Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Icon or Blue Fire?

Icon or Blue Fire?

  • Total voters
    23
Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Even though they’re quite different animals as far as Mack launch coasters go, I’ve noticed that Icon at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Blue Fire at Europa Park often seem to be compared to one another. Maybe it’s because they’re both generally considered “lower tier” Mack launch coasters, maybe it’s because they’re both fairly accessible to UK enthusiasts (who would be reviewing Icon compared to what they’ve ridden); I don’t know, but they often seem to be compared. So my question to you today is; which one of these two do you prefer, if you’ve done both?

Personally, having done Blue Fire this week, I perhaps controversially prefer Icon, and that was quite an easy decision for me to make.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought Blue Fire was good fun. The inversions were nice, particularly the first and last ones, the launch was surprisingly forceful, and it was overall a really great, fun coaster; a solid 9/10. However, I felt it was lacking a certain spark to make it a true 10/10 ride, and I can’t quite place why. I’ll admit that I thought it lacked airtime (I only really remember one straight airtime moment on the entire ride, and even that one wasn’t overly strong), and I also thought that while the ride was overall very smooth, 1 or 2 of the transitions were slightly off (the turn up into the MCBR and the transition out of the final heartline roll both felt slightly unnatural), but I’m not sure it was any of those things individually that I felt it was missing. It was just missing a certain je ne sais quoi for me.

Icon, on the other hand, is a coaster I absolutely adore! It has loads of great airtime, the turns are really fun, it’s smooth, it has nice transitions, the inversions are nice, it’s exciting throughout… I just love it to bits, and I find it so fun and rerideable! A definite 10/10 ride for me!

But which of these two Mack Rides launch coasters do you prefer?
 
Blue Fire for me, and by quite a margin.

PS: Topic here that ranks all the Mack launch coasters, which may be of interest. 😉

Rank the Mack Launch coasters

I reckon it's time for this list topic. I have done 6 Mack Launch coasters, the ranking is actually pretty easy: 1. Helix - Liseberg (obviously) 2. Icon - BPB 3. Blue Fire - Europa Park (better theming than its clones below, plus that interaction with Wodan) 4. Velociraptor - IMG WOA (BF clone)...
coasterforce.com coasterforce.com
 
Icon

I don't remember any airtime on Blue Fire and I just think that Icon has a more interesting layout. Although Blue Fire has a slightly better launch and that final barrel roll is still my favourite inversion on any coaster.

Helix is the king of the Mack multi launch though.

Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
 
Blue Fire for me. It grows on me more every time I ride it.

It's very good at being a traditional track and train coaster if that makes sense. Fairly simple layout with some good Inversions thrown in.

The launch is decent too. Icon's launches are pathetic.

In fairness - if you ride Icon later in the day you get some great ejector over the top hat. But it's still a bit faffy after that.
 
Icon, easy one.
Allthough Blue Fire was better the last time than I remembered, it is still just a solid ride.
Icon is not a worldclass ride, but easily the best coaster in England in my opinion. It has a interesting layout, which is hard to comprehend, some suprisingly good airtime moments and a good flow to it.
Blue Fire has the heartline roll in the end, and the light hangtime in the other inversions which I apreciate.

Helix still beats it, though.
Nicky Borrill said:
Ride to Happiness says “Hi, am I a joke to you?”
Click to expand...
TRTHBTML is a ride with great airtime moments, but the spinning cars are a major downside as well as the several deadspots during the layout. I'd still call it the second best Mack launcher I've ever done, but Helix > TRTBTML for me. Maybe this changes once I've got another ride on Helix, as the last one was nearly 4 years ago.
 
Trax said:
TRTHBTML is a ride with great airtime moments, but the spinning cars are a major downside as well as the several deadspots during the layout. I'd still call it the second best Mack launcher I've ever done, but Helix > TRTBTML for me. Maybe this changes once I've got another ride on Helix, as the last one was nearly 4 years ago.
Click to expand...

First of all… RTH would have done, or by that point just typing out ride to happiness wouldn’t have taken much longer. 🙈😂 In fact if you want to be that pedantic, Tomorrowland, as in the festival, is all one word ;)

Secondly I disagree, obviously. All Mack’s have boring moments, that’s what makes RTH so much better, I love the spinning seats and the different dynamic that they add. They spice up even the most boring moments on the ride. And the airtime is some of the best airtime on any coaster, never mind just Mack coasters.

That being said I guess it’s a bit of a marmite subject, you either love the spinning or hate it! I found it easy to marathon, others in our group could only manage 2 rides and then had to rest before repeating.
 
Nicky Borrill said:
First of all… RTH would have done, or by that point just typing out ride to happiness wouldn’t have taken much longer. 🙈😂 In fact if you want to be that pedantic, Tomorrowland, as in the festival, is all one word ;)
Click to expand...
They short themselves to TML, so I went with that. The T-Shirts all say "TML" on the sticker. I used to "just" call it TRTHBT. :D

I personally really get little to now enjoyment out of spinning coasters, allthough they tend to make the less interesting parts of the layout better. And lets be honest, TRTHBTML has quite a lot of dull moments. The Banana-Roll, the loop, the transition into the second launch... that's a third of the elements of the coaster.

blue fire has suprisingly little deadspots. Apart from the MCBT, I'd call the curve into the final inversion one, but on the other hand it builds some anticipation which I really like. Icons only real deadspot is the overbanked over Big-Dipper, where it just has too little speed for my liking. We'll see, In one week time, I will have been on Icon again and in about 1,5 months I'm getting on blue fire again.
 
Last edited:
Trax said:
TRTHBTML has quite a lot of dull moments. The Banana-Roll, the loop, the transition into the second launch... that's a third of the elements of the coaster.
Click to expand...
We have very different ideas of ‘dull.’ The banana roll and loop were highlights for me, not as much so as the airtime moments of course, but I really enjoyed not knowing which way I was going into the inversions, and the banana roll in particular can pull you in strange directions depending on spin, which I found to be great fun.

The dull moment for me on RTH is the turn before the bunny hops near the end, and it’s very brief. But it seems to chug through that element and be quite boring.

P.s I haven’t seen any TML merch, I’ve seen lots with the emblem, the full word ‘Tomorrowland’ or even the ‘Live Today, Love Tomorrow’ slogan… But then I’m a bit old for Tomorrowland anyway… Apparently Glastonbury suits me better. (Although I am not really looking forward to it in June, I think I’d enjoy Tomorrowland more… Young at heart! 🙈😂)
 
Helix and RTH are obviously better but back to the 2 at hand…

Until my visit to Europa last week I would’ve picked Blue Fire, marginally. It feels like it’s more focused on actual elements rather than twists and turns which is (usually) my preference. It also has a better launch, better theming and atmosphere. Ngl, a bit of nostalgia too, since it was the first launch coaster that I actually liked and showed me that they could be about much more than just the launch. I’ll always be very fond of the coaster, even though now I’ve been on several coasters that offer what it does in a more thrilling package.

Now, I think I’d actually give the slight edge to Icon. It’s longer, has more airtime, snappier transitions, interacts with loads of rides and pathways and I love how close its brake-run is the Coasters’ outdoor seating area. The layout is a little repetitive: I do appreciate it when it throws in an inversion or airtime hill, but I never find it boring, personally. It’s not intense, but it is comfortably fun and satisfying to ride like Blue Fire. It has several qualities that BPB’s other coasters (and even the broader UK coaster selection) lack, so for me it’s a great and much needed addition.

So yeah, Icon I guess, but not by much. Love them both. Hard to go wrong with a Mack Launch coaster imo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top