Intellectual property (IP) is the hottest term in the theme park industry. The biggest, most popular theme parks on the planet are increasingly relying on IP to anchor their attraction concepts, with many companies leveraging multi-billion-dollar brands to ensure their creations are successful. However, IP doesn’t necessarily have to come from a blockbuster movie, beloved character, or hit comic book series. Theme parks that have to be more frugal with their investments can create their own independent IP like Walt Disney did long ago with the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Six Flags America is one of those theme parks that has to be more selective with their investments, and despite their newest project representing the largest park investment in two decades, using an internally developed IP has made Steam Town a successful addition. The renovated park space, themed after a Victorian-era steampunk universe with a bit of time traveling thrown in, takes over the former Coyote Creek (Old West) area of the park. The concept behind Steam Town is that Coyote Creek was secretly purchased by Professor Screamore, who is anxious to share his inventions and thrilling creations with the world.
With Steam Town, Six Flags America has followed a similar template that has been used by other Six Flags parks around the country. However, instead of simply adding a few steampunk-y signs and props around one new big attraction (like what was done for Twisted Colossus at SFMM and Pandemonium at SFoG), they have done a complete retheme of an existing land, similar to what was done at Six Flags Fiesta Texas a few years ago with Crackaxle Canyon Steampunk District. Like Crackaxle Canyon, Steam Town overlays steampunk-style theming on top of what were Old West facades and attractions. Steam Town also features Steamwhirler, a new Zamperla flat ride. Unfortunately, the new attraction was not running when I attempted to ride it during the park’s media day, but it’s a standard Zamperla NebulaZ like the one that can be found at Hersheypark (Mix’d flavored by Jolly Rancher). The one drawback to this type of flat ride is that it has a multi-stage load process since only half of the seating arms are at ground level at a given time. I would have preferred the park to add something similar to the Dare Devil Dive Flying Machine that was part of the Crackaxle Canyon retheming. Nonetheless, the Steamwhirler really fits the steampunk vibe of the land, and doesn’t feature any inversions, so it will be more accessible to smaller thrill seekers.
The rest of Steam Town takes the existing Coyote Creek attractions and gives them a steampunk twist. ElectroDerby is a retheme of the park’s bumper cars. It looks like the park might eventually include theatrical fog and lighting on the renovated attraction, but the only difference I noticed on my ride was the removal of the center curb and a large mural on the back wall suggesting the cars are being powered by a Tesla-inspired creation.
QuantumCanyon Rapids layers a time-travel story onto the existing raft ride. Guests board the traditional circular rafts and pass through a time portal as they leave the station. From there, they are transported to the prehistoric era with dinosaurs roaming along the edges of the raging river. It’s not Jurassic Park River Adventure, but QuantumCanyon Rapids features real animatronic dinosaurs – yes, Six Flags can deploy animatronics when they want. Based on my ride, it looked like the park was still working out some of the triggers for the figures, but it was still impressive to see a park within the Six Flags chain fully commit to a theme.
Of all the changes brought about by the Steam Town retheme, the one I was most looking forward to is Professor Screamore’s Skywinder, which is a complete refurbishment of the Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster (SLC) formerly known as Mind Eraser. The most striking improvement is in the coaster’s new maroon and bronze color scheme that fits perfectly with Steam Town’s theme. In addition to the new paint job, the track was reprofiled in an attempt to smooth out what was notoriously one of the roughest steel roller coasters in the country (almost all of the identical versions of this coaster I’ve ridden have been pretty jarring), While I didn’t perceive a noticeably smoother ride from the reprofiling, I can say that the new trains featuring lap bars with soft-padded vest-style restraints eliminate the headbanging that was unavoidable on the old trains that had hard-padded horse-collar style restraints. I was really hoping that the new trains would deliver a ride more like current generation Vekoma coasters, but unfortunately Professor Screamore’s Skywinder is still cursed with a track design that forces trains to ride on the inside of the track, which is what causes much of the shaking and jolting. It is definitely an improvement over Mind Eraser, but I don’t see other parks with Vekoma SLCs rushing to do a similar refurbishment.
In addition to the new and rethemed attractions, the park has reimagined the land’s restaurant, now called Fillament’s SteamPub,
and created a new stunt show, SteamHeist, where guests can see Professor Screamore himself. For those that have never been to Six Flags America before, the park’s stunt show is one of the best productions in the entire Six Flags chain, and always worth checking out.
While Six Flags America is one of the smaller parks in the chain, and probably will be even further down the pecking order when Six Flags and Cedar Fair officially merge in a couple of weeks. However, the park has still been able to deliver a well-done IP-based refurbishment around the steampunk theme. Hopefully, Six Flags America will be given the needed resources in the future so the rest of park looks as good as Steam Town.
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Just in time for them to merge with Cedar Fair and close the park down.
We just took a visit to Dorney Park on Saturday to experience Iron Menace, and it's uncanny how much the new Cedar Fair coaster leans into similar steampunk themes (though I'd say it's a bit more Foundry/Blacksmith than traditional steampunk) even though it was created under the Cedar Fair umbrella while Steam Town was created under Six Flags.
FWIW, I was really impressed with Iron Menace despite it being a pretty small (and short) B&M Dive Machine. The theming around the area is excellent, though I think EVERY dive machine should have a drop into a tunnel or under a bridge to create a near-miss moment (Iron Menace dives into a small rounded "pool" that looks like molten metal - perhaps lighting at night makes this feature a bit more impressive). Cedar Fair even took the extra step of creating a randomized audio sequence that plays during dispatch and on the lift hill in addition to all of the theming in the queue, station, and surrounding area. The layout of the coaster is solid with the inclined loop being a unique element for a Dive Machine. However, the final turn into the station could use some reprofiling as it jolts the train into the brake run, though everything else is buttery smooth as you would expect from a modern B&M. I'm sure the 95+ degree heat kept a lot of people away (or in the packed waterpark), but pretty much everything in Dorney Park was WALK ON on a Saturday.
Glad to hear that the coaster is somewhat of an improvement over Mind Eraser. Mind Eraser at SFNE was the 2nd worst coaster I ever rode (1st was Steeplechase at Luna Park) so I scrupulously avoided the installation at SFA.
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The recent success of original IP in this park and others throughout the Six Flags and Cedar Park chains has me wondering if the combined entity will eventually release the rights to the DC Superheroes and Looney Tunes characters to WB, perhaps for use in the Universal parks.