Viewing the new ride vehicles on display at IAAPA Expo in Orlando this year, it became clear that something had changed. Previously with new roller coasters on display, barring the unveiling of an entirely new design model, the only thing different from year to year was the color of the paint job.
Orion at Kings Island and Fury 325 at Carowinds are perfect examples. Both are Giga Coasters produced by Bolliger & Mabillard. But if you were to view black-and-white photos of the trains, the only way you would be able to tell the difference would be if you could see the logo on the front car.
This year, however, I feel like we saw an explosion of creativity, from both the manufacturers and individual theme parks. Each wants their new creations to stand out and be immediately identifiable just by viewing the ride vehicle.
Top Thrill reimagined and a falcon takes flight
At the top of my list would be the new train for Top Thrill 2. This was on display at the Zamperla booth. Themed with body stylings like a modern Italian F1 race car, Zamperla worked with a firm known for creating carbon fiber bodies for race cars to create the custom body, nose and tail for these sleek new roller coaster trains.
Cedar Point fans would expect no less from the follow-up to the original Intamin Top Thrill Dragster coaster. This originally featured some extremely impressive stylings of its own for the day. When it first opened in 2003, the original trains from Intamin were created to resemble a Formula One Dragster. They included a long nose cone and a tall tail fin in the back. There was also a faux engine block and a pair of massive drag race tires to complete the look.
Speaking of Intamin, the company brought its latest creation to IAAPA Expo, unveiling the train for Falcon’s Flight. This is currently under construction for Six Flags Qiddiya. These sleek trains feature a lead car themed as a blue and yellow falcon head, complete with a set of menacing glowing eyes as if the Falcon had prey locked into its sight.
More color-changing glowing panels are featured along the sides of the train to help ensure that all eyes will be upon Falcon’s Flight whenever it soars by, day or night.
Themed coaster cars: Transformers, gravy boats and more
S&S Worldwide was on hand to show off its revised Axis coaster design once again. But this time, the ride is no longer a prototype. It has been given a Transformers theme as the first three Axis Coasters head to SEVEN branded attractions in Saudi Arabia, under the name Transformers: Prepare For Battle.
As a futuristic sci-fi-themed vehicle, it’s hard to lock down exactly the stylings of this ride. That was probably exactly the point, as it needed to look unlike anything you’ve seen before. Even the paint job used on the vehicles shifts color, depending on which angle you are viewing the trains from.
Vekoma revealed a whimsical new coaster train design for the “Good Gravy!” coaster going to Holiday World in 2024. Fitting right in with the Thanksgiving feast theme of the land the coaster will inhabit, these trains look like your Grandmother’s giant porcelain gravy boat, complete with a little gooey gravy spilling down the spout on the front of the lead car and a decorative floral and wheat pattern across the side and back panels.
Hot Wheels come to life
Meanwhile, The Gravity Group displayed its new train design for The Bobcat. This is a wooden coaster coming to Six Flags Great Escape in 2024. The Bobcat will use Gravitykraft’s Timberliner train design. However, the lead cars on each of their different train designs over the years have been unique, custom designed to the theme of each coaster. In this case, the trains feature a large and angry-looking Bobcat, perched atop a rocky surface, looking just about ready to pounce.
Past creations have included the Triceratops-themed cars on Roar-O-Saurus at Story Land, the warrior Cú Chulainn at Emerald Park, the buzzsaw-themed trains on Timber at Walibi Rhone-Alpes, a yellow Taxi driven by Oscar the Grouch at Sesame Place and the crazy giant red fireworks rockets strapped to the front of Mine Blower at Fun Stop America.
One of the most stunning coaster trains was at Chance Rides’ booth. This was a preview for the upcoming Mattel Adventure Park, opening in 2024 in Arizona. The park will feature two Hot Wheels-themed roller coasters. The coaster trains look like someone took a Hot Wheels toy car and blew it up to a real-life scale. On the show floor this year was the blue race car-themed car for the Twin Mill Racers coaster. At last year’s IAAPA, Chance also unveiled the awesome hot-rod-themed Bone Shaker coaster train.
Both trains are simply beautiful works of art. They feature a great deal of fine automatic details, including incredibly shiny chrome pipes all around. For many of us, Chance Rides has quite literally brought a piece of our childhood to life with these designs.
Custom theming
At the Bolliger & Mabillard booth, attendees could find the lead coaster car to the new Penguin Trek family roller coaster, going to SeaWorld Orlando in 2024. It features a unique new front car design. The train resembles a high-tech snow-mobile style vehicle, complete with skids and shock absorbers on the front. It features a new 2-wide seating layout design, with an all-new lap-bar restraint design.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the beautiful surf-board-themed train B&M created for Pipeline: The Surf Coaster. This opened at SeaWorld Orlando in 2023. Without even going into detail about the unique innovation that B&M created for the stand-up seats that provide bonus pops of airtime throughout the ride experience, the train itself was designed to look like the massive deck of a huge surfboard, ready to ride the waves.
B&M Coasters was not traditionally known for its custom theming. However, this has begun to change, especially with the company’s line of Wing Coaster designs. The debut of the design was Wild Eagle at Dollywood and the alien invasion-themed trains on Swarm at Thorpe Park. Since then, almost every Wing Coaster design has featured some kind of mascot character design. Examples range from parrots to Lego lions to baboons to flying demons.
Previously, I mentioned Zamperla’s efforts with Top Thrill 2. The company is a master at themed design on its flat rides, so it would follow that its family coasters would be iconic too. This would include fanciful-looking trains created for Daddy Pig’s Roller Coaster at Peppa Pig Theme Park. There are also the new 4×4 jeep-themed trains coming to Knott’s Berry Farm’s Snoopy’s Tenderpaw Twister coaster. These feature a lead car with Snoopy himself at the wheel.
The themed coaster car trend continues
The trend of creating custom-themed cars has been growing year after year lately.
We saw several themed vehicles open on rides in 2023. This includes a set of three differently painted Wildcat-themed lead cars from RMC on Wildcat’s Revenge at Hersheypark, SnowMobile-themed cars for Arctic Rescue at SeaWorld San Diego and on DarKoaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (both from Intamin), and wonderful sci-fi off-road vehicle themed cars on Uncharted at PortAventura (Intamin).
There were also Batmobile-themed trains on Batman Gotham City Escape at Parque Warner Madrid (Intamin), the Off-Road Jeeps on Big Bear Mountain at Dollywood (Vekoma), the actual Ferrari-themed cars on Mission: Ferrari at Ferrari World from Dynamic Attractions, and a pair of new creations from Disney and Vekoma resulting in a new Tron Lightcycle/Run coaster at the Magic Kingdom in Florida and Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs at Hong Kong Disneyland.
One of my favorite themed vehicles of all time would be the motorcycle and side-car creations for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at Universal Orlando. This allows riders to choose from two different seating styles in which to enjoy the highly themed adventure ride. They can either ride seated up high and exposed on the motorcycle side or tucked down within the sidecar.
I am impressed by this initiative to add more creative designs to themed attractions and hope to see it continue. As the old saying goes, a picture can be worth a thousand words. It only takes a glimpse of something like a Tron-themed Lightcycle coaster train for the viewer to know exactly what they are looking at, and where they need to go to ride it themselves.
