• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

The Smiler vs Colossus; which of the UK’s inversion record breakers do you prefer?

The Smiler or Colossus?


  • Total voters
    41

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. The UK has had 2 coasters to have broken the inversion record; Colossus and The Smiler. The Smiler is the current inversion record holder and has been since 2013, with 14 inversions, whereas Colossus was Smiler’s predecessor, with its 10 inversions holding the record from 2002 to 2013 (albeit jointly with its numerous clones for a number of those years). While these coasters are very different ride types (Gerstlauer Infinity and Intamin Multi Inversion Coaster, respectively), they both held the inversion record and effectively had the same purpose when being designed; invert riders as many times as possible. But which of these two coasters do you personally prefer?


I’ll get the ball rolling with my opinion.


If I’m being honest, I’m not hugely in love with either, but my vote goes to The Smiler any day of the week. It might not be my favourite coaster, but I think the layout is very original, with some great bits in it, and doesn’t feel repetitive. If you’re into that sort of thing, the ride is also absolutely relentless, and always feels interesting! My last ride on it also wasn’t too bad in terms of roughness, although I think the raw intensity of it does make my head spin a bit, which I’m not personally too keen on; I think I’m just growing less keen on the type of coaster Smiler is.


Colossus is a coaster I’ll admit I’m not keen on at all, and was genuinely quite unpleasant on my last ride. It’s a pretty rough coaster and has some of my least favourite trains/restraints of any coaster I’ve done, and roughness and restraints aside, my last ride made me realise that while I think the first half, airtimeless hill aside, would ride quite well with more roomy trains and less headbanging, I do not like that second half at all; while the last, faster heartline roll at the very end is actually OK, those 4 heartline rolls in a row made me a bit nauseous and are just generally rather unpleasant to experience, in my opinion (I was holding on waiting for them to end as opposed to enjoying them). It’s a shame, as I’ll admit that as someone who likes uniformity, Colossus’ row of heartline rolls is possibly one of the most satisfying coaster elements to look at for me!


But which coaster out of The Smiler and Colossus do you prefer?
 
Colossus I think has quite a good layout, but the heartline rolls at the end really aren't my cup of tea, and it just seems like a lazy way to double the inversion count of the ride.

The Smiler is far more innovative and notwithstanding its roughness and jolts, I find it good fun to ride. The transitions between elements work nicely and it's a spectacle to watch. In comparison to Colossus that is.
 
I'd definitely agree that The Smiler's a better ride, and we're about to get a clone of Colossus in the UK which makes it feel less special. Having said that I would say that Colossus felt more innovative when it was new. Having heartlines rolls on a 'standard' coaster was a fairly recent innovation. Was Lethal Weapon Pursuit at Movie Park Germany the first ride to have them?:
https://rcdb.com/970.htm

Before that you got heartline rolls on the Togo heartline coasters, but there the whole ride system seemed to be built around doing them. The heartline rolls also felt like a bigger deal when they ran along the edge of the lake, before they filled it in to make Saw Island. Colossus definitely hasn't aged well as a ride.
 
Last edited:
The Smiler all day long. The only thing Colossus is any good at for me is watching and the design of the area (design, not it's current rotting state where it looks awful).

Although the Smiler isn't one of my absolute favourites, I do gain enjoyment out of it. It's a bit rough, some of the theming is if poor quality (a lot is also broken) and the outside of the coaster station looks terrible. But it's still mostly a spectacle to look at, is very unique, iconic and fun to ride. Although annoying, I also think the theme is hilarious and well thought out, if not executed that well in terms of quality.

Colossus on the other hand, I find dreadful to ride. I'll take the pain of Saw any day because at least I enjoy it. I gain zero enjoyment from Colossus. Not just because the track is rough, but any enjoyment that could possibly be gained from it is ruined by the uncomfortable trains and the worst restraints I've ever experienced on any coaster ever. It's a couple of minutes of getting roughly flung around whilst being pinned down severely by rediculous restraints into an uncomfortable seating position. I always come off with a headache, sore ears, sore chest, sore thighs and an aching gentleman region. I also agree that the heartlines, especially the last one feels like a cheap shot just to get the record. The Smilers inversions don't.

That said, I'm looking forward to trying Mingos new version. Fresh track, trains and lap bars sound just the ticket as Colossus looks like it's awesome but just isn't.
 
About Colossus; for those of you who were around and old/big enough to be able to ride it in 2002, was it as rough/uncomfortable as it is now when it opened, or has that just developed with age?

On a side note, Colossus’ unique train design is apparently completely unique to Colossus; even the likes of Monte Makaya (the ride Colossus was based off of) doesn’t actually have the same trains, interestingly… I wonder why Tussauds went for the trains Colossus has?
 
My other main issue with Colossus compared to Smiler is the cars/restraints. At least Smiler has cars I can get into easily and fairly comfortable OTSRs.


Colossus' cars are possibly some of my least favourite coaster cars anywhere, if I'm being completely honest. Last time I rode, I actually got in the front of a car, which was perfectly adequate for room, but the back of a car has little to no room for me; I could barely squeeze into the back of a car last time I rode (I could just about get my knees behind the seat in front). The restraints are also uncomfortably tight, which I only noticed on my last ride; they really ruin the ride for me as well as the roughness, and Colossus is the only ride where I've ever found the restraints incredibly tight on my thighs, to an extent where I go round thinking "gosh, this harness is uncomfortably tight". Does anybody else find that?


To give you some perspective; I'm not particularly tall, and I have what my dad describes as "the build of a HB pencil", so I'm not especially big in any dimension. I can certainly imagine Colossus being very painful/uncomfortable for the tall or those with any semblance of a bigger build!


Am I the only one who finds those cars tight?
 
Smiler for me as well. I find it comfortable and a total hoot to ride.

Collosus ive only done once to be fair, but i wasn't blown away with it, perhaps i need to do it again but it's a long way for a day trip
 
Definitely The Smiler for me, not even close really! Agreed about the Colossus trains Matt, if you're waiting stationary for any long period of time it's uncomfortably tight on your legs especially in the back of a car.
 
The restraints are also uncomfortably tight, which I only noticed on my last ride; they really ruin the ride for me as well as the roughness, and Colossus is the only ride where I've ever found the restraints incredibly tight on my thighs, to an extent where I go round thinking "gosh, this harness is uncomfortably tight". Does anybody else find that?

That's a very polite way of thinking Matt. My thoughts are more like "f*** me this coaster train is a painful, poorly designed piece of s***! How do they get away with this?"

I'm sure someone will be along to defend Colossus soon (my destain for the ride caused quite a bit of controversy last time I aired it on this forum) but I'm average height and a little on the porky side and I find it incredibly uncomfortable as well. I've never ridden with anyone else, man, woman, child, fat, slim, tall, short who doesn't think the same. The restraint pushes down on my chest (it must be worse for women) and my thighs. I can't get my legs in a comfortable position as they're being pushed on by the restraint and there's no leg room either and my legs aren't particularly long.

I keep trying it out to see why some people rate it so much and I don't get it. Perhaps it was good once when new and before they ruined it with the awful restraints, perhaps it holds high nostalgic value for TP fanboys or "because Wardley was involved". But I've never had an enjoyable ride on it.
 
That's a very polite way of thinking Matt. My thoughts are more like "f*** me this coaster train is a painful, poorly designed piece of s***! How do they get away with this?"

I'm sure someone will be along to defend Colossus soon (my destain for the ride caused quite a bit of controversy last time I aired it on this forum) but I'm average height and a little on the porky side and I find it incredibly uncomfortable as well. I've never ridden with anyone else, man, woman, child, fat, slim, tall, short who doesn't think the same. The restraint pushes down on my chest (it must be worse for women) and my thighs. I can't get my legs in a comfortable position as they're being pushed on by the restraint and there's no leg room either and my legs aren't particularly long.

I keep trying it out to see why some people rate it so much and I don't get it. Perhaps it was good once when new and before they ruined it with the awful restraints, perhaps it holds high nostalgic value for TP fanboys or "because Wardley was involved". But I've never had an enjoyable ride on it.
I'll admit I was surprised last time I rode it that it was digging into my thighs; as I alluded to above, I don't even have big thighs, and I'm not someone who usually has this issue on rides, and it felt rather uncomfortable indeed; let me tell you I was certainly very keen to get out of the harness by the time the ride was over, and I was having feelings of "gosh, this is uncomfortable; I'm feeling very pinned in here" before we'd even left the station, which sadly were only exacerbated as the ride traversed the layout. Interestingly, it's never really dug into my chest; it's mainly my thighs, and given I don't even have big thighs, I find that very strange.

I do wonder what Intamin must have calculated the average size of a rider using Colossus to be. Given that my legs only just fit behind the seat in front in the back of a Colossus car (for reference, I don't have excessively long legs; my inseam is 31", or Regular in mens' trouser sizes. I should point out that I'm perfectly OK in the front of a car, however), I'm sensing they certainly gravitated towards the lower end of the spectrum. The only time I ever didn't find Colossus' cars tight for legroom was when I first rode it in 2014; I was 11 years old and only a couple of inches above the minimum height restriction (no taller than 4'9" or so). I didn't ride it after that until 2019 (yes, I somehow went 5 whole years without riding it!), by which point I was 5 years older and a foot or slightly more taller (within half an inch or so of my current 5'9.5" height; I've grown very little, certainly less than an inch, since I turned 16). As you can imagine, I was certainly quite shocked at the smallness of the back row!

My dad doesn't even fit into Colossus, so I think the ride's forgiveness level in terms of larger builds is certainly rather low; he's not big or anything, but he's 6'6" and has 36" legs. As you can imagine, he's found it a struggle every time he's tried, even on the front of the car; his last attempt in July went something like this:
*Dad struggles to get the OTSR to close over his shoulders*
Ride op: Let me give it a good push, sir; I reckon I can get it down for you!
Dad: Er, no you can't!
*Dad exits ride car about as quickly as he entered it*
 
My main issue with Colossus is getting into and out of the trains. Even as someone who's about 5'6"-5'7" (I can never remember), I find it a struggle to climb in and out of them. My legs aren't that long, either - I have to go for short-leg trousers (finding short-leg trousers with a 32" waist is a nightmare :p) - but I don't feel as though there's much legroom for me, which doesn't help me enjoy the ride all that much. Never have the same issues with The Smiler's trains.
 
I prefer Colossus to The Smiler :) I know the trains can be a bit pokey, but I personally fit fine in them. I also find that Colossus’ restraints don’t clamp as tightly on me as The Smilers’ do - especially by the end of the ride!

I have also NEVER understood how or why people really think Colossus is rough and start comparing it to Blue Tornado, but it really isn’t that bad at all, especially towards the front of the train. The Smiler certainly has a few moments where you feel like it’s trying to crack your skull *glares at the cobra roll exit*

Colossus also has a better layout in my opinion- the drop is fun; nothing beats a good vertical loop; the airtime hills on The Smiler are admittedly slightly better… and I really love the heartline rolls tbh because it’s a unique feature of the ride.

I find The Smiler way too repetitive, and the queue is always gross (thank god for single rider!). I do genuinely enjoy riding both - I just personally think Colossus is the better ride. I just wish they’d paint the thing.:D
 
For me, The Smiler is the better coaster, mainly down to the layout and 2 lift hills. Colossus has always been a fun coaster to me, but has seemed rougher on my most recent visits. I also think the theming of The Smiler is great. The downside as someone else pointed out, is the queue line. The queue line for Smiler drives me up the wall!! I know cattle pens save on space etc but its just frustrating!
 
I do often find myself wondering whether some forum members have a genuine increased sensitivity to enclosed spaces and roughness. I am 6’3 and of a slim to average build, and had no issue a)fitting into or b) enjoying Colossus last Summer.

If I’d listened to users here I would have skipped the ride entirely. It puts me in mind of my work as cabin crew, when people who are visibly shorter than me complain about the legroom in their standard seat - another situation where my height has never caused a problem.

Smiler is a better ride though …
 
I do often find myself wondering whether some forum members have a genuine increased sensitivity to enclosed spaces and roughness. I am 6’3 and of a slim to average build, and had no issue a)fitting into or b) enjoying Colossus last Summer.

If I’d listened to users here I would have skipped the ride entirely. It puts me in mind of my work as cabin crew, when people who are visibly shorter than me complain about the legroom in their standard seat - another situation where my height has never caused a problem.

Smiler is a better ride though …
I'm the passenger who moans about the legroom despite being only 5.6 or 7''. Perhaps with colossus it's more about how broad your shoulders are.
 
I'm the passenger who moans about the legroom despite being only 5.6 or 7''. Perhaps with colossus it's more about how broad your shoulders are.

I’m decently broad shouldered too. If you’re 5’6 there is unequivocally more than enough room in a standard economy seat
 
If you’re 5’6 there is unequivocally more than enough room in a standard economy seat
I am well aware I just like something to moan about and when your off on your holidays there not much else to complain about. So just like rollercoasters I moan about the seat. 'it's too fin', 'it's too hard', 'there isn't enough room for my legs', Usually it's because I put too big of a bag in the seat in front of me. Naughty I know.
 
I am well aware I just like something to moan about and when your off on your holidays there not much else to complain about. So just like rollercoasters I moan about the seat. 'it's too fin', 'it's too hard', 'there isn't enough room for my legs', Usually it's because I put too big of a bag in the seat in front of me. Naughty I know.
I really hope you’re making a joke here, cabin crew have a difficult enough job without dealing with “I like to have a moan for the sake of it” passengers …

Colossus is absolutely fine, if slightly rough. Between my family group we are a vast range of body types and have never struggled
 
Top