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Your favourite Ride Manufacturer

Dave

Dave

TS Founding Member
So I was pondering this very topic and thought it might be interesting to consider the reasons why a company may be your favourite manufacturer.

So here's mine...

Gerstleaur

I know in theory all geeks should say B&M, and sure they built lots of coasters in my top list (and Gerstleaur have built one). I'm sure that if you asked me 8 years ago old B&M would have been my answer but recently they just seem so stale and safe.

Intamin have more top 50 coasters (according to Mitch hawker polls) than any coaster, but I always feel that they have great sources for track layout but their material quality seems fairly crap, but to be fair they do innovate.

For me what makes me interested in Gerstleaur is they seem to have some of intamins innovation but their product is more solid. I know UK geeks struggle with this concept due primarily to Saw and now to some extent Smiler, but I genuinely think both those coasters have dodgy ground work to add to their cause. Speed is great fun, and many of their foreign coasters have epic reviews.

Also their family coasters are solid rides, everyone bums Mack youngstars but they tend to be on the RMT scale and not the beastie scale. The only other manufacturer to aim at the child level is Vekoma and its off-the-shelf. Gersts family coaster offers something no other manufacturer does.

Also it's probably one of the youngest manufacturers out there, I just think "give these guys 10 years".

So what's your favourite and why?
 
Hmm, very interesting topic. For me it's hard to pick just one manufacturer as my overall favourite, so I normally tend to spilt them when I think about stuff like this.

I spilt them into certain categories like favourite manufacturer for thrill coasters, flats, family rides etc.

But if I had to say who was my favourite ride manufacturer, it would be Intamin. Why? Because I feel they do make very good rides in all departments. I like Thrill rides like Stealth and El Toro. The family rides like TH13TEEN. and their Gyro swings for their thrill rides.

Sure they're not as reliable as say B&M or Mack, but I still would put them down as my favourite ride manufacturer.
 
Easy for me, B&M. You know what you are going to get; a quality product the delivers and stands the test of time. No other manufacturer can really offer this when it comes to thrill coasters (you could argue Mack but their thrill offering is limited so we do not yet know how well will age).

People moan about B&M being boring and formulaic at times. Ok a fair few of their coasters have a similar sequence of elements but it works well. And as they are expensive parks may not be able to always afford radical unique layouts. I have enjoyed pretty much every B&M coaster I have ever ridden, I can't say the same for other manufacturers' coasters. I also think that B&M offer a fantastic range of coasters. Intamin do create more crazy thrills at times but they are plagued with problems, B&M just always get it right.

When looking at parks I want to visit I often look at their coaster line up first of all. If the line up includes a B&M or two then the park suddenly becomes a lot more desirable to me. They are by far m favourite manufacturer.

:)
 
B&M. For the most part, (standups aside), they combine ride comfort, intensity, airtime, reliability and reridability all into one perfect package. When you ride a B&M you know exactly what you're going to get, and that is meant in a very good way.

Also, their individually developed concepts are always better executed than their rivals - ie. Invert, Wing Coaster, Flyer etc.
 
B&M all the way.

As others have said, you know what you're going to get with a B&M. Also, I find B&M to be the comfiest ride manufacturer against all the others, especially with their flyer and wing coasters.

You get a smooth ride experience, airtime, reliability and above all else, rerideability - something which I find some (not all) manufacturers lack. I always enjoy riding B&M coasters, in fact they are the first and last thing I wish to ride whenever I spend a day at a theme park.

Okay, I could be biased as I do love B&M but that doesn't mean to say that I despise other manufacturers such as Mack, Intamin etc.

:)
 
Intamin for me. It's the fact that they're so versatile and manufacture a large number of different attractions.
 
This might be a little strange, but I'm going for Zierer. They're a great, up and coming manufacturer with rides that simply work. No over the top engineering, simple rides that do what the parks want.

The rides they build are usually fast, forceful and enjoyable. Both Polar X-Plorer and Force One are truly great family coasters. I seriously think they're one to watch!

So yeah. For me it's Zierer.
 
Verbolten is good too, although they do rattle.

Mack and Intamin for me.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
For me it just HAS to be Mack, Blue Fire is my favourite coaster, ever. Smooth, fun, best restraints ever.
 
I could never pick Intamin. Whilst they are responsible for some truly superb rides, they also have a history littered with more accidents, deaths, cock-ups and mistakes than any other manufacturer. Many of their rides are plagued with downtime (Rita, Th13teen, Kingda Ka) - a problem rarely as common for manufacturers like B&M, Vekoma or Mack. Often their rides are delayed due to engineering mistakes (Chiapas) and occasionally entire elements have to be redesigned because they just don't work (Maverick, Intimidator 305). Although they sometimes seem to accidentally stumble into genius, they are far too shoddy for me to consider them a favourite manufacturer.

Although I adore many things about B&M, such as the build quality, the perfection of the design, the theoretical throughputs and the smoothness, I do sometimes find them a bit too repetitive, and maybe not quite as versatile (they only make coasters) as I'd like for me to consider them my favourite.

I know this'll look like an obvious conclusion, but I have to give it to Mack. They have quite the amazing range of products, not just coasters, but also water rides, flat rides, dark rides and monorails. Many of their products are simply the industry standard in that category (teacups, splash battles and powered mine trains, without question). But what do I really love about them? Other manufacturers have been trying to hone and perfect the sit-down looping coaster since Corkscrew in 1975. Literally hundreds have been built since then. Yet Mack come along with their first ever effort (Blue Fire) and make a sit-down looping ride system that's better than anything that's ever come before it.

Whatever you think about the ride, the ride system on Blue Fire is beyond stunning. The track is smooth and the elements are flowing, without being too forceless (B&M) or feeling unnatural (Gerst). The ride has never broken down for a full day since opening, meaning that the ride's operational systems must be of the highest quality money can buy. The throughputs possible on those rides blow anybody else out of the water. But the real shining jewel in the crown are the trains, for me, the best coaster trains ever built. The seats are extremely comfortable, and the restraints are reassuringly chunky without being in any way imposing. Unlike Arrow trains like on PMBO or Intamin trains like Colossus (neither of which feel like they were designed for the use of human beings) the minimalist design of Blue Fire's trains ensures a maximum amount of freedom for all of your limbs - part of the process of paring down the traditional coaster train to the absolute bare essentials. On top of that, these dream trains are also capable of on-board extras, such as heart rate monitors or on-board audio, as well as plenty of others I'm sure.

What Mack did with Blue Fire was to pick up a paintbrush for the first time in their lives and paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and that is why they're my favourite manufacturer.
 
Tough question, Mack have great smooth coasters and nice trains, B&M's older coasters + The swarm and few others that are new are great. But most newer ones are too clinical and forceless. Intamin for sheer innovation and they have 5 of my top 10 coasters, but rubbish throughputs and lots of breakdowns deaths and accidents... Vekoma are a bit rough for me, Gerstlauer are the same-ish but they have some good ideas, like Dave said give them a few years and they have the potential to try and take intamin or B&M in the market... But I have to pick intamin for the diversity they give and the innovativeness, albeit the restraints on certain older models and the dire throughputs, they produce most of the greatest rides on the planet!
 
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