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Obscure special effects

Fluorineer

Fluorineer

Mega Poster
After reading about the name change for Flucht von Novgorod, I also learned about a couple of effects that I have never seen, like a crucified animatronic (?) near the final brake run. There's also a bunch of parks that are notorious for turning off special effects after a couple of seasons.

What are some special effects on a coaster (or any themed ride) that only very few people have ever seen in action due to them not being on for a very long time? What are your favourites?
 
Blackpool's Valhalla is the first to come to mind - you know it's your lucky day if you get a run with all the effects, even the fabled ring of fire in full operation. I hope most of them remain when the ride finally re-opens.

I vaguely remember that Tidal Wave used to have some fairly cool effects dotted around the ride as well.

Come to think about it, nearly all UK dark rides have hit/miss effects - the Hex octagon room was better in the first season, but gradually started being tamed down and less well maintained.

On a vaguely related note, I watched this last night and was looking for an excuse to share it:
 
I wonder how nearly every ride at Rainbow Magicland is doing.
 
First time I rode X:\No Way Out it was towards the end of its running backwards days and as I recall there wasn't a single effect working throughout. Or even any lights. There was a brief pause in the dark at one point which was presumably to allow time for riders to catch a particular effect, but - nothing.
 
nadroJ said:
Came here to say yeti.

Another that springs to mind is the definitely-not-ripped-off-from-Indiana-Jones boulder from Terror Tomb, seen here at 2:30

Click to expand...

Damn, watching that makes you realise how backwards we have gone in terms of dark rides in the UK. Terror Tomb was awesome.

My favourite effect not many have seen isn’t on a ride but the entrance into Discoveryland where they literally had the entrance fountain on fire, it looked so amazing such a shame it didn’t last long.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1362466543335014400
 
In no particular order, the Cedar Point edition:
  • Maverick's launch tunnel lights and fog: Basically only operated opening day. I believe @Snoo is the only person around who got to experience? The fog effect was subsequently removed, and repurposed for use at the short-lived Shoot the Rapids ride. The same foggers now operate as ambience at Rougarou.
  • Any semblance of Disaster Transport's indoor theming outside of the static prop sets. (at peak performance, the ride featured a number of projections, lighting effects, and on-track audio)
  • Iron Dragon's figure-8 finale misters. They periodically operate, but not at the full capacity that left a pretty good misting effect.
  • Magnum's final tunnel light and sound effect ran reliably throughout the 90s, but fell into disrepair sometime in the early 2000s. Gratefully, this effect has been lovingly restored; hopefully here to stay as a cute finisher.
 
nadroJ said:
Came here to say yeti.

Another that springs to mind is the definitely-not-ripped-off-from-Indiana-Jones boulder from Terror Tomb, seen here at 2:30

Click to expand...
I used to call this the Indiana Jones Ride as a kid 😐

Chessington in the 90's - what a time to be alive. Terror Tomb was the possibly the best dark ride in Europe at the time and the attention to detail throughout the park was reminiscent of what Efteling is today. Wardley rightly gets a lot of praise for his input at Towers, but some of his finest work was at Chessington. I'm sure they even had the talking suction bins at one point too.

That creepy old Clown Coaster can do one though.

Keeping the thread on track, Vampire's entire station is/was a work of art in terms of themeing and effects. There's nothing else out there quite like it.
 
Anyone else remember the laser "floor" effect on the first drop on Valhalla, half way down?
Don't think it even lasted the first season, but a really good effect.
 
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