What's new

Top 10(ish): 2024 Edition - page 124

mouse

Giga Poster
For me it was the brilliant pacing and unpredictable nature of it, creates a real out of control feeling and some surprise forces. The turns are forceful and take you by surprise, and there are some great pops of airtime. The pacing is great, feels like you are traveling at a relentless speed the whole time - It just doesn't let up. The theming is also amazing, and ducking under and around theming and track adds to the excitement. The interaction with the theming is second to none, and really enhances the sense of speed.

Personally the moment that secured its place as my No.1 was the second launch. Already felt crazily fast, so suddenly being propelled even faster really took me by surprise and created a real 'wow' moment!
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Night ride Smithy, it's not top 5 until the stars come out.
Also, remember that it's an intamin, so the throwing out won't be as obscene at mackpool.
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
Yeah, it must be much better at night. I loved it lots when I rode it late on the day. I thought it was super smooth, reridable, addicting, lengthy, well-themed and fun without being too extreme (like an amazing family-thrill coaster), but I got a bit confused when everybody rated it so high and went on about all the airtime and intensity, until people told me that the night does wonders to Taron. Very excited to experience it myself in about a month.
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
The night rides were on a completely different coaster to the one we tried first thing.

In the morning it was, as Thom describes, fun and smooth but not too extreme. Just a solid family ride. But at night, it was running with considerably more speed and when it hit the second launch, became powerful and unrestrained. The whipping of the s-bends in the second half is wild and there's a real feeling of being out of control that I can only compare somewhat to Skyrush. There were places where I was unable to keep my hands in the air and the next day, my legs hurt from being held in while my torso was being flung sideways with extreme force. Couple that with all the amazing theming, the near misses, the shear speed of the thing, the waterfall that gets involved on the left side, the glorious moments rising out of the rockwork into the cold, crisp night air with a full moon, a bunch of excited goons ... it was a legendary evening.
 

nadroJ

CF Legend
nadroJ said:
After this weekend's rides I've had a bit of a shuffle:

Skyrush
El Toro
Helix
Iron Rattler
Nemesis
Shambhala
Bizarro
The Voyage
Oz'Iris
Dodonpa

After riding Helix multiple times on Friday it's just shot straight up the list. It's the perfect blend of every kind of element, something for everyone and really reaches a crescendo, like a fine piece of music. Gorgeous.

And yh, weird that iron Rattler has appeared out of nowhere. So after riding Wildfire on Saturday I had a little think about RMCs and what I specifically loved about them. The more I think the more those sweeping cliffside drops on Iron Rattler really do it for me.

Skyrush
Taron
El Toro
Helix
Iron Rattler
Nemesis
Shambhala
The Voyage
Oz'Iris
Dodonpa

Yh, jumping on the bandwagon here. Taron is **** incredible. Everything from the setting to the music to the speed to the near misses to the sheer sense of being out of control. Some slight dead points mean it doesn't quite pip Skyrush to the Number One spot, but it'll be a LONG time before I get the vision of those night rides out of my head. Incredible.
 

TilenB

Strata Poster
God. Damn. This topic now makes me extremely gutted that I won't be able to visit Winter Phantasialand this season, due to having an exam in the week I was supposed to be in the area. Spite </3
 

caffeine_demon

Strata Poster
caffeine_demon said:
And since phantasialand another change

1 - Skyrush
2 - Wicked Cyclone
3 - Bizarro (SFNE)
4 - Colossos
5 - Sliver Star
6 - Roar-O-Saurus
7 - Nemesis
8 - Alpina Blitz
9 - Piraten
10- Taron

following ghosterforce:

1 - Skyrush
2 - Wicked Cyclone
3 - Bizarro (SFNE)
4 - Colossos
5 - Sliver Star
6 - Taron
7 - Roar-O-Saurus
8 - Nemesis
9 - Alpina Blitz
10- Lost gravity

Taron just seemed to get better and better the more I rode it - great during the day, sexual at night. Airtime, lats, great second launch, a few turns that "feel" like inversions.

Lost gravity was rather lovely - not super solid intensity, but had some rather funky elements, put together in a nice floaty light package + those therapeutic vibrating stairs in the queueline!
 

Ben

CF Legend
Yeah Taron just has moments of pure insanity where the airtime hurts as you're hurled from one side to the other.

The only issue is a couple of slight dead spots but you're talking real tiny little issues.

Skyrush is only just better because it never stops, but they're really quite similar in a lot of ways.

In fact I'm still not even sure Skyrush is better, but I just can't have a basic as number one.

But the speed, the launches, the airtime, the transitions, all combined with the themeing and atmosphere, can't be matched.
 

Hutch

Strata Poster
And Phantasialand was already at the top of my bucket list… god dammit I need to get over there.

Taron is comparable to Skyrush? And better than Helix? Oh man.
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
It's certainly not better than Helix imo, but I guess it all comes down to personal taste. To me Helix was far more varied, intense, with better pacing, better layout, less dead spots, better airtime and a cooler location (though it's close). Taron has better launches though.
 

nadroJ

CF Legend
It's better than Helix, I think most who rode on Sunday would agree with that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
Can you guys give any reasons why? I've already given mine and I just find it hard to see. The entire first half is relatively tame and meander-y and while the second half is fantastic it ends with a really lame trimmed airtime-less hill. To me there is just too many weaker parts.

I personally feel that the group atmosphere and ERT night rides play a big part here. I hope the night rides will give me more of an understanding because at this point I'm not quite following you guys.
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
It's closer than Ben is making it out to be. Bear in mind that this is based on night rides;
The front seat rides are around the same awesomeness on both the creds, but the back car rides on Taron are totally different.
It does have a sense of Skyrush's intensity, not in the ejector hill sense, Skyrush still reigns supreme there, but the direction changes and positive force in the turns are where they are similar.
The floater hill at the end is full floater over it, then dives into the helix at speed to pound with force again before the brakes.
The left side of the train is better, not only do you get twatted by the waterfall but the forces are miles better and there's sideways airtime before the S curves before the 2nd launch. The right seat doesn't provide that airtime.

Helix as an overall package is fantastic, and I preferred it after the first couple of runs on Taron (back during the day, front at night), but Taron is better at night in the back. Helix just doesn't have the constant forces, which is what I prefer.

Until you ride it at night you haven't experienced it fully, day rides are good, the last ride at 9pm is another experience altogether.
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
Thanks for a more elaborate post. Makes me super excited for the night rides soon, though I'm still not convinced it will beat Helix for me. I agree about the left side! It's really noticable. I do prefer the front over the back though. Front left is where it's at. One question though, how is the first half at night. Is it actually intense?
 

Chris Brown

Mr CoasterForce 2016
Helix
Taron
Wildfire
Lost Gravity
Balder
Shock
Katun
Joris en de drak
Ispeed
Troy

Taron was insane, it was crazy intense when it had warmed up and i found myself bracing with my arm against the seat in front to stop me flying around too much, there are some seriously strong airtime moments, (hill after the first launch, S hills) but these are so intense because you literally fly into the next element / transition whilst still off balance and out of your seat, that combined with the constant near misses and surrounding themeing provides one of the most intense rides I've ever had. The whole area was just outstandingly immersive, when the area first opened and we were heading straight to Taron they had this booming music and this terrifyingly loud announcement in German, I didn't have a clue what it was saying but it still gave me goosebumps! The sense of speed you got on the second launch was out of this world, you are in a trench so fully surrounded with wooden beams above your head, this results in a launch to 72mph feeling way over 100mph its insane.

Helix is still my number one though, it has some intense moments like Taron (the drop into the helix before the 2nd launch after the zero g) and it has the crazy airtime hills (after the top hat element) but in between these moments it just has a mix of the most pleasant floaty forceful inversions, interactions with the hill and other surrounding rides and marginally better seats / restraints. Granted its incredibly close between the two rides but with Helix i just felt happier coming off the ride.

Lost gravity had crazy airtime moments and unique elements / trains but could have been a little longer to really get up higher.

Shock still sits in there because of the launch into one of the best airtime moments I've experienced the non inverting loop followed by the stupidly tight turn leads to a great all round coaster, a tad short but really packs a punch.

I only rode Joris twice in the morning but still preferred it to Troy. Both are great coasters but i found the airtime better on Joris and the racing element worked really well.
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
If one thing has made me happy talking to you guys in Efteling, it's that there are finally some people who agree about Joris being better than Troy :p
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
ThomVD said:
If one thing has made me happy talking to you guys in Efteling, it's that there are finally some people who agree about Joris being better than Troy :p
Give over! ;p

As for Taron (compared to Skyrush and Helix), it really depends what you enjoy the most. In terms of intensity, nothing is ever going to come close to Skyrush, but Taron is still VERY intense and out of control. I don't find Helix intense at all. It's pleasant and floaty and lovely. That's not a criticism, they are just very different. Taron is faster than Helix, it's launches are much, much more intense and it has actual whip in the s-bends which are very close together because of the speed of the thing. There's no time to catch your breath between the corners.

In terms of completeness however, Taron looses out. Helix has inversions instead of intensity and both Helix and Skyrush have height/fab drops. There's much more going on over the whole length of Helix. But if you compare just similar parts, the launches and the laterals, Taron wins hands down.

As always, which one is best is subjective. But all those who rode Taron on the Live agree that it's top 10 material. At least I think so...did anyone not rate it that highly?
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
Ok, I'm going to shut up about Taron until I ride it at night because I feel like we're discussing a different Taron :p . The one I rode wasn't all that intense and certainly didn't have the extreme airtime that you guys are describing. Helix isn't non-stop intensity, but at night it goes so fast that I feel that it has some reeeally intense parts (Pretzel loop up until the second launch, second airtime hill and the turn after that). I haven't done Taron at night so I guess it isn't a fair comparison anyway. It's a shame though that Taron night rides will be relatively rare to get unless you visit in the winter.

It is top 10 material, even during the day, imo. At least after it has warmed up. I'll come back here in two months and hopefully I'll agree with you guys (to a certain extend).
 
Top