I've decided to take that long and rambly post I made in the SFMM Raptor thread a step further. In case you didn't read that post, here's a short summary:
From time to time, a small revolution occurs in the coaster world. An entirely new coaster type comes out, or somebody figures out how to drastically improve on an existing concept. Maybe a new manufacturer comes along to show how a coaster type really is supposed to be made. Anyway, the game is changed forever and the bar is significantly raised for all coasters of that type from then on.
... and sometimes, it just so happens that your favourite park chooses to build one of the last coasters of the previous type before the revolution. They went all in on a coaster type without a future. This could either be because the coaster type was vastly improved shortly after, or because it turned out to have a flaw that later iterations went on to fix. If the park had, hypothetically, just waited a few more years before purchasing, they could have ended up with a much better coaster. At least, so it seems with the benefit of hindsight - things aren't always so straightforward, but for the sake of the thread, let's pretend they are. Someone always have to be the first to build something, and learn what to improve or what to avoid in the future. But it kind of sucks when your favourite park has to be that someone, while subsequent customers go on to do the same concept much better.
What are your examples of such coasters?
As I said in the SFMM Raptor thread, Six Flags Magic Mountain is the poster child of building 'em too early. Viper was built only three years before B&M changed the sit-down looper scene with Kumba. Superman: The Escape was made obsolete by the Strata coasters a few years after it opened. Goliath opened the same year as Millennium Force and the widely acclaimed Superman: Ride of Steel (SFNE, not the reputedly lamer Darien Lake version), representing the end of Giovanola just before Intamin and B&M figured out how to build vastly better Hypers. Full Throttle was the first coaster to feature a swing launch that didn't pass the station, but later coasters figured out that a switch track and reverse spike could save the hassle of that weird braking half-loop that kills the pacing of the ride. SFMM also built a couple of coasters that represented soon-to-be-obsolete coaster types: Riddler and Green Lantern were both the biggest of their ride type, and also among the last because neither standing up nor off-axis rotation are particularly good ideas for coasters. If SFMM had waited a while for trends to shift (provided they even could shift the way they did without SFMM's input), much of its lineup would have looked vastly different, and probably for the better.
Another example that springs to mind is The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Built in 1994, it was a handful of years before the later, more acclaimed Hypers were built, but it still didn't take too long to feel obsolete. Everything from the old, clunky track with wheels on the inside, to the triangular-shaped hills and the latticework support structure seemed almost archaic within a few years of its opening. It's a grand example of how hypers used to be made until they figured out how to do them much better, and this happened only a few short years after BPB bought PMBO.
What other coasters do you think were built just a little too early to become a classic?
From time to time, a small revolution occurs in the coaster world. An entirely new coaster type comes out, or somebody figures out how to drastically improve on an existing concept. Maybe a new manufacturer comes along to show how a coaster type really is supposed to be made. Anyway, the game is changed forever and the bar is significantly raised for all coasters of that type from then on.
... and sometimes, it just so happens that your favourite park chooses to build one of the last coasters of the previous type before the revolution. They went all in on a coaster type without a future. This could either be because the coaster type was vastly improved shortly after, or because it turned out to have a flaw that later iterations went on to fix. If the park had, hypothetically, just waited a few more years before purchasing, they could have ended up with a much better coaster. At least, so it seems with the benefit of hindsight - things aren't always so straightforward, but for the sake of the thread, let's pretend they are. Someone always have to be the first to build something, and learn what to improve or what to avoid in the future. But it kind of sucks when your favourite park has to be that someone, while subsequent customers go on to do the same concept much better.
What are your examples of such coasters?
As I said in the SFMM Raptor thread, Six Flags Magic Mountain is the poster child of building 'em too early. Viper was built only three years before B&M changed the sit-down looper scene with Kumba. Superman: The Escape was made obsolete by the Strata coasters a few years after it opened. Goliath opened the same year as Millennium Force and the widely acclaimed Superman: Ride of Steel (SFNE, not the reputedly lamer Darien Lake version), representing the end of Giovanola just before Intamin and B&M figured out how to build vastly better Hypers. Full Throttle was the first coaster to feature a swing launch that didn't pass the station, but later coasters figured out that a switch track and reverse spike could save the hassle of that weird braking half-loop that kills the pacing of the ride. SFMM also built a couple of coasters that represented soon-to-be-obsolete coaster types: Riddler and Green Lantern were both the biggest of their ride type, and also among the last because neither standing up nor off-axis rotation are particularly good ideas for coasters. If SFMM had waited a while for trends to shift (provided they even could shift the way they did without SFMM's input), much of its lineup would have looked vastly different, and probably for the better.
Another example that springs to mind is The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Built in 1994, it was a handful of years before the later, more acclaimed Hypers were built, but it still didn't take too long to feel obsolete. Everything from the old, clunky track with wheels on the inside, to the triangular-shaped hills and the latticework support structure seemed almost archaic within a few years of its opening. It's a grand example of how hypers used to be made until they figured out how to do them much better, and this happened only a few short years after BPB bought PMBO.
What other coasters do you think were built just a little too early to become a classic?
