Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

IAAPA Expo 2023

JackFish said:
So the whole industry is just rip-offs? Not trying to be snarky, actually just a genuine inquiry.
Click to expand...
Everyone tends to accomplish some degree of innovation but there be a decent amount of ripping off, usually motivated more by some rising industry trend rather than catalogue expansion. I like to refer to this more as inspiration as there’s more R&D and innovation involved with the Western companies.

Outside of Chinese Shanzhai it mostly boils down between the Italians and waterslide manufacturers. SBF Visa, Zamperla, and some of the smaller firms all regularly take shots at each other and larger companies. SBF’s new VISACOASTERS division recently launched, offering no fewer than 24 coaster products built on ideas from several other manufacturers. Or Zamperla’s switch track family coaster concept last year, which was released during the IAAPA buildup in tandem with Intamin publishing a very similar patented product, only for it to mysteriously disappear two days later. Intamin is guilty of this as well so c’est la vie.

The designation of knockoff is a little more defined in the waterslide industry as most of the major players steal ideas from each other, while Aquakita and the Chinese firms just blatantly copy. WhiteWater West is currently in hot water after a US court found them to have infringed upon Proslide’s patented FlyingSaucer technology. Make no mistake, they’re both fantastic innovators whom have supported a huge chunk of the market and produced amazing designs, but this door swings both ways at the end of the day.

The entire foundation and model of the Chinese knockoffs was to cater to local parks that wanted a specific model but couldn’t afford it from the west. Most of that business stayed in China and didn’t serve as more than a regional annoyance to the industry. Nowadays, Jinma has grown enough both in size and capability to become a threat, as their long term goal is to become a global brand that targets the same customers as SBF Visa and B&M. They’ve already made some serious moves by establishing Noble Rides and purchasing Wisdom, although rooting new divisions outside of China/in the US might leave them more susceptible to infringement lawsuits if they aren’t careful.
 
I wouldn’t say companies rip one another off, but there is a certain degree of inspiration gathered from what’s on show. Take for example Maurer’s rider-controlled movable coaster seat they had last year. I saw about six Disney “imagineers” all taking a detailed look at it. It wasn’t the usual “let’s sit in it and see if it’s fun”, it was a deep look at every component with plenty of questions being asked. If we see something similar at a Disney attraction in the next few years, and if it’s not by Maurer, we’d have an idea where they got the inspiration from.

Sorry the coverage from the show is a slow today. All the major coaster-related reveals have been done (obviously manufactures don’t want things left under sheets all week) and there’s not much in terms of weird and wacky stuff.
 
If Disney was looking at one, I can DEF see one going on a cruise ship. Instead of the watercoaster around the top, doing a Spike Coaster like the Carnival ships.
 
Some other concept videos have been released from Intamin and Sally Corp., showing some really cool element features. Would love to see Universal, Disney, etc. get their hands on these types of design!


 
TPoseOnTantrum said:
Oh but I'm going to make it really trashy now.

Friend of mine saw two gents hit up Penguin Trek after the car reveal with camera equipment. They got on their backs to take photos of the wheel bogies and chassis, were photographing all angles before being confronted by B&M/SeaWorld. Same two guys showed up at Falcon's Flight later and repeated the same thing, but were quickly "stared down" by a watchful Intamin rep and left visibly shaken. Dude tailed them and their fancy cameras back to their booth and what do you know, they wore badges from Jinma Rides.

One would have thought that the Chinese manufacturers had enough experience to take confidence in their own innovations but nooo they just keep looking for "inspiration"...
Click to expand...
Welcome to trade shows. Anyone who has been the Detroit or LA Auto Show can corroborate armies of vehicle manufacturing staff who march to each other's booths to take measurements of everything from cupholder depth to wheel fairings. Gratefully there is more to good design than simple measurements and reverse engineering can yield.

JackFish said:
So the whole industry is just rip-offs? Not trying to be snarky, actually just a genuine inquiry.
Click to expand...

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, no? Rather than "rip-off", I'd probably qualify it as "iteration", especially as we have been the better part of 10 years into massive fundamental rewriting of good coaster design between Jeff Pike, Alan Schilke, Joe Draves, etc. When you look at the designs of Intamin, Vekoma, RMC these days, you're going to notice a lot of outer banked turns, stalls, step-up underflips, etc. No one manufacturer or designer invented these types of designs (well... arguably it really is all Schilke :p ), or at least no more so than when we saw corkscrews and loops first deployed by manufacturers beyond Arrow Dynamics.

In general, I'd like to think intent and execution are what make good and bad roller coasters, rather than simple formula of "wow! B&M are the only ones who can make a zero-g roll!" that carried a lot of the roller coaster industry mentality in the 1990s and 2000s.
 
davidm said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1724518369594925196
Click to expand...
Do we know, if these family trains will also feature RMC's well-beloved spring-loaded wheels?

Hyde said:
Some other concept videos have been released from Intamin and Sally Corp., showing some really cool element features. Would love to see Universal, Disney, etc. get their hands on these types of design!


Click to expand...
Watched about half of the first video but there's nothing new shown. All the elements (at least up to that point) have been well know for quite a while now.
 
So the whole industry is just rip-offs? Not trying to be snarky, actually just a genuine inquiry.
Click to expand...

I guess there are few coaster and train concepts that don't stand "on the shoulders of giants" as in engineers and companies from way back. I would guess wildly that in modern steel coasters Pinfari, Arrow, Schwarzkopf, Mack and Zierer did most of the pioneering work. From there single engineers went here and there - to other companies, founding their own or when companies went bancrupt knowledge went wide...
 
Got the chance to stroll the tradeshow floor today. Obviously everything has already been revealed but it was still fun. Had to do the SBF Spinner!....also went on the SBF and Moser tower rides and the Zamp GoGo Bounce, got my free Icee and dippin' dots along the way too. Also the realization that 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the new building at the Orange County Convention Center.... with IAAPA 03 being the first convention held in it..... and my very first IAAPA :') 😳😳😳

Some photos from Twitter
https://twitter.com/x/status/1725348411740668127

https://twitter.com/x/status/1725321087288750252

https://twitter.com/x/status/1725319017781498182
 
Mack has so much going on at the moment, Universals Epic, Hyperia, Vietnam and their own Voltorn, but I saw nothing from the in pics of releases, same with ProSlide. Vekoma only talked about a kiddy boomerang, is Iappa getting irrelevant to manufactures?
 
It also depends on the parks if they want to reveal stuff in their own time or not. The customers call the shots not the manufacturers.
Plus location - most reveals are US parks for good reason. It wouldn’t be worth Mack’s time to ship a Voltron or Hyperia train over from Europe to Orlando and back for a few days display.
 
CSLKennyNI said:
It also depends on the parks if they want to reveal stuff in their own time or not. The customers call the shots not the manufacturers.
Plus location - most reveals are US parks for good reason. It wouldn’t be worth Mack’s time to ship a Voltron or Hyperia train over from Europe to Orlando and back for a few days display.
Click to expand...
And further to that they have IAAPA events in Europe and Asia each year. European and Asian rides will normally get announced there. But it does seem to be (with a few big notable exceptions) that these big train and ride reveals to tend to be an American thing, European and Asian parks don't really go in for it as much.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top