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Favourite Rollercoaster Manufacturer ?

Who is your favourite?

  • B&M

    Votes: 7 20.6%

  • Gerstlauer

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • GCI

    Votes: 2 5.9%

  • Intamin

    Votes: 20 58.8%

  • Mack

    Votes: 1 2.9%

  • Maurer

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Premier Rides

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Rocky Mountain Construction

    Votes: 4 11.8%

  • Vekoma

    Votes: 8 23.5%

  • Other

    Votes: 2 5.9%
  • Total voters
    34
Bowser

Bowser

TS Member
I used to be a B&M guy. And to an extent I still am. They occupy multiple spots in my personal top ten and I’ve yet to experience a bad one despite enthusiast claims of a drop in quality,

But after my Phantasialand trip in particular I’ve noticed Intamin and Vekoma are firm favourites too. Those 3 all seem to be the elite trio of the genre.

So picking just two I’ve gone with B&M and Intamin.

I like the Mack rides I’ve been on but they don’t seem as consistent so far. Premiers Mummy ride is fantastic but it’s the only ride I’ve been on from them.

Could only do so many poll options so I’ve included “other” in case I’ve missed anything obvious or interesting.
 
Intamin are the best in the business IMO. They've been fairly inconsistent over the years but modern Intamins seem to run very well with no roughness and minimal reliability issues. Velocicoaster, Gotham City, Toutatis, Taiga for example.

Have to credit RMC for leading the way with funky airtime hills and inversions which seem the norm across all manufacturers now. Their restraints aren't the most comfortable though.

I enjoy the intensity of the classic B&M's but they seem to be playing it safe now. Find most of their coasters a bit boring aside from the inverts.

Mack are the closest contender to Intamin nowadays.
 
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Definitely RMC - their Hybrid coasters are all world class, can’t be beaten for consistency.

Granted their Single Rails are less good than Intamins though
 
Intamin are my favourite manufacturer with RMC a close 2nd.

My top 10 rollercoasters is made up of
4 Intamins and 4 RMCs
1 Gravity Group and 1 S&S
 
I'd go with B&M, as their rides are rarely bad, whereas manufacturers like Intamin can be hit-and-miss.
 
I used to like B&M the most, how the "flow" of each ride was a big step-up from earlier manufacturers, and how the restraints and legroom were always good. To this day, I appreciate how conservative and traditional their layouts are, as I think wilder isn't always better.

However, I'd have to say Vekoma are my overall favourite nowadays. There's something about the contours of modern Vekoma that's excellent. If you had a park, you could all get your coasters from them - thrill, family - and they'd all be great.

That said, I was surprised how good Minifigure Speedway was (Zierer, of course). In the coaster world, to a large extent, it really is a case of "modern is better". The manufacturers who don't keep up with the latest developments - restraints, train design etc - fall behind, and the ones who do, find themselves right up there with the best of them.
 
I'd probably go with either Mack or Gerstlauer, based on the British rides that I have ridden so far (I haven't cast a vote in the poll above, as I can't choose!).

My personal / controversial opinion is that B&M are somewhat overrated, and are still living off of their 1990s reputation of inverted coasters and oversized / overpriced spine beam tracks - the latter of which are perhaps not even necessary, given that Mack's Icon ride is quite smooth, in spite of using much smaller supports. I also thought that B&M's proposal for Hyperia was much poorer than Mack's.

I may replace Gerstlauer with Vekoma if/when I get the chance to ride one of their modern rides, such as an STC and/or F.L.Y. at Phantasialand (both of which look great !).

Speaking of Vekoma: does anybody know whether Arrow regretted bringing Vekoma into the rollercoaster world, given that Arrow are now out of business (partly due to competing with Vekoma), and yet Vekoma are still around?

Perhaps it would have been better if Arrow had simply purchased Vekoma outright instead of outsourcing to them instead?

(It reminds me of the regrets that Sega and Nintendo no doubt had when they unintentionally brought the big beasts of Sony and Microsoft into the console gaming space - although the difference with the Arrow/Vekoma relationship is that Arrow were the larger company and thus could have had more control?)
 
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Bowser said:
I didn’t know this was a thing, where did you see it?
Click to expand...
I saw the video linked below (produced in 2022) a while ago.

I'm not sure where the video creator got the B&M layout from, but I'm assuming that it's accurate because I also saw a Mack simulation from 2021 that had been posted prior to construction and it was very close (if not identical) to the final Hyperia layout - even including the twist before the lift hill! For comparison, I have linked to this video below as well.

I've just re-watched the B&M video, and it's even worse than I remembered because it doesn't even appear to feature any inversions.

B&M:-

From: https://www.youtu.be/jh5sfyDu6CM


Mack:-

From: https://youtu.be/SeI3XRSsi44
 
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No doubt the b&m would have been a good ride - just seems a bit safe. Like, we’ve already seen this a million times before elsewhere

I think that’s the issue with b&m in general right now. Nothing we haven’t seen before. Their track size, which stood them out previously and made them successful is actual hindering them now if anything
 
Yeah does seem rather pedestrian. Presumably would have had double the capacity of Hyperia and wouldn’t break down constantly though so there is that.
 
Yeah I was always on team B&M for Hyperia purely for the extra capacity. It almost certainly wouldn't stall as much but I'd never have predicted that from Mack either.

On the other hand, I don't think it's even that controversial so that that B&M really aren't that great nowadays - many other manufacturers have surpassed them in terms of layouts and their ride comfort leaves a lot to be desired too these days, a far cry from the mid 90s when they were clear leaders in both departments
 
Secret Weapon said:
I've just re-watched the B&M video, and it's even worse than I remembered because it doesn't even appear to feature any inversions.
Click to expand...
I do think that although that layout isn't great, a non-inverting coaster is something Thorpe need and you can have a fantastic coaster without inversions. The B&M layout seems to use side to side sway change of direction too much, I'd prefer just airtime.
 
Jb85 said:
I think that’s the issue with b&m in general right now. Nothing we haven’t seen before. Their track size, which stood them out previously and made them successful is actual hindering them now if anything
Click to expand...
I've not heard that before; has B&M's box beam caused them problems on newer rides?

I'm speculating, but is it because the large size means that their rollercoasters are heavier and more expensive than necessary (thus potentially leading to compromises elsewhere along the track and/or a small order book) ?

John Wardley once said that B&M are unusual, in that they are somewhat secretive and don't even advertise in trade journals; this reminds me a bit of the games company Rare, who famously never did interviews and were secretive; this may have made sense when they had unique hardware in the 1990s (SGI Onyx machines in Rare's case, and unique coaster patents in B&M's case), but it seems somewhat aloof once the competition have caught up and/or surpassed them, in my view, and also means they can lose touch with their core audience (the fans).
 
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@Secret Weapon pure speculation on my part but yes the size of the ride track makes them heavy and expensive, and I guess not nimble enough to do some of the clever stuff we see others do - ie drop track, switch tracks

I guess it is down to what type of ride a park want. Hyper, vertical and invert - yeh b&m will always be the go to surely but others have caught up and surpassed them now for all round availability
 
Jb85 said:
pure speculation on my part but yes the size of the ride track makes them heavy and expensive, and I guess not nimble enough to do some of the clever stuff we see others do - ie drop track, switch tracks
Click to expand...

Some B&M coasters have switch tracks, albeit only for dual station loading.

Agree they’ve somewhat lost their niche now. People seem to only really use them for Dive coasters these days.
 
Bowser said:
Some B&M coasters have switch tracks, albeit only for dual station loading.

Agree they’ve somewhat lost their niche now. People seem to only really use them for Dive coasters these days.
Click to expand...

Yeh switch track for stations isn’t totally different to the way say Thirteen uses them but I catch your drift
 
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