Verbolten

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The first entry in this thread is a WikiPost. As such, it can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.

Manufacturer
ZIERER

Model
Elevated Seating Coaster w/ Vertical Drop Element

Hamlet
Oktoberfest (Germany)

Official Opening
May 18, 2012

Soft Opening
May 11, 2012

Tallest Drop
88ft


Top Speed
53mph

Inversion Count
0

Launch Segments
2

Riders Per Train
16

Number of Trains
5

Height Requirement
48in



Verbolten is an indoor/outdoor ZIERER Elevated Seating Coaster that features a Vertical Drop Element. It officially opened in mid-May 2012 on the site formally occupied by the Arrow Suspended Coaster, Big Bad Wolf.


Videos​

Development Documentary​

Ride Recordings​

On-Ride Videos​

Backstage Footage​

 
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Joe said:
Hold up. Your grudge against Verbolten was that it replaced Big Bad Wolf? You know they built Verbolten because Big Bad Wolf had to close, right? Not the other way around...
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Yeah, I realized that. It's more that the previous ride's reputation was legendary and the current ride doesn't wow me enough to make me not sore about missing its predecessor.

And you can't deny that a big warehouse is an aesthetic downgrade from the landscape that was there before.

Pretzel Kaiser said:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you mention before that you never actually rode BBW?
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Correct. I ended up becoming a suspended coaster fanboy because I sought out the remaining examples and enjoyed them more than this. I still consider Ninja and Vortex the best coasters of Magic Mountain and Canada's Wonderland respectively (though technically Ninja is tied with Tatsu, and Yukon Striker may end up tying with Vortex if I return).
 
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With any luck they'd do a refurb when project 2021 is debuted - or if they don't have the $ then it's within the 5 years capex budget.
 
Jonesta6 said:
With any luck they'd do a refurb when project 2021 is debuted - or if they don't have the $ then it's within the 5 years capex budget.
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If LNM is any indication, don't expect much. Saturday was (once again) a trip into a dark, black cave with nary a special effect. Yet, my last ride a couple of years ago, all the effects and Nessie were working fine.

It's just a frickin' shame it's like pot luck to catch a ride working like it's designed.
 
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It speaks to some serious issues with their maintenance staff...perhaps that have nobody on staff that knows how to deal with these electronics? Seems unlikely, but the results speak for theirselves

It's also quite probably, and most likely, that they have no inspections or check lists for making sure all show items are working
 
Joe said:
How exactly does an effect that requires a strobe light and a speaker become “gone for good”? I totally believe you; I just don’t understand how they can’t maintain something so simple.
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I think he was replying to my comment about LNM's maintenance in relationship to Verbolten's.
 
Does anybody know whether the removed set pieces are still in existence somewhere? In storage vs. in a dumpster?
 
phareous said:
It speaks to some serious issues with their maintenance staff...perhaps that have nobody on staff that knows how to deal with these electronics? Seems unlikely, but the results speak for theirselves

It's also quite probably, and most likely, that they have no inspections or check lists for making sure all show items are working
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Mostly, it's that the maintenance division is massively understaffed and under-budgeted. They do the absolute best they can with what they are given. Trust me, they are also frustrated. But when it gets to the point that your maintenance carpenters have to track walk InvadR because Busch won't hire the people needed in rides maintenance, things like theming unfortunately become low priority.
 
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Yesterday evening I was standing in the queue line for DD and there was a group of five or six people behind me that were talking about riding VB earlier. Listening to them they all seemed to like it. A couple of the guys thought it was really cool that you went inside the event building and it being dark, which they thought was unusual and cool. They also mentioned that the drop caught them by surprise and they loved that unexpected scare and then the launch out. I found it interesting how they talked about it being they were not familiar with it.
 
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While I find it to be a bit gimmicky with the vertical drop track - would be nice if it dropped further without any warning - it's still a fun ride overall and I don't mind riding when given the chance.

It doesn't help that we on the forums dissect everything under a microscope so that while I do agree it could definitely be better, it's not bad.
 
phareous said:
How many millions did they spend on this ride initially? It seems like such a waste of money when they won't even maintain it properly
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A very reasonable price of $54 million was spent on Verbolten. The number is extremely high, but it does seem slightly feasible due to the event building, re-utilization of the BBW footers, and the fact that it was essentially a prototype coaster for Zierer.
 
Keep in mind that the 54 was not just for the ride track and vehicles, but all of the work around the ride too. I believe I heard that renovating the queue and station cost almost 2 mil out of that alone.
 
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I have never seen concrete proof of the $54 million. I have heard lots of numbers over the years ranging from some $25 million to $54 million.

If the $54 million is accurate then, as previously discussed in this thread, there is a lot of costs that went into it and not just the actually coaster itself. Reusing the footers and the queue house from BBW would have been expensive to convert.

Personally I think the $50 million figure that gets thrown around is for the entire cost of the Oktoberfest renovation that included Verbolten, Pretzel World and Mach Tower among other improvements to the area.
 
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The first entry in this thread is a WikiPost. As such, it can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.
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