Thread: Where will/should nationals be?
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Unread 07-11-2002, 16:19
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Quote:
Originally posted by JosephM


2.) ASTROWORLD? Are you nuts? Sure, first Six Flags, but dear god! Six Flags is a dump! I've been to WoA and that's one to manny for me.
Six Flags over Texas was the first Six Flags park. It opened on August 4, 1961. Astroworld opened four years later, on June 1, 1965. It didn't become a member of the Six Flags family until 1975.

There are some very, very nice Six Flags parks. It's more about management than it is about being a chain. Six Flags over Georgia is gorgeous and has amazing rides. Six Flags Darien Lake is also very pretty, but it's a much smaller park plagued by an awful wooden coaster and a clone.

Astroworld's problems are two-fold, from what I can see. First, it has a bad reputation for cleanliness among enthusiasts. This uncleanliness doesn't make the environment fun.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, it also doesn't produce a lot of revenue for the chain. As a result, it receives very little attention. Many of its rides come from the old Bally Ride Rotation program that was going on during the mid-1980's. Batman: The Escape came from Six Flags Magic Mountain via Six Flags Great Adventure. Ultratwister came from Six Flags Great Adventure, but was modified to meet local fire codes (the lift hill was redesigned to be at a 45 degree angle to facilitate evacuations in case of fire versus the original 90 degree lift). Excalibur, the park's first coaster, was removed in favor a Vekoma SLC (another clone.)

Astroworld's shining star was Texas Tornado. This coaster is a portable fair coaster that traveled a lot with German fairs. Six Flags bought it and brought it to Houston in 1998. It operated for less than one week, and then Six Flags decided to try to redesign its trains to make riders more comfortable, and possibly reduce the forces involved in the ride. Texas Tornado was the most powerful coaster in existence.

I've just learned that, as of this morning, Six Flags Astroworld has begun dismantling Texas Tornado. RIP.

Now, really, I can think of no reason whatsoever I'd like to go to Astroworld.
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