Day 8, Part One: Magic Mountain

Left Oakhurst early, make quicker time than I expected and made it to Magic Mountain by 9:30. Being one of the first people in the park, I was able to make it onto Goliath in no time, and got the front seat. Did the rest of the park in a whirlwind tour, and left by 3:30 to make it to Mike's house to hand over the car.


Six Flags Magic Mountain

Goliath (Rating , 3 out of 4)

What an amazing 1st drop into the tiniest of tunnels. Very comfortable coaches. Some great very elevated airtime. I nearly blacked out during the helix, as did many other people I heard talking upon exiting the ride. I suppose they'll have to slow the ride down some in that area. If I didn't have the near-blackout, I could ride this one all day and I would give it a rating.

Batman: The Ride (Rating , 3 out of 4)

Another Batman clone

Riddler's Revenge (Rating , 4 out of 4)

Best stand-up ride I've been on. Lots of really cool elements but not a lot of super-strong positive Gs like Chang. I have yet to ride Mantis, so until then this is my #1 stand-up. Longest line of the day, about 40 minutes.

Superman: The Escape (Rating , 4 out of 4)

WOW! The best 30 second ride on the planet. Great acceleration, top-of-the-world views, loads of sustained airtime. Would have really liked to ride this a bunch of times.

Gold Rusher (Rating , 1out of 4)

Yawn. I still love SFGAdv's Runaway Train.

Ninja (Rating , 2out of 4)

Nowhere near as good as the Big Bad Wolf, but not as bad as Iron Dragon. Kind of odd to have the long lift hill at the very end of the ride.

Psyclone (Rating , 1 out of 4)

Huge waste of wood! Tied with Grizzly at Paramount's Great America for worst wooden coaster. Why would anyone want to ride this more than once? Every Cyclone-clone I've ridden (Georgia Cyclone, SFGA's Viper) would have this ride for lunch. B&M trains not very good either. I could go on ranting about this one, but what would be the point?

Collosus (Rating , 2 out of 4)

I bet this was some ride in its day. Still looks gorgeous, just doesn't ride very well. The Morgan trains don't help matters much. Couldn't help imagining how much better this ride could be with less brakes, more grease and PTCs. Of course the reprofiling didn't help matters much. What a shame.

Viper (Rating , 2 out of 4)

Not bad, smoother than I remember SFGAdv's Great American Scream Machine to be. One of Arrow's best 1st drops.

Revolution (Rating , 2 out of 4)

Why, why, why did they have to put horse collars on this ride? This would have been a little ride if it was just lap bars the way Anton intended. Great use of location, lots of fun zippy hills, the great setup to the 1st loop in America, all wasted.
 

People lined up at 9:30 at
the entrance to Magic
Mountain

Not a bad view from
the parking lot. Collosus,
Supermand and Goliath
visible.

That first drop on
Goliath looks pretty
fierce from this angle

Quite a change from the
crowds at Lakeside and
Joyland

The 1st drop on Goliath.
Oh. My. God.

Goliath's 250 ft 1st drop

Some of Goliath's
structure.

1st drop on Psyclone, a
huge waste of wood.
Riddler's Revenge can be
seen in the background.

Reverse angle of
Psyclone's 1st drop

Collosus's 1st drop,
with Goliath intertwined
with the structure

Collosus, a great looking
but crappy riding woodie

Some more Collosus

The curve that killed
Timothy Bottoms in Rollercoaster

The first vertical loop
in the U.S.

1st drop on Revolution

The ramp-like approach
to Revolution's loop

It's a bird! It's a plane!
It's Superman! Sorry,
I couldn't resist.

The giant loop on
Riddler's Revenge