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SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN
& Six Flags Hurricane Harbor
Valencia, California
Abbreviation: SFMM
Six Flags Theme Parks
 Park News - (5/5/08) In the latest photo update from Six Flags Magic Mountain posted to Theme Park Review you can see that the park has finally turned Valencia Falls back on. Valencia Falls has been shut off since the park was building Tatsu since one of the major support blocks ended up being placed right near the top. Keep scrolling down and you’ll see a new Thomas Town construction update as well.
(4/22/08) Six Flags Magic Mountain is now offering new low ticket prices when you buy them online. Adult tickets are now just $26.99 on the website and starting April 23rd a new deal will go into effect to offer a free child’s ticket (age 3-11) with every $26.99 adult ticket purchase.
(4/10/08) While Six Flags Magic Mountain was forced to give up their crown for having the most coasters, the LA Times reports that they plan on someday getting the crown back. Cedar Point however will be ready for them however with plans for new coasters of their own in the works.
(3/14/08) Another set of pictures from the West Coast Bash have been posted to RCPro. These show off the demolition of Spin Out which was already no more than a pile of rubble on the ground as well as the empty shell that used to hold the Swiss Twist. So many rides are now gone from The Mountain… such a shame that they couldn’t drop a couple more in this season to make up for it. Everything takes time of course, but if your going to demolish so many rides all at once, you really should have planned on having replacement rides ready to go and not just more carnival games.
(3/6/08) Theme Park Review has posted some work in progress shots of the new park museum going into the Sky Tower. What’s really great to see is a look at some of the various concept artwork the park had drawn up for various attractions that were either never built or built with other themes. A funny one is a logo once created that apparently was an alternate choice for the Six Flags California concept that was called Six Flags California Adventure.
(3/3/08) A new construction update from Six Flags Magic Mountain can be found at RCPro. Meanwhile the LA Daily News has also has a write up about the new Museum being added to the park’s Skytower. The name for this exhibit of the park’s past history will be called Magic on the Mountain.
(2/25/08) Six Flags Magic Mountain will open their second Johnny Rockets restaurant in 2008.
(2/22/08) Theme Park Review has posted a great interview with Six Flags CEO, Mark Shapiro that any fan of Six Flags Magic Mountain will want to hear. They’ve also posted a ton of new pictures of the park, including a look at the new X2 train on the tracks and some views of the park lift X2’s lift hill. They talk about the future of the park, why old rides were removed and what new attractions are on the way in the future. Though it seems the old Circus Wheel will only be replaced by some kind of new “3 point challenge Basketball Game”. While it’s understandable that they would want to remove an old style “carnival” ride like that, it’s disappointing that it will be replaced by yet another “basketball” game. Maybe it’s just me… but I just can’t stand basketball games in theme parks because typically the prize people win is… a basketball. Then you’ve got people running around the park bouncing a basketball all day long. You could be smart and give out the prize uninflected perhaps, but then people are less likely to play. But honestly, there’s just something about people running around bouncing balls that ‘s like nails on a chalkboard to me.
(2/12/08) Growing up in Southern California, I remember clearly my first ride on Colossus. Looking back, I would say that it was that one day where my father and I experienced my not only my first ride on Colossus but my first inversion on Revolution that the doorway to my inner thrill seeker blew open wide. The sleeper had awakened.
Lets take a step back in time to the days before Six Flags, back when Magic Mountain still had Trolls and they had just built Colossus, “The Greatest Rollercoaster in the World”.
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2008 - X2 - (5/7/08) Theme Park Review has posted details for the official X2 Campout event where you can camp out the night before the grand reopening of SFMM and get a hour long ERT session on X2 first thing in the morning.
(5/1/08) The LA Times has confirmed that the Flame Throwers will be just one of several new effects added to X2 when it opens.
(4/30/08) In this series of interesting pictures sent in by an anonymous source you can see that Six Flags was testing out a possible new fireball effect for use on X2.
Apparently this test was conducted while the park was closed sometime back in early March and using the old Pink and Yellow X1 trains. This obviously not going to be the final look of things since you can see that the fire unit was mounted inside a manlift basket suspended over the track, but we do have another clue as to what we may get to see from X2 when it reopens. I’m just not sure that Six Flags is willing to pay the huge cost associated with the fuel to fire off this kind of effect on a daily basis myself, unless they’ve got a sponsor willing to foot the bill.
(4/21/08) An all new promo video showing off the new X2 trains running around the track has been posted to the official website.
(4/18/08) The LA Times has confirmed that X2’s strange tunnels have been dropped from the project but that several special effects additions will still be added. Specifically the ride will feature fog and fire effects along with “music” that will all go along with the new Volcano themed logo.
While they don’t say what music will be playing, I’ve always had a soft spot for Wall of VooDoo’s version of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. “I fell in to a burning ring of fire, I went down down down, and the flames went higher. And it burns burns burns, the ring of fire… the ring of fire.” Not sure how it would work on the coaster, but I like the song.
Meanwhile you can see an entire SFMM update posted to Westcoaster this week showing off various changes, missing rides, the new Johnny Rockets and X2.
(4/17/08) The park’s website now confirms that X2 will launch on May 24th.
(4/16/08) From the sound of the latest rumors those weird amoeba looking canvas tunnels that were being planned for X2 just may have been cut from the project. Of course this means that all that cool audio/visual magic Six Flags promised would be added to the ride is now going to be lost as well, unless they had plans to  project effects in the station or add music to the lift hill, but it’s doubtful at this point. Honestly though, this is probably a good move on the part of Six Flags as the plan to add those tunnels was not likely very well thought out... after all a ride on X is probably one of the most disorienting things you can experience so it was unlikely you would have seen much in those tunnels anyway. Now, the cuts have not yet been confirmed of course, but with only a little over a month left until the ride opens and zero work done on adding them to the ride structure, I’d say the rumors are fairly right on this time.
(4/15/08) A report at Theme Park Review confirms that the dreaded Manditory Locker Policy has now come to SFMM, landing at Tatsu, Riddler’s Revenge, Scream and X2 when it reopens. Speaking of X2, check out the new Volcano themed X2 logo above that I borrowed from the website. Pretty wicked looking I must say… but makes me wonder if this is a hint about what kind of new special effects they may be adding to those tunnels.
(4/14/08) Screamscape sources tell us that if all goes well, X2 may be ready to roll by May 24th.
(2/4/08) Theme Park Review has posted detailed pictures showing off X2’s new trains that really show off the difference of the engineering hardware that will stabilize the seats much better this time around while still cutting back on the weight of the trains. While improvements were made to the second generation trains on Eejanaika in Japan, it’s clear that the new X2 trains are a third generation design concept.
(2/1/08) The LA Times has posted a story talking about those 2 to 4 new special effects tunnels being added to X2 before it opens. Even better… they’ve got photos to show and these suckers are actually going to be made up from a canvas tarp material and if the model is any indication, they’ll look like giant white funny shaped amoebas eating away at the track, filled with smoke and lighting effects.
(1/30/08) According to the LA Times, the first two new trains for X2 have arrived at the park this week. They’ve got a couple of pictures, but they’re kind of small.
(1/28/08) Theme Park Review has finally added a large photo update from Six Flags Magic Mountain taken during their DVD Premier Party event that included tons of backstage tour photos as well as a look at the plans for Thomas Town, the inside of X2 and much much more.
(1/25/08) According to the LA Times, the first new X2 train is set to arrive at the park by the end of next week to get ready for the planned Memorial Day weekend re-launch of the ride. In addition to dropping a ton of weight from the train this time around, the cars themselves will be painted with a special aerodynamic paint used on fighter jets to reduce wind drag.
(12/18/07) A construction update for the various 2008 projects has been posted to Theme Park Review. This includes the new paint job on X, Thomas Town construction, demolition markings on Flashback, shiny new paint on Viper and much more. Oh… and there was some strange talk about adding a park history museum area to the top of the park’s Skytower. Now if only they would remove the rotten shoulder restraints from Revolution and return the ride to it’s former glory days.
(11/6/07) From what I’ve been able to determine, one of the reasons there was no new artwork of the X2 concept is that apparently the final design has yet to be determined. From what I’ve been told there could be anywhere from 1 to 4 new “tunnels” added to the ride, and apparently the idea is to project some kind of images on the walls inside the tunnels. (Given how lacking the park’s quality standards have been over the years, I’ve got a feeling these wont last through the year.) While the idea of a tunnel sounds interesting, I don’t think riders are going to have time to even clearly see an image projected on them. Best to make a few really long and DARK tunnels, and fill them with freaky lighting effects instead. As for the tunnel locations… it’s still a mystery but I’m willing to bet we’ll see one at the very bottom of the first drop for sure. My sources have also confirmed that the track will be painted Blood Red and the supports will be a dark charcoal grey.
(11/1/07) According to the LA Times, Six Flags Magic Mountain will soon close X down for a few months to opening the ride in the Spring as X2: Xtreme To The 2nd Power. In addition to the new second-generation trains we’ve been reporting were on the way for the last year, X2 will be repainted and add a tunnel, some lighting and audio effects to the ride to bring it into the 5th Dimension. The frightening thing is that they claim the renovation will cost $10 million, which seems to be a shocking amount of money to me… since that’s probably not too far off from the cost of a brand new coaster…or three or four high end flat rides.
2008 - CSI: Live - (2/27/08) Six Flags Magic Mountain will feature another new and unique attraction this season called “CSI: Live” According to the LA Times this will be a new 30-minute interactive show concept going into the Magic Moments Theater where the audience will be asked to solve the mystery. Cast Members of the actual show will provide voice-over advice and videotapes clues. CSI: Live will premier on June 14th.
2008 - Thomas Town - (4/23/08) A new Thomas Town construction update was added to Westcoaster.
(4/15/08) Construction is now in full swing it at Thomas Town according to the pictures posted to Theme Park Review (scroll down) where they claim about 85% of the train track has already been put in place. There are also pictures of the newly reopened and refurbished Roaring Rapids and Jet Stream.
(4/14/08) While we haven’t seen much in the way of construction yet, apparently the goal is to open Thomas Town by June 6th. With less than two months to go, they better get moving.
(2/6/08) The LA Times talks a bit about the Thomas Town plans at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
(1/21/08) The LA Times has confirmed that Goliath Jr. will be rethemed, repainted green and red, and return to Thomas Town area themed as Percy the Small Engine. They also report that Thomas Town will also have rides themed as Harold the Helicopter, Bertie the Bus and a Thomas themed train ride.
(12/24/07) A reader sent in a couple of new construction photos showing off the cleared state of the Thomas Town site that was formerly used for the Granny Grand Prix.
(12/3/07) A report from the park says that the Granny Grand Prix has now been removed, Goliath Jr closed, and a big blue construction wall has gone up from Bugs Bunny World down to Goliath to begin work on Thomas Town.
(11/2/07) Today we’ve got a new piece of artwork showing off the new Thomas Town. Other than the train ride, Six Flags isn’t offering much in the way of details, which makes me wonder if there will be anything more to be than the new Thomas themed train ride. As Thomas Town, we’ve heard that it will likely be replacing the current Granny Grand Prix car ride, along with Goliath Jr.
(10/4/07) An announcement about future projects from Six Flags has confirmed that Thomas Town is coming to Six Flags Magic Mountain in 2008. However, the project will be the addition of an entire Thomas land and is no longer connected to the revival of the monorail. Screamscape sources have informed us that due to various circumstances, the old Metro monorail will never operate again.
2009 - New Coaster - In Development - (3/13/08) Lots of buzz about what may be coming to SFMM in the future following the West Coast Bash event. While an S&S sales rep was speaking to the group and talking about their El Loco concept (Steel Hawg at Indiana Beach will be the first this year), he mentioned that “we’re installing one more El Loco on the West coast” next. Of course many in the group have assumed that this could be the next coaster at Magic Mountain. In addition to promises that the park would get more flat rides in the future apparently a member of the park’s management also mentioned in response to the issue of Freefall’s demise, that The Mountain wouldn’t be lacking for freefall rides for very long. All said and done, all of the rumored projects and hints dropped all are good ideas for the park, but there is only so much money they’re going to spend on any given year, so at this point I have no clue which way they at leaning. Of course this is probably what they intend |
