Happy Valley Shanghai | Family Inverted Coaster | B&M Invert

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

It's good that B&M are branching out. I wonder if this ride will have restraints similar to the Vekoma SFC's.

 

[Hixee]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

I think this is great news and I'm really curious to see what they do with the family coaster concept, but I do have two thoughts on the issue.

1) I wonder if we'll see a new restraint design for these coasters. B&M's restraints are pretty big (the smallest has to be the clamshells maybe, which are still pretty large) and so I wonder if they'll have a more streamlined/smaller version for the family market where the forces aren't as high and the riders will be smaller.

2) Why B&M? I'm curious what B&M offer in the family market that Vekoma (for example) don't. B&Ms are more expensive (certainly on their other models), are best suited to high precision-big-thrill type coasters (in my opinion) and have no experience in the area. Obviously, if they can design a ride like Gatekeeper I'm not doubting they wouldn't know how to make a family coasters, but it does seems like a strange decision to me.

I'm going to keep an eye on this project, I think it sounds interesting.

 

[roomraider]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

Its built.

Tons more pics here
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2618483481?pn=2

Its basically the same as the Vekoma with a few minor differences. The Vekomas Turnaround at the far end to the lift hill goes down, the B&M goes up. And the helix is tighter on the B&M.

 

[Intricks]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

It looks so cute! I wonder if they have pics of the trains yet....

 

[Lofty]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

The transitions look so much better than the Vekoma ones, it looks somewhat snappy. Can't wait to see videos of it.

 

[Hixee]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

I've always really liked how B&M track looks, especially when doing small/tight transitions like this, so this looks excellent!

Really looking forward to seeing a train snake through those corners.

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

It looks a lot better than any Vekoma, those turns!

 

[gavin]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

I'm just really failing to see the point. They could've saved loads by just getting an off-the-shelf Vekoma, and none of the guests would've given a ****.

 

[roomraider]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

I have a theory that OCT and Vekoma no longer get on. I find it odd that Shenzhen and Beijing both opened with Vekoma rides while the following 4 parks all opened with equivalents from other companies such as Golden Horse or Intamin. Now this B&M comes along with a Vekoma layout.

Do I have any evidence? Nope. Is it all supposition? Yup.

Just strikes me as odd that OCT seem to be going out of their way to avoid Vekoma.

 

[Ethan]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

I'm with Gavin here. To me this just looks odd and seems pointless. Nobody complains about the Vekoma models.

 

[gavin]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

^^Chengdu also has the SLC/Mine train combo.

 

[roomraider]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

Bugger was one out. But am I thinking chengdu was third? And Shanghai, Wuhan and Tianjin came next. All 3 sans vekomas?

 

[gavin]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

^ I think so, yeah.

 

[_koppen]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

Not gonna lie, I think the Vekoma version looks better.

I'm not a fan of how B&M have made some of that figure 8 uphill.

Source

 

[Hyde]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

This all just strikes me as odd.

 

[the king]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

A interesting project B&M have done, to create a family coaster. Appearances are odd at first, but it doesn't take long to get used to. The ride experience looks fun, but I do hope the trains have something interesting to them whether it be with the restraints or even possibly a swinging motion, like the Vekoma version. Does anyone know if this ride meant to have any theming?

 

[rollermonkey]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

I'm going to throw this out there, and hope I'm wrong.

Vekoma has a fabrication plant in China now, so unless B&M does now too, the cost difference is even bigger than we'd suspect...

That said, it seems that Chinese ride manufacturers have pretty much cloned the entire Vekoma catalogue now.

Maybe they wanted to get some more of the B&M catalogue on hand to reverse engineer, too?

 

[rtotheizzo17]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

Maybe the park owner/D&E Director is a coaster enthusiast and a B&M fanboy like 50% of the enthusiasts out there?

 

[Hutch]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

It looks like a knock off to the Vekoma version. That being said, it does look like an enjoyable little coaster that could be better than the SFCs. It's odd but interesting.

 

[gavin]

Re: B&M Family Inverted Coaster for Happy Valley Shanghai

I'm going to throw this out there, and hope I'm wrong.

Vekoma has a fabrication plant in China now, so unless B&M does now too, the cost difference is even bigger than we'd suspect...

That said, it seems that Chinese ride manufacturers have pretty much cloned the entire Vekoma catalogue now.

Maybe they wanted to get some more of the B&M catalogue on hand to reverse engineer, too?

I was actually thinking about this last night, with regards to no Vekomas at the newer Happy Valley parks. Is it possible that it's Vekoma who doesn't want to sell to them anymore, rather than the other way around?

Think about it. Golden Horse have copied EXACTLY Vekoma's mine trains and the Kumali layout SLC. How could they access those coasters if not through Happy Valley allowing them to?

Happy Valley don't buy large knockoff coasters, but do they rent the real deal out to the knockoff companies after they've bought them?