menacing & twisted machine —

niko | it/he | @ stardustracers coaster only account

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♤ hi! i'm niko (it/he). i am 25. this is my coaster / amusement parks only blog. my main is @stardustracers

♡ my two favorite roller coasters are steel vengeance & skyrush. these rides have very high sentimental value to me for a plethora of reasons that are boring or i simply don't need / want pinned. i have a few other strong attachments to other coasters as well that i'll (maybe) talk about from time to time.

♢ i often forget this blog exists + work a demanding job. there will be many dry periods where i simply don't post here at all

♧ my original posts are either photos from my phone or from my analog camera. i've just recently started out shooting analog & it's something i've really enjoyed. please note this is mainly just a hobby & i'm by no means professional at taking photos!

♤ text posts are tagged '.txt' & anything that is original is tagged 'mine*'

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might do a lil queue its been a while and ive got plenty of photos to share. whoopsie

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a year to think about all we've lost at the hands of bad business practices

🐅 kingda ka - six flags great adventure 💚 cinestill 400D / pentax iq zoom ezy-r

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getting lost on a comet across the universe, but not really

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you'll catch a comet in its flight 💫

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the really late 25 days of coasters finale / 4. aftershock, silverwood (this spot is now very recently occupied by stardust racers, which i won't be going in depth here; which means aftershock is technically 5 & everything else is pushed back) # of rides: 28 / last ridden: summer 2024

to keep an incredibly long story short, goliath at six flags new england (the same exact model as this -- giant inverted boomerang) was an incredibly important roller coaster to me from the day it opened to the day it closed. the way it worked, the way the parts moved, every single little thing about it fascinated me. while coasters have been a part of my life as far as i remember, researching how goliath worked specifically is why i'm even here with this hobby.

fast forward to now. this is a dying model. too overengineered for its time, but getting to watch how every part interacts will never be short of amazing to me. the ride experience is incredible. don't whine "boohoo boomerang" to me. you are facing straight down 170+ ft in the air. you are pulling almost 5gs in the loop backwards. this is nothing like any boomerang or even the inverted boomerang. not to mention that it looks absolutely breathtaking. i ADORE how massive it is; i love the tower support structures.

aftershock reminds me of something i love so dearly & looked upon so fondly (and still do), no matter how many years its been. this model was so ahead of its time and i am nothing but beyond grateful that silverwood has kept it this as long as they have (& in beautiful condition aside from maybe needing a repaint).

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the really late 25 days of coasters finale / 5. arieforce one, funspot atlanta # of rides: 2 / last ridden: fall 2024

rmc with a lot of airtime makes my brain go yippeee ^__^ yay ^_^ wahoo ^_^ i don't know what else to say. it's so fun. it's so good. i'm a broken record with these sometimes.

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the really late 25 days of coasters finale / 6. intimidator 305/pantherian, kings dominion # of rides: 14 / last ridden: summer 2023

an absolutely aggressive & powerful roller coaster. i love that this thing tries to rip your body apart. and as i mentioned some time ago, i adore rapid directional changes -- i305/pantherian does them best. incredibly fast and whippy. there's nothing i don't love about this ride. it's absolutely perfect for me. i'm really excited for the retheme because i hope that means more merch (and thank god it's staying for years to come)!!!

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the really late 25 days of coasters finale / 7. the voyage, holiday world # of rides: 73 / last ridden: fall 2023

i love rides that go on forever and ever. i love rides with a lot of airtime. i love an absolutely flawless night ride. the voyage provides all of that. aggressive, long, pitch black night rides out in the woods. there's something so beautiful about approaching the trims, taking a breath, and looking at the stars before you descend the pitch black triple down. by far my favorite wooden coaster & favorite night ride.

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the really late 25 days of coasters finale / 8. twisted timbers, kings dominion # of rides: 38 / last ridden: summer 2023

my third favorite rmc!! was my second fav for a while. a big part of it is mainly because it's completely reminiscent of my very obvious favorite, down to the sounds the ride makes. i also love the barrel roll drop + the ejector is the absolute best ejector felt on any rmc. just really fun and silly and makes me feel happy!!! :)

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the really late 25 days of coasters finale / 9. outlaw run, silver dollar city # of rides: 16 / last ridden: fall 2023

i love topper track. that's all i say. whenever i talk about lightning rod, i always talk about how much i loved when it was all topper track. this is still all topper track. i love the bite. i love the "pothole" in the drop (that's nothing compared to a zillion other coasters). i love the theme. i love plunging into the abyss when its night time. absolutely fantastic rmc & that's all there is to it.

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hello. it seems i am a liar. and really bad with time management. i WILL finish 25 days of coasters. um. eventually

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25 days of coasters / 10. kingda ka, six flags great adventure # of rides: 34 / last ridden: fall 2024

six flags great adventure was the other major park i grew up with. i probably went once every season for a while. kingda ka was always the headliner; the dominating presence; the ride everyone talks about; the tallest roller coaster in the world. are you brave enough to conquer the king? this ride had an important presence to me. it was one of the most important & iconic roller coasters i had growing up.

i was not brave enough to ride until 2016, a year where my only standout memory is my one ride on kingda ka. i had finally conquered what enamored me when i was so young. i'm going to spare you the whole comically bad childhood thing, because it's an easy guess, and i'll probably briefly touch upon it at the number one spot.

once i considered myself an enthusiast, this ride had always been one of my favorites. the pure power of the launch, the height, the vibes ... everything surrounding this ride always spoke to me in a special way. i loved everything about it. the rattle never bothered me, nor did the plastic shoulder restraints. i'm so glad to have ridden this with people i love and people who loved it as much as i did.

to address the elephant in the room -- i am devastated. the loss of this coaster means both incredibly important childhood coasters of mine are completely gone; in the almost same exact way (absolutely zero communication until after the fact). i could go on and on about my stance on everything, but i don't want this to become depressing or too strong. this ride was iconic, and will continue to be so for many years to come. i cherish every memory i can muster up with it, and every ride i got to have. i'm eternally thankful to have known the last rides i got were the last forever, as more often than not i feel horrible over the fact that wasn't the case for the other coaster (which isn't here, but maybe i'll do a 0 post haha). anyways, i digress.

long live the king.

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25 days of coasters / 11. maverick, cedar point # of rides: 123 / last ridden: fall 2024

as much as i considered myself "well versed" enough in coasters some years back, there was still a lot for me to learn. when i had first worked at cedar point i had absolutely no idea what this ride did save for the launched lift hill. my first ride, i was blown away. completely nonstop, never lets up, and pure fun. while i pretended to hate the next door neighbor, this was my favorite ride in the park for a while. it had also remained in my top 10 ever since i made a top 10 a few years back up until this year.

this ride became a pretty big part of my cedar point life when i was first contracted to it (much to my displeasure at the time). while it is not the same level as next door, i hit some pretty big work related milestones (for better & worse) and learned a lot from this ride. it became one of my favorites i had ever worked purely because it's a complete shitpost. so much so i have one of the most common faults tattooed on my leg!

either way -- there's a metric fuck ton i could say here. from my super long fixation on the removed heartline roll, to making a crew of the year, & everything inbetween there's no doubt this ride is special. onto the experience itself though, i love the rapid directional changes. i love the ejector airtime on the first big hill. i love the second launch. i love the whip on almost every element. there's nothing i hate about this ride.

but most of all i love the two rule and the art of the duel. iykyk. silver for life.

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25 days of coasters / 12. el toro, six flags great adventure # of rides: 103 / last ridden: fall 2024

absolutely relentless wooden coaster with some of the best ejector airtime in the world. those two camelbacks are some of my favorite airtime moments because of their sheer power. the twister section is also very fun & you'll learn very soon that i love rapid directional changes a lot!!

this ride also makes very important people in my life happy which is another big factor.

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25 days of coasters / 13. wicked cyclone, six flags new england # of rides: 2015-2018: ??? (over 50) after 2019: 13 / last ridden: summer 2023

this is usually a very hard ride to talk about but i'm gonna try and not stray too far from the point. sfne used to be my home park and was the main park i grew up with alongside sfgradv. wicked cyclone was my first rmc, before i even knew what rmc was. i was absolutely floored it went upside down with a lapbar!

i've ridden this ride at its best and i've ridden it at its worst. this is still by far one of the best rmcs out there, hence why i have it ranked so high to this day. it's nonstop, long, and on the days it doesn't lose its speed at the end .. absolutely perfect. i love this silly lil rmc and despite everything that has happened with this park, and how hard it is to visit nowadays, it will forever hold a special place in my heart.

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25 days of coasters / 14. velocicoaster, islands of adventure # of rides: 130 / last ridden: fall 2024

intamin multi launch? yes. fun ip? yes. absolutely flawless execution? yes. this ride has it all. famously a lot of people's favorite coaster and rightfully so! an absolutely fantastic experience; both ride & show. i especially love the second half, the mosasaurus roll is bonkers and my second favorite inversion on any coaster ever.

i've got a lot of fond memories with friends and this ride over the past few years since it opened. the main gripe i have with it is the first half -- i don't really care about all the meandering. still, very fun, very good, can see why people love it so much!!