Matt N
CF Legend
Hi guys. For years, B&M completely avoided family coasters, which are possibly one of the most competitive sectors of the roller coaster market. For the first 20-25 years or so of B&M’s history, they completely steered clear of entering this sector, with no interest shown from the company whatsoever in manufacturing family coasters. That changed with the opening of Happy Valley Shanghai’s Family Inverted Coaster in 2014, which was the inaugural outing of the newly created B&M Family Inverted Coaster model. While this ride proved that B&M were not necessarily averse to building family coasters, the Family Inverted Coaster did not exactly fly off the shelves, with there being radio silence in terms of new installations aside from a clone of the original at Happy Valley Beijing in 2018. It was suggested by some that B&M hadn’t even wanted to manufacture the model in the first place, with the only reason for the two family coasters’ existence being a specific request from the Happy Valley chain to manufacture that style of ride, and any hopes of B&M making a dramatic entry into the family coaster market seemed to be quashed.
However, that all changed fairly recently. In May 2021, Chessington surprised everyone in the theme park industry by revealing a family thrill wing coaster manufactured by B&M as their 2023 coaster, and this was swiftly followed by the reveal of Maximus, a family B&M wing coaster at Legoland Deutschland, for 2023. A flurry of new Legolands in China are set to bring a large quantity of new B&M family coasters into the world, with each containing a family inverted coaster and family wing coaster. And it would now appear that SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment may want a piece of the B&M family coaster pie, with a B&M sit-down family launch coaster of some description allegedly heading to SeaWorld Orlando for 2024 and rumours swirling of a possible B&M family inverted coaster for Busch Gardens Tampa in 2024.
My point here is that there seems to have been a sudden flurry of B&M family coasters after an initially very slow start. Even though B&M would traditionally have been one of the last companies you’d go to for a family coaster, we’re now starting to see some big names within the industry put their faith in B&M to manufacture such rides. With this in mind, the question I ask today is; is the B&M family coaster starting to take off? Will parks the world over be filled with B&M family coasters in 10 or 20 years’ time? Or is the current flurry of popularity for B&M family coasters a false dawn, with them being likely to remain a fairly rare phenomenon?
Personally, I’m unsure whether B&M family coasters will necessarily blow up and become “the next big thing” in the industry, but I do think that they might gain some minor ground within the industry.
The family wing coaster in particular is a very unique proposition that no other company manufactures, and the initial installations at Chessington and Legoland Deutschland seem to be going down fairly well, so I could potentially see more parks snapping those up. B&M are also a trusted name in terms of reliability and build quality, so I could see that assured quality tempting some parks to build B&M family coasters.
With that being said, B&M’s track design is very bulky and robust, and the rides are very expensively engineered. I can imagine that a great many parks may view the extra robustness of a B&M coaster as not being worth the increased cost, with many less costly manufacturers providing family coasters that are perfectly well engineered in their own right. The family coaster market is very competitive; I can see a scenario where a park would think “Why would I go to B&M for a family coaster when Vekoma (as an example) can build a perfectly good one for far less money?”. With this in mind, I’m not sure I ever see B&M’s family coaster offering overtaking that of the likes of Vekoma, Gerstlauer, Zamperla et al to become the go to family coaster option.
So overall, I could see more B&M family coasters being sold, but I’m not sure that they will blow the family coaster industry wide open and become the new family coaster option of choice.
But what are your thoughts? Do you agree with me, or do you think that the current influx of B&M family coasters is just a drop in the ocean compared to what’s to come? I’d be really keen to hear your opinions!
However, that all changed fairly recently. In May 2021, Chessington surprised everyone in the theme park industry by revealing a family thrill wing coaster manufactured by B&M as their 2023 coaster, and this was swiftly followed by the reveal of Maximus, a family B&M wing coaster at Legoland Deutschland, for 2023. A flurry of new Legolands in China are set to bring a large quantity of new B&M family coasters into the world, with each containing a family inverted coaster and family wing coaster. And it would now appear that SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment may want a piece of the B&M family coaster pie, with a B&M sit-down family launch coaster of some description allegedly heading to SeaWorld Orlando for 2024 and rumours swirling of a possible B&M family inverted coaster for Busch Gardens Tampa in 2024.
My point here is that there seems to have been a sudden flurry of B&M family coasters after an initially very slow start. Even though B&M would traditionally have been one of the last companies you’d go to for a family coaster, we’re now starting to see some big names within the industry put their faith in B&M to manufacture such rides. With this in mind, the question I ask today is; is the B&M family coaster starting to take off? Will parks the world over be filled with B&M family coasters in 10 or 20 years’ time? Or is the current flurry of popularity for B&M family coasters a false dawn, with them being likely to remain a fairly rare phenomenon?
Personally, I’m unsure whether B&M family coasters will necessarily blow up and become “the next big thing” in the industry, but I do think that they might gain some minor ground within the industry.
The family wing coaster in particular is a very unique proposition that no other company manufactures, and the initial installations at Chessington and Legoland Deutschland seem to be going down fairly well, so I could potentially see more parks snapping those up. B&M are also a trusted name in terms of reliability and build quality, so I could see that assured quality tempting some parks to build B&M family coasters.
With that being said, B&M’s track design is very bulky and robust, and the rides are very expensively engineered. I can imagine that a great many parks may view the extra robustness of a B&M coaster as not being worth the increased cost, with many less costly manufacturers providing family coasters that are perfectly well engineered in their own right. The family coaster market is very competitive; I can see a scenario where a park would think “Why would I go to B&M for a family coaster when Vekoma (as an example) can build a perfectly good one for far less money?”. With this in mind, I’m not sure I ever see B&M’s family coaster offering overtaking that of the likes of Vekoma, Gerstlauer, Zamperla et al to become the go to family coaster option.
So overall, I could see more B&M family coasters being sold, but I’m not sure that they will blow the family coaster industry wide open and become the new family coaster option of choice.
But what are your thoughts? Do you agree with me, or do you think that the current influx of B&M family coasters is just a drop in the ocean compared to what’s to come? I’d be really keen to hear your opinions!