people view coasters, not just be the best coaster built.

For that reason I have two candidates. Xclelerator, the first Intamin Accelerator put launches in the spotlight and were the first really popular launch coasters for a while. Changed the view that most coasters will go up a l lift at the start. It began a world wide race for launch coasters, it shown the world they can be just as viable as conventional gravity coasters. The top hat has become one of the most famous and copied elements in the world, being built on so many of them, including TTD and KK.

Air. Air shown that bigger is not always better, even if the US flyers seem to disagree with that and the whole point of them. Air shown that rides don't need to be huge and forcefull for them to be popular. It was built in 2002 and still has probably the longest queues in the park, which says a lot. It pulls enough G to make it quite forcefull, but not too much to make it really intense, apart from the turn after the fly-to-lie, which recently is very strong. Like Xcelerator, it changed the way people think about rides and created a whole new type with many new possibilities that parks are really only just discovering, but will be explored in the next few years, with any luck.
 
Slash said:
Air made the parks realise that coasters could be more than just forces and intense themeing they could be a journey and not necessarily have to be big and full of gs to win the hearts of everyone and then it opened up a new genre of themeing, where themeing wasn't always scary or deliberately aggressively based, it was tranquil and cool.

Thats why I'm saying Air.
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Wait, whut? Which parks went "OMFG, lets be like Air!!!!!"

With Air Alton went "we think all Flying Coasters should be like this", and every other park in the World went "... No"
 
But it did create a new type that has become popular, and proved rides don't have to be huge to be big hits.

There hasn't been a flyer like Air yet, but so far we have only had the clone model, Tatsu and Manta. Magic Mountain were hardly going to build something like Air, and Manta is a bit of a compromise between the two, low flying sections but also tall sections. With time and the right parks buying them, I expect there will be more like Air.
 
^Yeah, but how many were built after Air. Six?

Not to mention the first Superman only opened WEEKS after Air did. I reckon the other flyers are influenced more by Superman than Air. So if we are going to talk about B&M Flyers I'd say Superman would be the answer.

Saying that, I haven't thought of a coaster but I know it wouldn't be a B&M Flyer.
 
Blaze said:
But it did create a new type that has become popular, and proved rides don't have to be huge to be big hits.

There hasn't been a flyer like Air yet, but so far we have only had the clone model, Tatsu and Manta. Magic Mountain were hardly going to build something like Air, and Manta is a bit of a compromise between the two, low flying sections but also tall sections. With time and the right parks buying them, I expect there will be more like Air.
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You're really quite dumb aren't you?
 
Ben said:
With Air Alton went "we think all Flying Coasters should be like this", and every other park in the World went "... No"
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Somebody has been watching Michael Macintyre :p
 
Ben said:
Blaze said:
But it did create a new type that has become popular, and proved rides don't have to be huge to be big hits.

There hasn't been a flyer like Air yet, but so far we have only had the clone model, Tatsu and Manta. Magic Mountain were hardly going to build something like Air, and Manta is a bit of a compromise between the two, low flying sections but also tall sections. With time and the right parks buying them, I expect there will be more like Air.
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You're really quite dumb aren't you?
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Why does this post make him dumb? Nothing in there is actually incorrect.

Flyers are popular, and big hits in the parks where they have been built.

There hasn't been another flyer like Air yet.

4 S:UF Clones, Tatsu and Manta. Yup, that's the B&M Flyer install list.

Magic Mountain would not build a clone of Air.

Manta is a blend of Tatsu and Air, with additional elements.

With time, another park may choose to build a ride similar to Air.

So, maybe you don't like Blaze, but give him crap when he deserves it, not just because you don't like him. OK?
 
I have to disagree with the "bigger isn't better" aspect of flyers, as they are pretty big. If you want to go down that route, talk about Eurofighters. They all have fairly small footprints and aren't very high, especially when compared to a B&M.
 
^ Air isn't, thats why we said it. Air is never more than 20 feet off the ground apart from when it goes over the midway. All the subsequent flyers have been bigger, but the original was not, and that was what proved bigger isn't always better.
 
Yeah, but does the terrain change height at all? Just because it's close to the ground doesn't mean it's not tall. Alton just had to be more creative because of the restrictions.

Plus, how big is Air's footprint?
 
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