jandyb79

I'm working late tonight, so you kids enjoy ~Josh

This may interest some of you who are into conceptual stages of art production - namely Kings Island rides/attractions. I am good friends with one of KI's early employees who was a concept designer/sculptor. I met this individual from tracking down some of his other early work when he was employed with Kenner toys here in Cincinnati. This is the guy who sculpted the original Boba Fett action figure, for those of you who are into Star Wars While at Kings Island he sculpted nearly every fiberglass relief (3d character, sign, etc) in the park from the early 70's until KECO took over in the early 80's. He has told me several stories of what it was like working on projects big and small in the park. Some concepts were scrapped very early on, while others made it further and few were put into full production. I have always been most interested in The Bat ride and remember only seeing it as a child. At the time it was standing, but not operating. When he mentioned having worked on the design phase of the ride, I naturally asked if he had anything left over and he said only a few pieces have survived, but yes. He explained his work on the ride in an interview I conducted with him as follows: "I was told that we were getting a newer kind of coaster that would be very unique. There wasn't much detail given about the specifics of the ride, but we knew it was going to be different since Kings Island decided to go the route of unique coasters after the success of The Beast. The original concept for the park was that it would compete head on with Disney, but coasters seemed to be the new wave, so thats the market they played to. The first idea management had was that the new suspended coaster would be space themed. So they had me draw up a few sketches with moon surfaces and a queue line leading into a space station dome. I loved creating waterfalls, so naturally I added that in to the design. The entire surface was to be sculpted out of polystyrene and then covered in fiberglass. It would've been a massive undertaking, but we had already done this with the revamp of the Rub-A-Dub ride, so we knew we could do it. A week or so later I was given an order to begin creating a haunted house type station that would serve as the loading dock for the new ride. So out went the space ride idea and now we are working on some kind of haunted house themed coaster. I was told that they were now going with a bat theme and would need some sketches reflecting this concept. It was soon after that I was asked to sculpt up a large bat head to be attached on the front of the coaster trains. I love that thing! The haunted house loading station was to be decorated with pictures of "bat people" and a vampire maquette so I came up with a few ideas that were somewhat crude in nature, but would be refined once approved. Those concepts were unfortunately not approved since the theme was strong enough as it was. It was a job like any other...you are told what you were going to work on and the art department did everything they could to get it approved. Ideas would sit around for months and then all of a sudden management would approve the idea and want it completed and in the park yesterday! The ideas were already in place, my job was to simply refine the idea and give us a heading on what we were working on and how it would be accomplished, but ultimately management had the final say on what we could and could not do. The best projects were the ones where they would tell us to just be creative and come up with something! But I thought The Bat was a great theme and it's a shame the ride had so many problems" and lastly, his "artists proof" that was the first pulled from the mold and airbrushed for management approval... All of these items were rescued from certain destruction as KECO was taking over. They saw no value in the items and auctioned off the majority that remained. I'd love to one day showcase these items for the general public to view...if the park would ever ask me ~Josh

In all seriousness, I used to black out on the King Cobra while going through the second pass of the double helix. I was in perfect health at that time and believe it was simply due to my bodies tolerance level to G forces. I knew of several people who experienced black out symptoms in that exact spot, while others did not. Do you experience this on any other ride...like Vortex? If so, then you may want to get checked out as others have suggested. In any case, I think the G force on the ride you are experiencing the blackout is kinda high when going through that flip, so I would surmise that it is a very normal response. This is all opinion, however, as I am not a doctor. ~Josh

LOL...the description reminds me of George Lindells experience seen here: ~Josh

For those of us that were used to what it looked like pre 1999, it will look "normal" again. I'm sure something will eventually replace it. It's the perfect spot to locate a new coaster/attraction. And I'm sorry, but I could never look at the SOB lift hill without noticing all of the non symmetrical beams running from one end to the other - very poorly constructed in my opinion. I'm actually glad to see it removed.

I'd love to have one of the original fiberglass logo reliefs from one of The Beast trains. I was lucky to have scored the original terra cotta sculpting of The Beastie logo back in the year.

I hope to some day visit Strikers. It's far more difficult now that I live several hours away. Does anyone know if the C.P. Huntington replica is the same one Coney once owned?

Here are a few more photos of HB Land. My earliest memories are much like those already mentioned. I loved riding the Smurf ride and the witches cauldron. The Flintstones bumper cars were well themed and a great ride as well! Enjoy these pics

Sometimes fate just works out in a collectors favor This sign may have been used at any of the Hanna Barbara themed parks back in the 70's or 80's, but in any case it's a cool piece: http://www.ebay.com/...=item4ab7d39772 I have an item listed on ebay from my personal collection as well, for those interested: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kings-Island-Amusement-Park-Screamin-Demon-Concept-Artwork-Extremely-Rare-/280893986724?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item41669617a4 If anyone has any interest in this piece you can PM me here ~Josh

I didn't like the idea of a new (or renovated) frontgate until seeing your sketch! I love it! And as much as I would love to keep KI the way it once was, that notion is unrealistic. Change is inevitable in a world class them park. In my opinion, the front gate had an era stamp on it from the moment it was built. During that period, parks seemed to want to move away from the stigma of the old look (like Coney's entrance). Those early entrance gates are more asthetically apealing to me. ~Josh

It's really nice to see my old stomping grounds of Camden Park getting a new attraction! I have much love for this park! I'll be visiting this summer

Lookin good

Would love to see those - thanks! I should probably showcase this in a different thread, but here are two concept pieces that are part of a larger set that I've thought about scanning: Bat head detail concept Paint option detail concepts ~Josh

I don't have any plans to scan this particular map on account of the size and cost, but I have considered scanning some of my KI concept artwork. I was actually able to use a stock frame retailed at Michaels (they are on sale right now!). The poster frame measures 40x27 and it worked out perfectly for the 37x26 map. My 73 map will call for actual custom framing like the beauty KIFan73 posted ~Josh

I thought I would share a recent addition my wife purchased for me for my birthday. I've had this old KI map in storage for 8 years (it was a college graduation gift from a former Kings Island employee). My wife and I are moving to a new place and she suggested that we have some of my collectible items framed. Luckily, this is a stock frame that was the perfect size for this 1982 map. It measures 40x27. I realized, when attempting to locate a ready use sized frame, that the older maps (early 70's) have more of a cubed dimension (26x27) and would require a custom made frame. I've taken a few additional up close pics of now defuct rides and attractions. I hope you enjoy! ~Josh

I don't know if this has been mentioned already, but one crazy rumor that got around about 9 or 10 years ago was that King Cobra was removed because the park could no longer order parts from Togo. Several wondered why this rumor kept going around and it turns out that the park orientation instructors were the source.

I never grow tired of construction pics. Thanks for posting

I have two sets of these - one dating around 73 or 74 and the other dating sometime in the late 70's. I began looking for mine around the same time ebay had just started up, so it took well over 6 months to locate a set. I had great luck with the view master wall projector for viewing these. ~Josh

I finally got the chance to ride the slide carts at Ober Gatlinburg last summer, though I visit Gatlinburg about 5 times a year. They were absolutely a blast!

The Screaming Demon was originally in the existing Amazon Falls area when Timberwolf was constructed. They had to shut that ride down during performances because of the noise factor.

Glad to see that the floral clock has finally become a reality! There was some talk about this happening as far back as 2000 when I was still a manager down at Coney.

I'm no marketing expert, but one of the reasons I feel contributes to a late opening is simply not enough employees available for work. The typical pool the park draws employment from is teenagers (there seemed to be more college age in the 90's, however). This was becoming a problem even when I worked at KI from 95 to 98. We struggled to fill spots in the games department and most of us had to pull double duty to keep up. This was especially a problem in post season. At that point, there was no Fear Fest or Halloween Haunt to retain employee interest. I remember when they introduced an incentive program where you would receive a bonus for every weekend you continued employment at the park in post season. We'd get those checks just before Christmas and for those who stuck around to the very last weekend came out with a considerable amount of money (for a minimum wage job anyway). ~Josh

This doesn't happen everyday...Here I am sporting my air Jordan T in front of the clock (when it was still dressed in the old KI logo as pictured above), along with my mother and some dude ruining our Kodak moment:

And all I could see in photo #54 was legs

I have been a patron of the Beach Waterpark since 1994 and even worked there one season in the offices. About 70% of the guests are season pass holders and it can be argued that the Beach has a more relaxed feel to it - which is why these patrons continue to return year after year. I never viewed Kings Islands waterpark to be a threat to the Beach until now...so, we'll see how this turns out for the Beach in the next few seasons.