What's new

SFMM | Wonder Woman Flight of Courage | RMC Raptor | 2022

Christian

Hyper Poster
Noooooo! I know it’s subjective but I always prefer it when coasters have trees around them. Especially at Six Flags parks when there is always big expanses of concrete around!

Not all trees. Just these ones here. Imagine the views from here. 3 great coasters running behind each other. 1634869567811.png
 

EmmaUK

Mega Poster
I know people are very excited about this, and sure when I get to SFMM (probably 2023) I'll go on it, but I just wish it wasn't a single rider arrangement. I know that that's the whole USP of it and everything, but one of my loves of coasters is sharing it with someone. Be it my 8 year old and watching her scream her head off, or holding my girlfriend's hands when she petrified of the first drop, its a huge part of the coaster experience. And that moment on the break run, waiting to go into the station, when you turn to your riding partner and say "wow, I can't believe that just happened, that bit where it ...." etc.

Of all the big projects around the world, this is the one I really struggle to get excited about.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Of all the big projects around the world, this is the one I really struggle to get excited about.
Yeah, I agree.

Perhaps because we all basically knew what this was going to be for so long there's no "surprise", but perhaps also because it's a clone(ish). There's nothing actually new here.

I'm sure it'll be good, of course it will, but I'm not going to be eagerly anticipating testing footage.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
I wonder if this coaster will also fall victim to the "SFMM curse": a drastic paradigm shift in the design of a coaster type shortly after SFMM has built one. In other words, will somebody soon build a Raptor layout that revolutionizes the coaster type (like how the standard Batman The Ride was made pretty old-fashioned by Montu, or Full Throttle vs. Soaring With Dragon), will someone revolutionize the monorail coaster in a way that makes the Raptor obsolete (like Viper looks ancient compared to Kumba, which opened three years later, or Superman The Escape vs. TTD, or Goliath vs. B&M in general), or will the monorail coaster turn out to be an evolutionary dead end (Riddler, Flashback) or a maintenance nightmare (X, Dejà Vu)?

It seems that whenever SFMM builds a coaster, something happens right afterwards that makes the coaster look somewhat old and outdated. Cue a few more years, and the average enthusiast seem to think "Why go to SFMM to ride _____, when I can go to ______ and ride the similar, but much better ______ instead?"
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Probably because they often build prototypes or near-prototypes. You could make the same observation of Alton Towers for similar reasons with respect to Oblivion and Air.
That's true for some of the coasters (Revolution, Full Throttle, Batman The Ride, etc.), but they've also got a tendency to build the biggest coaster they can get of a coaster type ... right before somebody else comes along to revolutionize that coaster type (Goliath, Viper, Green Lantern, etc.). The third category is that they get the biggest coaster they can get of a coaster type, only for that coaster type to be marred with some fundamental flaw that makes it a nightmare to keep operational, or it isn't a good ride type in the first place (X, Dejà Vu, Riddler, etc.), and the rest of the industry stops building them entirely for a variety of reasons.

They have a solid number of hits too - Tatsu is a legendary flying coaster, for instance, and Twisted Colossus is a good RMC despite not being among their biggest - and I've heard many good things about the coasters in the categories above as well. It's just that for a park with 20 coasters in it, many of them quite large, a surprising number of them fail to get me excited at all. Like, "Yeah, this coaster is nice, but why go all the way to California for it when there is a coaster that does the same, just better, at _____ much closer to home?" It's a world-class park, but it doesn't really have many world-class coasters despite countless attempts to build them.
 

Christian

Hyper Poster
I think SFMM has fallen behind due to Six Flags not adding something truly impressive since Tatsu. Apocalypse is a good woodie but nothing outstanding, WCR is a good launched coaster but nothing outstanding and Green Lantern was awful. Full Throttle is a half of an incredible launched coaster, but where is the other half of the ride? The exception is Twisted Colossus which is an incredible ride but it's still not a top RMC (although it was when built). In the same time other parks have invested loads in coasters and caught up and even surpassed SFMM.

Although, I think SFMM is one of the first US parks for us Europeans to visit, simply because it's in LA. LA has 4 large scale parks and a great city with connections to most places in Europe. You'll probably get to LA before you get to the countryside of Ohio, the mountains of Tennessee or the forests of Virginia. For a European the most logical first US park destination is either LA or Orlando/Tampa. Because you can get most done in a trip or you can convince your non enthusiast family to go with you.
 

StevenX

Roller Poster
I think the perception of them "falling behind" is also related to the same topic of them historically building prototypes (I forgot about Déjà Vu in my previous post!) and/or the tallest, fastest, etc. Their more recent additions are slightly more modest and not quite the headline grabbers e.g. X was.

Something like Wonder Woman would be a headline coaster at many other parks, but at SFMM it doesn't necessarily stand out in the lineup even though it might be a great ride - and despite the marginal record it'll hold.

Again, you could level similar criticisms at Alton interestingly.

I think perhaps they need to use their imagination a bit more on some of their additions; Cedar Point similarly tend to chase records, but their non record breakers like Maverick also tend to be great, and bigger crowd pleasers than SFMM's investments. CP probably stands out from the other parks who do this for this reason.

As an aside, I'm glad to see the hate for Green Lantern. I hated that thing.
 

SeanC

Mega Poster
As an LA resident, I'm not sure how I feel about this given all the hate I've seen jersey devil get. I LOVE wonder woman in San Antonio but I'm seeing people say jersey devil is a notch below. I want this to be a great ride so badly since twisted colossus always feels like an incomplete ride since it rarely duels. But given that we're still recovering from the pandemic, we're also lucky to be getting a ride at all.
 

Lori Marie Loud

Giga Poster
And that moment on the break run
Gazza:

Know the difference

Brake:

1614908352130.png


Break:

1614908328784.png
 

Ries

Mega Poster
What I don't like about these layouts.
It goes left, turns, goes right and turns.

I think it is much more interesting to see a layout as let's say Taron, blue fire, Hagrids or even like their own wooden/ hybrid coasters.
(I know, you can still say the same: left-turn-right. But it feels more interesting.
 

zen

Roller Poster
Does anyone have any images of the construction happening at SFMM for the new raptor? Next time I go to the park ill be taking some pictures but its a while before ill be able to go again.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Does anyone have any images of the construction happening at SFMM for the new raptor? Next time I go to the park ill be taking some pictures but its a while before ill be able to go again.
Merged with the existing thread. Please check whether your topic is covered by an existing thread before making a new one.
 

TPoseOnTantrum

Giga Poster
A couple of updates regarding WWFOC construction;

The park removed their Mack Rides Himalaya The Flash: Speed Force as part of the remodel. Given that the coaster isn't going to be replacing it, they probably saw what was a good opportunity to take out an aging attraction that had quite the history at the park; it's been renamed/rethemed four times since it's opening in 1974. As for the existing Wonder Woman roundup ride, no word on it's fate just yet.

Second, it's been reported that support pieces are now being delivered from the parking to the construction site, where footers have been completed. Expect the coaster to go vertical shortly. Here's the timestamped video;
 

Lori Marie Loud

Giga Poster
Given that the coaster isn't going to be replacing it, they probably saw what was a good opportunity to take out an aging attraction that had quite the history at the park; it's been renamed/rethemed four times since it's opening in 1974.
Unless this suffers a Goliath-relocation-rumor fate, a staff member on Reddit has stated Speed Force is off to the Pistachio Gardens at the front of the park. Lasso of Truth, however, will be gone.
 
Top