Slightly interesting mini-story about Goliath and Titan. When Titan was announced for SFoT, I happened to chat with a ride-supplier executive whose reputation for being a raging [unpleasant person] somewhat belied the fact that he was really only like that most of the time.
I lamented to him that Giovanola had decided to graduate from an Intamin (and B&M!) subcontractor/fabricator/etc. to a full-fledged, all-singing, all-dancing ride supplier by moving directly into B&M's competitive space while blatantly becoming the closest possible thing to a B&M visual copycat, presumably without indisputably infringing on patents or otherwise becoming too easy to sue. The track construction in particular, one of the most visually striking aspects of any roller coaster, looked from a medium distance like a direct ripoff of B&M. Exact? No, but incredibly similar.
Never mind that Messrs. B&M had in fact become fond of their signature track construction as Giovanola employees before starting their own company, making it not only reasonable but likely that Giovanola would reuse that earlier version of the box beam design someday, etc., etc. To a younger and more ideological observer it was all still a particularly galling thing for Giovanola to do, even in a competitive industry packed with tales of galling things. They went right into the hypercoaster space with rides that to a casual observer looked damned near identical to B&M's, as long as one didn't really notice the trains. A trash move, I felt, perhaps reflecting the influence of those simpler times.
I braced for the inbound rage typical of that guy. He was going to ask me who the hell I was to decide exactly where the line ought to be drawn between smart competition and "cheating." He was going to go on and on about it. Why did I even talk to him?
But instead of barking the usual invective, he became uncommonly quiet, which is to say he spoke at a normal human volume: "You'll notice that after Texas they didn't sell anything else." This was interesting because Titan hadn't even started going vertical in Texas yet. But he seemed sure enough about his statement that he was already talking about Giovanola in the past tense.
Shortly after Titan opened, I reflected on that conversation when Giovanola's rides division filed for bankruptcy. The rest of the company followed within a couple of years. And this guy clearly knew about their looming crisis well in advance.
The amusement industry is a very small world where everyone knows a surprising amount about everyone else.
That whole arc also seemed to explain why B&M, who might otherwise have sold at least two more hyper-twisters, were nonetheless more outwardly annoyed by one or two other ride suppliers than by Giovanola...
Wonder if they'll change the colors or just opt for a fresh coat of the current colors.
