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Sonic Spinball

Ted

Ted

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Kondaa
A thread to discuss the Maurer Shone spinner themed to the Famous Blue SEGA Hedgehog! What does everyone think of it? As A Sonic fan, I personally love this ride and it's theme, and is a nice addition to Alton's Fantastic line up of Coasters :)
 
Absolutely love Sonic Spewball. It's a pretty exciting little ride, even if it is garish and incompatible with the Alton landscape. I just wish the queues weren't always so long :-\
 
I love the ride, I don't think it looks garish at all, I love walking into Mutiny Bay and looking across the lake to see the blue and red beauty.
 
To be honest, the Sonic colours have made it stand out more and be prettier to look at from afar. I like the coaster a lot for a good filler in the family gap and it's uniqueness is pleasing to see that Alton like to try something new. I can see why the queues are so long but I would move the Tuck Shop somewhere else so it doesn't hold up the queue!
 
its a nice little ride. unfortunately it is often over looked by us lot due to its ridiculously long queues.

Its a shame it was positioned so badly when it was first installed. being directly in the line of site of every guest that walks onto towers street means the excited guests make a bee line for it so it instantly has a long queue. if the long rumored relocation is true i think it could have a huge positive impact on its queues!
 
Absolutely love Sonic Spinball and being a Sonic fan too it made my day when they re-themed it to Sonic Spinball from the God awful Spinball Whizzer (thank god the Mr Keith Chegwin sound-alike has been given the boot).

My problem with Sonic Spinball is the fact you can't hear the mix of every-day tunes mixed in with Sonic game soundtracks because of the noise that bloody ride makes! Also, I don't understand why Alton Towers decided to alter sonic's pitch on all his announcemets? The announcements released by Sega sound normal yet the ones used in park sound as if Sonic has been kicked in the balls - poor cherub.

If the relocation does happen then I do hope they re-route the queueline, but that never happened with Rita so I won't get my hopes up.
 
I dont think Alton Towers would ever be the same again without standing at the top of the Towers and hearing it clank, rattle, hiss and rumble. ;D
I find it an enjoyable ride even though yes it does destroy the visualisation of the Towers on entering the park. Its a fun ride which packs some thrills.
 
JamesDLD said:
Absolutely love Sonic Spewball. It's a pretty exciting little ride, even if it is garish and incompatible with the Alton landscape. I just wish the queues weren't always so long :-\
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I was looking at photos the other week and actually think it looks much better in it's bright red & dark blue Sonic colour scheme! It feels like it's been like that for years now, infact seeing the pale aqua type blue supports looked strange when I was looking at pictures.

I quite like the way the ride pokes above the tree's and stands out. It helps make you realise when your in a theme park and adds some excitement for guests that have never been before as they can spot their first ride (which then results in them heading straight to it!)
 
I don't know why, but I don't massively enjoy it. Definitely prefer Dragon's Fury at Chessington, by a country mile. Unlike Dragon's, it's also one of the only rides where I literally feel a little unsafe - possibly as a result of a particularly dodgy-feeling ride on it that I had with Hark once, where we only realised part way up the lift hill that my restraint wasn't low enough for the yellow marker lines to be clear.
 
Great coaster, one of my personal favourites. Shame the queue's a bit long, but I really enjoy riding it. I love when you go down the drop backwards, and then you face downwards on the horseshoe, peering down below.

When the theming contract runs out, I think it should go back to Spinball Whizzer, but I reckon that the theming could definitely improve. There's very little except the wall and the steel balls, and there could be the things that a pinball table has. For example, there could be the round thingy that reflects the pinball away, and it could be used where the ORP is, and at the change of direction.

So yep, it's good!
 
I think it's a great ride. Every time it's different. Although the last time I visited, my other half had a nasty experience. The lady who pushed his restraint basically put her whole weight onto it and crushed him. He did say to her that it's too tight, but she just looked at him and stuck her thumb in the air... He had a very uncomfortable ride and... well he wasn't in the best of moods after, and we went home... :-\ A bad ending to an otherwise enjoyable little break.
 
TedTheHuman said:
A thread to discuss the Maurer Shone spinner themed to the Famous Blue SEGA Hedgehog! What does everyone think of it? As A Sonic fan, I personally love this ride and it's theme, and is a nice addition to Alton's Fantastic line up of Coasters :)
Click to expand...

The Maurer Shone once upon a time (back in 2004) but now it's filthy in some places (helix) ;)
 
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