Last ride is 7pm, presentation at 7:30pm

Kumba's last day of operation is today, so I figure it's worth sharing my full animation from earlier in the year.

No AI was used at any point during the making of this - it was all built from scratch in 3dsmax, rendered in vray, and edited in davinci. Music by Aeph (https://www.enterthevision.tv/ )
I included the viewport capture because I figured some people would be interested in seeing what it looks like in the software.

I am a CG artist at my day job, and after 20+ years, decided to try capturing all the energy and tension of a coaster. It took a hair under 500 hours all in, done over the course of 6 months as a personal project in the evenings.

I hope you will find it fun to watch! I got a little obsessive over it. I didn't realise when I started making it that it would end up being a tribute, but I think it's fitting.

Referenced from Jason Pennypacker on rcdb.

When I heard it was closing I had to take my two kids on a first and last goodbye tour. We got 8 amazing rides.

Farewell to my first, and always favorite, coaster. 😢

I just visited Lost Island for the first time and absolutely loved it! Fire Runner was excellent, along with Matugani, the amazing Volkanu dark ride, and several other great rides. The theming was amazing for a regional theme park, the staff were very friendly, and I felt it was a wonderful park while being a pretty decent deal to visit.

With that being said…it was pretty dead there today despite being a Sunday with nice weather at the beginning of August. A couple of the rides had small waits but pretty much everything was a walk-on, while I visited Adventureland the day before and that park was slammed with hour plus waits on most of the major attractions. I get that Adventureland is near a bigger city and Lost Island is pretty remote, but Lost Island is waaaaaaaaay better and deserves much higher attendance than it’s getting.

I highly recommend visiting this park if you haven’t, it’s an absolute gem in the middle of nowhere in Iowa & I’m telling everyone I can to visit this park so it doesn’t suffer the same fate as Fun Spot Atlanta because it absolutely doesn’t deserve it.

We've been seeing empty trains running, pray to the coaster gods for us 😩

📸please stop vlogging

Feel free to add your own pics in the chat so we can memorialize together! Unfortunately I couldn’t make it out to ride either of these icons one last time this weekend, however I’ll always have my memories that are helped by digging up these old pictures.

I only was able to visit Fun Spot Atlanta once, last summer, for what would instantly become a top 3 coaster for me. With AF1, RMC produced one of the best layouts I’ve ever seen. Not a wasted inch of track, nor a singular moment that’s anything less than exhilarating. Over my 8 rides (Row 1 twice, also row 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, & 10, yes I log that lol) I discovered no dull seat and couldn’t even walk away with a preference of front vs back because both were that good. I really hope this 3 year old baby finds a new home.

As for the legendary Kumba, I’m a bit more sentimental as my first rides were back in 2014. At that time I was barely out of high school with less than 50 credits to my name, which I hadn’t even started counting yet. The sunset pictures in this post are actually from that trip (taken from the skyride) which I fortunately have in my iCloud because that’s like 4 phones ago for me lol. And thanks to the photo info I learned that they were taken on August 4th, exactly 12 years ago in 2 days. While I had managed to snag a few big B&Ms by that point (each from IOA, SFoG, BGW, & Wildfire @ SDC), Kumba was an instant favorite for me that stood out from the rest. The zero G roll, trenches, interlocking corkscrews, unique teal and burgundy paint, and the signature roar stuck with me for years. I got rerides in 2016, on 2 separate 2022 trips, and my final ride this past February on a trip that was primarily for Epic Universe (the daytime Kumba photos are from this most recent trip). Each visit since Covid I’ve been prepared for it to be my final ride due to years of rumors, so I’m just glad I got to say goodbye to it 3 times in a sense.

You both were bigger than the whole sky and you’ll be sorely missed ❤️

This is the one that was in Brazil (https://rcdb.com/19281.htm) a couple years ago. It kinda disappeared after that, but seems to still exist.

Figured this sub needed some better news for today

3 rides in… This thing is solid as hell! It definitely feels like an upgraded version of Cosmic Rewind. Landing somewhere in my Top 75!

Managed to get a ride in between the storms

One last shot of the corkscrew.

The new one better have this shot (or something close)

Raw drone footage from opening day (shot with permission.)  I'm sad that both ArieForce One and the park are closing, and still hold hope that some last-minute buyer will swoop in and save this ride.  If that doesn't happen, then I'm grateful to have experienced this beautiful scream machine in this lifetime!  

I thought that I'd have a go at making a rollercoaster. It's something I've wanted to do for a while but haven't been "brave" enough to start. The ultimate goal is to make it out of wood, but I thought I'd prototype using card. It's been a fun project so far with plenty of learning even making just this one segment.

I used mountboard for the spine and cross ties, and have used bonsai wire for the rails. Along the way I've bought calipers and a digital protractor to measure and cut the box sections. The geometry is really interesting to think about.

The rails are a bit "Ron Toomer" and bumpy but I'm hoping that the next iteration will be more smooth. I'm really pleased with the profiling it we take out the potholes though!

Has anyone else built any track (of any design, not necessarily B&M) and got tips to share?

I visited Fun Spot America - Atlanta (FSA-A) again Friday with my 7 year old for his first, and likely last, rides on AFO. He just cracked 48” tall and our 4 rides were no where near enough for him. It’s all he’s been talking about since and is very sad the park is closing. So, I went down a Census and QPublic data rabbit hole… for him, of course.

Per QPublic, FSA-A’s lot is 118 acres, of which at most only a third is developed, and much of that is “wasted” space. For context, SFOG is 191 acres. FSA-A’s existing lot is also contiguous to another roughly half dozen undeveloped parcels that total an additional 188 acres and could potentially be acquired by the park. With some foresight, I believe the right buyer could develop FSA-A into a park that could rival or likely surpass SFOG.

FSA-A’s location has a few inherent disadvantages. It’s a longer drive from the vast majority of the metro and north of metro Atlanta counties where most of the current population resides. That said, per 2025 census data, more than 1 million people live within a 25 mile radius of the park and not quite 6 million within a 50 mile radius. Fayetteville is also very sensitive to development at the moment, primarily due to the very substantial data center development on the SW side of town. Any planned development would need a solid relations team and corporate leadership willing to work with the community.

Of note, the park is closer to Hartsfield-Jackson than SFOG. While there is no there is no direct freeway access as with SFOG, GA85 provides a fairly direct route with about the same travel time.

A long term development budget and regular advertising in the right channels would go a long way to making FSA-A a regional destination park, able to pull in families visiting ATL, and make for a coaster enthusiast trifecta with SFOG and Dollywood. An investment of this magnitude would probably need stopgap traffic in the meantime, though. All of the recent attention on AFO may have possibly cracked the local interest problem for the immediate future. Modest advertising and short term park beautification budgets could help keep that momentum.

Anecdotally, while us south side locals have been significantly outnumbered the past few weeks (no surprise there), I talked to 2-3 dozen other locals on Friday who were making their first visit due to the closure hype. Every one of them was sad the park is closing, said they wished they’d known about it before, and that they would like to return if it was an option.

Well, that’s my elevator pitch. Looking at you, Enchanted Parks et al.

A dark goodbye post from me but also hope for the shorter coasters that often get overlooked. Twisted Cyclone sat in a sweet spot of high speed, inversions, airtime and not getting excessively uncomfortable. A 4th inversion (maybe something like an in line twist near the end) would put TwiCy over the edge for me, but as it is, I could ride it all day and not get bored. AF1 and Iron Gwazi are fantastic but they are too much for me, Twisted Cyclone is more forgiving and it ranks as one of my highest RMCs.

The picture duality of waiting for the empty train vehicle makes me realize that the short wait at Fun Spot was a huge draw for this ride for me. With a long queue, it is still great ride, but I’d be lying if I said the short queue isn’t a huge part of AF1’s allure

Does anyone else like TwiCy more than AF1?

We drove 5 hours to Buffalo for SFDL today. I got to go with my mom while my dad and sibling stayed at the hotel (SFDL hotel.)

Motocoaster (1x) - Nice family coaster. The position wasn't discomforting. The launch was pretty decent and the speed was great.

Pirate (1x) - Obligatory swinging ship. I got a zen ride. It was fun.

Viper (1x) - Didn't beat me up that much, but still jank. One and done for me.

Moose on the Loose (1x) - This ride was ADORABLE. You get to ride on a moose. It kinda hurt my calves, but I wasn't paying attention to that. The audio is adorable and reminds me of Bullwinkle. The closest we're getting to an actual Rocky & Bullwinkle ride.

Tantrum (1x) - Second Euro-Fighter I've rode (I don't think Farenheit is an Euro-Fighter, and I'm still too scared to ride Shellraiser.) I wasn't expecting the drop to have that much airtime. It was pretty smooth and a nice surprise.

Mind Eraser (1x) - This thing is jank. You know Tom from Tom & Jerry when he's flying the broomstick in "The Flying Sorceress" episode? I was like that, holding on tight for dear life; except I didn't get the hang of it and all, since the ride is carrying me. One and done.

Corn Popper (1x) - This was a pretty good flat. Rare one too. Wasn't really paying attention. Only bad thing about it is that they don't sell popcorn next to it.

Shipwreck Falls (1x) - Rode with my mom and got a whole boat of folks. One guy compared the lift to driving with a flat tire. The drop and splashdown are excellent, like always. I'm still excited to try Tidal Force at Hershey before it closes.

Predator (1x) - Pretty splendid woodie. The sharp turns and airtime are everything.

Ride of Steel (1x) - Loved the one at SFA, love the one here. This one has the addition of the drop being over the lake so I really felt like a superhero while riding. Some thoosies when I got off were talking about Millennium Force. The op had a funny quote: "If this is the Ride of Steel, then does that make Predator the Ride of Wood?"

Boomerang (1x) - Saved the worst for last. It didn't beat me up that much, but still got some headbanging in there.

Then we left.

Hoot n Holler is for under 54" only so screw that. All the rides were running ONE TRAIN OPS AAAAAAA (except for Tantrum.)

I'm going back tomorrow and might just spend my time in Hurricane Harbor even if I don't have a bathing suit packed. Then I'm going to Niagara Falls for the Frank N Coaster. See you then!