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News Project 2026: MonteZOOMa: The Forbidden Fortress
- Thread starter CoasterRattler🐍
- Start date
I'm cautiously optimistic because while there are similarities to previous Kumbak designs (as is to be expected), this train has been custom designed from scratch for this specific ride with significant input from the park.
AmyUD06
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A large part of me silently hoped that in the absence of information regarding this project, that SFEC told Kumbak to pound sand and went with a different company to finish the refurb. This makes me sad.
AmyUD06
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That's still bad enough. That's all they did for T3 at Kentucky Kingdom, and it was widely regarded as the worst of the Vekoma SLCs, which is saying something.
I adored T3, it was an absolute trainwreck with tolerable restraints. It was good fun seeing the rest of the train shake side to side from the back row.
After what Kumbak did to Montezooma in earlier stages of the project, it would surprise me if another firm would've touched it. This is all definitely Kumbak. Those strap restraints are ridiculous, Schwarzkopf managed to have lapbar-only trains over half a century ago
We can only hope this attraction can maintain uptime, and not be excessively miserable to ride. The new theming does look quite nice - it's great to see Montezooma make a Kumbak.
After what Kumbak did to Montezooma in earlier stages of the project, it would surprise me if another firm would've touched it. This is all definitely Kumbak. Those strap restraints are ridiculous, Schwarzkopf managed to have lapbar-only trains over half a century ago
We can only hope this attraction can maintain uptime, and not be excessively miserable to ride. The new theming does look quite nice - it's great to see Montezooma make a Kumbak.
I agree. Those straps are ridiculous. Part of the thrill of a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop is just having a lap bar. And lap bar restraints have been improved so they are even more secure (mack blue fire, intamin lsm, etc).
Unfortunately, it's 100% Kumbak. Knott's did solicit a bid from Zamperla (and potentially other manufacturers) to come in and pick up the pieces when it originally stalled, but for whatever reason that didn't pan out.
Blame the straps on the acceleration required for the backwards launch. This ride will have the capability to go from a standstill in the station to the top of the back spike with a launch track less than twice the length of the train, which is just not a safe reverse acceleration without upper body support.
I’d assume Gerstlauer as well, but I also can’t blame any manufacturer for not wanting to come anywhere near this project upon further inspection. The unfortunate truth is that once Kumbak was involved and butchered it the way they did, this was doomed to either be a Kumbak product through and through, or be scrapped altogether.
I want to say that a Kumbak tainted Montezooma is better than no Montezooma, but only time will tell. T3 certainly would’ve been better off as scrap, but Montezooma benefits from being a straight line and also not already being a pile of shit.
Per the story I've heard, Gerstlauer was the first company Knott's approached regarding an overhaul of Montezooma, with the talks occurring shortly after HangTime opened in 2018. Unfortunately, their quote for the project came in approximately 30% above what corporate was willing to fund. It's important to keep in mind that while enthusiasts love Schwarzkopf, Montezooma was not that popular with the general public, rarely pulling lines exceeding 20 minutes even though it was the lowest capacity of the park's five major coasters, so corporate not wanting to fund a makeover that was probably more costly than a new coaster makes a ton of sense. Knott's, however, was adamant about preserving the ride as they see it as an icon of the park, so they solicited bids from several different manufacturers and Kumbak wound up with both the lowest bid and the most marketable proposal for the remake.
Unfortunately, shortly after Montezooma began the refurbishment, Xcelerator suffered a major issue requiring a full rebuild of the attraction's launch system. During that period, things went south with Kumbak, leading to a suspension of work and litigation against the manufacturer and contractors. With the future of the coaster uncertain, the park explored options for the project. Zamperla is the only one I know for certain took a look at the ride while they were on site for the Camp Snoopy project in early 2024, but it's possible others did. However, for whatever reason nothing panned out and it sat idle from late 2022 to early 2025. Presumably, some sort of settlement was reached with Kumbak to complete the project, and the funds originally allocated for the Soak City refurb planned for this year got shifted to finish the ride.
I'm really hoping this refurb ends up being worth it, because when all is said and done it's going to not only be significantly more than Gerstlauer's original bid but also likely more than the replacement options would have been. If it sucks, I'll be bitter they didn't scrap it and buy a Vekoma Super Boomerang, as that was apparently one of the alternatives considered while the project was in limbo and by most accounts Flash is top tier among shuttle coasters.
Actually had no idea it has an initial reverse launch out of the station - that rules. I'll take the upper body straps in exchange for that!
I think it’s a randomized launch sequence. So the backwards launch is just one of the potential variations.
A lesson that theme parks can never seem to learn: When you try to do things on the cheap, you end up paying more in the end.
Correct. Assuming the original plan is still in place, there are going to be three or four swing profiles with at least one beginning with a full powered reverse launch. Supposedly it's not going to be fully random, but instead each one will be weighted so that some occur more frequently than others. The idea is to build suspense by keeping things unpredictable, as they want to significantly increase the re-rideability of what would otherwise be a very basic coaster by today's standards.
It's now moved outside.... oh my god.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
(I assume it's missing all of its theming/body work, but wowza, that is a wild first reveal)
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
(I assume it's missing all of its theming/body work, but wowza, that is a wild first reveal)
Individual rows is a… choice. Not sure I would have done that but whatever it’s their ride
AmyUD06
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Yeah, what we're seeing here is the skeleton of the train without any of the body panels or decorative elements in place. Given that everything is looking very close to what was in the original announcement animation years ago, it's probably a fair guess the final look will mirror what we saw there. It's definitely a funky train design very different from both past Kumbak projects and the Schwarzkopf train previously used on the ride, so we'll just have to wait and see how well (or not) it winds up running on this coaster.
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