Awesome Amusement Parks

In 1987, Disney Imagineering teamed up with George Lucas to create Star Tours. The Star Wars-inspired thrill ride took passengers on a misdirected flight to Endor. While it’s not the same without the motion simulator, it’s still fun to see this digital remaster of the 70mm film that was created for the ride. A new version of the ride has more than 250 story variations.

At first glance, we thought this was one of those tilt-shift videos that makes people and things look tiny. But you’re looking at a detailed scale model of a carnival built by Tobias Augustin. The miniature amusement park is filled with motorized thrill rides, carny booths, and other attractions illuminated with thousands of colorful NeoPixel LEDs.

In LEGO terminology, “GBC” stands for Great Ball Contraption, and Berthil van Beek is an expert at building these complex LEGO machines which connect to other GBC modules. His latest build is an enormous Ferris wheel that picks up tiny basketballs and soccer balls, takes them on a trip, and delivers them to the next station’s inbox.

Most roller coasters have braking systems that automatically slow down their cars as they go into corners and at the end of the ride. Tom Scott is here to show us Melbourne, Australia’s Great Scenic Railway, one of the last roller coasters to require a human operator to control the brakes aboard each and every trip.

If you’ve played with K’nex construction toys, you know they they’re especially good for marble mazes and roller coasters. K’nex builder Venomeater123 shows off his epic roller coaster based on Steel Vengeance from Cedar Point. It took nearly a year to build the working replica of the world’s longest hybrid coaster.

Goth metal band 2 Shadows have a sense of humor about their style. If you poke around their TikTok channel, you’ll find a series of “Goths in Ungothly Places” videos that show the band’s members reluctantly enjoying things like a day in the park, going to the amusement park, and working in a wood shop. (Thanks, Maria!)

Usually, you have to stand in line at an amusement park if you want to go on a thrill ride. But with this rolling car you can spin yourself silly in the comfort of your own driveway. You can buy one for yourself on Alibaba if you dare. And there’s no way this thing is street-legal, so don’t even try.

If you’ve ever been a passenger on one of those drop tower rides, you know how the combination of speed and plummeting toward Earth can be quite the thrill. Art of Engineering talks us through the history of these rides, and the different techniques that have been used to bring a hurtling mass of steel and people to a safe stop.

Johnny Knoxville’s film Action Point was a semi-fictitious tribute to the world’s most dangerous amusement park. Seth Porges and Chris Charles Scott’s documentary takes us inside the true story of New Jersey’s thrilling, but terrifying Action Park, and the many crimes and misdemeanors that took place during its existence.

As we’ve seen previously, director Fernando Livschitz of Black Sheep Films likes to play with our assumptions of what could be real. In his latest short, he creates a new sort of theme park with some awesome-looking, but highly unlikely rides.

CoasterDynamix is known for its miniature roller coaster models. But in this video, they show off working O-scale versions of a tumbler and spinning rocketship amusement park rides. They also make a teensy ferris wheel, and a LEGO-compatible roller coaster.

Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey has a new ride at its Metropolis section. Called the Cyborg Cyber Spin, the ride will make you wonder which side is up with its dizzying three-axis twists and turns. The dude in the middle in the demo video looks like he’s had enough.

LEGO fanatic Shadow Elenter created this sweet Technic setup – a thrill ride for Minifigs that combines elements of a roller coaster, a spinner, and other amusement park rides in a small footprint. This should be an official LEGO Technic set. POV footage at 1:45.

Water slides can be fun, but they take up a lot of real estate – especially if you want to build up any speed. Thrill ride maker Wigand Maelzer is testing an insane new water slide that spins like a ferris wheel, providing faster, longer rides in a very small space.

We just saw a sweet video of a drone chasing down a locomotive, and now we have another awesome bit of aerial acrobatic footage as a quadcopter does its best to keep up with a couple of thrill rides at France’s Nigloland amusement park. (Thanks Hugo!)

If flying down a zipline isn’t thrilling enough, Skywalker Adventure Builders‘ crazy ride suspends a bendy track from an overhead structure, adding twists and turns to the mix. We’re not sure if it’s made by the same guys, but this one in Australia is 2.5 mi. long.

Ever ride one of those tilting, spinning amusement park rides? Now imagine the same idea without seats or harnesses. The Tagada not only look horribly unsafe, we can only imagine that its riders leave with bruises, broken bones, and their lunch anywhere but in their stomachs.

In celebration of Australia Day 2017, some folks set up the most ridiculous Slip ‘N Slide ever – by creating a ring-shaped path and a merry-go-round like contraption in the middle to drag riders atop its soapy surface.

The city of Beppu in Kyushu, Japan has apparently come up with one of the silliest ideas for an attraction: an amusement park spa. This is going to result in breakthroughs in sanitation and towel-tightening technology.

(LOUD) Imagine a merry-go-round that spins its passengers around at breakneck speeds, propelled by jet engines, and you’ve got this insane thrill ride. Madagascar Institute created this crazy thing a few years back, and so far, it hasn’t killed anyone.

Located at the Washuzan Highland Amusement Park in Okayama, Japan, the Sky Cycle roller coaster does away with winches and motors, and instead makes riders raise their already increased heart rates by pedaling the whole way. Who needs guardrails anyhow?

YouTuber TeamZoo took that viral video of the emotionless Slingshot rider and added Simon and Garfunkel’s classic The Sound of Silence, the most perfect soundtrack you could have for this man’s apathetic journey through life.

The Sky Tower is an insane amusement park attraction at Denmark’s Tivoli Friheden which lets daredevils freefall backwards 100 feet into a net below at speeds up to 55mph. What could possibly go wrong?