Amusement ride | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for the ‘Amusement ride’ Category

Coney Island Openings & Closings: Power Surge, Arcade, Rainbow Shops, Vintage Shooting Gallery

Posted in Amusement Game, amusement park, Amusement ride, tagged arcade, Astroland, closing, Coney Island USA, opening, Power Surge, shooting gallery, Zamperla on May 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Power Surge returns to Coney Island opened for business on Memorial Day Weekend. May 23, 2015. Photo © Tricia Vita

Zamperla’s Power Surge, one of the ride manufacturer’s signature rides, opened at Coney Island’s Luna Park over Memorial Day Weekend. The big surprise is that we’re told it’s the very same ride that debuted in Astroland in 2001! As ATZ previously reported, when the Power Surge first came to Coney’s Astroland in time for Fourth of July in 2001, its photo was featured on the cover of Time Out New York. The ride remained in Astroland until 2006 when it was sold to Australia. Zamperla bought it back and refurbished it.

Located in Luna Park’s Scream Zone against the back wall of the Boardwalk Nathan’s, the scream machine was awhirl for most of the weekend. The Power Surge is not the only Astroland ride to come home to Coney Island. Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park brought back and refurbished Astroland’s Scrambler and Barbieri Bumper Cars, and together with the Coney Island History Project, the historic 1962 Astroland Rocket.

Over Memorial Day Weekend, Arcade Replaces Rainbow Shop in Thor Equities Building. May 23, 2015. Photo © Tricia Vita

On Friday we were delighted to find out that Coney Island has one less chain store and one more arcade. Rainbow Shops, a retail chain featuring discount clothing and shoes, will NOT be returning for a third season to Thor Equities retail building in Coney. Gordon Lee of Eldorado Arcade has moved arcade machines into the 2,500 square foot space, which still has the word Rainbow over its door.

It’s surprising news because until last July, Thor’s retail building flaunted two ARCADE signs but no arcades, despite the fact that 15% of amusement frontage was required by zoning regulations to obtain the Certificate of Occupancy from the City. For a long time, it was one of our pet peeves. ATZ wrote about this sham here and again here. Now the two mini-arcades, the minimum required by Bloomberg’s rezoning of Coney Island for this building, have an actual arcade to keep them company.

One of two mini arcades installed in July 2014 at Thor Equities retail building at Surf and Stillwell. May 27, 2015. Photo © Tricia Vita

We’re sad to report that Coney Island USA’s 1940s Shooting Gallery at 1214 Surf Avenue has been closed. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the nonprofit arts organization is offering the 3,500 square foot Shooting Gallery Arts Annex building for lease at $50 square foot or approximately $175,000 per year. “When a lease is signed we will return it to Deno’s,” Coney Island USA’s Dick Zigun told ATZ. “Until then it might reopen if we can afford machine gun maintenance.”

Made in Coney Island by William F. Mangels, the vintage shooting gallery is the only publicly operating one of its kind that we’re aware of. The gallery restored by Coney Island USA in 2013 is on loan from Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, where it had operated for decades next to Spook-A-Rama and was uncovered during post-Sandy renovations.

1940s Mangels Shooting Gallery, Coney Island USA. August 3, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Intact Mangels shooting galleries are exceptionally rare since most were long ago sold for scrap metal or broken up by antique dealers who sell the targets individually. It brought an authentic, old-timey ambiance to Surf Avenue that will be missed.

CIUSA bought Denny’s ice cream shop and building next door to their headquarters in 2012 for $1.3 million. Unfortunately, Denny’s was one of the first casualties of Superstorm Sandy in Coney Island’s amusement area. The building had to be gutted and at first there was talk of replacing the ruined ice cream machines with a paintball game, mini-golf or a roller rink. What will it house next?

When Coney Island USA bought the building, Dick Zigun told ATZ: “Some day we can transfer air rights from the landmark Childs Building, match the two-story front of Childs then do a setback with an additional five to seven story tower on top of the base,” Zigun noted. The renderings that he showed at a Coney Island presentation at the AIA included a whimsical homage to the Elephant Hotel.

Shooting Gallery building at 1214 Surf Avenue. May 26, 2015. Photo © Tricia Vita

Zamperla’s Power Surge Set to Make A Coney Island Comeback

Posted in Amusement ride, tagged Astroland, Coney Island 2015, Luna Park, Power Surge, Scream Zone, thrill ride, Zamperla on May 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Newly arrived Zamperla Power Surge at Luna Park’s Scream Zone. May 16, 2015. Photo © Magicalthemeparks

A new thrill ride has arrived in Coney Island in time to be awhirl for Memorial Day Weekend! Central Amusement International, the park division of ride manufacturer Zamperla, has brought in a new Power Surge. It is being set up this week on West 12th Street behind Nathan’s in Luna Park’s Scream Zone, adjacent to their Steeplechase coaster.

The ride is no stranger to Coney Island. As ATZ reported previously, Zamp’s Power Surge came to Astroland in time for Fourth of July in 2001. A press release said it was drawing people into the park like a magnet and put on a great show. A photo of the ride was featured on the cover of Time Out New York. “After decades of decay, the weirdly wonderful Coney Island is poised for a comeback” was the intro to the cover story “Fantasy Island.”

The Power Surge made its debut in 1999 and is considered one of Zamperla’s signature rides. “Up to twenty-four riders at a time flip, twist, and spin through two motor driven rotations, and a third gravity driven rotation, guaranteed to deliver a different ride experience each and every time,” according to the ride manufacturer’s catalogue.

Video of the Day: Century-Old Forest Park Carousel Awhirl After Off-Season Overhaul

Posted in Amusement ride, historic preservation, tagged carousel, Daniel Muller, Dentzel, Forest Park, Forest Park Carousel, NY Carousel, Queens on April 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

First horse back on the Forest Park Carousel after off-season overhaul. Photo via NY Carousel

The century-old landmark carousel in Forest Park, Queens, is awhirl again after an off-season overhaul intended to keep it running for the next hundred years, said David Galst of NY Carousel, which operates the ride for the City’s Parks Department. “We’re taking anything off the ride that rotates,” explains Galst in the video below documenting the carousel’s dismantling and re-assembly. The work started in November and was overseen by restorer Todd Goings of Ohio’s Carousels and Carvings. What makes this carousel unique in today’s world, says Goings, are the outer row of horses carved by Daniel Muller. “They became too valuable and everybody took the carousels down in spite of the horses to collect them. This one survived.”

In 2013, the Forest Park Carousel was designated an official New York City Landmark, the only carousel in the City to have this honor.

Carver Daniel Muller studied sculpting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He found part-time work in the carousel workshops of Charles Looff in Brooklyn and William H. Dentzel in Philadelphia. Dentzel constructed the frame of this carousel in 1890 and the majority of the carved figures are believed to date from 1903 or 1910. It was originally in Dracut, Massachusetts, and opened at Forest Park in 1973 to replace another Dentzel carousel destroyed in a fire. The carousel has 36 jumpers, 13 standing horses and three menagerie animals – a lion, a deer and a tiger.