Most spurious/obscure theme park “world’s first” or record claim?

Hi guys. Innovation has driven the theme park industry for decades, and back in the day, some of these firsts and records were absolutely pivotal moments in the history of the modern industry. The world’s first tubular steel roller coaster at Disneyland in 1959. The world’s first modern inverting roller coaster at Knott’s Berry Farm in 1975. The world’s first roller coaster over 200ft at Cedar Point in 1989. Moments like these were truly seismic for the industry!

But as of late, we’ve arguably seen these “world’s firsts” and records take a slightly more… spurious turn. As we’ve pushed the feasible limits of height, speed, length, inversions etc, parks have increasingly been clutching at straws for their firsts and records in recent years. We’ve seen parks reach for some increasingly spurious and/or obscure records and firsts to sell their new rides in recent times. With this in mind, I’d be curious to know; which obscure/spurious theme park record or world’s first sticks out to you most as a particularly spurious or obscure claim?

I’ll get the ball rolling with a couple of suggestions of my own:

• “World’s largest loop diameter” (Do-Dodonpa at Fuji-Q Highland, 2017) - This one seems to me like they couldn’t quite do the world’s tallest vertical loop, but they still wanted a loop-related record… “largest loop diameter” seems so strangely obscure compared to “tallest vertical loop” to me, though.
• “World’s first roller coaster fully dedicated to virtual reality” (Galactica at Alton Towers, 2016) - I’m still not even sure what Alton Towers meant by this claim. Galactica was not the world’s first roller coaster to use virtual reality headsets, so I’ve got no idea how it was the first to be “fully dedicated to VR”… it’s arguably quite a spurious claim by mere virtue of how hand-wavey and open-ended it is!
• “World’s steepest roller coaster” (TMNT Shellraiser at Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park, 2021) - I’m not raising “world’s steepest roller coaster” as a spurious or obscure claim in itself, but I’m raising this particular example of it because TMNT Shellraiser arguably broke the record in one of the pettiest manners I’ve ever seen… it’s quite literally a clone of Takabisha that has the main drop half a degree steeper. Something about building a clone of a record breaking ride and claiming to have the record based on the drop being half a degree steeper, an amount that could potentially be encompassed within the scope of a rounding error, just seems so strangely petty!

But I’d be keen to know; in the age of the increasingly spurious USP, which spurious/obscure theme park world’s first or record claims stick out to you as being particularly spurious or obscure?

Wicker Man being "the world's first coaster to fuse wood and fire" was my favourite. Incorrect and desperate.

Did Phantasialand ever confirm whether Black Mamba was named after the sex toy? Because that could be a weird world's first. Although it would make sense in a theme park themed to fantasy.

It was also a brand of Spice...allegedly/apparently.

Funcone said:

Did Phantasialand ever confirm whether Black Mamba was named after the sex toy? Because that could be a weird world's first. Although it would make sense in a theme park themed to fantasy.

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RCDB showing nothing for Magic Wand...

"World's First Jumanji-Themed Coaster" was a bit of a stretch...

As was referring to the 'World of Jumanji' as a themed land.

Great thread, Matt. I've always thought the cherry-picked stats for coaster and theme park marketing were both funny and slightly unnecessary. The spurious geographic delineations along the lines of "tallest spinning coaster in the Southern Hemisphere" always got me, as if there's a "Guinness Book Of Records That Apply To The Bottom Half Of The World Exclusively"

As a basketball fan it reminds me a lot of some of the stats you hear about NBA players. Things like "Steph Curry joins LeBron James as only 2 players in last 5 seasons to record 25-pt double-double on 27th birthday." (actually posted by ESPN here!)

I think you should be given a pass to do that if you're a park somewhere where there's previously been little to no notable theme park industry but when it's like, US states doing it or "southern hemisphere" that's so undignified

Gold Rush, Drayton Manor Park and Zoo. - "World's first coaster to feature a backward launch into an outdoor gravity track."

"The world’s first looping coaster suspended over water" - Infusion

GooseOnTheLoose said:

Gold Rush, Drayton Manor Park and Zoo. - "World's first coaster to feature a backward launch into an outdoor gravity track."

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Was that really a claim they made? If so it's not even true. Firechaser and Pegase Express both come to mind.
Sounds like they were only really thinking about the UK and Th13teen.

Can I flip this with a claim that Enthusiasts always point out as false but I actually think is a good World's First. Oblivion, the first vertical drop. Yes I know it's technically a few degrees off vertical, but that doesn't effect the ride experience.
The reason I think this one does matter is how much of a game changer the ride is. 18 coasters directly based on it, many more with vertical or beyond vertical drops as signiture elements of the ride. That's what really makes a great "world's first", an innovation that is actually compelling and becomes a first of many.

Tim said:

Was that really a claim they made? If so it's not even true. Firechaser and Pegase Express both come to mind.
Sounds like they were only really thinking about the UK and Th13teen.

Can I flip this with a claim that Enthusiasts always point out as false but I actually think is a good World's First. Oblivion, the first vertical drop. Yes I know it's technically a few degrees off vertical, but that doesn't effect the ride experience.
The reason I think this one does matter is how much of a game changer the ride is. 18 coasters directly based on it, many more with vertical or beyond vertical drops as signiture elements of the ride. That's what really makes a great "world's first", an innovation that is actually compelling and becomes a first of many.

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It was indeed, as well as being the "UK's longest family coaster" and "world's first coaster to feature two unique multi-directional experiences".

Tim said:

Was that really a claim they made? If so it's not even true. Firechaser and Pegase Express both come to mind.
Sounds like they were only really thinking about the UK and Th13teen.

Can I flip this with a claim that Enthusiasts always point out as false but I actually think is a good World's First. Oblivion, the first vertical drop. Yes I know it's technically a few degrees off vertical, but that doesn't effect the ride experience.
The reason I think this one does matter is how much of a game changer the ride is. 18 coasters directly based on it, many more with vertical or beyond vertical drops as signiture elements of the ride. That's what really makes a great "world's first", an innovation that is actually compelling and becomes a first of many.

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Na, sorry.
If you are claiming the worlds first vertical coaster...as a big claim, which it was...then it should be vertical.
And it isn't.
Typical theme park hype, not quite true.

Not a record, but DMP advertising The Wave as "the UK's most thrilling family coaster" is the sort of nonsense I cannot get behind. It's so subjective on multiple levels that it just ends up being meaningless.

John said:

Not a record, but DMP advertising The Wave as "the UK's most thrilling family coaster" is the sort of nonsense I cannot get behind. It's so subjective on multiple levels that it just ends up being meaningless.

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Yeah exactly it’s still a thrill coaster but with a 1.2M height restriction, which is pretty much the norm for most coasters abroad anyways

I was going to go for the "fully dedicated to VR". But I just can't get over "Worlds first Cbeebies Land Hotel".

As if someone else somewhere in the world is ever going to build a hotel themed to an area within a Staffordshire theme park just for laughs, the area itself themed to a very particular British TV channel.

Since it was mentioned already, I wanted to share this... The Matterhorn is my favourite ride of all time and, as Matt mentioned in the first post, its status as the first tubular steel roller coaster on the planet is one of the first things you learn at Coaster Enthusiast School. So imagine my surprise when I discovered--via a Youtube video that I sadly cannot find now--that it might have actually been the second

Apparently there was a coaster called Monorail Éclair that preceded the Matterhorn by a year or two. Here it is on RCDB, and there's also this article that tries to track the whole timeline, with some very interesting pictures and even an on-ride video. I'm not sure if I'm enough of an enthusiast to truly weigh in here but to me it certainly does look like the track is both made of steel and tubular, and if the dates on the images and video are correct and from a full year before the Matterhorn opened it would seemingly take that "first" easily.

Makes you wonder why the Matterhorn is so commonly thought of as the first when it seems as if that wasn't necessarily the case. Was Disney unaware of the other coaster when they started with that particular piece of marketing? Did they simply fudge the numbers a bit to avoid having to call their ride the runner-up?