KIRMES & Park REVUE (English) Special: Rouen (Vorschau)

PORTRAIT
“Remix” from
Henry Evans
Turned out to be too
clumsy: The “Megatron”
Orbiter built by Thurston.
Here the example from Bell
Built by Perrin Stevens for
Darren Matthews: a four-arm
“Extreme”
SBF/Visa’s Super Loop also owe a certain
amount of inspiration to the Orbiter/Extreme.
Back in the UK, Keith James asked his local ride
manufacturer Nottingham UK to convert his
Norse Power Invader by adding suspended
seats in 1999. The ride resurfaced as the ‘Hard
Rock’ using the same seat shell the company
had developed for its “dangly leg” Miamis. However,
unlike the hit ride inspired by the Florida
city, no more conversions or new machines followed.
The ride with the closest visual (though
maybe not technical) resemblance to a Tivoli
machine came courtesy of the showman manufacturer
Perrin Stevens. Having earlier cloned a
Safeco Saltomontes, he completed a four-arm
‘Extreme’ for Darren Matthews in 2009. Following
an accident in August of that year, the Health
& Safety Executive served a prohibition notice on
the ride and, at the time of writing, it had yet to
return to the fairground circuit. A second ride
manufactured by Stevens for Edward Danter has
yet to open at all. It is Tivoli that remains the Orbiter
manufacturer of choice for most showmen, a
ride with which the Woolls family have enjoyed
“Extreme” success despite rarely advertising in
the amusement industry press, never exhibiting
at any trade shows and not even having have a
website. And that’s just the way they like it! ■
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