Funworld January 2010

by Amanda Charney, Keith Miller, and Jeremy Schoolfield

Six Flags, 5D Announce Attraction Agreement
During IAAPA Attractions Expo 2009, 5D International announced an agreement with Six Flags Inc. to bring its first 5-D attraction to the United States.

Andreas Kornprobst, art and media producer for 5D, said he cannot discuss any particulars of the deal at this time— what type of attraction it will be, which park it will go into, when it will open, etc.—but confirmed it will be an anchor attraction as part of Six Flags’ 50th anniversary celebration in 2011.

“We’re very glad Six Flags joined us in a press release for IAAPA [Attractions Expo], as this is the event of the year—the most important show,” he said.

USThrillrides Literally Reinvents the Wheel
US Thrillrides showed off its new Skyview at IAAPA Attractions Expo 2009, a second-generation version of the traditional giant observation wheels now seen throughout the world that company founder Bill Kitchen said is half the price of previous models.

Kitchen’s Skyview is different in that it doesn’t actually rotate like a Ferris wheel; instead, the individual cars ride around the wheel structure on a track similar to a roller coaster.

“Since the wheel itself doesn’t turn— the cars move around on a stationary track—we can shape it any way we want. We can put mouse ears on it or shape it like a Coke bottle,” Kitchen said. He’s talking to one company that wants to lean the wheel out over a giant canyon and hang riders over the edge. “That wouldn’t be possible with a Ferris wheel,” he said.

The Skyview eliminates the need for a large central hub and all its attendant support structures, thereby reducing the wheel’s footprint and cost, Kitchen said. He already has commitments from companies in LasVegas and Orlando to build the first two Skyviews and is talking with more potential clients from all over the world.

Redemption Plus Offers ‘World’s Largest Whoopie Cushion’
Let ’er rip! Redemption Plus is showing off what the company is calling the “world’s largest whoopie cushion”—The Big Ripper, “12 inches of unforgiving flatulence,” said Jason Kort, the company’s director of marketing.

The Big Ripper’s size means it probably isn’t as easy to use as a sneak attack on an unsuspecting target in the traditional whoopie fashion.

“It’s more about the brand and the gimmick than the actual whoopie cushion,” Kort said, mentioning one customer who sent out 15 Rippers as a gag gift. “When people see this on a counter or a wall, they immediately start giggling.”

Kort said The Big Ripper is targeted primarily at family entertainment centers, but the product has also been picked up by a couple novelty retailers, including Spencer’s.
www.TheBigRipper.com.

Get Hooked with Aquaclip
Aquaclip offers an easy way for park guests to enjoy attractions hands free and still have a bottle of water at the ready. The clip is a simple attachment that affixes to the neck of a standard water bottle, while the hook end can latch on to a guest’s waistband or belt.

“It just converts a bottle of water into a canteen,” said Brian Cizek, inventor of Aquaclip. The clip is designed to fit around a standard water or soda bottle, which most facilities carry, he said. However, the material, which is recyclable and nontoxic, is flexible and can accommodate a larger bottle size.

The Aquaclip is a revised version of the Aquahook, which has a larger clip for use at gyms. “When I further researched the interest I found out people who like hiking and walking need a way to carry [bottles] as well,” Cizek said. So he shortened the latch end, and the Aquaclip was born.

Cizek said the product is distributed at national parks, zoos, and amusement parks, including Hersheypark, Kings Dominion, SeaWorld, Ripley’s, and the Maryland Zoo.

Prime Play Unveils HyperDrop Slide
When you first think about it, a drop 10 feet or so on a slide wouldn’t be very thrilling or unnerving—that is, if you know it’s coming. Such is not the case with the new HyperDrop at Prime Play by White Water West, which holds people at the top for a few seconds before releasing them down the chute.

Hyper Drop is a new dry attraction that Prime Play, a division of White Water West, unveiled at the Expo. “We’re [targeting] it at FECs, and the reactions you see from people who are trying it out … well, they’re just great,” said Geoff Chutter, president and CEO of White- Water. Chutter said the reason for riders’ very animated reactions to HyperDrop’s relatively small plunge stems from the uncertainty of exactly when the slide will release and drop them.

The company is also marketing a larger, wetter waterpark variation of the slide called AquaLoop, which actually has a loop in it. AquaLoop has already been installed at waterparks in several countries.

Stay Dry with Shark Pack
Little did Bill Rigopoulos know a trip to the Bahamas would lead to a great entrepreneurial idea: Shark Pack, a waterproof wallet.

“My ID was stolen, credit cards … so I just decided there has to be a way [people] can bring their stuff in the water with them, and this is when I came out with a slim, sleek design that’s durable, water-, and sandproof,” he said.

Rigopoulos has five versions of the product—two for iPods or mp3 players and three for cash and credit cards. “My medium and large units are designed to hold passports, and the small units were designed for cash and IDs,” he said.

The solid units are waterproof for up to 19 feet deep and submersible for up to three hours; the Great White unit, which is clear, is submersible for 45 minutes. The Shark Pack is made with .42 soft matte PVC, which allows for a modern design while being durable and functional. Each unit comes with a belt loop, arm strap, lanyard, and resealable and reusable bag.

Currently Rigopoulos is selling units online, but he’s interested in breaking into the waterpark market. Shark Packs and the packaging can be customized to match a facility’s logo and design.

Flexibility with Centaman Systems
Centaman Systems, a ticketing, point-of- sale, and customer relationship management solutions company for the attractions industry, debuted its cashless payment solution at the Expo. This product can store value (the cash guests pay up front) on a variety of formats, including wristbands, RFID systems, and barcodes. And the stored value can be used or added online, at any POS system in the facility (retail, food, etc.), selfserve food kiosks, wireless POS devices, parking areas, or through third-party systems. Centaman Systems won an IAAPA Exhibitor Award for “Best New Product/ Revenue and Admission Control/ Wristbands/ RFID Technology” for this solution, which has been implemented by Sahara Sam’s, an indoor waterpark and FEC in New Jersey. Ilya Girlya, president of Sahara Sam’s, said in a press release: “I’m very pleased that Centaman won the award. They have a great product and were the only company that had a complete solution that was flexible enough to meet our needs. The support is great, and I think it’s the best solution of its type to be offered in North America.”

Brighten Up with Trim-It Quick Tree Lights
Trim-It Quick takes the tangle out of Christmas lights with a hook-design strand of lights. “It’s a tree-lighting system that is virtually tangle free,” said Tammie Sader, vice president/director of international sales of Harlan, the company that makes Trim-It Quick. “Instead of having one strand of lights, Leslie Wasem (President/CEO) has put them in a hook system, which has six strands coming off the hook.”

Hook strands come in three sizes and consist of small light strands that branch out from the center of the tree, allowing for even tree coverage and no tangling. Each strand can be plugged into an extension cord at the base of the tree to allow for multiple hooks to create a more extensive lighting system. “It’s a trunkto- tip system; you only need one cord,” Sader said.

And it’s easy to dismantle: In three steps, you can just unplug it, unhook the strands, and pack it away for next year.

The company considers the attractions industry perfect for this product, not just for facilities that decorate extensively for the holidays, but also for yearround and other seasonal lighting. “We just want to make people happy, because it takes a lot of the stress out of Christmas,” Sader said.

The company will be working with Disney next season and has spoken with other facilities such as Dollywood and Hersheypark. “This is our second year of launching and branding, and we’re really ready to take off,” Sader said.

Velocity Magnetics, Ride Entertainment Systems Introduce Magna-Brake
Friction brakes—a longstanding fixture in amusement parks—require careful maintenance for air lines, springs, brake wear, etc.

Enter Velocity Magnetics and Ride Entertainment Systems to address those issues with a new product, the Magna-Brake.

Instead of using air or springs to close the brake armatures, the Magna-Brake uses a strong magnetic attraction to return the brake to the closed position. “Not only is the brake not [susceptible] to air or spring failure, but we’ve designed the brake lining cartridges to be replaceable within 20 minutes,” said Domenic Marzano, CEO and president of Velocity Magnetics. Marzano couldn’t mention the material used in the lining itself because it’s proprietary.

Adam Sandy, senior sales associate for Ride Entertainment Systems, which is marketing the brake, said the materials used in traditional friction brake linings— usually brass—must be replaced often, sometimes daily. But the proprietary material in the Magna-Brake at least doubles the life of the brake lining.

SCS Makes Human Cannonballs
In something reminiscent of the old circus cannons that fire human cannonballs, SCS Interactive introduced the Cannonball water attraction to the U.S. market this year.

First installed in Germany in October, the Cannonball looks like something out of a kid’s daydream. Towering like a Howitzer, it propels riders up to 23 horizontal feet into a swimming pool. A rider gets into the attraction’s seat and waits for the attendant to press the launch button, at which time the swimmer is blasted into the air on a wave of water until entering the pool. The rider’s surprisingly smooth entry into the water is owed to the ergonomic factors taken into account during the ride’s design.

As for SCS Interactive’s inspiration for the ride, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, Steve Wagner, said, “There are a lot of pools and diving [wells] out there just sitting around with nothing going on, and this can inject a new life and a new product into that existing market.”

Wagner said the Cannonball costs $165,000 unthemed or $250,000 when theming is provided.

Full Back-of-House Integration with Ideal Software
Imagine having your POS, redemption system, party planning system, and more all synched up in one seamless system. Ideal Software imagined and created it.

The N-Site suite of software is a fully integrated system where multiple customer service and management tools— everything from food and beverage to games operations to party planning—are all part of a complete system and can speak to one another.

“In the old days there were all these different systems—point-of-sale systems, cash systems, redemption systems—but they don’t always talk together very well,” said David Goldman, president of Ideal Software Systems.

The N-Site system provides all those needed platforms in one package instead of requiring customers to take several disparate programs from multiple sources and integrate them.

Ideal Software works with clients to integrate the hardware, train staff, and provide support. “We bring in the hardware that we’ve tested; we set up the hardware, set up the menus. We work with [clients] weeks—sometimes months—in advance preparing all of that.”

As a sign of the times, Ideal Software also rolled out N-Site Mobile, a mobile application that allows managers to view their business activity on their PDAs or cell phones.

Hydroplane with Starflight’s AquaZoom
Guests can experience what it’s like to be an air hockey puck with the new AquaZoom product from Starflight Rides. This bumper boat style design glides on a thin sheet of water atop a patented valve system embedded in the ride’s floor. Think jumbo-sized air hockey replacing the air with a little bit of water, allowing the vehicle to hydroplane across the floor.

The vehicles are heavy, weighing in about 350 pounds, but operating them isn’t hard. In fact, said CEO Karl Small, “I love that they spin and turn on a dime. They’re a bit faster [than bumper cars/boats]; they’re easy to maneuver. They almost drive like a tank.”

The rides include water cannons and onboard squirt guns for added interactivity, and they can be custom themed to match a facility’s needs. The ride floor can be a basic rectangular shape or a themed layout such as the Jungle, Pinball Ride, or Pirate’s Siege design.

Small also pointed out the ride’s versatility for any type of attraction: “You’ve got family entertainment centers, amusement parks, any type of theme park. It can be wet or dry; it can be indoor or outdoor.”

MagiQuest Announces New Location, Online Game
MagiQuest announced Wednesday, Nov. 18, it will open a new location in the Chicago area in February 2010. The site will be similar in size to the 12,000- square-foot attraction the company opened in Minneapolis’ Mall of America in October. Both mall attractions allow players to extend the game beyond the physical attraction space and interact with elements out in the mall.

As of December, players were able to take their MagiQuest wands home and play the game online in a version of the attraction developed by the creators of video game blockbuster “Myst.” The Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Game “remembers” players’ wands from the live-action game.

Snapshots by Fantasy Entertainment
Fantasy Entertainment works hard to preserve the “historical photo booth experience,” and this year, the company had several new products on display. “The highlight of the show for us is BlabaBooth. It not only captures photos but also video as well,” said Scott Cavanaugh, Fantasy’s product marketing manager. “The photos along with the video are uploaded to our web site, Blababooth.com, and our customers get a code printed on the strip so they can go to our web site and enter their code, and they’re linked to the content they’ve generated.”

Customers can download the photos and play back the video, which can also be linked to social networking sites. “It’s an integrated social network,” Cavanaugh said.

Fantasy’s other new rollouts are Foldin’ Fotos, a photo booth that generates a sticker-oriented photo that can be flipped like a little book; Studio X, which creates a glossy photo with an artful design; Retro, which is designed for the rental market and can be easily moved through standard doorways and transported in small vans or SUVs; and Foto Game Zone, which incorporates photos into activity pages, paper planes, dream catchers, and more fun activities for children.

Roll Around with Fishpipe
Outdoor Gravity rolled out its brand new Fishpipe, a large inflatable ball filled with water that spins at 45 revolutions per minute. It can accommodate up to three people at a time and runs for 90 seconds. “They slide on the bottom and the whole thing revolves around them,” said Andrew Akers, founder/designer of Fishpipe. “We call it the world’s longest water slide.”

Outdoor Gravity is open to working with a variety of facilities, but during IAAPA Attractions Expo Akers saw interest from the waterpark industry, individual operators, and carnival operators. Currently four units are in production: two for United States operators, and two for Australian operators.

Get Real with 360 Virtual Ventures
The Virtusphere, a new product by 360 Virtual Ventures, incorporates virtual reality technologywith locomotion, said J.C. Jones of Virtual Ventures. “People are allowed to go into a 10-foot sphere and put on a wireless headset, which is the only one in the world,” he said. “And they’re actually able to play an application, a first-person shooter game or walk the streets of a square in Moscow, Russia. As they walk in the sphere, it actually moves the application so they’re able to play inside the virtual reality game.”

The product can be applied to a variety of locations, including fitness centers, Jones said. But Virtual Ventures came to IAAPA to break into the attractions business. “What makes it different is it’s not necessarily a game or a ride,” he said. “It’s more of an experience; it’s more of an attraction.

“It’s sensory overload. You don’t just hold on tight; you have to think, you have to move, and it’s not just a onetime thing,” he said, pointing out that guests can go into a full run inside the sphere.

The company continues to improve the product. “We’re working on brand-new applications and a brand-new POS system. Some people move from 0 to 60; we’re moving from 0 to Mach 1.”

Zazz Projects and HIT Entertainment Seal Contract
During IAAPA Attractions Expo 2009, Zazz Projects Ltd., a project management company based in the United Kingdom, announced a contract with HIT Entertainment to manage the “Days Out with Thomas” events. HIT Entertainment is a children’s entertainment production company and rights owner whose portfolio includes Thomas & Friends, Pingu, and Bob the Builder, among others.

“‘Days Out With Thomas’ opens up the world of steam engines to a wider audience,” said Mark Braddock, a Zazz director, in a statement. “It is a rewarding and challenging project that involves careful planning, implementation, and control to ensure satisfaction not only for visitors to the events, but the venues hosting the days out, too.”

Marion Cursons, a director at HIT Entertainment, echoed that sentiment: “These are a highly popular element of our events and attractions business, delighting many Thomas fans and railway enthusiasts across the UK. They provide the public with an opportunity to enjoy an authentic experience on an original steam train similar to that on which the Thomas character is based.”

From the Floor