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Weird, Wacky & Strange Coaster Bits

CanobieFan

Strata Poster
Note: The date on the video says 1948 but considering the ride in the video (Giant Coaster at Fuji-Q) wasn't built until 1966 this is obviously either not using our calendar or just wrong.
also, at the end you can hear the theme song from Indiana Jones playing in the background... so that narrows the year down to at least no older than 1981.
Gonna go with the @Thekingin64 thinking it was to close the ride, 1997ish and since the video quality seems pretty good. I doubt it was was anything in the 80's.
 

vaugc002

Mega Poster
also, at the end you can hear the theme song from Indiana Jones playing in the background... so that narrows the year down to at least no older than 1981.
Gonna go with the @Thekingin64 thinking it was to close the ride, 1997ish and since the video quality seems pretty good. I doubt it was was anything in the 80's.
Come through Sherlock!
 

roomraider

Best Topic Starter
I've been on a bit of a Japanese binge recently digging up old parks that arent on the RCDB. Japan has quite a rich coaster history but has faced neigh on catastrophic numbers of closures since the 70s (at least 100 parks).

This park popped onto my radar yesterday and had the rather excellent name Funabashi Health Center.
The park was part of the larger Tokyo metropolitan area in Chiba and featured both a water park and an amusement park separated by a fair distance.
To get people between them the park set up what is essentially a cross between a transport monorail and a shuttle coaster.

42752897_2083755301934607_8810584220389867520_n.pngThe stations at either end were on an incline and a small lift took the train up and out of the station kind of like the Japanese shuttle loops of old. Then after running back through the station the train would traverse several hills before reaching a station at the other end of the track where passengers would disembark and the whole process would take place in reverse.

42794283_532094153916519_8963313313270202368_n.png
Squint a bit and you can see the track running from the amusement park on the left to the water park top right.

The park open in 1955 and closed in 1977 but the transport coaster closed some time before that as a huge express way was built between the 2 parks.
 

EpochEmu

Mega Poster
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roomraider

Best Topic Starter
Nowhere near @roomraider's level of research, but Beijing Shibaolai Amusement Equipment, besides the standard knock-off SLCs, has built 2 knock-off boomerangs (one of which looks really fun- look at that tunnel through the loop) AND a knock-off Zamperla Volare (which is still under construction for 2017:p)!

Edit- Not exactly weird or wacky but I've also realized volare means "to fly" in Italian. Makes sense.

Thanks for the mention :p
Ive been keeping an eye on the BSA Volare. I have a couple of shots of it. I was told in 2017 i could post them when it opened.... I am still waiting....

The boomerangs are interesting though. The first one opened for less than 6 months before it shut down and never ran again.
BSA or Lewa World have never as far as I am aware mentioned why. However has the 2nd one is still active after almost a year and its indoors.... could it be rain that ruined the first one? just me guessing here but who knows.

Another weird thing about the BSA ones is they use Catch cars on both lifts. Look at this POV and you can see the 2nd lift has a catch car.

Where as a standard Vekoma boomerang has a chain lift on the 2nd lift
 

TilenB

Strata Poster
Old janky Russian rides are the best

TilenB posted about it a few pages back but this video is amazing.
Great find this video. It seems that the original video was uploaded a couple of months after I posted about it for the first time. Interestingly enough, somebody on wikimapia claims that they've ridden the coaster 45 years ago, which would make this ride older than SFMM's Revolution, though I doubt the validity of that info. It was still one of the first looping coasters, possibly even the first one in Europe?

In other news, I've found a video of this odd looping coaster that used to travel France. Certainly looks like a unique ride.
 

CanobieFan

Strata Poster
Maannnn, I had seen that looping ride in photos YEARS ago and had never been able to find it again. I was so sure it was Soquet but could never find it. <3
 

EpochEmu

Mega Poster
does roomraider edit rcdb?
In other news, I've found a video of this odd looping coaster that used to travel France. Certainly looks like a unique ride.
Whoa, that's crazy! The video doesn't show it, but it looks to be horizontally symmetrical, making the layout look like this (vertical view):
looping1.png
Sorry if that's a bit small.
The hangtime would have to be ridiculous!
Also, is someone here putting these rides on rcdb? https://rcdb.com/16703.htm The other one appeared the other day too.
 

TilenB

Strata Poster
oh I get that too. sent 41 missing Japanese coasters the other day and I doubt we will see them for a while. busy chap.
At least I've got a Wacky Worm in Sardegna added last week. But the info that it opened in April 1987 and that it was bought new from Pinfari (the article I linked didn't mention it by name, but I doubt there was another company building Wacky Worms in that exact same town back in the 80s) somehow got lost in the process.

https://rcdb.com/16686.htm

Hopefully we'll see the Japanese rides added sometime soon. I guess the only ones that got added so far were the ones in the park with that massive waterslide tower? Well, here's a photo of that, so my post isn't so awfully off-topic. :p

kobe-aoia.jpg
 
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