Here We Go Again, Cedar Point Teasing Something for 2016?

Well, the folks over at Cedar Point are hinting at something coming in the near future and that's most likely to be 2016. Now, who knows what could be coming with this, since the last time they went on a teasing spree it turned out to be a paint job and different train set up for Mantis, turning it into Rougarou for this year. Not exactly worth the hype they gave it, but that's just me.

via Cedar Point, VP/General Manager Jason McClure

Now, many were speculating that last summer's campaign was pointing to a new ride, and while that didn't pan out, this year it's looking like that's more of a possibility. Why do I say that? Well, mostly due to the fact that they've started demolition of the Good Time Theater, as seen by the picture on the right here.

Why remove something of that size unless something was going to take it's place? Of course, it could just be a new theater/entertainment venue as well that's coming since the park wouldn't have one.

However, Tony Clark, Cedar Point's Head of Communication, has been at it again with the tweet below and points out that it's a whole lot of space. He's correct, that it is and would be a great spot for a new ride of some kind or coaster. Could it be the long awaited dark ride that fans have been hoping for, maybe a new coaster? No clue on that one just yet at all. The need could sway in either direction pretty easily, as well as not swing at all and just be the aforementioned entertainment space too.

That's a lotta land down there... pic.twitter.com/8CpoeorRb8
— Tony Clark (@TonyClarkCP) January 5, 2015

So, there ya have it. Not much is known other than something is coming and the demolition of Good Time Theater is under way. We'll be keeping our eye out on this one so stick around for all the updates, speculation and other weirdness that is sure to follow.

Stay tuned for more info out of Cedar Point and everywhere else that's building for 2015 right here or follow us on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr and Facebook for all the latest!

Geauga Lake- Property may be Reused

Former Amusement Park, Geauga Lake Property May be Reused in the Future.

Image from Wikipedia

 The former property of Geauga Lake may see reuse in the future. The city of Aurora has announced that they plan to rezone the 548 acres not associated with Wildwater Kingdom (currently owned by Cedar Fair).

 They'd like to turn the property into a mixed zone of retail, housing and entertainment. The announcement is suppose to be made public on January with the public vote to be held sometime in May.  While even Wildwater Kingdom may be rezoned in this movie, Cedar Fair as stated they plan to keep operating and retain ownership of the former SeaWorld property.

More details at Aurora Advocate

More Sad News- Saying Goodbye to Raging Wolf Bobs

More Grim News Today- Saying Goodbye to Raging Wolf Bobs

 This month has truly been a roller coaster of emotions. Good news is always peppered with the bad and this week is also no exception. We're loosing a modern legend, the end of an era and one of the biggest coaster mysteries to date.

 Raging Wolf Bobs. People speak of it in hushed whispers of reverence and then speculate wildly about one wooden coaster which as been sitting abandoned since the closure of Geauga Lake in 2007. 

 Now, I'm sure many of you haven't followed the odd history and the mystery of this ride so I'll refer you to to Geauga Lake- The Mystery of the Raging Wolf Bobs and a group of people with more mind-boggling knowledge about the park then I could ever have Geauga Lake Today and Forever.

 We know Raging Wolf Bobs was sold, we know it was being handled to Apex Western Machinery Movers. We know it was sold at auction for a reported $2,500 and a large portion of the track moved to an unknown owner.

 Not answers exist beyond those facts. No one knows for sure who the mystery owner is or if all the tracking was removed or only a portion of it. However,  today we're sorry to say what remains of the ride structure are being completely demolished.  This image spotted today over on Coaster Talk, No BS Zone seems to confirm the demise of yet another once amazing ride.

 Watching any coaster comes down tugs on the hearts of fans. It doesn't matter if you never had the chance to judge it for yourself, because now you never will. However, with Raging Wolf Bobs- Hope still exists. With an unknown owner perhaps sometime in the future the ride will once again claw it's way up for the ashes to howl again.

With Raging Wolf Bobs now gone, I can't help but wonder something. What is the fate of it's sister coaster, Big Dipper?

Saying Goodbye to a Friend- Rolling Thunder Demolition

Image from Theme Park Review's Twitter Page

 Sad News- It looks like we've go no choice but to say goodbye to a friend.

 The image to the left is from Six Flags Great Adventure, the beloved roller coaster "Rolling Thunder' now seems to be pile of wooden rubble waiting to be removed. Nicknamed "Rotting Lumber" by fans, the park neglected this coaster for years in hopes of finally making it disappear.  It seems as of last week, this is a reality.

 Lumber litters the ground to make way for 'progress'. That progress is called 'Zumanjaro'.. the new drop tower getting attached to the back side of Kingda Ka. Which raises the question- Do we really need ANOTHER drop tower ride?

 Many of us reached out to Six Flags asking them not to remove this attraction- trust me, they've got the land to build fresh but it seems our pleading once again fell upon deaf ears.

  Some days I really, really hate "progress".

  Goodbye my old friend.

Son of Beast- The Great Construction Mystery

Image from Coaster-Net.com

Son of Beast- The Great Construction Mystery


 Son of Beast was once a record-breaking wooden roller coaster built in 2000 for Kings Island by the now busted Roller Coaster Corp of America. It was the world first wooden hyper-coaster and was the only wooden roller coaster in the world that had a loop. 

  Now, personally I never got to ride Son of Beast myself and trust me, I'm pissed about it. However, I've learned a lot about it's shared history through friends, fans and the internet in general. I have to admit, it's a shame this amazing coaster paid the ultimate price for people being entirely too stupid to listen to the rules.

 In 2006 some kind of unknown 'track damage' caused a sudden stop in the ride. I've never really found much information on this 'accident' only that it's listed online. What I can tell you is it's blamed on "busted timber supports" for the ride, which is OBVIOUSLY something their repair crews and maintenance should have spotted during morning rounds and closed the ride until it was repaired. However, someone was being lazy that day which caused minor injuries to riders and was the first death bell for Son of Beast. Kings Island then removed the loop in 2006 and purchased lighter coaster trains, this had zero effect and really borked the ride beyond repair. I'm told when they removed the loop all the dynamics of the ride shifted and they had endless problems. Obviously, you can't just remove something and hope a ride will be alright! Anyone with a decent brain and a little common sense can tell you that!  Personally, I suspect by 2006 Kings Island wanted Son of Beast gone and they were going to accomplish that goal one way or another.

Image from Behind the Thrills

 It's death blow came when some idiot claimed an unfounded and ungrounded 'head injury' in 2009. By 2010 the ride was closed, the name had been removed and it had been stricken from the park maps. They knew they where closing it, I suspect they'd wanted it gone for a while.  By 2011, the park was unsure of the rides fate but stated they'd made no decisions yet. In early 2012 they were 'evaluating' the ride but still stated no decisions. In July 2012 the news finally came, Son of Beast would be removed and by November of 2012 the demolition was nearly complete.

If that image doesn't hurt you to look at, your a stronger person then me!

So, What's next?

 That's the multi-million dollar question, isn't it? 

 It's pretty obvious now that Kings Island wanted Son of Beast gone in a bad way. It hasn't even been a full year and they've already got construction wall up and hints laid out about a new ride coming soon.

 We just visited Kings Island last weekend and being very nosey people, we wanted to know. Naturally no one official will be answering questions until their ready to really begin dropping hints to the general public (and we hope to bring you those hints when they begin). However, I can tell you a few little facts about what Kings Island is up to on the burial site where Son of Beast one stood.

 It's Construction! 

 Already, they've got something going into this space. If you make that image larger, you can clearly see new ride footers being placed. These initial pourings appear small but they go back a very long way into the fenced off distance. Lot's of marker flags are placed in some pattern we couldn't discern and plenty of equipment litter the backstage area. 

 Honestly, we don't have a damn clue what is going in. Nothing has been reported (never fear, I'm still searching online for the permits I know must be there!) and the park isn't talking to anyone yet.  However, if you keep your ear to the ground and an eye on the huge gossip chain, we may be looking at the beginnings of a new roller coaster!

 Rumor states that a new coaster of an unknown type will be built on the grave of the Son of Beast. The rumored opening date is the 2014 season. Personally I think these initial footers seem too small for a coaster of any size but then something dawned on me. Most wooden coasters have support wires for key elements, the footers found in the pictures just happen to be around the right size for those! Revenge of the Son of Beast, perhaps?!

 So honestly, I can't tell you for certain what Kings Island is doing with this prime chunk of land but I can tell you that they are up to something. Something that's at least decent sized and requires some suspicious looking footers!  I've asked to be kept informed of any news regarding this new attraction (please let it be a coaster!) and whatever I'm able to learn will be passed on to my readers! Be they from the park themselves or from the rumor chain, we're going to follow this one pretty intensely! 

  It's my hope that Kings Island will give us a worthy replacement to Son of Beast but until we know for sure what this park has stashed up their sleeves (now would be a GREAT time for google to do a fly-over by the way, we can see what they have stashed in the background!), all us coaster-fiends out there in internet land can do is cross our fingers. 

 If you have any news or rumors, please, feel free to post them in the comments! If you'd rather not be identified then you can email me at Insanitylurksinside@gmail.com. Any and All news is welcome as well as your photos on continuing construction! 

 Until then, we hope you enjoyed our photos and the little history lesson/rumor patrol/speculation session! We'll be posting updates as information comes to us so keep an eye out!

Is the END near for Wonders of Life?

BREAKING NEWS

Yesterday on Stitch Kingdom some rather alarming news broke into our normal day.

  Disney World has filed a Notice of Commencement for "Selective Demolition" on the Festival Center which as we should all know by now is the Wonders of Life Pavilion. Once housing such things as BodyWars and Cranium Command,  it was been sitting mostly unused since it's final season in 2006. 

  Now the bigger problem is, 'Selective Demolition' can really mean anything. However I decided to do some research and basiclly 'Selective Demolition' is the gutting of a building, one website describes it as "Selective Demolition, sometimes known as strip-out can include, but is not limited to, the removal of exterior/interior equipment, walls, floors and ceilings". 
  If you'd like to read the public notice, please follow "THIS LINK".

  So in a nutshell we are looking at the true death of this pavilion which has been sitting forever, barely used with most of it's core attractions still in place... to a point. We know BodyWars has been stripped down to an entirely unsafe level to support save money on parts for Star Tours. We know Cranium Command is still sitting while poor Buzzy gathers dust bunnies. We know 'The Making of Me' has been turned into festival space.

  It's just very sad, to see another pavilion going up in flames of nothingness at Epcot. This is how we lost such great attractions like 'Horizons' and this is exactly how our beloved Figment went missing for so very many years. While I've been pushing for years for this space to be re-used I have severe doubts that we'll see anything but more festival space and not a re-birth of a pavilion here. However I hope that Disney and Epcot will surprise me but the way things have been going, I can't say I've got high hopes.

Goodbye Wonders of Life, Many of us shall remember your story and history.

..I just hope someone saves poor Buzzy!

Don't just let him go down with his sinking ship!

Kings Island: Son of Beast Demolition UPDATE

Howdy Folks, 

 I'm sorry that Insanity Lurks Inside has been quiet for so long lately. However we've been massively busy with that annoying reality type thing but never fear! We've got a ton of updates and stories which we've been following lately but haven't gotten written up yet, so please keep your eyes open for them.

UPDATE: Son of Beast Demolition

 A friend of mine was recently at Kings Island, knowing that Son of Beast is scheduled for demolition very shortly he was kind enough to snap several pictures of the soon to be lost coaster for us. So far it doesn't look as if the work has yet begun on removal, at least in what is visible from the show side of the park. 

All Picture Credit to Robert Graham

So far even Google Maps still shows the coaster as a complete piece. However it's hard to say when these where last updated or when they will be updated again.  However we will do our very best to keep everyone posted and updated with information as it comes to us about the destruction of a Roller Coaster Legend.

If you have updates, information or picture you'd like to share with Insanity Lurks Inside please feel free to email us anytime!  InsanityLurksInside@Gmail.Com

Geauga Lake- The Mystery of Raging Wolf Bobs

The Mystery of Raging Wolf Bobs..?

Picture from RCDB

Many of you may not remember a small amusement park located in Aurora Ohio called Geauga Lake.  It was founded in 1887 and thrived for a while until the evil empire of Six Flags got their grubby paws on it, after that it was a downhill slide that not even money could fix. 

Now you may well know I've got a hate/hate/tolerate relationship with Six Flags. I don't like them, I don't like their theories or their practices.. and I surely don't like how they think they can just take over any-damn-thing they want! However I will admit Great Adventure is in fact a wonderful park, but it's the only one other then Magic Mountain that doesn't suck.

Anyway.. I'm ranting again. Let's get back to the point!

Raging Wolf Bobs is a wooden roller coaster, built off a classic desgin called "The Bobs" which was located in Riverview Park, Chicago, Illinois. 'The Bobs' is referred as the ultimate wooden coaster by many, it also suffered a horrible fate. Either way, Raging Wolf Bobs is based of this attraction and was built in 1988 making it an instant classic. 

Surviving the hand of both Six Flags and Cedar Point, the ride still stands defunct today... or does it?

Raging Wolf Bobs and the sister woodie at Geauga Lake "Big Dipper" where sold at auction after the park closed under the Cedar Point flag. The buyer is "Unnamed" and needless to say people have had their panties in a knot about it since. Recently rumor has gone completely batshit wild about the demolition of Raging Wolf Bobs but I've noticed something funny while playing with Google Maps. 

Look closely.

That doesn't look like any form of demolition I've ever seen! 

If your demolishing something, you don't save track pieces. You don't save parts.. you run a wrecking ball threw the hold damn thing. Even if your scraping the metal, you do that after the ride has come down. 

Don't believe me? 

That. That right there is what pure coaster destruction looks like, it hurts to look at doesn't it?
This was the fate of the classic coasters of Idora park, your looking at the bones of the Wildcat.

What's going on at Geauga Lake isn't destruction. I've never seen a coaster come down in pieces like that when it wasn't either being saved or moved. So long as they have the exact blueprints and the track, the lift hill and supports can easily be re-created and re-built.  So frankly, I don't believe we're seeing the end of Raging Wolf Bobs. We're seeing a transition, at least it looks to me like that.

A closer look. I'll have to get out there and inspect this myself!

People swear they know who the mystery owner is, they also swear he's an ass. Frankly, no one knows who it is. The name hasn't been disclosed and the information isn't public. This is the internet, anyone can claim to be anyone on here... even the owner of Raging Wolf Bobs. Until the information and bill of sale are made public or the coaster is reconstructed someplace, we're not going to know.  So rather being being pessimists about it, lets just hope these pictures mean a real move and we'll get to keep at least one or two classic coasters away from the bulldozer.

Kings Island Annoucement: Son of Beast WILL be torn down.

BREAKING NEWS

About one hour ago, Kings Island announced the long suspected fate of the roller coaster "Son of Beast" on their Facebook page.  Son of Beast will be completely demolished during the winter closure of the park. 

As you may know, Son of Beast has been plagued with problems and accidents during it's nine year history. Including two accidents, the last one in 2009 which was the death-bell of the ride. 2009 being the last year of operation the ride saw even though this "Accident" was never proven or reported to the park. That's just stupid if you ask me!

The Son of Beast was the only wooden coaster to have a complete inversion, a loop. This was removed in 2006, since this point the ride has never been the same nor ever recovered. It's not surprising at this point that Kings Island will demolish the ride completely, after 4 years and zero maintenance the structure doesn't look healthy to begin with. 

 Rest in Peace.

Taken at Kings Island, Beast Line during Halloween 2011.

Whatever your opinion my be, it's a sad day for Roller Coasters Fans.