The DoD3

Trip Report: North Brunswick Youth Sports Festival 2010

Posted by DoD3Brian on July 3, 2010 | 8 comments

Event: Youth Sports Festival
Where: North Brunswick, NJ
Date: 6/16/10
Ride Operator: Reithoffer Shows

I was tipped off about the Youth Sports Festival (aka the Route 1 Fair or DeVry Fair it seems) by a reader of The DoD3 last year but didn’t go since Amusements of America was doing the show; not that I have anything against AoA, but they were to do the Meadowlands Fair a week later which I would definitely be going to. Anyway, this year I found out that Reithoffer was going to be doing the spot with their orange unit which meant that their Huss Tornado would be there! I didn’t want to miss this one, so I headed over to North Brunswick to check it out…and I wasn’t let down! Here’s the fair lineup:

Tornado (Huss Flipper)
Tango
Crazy Mouse
Gentle Giant (Chance Ferris Wheel)
Wild Claw (KMG Fireball)
Orbiter
Himalaya (Wisdom)
Yoyo
Pharaoh’s Fury
Zipper
Starship 3000
Sizzler
Tilt-a-Whirl
Tornado (Wisdom)
Scooters
Fun Slide (I don’t remember but they probably did)
A myriad of kiddie rides
A bunch of games
Copious amounts of greasy treats
Quite a few shows (Wambalds Circus, Pig Races, Tiger Show, etc.)

Well damn…this was actually better than the Meadowlands Fair! Also not only did they have Tornado, but they had a KMG Tango as well! I immediately set out to find an open ticket booth to buy ten tickets for the two 5 ticket rides. Tickets were $1.25 a piece but ten were being sold for $11. First I went on Tornado which had no line being a Wednesday night; I was actually the only one on it for that cycle. I asked to bring my video camera on to film which one of the ride ops seemed basically indifferent about.

The ride itself was quite a bit more intense then I thought it would be with the car whipping from side to side as the platform rotated at full speed. The angle that the ride rose to didn’t seem as steep as Touchdown, but the ride was markedly faster. The cycle slowed the platform down twice to get the cars spinning around, although I kind of had to coax the car into spinning by leaning to one side.

After Tornado I took some time to film the ride before heading over to Tango. I had the chance to ride this back in 2002 or so but didn’t because I thought I’d get sick on it…then I never saw it again until now. I didn’t have any qualms about getting sick this time, but I did fear the standup/floorless seating ,which by most accounts are not comfortable. I mean, just look at them!

I chose an outermost ‘seat’ (pretty much a bicycle seat) and pulled down the harness which consisted of large metal bars and some seatbelt type straps that hugged ones shoulders. Once the ride lifted, I noticed that it wasn’t nearly as bad as some people make it out to be; I bike a lot so maybe I have a resistance to this sort of position or something! That doesn’t mean it was comfortable though! As the ride flipped around my shoulders took a beating as I was tossed around in the seat like a ragdoll! The total cycle was pitifully short, but then again it was about all I could take without feeling moderately ill afterwards.

Afterwards I basically walked around taking video and photos right up until the place closed at 10pm. Many if not all of the rides were in incredible condition with working lights and nice color schemes. One ride of note was the Gentle Giant ferris wheel which had LED lights on the sweeps that went through a series of patterns. The Himalaya was also pretty nice with a really robust light package, unfortunately it was a smaller Wisdom model which seems more like a kiddie ride on steroids than a large, respectable Super Himalaya or Musik Express.

Video: Tornado (Huss Flipper)

Posted by DoD3Brian on June 26, 2010 | 4 comments

Tornado is a large, flashy Huss manufactured ride that goes by the trade name of Flipper. The ride is pretty much what you’d get if a Round Up and a Tilt-a-Whirl had a baby. The ride spins at variable speeds so sometimes the cars will be pinned facing inward due to the G force while other times the cars will be freely swaying and spinning when the platform is rotating at slower speeds. This ride is owned by Reithoffer Shows and was filmed at the 2010 North Brunswick, NJ Youth Festival. It’s one of two Huss Flipper rides traveling in the US (Europe hoards them all apparently, haha.)

Tornado (Huss Flipper) from The DoD3 on Vimeo.

Song is ‘Return of Forever’ by High Contrast

Scream Machine Is No More

Posted by DoD3Brian on June 21, 2010 | 1 comment

Final Update:

Great American Scream Machine has closed and deconstruction is already underway. Check out the updated Scream Machine Ride Review page for deconstruction photos as they become available. It’s also been basically confirmed that Chang will replace Scream Machine.

_______

July 5, 2010 UPDATE:

It’s now official, Great American Scream Machine will close for good on July 18th, 2010. According to the Great Adventure Facebook there will be a contest where 25 winners (and a guest of their choosing) will get exclusive ride time on GASM from 10-11:30 pm on July 18th. All you have to do is send in your best scream face! Details can be found here.

_______

July 2, 2010 UPDATE:

Well, well, well…looks like part one of this rumor, the closing on July 1st part, has been BUSTED. EDIT: The closing date is the 18th!

___________

June 21, 2010

A big rumor dropped this weekend that the Great American Scream Machine will be closing on July 1st July 18th and will be replaced in 2011 by Chang, the now in pieces stand-up coaster that was all but confirmed for Six Flags Great America. Chang was removed from Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom last season after being at the park since 1997.

So, I might be in the minority here but I think this is awful news! Sure Scream Machine is old and a bit rough but it’s also one of the most intense rides at the park and it’s one of only two megaloopers left (the other being Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain.) Scream Machine represents the pinnacle of the coaster race where higher, faster and more disorienting were all the rave while comfort and aesthetics were commonly omitted. Hell, Scream Machine was the tallest coaster in the world at one point, only to be supplanted by the 200 foot Magnum XL 200 soon after.

Ride it while you still can folks! You’ve got until the 18th!

EDIT: The Suburban Chicago News website ran an article last week that Six Flags Great America had canceled the proposed coaster and meeting with the local zoning board. Interestingly the online article is now gone and the print version of the paper apparently issued a retraction regarding the article. Hmm…seems like somebody didn’t want this information to be known to us common folk!

Video: KMG Tango

Posted by DoD3Brian on June 18, 2010 | 3 comments

Tango is a KMG manufactured spin and puke ride and possibly the only ride to ever seat riders in a standing/floorless configuration. This might sound kind of…uh…painful for guys, but from what I experienced it really isn’t; however it’s still not the most comfortable ride either! The ride itself combines three different motions allowing riders to experience a sort of mid-air ballet from hell. From my own experience, the ride was very disorienting with all kinds of weird direction changes and constant “I have no idea where I’m pointed right now” moments!

The video below was taken at the 2010 North Brunswick Youth Sports Festival in North Brunswick, NJ. The ride is owned by Reithoffer Shows.

Tango (KMG) from The DoD3 on Vimeo.

Song is ‘Wide Lens’ by Logistics

Trip Report: Feast of St. Anthony Festival 2010

Posted by DoD3Brian on June 14, 2010 | Add a Comment

Event: Feast of St. Anthony Festival
Where: Our Lady of Czestochowa; South Plainfield, NJ
Date: 6/1/10
Primary Ride Operator: McDaniel Brothers Shows

The last time I went to this fair back in 2008, it was sort of a dismal looking fair with a ridiculous amount of crowds. I decided to head back this year to check it out again and see if its been improved or what. It took about a half an hour to get there as my GPS decided to take a stupid route after I disobeyed its original, equally dumb route. The fair itself seemed less cluttered but some of the rides haven’t changed. The fair had…

Rave Up (a Trabant owned by Tolve Presentations.)
Gravitron
Scrambler
Tilt-a-Whirl
Euro Bungee
Ferris Wheel
Fun Slide
A myriad of kiddie rides
Some games
Quite a few food stands
Beer

Not too many big rides at this one but they kind of made up for that by running the rides on fairly long cycles. Rave Up, the most likely candidate for the “big ride” status at this fair, had a manual cycle that lasted for about 6 minutes! The ride also had a pretty nice color scheme and a pretty nice light package barring the fact that half the lights on the wheel were out. This is also one of the few Chance Trabant rides that have background flash. Nice all around ride!

To the left of Rave Up was Gravitron which looked OK but could use some touching up on the flash. Although it looks like they may be doing something on the top portion of flash as it had a base coat thing going on. Next to it was a Euro Bungee, you know one of those trampoline things where riders are strapped onto bungee cords. I forget if it was an upcharge or not but I’d guess it was due to the low capacity.

Next to the bungee ride and across from Gravitron was a Big Eli Scrambler. It was a pretty utilitarian looking one with gray sweeps with red highlights, a few light decorations lining the tops of the sweeps along with a florescent light tube adorning each sweep. Hell, it went pretty fast though and that’s all that counts in the end I guess! Tilt-a-Whirl was the next ride down the midway and looked fairly standard with a blue, red and yellow color scheme. Now is it just me or are Tilts tough as heck to get a good picture of?

The final non-kiddie ride at the fair was a Ferris Wheel which didn’t look like a Big Eli model, but I’m not really sure. The ride really didn’t look too bad during the day with its multicolored seats and clean paint job, but at night it looked a little rinky-dink with its Spartan light package. The ride also broke down later on that night causing a worker to scale the support to fix whatever needed fixing near the hub.

A little something interesting was a fund raising event where people payed a donation to smash up a car. Now that’s pretty awesome! Unfortunately they weren’t doing it that night otherwise I might have taken a swing! There was quite a bit of food at this fair including some Polish fare so I got a serving of homemade pierogies which turned out to be pretty darn good. I also got a bag of zeppolies, because no fair journey is complete without a few zeppolies! They also served beer but unfortunately you couldn’t walk around the fair with it.

Here’s a music video of Rave Up:

2020 Update: and again without music, and longer, and in 60fps!

« Previous 1 … 40 41 42 43 44 … 72 Next »