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Finnishing up Finland - Part 2: Linnanmaki

HeartlineCoaster

Theme Park Superhero
Finland has been on the back burner for a few years now. Had a little bit of interest, but nothing really worth pushing for. Then Taiga happened.
And now here we are.

Day 1 – Powerland

The hilariously limited operating season of this place forced our hand on the order events for this leg of the trip, being open on Saturdays only by the end of August.

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A bit more funfairy than I was expecting, but we’ll let the creds do the talking.

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Junker was first on the agenda. The look of the park has already improved with the walk under this thing, admiring the interactions. Based on previous experiences this cool looking Gerts could have been a hit or a miss.

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Luckily it’s a hit. Once again they exceed my expectations and knocked out a varied, forceful and fun layout.
The launch on these is a lot better when they don’t awkwardly drop into it and you soon find yourself cresting a weirdly shaped top hat. They seem to be all the rage these days.

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This is followed by some decent airtime into the Finnish loop, which I loved. The weird drawn out shape of the inverted section provides some great contrast.
It powered through the mid course without hesitation, kicking ass into the second half which has another couple of great inversions and a twisty airtime hill.

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Next was a Fabbri spinner with some anime looking characters on the cars. Used to think these were quite rare but the seem to be popping up on me everywhere now. They’re alright.
Most unique feature is the RCT style right angle in the lift hill and the fact that they free spin on the lift as well. Strong stuff.

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Wood Coaster had recently reignited my love for GCI, but sadly Thunderbird was another very run of the mill woodie experience. Though it tries to do some of the features of the better stuff, it lacked the size to make it effective. It had a nice little straight section of what should have been airtime hills, which they don’t seem to bother with on a lot of their layouts. This wasn’t taken at enough pace to be any good though.

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Oh good, another Boomerang with weirdly modified trains, just not lap bars. This thing needs no attention.

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There was another Zamperla 80STD at the back of the park, but I don’t have a picture of it. So here’s a stock photo of another I’ve done this year, complete with stock name and stock font. There’s more to come too.

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And rounding off the creds is this thing by L&T. It had upcharge VR available. Nope.

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The one other thing that was deemed worthy of doing before rerides was this shooting dark ride.
It’s ‘set off the effects by shooting them’-style, but in a way that you can’t really take any of it in.
Bonus reference points for Yukon Mining though, along with having what looked like a demonised Gruffalo inside.

So there we go. A fairly insignificant park that’s a nice half a day out and well worth the visit on a Finland scale, if only for Junker.

After that success, the rest of the evening was now dedicated to:

Särkänniemi

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Park expectations were twisted again, the lineup always made me think eww, no effort, but the place itself has a great little aesthetic with its location in the city by the lake.

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Talking of lineups, Tornado was meant to be the best thing going. I didn’t have high hopes because the Spanish one sucked.

This one is a massive improvement though. It has presence. The station is underground in this big concrete cave. You enter the air gates and a bright orange train comes screaming through an inversion straight over the top of the station. I love a bit of intimidation framing.

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It’s not like really good however, just a bit of fun and a bit of a change of pace. It doesn’t quite have the grace and force of better inverted stuff. The cobra is a bit lame and it barely moves through this overbank thing. The roll in the station and the overall interaction was the highlight for me.

We wanted to get the Volare out of the way, but it broke down in our face. Good.

Then we got lost on the way to the Sky Rocket and ended up at this.

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Angry Birds themed Zierer Tivoli. Better than Thorpe’s attempt at theming, but still very shoehorned. The train has the same old bug eyes and leaf.

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There it is. Second best one of these I’ve done just for not having comfort collars or shin crushers. They are… quite good for a basic clone. The launch always surprises me with how much kick it has and the trimmed drop out of the top section still packs a punch.
Finland’s frenzy in getting every single compact coaster type with no corners starts off OK.

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They fixed the Volare. Good.
Never had a massive issue with these. They’re as dumb as they are brutal, but not to any damaging degree and it’s quite funny to endure. It was absolutely flying through the blocks at ridiculous speeds into those sharp corners, with hilarious consequences.

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Golden Horse do this layout better, so I’ll let that one speak for itself.

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Hated my last one of these. This one was alright. Might depend on where you sit. Launching sideways with a shoulder restraint didn't seem to be an issue any more.

With all that out of the way, headed up to the upcharge observation deck for some views.

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The glass was pretty terrible up here and they've closed off the outdoor section due to anti-social behaviour... but here’s a nice overview of Tornado’s layout.

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And a bit of Tampere.

Nice.
Up next – the bird!
 

HeartlineCoaster

Theme Park Superhero
We started with a nice relaxed morning, as in true Scandinavian style the next park didn't open until 1pm. They've got a park and walk scheme recommended by their website which lets you park in this huge and amazing underground cave thing (Tornado station x100) and 'avoid the traffic'. You validate the ticket at shops in the park and that makes it dirt cheap for the day (3 quid).

Day 2 - Linnanmaki

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Headed in and grabbed some wristbands. All the Finnish parks are free entry with wristband options for the rides, which is cool. I like somewhere that acts like a place to chill as well as a theme park.

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We then joined the queue for the main event. Weekend crowds were ok, it took about 15 minutes to get to the station. Peaked at 30.
I didn't take any pictures, but I like the queue. It has big bird footprints in the floor leading you round certain sections (and out of the shop, back towards the ride entrance).
It starts off down some stairs where there's some berries on branches just sticking out into the path. Fresh fruit in a queue.
There's some foresty stuff going on and some switchbacks, vending machines, a big screen with the bird's face just ominously staring at you before you head back upstairs between modern looking metal fences with holes punched to form the outline of branches.

As you approach the station, there's a bit of music and announcements which helped us learn how to pronounce the name. 'Ride the wings of Ty-ee-ga'. Hang on, is it the bird or the forest? Don't trust you now RCDB.
Still in the habit of calling it Tay-ga though.
There's a nice big mountainy painting on the wall that encompasses the baggage holders. Into the back seat we go.

Anyway, the ride. Wow.
I knew very little about the layout other than Intamin doing a bit of a Helix. And it blew me away.

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First launch is into this counter-intuitively shaped inversion which throws you outwards then hangs you upside down in the weirdest fashion.

It then enters some low corners which produced some crushing positive forces as the day went on, softening you up for the second launch.

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The transition into the launch is slightly clunky and for some reason was the only part of the ride which made the back seats rattle a little bit, but only to the point of comedy. I'm sure some people will treat it like a football injury though.
I do love me a rolling launch.

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Which kicks you up into this thing, the newest of the oddly shaped tophats. Proper sideways ejector coming out of that one, it's now stoking memories of my beloved Intamin wings and I'm excited.

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Then this happens.
Oh they're doing stalls now? WTF amazing.
We also affectionately named this Karnan's tower in the background. Don't know what it is, but it's just chilling there.

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Wicked contrast of forces into a speed hill from there, then up into the biggest inversion.
And we're only half done.
It gets all vicious on you now, lots of fast and wild twisty and airtimey transitions that proper chuck you out of your seat in any direction it feels like. Scream-inducing airtime. You know, moments of proper significance, the stuff Taron supposedly does but actually doesn't (time for everyone to get offended and leave).

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The end of this slither thing just hurls you downwards and sideways by the side of the building. Another highlight.

And finally we get beautifully inverted into the brakes, Aces style. Wow again.
That was really long. And so much going on. Absolutely loved it.

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So there are other rides here, but they won't get such affectionately detailed description. Taiga seems to keep photobombing as well.

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The Mack E-Motion coaster was grim. Don't know how they managed to make a wild mouse rough in a straight drop, but they did. And it didn't do anything. Good interaction though.

The powered coaster broke down on us, casually reversing itself through the station and valleying at the end of the ride. Later then.

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Salama the spinner was alright. Lots of block sections and not much spinning. I like how it sits atop the rapids. Good interaction.

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Ended up on this thing next. Cute little suspended dark ride about a circus with a catchy song.

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Indoor VR coaster. Declined the VR (to the locals surprise) and of course it was better for it.
There's still some spacey theming inside and it packs a bit of a punch for a little custom Zierer thing.

The Zacspin broke down on us. We were dreading it so wouldn't have been too unhappy if it didn't reopen.

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Woodie then. Didn't expect much as it's a clone of Bakken's, but it still has a brakeman and is run much better for it.
Instead of sensors popping and stopping you before each drop, he gives it the beans so there is a little airtime to be found and in the case of the double down, a single moment of wild standing airtime. Respect.

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No respect for this thing. Don't like them anyway and this one was really rough when it tore through the station in both directions.

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This little Witchy dark ride (hi Taiga) was really good for what it was. It had vibrating seats, a back poke and a duel with Dumbledore. Significant improvement over the previous day.

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Jumped on the Ferris wheel for some views. What a pleasant afternoon.

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Sadly Kirnu was fixed by this stage. Really, really not looking forward to this after Insane gave us nasty headaches a few years back. Loudly swearing in fear as it ascends the lift.
Not in an abusive relationship kinda way with Arashi where you get something out of it. Just this is gonna suck, hard. Stupid hobby.
Thankfully it did what weaker freespins do in the first half and didn't manage to flip itself, just lurch around in an unusal fashion. Only that final bit tipped us onto our head and tombstoned everyone, but it was surprisingly manageable. Fear reduced, but damn you La Ronde.

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Also fixed was.. .. .. .. Mr.... .... .... .... Powered......

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Sorry, Mr. Powered.
It was alright. Good interaction again. Coasters complete.

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Did this thing as I don't recall doing its type before. Good views and a decent drop. Not bad.

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Jumped on the Monorail for some more views. What a pleasant evening.

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I like this place. It lacks the ride lineup of Liseberg, but it's got the charm.

The night was rounded off by more Taiga laps, before visiting the ticket office and getting cheap 'bounceback' wristbands as we were sufficiently hooked had nothing else lined up before a 4pm flight the next day.

Day 3 - Linnanmaki

We drove straight to the door this time for maximum efficiency, parking as close as physically possible to the entrance. There wasn't really any 'traffic' to avoid as hinted towards by the car park deal the previous day. Seemed to be a very quiet city that was pleasant to drive in

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We only had an hour to spend in the park before rushing back to the airport, but 10 laps of the bird. What more can I say.
Beast.

Up next - Italy. The natural progression from Finland for a Europe trip.
 
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JamesB

Mega Poster
Great to hear your opinions on Finland now we have both been! Thanks for sharing and some great shots of Taiga there. Sounds like we share some similar opinions on most the coasters really. Look forward to reading the next part.
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
Nice report and nice photos! Just got back from Finland/Linnanmaki myself, and agree with a lot of your views about the park (trip report coming soon..).

Interesting to hear about the Circus dark ride thing having a nice soundtrack. Being their Halloween event, the ride gets an overlay with actors from 4pm, but riding before then it was silent(!?), and only had a couple of speakers throughout the ride during the Halloween version. Was a bit of a shame.

As for the naming of Taiga...this got my confused/curious before my visit. Taiga is the name of a large-spanning region of forest-like areas, and covers a lot of Finland. I guess that's where RCDB got the translation 'Taiga=forest' from, though that's not strictly true. And in this case, Taiga is simply the name of the bird.
 

Lunatic

Roller Poster
Taiga can also be a girl's first name in Finland. Some lucky people could say they had a coaster named after them. ?

The word is also very close to another Finnish word "taika", which translates as "magic". In the advertising campaign Linnanmäki used a wordplay "ilmassa on Taigaa" which would translate as "there's magic in the air" if the g was k.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Fantastic, this has got me suitably excited for my trip next year. Good report and some good pictures in there too!

Good work. :)
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Nice read! I'm kind of envious of Finland for how many nice amusement parks they have, even though the country is much smaller than Norway. I suspect it has something to do with Denmark practically being a part of the Norwegian market, while Finland doesn't have a sunny neighbour full of great parks and so has to make its own.

By the way, was the new drop tower at Särkäniemmi open? Its thread over in Ride Construction has been stickied without update since its announcement. I suspect it's another case of us failing to notice its opening for several months...
 

oriolat2

Giga Poster
You know, moments of proper significance, the stuff Taron supposedly does but actually doesn't (time for everyone to get offended and leave).
I really liked your review until I got to this part. How dare you disrespect Taron! (Need to get myself on Taiga yet, oh well xD)

Not in an abusive relationship kinda way with Arashi where you get something out of it. Just this is gonna suck, hard. Stupid hobby.
I have always tried to find a way to describe the insanity that is Arashi and you nailed it. Absolutely on point.

By the way, you say you rode Kingi at Linnanmaki but I seem to recall that Power Park had a clone of it as well? Was it closed or have they just got rid of it all together?
 

HeartlineCoaster

Theme Park Superhero
Power Park had a clone of it as well? Was it closed or have they just got rid of it all together?
I don't really recall, wasn't much time for filler that day. I've probably skipped loads of them in all sorts of places.
There's a tower to the left of the wheel in the first photo, is that it?

How dare you disrespect Taron!
I mean no disrespect. I love Taron, but Taiga is much more my kinda creature.
 
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