Wild Mouse coasters are noted for their sharp turns, high lateral forces, sudden drops, and generally fun layouts. The coasters are easily recognizable with a large flat section of upper track consisting of multiple 180° switchbacks and lower sections of track with a few drops and/or bunny hops. All wild mouse coasters use small cars that sit four or fewer passengers, but the cars are designed to be wider than the track, giving riders the feeling of hanging over the edge and that they could fly out on the non-banked turns. There are over 250 wild mouse coasters in operation worldwide, but they were almost extinct in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the 1990s saw a revival of the coaster type as smaller parks needed relatively exciting alternatives to more expensive conventional thrill coasters and large parks sought more intense family-friendly coasters that had small footprints. The biggest boom came in the late 1990s when Reverchon developed Wild Mouse coasters with spinning cars, and Maurer, Zamperla, and Gerstlauer have all jumped on the spinning Wild Mouse bandwagon since the turn of the century.
Arrow Dynamics had a small part in the late ’90s Wild Mouse revival. Their first wild mouse coaster was Mad Mouse at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion in South Carolina, which opened in 1998. Arrow built three more Wild Mouse coasters over the next three years before the company went out of business in 2001. That coaster has been SBNO (standing but not operating) at nearby NASCAR SpeedPark since 2007, but the other three are all still operating at their original locations: Psycho Mouse at California’s Great America in California and the Mad Mouse coasters at Michigan’s Adventure and Valleyfair in Minnesota, USA.
Hardly a household name in the coaster industry, L&T Systems produced eight wild mouse coasters between 1997 and 2004. The company went out of business in 2009, but a handful of its wild mouse coasters are still in operation.
The modern-day Wild Mouse layout was developed by Mack Rides, and they have had a pretty successful run of installations. The first was Wild Maus at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia, USA, in 1996 (now Sand Serpent at Busch Gardens Tampa in Florida), and has more than two dozen Wild Mouse coasters operating in parks the world over. Mack has four Wild Mouse variations, from a compact mobile model to the large park model like the Project X/Technic coasters at Legoland parks. The company also built three custom models, including Matterhorn Blitz at Europa Park in Germany, which has an elevator lift instead of a lift hill.
Maurer started building Wild Mouse coasters in 1996 with Kopermijn at Drievliet in the Netherlands, which is still operating in the same park. Their first spinning wild mouse coaster opened in 2000 at Tokyo Dome City (now Spinner at Skara Sommarland in Sweden) and the company has gone on to specialize in spinning coasters with their popular Xtended SC models like Sonic Spinball at Alton Towers, Dragon’s Fury at Chessington (both the UK), Winjas at Phantasialand in Germany and Undertow at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in California, USA.
In 1955 through the very early 60’s, Miler Manufacturing produced a few Wild Mouse coasters. Three of the four park installations were relocated, but only two remain in operation – Cyclone at Wonderland Amusement Park in Texas and Wild Chipmunk at Lakeside Amusement Park in Colorado, USA. Unlike modern wild mouse coasters, Miler Manufacturing’s models use narrow, bullet-shaped cars with elongated bench-style seats that can hold one or two passengers sitting behind one another. Their tracks are also much narrower, with only an upper section of many switchbacks, and the drops come on each side as the cars circumvent the outside of the circuit.
Reverchon is credited with developing Wild Mouse coasters with spinning cars in 1979, a concept that has been copied by many manufacturers and is the most popular type of Wild Mouse today. Reverchon has built dozens of wild mouse coasters, all with spinning cars, and has over 20 operating at parks around the world, with many more traveling models criss-crossing the globe. Reverchon’s most famous Wild Mouse was Primeval Whirl at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, USA, which operated from 2002 to 2020. They also have a very popular enclosed Wild Mouse called Exterminator at Kennywood in Pennsylvania, USA.
Zamperla is another company that was a big part of the Wild Mouse revival when Doo Wopper at Morey’s Piers in Wildwood opened on the Jersey Shore in 1998. Called Zig Zag Coasters, only eight have been manufactured so far, mostly due to the popularity of the company’s Twister spinning Wild Mouse coasters, which began production in 2005 with Crazy Mouse at Martin’s Fantasy Island in New York, USA.
The Twister Coaster is similar to other spinning wild mouse coasters produced by various companies. Unlike other manufacturers’ models, Twister Coasters use individual lap bar restraints for the riders. Like the Reverchon Wild Mouse, up to four riders sit in a single row across the car. The Twister Coaster comes in several set sizes or can be customized to a theme park’s specifications.
