Awesome Roller Coasters

The earliest predecessors of roller coasters were basically sleds with wheels, eventually giving way to wooden coasters, and increasingly thrilling steel coasters. Animator and educator Jared Owen provides an in-depth explanation of how these thrill rides evolved, how they work, and how innovations have improved coaster safety over the years.

Every roller coaster we’ve ever been on had rails to keep its train cars on course. But this crazy coaster at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Pennsylvania sends riders down a thrilling course in free-riding trains. The Flying Turns ride starts on rails to build up speed, then zooms freestyle through a series of banked wooden sections. Full 4K ride video here.

Most roller coasters don’t incorporate the local environment. The Jais Sledder is a single-car coaster built into a mountain. Coaster Studios takes us on a ride filled with thrilling twists and turns while taking in the rocky desert scenery of the United Arab Emirates. It takes over six minutes to climb to the top, but the downhill part looks worth it.

The Euthanasia Coaster is an insane hypothetical roller coaster designed to kill its passengers. Until now, it’s only existed as a design on paper and a non-working model. Thanks to Coaster Obsessed, we now have a working version of the killer coaster, made out of K’Nex building kits. It’s the last thrill ride its pint-size passengers will ever take.

Anakeesta in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is home to the Rail Runner, a single-rail mountain roller coaster. Alex Ojeda took a ride on the open-air coaster and shared this first-person footage. Each car holds a single rider and has its own handbrake to control speed if it’s going too fast for you. The track is just 1600 feet long, but it still looks like a blast.

For his latest build, JBV Creative combined elements of a roller coaster with one of those rolling ball clocks. His enormous tabletop clock tells time using wooden balls that roll into multiple tracks representing hours, 10-minute increments, and minutes. It took weeks of designing, planning, and fabrication, but the finished piece is a true work of art.

Cedar Point’s Magnum XL-200 is one of the world’s most beloved roller coasters. CoasterWriter shows off a backyard replica of the thrill ride, built using K’nex construction toys, and dubbed the “Magnum XL-300.” Johnny from 3D Coaster created the detailed 3D-printed coaster car replica. Be sure to take the POV ride too.

LEGO builder ScottMakesMOCs spent an unfathomable amount of time creating this Mario Kart roller coaster. The intricate build includes Kart-inspired cars, Bowser’s castle, an airship, and lots of characters and details from the Nintendo game. He’s recently built an expansion to the theme park, and Beyond the Brick has a great interview video.

MicroCoaster’s miniature roller coaster kit lets you create custom tracks from over 900 parts, with 19 feet of track and a battery-powered lift hill. The S-scale coaster that rolls on its rails was inspired by Cedar Point’s Maverick coaster and rolls on 30 steel wheels. The initial batch is sold out but subscribe to their newsletter for updates on more releases.

We’ve seen some pretty awesome LEGO roller coasters over the years. Master Builder Alec says this build for the LEGOLAND Discovery Center Bay Area is the world’s largest. While we’re not sure about that claim, it’s still impressive at 9 feet tall and constructed from 30,000 pieces. Here’s a POV video of the ride.

Software engineer Stephen Rogers aka TheCaptainSpain is developing CoasterMania, a virtual reality/augmented reality game that lets you build tiny roller coasters in your living room. This brief demo video shows off its Line Rider-style gameplay on a Meta Quest VR headset. Enjoy more fun gameplay footage here.

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.

Recently, we checked out an awesome K’nex version of Cedar Point’s Steel Vengeance roller coaster. Due to popular demand, its maker, Venomeater123, captured video footage of the ride from the point of view of a rider. In case you’re wondering, here’s what it looks like on the actual ride.

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.

This 3756-piece Loop Coaster set sends passengers up an elevator, down a thrilling vertical drop, and through loops and twists. The set includes 11 Minifigures, a park bench, balloon cart, hot dog stand, pretzel cart, and a height marker sign. Upgrade with a LEGO Powered Up motor to automate the ride. This roller coaster drops 7.2022.

The normal way to get to the top of a roller coaster track is to strap in and take a ride. But freerunners Jason Paul, Krystian Kowalewski, and Silke Sollfrank prefer to use their feet. The trio headed to Germany’s Erlebnispark Tripsdrill amusement park for a thrilling run through their large wooden coaster.