Superman: Ride of Steel... 2?

[Antinos]

From the videos I've seen of X2, the fire is an awesome effect. It's also neat to see pictures of X2 at night, when the fireballs light up the entire ride. From the general public standpoint, they'll be blown away by at least this effect. My friends were amazed at Maverick's lights on our 8th grade trip, and those were only lights...

 

[Snoo]

From the videos I've seen of X2, the fire is an awesome effect. It's also neat to see pictures of X2 at night, when the fireballs light up the entire ride.

Even from someone who isn't a fan of effects, I still enjoyed everything added on X2. Unnecessary, yes, but still cool.. haha.

 

[Gazza]

To which I ask, why pour more money into unnecessary effects when you literally already have THE best steel coaster in the world?

Will the general public view it as a new ride or simply just the same ride?

If they side with the later, that is money poorly spent on new special effects.

UC, Mike T etc are all spot on with this.

New trains are a nice addition, but if a park were to go spend money on them, there is no way they would make that money back, since it is the "same ride"....in effect it would be a gesture of goodwill to guests, to make their experience a bit better.

If you retheme a ride, add effects etc, you can make that money back because some guests will come to the park specifically for this 'new' experience.

That is the crux of all this, the trains will take up the bulk of the budget, but the effects will deliver the bulk of the return.

Now, the success comes down to how well guests receive a 'new' experience of an old ride, though judging by X2, its a winning formula.....I mean, why shouldn't it work at SFNE if it worked at SFMM. Guests are guests.


People need to stop looking at parks from an RCT scenario perspective, parks don't have a little pot of money that they divvy out on things that would be nice to have, and they don't 'save up' to get big rides or whatever. They just spend money with the aim to make it back and then some, and there is nothing stopping them spending as much as they want, so long as they are sure they will get the returns needed.
Effects might seem like a silly little thing to spend money on, but obviously they have crunched the numbers and it's worth it to them.

One random point I felt like bringing up...But couldn't SF just be evil and build the new effects, but not do new trains? Similar return for far less investment :twisted:

 

[Naemuti]

One random point I felt like bringing up...But couldn't SF just be evil and build the new effects, but not do new trains? Similar return for far less investment :twisted:

They could have, but at this point, we've seen the trains, so we know they are getting them.

 

[Pokemaniac]

One random point I felt like bringing up...But couldn't SF just be evil and build the new effects, but not do new trains? Similar return for far less investment :twisted:

Well, except for the maintenance issues. Even as a scout, I admit that getting a new tentpole is better in the long run than to keep applying gaffatape. It may be more expensive, but you get less downtime in urgent situations (ever tried to get out of the sleeping bag at 4 AM, find your gaffatape and fix the tentpole in soaking rain?), and it won't give you as many complaints from customers.
The new trains may also mean less/easier maintenance, and a few issues solved that the older ones were struggling with.

However, I think they could have done a lot better than going for Lex Luthor. Obviously, the ride will have its name changed, and while I admit that Superman: Ride of Steel isn't the best name around, they sure can come a lot worse.
Do anyone know if it's SF that pays Marvel for the rights to use their characters, or Marvel that pays SF for advertising them? And are there any remote changes of the brand name abuse stopping soon?

 

[Naemuti]

I think the name is irrelevent. The theme is still more or less Superman - and that's what people will know the ride as anyways.

Though, judging by the colors, you're going to have a fair share of people calling the coaster "Batman"...just as we have people that call Mind Eraser "Spiderman" for some odd reason.

Really? I mean, it's understandable that people might call it Batman because we have a similar purple Batman ride, but...we don't have any coaster anywhere in the world called Spider-Man. :?

 

[Pokemaniac]

Oh. <img>. No.
Or?

http://www.screamscape.com/html/six_fla ... enture.htm

Well, the name doesn't over-imply brand name abuse, at least. I think it's a better name that Superman: Ride of Steel, but still, what a theme...

 

[Uncle Arly]

That article also says that Medusa may also be receiving the same name and theme. Anyone know if this is true?

 

[CedarPoint6]

Well that's... obscure.

I suppose I'm interested to see how it turns out.. but wow. That's a strange one.

 

[Newtrek5]

I like it...

It's nice that someone with SF is finally thinking outside the box. I love all of this re-branding stuff. It's a very creative way to reap new revenue from an old product.

 

[Ben]

I don't get the issue with the name, it seems to make a lot of sense to me...?

 

[Naemuti]

Oh, and the fact that Bizarro is relatively obscure...I didn't really know who the hell he was until this topic, and now they're using him to brand the #1 steel coaster in the world.

Yeah, really, it's a weird name choice. A good amount of people know who Superman is. I can see so many people asking who Bizarro is. Although, I guess in the end it doesn't really matter because anyone who likes coasters is going to see a ride with a 200 foot drop and fire effects and think awesome, kind of like how people see Kingda Ka as "that ride that's the fastest and tallest in the world."

 

[Ben]

It just seems to me, as someone who has never read anything about Superman, or even seen any of the films, to be not that obscure a choice because I STILL have heard of Bizzaro... So, I'm not sure just because YOU haven't heard of him that he's instantly obscure. And who really cares if he's not immediately recognisable. It will take, what, maybe 30 seconds for you to figure out who he is? All you have to do is look at the logo to get a good idea of what he's about... Plus, as has been already touched upon, why is it deemed necessary to have a prior knowledge of him before you ride the coaster? I've never seen Song of the South, yet I love Splash Mountain...

And a re-theme was 100% necessary in my eyes. Not that this is really a total re-theme. First of all, because a name and a track colour is hardly a theme, and secondly because it's still in the same "story". More like a theme-continuation, or update.

 

[Naemuti]

It just seems to me, as someone who has never read anything about Superman, or even seen any of the films, to be not that obscure a choice because I STILL have heard of Bizzaro... So, I'm not sure just because YOU haven't heard of him that he's instantly obscure.

Just because you've heard of him doesn't make him NOT obscure...

And a re-theme was 100% necessary in my eyes. Not that this is really a total re-theme. First of all, because a name and a track colour is hardly a theme, and secondly because it's still in the same "story". More like a theme-continuation, or update.

It's still a name and a track color. Except now there's fire.

 

[Ben]

Just because you've heard of him doesn't make him NOT obscure...

Never said it did...

 

[Snoo]

Neither did UC.

Don't be a hypocrite.




And.. to be honest.. Bizarro is a bit.. out there.. in terms of character naming for the ride. But, it is unique.. and me likes.

 

[Ben]

I'm not being a hypocrite. Re-read. I'm posting an idea. Not a fact. Not a statement I'm pretending is true. An idea. A thought.

Lets analyse, for the heck of it. "Seems". This word indicates that maybe I'm unsure? "Seems". Not "is". "Seems". Then I go on to use "I'm not sure". Never, ever, ever in that post am I doing anything more than posting an idea, almost a hypothesis, if you will. Not something I believe in, not something I'm posting as my opinion or as a truth. Just something I'm posting as a thought to be "put out there" to help indicate obscurity.

I indicated that since this shows someone with no history with the story HAS heard of him, maybe it COULD be that it's not that obscure. Nothing hypocritical at all (though I sometimes get the feeling you throw that word around without actually understanding it?)

So, if you're done completely mis-reading my posts...?

 

[Hyde]

As one who followed DC Comics and knows the multiple tales of Bizzaro, he is a mentally handicapped Superman wanna-be who is a poor excuse for a coaster theme, especially for Superman: RoS.

Bizzaro is potentially the worst DC Comic Book character and not an easily recognizable villain.

I am not a fan.

 

[ECG]

I have to agree with Hyde on this one. I know Bizzaro from the Superman comics and games. He's not all there by any means and I really never liked anything to do with him, but I can't imagine that being the case with one of my most beloved coasters. I'm not liking this rename one bit.

 

[Snoo]

Well lets see what they do with the theme before we make our final judgements.