TTF Euro Coaster Poll 2011-12

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AstroDan

1: Blue Fire*
People can say what they want about it lacking "intensity" but this ride has it all. Quality design of trains, exemplary theming, a dark ride/build up section, beautiful inversions and a sensational throughput. I love the ride. Remember - this is the first time Mack tried a ride like this. And they totally nailed it.

2: Balder
What looks to be one of the best Wooden coasters in Europe. Looks remarkable, with lots of a twists and airtime too.

3: Van Helsing's Factory*
Perhaps inflated as it's "new", but this one hell of a a family/thrill ride. Beautiful theming and some genuine moments when you have to shriek. Great soundtrack, too.

4: Space Mountain Mission 2*
I actually love this ride. It's quite intense. Wasn't as rough as I remembered in October either. Beautifully themed, great soundtrack!

5: Grand National*
Good Woodie, although just outside my top 4 here.

6: Twister
Looks amazing for the size of it! Would love to ride.

7: Shock
Looks decent. Certainly one of the better X Car coasters.

8: Speed Monster
Cannot say it looks bad, as it looks fun! Would love to ride.

9: Nemesis Inferno*
Solid, all rounder. Not setting the group alight though.

10: Krake*
Looks pretty but the ride is pretty dull. Too short. Hopefully the 2012 theming additions will help.

:)
Last edited by AstroDan on Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Nightfall
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1. Blue Fire: #3
Well what were you expecting? It’s Blue Fire. The coaster that by all expectations should have been good at best but ended up reaching top 20 of the MH poll. Mack completely rewrote the Coaster Designers handbook with this beauty and I love them for it  :hug:

2. Balder: #1 Wood
I wish I could remember this better. Balder is an absolute airtime monster. Admittedly that’s about all it is but it does it so well that’s hardly a criticism. Iit always surplices me how long the ride is given how compact an area it fills.

3. Space Mountain: Mission 2: #5
Good bye Space Mountain. I was hoping to help save you again but alas there are other rides which are better. It’s made my top 3 but I know I am in the minority.
A hugely underrated ride in my opinion but the Vekoma rough criticism is certainly true. I just think it makes the ride better.

4. Van Helsing’s Factory:
Very hard to judge but as we’ve seen Gerstlauer can make quality family rides and this has been highly praised by those who have ridden it. The theme looks great and the soundtrack feels atmospheric. I just wish I knew more to comment further.

5. Twister:
For its size this is one stunning coaster. Twister is proof that a ride doesn’t need to be big to pack a punch. I would have liked to vote it through but with another renowned wooden ride and 3 rides I have huge respect for I just can’t do it.

6. Shock:
I have mixed feelings about Shock. The capacity is shocking and the X-Cars so called revolutionary restraints just look poor next to Blue Fire. But the layout is interesting and certainly unique. Maybe with a bit more of a theme I could rate this ride higher. I do get the feeling the start was designed with a dark section in mind that just never happened. The type of trees being used around the pre-launch are normally those found when trying to hide a tin shed from other ride. Maybe a dark ride section is still pending...

7. Krake:
I love the concept. Visually it really appeals and it’s nice to see another diving machine that tries to emphasis the drop in more ways than just its height. However the ride is ridiculously short. It could have easily followed up with several more twists and even another inversion.

8. Nemesis Inferno: #13
It was a tossup between this and Krake. I actual think Inferno is a decent ride. Layout wise it’s almost on par with Black Mamba. But I ended up giving Krake the higher rating just because it is more interesting with the super splashdown and Kraken related elements.

9. Grand National: #2 Wood
The Grand National is certainly a classic but not a ride I honestly think can rival its modern counterparts. Still it’s good fun and the double drop is absolutely great.

10. Speed Monster:
Nice first inversion, fairly good layout, decent ride but nothing amazing.
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CF1

1) Twister
2) Shock
3) Balder
4) Blue Fire
5) Nemesis Inferno
6) Grand NAtional
7) Speed Monster
8) Krake
9) Van Helsing
10) Space Mountain
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Mitch
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Hmm... compared to other rounds this one was actually pretty easy for me to rank.

1. Balder: I've heard too many good things about it not to put it near the top. It looks to be an absolutely cracking ride compacted into a relatively small space. UK parks pay attention!

2. Blue Fire: One of those rides which looks pretty tame but insanely fun. The restraint system is an obvious highlights as well. Smooth, comfortable and nice all-round type of ride. Also, it looks beautiful! (Blue rides <3)

3. Shock: I've heard nothing but good about this ride, and it sure feels like it packs one hell of a punch. Couldn't give a toss about capacity, shame the theme is pretty much non-existent compared to the rest of the park.

4. Twister: Another fine looking woodie compacted into a tight space. Love the interactions with other rides in the park and the setting is wonderful. Sweden sure has some awesome looking woodies!

5. Speed Monster: I've always liked the look of this ride but unfortunately it doesn't quite beat the rest of the group to the top spots.

6. Krake: I've ranked this highly mainly because I'm a big fan of Dive Machines. Unfortunately this looks to be the weakest by far.


Now on to the "clunkers" of the group...

7. Nemesis Inferno*: Good, but not good enough...

8. Grand National*: I've always found this a little overrated, but it's a solid enough classic as it is. Would have had a good chance at winning... 50 years ago.  ;)

9. Van Helsing's Factory: Theming looks phenomenally good. Ride looks phenomically boring.

10. Space Mountain: Mission 2*: Crap. If I had to say a good thing about it it would be that it's better than the other inverting coaster in the park, and the soundtrack's pretty awesome I guess. Oh and it's beautiful at night. But the actual ride's terrible.
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AstroDan

Van Helsing... Boring!?!? I didn't say that when I squealed on several of the bends!

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ATJoseph
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1. Blue Fire (What can I say?)
2. Space Mountain Mission 2 (Riden it amazing pure smoothness and exileration!
3. Shock (Its an X-Car and it looks good)
4. Speed Monster (Looks like an awesome Intamin Blitz)
5. Van Helsings Factory (Looks a bit naff and overhyped by you lot.)
6. Twister (Strangley i am really like the look off the trains)
7. Grand National (Been on it its  :censored: )
8. Balder (Its in Liseburg and most likely to have an accedent)
9. Nemesis Inferior (Its nemesis just red and has a different arangement of corkscrews)
10. Krake (Oblivion floorless with an inversion)
SpinballEdders

ATJoseph wrote: 1. Blue Fire (What can I say?)
2. Space Mountain Mission 2 (Riden it amazing pure smoothness and exileration!
3. Shock (Its an X-Car and it looks good)
4. Speed Monster (Looks like an awesome Intamin Blitz)
5. Van Helsings Factory (Looks a bit naff and overhyped by you lot.)
6. Twister (Strangley i am really like the look off the trains)
7. Grand National (Been on it its  :censored: )
8. Balder (Its in Liseburg and most likely to have an accedent)
9. Nemesis Inferior (Its nemesis just red and has a different arangement of corkscrews)
10. Krake (Oblivion floorless with an inversion)
4. Speed Monster (Looks like an awesome Intamin Blitz)
It's an accelerator coaster like Stealth, not a Intamin blitz.

5. Van Helsings Factory (Looks a bit naff and overhyped by you lot.)
the highest place this has had is 4 so it's obviously not over hyped by us

7. Grand National (Been on it its  :censored: )
Couldn't care to explain why you think Nash is bad?

8. Balder (Its in Liseburg and most likely to have an accident)
Yes Lisebrg have had their accidents in the past, but that doesn't make it a bad coaster, in fact it's voted one of the best woodies in the world.

9. Nemesis Inferior (Its nemesis just red and has a different arangement of corkscrews)
That's like saying "Batman is Nemesis but black and has different arrangement of inversions.

10. Krake (Oblivion floorless with an inversion)
Not really, you could same the same thing about Sheikra and Griffon.

:roll:
AstroDan

ATJoseph wrote: 5. Van Helsings Factory (Looks a bit naff and overhyped by you lot.)
It can't look that naff if you're voting it 5th.

Not sure what looks naff about it. It's a family coaster, with exemplary theming and a great experience. Not sure what you were expecting.

:)
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James6
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1. Blue Fire - I look at this ride, and I struggle to see a single fault. Seems to have everything, and be the perfect all-round coaster, can't wait to give it a go in the summer! :D

2. Balder - Wow. Looks jam-packed of airtime, and a brilliant layout, without doubt one of the rides I'd like to try most.

3. Twister - To me, this ride is incredible. SUCH a small footprint, and yet quite lengthy and with a tonne of airtime (it seems)

4. Van Helsing - The theming looks mind-blowing, and dark ride-coaster combinations are something I love so certainly deserves it's place.

5. Grand National - Absolutely gutted that my only visit to Pleasure Beach was soon after Grand National's fire incident 7-ish years ago. Going to have to get back there soon as everyone raves about it and it does look awesome, less than so than before Kumbak's changes however.

6. Shock - it seems I'm one of the few impressed with this ride, haha, an exciting albeit short layout. Poor theming and throughput though.

7. Space Mountain - Would love to vote this higher. It's got everything, inversions, theming, long ride time, good throughput, on board sound etc. And yet I found it rough beyond enjoyment. We were the only people on the whole train (whole ride I think) and we chose not to re-ride, it was that un-enjoyable. Was gutted as indoor coasters are really my thing.

8. Speed Monster - looks like a slightly more original intamin looper.

9. Nemesis Inferno - not exactly one of my favourite rides, with only one word to describe it, average.

10. Krake - Unforgivably short without Oblivion's excuse of being the first
If you go down to the Towers today, you\'d better ride Th13teen. :P
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Will04
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1. Blue Fire: It looks like an awesome ride. I mean, it's a Mack freakin' launch coaster with lap bars. That alone would put it in the top three. The layout looks excellent, and to top it all off it his some rather nice theming.

2. Space Mountain: Mission 2:

I am a bit of a Disney fanboy, but in all honesty I can say that I am voting Space Mountain this high up purely because it is an excellent ride. I know that it is going to go out, but that doesn't change my opinion. This ride has everything; well themed, located in an awesome building, with an epic soundtrack (scored by Michael Gianchinno, composer of the Incredibles, Mission Impossible and Star Trek, no less). Then there's its epic custom layout with crazy inversions (a "tounge"?!) and neon tunnel towards the end. It can be rough, it can be smooth, but it is always awesome. A fantastic ride. Apart from its crap queue.

3. Balder: This looks like a brilliant woodie, with lots of airtime. I hope I can ride it someday...

4. Twister: Another excellent (compact) woodie.

5. Grand National: A really fun ride, that, for its age, is holding up incredibly well against modern competitors.

6. Van Helsing's Factory: I can only really go on what other people have said about this. And what has been said sounds extremely good.

7. Nemesis Inferno: I am actually quite fond of this coaster. It can be quite intense of the figure of eight at the end of the ride, and the pre-lift section is quite fun too (especially with effects working). It doesn't quite hold up against some of the other coasters here, sadly.

8. Speed Monster: A solid launch coaster, with a nice Norwegian loop.

9 Shock: It's a Maurer. 'Nuff said.

10. Krake: Too short (both length and height) and the drop doesn't really have much of an impact compared to 'Blivvy. Let's hope that the theming makes it a better ride.
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Dylan
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Aaaargh, I'm torn between the two coasters. Balder is by far the highest rated wooden coaster in Europe, it is probably a far more thrilling ride than Blue Fire. Blue Fire on the other hand, is a work of art.
The rest of the group is very tricky, I really can't differentiate between many placings.

1. Blue Fire*
I think taking everything into account, Blue Fire takes the top spot here. Looks great, rides great.

2. Balder
Probably a joint first in reality. This looks like a thrilling coaster, which I would love to ride. Lots and lots of airtime.

3. Space Mountain Mission 2*
I love this ride, it's so stylish. The soundtrack is amazing, the theming is great and the ride really is not as bad as people make out. Love the supernova effect mid course.

4. Twister
This looks like a great fun compact coaster

5. Krake*
I really enjoyed this ride. Nicely themed, nice intense drop, followed by an inversion and a nice little bunny hop. It's a great spectator coaster too.

6. Van Helsing's Factory
This gets great reviews on it's theming. A difficult one to judge where to place it really.

7. Nemesis Inferno*
Another fun coaster. It's good, but not great.

8. Grand National*
Snooze. I am sorry, but I don't get the excitement that surrounds this coaster. I find it average, at best.

9. Shock
This actually looks good, and perhaps should be placed higher. I await reviews of people who ride this year.

10. Speed Monster
This actually looks good too, but I didn't want to put Grand National in 10th place, because it's a 'classic'.
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Joe Koopa
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My votes, it took me a while to organise the ordering in my mind, but I think I'm remotely happy with this -

#10: Van Hesling's Factory - I don't see the hype and hysteria surrounding this coaster. It looks a reasonable enclosed family coaster, but the top 20 coasters in Europe? Really? It's not even the best enclosed coaster in this group, in my eyes.
#9: Space Mountain: Mission Two - I'd love to rank it higher, but something tells me if the experience is rough, then it may not be overly enjoyable.
#8: Shock - Seems to be well-received, but I can't get over the sheer discomfort of G-Force.
#7: Speed Monster - Looks a brilliant ride, and one I'd rank higher, if it were not supposedly rough.
#6: Nemesis Inferno* - It's not that bad, it's not that average. In fact, I consider it pretty good. However, not semi-final good.
#5: Grand National* - A brilliant coaster, truly classic. Would love to have ridden it pre-Kumba K.
#4: Krake - Don't shoot me for this, but I think this coaster looks pretty neat. It succeeds it's job perfectly, and whilst short, so is Oblivion. I can see myself ranking it higher if the completed theming is as brilliant as it sounds.
#3: Twister - Looks fantastic. I can't believe I was oblivious to this coaster until this competition.
#2: Blue Fire - I could easily have swapped my top three places around. A former winner of the poll, and definitely a deserving one. It never loses it's pace, looks thrilling without being nauseatingly intense and has some great theming.
#1: Balder - Looks to deliver so much airtime. Possibly the best use of space on any coaster I've ever seen. I'd be happy with it winning the poll.

Looking back, I'm still not sure about my votes... Hmm.. watch this space.
AstroDan

The hype and hysteria around VHF is that a few people (me, for example) went on it last year and we really enjoyed it.

The overall experience it offers is superb. With super theming and a very punchy layout - with some corners and bends that make you genuinely shriek! There's some mist screens, lots of SFX and the cars are gorgeous, too!

Just shows what a medium sized park can do when they put their minds to something.

:)
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Joe Koopa
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AstwoDan wrote: The hype and hysteria around VHF is that a few people (me, for example) went on it last year and we really enjoyed it.

The overall experience it offers is superb. With super theming and a very punchy layout - with some corners and bends that make you genuinely shriek! There's some mist screens, lots of SFX and the cars are gorgeous, too!

Just shows what a medium sized park can do when they put their minds to something.

:)
Forgive me, I really didn't intend to come across as ignorant towards the ride, I just really don't see the fascination personally.

Having said that, I probably did rank it to low... I'll aim to rectify that problem if I re-vote.
AstroDan

If you like indoor coasters, then you'd love VHF. If you don't much rate indoor coasters, then you probably wouldn't. Sure, it's a Gerst Bob - but the experience on this coaster is really rather good.

:)
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Mitch
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SpinballEdders wrote:
ATJoseph wrote: 1. Blue Fire (What can I say?)
2. Space Mountain Mission 2 (Riden it amazing pure smoothness and exileration!
3. Shock (Its an X-Car and it looks good)
4. Speed Monster (Looks like an awesome Intamin Blitz)
5. Van Helsings Factory (Looks a bit naff and overhyped by you lot.)
6. Twister (Strangley i am really like the look off the trains)
7. Grand National (Been on it its  :censored: )
8. Balder (Its in Liseburg and most likely to have an accedent)
9. Nemesis Inferior (Its nemesis just red and has a different arangement of corkscrews)
10. Krake (Oblivion floorless with an inversion)
4. Speed Monster (Looks like an awesome Intamin Blitz)
It's an accelerator coaster like Stealth, not a Intamin blitz.

5. Van Helsings Factory (Looks a bit naff and overhyped by you lot.)
the highest place this has had is 4 so it's obviously not over hyped by us

7. Grand National (Been on it its  :censored: )
Couldn't care to explain why you think Nash is bad?

8. Balder (Its in Liseburg and most likely to have an accident)
Yes Lisebrg have had their accidents in the past, but that doesn't make it a bad coaster, in fact it's voted one of the best woodies in the world.

9. Nemesis Inferior (Its nemesis just red and has a different arangement of corkscrews)
That's like saying "Batman is Nemesis but black and has different arrangement of inversions.

10. Krake (Oblivion floorless with an inversion)
Not really, you could same the same thing about Sheikra and Griffon.

:roll:
Although his reasoning for Balder is ignorant, bordering on moronic, I don't think there was any need to pick apart his post to fix some minor technicality error.

As for Van Helsing's Factory, I too don't see the hype about it. Sure the theming's awesome but from what I know the layout's a bit lacking. I'm sure the overall experience is far better than I'm giving it credit for but I'm just having trouble putting the two together and the 8 coasters which I ranked above it are rides which I find more appealing to me.
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@ Dan
But the Fogscreens are Dead. And the Park say they are in maintenance to Fix it....
Like every Effekts in the Park, they work some Time and then u cant forgot it. Alien Encounter ore Ice Age.
Maybe the Ride is good, but without QUICK fixing of Problems i can only say : ****
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Pennywise
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Joe Koopa wrote: I'm intrigued by your placings here. Not because I disagree, but just because throughout the competition you were saying how launched coasters weren't your thing, whereas woodies are?
I've edited my post now to partially explain my decision.

At the end of the day, it's less about the coaster type itself which makes the difference for me, and more the type of person that each coaster will generally appeal to. A wooden coaster has, with few exceptions, universal appeal; they don't exclude (m)any family members from riding, and are normally aimed at the family-thrill market. Meanwhile launch coasters are almost always nasty Intamin hand-bashers, boasting a 1.4M height restriction and with a distinct lack of theming. This Blue Fire is not.

Perhaps I should have been clearer on that point. :)
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Chris W
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With just a few points separating 3rd and 6th, I think this is our closest round yet!

So anyone who votes is going to make a big difference to who qualifies.

Get voting guys :D
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John
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Balder - Yet another Intamin airtime machine that looks awesome.  This is my pick of the woodies in the poll.

Grand National* - FANBOY VOTE

Blue Fire* - The coaster that brought Mack to the top table.  If you want a coaster that's pure fun, this is the ride for you.  I prefer coasters with a bit more bite, but the final inversion raises it to third in this group.

Speed Monster - An unusual choice probably, but I love the look of this ride.  This seems the most interesting of the smaller accelerator coasters by a long way.

Twister - For such a small ride this looks epic.  Grona Lund is another park on my to-do list that I'll probably never visit.  I don't think it's quite worthy of a top 20 place though.

Krake* - I don't think it's as bad as some people are making out, but it's too short in terms of both height and duration.

Van Helsing's Factory - I'm not really sure about this one - looking at the layout I'd expect it to be utterly tedious, but I'm told it's good.  I'm not entirely convinced, but I'll be riding in a few months so we'll see.

Nemesis Inferno* - Average, aside from Air it's the weakest B&M I've been on (out of only 6 admittedly)

Space Mountain: Mission 2* - I don't know what I was expecting from this, but it didn't do a lot for me.  I should probably go back to Disney at some point and try to get over my prejudices, but in the meantime I'm putting this here.

Shock - Made by Maurer.  Harsh?  Possibly, but it doesn't interest me in the slightest.
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