6 Incredibly Odd Carnival Rides

Posted by on April 18, 2009 | 11 comments

Sorry I haven’t been updating the site as regularly as I’ve been, I’ve been pretty busy this past week with some things as well as preparing this fat, three MS Word page post; and yes, MS Word pages are the measuring stick for article length. 1500 word essays are out, it’s all about 3 page MS Word essays now! But I digress…

Last month we took a look at five insane flatrides that each brought some type of baneful attribute to the table. This time around we’ll take a little tour down ‘freak alley’ to check out a sextet of carnival rides that defy any decent description due to either appearance or motion. In other words, these are rides that might make you say “what the hell?!”

6. Flic Flac

odd_flicflacFlic Flac is a strange ride made by Huss Rides of Germany; a company that has made such theme park staples such as Top Spin and Breakdance. Flic Flac is kind of like a combination of an Octopus and a Chance Chaos; weird right? The ride features six arms radiating from a center hub with pairs of three passenger gondolas at the end of each arm. The 12 gondolas can freely rock forwards and backwards and each sport a counterweight. So, what the hell is a ‘flic flac?’ Apparently it’s a  gymnastics term for a back handspring; basically a back flip.

Once started the gondolas will begin to revolve around the center; they don’t travel too terribly fast though. Next, a mechanism in the hub kicks in rising some of the arms in the air. Finally the hub mechanism starts to spin in the opposite direction of the gondolas, making the arms perform a wave type of motion; this is what I mean when I say that it’s like an Octopus ride, it has that same type of waving arm movement. The free swinging gondolas, now being assaulted by a hectic wave motion, rock wildly and even perform lengthy sets of a flips.

You can find these rides at German and French funfairs under names like ‘Devil Rock’, ‘Mega Dancer’ and other music related monikers.  Flic Flac is a pretty cool ride, I really have to hand it to Huss with this one. The one downside is that the ride looks pretty large and seems like it would be very tough to haul around and set up.

Here’s a nice video from one of my favorite thrill ride video YouTubers, Xtremerides.

… 6 Incredibly Odd Carnival Rides

During that shameless April Fools prank, which was a Voodoo video but turned into a Rick Roll, I promised that there would in fact be a Voodoo video; well it’s finally here!

Just some quick facts about the ride; Voodoo/Possessed is an Intimin Impulse coaster at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, PA. The coaster was first built in 2000 at Six Flags Ohio (later known as Geauga Lake Amusement Park) under the name Superman Ultimate Escape. Once Six Flags sold the park in 2003, the coaster was re-themed as Steel Venom and went by that name until 2006; I’m not sure what happened during the 2007 season with Steel Venom. Geauga Lake closed their amusement park (but kept the waterpark) after the 2007 season. The coaster then debuted as Voodoo in 2008 at Dorney Park, and was then renamed to Possessed in 2009 after a possible Six Flags trademark violation.

Considering that Voodoo (now re-named Possessed) isn’t exactly a long ride, I decided to take a bit of artistic freedom with this video; it turned out pretty weird with lots of effects and color changes. Hope you all enjoy it!

The song is ‘Ultrasonic Sound’ by Hive (aka the song in Pico’s School!)

Coney Island CycloneMany parks in the northeast US opened on April 4th, but I got my first taste of theme parks in 2009 on Sunday the 5th with a visit to Coney Island, NY. It was pretty nice out, probably around 65F with only wispy clouds decorating the sky. The drive to Coney Island was hectic as always with annoyingly narrow road lanes, aggressive drivers, and sudden lane changes.

Upon arriving on Coney Island, I drove down Surf Ave, hoping to find street side parking, but to no avail. I then ended up on Brighton Beach Ave, which is this sucky, crowded, pedestrian filled road that travels under an elongated subway overpass; I eventually managed to escape down side street to turn around.

I finally pulled into the Keyspan Park parking lot, resigned to paying whatever to park there. However I found no one manning the gates or patrolling the lot so I just pulled into a spot and hoped that I was allowed to do so for free!

Coney Island BoardwalkThe boardwalk was fairly crowded with everyone enjoying the unusually great weather. I strolled down the boardwalk, past the vacant lots that are Sitt-land, past Deno’s Wonderwheel Park, and past the remains of Astroland on my way to the Cyclone.

I took a few pictures of the Cyclone before purchasing a ticket to ride which cost $8.00 bucks; expensive but then again it is the Cyclone. Hey, it’s better than paying $10 bucks to cross the Verrazanno Bridge! The Cyclone was great as always with it’s abrupt drops, turns that toss you to the side of the seat, and its out of control style.

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After riding I scoped out the old Astroland site to see what was left…which isn’t much. The Water Flume sat there in pieces, some parts stacked neatly with others seemingly strewn about. All of the flatrides like Breakdance and Scrambler were gone, stored somewhere in Staten Island. The only remaining ride is the AstroTower, which is probably very tough to remove. To be honest, the AstroTower is practically a Coney Island icon along with the likes of Cyclone, Wonderwheel, and Parachute Jump; I can’t imagine seeing the Coney skyline without it!

… Trip Report: Coney Island, NY 4/5/09

wonderwheel1Here’s some theme park and amusement related openings in the Northeast US for April 2009. Many of the parks open on a weekends only schedule in April so I urge you to check the park’s official site for hours.

Major Parks/Attractions

Small Parks/Attractions

Other

  • 12h Street Amusements; Coney Island, NY: they usually open along with the other parks in Coney Island.
  • Belmont Fair; Elmont, NY: The Belmont Fair is open every Th, F, Sat, Sun from April 2nd through April 26th.

April 2nd update: **I made this video for April Fools Day as a little prank; I’ll leave it up for fun though!** 😀

Well it took me long enough to make this video! This is a video (and some photos) of Voodoo at Dorney Park in Allentown, PA that I took back in October. It’s pretty short, but the music selection is great! Hope you all like it!

😉

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