Episode 286 - Reverted Invert

Time to get back to ranking coasters and this time we are discussing the B&M Inverted coasters.  We have ridden 13 but give you our top ten.  We are ready for the debate so give us your thoughts in the comment section

Transcript

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Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the 125 Roller Coaster Challenge, Trimmed and Stable Podcast. Guys, I'm Paul, and we've been getting a lot of uh emails and well uh messages on the different boards between Instagram, Facebook, and stuff like that going, um, why aren't you doing the uh rankings anymore? Why not your, you know, in the past, I guess people who uh loved our podcasts or hated our podcasts or indifferent about our podcasts, basically we used to do ranking the top 10 inverted coasters or top 10 RMC coasters, top 10 um wooden coasters and stuff like that. And I guess people really liked that in the past. A lot of our people who uh followed us in the past, and they're like, why aren't you doing that this year? And I'm like, you know what? It's been a few years since we've done it, and we are riding a lot of these coasters now, and my opinions from three, four years ago have definitely changed on a lot of different rides. So, guys, I do read your comments on Instagram and all that stuff, and we're here. We're gonna kick it off with BM Inverted Coasters. We are going to be ranking the BMM uh coasters that uh top 10, but we're talking about the uh the three because there's 13 that we've done so far, and we're gonna rank them, and we want to hear about what you think in the comment section. Now, how am I gonna find out what you think about? Well, if you're on Spotify or uh Apple Podcasts or uh Audible or any of those, uh definitely follow us. But really, you don't need to leave messages there because I rarely, rarely, rarely um read anything there because there's so many podcasts. Um I when I when this goes out, I use Buzz Sprout. When I when this goes out, this goes to every uh podcast forum. I don't have time to read all those. So if you'd like to get a hold of us, you can on X. Uh we're we're doing a lot more on X. You might have noticed that, hey, 125 Roller Coaster, uh Roller Coast, sorry, 125 Roller Coast. There's no ER. Um, if you want to follow us on X, that's gonna tell you where we're going and that kind of stuff there. And I do read those comments too, but the best way to get a hold of us is twofold Instagram, Tickety Talk, and Facebook, I check it two, three, four times a day. And if you leave a comment there, if you have a question there, you're gonna get a response within a day or two. Also, on our YouTube channel, we always go back to YouTube here. Um, any comments that you leave, I read every comment, I respond to every comment. Even if I don't like your comment or it's not a responsible, uh, you know, something it's not a question, it's a statement or something like that. I'm still gonna acknowledge that you did that. I am gonna keep doing that on YouTube uh until I physically can't do it anymore. Uh, and that's gonna be a long way down the line. So if you have any questions about these in the inverted uh rankings here, let us know in the comment section. Remember, the first two or three most recent episodes are actually on uh the for the public on YouTube. Uh after that, it goes through our membership. And guys, if you're interested in the membership, it's $1.99 a month. Less than half a gallon, uh, half a gallon of gas at this point. You can get exclusives, um, chats, exclusive videos, shorts. We that's where we're dumping a lot of shorts are now taking place right there. So, all in all, that's all done. Today, let's talk about BM, Boulder and Malilard, inverted coasters. All right. And the three that did not make the top 10 are the three Batman the Rides that we've done. We've done it over at Six Flags Great Adventure, we've done Batman the Ride over at Magic Mountain, and we've done Batman the Ride over at Six Flags St. Louis or whatever it's going to be called, now that it's no longer Six Flags St. Louis, it's no longer Six Flags Park. Those are the first design, they're clones. And this was the first ones they came out with with BM. And the first one, I believe, was over at Great America. Uh, second one's Great Adventure, and these are clones, so there's no real original layout. You know, the first one, of course, was the original, but uh, these are quick and snappy, which if you like aggressive rides, dude, you got it. This is they they put all the elements right on top of each other, and these things hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit. And if you like that in a roller coaster, then these are for you. For me, I like original designs and I like it with more of a layout where things flow. So for me, the Batmans, I go in and get the credits. Like when I go to Great Adventure, it's not even a minimal thought of me jumping on Batman the Ride. There is last year I did it because I was trying to get to 125. This year I've done it already, so I have no reason to go on Batman the Ride when I'm at Great Adventure. Uh, I still have to get the one over at Six Flags Over Georgia. So if I need the credit, I will ride it. But I avoid these. I have no desire to ride them. Um, I Magic Mountain, I did it once. Uh Six Flags St. Louis, I did it once. I did it maybe three or four times over at Great Adventure because I need them for the 125 credit. But once I got the credit, I don't need to ride Batman the Rides anymore. And that's why they're dishonorable mentions because they're on the lower end. They're not honorable mentions, they're dishonorable mentions. So let's start off with number 10. And number 10 is Le Vampier over at LaRonde. Now, I know what you're saying, wait a second, that's Batman the Ride. Yes, it is. It is Batman the Ride. However, I needed a top 10, and I needed one to be in the top 10, and this one wins, not because it's a better ride than the other ones, it's not themed to Batman. I mean, I guess for Canadians and for the French Canadians, uh, Batman is more like a vampire. But it is the same ride, it is a clone, but it's vampire of Le Vampir because of the fact that it's in Montreal and it has a different theme. So if I had another coaster that would fit into the BM Inverts, this would have been off the list. This would have been another dishonorable mention. Yet again, because it's not called Batman the Ride, it gets number 10. All right, we're done talking about those. Number nine, and this goes into the theory where how fresh was the rise that you've had. Because number nine at this point has to be Patriot over at Worlds of Fun, which is another enchanted parks. I've only ridden this once, but I do remember a few things about it. I remember that it was very low to the ground, which I liked. I liked it because the lower you are to the ground, the more feeling of speed you get. So I did love that about this ride. It was really good, low to the ground. But that's about it. And I also remember I was stapled. So those two aspects here, I need to get back to Worlds of Fun. It may or may not happen this year. It wasn't in the original plan, but now with the Enchanted Parks aspect, I might try to make it out to St. Louis and to Worlds of Fun just to revisit these parks before it becomes another pass. Um, and I don't know if my front of line pass is going to work there, but we'll find out. But number nine at this point is um worlds of fun mainly because of that aspect. Number eight for us, and I know I'm gonna get some hate for this, and I'm okay with it, because this is my list, not your list. Number eight is Raptor at Cedar Point. Now, hear me out. It is one of the longest BMs. It's right in the front of the park. It's one of the first things you see when you get into Cedar Point, and it is a really good ride. Now, I gotta preface here there's no bottom coasters here. None of these coasters, even the Batmans, are not lower tier. They're mid-tier, but none of these are bad coasters. Raptor is on here for two reasons. And the main reason is my last ride on it three or four years ago was not good. It I got motion sickness from it. Um, I got snapped around a few more times. I don't know if it's just a bad ride on a bad day, but I can only judge these coasters. I'm not sitting there going, it has 3,126 feet of track. It goes 72 miles an hour. I'm going on my ride experience. I am basing these on the ride experiences I've had, and this is how I rank them. And because my last ride on Raptor, I've ridden it probably six, seven times in my lifetime. Um, you know, so many other better coasters or or other coasters that I can jump on there. Um, I'm hoping to go back to Cedar Point this year. I am my goal is to go to Cedar Point uh this month into June because I need to get those three credits, but I also want to film that. It I think Cedar Point is going to be an amazing walkthrough. I think it'll be amazing. Let's eat, and I really want to add those to our repertoire. So it's high on my list, and it may change. At this point, it's been three years since I wrote it, but the second half of that ride was really brutal. And because of that, uh neck snapping and just not great transitions, that is why Raptor dropped all the way down to number eight. Number seven, this is why I can say this is not a list that there's bad coasters. Because when I was compiling this and putting it together, it's a ride I ride almost every time when I go to Hershey Park. It's Great Bear. Great Bear has a very unique layout, a really fun layout, and just an overall really good ride. That tells you how good these BM inverts are. That when I was doing this list, it came in at number seven. But the beginning, you don't have that drop right away. You have that uh helix, and then you go into the drop. How it hugs the um goes really close uh to the ground and how it you know hugs the hollow and how it does all these things. The reason why this ended up being number seven and not instead of not higher is it seems like a short ride to me. It seems like a short ride. When I ride this, I'm always wanting more. Now that might be a positive, where this ride is so good that I want more, but at the end, I when I get into the brake run, I'm kind of like it feels like it needs another 500 to 1,000 feet of track, one or two more elements there. Um, so that's why it's down here at number seven. Um, but smoothness-wise, it's fantastic. The ops could always do better, but that's Hershey on a lot of things. Um, sometimes you're there and you're like, they need to do better. Um, great layout, great theme. I love this year when I went to Hershey Park, and we'll talk about that the next episode, my trip to Hershey Park. But they actually have a lot of new coaster merchandise, and the Great Bear stuff is really nice. I was really impressed with that. But that shows you how good this list is because it came in at number seven. Now, five and six are pretty interchangeable, and the one is above the other one because I've written it more recently. Number six right now is Afterburn at Carol Wins. And this ride, everything I remember about this ride was fantastic. It was a highlight attraction behind Fury. I have it down as number two behind Fury, the last time I went to Carowinds. This one has the elements that really hit aggressively, and I love how aggressive they are. Um while Great Bear is more like a smooth transition ride. I know earlier I said, Oh, I don't like this the snappiness and the aggression of Batman the ride. With Afterburn, it works because with Batman, it's all aggression, aggression, aggression, aggression, aggression. Hit this, hit this, hit this, hit this, hit this, hit this, hit the train, it hit the the brake run. Here, there's a flow to it, and it's very aggressive. It I gray out on it the last time, so it does have that aggression factor, but it has more of a flow factor to it that um I really enjoyed. I really love it. It is a really good ride. The reason why it's down to number six and not higher up, because in the past it was a top three. It's just that it's been four years, five years since I've been to Carowins. Carowins is another one like Cedar Point, high on my list this year to film and to attend. There's like five parks that I haven't been to since I started the YouTube channel that are high on my list. King's Island, Cedar Point, Carrowinds, Over Georgia, and then of course, it has to be Canada's Wonderland. Those are the five this year that I want to get to and film. And you'll notice some of these rides are part of that. Now, number five is a ride that does not get much love at all. And I think it came in at five and above Great Bear and above Afterburn because of the low expectations I have for this ride. When I went to this park and I went there a year and a half ago, it's not sparry, so you already know what the ride is. Everybody talks about Ghost Rider, everybody talks about hangtime. And Silver Bullet is always an afterthought, and not even an afterthought. It's like, yeah, don't bother, yeah, it's not worth the wait. So when I went there to get the credits and I was like, okay, let me jump on Silver Bullet, I was blown away by how much I enjoyed Silver Bullet. Now, first of all, it's not silver, which totally is weird. Uh you figure Silver Bullet, it's you know, it's in a name, people painted silver. But the way it goes through the entire mid part of that park and the way it interacts with the ground and the water and the different theming, I really liked it. But the other thing I liked about it too was just the layout was really from listening to Coaster Studios and um you know airtime thrills, you would have thought that this was basic, basic, basic. But there is a lot of elements in this coaster, and I wrote it three or four times because there wasn't much of a line, but it definitely was a lot better than I anticipated. I expected it to be janky, grabbing my head, it being pretty bad on the transitions, being a boring layout, and it was far from any of those. It was it glided, it was not rough at all, there wasn't much of a rattle. Um, the elements were great. I I was this the silver bullet is at number five because I had such low expectations. And I want to know in the comment section, guys, what do you think about it? Do you think this was a it's a decent ride? Do you think it's underappreciated? Do you think I'm overvaluing it here? Let me know in the comment section. Number four is a coaster which is the flagship, even to this day, of Dorney Park. And that is Talon Grip of Fear. And Talon, the other three are that good that Talon is number four. Because Talon, historically in my my uh rankings, is always top 25. So that shows you where these other three are. And Talon at this point uh is the only inverted coaster I get airtime on every time I get airtime because I do ride it in the back. And there's the one part right up by the brake run where the track drops down a little bit and I bounce right out of my seat. And I love the iconic uh turnaround at the end, the helix. Uh first thing you see when you walk into Dorney Park is Talon whipping by there. And I love it because it's such I mean, you want to talk about a back and forth coaster. The whole reason for Talon, I believe, is to block the water park from the dry park. Because at one point they were two separate parks. They they had advertising, uh, two parks for the price of one and all that kind of stuff there, or you know, so add-on water kingdom for this much. I'm local, so I know how it used to be. And Talon basically blocks there's only two entrance points to the water park because Talon blocks the whole far back there. And it is really back and forth. If you look at it on the map, it is not very wide, it is a narrow thing, it goes back and forth, but it goes back and forth with the with the twist and drop, and then with the inversions, it goes back and forth. Very aggressive, but also very smooth with the transitions. That's key to me. You can have aggression like Batman the rides, I mentioned it before, but you need to have transitions, and this one does work well on that end. And every time I go to Dorney Park, it's not even close, it is a must ride. So we're at the top three, and two out of these three have recently moved up, and it's weird because one of them moved up because I ride it a lot, and it keeps growing on me, and the other one is because I just remember how much I love that ride, and the fact it was dropping down my list, and the last time I went to this park, I did not get a chance to ride it. It's gonna be one of the first things I hit when I go to King's Island this year, is I gotta get back on Banshee. I remember Banshee. First of all, it doesn't have the traditional BM restraints, and some people don't like them if they're winged out there. I love the fact that yes, I have a comfort collar keeping me in, but I love the fact that I don't have to worry about headbanging. Um the theming for Banshee and to me, my ringtone for the last three, three and a half years, and still is to this day, the Banshee scream. But the other aspect of it too is it is such a large ride, and it literally each element transitions smoothly into the next. Where if you have a flip, it goes down to the ground and then goes into the next element, then it goes back down to the ground and then it goes to the next element, and the back and forth and the flowing of it is iconic to me. Uh the Banshee drop going right into the um the loop going through the lift hill, very, very nice. Um all in all, it's been it's been a while since I've ridden this coaster, but it definitely is one that after reflecting on it, it definitely deserves to be top three still. Number two, five years ago, this thing, four years ago, three years ago, this thing was dropping down my rankings big time. It was flying down the bottom of my rankings because it kept getting rougher and rougher and rougher and rougher. But in the last two or three years, I've noticed that not quite as rough, not much of a rattle. And when I go to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, I love me some Alping Geist. Uh last time I went, it was closed, and it it hit. It was one of those things where wow, I didn't get on Alpi, and I felt it. Um this is the tallest inverted coaster in the world still, uh, almost 200 feet. Yeah, not quite a hyper, but it's there. The way it flows through the valley area of Busch Gardens, because you know, topographically, there's a lot of hills and all that. It flows there. It is always fast. The worst part about it is the Cobra roll, but I know it's coming, and I know lean forward, it doesn't headbang you. And it's got a single rider line, which I really like being a single rider. Uh, not married, so I'm a single rider. Uh that that's what that means, right? If you're divorced or uh single, right? Anyway, um, it just has grown on me exponentially every ride. The new merchandise is fantastic, but on all the ride experience, and like I said, all this has to do is the ride experience. I don't care about the stats. The stats are nice, it is the tallest, but with Alpengeist, it's just the way it makes me feel. My heart races. I pop that relief band on five out of six every time I go on it. I have that little fear in my gut when we do that drop, and I love every second of it. So Alpengeist ends up being number two. So quick little recap before we go to number one. Uh, the three outside the top ten are Batman the Ride, Batman the Ride, and Batman the Ride. Um, basically uh Six Flags Great Adventure, Six Flags St. Louis, if it's still called that, and Magic Mountain. Number 10, because it has a cool name, is Les Vampires, which is Batman the Ride in France. Uh, number nine, Worlds of Fun. Need to get back there. But Patriot is kind of on the bottom there. Number eight, bring the hate. Number eight is Raptor, Cedar Point. Number seven, bring even more hate. Uh Hershey people who listen to me. Great Bear is number seven. Number six is Afterburn over at Carowins, but that's. That's going to move back up after I go back there. Um, number five is the most underappreciated coaster on this list. Silver bullet at Knott's Berry Farm. Number four, Talon, the best ride at Dorney Park, and I will fight you for that. Uh, is number four. Banshee comes back in at number three just because it makes me feel good. It makes me feel good. Number two is Alpin, guys. You're smoother, and that's all that matters. And number one, of course, Mantu. Mantu is going to be tough to beat because of the trenches. Now they gave it some TLC, uh, new paint job, looking great in the back of the park. It never realized it, but you know, it's the first thing you kind of see when you go to Bush Gardens, Tampa, uh coming from the parking lot, is Mantu. And it's just the trenches just take it to a whole new level, guys. Without the trenches, it might be third, maybe fourth. But because of the trenches and the near miss elements that you deal with with this ride, it it just takes it to a new level. And I think Mantu is pretty much on everybody's uh top inverted list. It all depends on how much you value inverts. And for me, Montu always seems to come into my top 10. I have 400 coaster credits right now. Um, maybe more by the time this drops, but right now I have 400 coaster credits and it's number 10. So you're talking about being in one of the top, top, top, top, top positions. And, you know, it I don't see another invert pass. It might drop out of the top 10 as other rides like Air Force One and those jump in. But all in all, I don't think you can get a better experience. And it's one of the older ones, too, which is shocking, but I don't think you get a better experience on an inverted coaster than Montu. But yet again, guys, I want comments, I want debate, I want discussions on YouTube, on Instagram, on Tickety Talk. Reread them all, guys. So let me know what you think. How stupid am I? Or, dude, you're brave enough to say it. Let me know in the comments. And guys, once again, I cannot wait to see you in the queue in 2026.